Tag: Social Media Marketing

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Is Social Media Ruining Your Music Career? [Video]

Social Media

Social media is [literally] a job in itself. Balancing a music career with your engagement efforts online can be more complicated than many are willing to admit.

There is a moment in every superhero origin story where the protagonist fails. Maybe there is a bomb in an amusement park or a plane falling out of the sky two-thousand miles away, and for whatever reason, the hero cannot save the day. These moments are viewed as character building events because the hero’s response to failing often signals how they see their responsibility to protect others moving forward. Some double down on the heroism, but others choose darkness.

The lesson is always the same: No one can be everywhere all the time, nor can anyone expect to do everything. Even the strongest and most gifted among us are incapable of perfection, including you.

The music business tells us something different. Music industry experts often say that every artist is a business and that every business needs social media to survive. You need to tweet your specials, post Instagram updates featuring your product, and offer timely responses to fans who comment anywhere you have a presence. The music industry also tells us that we need to create original content for every channel that utilizes the space allotted to us on each platform. That means vertical videos for Instagram Stories, 280-character bursts of genius for Twitter, and something ‘Likeable’ for Facebook, and so on.

Experience teaches us that the music industry experts are mistaken and that our culture’s current obsession with social media is not a good enough reason for artists to become update slaves. No artist, but especially no up and coming artist, can hope to build a lasting music career when they are throwing away countless hours trying to develop a following online.

Don’t get us wrong. It would help if you had fans, and having a presence online can be essential to engaging with your audience. It can also help build an audience in places artists cannot travel themselves and open doors that may otherwise remain off-limits. However, if making a following online comes at the cost of doing something artistically rewarding that brings joy to those whose passion is music above all else, it may be time to rethink how we view our relationship with social media.

On the season premiere of Music Biz, host James Shotwell explores the cost of social media versus its impact on a musician’s bottom line. There is an easy way for any artist to how much time they should focus on social media, as well as where those efforts are most effective, and James reveals it in this video. Check it out:

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The Most Popular Song on TikTok Right Now (December 2019)

The world’s fastest-growing social media platform, TikTok, has quickly become the number one source for music discovery.

TikTok made its presence known in 2019. From the seemingly unstoppable success of Lil Nas X to the quick ascension of newcomers Blanco Brown, Stunna Girl, and Ashnikko into the pop culture spotlight, TikTok has proven itself as one of the essential music discovery platforms. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but right now, it seems no other platform has the star-making power possessed by this wildly popular app.

The numbers behind TikTok speak for themselves. The app now has over 1.5 billion downloads worldwide, which is far more than any music streaming platform, and it is more popular on Android devices than iPhones. 29% of monthly users open TikTok every day, and they typically spend around 52 minutes per day on the app.

Even better, 60% of the app’s monthly active users in the U.S. are 16- to 24- year-olds. That means, the key demographic for new music discovery in the United States turns to TikTok for entertainment and activity. That’s a massive segment of the population.

TikTok users create and share short video content. The majority of clips involve lip-syncing to music, but others use songs to soundtrack the action happening in the video. Some posts have no music at all, but for this post, we won’t address that content.

Finding the next big thing by scrolling TikTok posts can be difficult. The app currently has no chart system in place, so the only way to understand what songs are popular is to watch a lot of videos.

Every label and artist would love to experience the level of viral success TikTok can provide, but users of the platform tend to enjoy hip-hop and pop music more than any other genre. The artists seeing the most success on the app often blur genre lines while delivering infectious and straightforward melodies. As a result, a great hook or strong opening can mean more than the quality of a song overall.

Even musicians are catching on. Instead of waiting for TikTok to discover her latest singer, pop star Camila Cabello uses her account to share original videos using her songs.

We cannot tell you how to make TikTok users fall in love with your music. We are researching that topic, but so far, the best advice anyone has given us is to ensure your songs are as immediately catchy as possible. To further prove this point, we took the most popular songs on the platform right now (December 19) and put them into a Spotify playlist.

