How social media is impacting the music industry and highlighting talents

In the digital age, traditional marketing in the music industry have been transformed into social media strategies, a use that becomes essential for any artist who’d like to share their music and give a whole new aspect to their careers. By getting in touch with their followers, they provide a gateway to connect with fans, and build a supportive and passionate community that promotes the same product: music. 

But traditional album promotion only involving billboards, pressruns and interviews is past history. Nowadays, promotion via social media campaigns and social media management is a must, as musicians now use Instagram to tease or announce their latest album and upload their projects to online streaming platforms like Spotify. 

 

With the rise of social media, music consumption has completely changed. The use of platforms like YouTube Music, Soundcloud, Spotify or Apple Music has kept increasing. 

 

The ability to share songs, albums and playlists on social media platforms has given people new ways to show their followers what they’re listening to. For instance, the music stickers introduced by Instagram allows users to add a song to their story which enabled quick music sharing and benefits artists. 

 

As a matter of fact, according to a study lead by MusicWatch, 90% of social media users take part in some form of music- or artist-related activity on social platforms and 2/3 of social media users agree that they discover new artists on social media. 

Internet users are undeniably more and more fond of the social networks that are made available to them, who then feel closer to their favorite artists and their music.

 

As we said, social media has allowed many artists to emerge by posting their music or videos on the Web, and apart from helping building up a fan base, social media is also a way in which you might be spotted by talent scouts or record labels.  

 

Indeed, it is by exploiting social platforms that many musicians benefit from it, going from an ordinary person to a celebrity, sometimes overnight.

Many worldwide known singers today could be mentioned as examples :

 

   ◌ One of the most relevant must be Justin Bieber who started uploading singing videos in the                 streets and in his bedroom on his YouTube channel, before getting spotted in 2008 and quickly           becoming the famous popstar he is today.

 

   ◌ Shawn Mendes also started to gain popularity on social media, through the app Vine on which he        posted song covers. After getting online attention, he got his first record deal and his success has        continued from there. 

 

   ◌ And after a failed musical attempt under the name of Lizzy Grant, Lana Del Rey’s fame would               probably never have seen the light  without her posting of the seemingly homemade video clip           "Video Games" on YouTube. The video got millions of views in just a few days and she releases           her first album Born To Die in October 2011.

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All things considered, for musicians, social media strategy has become one of the most significant platforms for self-promotion and a real opportunity for artists who want to be spotted or just increase their visibility. 

 

As far as I am concerned, I am truly grateful to social media as nowadays, music is an integral part of people's lives and can be heard everywhere!

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Célia LG