Colin 
Cloudflare has dropped for the second time in a month, and if you make music without a big support system behind you, you feel it immediately. You spend hours planning, editing video clips, lining up posts, prepping links, and shaping the story around your release. Then half the internet collapses and your plan dissolves in front of you. Fans cannot reach your pages. Your post queue refuses to load. Your landing link spins forever. You sit there refreshing screens while your momentum leaks away.
This hits harder because independent musicians build everything alone. You manage your pages, handle your distribution, edit your assets, track your data, and watch your budget. Your tools become your support network. When those tools stop responding, the silence lands on you. You cannot move forward and you cannot fix the problem. You wait, knowing the clock keeps moving.
Cloudflare and AWS sit underneath so many platforms you depend on daily. You might not think about them when things work, yet you rely on them every time you upload something, share something, or monitor something. When Cloudflare fails twice in one month, it exposes how fragile your setup has become. When AWS stumbles around the same time, the picture grows even clearer. You create music in a world where everything depends on invisible infrastructure you never agreed to rely on.
Cloudflare’s second outage shows how quickly an independent release can unravel
You build your rollout in layers. Artwork, video clips, captions, link hubs, pre save pages, mailing lists, submission forms, platform uploads, and whatever you schedule for social media. You expect these tools to behave because you cannot afford delays when you do this alone. A single outage removes half of these layers without warning.
Cloudflare’s reach is huge, so when it fails, tools across your entire workflow freeze. Link hubs stop loading. Pre save pages show errors. Distribution dashboards refuse to refresh. Analytics panels break before you even get a look at how your last post performed. Your mailing list platform might not send anything because its routing depends on Cloudflare traffic. All of that happens while you sit there watching the clock.
If you scheduled posts to hit at the perfect time, you lose the rhythm you worked hard to build. When a scheduled post drops late or misses its slot, algorithms treat it like a weak update. Early engagement shapes reach and reach shapes everything that follows. You built your release day around a burst of attention. Outages replace that burst with silence.
Fans feel confused. They try to open your link and nothing loads. They check again. Still nothing. A few listeners will return, yet most will move on. Independent musicians feel that loss sharply because every link click counts. You do not have a large machine pushing your work into the world. You build momentum through direct connection, and outages break those connections instantly.
AWS outages strike a different part of your world. Payments slow or stop. Merch orders stall. Patreon login attempts hang. Cloud storage tools freeze so your files sit out of reach. Even your website might fail because your host uses AWS for storage or DNS. You discover how many parts of your setup rely on AWS only when they fail in front of you.
When both Cloudflare and AWS stumble in the same month, you see how fragile your daily routine has become. Nearly every step in your creative, promotional, and financial process ties itself to these providers. When they break, you lose hours you cannot replace and opportunities you cannot repeat.
Outages wreck the creative side too, not only the public side
People outside music see outages as simple inconvenience. They reload a page and move on. You lose access to tools you need to create. Many modern instruments, plugins, and sample libraries use online checks before they unlock. When authentication freezes, your session stalls. Your DAW might prompt a login you cannot complete. Your cloud backup might be stuck, leaving you unsure which version of your project is safe.
If you write with friends online, the session collapses. Stems cannot upload. Files cannot sync. Video calls struggle. You lose the spark you had in the moment.
You also lose access to the systems that help you make decisions. You check your data to see whether a post landed well, yet outages scramble those numbers. Even when services return, the missing data leaves a gap in your pattern. Independent musicians rely on clear signals to adjust strategy. When the numbers break, you fly blind.
Income becomes unpredictable during outages. Merch platforms slow down. Some payment gateways rely on AWS. Bandcamp payments take longer. Patreon messages fail to load. You rely on small, steady streams of support across the month. When outages break those channels, you feel it right away.
Stress builds quickly because you carry everything alone. You made the art, built the assets, edited the video, scheduled the posts, and now watch it all fall apart because half the internet fell over. You apologise to fans even though the outage has nothing to do with you. You rewrite your plan while hoping your next attempt lands in a calmer moment.
Steps you can take before the next failure hits
Even though you cannot stop Cloudflare or AWS from breaking, you can prepare so the next outage hits with less damage.
Start by keeping offline copies of everything. Every caption, every link, every version of your artwork, your audio files, your video edits, your release details. When your landing page fails, you still hold every piece you need.
Build a simple backup link page on a separate provider. A plain page with your key links will save a release day when your usual link hub stops responding. Switch your bio link to this backup during an outage and your listeners still find you.
Spread your workflow across different services. Avoid placing everything inside one platform. When one service locks up, your entire plan should not lock up with it. Separate your mailing list, link hub, video schedule, upload tools, and analytics whenever possible.
Communicate quickly when something fails. Post updates on the platforms that stay live. Your audience will understand because this happens often now. A quick message keeps your connection active, even when the tools around you drop.
Keep your release timing flexible. Give yourself room to shift when outages appear. Independent musicians benefit more from flexibility than strict timing.
Test your setup before every rollout. Load your link hub. Check your pre save page. Confirm your video uploads process normally. Make sure your scheduled posts sit in the correct queues. Open your distribution dashboard to confirm access. Each test removes a future problem.
Most of all, accept that outages will keep happening. Infrastructure companies solve their issues, yet new ones appear without warning. Preparation gives you resilience. It protects your release, your audience connection, and your creative focus.