Is Substack the New Fan Club Platform for Indie Artists?

Substack is gaining traction with a handful of notable indie storytellers, but can it scale beyond that niche?

Hand-drawn by me, then made fancy by ChatGPT

Substack wasn’t built for musicians. So why are so many great ones using it?

What began as an email newsletter platform for writers has evolved into a full-stack audience development engine: live streams, podcasts, video, comments, DMs and a Twitter-like "Notes" feed.

A handful of artists are using Substack to share stories, demos, covers, live recordings, essays and to engage with their communities. For fans, it’s a space to hear from artists directly.

For this small group of indie artists, Substack offers something most platforms still struggle to deliver: both community and income. The big question is: can this format work for more types of artists with less established audiences?

The Musicians Using Substack

Substack’s music leaderboard reads like the lineup of Newport Folk Festival circa 2011-2019: Jeff Tweedy, Patti Smith, Neko Case, Laura Marling, Tegan and Sara, Thao Nguyen, Colin Meloy, Andrew Bird, Margo Price and more.

The artists with the most subscribers on Substack have a few things in common:

• Prominent singer-songwriters in indie rock and alternative scenes with narrative songwriting styles, some of whom are unsurprisingly also published authors.

• Loyal, niche followings built over decades. Typically with DIY roots + major label support at various points of their careers.

It’s also a group that is notably lacking in racial, cultural and genre diversity.

The Limits of Artist Fan Clubs

When artists first started to join Substack back in 2021, I was curious yet skeptical that Substack (or any creator subscription tool) could be a meaningful solution for most artists.

Individual creator subscriptions are challenging for musicians for a few reasons:

• Music is better together. Siloed, paywalled artist centric experiences on disparate platforms are a poor fit for how most fans actually consume songs: over and over again in playlists, collections, or mixes alongside tracks from other artists. It's clunky for music fans to individually subscribe to artists in order to learn about new releases, upcoming concerts, artist merch, exclusive content or experiences.

• More work for artists. Now you’ve given yourself a new full time job of creating additional value for your subscribers every month in addition to making music! It’s hard to keep up with and can lead to burn out.

• Cold-start problem. Individual creator worlds are harder (not impossible!) to attract audiences to and build listener habits around. Artists don’t exactly ask fans to like and subscribe at the end of a song the way podcasters or influencers do.

• Lack of clear value. Email newsletters typically provide more utility than art. The newsletters I’m most likely to pay for are the ones that provide a service by offering unique insights, curation or access to a powerful network. And there is a cap on how many email newsletters/fan clubs people can afford to subscribe to.

Substack’s Opportunity

Despite these challenges, Substack is well positioned to crack something other platforms struggle with—network effects AND revenue in one creator-friendly place.

Most platforms trap artists in a frustrating catch-22: you need an audience to make money, but you need money—or luck—to build an audience. And you need both to build a sustainable creative business.

Social and streaming offer visibility, but little ownership or depth. Creator tools help with monetization, but assume you’ve already built a following elsewhere.

Substack has a growth engine that could potentially help artists get un-stuck:

• Creator-to-creator recommendations help Substacks get discovered through referrals. Writers benefit when other writers recommend them through built-in newsletter recs.

  

  Tegan and Sara’s Substack recommends you follow several other artists including Neko Case, Kimbra, Dan Mangan and Patti Smith.

• Music curators and tastemakers are joining Substack. As they recommend, review and interview artists, they create an ecosystem of discovery that mirrors the music blog era. I love this quote from

  Nick Sylvester
  ’s smartdumb about the music discourse happening on Substack:

• The Notes feed promotes organic growth as artists and fans share posts and interact publicly, like a slower, more thoughtful Twitter.

• Social proof drives discovery. When fans subscribe to, like, or comment on a post, it signals value to others.

The next generation of independent music tastemakers

Plus, Substack has some creator-friendly features:

• Email = guaranteed reach: Every post goes straight to subscribers’ inboxes, not buried by a feed

• Portable audiences: Artists can download their subscriber lists and can take them elsewhere

• Predictable revenue: Freemium model with easy to turn on paid subscriptions

• A mix of storytelling formats: Writing, video, live streams, podcasts

• Two-way interaction: Fan interactivity via comments, chat, and DMs

It’s important to note that Substack is a VC-backed company and not immune to the same pressures that have pushed other platforms toward growth and engagement-at-all-costs. It’s not enshitification- or billionaire-proof.

As Substack rolls out new features like short-form video, some creators are weary.

Skeptical users have a point: we’ve seen other platforms throttle reach, prioritize ads and nudge creators toward engagement at the expense of quality.

For now, since Substack makes money when creators make money, the platform is incentivized to make product decisions that help creators gain subscribers.

What Comes Next

Substack isn’t “the future of music”, but it’s worth paying attention to. It can be a direct, intimate, window into your favorite artist. A way to get more of the storytelling and lore around their art.

We need a variety of models to support the multifaceted needs of different kinds of artists and fans. Tools that add more community, context and culture back into our music fandom experiences are good for the entire music ecosystem.

Other music-specific platforms in the fan club space to know:

• On EVEN artists sell their music directly to fans pre-release, giving artists a way to monetize before hitting streaming platforms and without relying on ongoing subscriptions.

  • Artists include: J. Cole, SMINO, ​LION BABE, Mick Jenkins

• Vault is more like a private group chat with your favorite artist than a newsletter. Artists can drop music, demos, and behind-the-scenes moments directly via text to fans in a freemium model with monthly artist subscriptions.

  • Artists include: James Blake, RIZ LA VIE, San Holo

• OpenStage focuses on fan data and rewards, helping artists identify, reach and reward fans without requiring an ongoing content feed.

  • Artists include: Bad Bunny, Oasis, Lana Del Ray, Gorillaz

• Medallion powers white-labeled, artist branded fan clubs, unlike Substack’s centralized ecosystem.

  • Artists include: Jungle, Sigur Ros, Tycho

There’s also several other non-music specific platforms that artists use to run their fan communities:

• The veteran in the space, Patreon, prioritizes membership-based monetization, but largely lacks built in discovery.

• Discord, Whatsapp and Twitch all have been used by artists in interesting ways.

👋 Hi, I’m Emily White. I help startups build products creators and fans love as a product advisor and consultant.

💼 Book office hours with me for feedback on your strategy and product or insights on music industry trends.

🎵At Spotify, I built tools for artists to understand their audiences, connect with fans and earn revenue.

✍️ I write and speak about fandom, community and artist sustainability, drawing on insights from my time at Spotify and Billboard.

💡 My music tech journey started early - I went viral for predicting streaming's impact on music as an intern at NPR Music and college radio GM in 2012.

Which artists are using Substack in interesting ways?

Any artists you’d want to see on Substack?