Generation Z is the first generation to fully grow up with the internet and social media. Anyone born after the year 2000, has no conscious knowledge of anything different. If you are under the age of 26 you have undoubtably had access to the internet and some sort of digital device since you were able to walk (for some maybe even before). This advancement in technology has had an effect on the world as a whole (making the world more connected than ever) but has changed the landscape of the music industry drastically.
If we go back 20 years, an up and coming artist in the Midwest, say Tech Nine for example, had no way of reaching an audience outside of their geographical area (at least easily). In the case of Tech Nine, his rapping style, branding and image (of course along with his lyrical prowess) rose him to fame locally (in Kansas City), but it took him leaving his first deal, starting up his own independent label (Strange Music, which has now made him the number one independent selling rapper in the world) and being on nation wide tours doing shows 400 days out of the year to gain a presence outside of Kansas City. Artist in the South, had a hard time breaking in different markets, not only because it was harder than to reach a broader audience, but because the audiences they were trying to reach in the other markets were favorable to the artists in those larger markets. New York was biased to New York artists, LA had a sound of its own, Miami had a dance craze, Atlanta had their sound, Houston, D.C., New Orleans all had different sounds that were popular in their geographic areas but not necessarily on a national scale. While yes, some of this was due to bias of the fan bases thinking their artists and music was better than the next (perfect example being each borough of New York City claiming their own and creating a rivalry between each of the five boroughs, forget the rest of the country), it more so had to do with artists from different areas having a hard time getting noticed or radio play in these different markets. As a new act you had to have some kind of backing, or an undoubtable hit record (think Nelly getting radio play in New York coming from St.Louis) for larger markets, or even more popular radio stations to play your songs. In the music industry today it is completely different.
The rise of digital streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal) have made it easier than ever to release your music and reach an international audience, never conceivable to artists before. By creating a free artist account on these platforms, artists can upload as many songs as they desire free of charge. With the ability to release music everyday, and have your songs charting on the mass amount of streaming charts that there are now, a new artist from a small town in Canada, can have a hit song in Europe without ever meeting or speaking to anyone outside of their town. Take it from me, I had the opportunity to speak with an up and coming artist from British Columbia, Canada, (which is located on the West coast, while I am located in New Jersey) about his experience of being discovered and signed to an A&R and artist development company located in Atlanta. As little as 15-20 years ago this wouldn’t have been possible without either the artist or the A&R physically traveling to see one another (and what are the odds back then, or even now of an A&R from Atlanta traveling to British Columbia, Canada to sign a new act with the amount of artists and talent in Atlanta, forgetting for a moment that this artist only has a few songs released and at the moment none of them are big enough to garner the recognition of an A&R across the country) or the artist having a national (or in this case international) hit song to catch the A&Rs attention.
With the invention of MySpace (who remembers Todd as their first online friend) artists were given a platform to interact with people all across the country (and eventually the world) in the comfort of their homes. Without ever leaving your bedroom you were now given the ability to speak with people you have never (and most likely would never) meet. This was a game changer as far as promotion was concerned. Artists could now post and promote their music to people they would never have been able to interact with before, giving them a platform to reach a fan base that could fall in love with their music, continue to share it with their friends (both real and online) and re post it on their pages (or in the case of MySpace put a song in their top 5 songs or as the profile song) independently of the artist doing so or asking their fans to do so. Think of how Souljaboy was able to become a national superstar from one song. “Crank That” (mostly due to its dance) had millions of views on MySpace and YouTube leading him to become what is considered the first internet superstar artist (having millions of views and plays on that single alone).
Facebook in 2004 was created as a way for college kids (at the time kids only at specific college had access and you needed a college email to access the site) a way to keep in contact. The platform has now grown to the most used social media outlet in the world with more than a billion active users. Everyone from your kid sister to your grandmother has a Facebook account (whether they use it or even know how to use it properly is a different story). Facebook is a way to stay in contact with old friends, relatives and family members in an easy format that anyone can use. It also allows you to create groups for different subjects, for you and/or your fans to create fan pages and advertise products, services and personal accounts to its user base.
Twitter was conceived next, originally as a way for celebrities to be able to speak and interact with their fans on a personal level that was not accessible before. If you can remember back to when Twitter was first created, the only people that were able to create accounts that could post were the celebrities, and everyone was restricted to 140 characters. As the platform quickly grew, it became a breeding ground for topics of all varieties, allowing anyone who wanted to to post and comment on anyone else’s tweets. Due to its growing popularity, it has now increased its limit to 240 characters and has incorporated hashtags making it even more easy for the general public to find what people are talking about. Twitter is where trending topics start and end. Becoming a trending topic or popular hashtag on Twitter can be good or bad (think of the increased popularity of cancel culture), but in both cases can get you spoken about by millions of people.
Instagram started as a way for people to share their photos and save them as a digital scrap book. It has now become the largest marketing platform (bought out and now owned by Facebook) for business and personal products/services. Instagram has become so popular that becoming an Influencer (meaning you have such a large follower base that companies will reach out to you in order to promote their products and pay you for it) has become a livelihood for some people. An influencer (depending on their popularity and follower base) can garner thousands of dollars for a single post (think any of the Kardashians, also this is how Kylie began and grew her makeup line into a million dollar company). Posing with a product or in some cases even just speaking about the product in your caption can net the company thousands or millions of dollars in sales, and net the influencer the same price from the companies wanting them to promote their products.
