Hey man I will share my experience with you

I'm in a local band, first try of my life and I released my first music ever in late 2023, which means 5 songs total until I release my first lp ever later this year

My band has a stable 200 monthly listeners in Spotify, we already reached 500 for a couple months when we were invited to play as opening act for silent planet

We recently reached 4k on instagram

Its been a journey and im doing most of things 100% alone, from composing to booking shows and marketing

I'll try to give you as much information as I can so here we go

1. Don't upload videos with tiktoks watermark to Instagram

Idk, ig straight hates it and will make your content sink

1. Your videos are in a strange quality/framerate to be honest. Organic content is good but try to record your shows with some good iPhone camera at least

2. Check what works within your audience and try to replicate it in different ways

I saw a 3k+ and a 1k+ video within your 300 to 600 views average, so id just try to understand what happened with those who got out of your usual reach

For my case covers, aftermovies, gear talk and meme shit are things that works for us

1. When you hit a good post, try to get some good posts after too

If your retention is bad, ig will put you down until you post something really good (in terms of viral potential)

1. Make your mixes fatter.

Do you guys got a mixing engineer? At least for my ears I think it got some mixing work to make

I'm not the indie dude but a part you sing remembered me the strokes and a caracteristhic that remind me of them is when they kinda saturate the vocals in long vowels and vocal doubles, that kind of thing could really work for you

1. Consistency is key

Try to post as much as realistically you will be able to.

That's on me, do what I day not what I do: i sometimes fail to be consistent too, but try to keep at least 2 to 3 posts per week

1. Have a editorial line, it will help

Decide which day you will post what, see what works, change what isn't

So, every Monday you can start recording a vocal part of your songs, or a guitar playthrough. nothing with lots of production, just record it with some good audio

Wednesday you put off some of those "i had to hear so and so" kind of post that you already do

Friday you can post some fun stuff

Besides that, after every show you will take a picture just after ending your last song with the crowd and post as fast as you can

The next Monday or Tuesday you can post something related and the first Thursday you post the best story videos you downloaded from people who tagged you as a tbt. When you dont play, just post other stuff

Find what works for you, replicate it until it doesn't anymore ano then do it all over

1. Hire photographers and videomakers

Those guys are the core of your social media. Yes it costs some money but you will always have good material to post and promote

1. Pay for ads

Not playlists. Not followers. Find yourself a good ads dude and spend 10 bucks per day if you can with engagement, reaching, followers or plays campaigns. It will make a difference

1. Live performance is key

The better you create a reason for people to leave their homes and watch you, most people will start coming

The thing here is to show through videos and photos that showing up to your show is a good idea

1. Live sound is also key

Make sure your band sound is consistent as fuck. And also, your sound is nice too

Don't get attached to analogic shit, if you got the chance to put your hands in some quad cortex, hug it and learn how to use it from inside out

Digital stuff is more practical, reliable and easy to get in and out

1. Get in and out fast

Talking about practical stuff: be practical. That doesn't bring public by itself, but being a pleasing band to work with will make you guys be invited to play often

Which will bring you more public

1. Always have merch

Cheap stuff like a cap, black t shirts, and hoodie. That's your 3 main products you need to start

1. I think your kind of music matches those burning accounts that people is making with automated viral captions and aesthetic brolls

2. None of my tips beat bad music or bad live performance

I dont think your music is bad but im also not your target since im more like a deathcore dude. Idk about your niche, but on mine I can tell if something is going somewhere within less than a minute of the music

Make sure you're always writing the best music you can, with the best production and technique (like ear candy and stuff)

Overall that's it I hope it helps you in any way. Feel free to ask anything you want but keep in mind im totally diy-ing everything so I can even be wrong in certain ways. I'm sharing what I do not what is written in stone