We’re at the last blog of the semester. As with the previous one, it will focus on the topic my classmates put forward in line with their thesis research. This time focused on the role of social media in the music industry.
So, music and social media. The two are indeed an important combination. I remember back in the day when MySpace was the place for bands to come in contact with their fans online. Since that social platform has now gone extinct, its role has been taken over by Facebook. It is now easier than ever to keep in check with your favourite bands. Just hit the like button on their Facebook page and you’ll be able to receive every single one of their updates (provided they are active on Facebook). If anything I think social media and the Internet have made it so people can be more actively engaged with bands. What better way to know when they’ll be playing in your neighbourhood than checking the tour schedule they just posted online? Another major player in the industry is YouTube. Of the 100 most watched videos on YouTube, 95 of them are music videos. It is so apparent that even Wikipedia has made indications in its list to signify what videos are not of the musical genre. This goes to show how important the platform has become in playing music and sharing it with your audience. The most played video has 4,35 billion views, equal to roughly 57% of the world population. Now I know that this doesn’t mean that each one of those clicks is a separate person, but it goes to show how insane playing music has become on the video platform. The most streamed song on Spotify “only” has 1,43 billion clicks. You could say YouTube has become the MTV of today, except here the user gets to choose which videos he/she wants to see.
There is no way around it; music artists have to take social media into account if they want to become successful. And this doesn’t limit itself to just artists. Even organisers have made the jump to the online world. A few days ago Graspop, a metal festival in Belgium, announced its first 46 names (apart from the headliners) through, you guessed it, Facebook. It’s apparent that the (r)evolution runs through almost every aspect of the industry.