So how does this all relate to music and how can artists utilize these platforms for their own benefits? Well, each platform (as describe briefly above) is different. There are different techniques you have to implement in order to capture and cultivate an audience and following on each platform. For Facebook, you have to keep an active, on brand profile showcasing your latest releases. Create a list of relevant groups to post your content on and update this list monthly. Harness the power of the livestream feature to transform your live gigs to national and international events. This platform also allows you to create an artist and fan page, strictly to promote yourself as an artist and as a way to have fans interact with you and each other in a centralized place (in most cases these fan pages are run by a fan and not the artist or someone associated with the artist). Fan pages are best utilized for promotion of up coming events, merchandise, giveaways and a vast amount of other fan interaction concepts. Keeping active on these pages will give fans the sense of a connection with you as an artist and will keep them up to date on news, releases and you as an artist.
For Twitter, create and use relevant hashtags to post with your content. Using the correct hashtags can get you tweets to the correct audience. Twitter users will search hashtags to find content they are looking for. They may not always be looking for specific people or accounts but they will search for hashtags based around topics they find interesting. Twitter will show you the trending hashtags for that day, that hour, and that week, use these trending hashtags (if they relate to your content, as otherwise you could get restrictions on you account without knowing it) to get your tweets in front of a wide range of users on twitter talking to each other at that moment.
Instagram is the best way to give your fan base an inside look at you a person and your creation process as an artist. Create behind the scenes content to share with your following. For example, if you are in the studio recording or creating a new song, post a video of you in the studio working, or go live (Instagram live is a live video feature that allows the user to have an hour long video) and interact with the audience in real time. Connect with popular influencers. As I mentioned above, Instagram influencers are a great marketing tool. Partnering with an influencer to have them promote your music, play your music and/or create a video around you as an artist, your music or your merchandise, can reach millions of new followers that didn’t know about you before.
SnapChat (which I haven’t spoken much about because ever since its run in with Rhianna and the Kardashian’s, the platform has taken a backseat for most of the general public and has become used for other things, which we won’t get into here, that are hidden behind paywalls) can be used as another video tool to show behind the scenes content of you as an artist and/or your everyday life. It also has a Geofilter feature that allows you promote that you are in a specific area, allowing not only your followers on the platform, but anyone in that area or searching in that area to see that you are yourself in that area or that you have an event going on in that area.
SoundCloud has become an independent artists best friend. This platform has become the breading ground for so many artists, as a way to release their music (before the rise of Spotify and other DSPs). Soundcloud allows the user to upload songs for free (up to a certain amount of hours worth of content before you have to pay for premium account to upload unlimitedly) while being able to send out your link to all other social media platforms for cross promotion. The Artist Union feature allows your songs to get free replays and followers when users download your content. SoundCloud now has playlists (similar to the other DSPs) making it easier for users to find similar songs, as well as new artist that are popular without having to scour the site.
With these multitude of ways to promote across social media platforms, how do you promote your music and get it in the hands of the people that matter (other than some of the ways outlined above)? Free distribution platforms (United Masters, Empire, Distrokid) all allow artists to upload their music and get it in the hands of different television and film producers, partners and affiliates of the distribution platforms (the NBA being on of the many partners of United Masters) and offers the ability to release your music while allowing you to keep full ownership. These sites (among others) are a powerful tool for new artists who don’t yet have the right connections to reach these sort of people. Licensing your music through these sites allows you as an artist a way to get your music heard by major executives, with the incentive of possibly getting your song placed in television commercial, a video game, or a movie. Another way to get your song heard by more people is to provide the stems to your song (the individual tracks of both the instruments, if you have them and didn’t record just to a two track, and your vocals) for other artists and DJs to remix your songs, thus getting your music in front of a different audience who may not have heard it before. Create contests around these remixes. Giving away prizes or having incentives for the best remix or the most popular remix is not only a way to get more artists to use your song (thus getting your music heard by their audience) but getting these same artists to promote them using your song to win the contest, thus reaching a wider audience then you previously had.
Social media, digital streaming platforms and the internet are the most powerful tools at your disposal as an emerging artist. Knowing how to utilize each of them properly can make world of difference. Think about how many artists you have heard of in the digital age become popular or get signed because they had a viral song or a huge digital following. Justin Bieber got signed because he was singing and playing the guitar on YouTube. Wiz Khalifa and Souljaboy made careers off MySpace plays. Most recently RMR had his video of a Rascal Flats remix go viral and is now signed to Warner. Chief Keef, Bobby Shmurda, D Lo, Fivio, and a ton of artists during the Jerk dance craze obtained deals because of their internet following based off (in most cases) a single song or popular dance. Remember the kid that got to go on tour with Drake just to perform the dance he created, that then got featured as a buyable dance in the video game Fortnight? Using the internet, social media platforms and digital streaming platforms correctly and effectively will be the difference between your career taking off and just being a local act.
For better or worse these things are here to stay. We are in the digital age and technology is only advancing. The younger generations are so intwined in their smart devices that social interaction (other than online) is becoming a thing of the past. Everyone in the world uses the internet (unless they don’t have access to it, which is another conversation) and the newer generation of artists don’t know a life without it. So why wouldn’t you as a new artist use what you are already using everyday anyway as a way to promote your music, enhance and further your career?
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