If your whole music career lives on Instagram and Facebook, you don't own it. You're renting it, and the landlord can lock the door any time, with no warning and nobody to call.
I'm not saying that to scare you off social media. I use it, and you should too. But I've seen what happens when a platform arbitrarily decides you're a problem, and I've lived through it myself. So here's why every artist needs a home base they actually own, and what that looks like.
MY OWN RUN IN WITH META
In March, I noticed the Frequency Studios Instagram was no longer connected to our Facebook page. No notice, no warning. When I tried to reconnect it, Meta wouldn't let me. The message said my business portfolio "has restrictions."
After a lot of digging, I found what Meta shows as the problem. My personal Facebook account has been marked "Account restricted" since October 9, 2023. Nobody told me. According to that page, I can't create or run ads, and I "can't manage advertising assets or people for businesses." The explanation lists general examples, like "having too many ads rejected" or "associating with untrustworthy accounts," but it never says what I actually did.
Because I didn't do anything. That personal ad account was only ever used once, for a single two week campaign in 2016, about ten years ago. Every ad I've run since has gone through other ad accounts, and they're all in good standing.
Then it gets stranger. Ads Manager tells me "We restricted your Business Account," even though the restriction is on my personal account. Meta's own help tool, pointed at that exact same account, told me "We couldn't find restrictions for this asset." My Facebook profile status says "No restrictions. Your account looks good!" On Instagram, I got yet another explanation: the account "was created or used with an automation that doesn't follow our rules." Which automation? It doesn't say.
So I asked Meta's support assistant, which is an AI, for a human review. It told me that once I confirmed the account, it would "create the case and route it immediately." I confirmed. It came back saying my "request for a human review" had "been reviewed," that the restriction was "not eligible for appeal," and that no support case or case number could be created. My support cases page still says "No support cases." I never spoke to a person. I filed a bug report back in March and never heard back.
As I write this in October, I still can't reconnect my Instagram to my own business page.
And it's bigger than my own Instagram. My personal account is the admin behind my business pages, and it's how I access pages and ad accounts for clients. With this restriction, I can't run ads or manage advertising for any of them. One unexplained flag on one account, and part of the work I do for other people is shut off too.
I can't just start fresh, either. Meta's advertising rules treat making a new account to get around a restriction as evading enforcement. If I opened a new account to keep working, I'd risk losing my business page, and possibly every page connected to it. So I'm stuck: restricted, with no explanation, no appeal and no allowed way around it.
That's what I can't get past. Their system made a call about me and got it wrong. I was never told, never shown what I supposedly did and never given a chance to defend myself. And the only way to challenge that decision is through the same kind of automated system that made it. It's a closed loop with no door out. It's cost me hundreds of hours I should have spent on real work, plenty of stress, and I'm no closer to a fix than I was in March. Companies this big, making decisions this important with no human check, deserve a lot more scrutiny than they're getting.
The one thing that kept working the whole time? My website and Google listing. People could still find the studio, see our work and get in touch, because those are things I control. If Instagram had been my only storefront, I'd have been stuck waiting on a company that wasn't answering.
IT'S NOT JUST ME
I hear about this from musicians all the time: accounts banned, locked or disabled for no clear reason, and years of posts and followers gone overnight.
It made the news recently too. CBC reported on a Canadian woman, Jasmine Ault, whose Facebook and Instagram accounts were permanently disabled overnight. Meta told her she'd broken the rules but never said which ones. Her appeal was closed within minutes, and she could only reach AI chatbots, never a human. She lost about 20 years of photos, posts and contacts. You can read her story on CBC News.
Here's what gets me. These platforms are worth billions, and almost every cent of it comes from us: the artists, the small businesses and the people who post, share and buy ads. Without us, there's nothing to scroll. And when their system gets it wrong, they won't even put a human on the phone. They hand you to a chatbot that promises help and then closes the door. That's not a glitch. That's a choice about how much they think we're worth.
YOU'RE BUILDING ON RENTED LAND
Every follower, post and message you have on social media sits on someone else's property. They set the rules, they change the algorithm, and they decide who sees your posts. Most of the time that's fine. But you're one automated flag away from losing access to all of it.
Your audience is the most valuable thing you build as an artist. It shouldn't depend on a company that won't pick up the phone.
WHAT TO OWN
I tell every artist I work with the same thing: own your digital real estate. At minimum, that means two things.
Your own website, on your own domain. It's the one place online where you make the rules. Nobody can delete it because an algorithm got confused, and it's what shows up when someone searches your name on Google.
An email list. If Instagram disappeared tomorrow, how would you tell your fans about your next release? An email list is a direct line to the people who care about your music, and it goes with you no matter which platform is popular next year.
WHAT YOUR WEBSITE NEEDS
It doesn't have to be complicated. A strong artist website has:
• Your music, embedded so people can listen right there
• A short bio that sounds like you
• Good photos
• Upcoming shows and releases
• Links to every platform you're on
• An email signup
• A simple way for fans, venues and press to contact you
If you're pitching to press, playlists or venues, add an EPK too. That's the professional package people expect to see before they book or feature you.
KEEP POSTING, BUT POINT IT HOME
Social media is still where people discover you. Keep posting, keep connecting and keep showing your work. Just treat it as the front door, not the house. Every post should give people a reason to go to your website or join your list, so the relationship is yours even if the platform isn't.
That goes for every big platform, not just Meta. Use them in whatever way makes sense for your brand. Just make sure more of your time, money and energy goes into things you own and control. And maybe it's time we all stopped supporting brands that won't support us back.
NEED HELP BUILDING YOUR HOME BASE?
We build artist websites, EPKs and branding as part of our music marketing services, and we plan them into release campaigns so everything works together. If you're earlier in the process, our Artist Development program covers your sound, your identity and your creative direction. You can hear what we've made with artists on our studio projects page, and see pricing on our rates page.
Want to talk it through? Send us a message.