great question, i'm not sure there's a rule but as i'm about to be a first time parent I think i'm definitely gonna introduce instruments first... assuming she's even remotely interested in music.

i personally barely learned music theory and don't find it super useful tbh. i know some people get something out of it, but it can be stifling to creativity imho. just seems like it would be useful later on, not as a pre-requisite.

welcome to the most expensive hobby lol
tbh, i just have a basic doepfer module for this, so i don't have a lot of inputs like this. pittsburgh modular makes some generic ones that are just fine imho.

i'd suggest using it like a return bus and setting mix to 100%, while keeping the original signal intact in the DAW. This way you have much more fine control over it without worrying about signal degradation.

i'd definitely suggest a stereo out in general regardless of what you're doing with it.

also, get the make noise maths, best module ever.

I think it makes sense for a company like spotify to tread carefully and ease into it. I'd probably wanna focus on curating the first set of users before opening it up wide.

Overall i think it's a variation of gatekeeping content which can be successful, but it's probably just gonna be an extra perk for most communities, not a driving force behind token adoption.

Spotify has been historically very cagey about their data and artists have no way of interacting with those audiences, so while i'm optimistic, i'm still waiting to see how it plays out.

this is a tricky question because i actually got my start before social media, so by the time it came around, i benefited from some notoriety and was able to build from there.

along the way i've always just tried to be myself instead of trying to "go viral" and play into the algorithm. I feel like it's served me well to the point where my audience follows me for my true self instead of some kind of gimmick. authenticity over virality.

the issue with that approach is that it's a long game.

tik tok is super interesting. it's probably the app i use the most, but it's distinctly different as in it puts more emphasis on your average person and their experience, as opposed to following artists/whatever that you like. I think that's a cool thing. I follow super random accounts. I'm not sure it's the right platform for artists/musicians unless you're just starting out. it's been hit or miss for me personally.