The way artists, musicians, and record labels promoted music and interacted with fans has undergone numerous changes and has drastically transformed every aspect of the industry forcing the people involved to take a much more strategic approach to their marketing efforts.
Marketing & promotion efforts were typically handled by the label using radio as the central means of communication, but over the last decade there have been many changes and forms of social media utilized across each channel within the music industry.
MySpace was the first social media platform to really take off and help the smaller artists who couldn’t rely on corporate funding, marketing departments, and promotional budgets to help gain exposure. MySpace provided every musician (including myself) to opportunity to share their art and get their music to the masses with absolutely no cost; the best promotional tool being basically word of mouth.
Bands were able to post new tracks, photos, band member bios, tour dates, and links to other artists they were listening to. The other opportunity was that the fans were now able to directly interact with their favorite artists through profile posts and direct messaging.
Purevolume.com was another tool that bands were utilizing to help promote their music. Used more by smaller bands, purevolume allowed you to find local bands and really helped build a music scene in towns/cities. It was a great place for bands to gain local exposure, get gigs, and form bonds with other local artists. It wasn’t as user friendly or interactive, but was a great grass-roots approach to the modern era of music promotion.
Throughout the past few years there have been a number of factors that have forced the labels to rethink their approach. Illegal downloading, iTunes, YouTube, Last.FM, and satellite radio have all had huge impact on the way people listen to or obtain their music. The technical evolution has drastically reduced spending on music but has also opened the door to how people purchase music.
As Facebook evolved and started to surpass MySpace (wiki bio) the entire music industry took notice. The functionality and ease of use proved to be a much more effective means of interacting with fans. It isn’t as focused on the music itself, but it adds the band’s personality to their marketing approach to add a unique layer to the marketing approach.
The band would have a group page that would promote tours, albums, singles, etc., but individual band members would have their own accounts to share little snippets of their personal lives, topics of interests, blogs, and a small glimpse into their personal lives. YouTube integration has also become a key component as an additional means of promotion to get their music out through their individual accounts. As social media has evolved, people have become more and more interested in celebrity culture and the lifestyles of the famous and Facebook provides the platform so you can interact like you are friends.
Some artists such as Matthew Good have become extremely active bloggers and have utilized social media not only for self promotion, but also as a platform to discuss world issues and discussion topics to use their fame as a vehicle for expanded efforts.
I personally have built social relationship started on Facebook to the point where I have actually gotten to meet and hang out with a Canadian rockstar (a slight oxymoron) and have had two other of my favorite musicians post comments on things I have posted online.
Twitter seems to be the new weapon of choice for many musicians as it allows them the opportunity to post thoughts and pictures in real-time. Things like tweeting live on stage, running twitter based contests, trending drives, and direct interaction with fans have made this social media platform extremely popular. It can often be less business oriented, but you truly get to know the personality and interests of your favorite artists.
“50% of Twitter users follow at least one musician. The top five most followed accounts on Twitter are all musicians. In fact there are only two people in the current top ten most-followed Twitter accounts who are not musicians, one is President Barack Obama, and this is election year, the other is the reality star Kim Kardashian. And the top five trends of last year were all music-related” – Tatiana Simonian, head of music industry relations for Twitter (Read the full article “Why Social Networks Need Musicians” from the Wall Street Journal).It will be interesting to see how the music industry continues to evolve and how both the musicians and the industry executives utilize technology and social media as a promotional tool moving forward.
BP Truth Machine 