I have a band on facebook with 23,000 likes.
Even when I have paid money to promote shows, music, and merchandise, I had no guarantee that what I posted ever got to my audience. There are some (unclear) analytics involved but at the end of the day I don't want to pay a middle man to connect to my audience.
This was one of the best aspects of Myspace: there used to be a bulletin board that would give you a specific feed of bands/friends posts. You could choose to read whichever messages you want and bands could message their audience without having to pay a toll.
With social media, there is so much hype and noise that there is no signal for up and coming bands to really stand out. I frequently see sponsored ads on Instagram of musicians playing in their living rooms and I keep wondering why I am seeing this when I frequently miss posts of bands that I care about.
In my mind, I would love the ability to be able to have fans text a number and receive a message if one of my bands is playing a show in their area. I don't want to send them anything else unless I have a show coming up, new merch for sale, and new music to listen to.
Bands put up messaging/posts to stay relevant on social media. A larger band can hire a team for this, but it adds so much more noise for bands that are small as they have to grind for social media relevance _with everyone else_ instead of working on their music.
It would be the most direct marketing possible without a need for an installable app. It would be a very grassroots thing but I think it's something that needs to happen.