The Tampa, FL metal band Illuminate Me have started a petition to send a message to Facebook: ‘We Want Facebook To Remove Having To Pay To Reach Fans And Followers.’
Said vocalist Chris Murray on the Change.org petition site:
On my bands Facebook page for example (nearly 25k likes www.facebook.com/illuminatemeband), I have paid up to 3k in Facebook advertising to get the amount of people connected to it that it has now. (On top of the heavy touring that we do) I need to pay Facebook now 150 dollars if I want one of my posts to reach all of the people that I already paid to get in the first place. I have talked to even bigger acts that rely on communication with their fan base to sell their product, and the price can get up to $2,000 or more.
Facebook was tempting to many bands and labels (and websites) just a few short years ago; the social media network had millions of users, and you could set up a free “page” which you’d use to collect “likes.” Then you’d send updates effortlessly to everyone who liked your page. But Facebook has changed their tune — now you have to pay real money to reach everyone who likes your page. If you don’t pay, you reach a tiny fraction of your “likes.”
Illuminate Me have gotten 35,000+ signatures in just four days, but only time will tell if the petition will have any effect at all for a company that bought Instagram for $1 billion back in 2012.
(via LambGoat)
