After Facebook, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. It boasts at least more than 1 billion unique users from all around the world.

As a musician or a band, this is an excellent place to create a following or share news with your loyal fans.

Unlike Facebook, Instagram is a platform that fundamentally shares pictures and videos, with text being a secondary feature.

Instagram thus allows for more direct engagement with viewers and audiences than Facebook. It is almost a law of physics that people respond more favorably to visual media instead of text posts.

All these features have made Instagram a very lucrative space for musicians, and this is why we have assembled some of the best tricks to get the most out your Instagram captions.

We all want to be famous right? Well, let’s get into it!

What are some of the best captions for musician posts?

Type of post

1. Post-concert

Sometimes you’ve just had a concert and you want to tell everyone thanks for coming out. I think the key for Instagram is to always be playful but yet appreciative. We also will use these pictures to promote something, either another show in the future or anything else we want to remind people of. Using emojis always helps.

Caption examples:

“Thanks y’all for coming out! We had a blast! Remember, tickets are on sale for the rest of our tour in a city near you!?”

“AMAZING SHOW LAST NIGHT. So grateful to all of our friends. Don’t forget to check out our album on Spotify!?”

2. Studio

Remind your audience that you’re busy in the studio creating your next hit and let them know you’re still alive! Be playful and get them pumped!

Caption Examples:

“Hard at work laying down tracks in the studio, don’t fret our debut album is coming out soon! ⚡️”

“Never tired of getting back into the studio to create a masterpiece. Thanks for all the support from my bandmates and these amazing audio engineers ❤️ #blessed”

3. Just because

Sometimes you are not promoting anything, but you want to show people that you haven’t gone away. A great thing to do is to take an image that represents your style and post it.

If you have some information to communicate you can, otherwise you can just relish in the imagery of your music.

For my band, we rely heavily on coastal imagery to communicate a ‘beachy’ sort of vibe.

You need to look for images that describe your music and take an artistic photo with them. Sometimes you just need to put an emoji with it or a small caption.

General tips for Instagram musicians

Instagram provides an equal playing ground for old and new musicians alike. If you are seriously interested in launching your musical career, then Instagram can help you a lot. With smart strategies and steps, you can cement yourself as an amateur musician on Instagram.

This is not just limited to Instagram, social media, in general, has proved to be a boon for aspiring musicians. With good quality content and social media savviness, we have numerous examples of musical aspirants going on to become professionals.

Here is how you should get your musical show on the road:

1. Account Type

If you aim to make a musical career off Instagram then account selection will be important. You can use a personal account but it will not offer the perks and tools of a business account. A business account establishes your legal identity and starts you on the right path.

Competition is immense in the indie social media music scene so you need to establish your fast. With a business account, you can lock down your band name or musical persona.

2. Setup and sync your profile

Once you have made your account, you next need to make a profile. Your profile should have the same name and image across your social media handles.

This makes it easy for your audience to follow you between different platforms. It also makes it easier to search your profile online.

You should take particular care in the aesthetic presentation of your profile. It should reflect and match the image you want to project for yourself and your music. We will return to this later.

The connection between visual aesthetics and music is almost primal. And it creates a synergy between your profile and your musical content.

Speaking of synergy, Instagram also syncs your social media platforms. Instagram is owned by Facebook now. You can access options like cross-posting or coordinated posting for maximum reach and impact.

3. Tell Your Story

Instagram has a more personal and intimate aesthetic than Facebook. It is seen as the platform of choice to really get to know someone on a deeper level.

This goes even true for artists and celebrities. You will see greater insights into their personal lives on Instagram.

Take advantage of this aesthetic and use it to tell your story.

Post an image and use it as the launching point of a story you want to share with your audience. Make the image as striking as possible for maximum engagement.

Explain your aspirations and ambitions with well-composed content that speaks to the heart of your audience. Authenticity and passion are what you and your content should strive for.

Viewers will forgive your mistakes as an amateur if your personal story captivates them.

Also remember: There is no bad publicity. Even being known as that douchy musician or the overly flashy drama queen can be a strength!

4. Do your research

Yes, your dream is to just make art and have that be the reason why millions of people start following you.

However, even artists need to confront reality. The online music landscape is a very competitive one. If you just jump into the fray without doing your research then you will be drowned.

You need to take the time to do research.

• Research your competition—better said, who is doing something that you admire and how can you learn from them?
• Research successful hits—in the profile of your idol, take notes on which are the most successful posts. What did they do to make them connect with people?
• Research strategies and tactics for running an Instagram profile—ideally you should treat this as a media company. Plan out how many posts you can reasonably aspire to a week, and stick to your schedule. There are even some applications to schedule your Instagram posts. This means you can plan them all out the week (or even months) before.

All this research will give you better bearings instead of just learning on the fly, which you also must do.

5. Make content

This is one of the most important steps to get right. Your content will be your actual bread and butter of your account. It will be the base off which your account is built and established.

Again, you will need to determine what kind of content to share for your potential audience. What kind of theme or message will you convey.

Make a list of different types of posts you could post. Here’s an example of how I would do it with my band.

Sea Fuzz post type checklist:

• Posts of beachy surrealistic imagery. ex: artistic coastal images with hue or saturation turned up.
• Posts of in-studio content. Have a photographer take pictures of me in the studio recording my next album.
• Posts of music video clips. A few weeks before the music video release, make trailers or teasers for the album. They can be stills or short clips.

Keep reviewing your analytics to see which content gains the most traction. Learn and better yourself by judging the community feedback and taking in the advice of your audience.

You need to maintain a fine balance in this particular area. You should not let your artistic voice get drowned out by playing to the public.

All the same, you can gain valuable advice from the gems in your viewers too.

6. Timing is everything

One thing which separates Instagram from Facebook or other platforms is timing. It does not matter if you post every week or every day. This is in contrast to Facebook where steady content is required to ensure reach.

Rather, the quality of your content needs to be high. Each individual post of yours should be of a high quality to attract views and shares. Quality is what counts on Instagram. If you take the other approach and spam content all week, it might turn off viewers.

7. Good Instagram Captions

Facebook has posts, Instagram has captions. Pictures and videos are the main methods of engagement on Instagram but captions play an important role too. Captions provide context and meaning to your posts.

A well written and delivered caption that pairs perfectly with your content can set your post on fire. You should research on good Instagram captions for musicians.

Look up what are the key elements of good captions generally and for musicians in particular. Most advice will suggest the authenticity of the message and powerful calls to action.

8. Distinct Content

You should not take advantage of cross-platform posting all the time. Research suggests the same content across Instagram and Facebook can actually hurt the former.

Post different content on Instagram. Share only your top posts on Facebook. This provides an incentive for people to check out your Instagram and spreads awareness more naturally.

9. Community Engagement

Lastly, Instagram is no different in this regard from other platforms. Keep community engagement high. This is particularly important since you be building your reputation.

To establish your credentials, you will need to reciprocate your viewers. Aspiring musicians need repeat audiences who can become loyal fans. Building your fan base if what will lead you to those concerts and booked events one day.

There are many ways to keep your audience engaged

These are some of the valuable tips for establishing your musical career on Instagram. Many of these tips you may find to be similar to social media in general.

Nevertheless, if you follow these steps and some others, you will one day find yourself as a successful musician.