What surprises us the most about the content that goes viral on TikTok is that the vast majority of it comes from artists with relatively no pre-existing fame. Aside from a select few fast-rising stars, such as Doja Cat and Die Antwoord, many of the artists going viral on TikTok right now are virtually unknown.

Take “Becky” artist Championxiii, for example. The Houston rapper has less than 300 followers on Twitter, but on TikTok, he has more than 1.4 million followers. Similarly, “Becky” has amassed over 11 million streams on Spotify, which is over 10 million more than his second most popular song.

There are two ways the industry can view talent that goes viral on TikTok without first establishing themselves elsewhere. On the one hand, TikTok may hear something that industry A&R does not. At the same time, however, a single viral hit on TikTok does not mean someone is capable of replicating their success or building a career. TikTok talent is, in many ways, a high-risk investment.

That said, the kids like what they like, and the industry will continue to follow their lead.

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Twitter is planning to delete dormant accounts in the near future

Twitter users who have not accessed their account in a long time are encouraged to log in before December 11 or risk losing their handles.

Username availability is a growing problem in social media. Much like email before it, social media has now been around long enough that new users are increasingly struggling to find unclaimed handles. For example, if your name is John Smith, you cannot use @John or @JohnSmith or @TheJohnSmith on Twitter. You also probably can’t use @John_Smith, @JSmith, @J_Smith, or @The_John_Smith. Those names are already in use, and getting someone to surrender their handle is often an uphill battle that can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that not all the usernames are in use. Someone claimed the name, but now the account sits dormant. Usernames that many would want, such as @AuxCord, sit unused on social media with abandoned accounts (or worse, accounts that never posted in the first place).

But a reckoning may be on the horizon. Twitter user Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) shared an email they received this week from the social media giant regarding an account he owns that has sat dormant for some time. In the email, Twitter informed Navarra he needed to agree to the company’s terms, privacy policy, and cookie use to continue using the platform. The letter also said they had until December 11, 2019, to access his dormant account. If Navarra failed to do so, they would risk losing their handle permanently.

Navarra, wanting to retain the dormant account, logged into Twitter using a link in the email and captured the prompts that appeared:

The decision to mass delete dormant accounts will open hundreds, if not thousands of desirable usernames to the public. Such a move would boost interest in the social media platform and likely lead to a rise in new accounts, not to mention increased engagement.

Twitter has not publicly commented on Navarra’s tweets or officially announced plans to remove dormant accounts. That said, the company is well within its rights to delete accounts that do not agree to Twitter’s new terms, privacy policy, and cookie use.

Readers hoping to claim a dormant account when they become available should consider using Handlescout. The service, which is free, tracks username availability on Twitter and sends email alerts when desired handles become available.

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The Argument For Buying Sponsored Posts

In the age of social media, access comes with a cost. You can fight and complain, but sometimes, the price is worth the outcome.

In the age of social media, access comes with a cost. You can fight and complain, but sometimes, the price is worth the outcome. 

Anyone promoting music for two years or more will tell you that meaningful reach is increasingly hard to achieve. Regardless of how many followers you have or how many people like your pages and posts, getting updates to your fans is a challenge music professionals struggle with every day. Mailing lists can help cut through the noise, but the likelihood of convincing the vast majority of your audience to sign up for such messaging is low. 

Consumers like to believe that social media will tell them everything they need to know, but in many cases that isn’t true. The Haulix Facebook page, for example, has more than 2,000 Likes. Two years ago, any post we made would reach at least 25% of our audience (around 500 people). In today’s marketplace, however, the same posts reach 10% of our audience or less. 

How many people are exposed to your posts is based on a number of algorithms. Reach benefits from the total number of followers or likes your account has, of course, as well as the amount of engagement a post receives. Reach is negatively impacted when an account posts too often and when posts receive low levels of engagement.

But isn’t it possible that low engagement is the result of low reach? Of course it is, and that is where Facebook — as well as other social media platforms — hope to convert users into customers with sponsored posts.

Many in the music business have preached against purchasing reach for as long as such options have been available to musicians. Many believe purchasing reach goes against the DIY ethics that so many artists and industry vets built their careers upon because it circumvents the traditional or ‘natural’ discovery process. 

