Pop Music = Social Media Circus

In the modern day production of pop music and its artists, the industry has a new key player: social media. They days of promotion through flyers and word of mouth are far behind us as new artists search for a fanbase in the most fickle pool of consumers ever seen, the internet. However, this also gives up and coming artists a way to instantly communicate with their audience. An almost personal connection that can help spread their music and message farther and faster than ever before. This has allowed for more independent artists and put more power in the hands of the artists to craft their message and image. Ryan Smart, a local musician from King County, claims that “Social media for me has been a critical aspect of building my name, brand and reputation. Being an artist (and especially an indie artist) you have to wear many different hats. You have to manage and market yourself, as well as build your credibility as an artist. And our society is at a point where your social following intertwines with a large amount of those things. For me personally, social media has helped me tremendously because no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I can always be working towards increasing my audience and demographic… Most of what I do revolves around producing my music in-house, and then pushing that out onto the internet.”

Youtube

The marketing of a musical artist’s work is perhaps the most critical aspect of his or her career, whether the artist is new or a world-renowned musician. In today’s hyper-globalized society, a successful marketing campaign will make all the difference to bring an artist to stardom. Even the most talented and hard-working musician will still require good music marketing in order to spread his name and gain fans. Musical artists often use YouTube as a medium to reach listeners and potential fans. Because YouTube is free and quite easy to access, it is an effective tool to gain traction and popularity for all levels of artists.Take Justin Bieber, for instance. In 2009, Justin skyrocketed from a secret music enthusiast to the industry's newest sensation, beginning with just a few YouTube videos. "One Time" was his first single. It became immensely popular and helped Justin to build his name by granting easy access to his music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVhwcOg6y8&feature=youtu.be&t=27s 

Before the emergence of YouTube, musicians were forced to either go on tour and gain popularity from person to person through conversation or deal in business with record labels who would profit from their music to gain fans. With YouTube, however, artists are finally able to take direct control of the marketing of their work by fleshing out the titles, descriptions, and tags for their music videos that make it easier than ever before to turn browsers into listeners and listeners into fans. The increasingly connected structure of our society has prompted a complete alteration of how fresh artists gain traction and popularity in the music world. Never before has it been so relatively easy to get the word out about a musician’s work. 

The benefit of a platform like Youtube is that anyone can post a video or cover and you can get views through suggestions or related videos. For example, a young, new artist that is trying to get traction might release a cover of an already famous pop song on Youtube. Then, when someone searches for that song , the cover will pop up as well which directs more listeners to your page. For example, local artist Ryan Smart released a cover of the song “Like I'm Gonna Lose You” - Meghan Trainor which helped to draw on the attention and popularity of an already famous song to gain listeners. A person that clicks on this track then is exposed to his other work. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seSH5jxTMcc

For him, Youtube provides a vital role in his process. Most of his content is on this site, and for a good reason. He believes that “In the digital age that we live in, people as a whole are becoming more and more visual. You can have an absolutely killer song, but nowadays, if you don’t have an equally thrilling video to accompany it, it’ll probably end up sinking before reaching it’s true potential” (Smart). It is all about being easily accessible and relatable. The other added benefit is that you can create content by yourself. Ryan learned how to create and produce his own videos based off of trial and error, as well as just researching using Youtube itself. 

Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter dominate the internet with millions answering “What’s on your mind?” and tweeting about the latest a greatest pop-culture phenomenons. Millions are exposed to the likes of  their Facebook friends and those they follow on Twitter. On Facebook, there seems to be a page for every band, person or thing. Which leads me to my first point, how great social media can be for musicians. With a simple press of a button, a like or comment, all your friends can see a group that interests you and might interest them as well. Tanner Peavy, a local musician who attends Pacific Lutheran University has a Facebook page for his group “Mission 253”. The page currently has 827 likes, or in other words 827 people have pressed the like button and certainly many more have seen the page itself. 

  As a shameless plug for the group, here is the Facebook link, 

https://www.facebook.com/mission253/

Twitter has an added benefit of being a more casual and immediate. Ryan Smart uses it specifically to “giv[e] people behind the scenes information, or [connect] on a more personal, individual level”. 

https://twitter.com/ryansmarticles 

Furthermore, the New York Times articles “Philanthropy That Comes From a Click” points out that “with a click, one can register approval or disapproval of a cause, send money, alert Twitter followers and forward … a video to hundreds of Facebook “friends”” (Haberman). The importance of social media outlets is now vital for the spreading the word of a band and releasing information on new and upcoming artist. 

        However, there are downfalls. Articles, such as the one below from DIY Musician, point out the many less than desirable parts about social media outlets. The article depicts the “7 Deadly Sins Musicians Are Committing on Facebook & Twitter”. These mistakes can impact the way a group is perceived and making it difficult for new followers to be interested. This being anywhere from the lack of style of a Facebook page or using similar strategies of marketing to an audience on both Twitter and Facebook as they are both separate from one another and often enjoyed in different ways with users. 

