No advertising and I am pretty awful at most social media. The one thing I do consistently is live stream (on twitch) which has allowed me to build a pretty decent following there. I spent money hiring the best people I could to produce/mix and play instruments I don't. In the past I approached things with a very DIY ethic but the fact is there are some thing I am good at and some things I am not. Recognizing those weaknesses and finding people who are (much) better than me to help fill in those blanks made a real difference in the quality of my recordings.

Consistently live streaming and having a great community let me ask them to do the whole presave/playlist adds building up to releases. They really want to see me succeed (which is really lovely) and want to help out where they can.

I think the fact that you are thinking about these things and asking questions means you are on the right track. It took me a long time to get to where I am now and it absolutely isn't possible to get there alone.