The problem is, natural discovery doesn’t exist in the world of algorithms. Spotify shows consumers what it thinks they want to hear and Facebook shows them what it thinks they want to see. Introducing new ideas takes a backseat to maintaining engagement/interest. Word of mouth may help get artists ahead, but getting in front of people who may become vocal supporters in the digital landscape is rarely something that occurs organically. 

With that in mind, musicians must choose to either pay for reach or work against a system that increasingly limits the amount of exposure platforms will provide. The latter is makes sense morally, but from a business standpoint, the former is the smarter choice.

When artists research sponsored post creation and utilize their knowledge to target the people most likely to engage with their content the likelihood of success is incredibly high. There are artists today, such as Virginia rapper Lucidious, who utilize direct marketing strategies for Facebook and Instagram — often through guides provided by those platforms — to grow their audience to the point their careers become full-time jobs. Musicians are now able to reach the point of sustainability in their careers without labels or publicists as long as they learn and implement the tricks to working within the social media system.

Make no mistake: Purchasing reach with no understanding of how to set up ads that reach the people most likely to support you financially will end badly. Facebook and all other social media platforms do not care how well your ads perform as much as they do whether or not you purchase ads. Reach is guaranteed, but conversion is not. 

And if you’re still on the fence, I get it. No one wants to pay for reach that should be given to them. If 100,000 people follow your account, then 100,000 people should be shown your latest update. That makes sense, in theory, and it sounds fair.

But zoom out a bit and put that idea into perspective. Most people like at least a dozen artists. People also love numerous brands, stores, and content creators, all of whom have updates they want to share, as well as countless people they choose to connect with online. If everyone was shown every post by every account they follow no one would be able to keep up. Quantity would overtake quality in a manner that negatively impacts everyone, and all sense of community in social media would be lost. Algorithms, for the most part, help make sense of the chaos that would otherwise exist without such measure being put into place. 

The truth is that sponsored posts are here to stay. You can rebel as much as you want, but those looking to get ahead should use this system to their advantage. Don’t invest heavily until you understand the tools. Once you do, the sky is the limit.

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What TikTok Users Want To Hear

TikTok is making superstars, but what kind of musicians are most likely to get ahead on the fastest-growing social media platform?

TikTok is an unstoppable force in the world of music. With more than one-billion downloads worldwide and over 500 million monthly users, TikTok has a sprawling community of creators who are actively shaping pop culture on a daily basis. From dances to jokes and even music, TikTok is at the forefront of social influence among young people, and that trends is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

TikTok’s influence on music is perhaps its most interesting. Since helping Lil Nas X rise to history-making success with his hit song, “Old Town Road,” the platform has aided other unlikely stars in finding success. First came Blanco Brown and “The Git Up,” which is now a platinum-certified song, and then came the one-million-dollar deal Stunna Girl received after her track “Runway” went viral. More recently, fast-rising star Ashnikko found a burst of attention after TikTok users discovered her sexually-charged smash, “STUPID.” 

The users of TikTok are catapulting artists to the forefront of pop culture that may otherwise have never received a chance at stardom. Many of the biggest songs on the platform are from musicians with no deal, no touring experience, and only a small catalog of tracks. With the right users finding a track, virtually anyone can become the next star the platform gives to the world at large.

To help get you started, we studied the biggest hits on TikTok in October 2019 to find what, if anything, the songs have in common. Here’s what we learned:

Memorable lyrics are often key

The greatest songwriters from previous generations made an impact on culture with songs and albums that told elaborate, sprawling stories of the human condition. Some of those tracks may find an audience on TikTok as well, but most users are seeking out 4-16 bars that make an immediate impression on listeners. Lyrics that may seem silly or outright ridiculous to average music consumers often take TikTok by storm. Here’s just one example:

TikTok Loves Lyrics You Bring To Life

Going hand in hand with memorable lyrics are songs that are easily brought to life. That can mean direct call to action lines like those found in Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up” or a story that people can easily act out. Tongue-in-cheek lyrics tend to perform best, like these lines from rapper Lil Mayo:

People want to dance

Dancing is a huge part of the TikTok community. When users find a song that inspires them to move, trends begin that can change an artist’s career in a very short amount of time. Whether the dances are good or bad doesn’t matter nearly as much as the fun one has performing them, which is good news for every artist whose material has a great beat.