Another issue is persona with social media. In general, this is an important aspect of musicianship as one wants be like likable. A Music Think Tank article points out that  “to establish yourself as a compelling creator, and you want fans to believe in you enough to invest their time and money in your efforts. Arrogance will surely divert your supporters, so it’s important to develop a confident persona that’s still relatable and likeable” (Sonicbids). This must be applied to Facebook and Twitter accounts. “Self confidence" and “cockiness” draw up a fine line and finding a happy medium can be difficult in general, let alone on Facebook or Twitter. In short, social media has its perks and downfalls but are a mainstay in American culture today. Navigating through it all can be difficult but rewarding for a young artist. 

Snapchat and Instagram 

Snapchat can be used in many ways for an artist(s). Fist of all, Snapchat is like a messaging application that sends pictures, but after a certain amount of time, they disappear. There are also other aspects like being able to show your chats to the public, or you can send it to specific people. An artist(s) can use Snapchat as a way for publicizing a new album, concert, tour, or any public event that they are involved in. This is an easy way of advertisement because first of all, it’s free. The only problem with this is that by showing it to the public, you would put it on you “story,” which only would last for 24 hours. Another way they use Snapchat is, like any person who has Snapchat, they want to share moments in their personal lives with everyone. This gives their persona more of a humane feeling during these times. Knowing these aspects of them, they are more likable when they perform. Being more likable means that you have more followers for your music and thus your fan base will continue to rise. More fan base means that you can get more gigs and be able to produce more music and make more of a living off of it. 

Instagram is another great application that artist use now. Instagram, like Snapchat, allows one to post pictures online. The thing is, unlike Snapchat, Instagram has the pictures up forever until the user takes it off themselves. In Instagram, one can make their account private or public, but artist(s) usually want to make it public for everyone to see. Instagram is more artsy than Snapchat, so you can tell more of the artist(s) personality here. It has the same concept as Snapchat, but it is more on the advertising side. Artist tend to post more of their music on Instagram because you don’t have to constantly keep posting it to get it out there and the quality is much better for advertising compared to Snapchat.

Here is Skrillex’s Snapchat with CL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOESrT3tCvQ

Also Ariana Grande:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsICnw99RTM&index=1&list=PLMikQ7z0KzOC8ZdQHmreAa-kTiHOMmEpE

Instagram is another great application that artist use now. Instagram, like Snapchat, allows one to post pictures online. The thing is, unlike Snapchat, Instagram has the pictures up forever until the user takes it off themselves. In Instagram, one can make their account private or public, but artist(s) usually want to make it public for everyone to see. Instagram is more artsy than Snapchat, so you can tell more of the artist(s) personality here. For Ryan Smart, he feels that “Instagram is perfect for pushing out visual/audio content like promotional teasers for music videos, banners related to upcoming events, or more relatable photos for a more intimate look into the artists life” which is evident in his artist page. 

Instagram Accounts:

Mission 253 - https://www.instagram.com/officialmission253/

 Streetlight Cadence - https://www.instagram.com/streetlightcadence/

One OK Rock - https://www.instagram.com/oneokrockofficial/ 

CL - https://www.instagram.com/chaelincl/

There is also the effect of artist not using social media. Some artist doesn’t use social media or certain types of social media. For example, Justin Bieber doesn’t have an official public Instagram account, or that we know of. This kind of give that feeling of wanting to keep things a bit ore personal and there is nothing wrong with that.

  There are many ways that social media has changed the aspect of music. In the past, artist created personas of themselves on stage, but one can question if that is their true personality. With social media, artist display also their personal lives. This can give a more realistic air to the artist and show just how human they are. The increasingly connected structure of our society has prompted a complete alteration of how fresh artists gain traction and popularity in the music world. Never before has it been so relatively easy to get the word out about a musician’s work. 

Sources

Celebrity Snapchats. "ARIANA GRANDE 5TH JULY SNAPCHAT STORY." YouTube. YouTube, 6 July 2016. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.

Di, Em. "Skrillex Snapchat Featuring CL in Malibu." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Jan. 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Haberman, Clyde. "Philanthropy That Comes From a Click." New York Times. New York Times, 13 Nov. 2016. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.

Hsu, Caleb. "How to Be a Confident Musician Without Being Cocky - MTT - Music Think Tank." MTT - Music Think Tank. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

Peavey, Tanner. "Mission 253." Facebook. Facebook, 30 Nov. 2016. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

Robertson, Nic J. "7 Deadly Sins Musicians Are Committing on Facebook & Twitter - DIY Musician Blog." DIY Musician Blog. N.p., 09 May 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Smart, Ryan. "Like I'm Gonna Lose You - Meghan Trainor (Cover by Ryan Smart)." YouTube. YouTube, 29 Dec. 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Smart, Ryan. "Ryan Smart." Twitter. Twitter, 16 Nov. 2016. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.