Now more than ever, social media is the most important tool for artists hoping to promote their own work. Read on to find out how social media can help you build your career as a musician, artist or DJ.
Have you ever visited Instagram and seen a video of your favourite artist sharing what they had for breakfast with their song playing in the background? How about a producer on Twitter asking their followers what their favourite band is right now? Believe it or not, that’s branding. Social media is more important than ever for artists, musicians, DJs and producers looking to build a career in music. When people think of growing their brand, they often look past social media as being a marketing tool. But that’s exactly what social media has grown to be: the most powerful marketing tool available to artists today.
For anyone finding a new path in the music industry, of course the first step is creating your content, but where do you go from there? 20 years ago, you’d look toward handing out your work on CD’s in the streets, or playing five hundred live shows in the smallest venue until a record executive discovered you. Ten years ago, the internet really started picking up for musicians everywhere. That is just how record executive Scooter Braun discovered Justin Bieber. Bieber used Youtube to market himself and his songs. He was the first ‘big’ musician to get discovered through YouTube, and from there more artists like Shawn Mendes, Charlie Puth and Carly Rae Jepsen have become worldwide sensations all starting with the click of a button and a few hundred views. In the digital age, most people turn to the internet for exposure. Social media websites and apps have become much more advanced than they were even just five years ago, giving musicians a chance to take their careers even further.
Artists today use Instagram as a vehicle for campaigns that promote their next album or their new music video. Each day they reveal a clip of their song to their followers, or they use Instagram Stories to communicate and engage with their fans, building a following and gaining exposure. By using 24-hour and live stories, musicians and DJs and producers can share what they are doing in the moment real-time, giving fans a window into what they are creating and how they work.
Some will follow other artist’s pages to get a sense of how they promote themselves. Twitter can be used to announce their new project release dates or to connect with their fans on a more intimate level. Facebook is used to build a central page for people to like and follow, where you can keep fans up to date. The ever-growing YouTube is used to showcase music videos an artist or producer has created, or it can be used to give lessons on how to use certain programs for music building. To build a music career through the internet is easy to do, but because it’s easy, a vast majority do so now, so making sure you grab someone’s attention is key.
However, pushing your content isn’t the only way to build your music career: social media is also used for educational purposes. Numerous musicians use YouTube to learn or give out lessons on how to use DAWs, or offer instrumental lessons for those who want to add guitar to their projects but can’t quite get it down on their own yet. Musicians can even post blogs, giving detailed day-in-the life stories or instructions on how to get discovered and how to build their profile. Enhancing your education through social media is a fantastic way to build a music career. From obtaining teachings through others, you can apply what you know to your work, building your knowledge base and advancing your career.
You may be asking yourself: even if I do all these things, how do I know someone will see my work? Well, alongside you, every single day more people create social media accounts or discover a new website. Consumers of music use social media every single day, which means that those working in the industry need to use it too. Labels and producers don’t just send recruiting agents to live shows anymore. They also spend every day looking for the ‘next big thing’ online. A few years ago, almost no musicians or labels had even heard of TikTok. Today, agents and labels are urging their clients to get involved, whether it’s to talk to fans or participate in a viral dance: anything to get exposure. Exposure builds an artist’s career from the ground up. The world changes every year, which makes the music industry forced to stay on top of what’s hot, in a perpetual effort to stay relevant. As the world changes however, physicality decreases. The digital world is now an integral part of today’s society and the music industry will never be the same. Social media may never have an expiration date.