16th Sep 2026
Micro. Not Macro
MICRO, NOT MACRO. 
Ok, we’ve been banging on about this for years, but two videos I watched recently articulated it far better than the collection of broken and half-formed thoughts rattling around my head.
YouTuber, Mary Spender, recently talked about “Blue Dot Fever” — artists looking at streaming data, seeing listeners scattered all over a map and mistaking that digital reach for a real-world audience.
Even big established artists have been getting caught out: booking venues that are too big, charging ticket prices their audience won’t support, then cancelling shows when the numbers don’t add up.
And this is the thing that old me and Craig here at Village Music have been harping on for years about.
Emerging bands and artists are doing exactly the same thing, just on a smaller scale.
Everyone wants the Spotify playlist.
Everyone wants 30,000 Instagram followers.
Everyone wants the algorithm to suddenly decide THIS IS YOUR MOMENT.
But here’s the million dollar question :
CAN YOU SELL 25 TICKETS IN YOUR HOME TOWN?
Jesse Cannon recently interviewed Sam Duboff from Spotify for Artists, and one of the points that really stuck with me was just how much Spotify needs real audience activity before its systems have enough information to start meaningfully recommending your music.
Which creates a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.
The truth is, Spotify isn’t there to build your first audience for you.
You need to start building one yourself.
And for a grassroots band/ artist, there’s still one astonishingly effective piece of technology for doing that:
A room full of human beings.
Play gigs.
Meet people.
Talk to the other bands.
Hang around afterwards.
Make friends with the people who came.
Give them a reason to come back.
Because 30,000 followers scattered around the world mean surprisingly little if you can’t get 25 people through a door in East Kilbride.
And those 25 people?
They’re potentially worth far more than a thousand passive followers.
They buy a ticket.
They buy a T-shirt.
They bring a pal next time.
They tell somebody about you.
Most importantly, they actually give a shit.
Mani from The Stone Roses famously said they weren’t interested in being the biggest band in the world.
They wanted to be the biggest band in their street.
That idea feels more relevant now than ever.
East Kilbride already has places where bands can start building something:
The Key,
The Village Inn,
The Arts Centre,
The British Legion,
The upstairs room at Hudsons (if it’s not full of broken chairs and tables)
Every function room of every pub in town!
And here’s the important bit:
DON’T BOOK THE BIGGEST ROOM YOU CAN GET.
Book the smallest room and sell it out.
Twenty-five people packed into a room that holds 20 feels electric.
Twenty-five people scattered around a room built for 250 is more of a hostage situation.
And this is where Mary Spender’s point really lands.
A dot on a map isn’t necessarily a fan.
A follower isn’t necessarily a fan.
A stream isn’t necessarily a fan.
Someone who gets dressed, leaves their house, pays money and comes to watch your band? That’s a fan!
So create scarcity.
Sell out the little room.
Put on a night that people talk about afterwards.
Make the people who didn’t come pissed off that they missed it.
Then do another one.
The venues need entertainment.
Bands need audiences.
Audiences need somewhere to go and something worth leaving the house for.
The ingredients are already sitting on our doorstep.
Book a small gig.
Flyposter EVERYWHERE.
Sell it out.
Get the local paper to give you a shout out!
Play your arse off.
Video it.
Share the shit out of it online.
Sell some merch.
Make a little money.
Put it back into the band.
Book a slightly bigger gig.
Repeat.
Spotify absolutely has a place in that.
Instagram has a place in that.
TikTok has a place in that.
But we’re getting the order backwards.
Don’t use the internet to pretend you’ve already built an audience.
Use it to amplify the audience you’re actually building.
Stop trying to become huge everywhere.
Become impossible to ignore somewhere near.
Micro. Not macro.
And if you need lights, a PA system, or backline - Village Music rents all the gear you need for a good ASBO 
Have we got you hyped? Tag a band or an artist that needs to hear this.
Or if we’ve got it arse for elbow - tell us how you’re doing it!