We have made the decision to become inactive on Facebook and Instagram as from 1st May 2025.

Why the wait? – Although we’d love to just step away now, we need to get some other things in place first, create other methods of keeping in touch.

Why step away? – We have become lazy and complacent with promoting ourselves and engaging with our audience, thinking that simply creating an event and sharing it on social media is enough. But we’re just shouting into the wind most of the time and need to concentrate on other promotional methods, such as conversing in person, by email, creating printed material etc (see below for more details), connecting with people who really are interested in what we are doing.
Additionally we have found both platforms to be toxic and divisive, seriously bad for mental health and we no longer want to be part of that particular online ‘forum’.
The relaxation of ‘fact checking’ is a worrying development, as is the rise of use of artists’ work for AI ‘development’.
We had already stopped using Twitter or X for very similar reasons.

 

We sat down in the studio with Neil Povey the other day to discuss this very topic – you can listen to the podcast FREE on Mixcloud here: https://www.mixcloud.com/BluebellNotes/bluebell-notes-episode-5-musicians-online-presence-and-social-media/

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What now?

We have come up with a lot of ideas of ways to keep connected to our audience, our ‘tribe’. It needs to be fun and engaging and as enjoyable for us as it is for you! If you have some other ideas to throw into the pot, please let us know below or email us on info@miltonhide.com.

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Website – We are going to be making a lot more use of our website, creating regular blog posts and we encourage YOU to comment on the posts, let us know your thoughts. In the next few weeks we’ll update the website to make it a lot easier to find stuff, improving its visibility (SEO and all that), plus we’ll add links of where you can hear and/download our music. https://www.miltonhide.com/

Mailing List – When we’ve got something to say it’s good to be able to tell the people who are actually interested. That’s why we invite people to join our mailing list. We can let you know when we’ll be playing a gig in your area, tell you first when our next new release is about to come out, send you special offers and gifts. If you’re not already on our list, you can sign up here: https://www.miltonhide.com/#subscribe


Busking
– yes, we’re going to get out and about again, playing in the fresh air whenever and wherever we’re on tour and locally on occasions. Not only is it great practice, it’s fun to connect directly with people and we’ve had some really good laughs. We don’t expect wads of cash but we will be promoting ourselves, our website and our mailing list to help to ‘build our tribe’.

Youtube – We are performers, we like showing off so creating videos is kind of second nature. There are already a lot of videos on our youtube channel and we’ll be regularly adding more onto there. Plus we’ll do the occasional livestream when we’re out and about. Again, it really helps us to have ‘followers’ as well as ‘likes’ on our videos and we absolutely LOVE getting comments on the videos as we can respond and have a proper conversation. Find us here and please do click ‘follow’: https://www.youtube.com/@miltonhide1964

Spotify – it’s not really a way for artists to make money from their music but it is a good way for people to discover music. Festivals and promoters want to see how popular you are before they think about booking you. For that reason we will be making better use of Spotify and you can really help us start by ‘following’ us, listening to our music regularly and ‘liking’ it, adding it to your own playlists. We’ll be adding more music on there soon but in the meantime, check out what we’ve got on there already here:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/1o7OfhQGu8Nddl6Z2HujCz

Bandcamp – All of our music goes onto Bandcamp where it can be downloaded as high quality files. When we sell a physical CD, we often include a free code to download the file from Bandcamp. You can find us here and we would really appreciate it if you give us a ‘follow’: https://miltonhide.bandcamp.com/

In print – we will be going ‘old school’ and printing out gig lists to give out, we’ll create a new quarterly ‘Zine’, we’ll make more use of our posters and leaflets, all to help spread the word and engage with people. Local newspapers and printed ‘Whats On’ magazines and guides also still have a big part to play, even in this increasingly digital world, so we’ll be making use of those wherever we will be on tour.

 

Local Radio – it’s always fun to go into the studio of a local radio station and chat with the presenters. Community Radio stations have taken the place of many of the BBC local radio specialist shows and they really are worth a listen. They all broadcast online and can be picked up anywhere in the world and often have a ‘listen again’ feature. Like local press, it’s an important way to get your name around.  Sometimes you to play live on air and you get your recorded tracks played and heard by a new audience.

Networking – it seems a very business-like term when not linked to ‘social’, but it’s what we do all the time when we meet other musicians. We discuss gigs, performances, opportunities, swap information and support eachother. One of the first things we are doing is joining the mailing lists of other artists so we can hear their news and reply directly to them (rather than passively through Meta). We’re not in competition as we are all different, but we are working in the same field so we are all in a great position to help eachother out. We’re toying with the idea of starting up a new music listings site with an artists networking element so watch this space for more news on that.

Patreon – we will re-activate our Patreon page very soon and post a lot more of the free stuff as well as having rewards for those that would like to support us with a monthly subscription. It’s a very good platform for finding creators in all kinds of arts, not just music, so it is worth checking out and creating your own free account. There’s an App you can have on your mobile as well as a good website.  https://www.patreon.com/c/MiltonHide

Podcasts – we now co-present a monthly podcast with Neil Povey called Bluebell Notes on Mixcloud. It’s like our own personal radio show and we have great fun doing it, usually interview guests and play a couple of songs by other musicians. It’s another form of networking and you can get involved by commenting on the site.  Please have a listen and ‘follow’ us to hear when the latest episode is ready. https://www.mixcloud.com/BluebellNotes/