Social media has played a massive role in the music industry. It can be said that, in today’s world, social media and the music industry go hand-in-hand. Social media sites such as YouTube or Spotify are ideal platforms for musicians to make an additional revenue stream. Of course, by using SM, artists or musicians want to grow their follower count. They usually tend to leverage marketing agencies for this because more followers mean more plays on songs, which equals higher income. Some agencies even can help them get free Spotify followers to test their services.
In addition, social media has also made it easier for fans to find and follow their favorite artists and connect with them. Whereas, musicians can show their “human” side and promote themselves in a breeze.
If you’re wondering how social media became the industry’s secret weapon, keep reading this article!
Since Facebook launched in 2004, it has gained a lot of popularity, and it hasn’t faded a bit. Back then, you could search and find almost every artist having their own Facebook page. Usually, a higher number of page likes equaled their fame.
To this day, Facebook is an ideal platform for musicians to promote their music, tease their upcoming album or single launch, create an event and invite others to attend it, post videos of their concerts, and even go live!
YouTube
When YouTube was founded, it was supposed to be a dating site. Isn’t it surprising? However, it later shifted to a video-sharing platform, and that’s when the music industry took a positive shift on the internet.
Several top music labels went on launching a Vevo Channel in 2009, and all the songs from artists were released on this channel directly rather than on MTV. Even now, musicians have their own YouTube channels to promote their music. Leveraging the countdown feature, they can boost the number of views on their videos and gain more revenue through ads.
Not only prominent artists, but YouTube also allows new artists to post their videos and get discovered by music labels. This is also how Justin Bieber was discovered by Scooter Braun on YouTube!
Twitter has always been a fantastic social media site for celebrities to share their views on political or general situations worldwide. Although this can attract hatred for them at times, it still has more upsides.
They tease a new song release or add links to their tweets to purchase tickets online. Furthermore, their fans and followers can make their new release a trend on the “trending” section, and this can significantly help their launch with visibility.
Although Instagram is one of the new social media sites, people around the world widely use it. Every musician can be found on Instagram, and it’s a great way to connect their fans with them while showing their “human” side.
It’s common for artists on Instagram to go live or share story updates for their upcoming song releases and concerts. Having millions of followers on Instagram means a newly launched music video gets a higher viewer count on YouTube, as artists tend to link their videos on Instagram.
TikTok
TikTok truly made video content the king! Since its launch in 2016, it has proven to make undiscovered old songs a hit in a short video. This has also changed the way musicians create music now. In other words, they tend to create melodies and lyrics that will catch the attention of TikTok users and will get viral quickly.
The viral songs on TikTok are mostly hits on the Billboard charts as well. Many new artists were even discovered through this platform, and it has dramatically changed the way the music industry works.
