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The music industry has obviously been around for a very long time whereas Social media is relatively new. Recently we have seen social media explode. Everyone and their mothers either use or at least know of the main social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. However, other social media sites are becoming increasingly popular, especially in terms of blogging like Tumblr, Blogger and FlickR for example. There are of course thousands of social media sites, too many to even begin to name. I also believe that recently the advances in social media and the increased use of it has had amazing benefits for the music industry.
The BT Digital Music Awards were on the 29th September 2011 (aired on ITV2 ON 3rd October) and these awards are proof that the advances in technology have effected the industry as it is all about the digital side, obviously. We also see this in the download charts, which don’t take into consideration when the music is bought in a hard copy. These awards showed a video as a feauture about social media and the music industry and it relayed to me some thoughts and ideas that I had noticed lately.
One of the main points that was put across in this video and that I think anyone with Twitter will have noticed is that it is easier for artists to support and even promote each other now. I don’t think a day goes by without us seeing several artists tweeting to their fans to go and buy or at least listen to another artist’s music. I don’t believe that this type of support was so easily given before the use of social media as it was just not as easy to do..Twitter is a very simple, quick and effective method of promotion because in a matter of seconds you have sent something that potentially hundreds, thousands or millions of people could see. (For example, Justin Bieber is on over thirteen million followers.) We see twitter used as a promotion tool daily and often it can seem quite corporate when used by companies but when an artist is tweeting from a ‘personal’ account shall we say, I think it gives the industry and the people on the front on the industry a better image. We cannot forget that obviously these artists are in competition with each other, they all want that number one album or single, they want everyone to enjoy listening to their music and watching their videos but as Example said in the video for the DMA’s he see’s it as though if one artist does well then another will. I can see the logic in this, especially with social media because If one artist is very successful and gets a wide following and then tweets or shares an artist with their fan base who will likely take the recommendation and check the artist out and new fans and exposure are bound to be gained.
Social media also closes the gap between the artist and the fans. The use of social media sites now means the artists can give information and communicate directly to fans or upload videos and images themselves making the artist seem more of a person than a brand or business. I think Twitter is the main tool for this but artists can now blog as well for example and their fans can follow for more detailed updates and information. Blogs will once again seem more personal than a news letter sent en mass from someone’s HQ.
Social media is also an amazing platform for success. The story of Jamal Edwards, founder of SBTV, who created a business stemming from his Youtube account. His success through using social media was shown through the recent Google chrome advert. You can see this below.
Ed Sheeran is also an exceptional example of success via social media. His success must not be slimmed down to just being through social media, Ed Sheeran did hundreds of shows and worked tremendously hard to get to where he is, but I think social media definitely helped his success. He said in the video about social media on the DMA’s that by using social media you can create a fan base for yourself. This can be done even when labels aren’t interested. Myspace and especially YouTube are often used for this. The fact that artists can independently build up their fan base is a massive step forward in the music industry and it’s down to social media for providing the ease of communication and sharing of information. I’ve put his Something For The Weekend interview below as he explains how he began in the industry but there are lots of interviews on YouTube.
A lot of these points were put across in the feature on the Digital Music Awards and I’m so glad they were because they’ve been becoming more evident recently in my opinion and I think social media does need to be recognised for the changes it is creating. We mustn’t assume that there are no negatives with social media and the music industry, for example it is now possibly considered easier for people who wish to, to write very mean and sometimes unacceptable things in relation to shared media. However, in this post I did want to focus on the positives but I wanted to at least address the fact that there are negatives associated.
If you didn’t watch the BT Digital Music Awards you can do so here and If this topic does interest you then It really is worth a watch.
Do you think social media benefits the music industry?
Victoria
Do you think social media benefits the music industry?
Victoria