Don’t be afraid to switch it up

Sometimes the thing that makes a song popular on TikTok has nothing to do with the lyrics or the ability to dance. Kesh Kesh found success by sharing a song that includes a beat change in the opening moments that inspired an entire lane of TikToks where people surprise viewers with (often elaborate) outfit changes. Check it out:

You can never have too much bass

The majority of the viral songs on TikTok hail from the worlds of rap and EDM. Both areas of music are known for in your face production and lyricism, which fits well with the need all TikTok users have to make a quick impression on viewers. Bass-heavy tracks, as well as song that contain bass drops, have been known to take the platform by storm. 

Remember: TikTok clips are usually fifteen-seconds long. When looking for tracks to upload and share on the platform, try searching from the most memorable clips from your material that fit that time restriction. 

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The Top Priority For All New Artists

Every artist has a unique journey to success in the music industry, but they should all start with the same goal.

Now is the best time ever to start a music career. The opportunities for exposure and success are at an all-time high, and virtually everyone can begin making money for their creative output as soon as it’s uploaded to the internet. Artists have never been as empowered to express themselves as they are right now, and that has made music as a whole far more interesting.

But regardless of who you are and the kind of music you seek to create, the goal of every musician starting today should be the same: Growth.

Jesse Cannon, music producer and author of numerous books geared at helping musicians succeed, says all new artists should prioritize growth until they have at least 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Why Spotify? If you asked a few years back, Cannon would have said the goal growth on Facebook or Twitter. Online metrics matter significantly in the industry, and having a sizable audience on any platform is a clear sign to the industry at large that people care about what you’re doing.

These days, however, Spotify is the most sought-after platform for strong performance stats. After all, the streaming giant is where digital engagement transforms into money. Every stream on Spotify counts towards an artist’s income. When labels, management, and the like are looking for new talent, Spotify is the place most turn to gauge an artist’s value.

When asked for more information, Cannon said 20,000 was indicative of an artist having “buzz beyond those of us who talk about [music] all day.” Meaning, an artist with a large Spotify following confirms the general public has discovered and taken an interest in their music. There are many artists that critics and industry professionals love who may never reach a following that large, so it’s important — from a business standpoint — to know music consumers are embracing someone.

Cannon further suggested that artists should avoid releasing or working on albums until they hit the 20,000 listener goal. Until that time, Cannon recommends releasing singles regularly. Consistently giving people a new reason to care or give you a chance is a proven tactic for developing an audience. Until people are willing to wait for something that could take a long time to complete, stick with singles as a means of showcasing your talent.

Careers are built on fans. In the age of the internet, engaging with listeners is incredibly easy. You can tweet at people, post to Facebook, share stories on Instagram, create videos for YouTube, and maintain a mailing list, among other things, without spending a dime. Growth on any platform is excellent, but growth on Spotify makes a difference that other digital communities cannot. Focus your efforts, build a community, and in time you will have the audience needed to support a full-time career.

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TikTok bans all political and advocacy advertising

The fastest-growing social media platform on the planet is taking steps to ensure its community can escape the worries of the world for a few minutes.

TikTok has become the first major social media platform to ban all political and advocacy advertising. The news comes not long after the app came under fire for adhering to Chinese foreign policy by censoring certain topics. Pro-LGBT and the Hong Kong protests are just two topics the app has been working to censor. The upcoming US presidential election is likely another.

Blake Chandlee ⁠— TikTok’s VP of Global Business Solutions ⁠— says advertising needs to fit with the platform. 

“Any paid ads that come into the community need to fit the standards for our platform, and the nature of paid political ads is not something we believe fits the TikTok platform experience.

To that end, we will not allow paid ads that promote or oppose a candidate, current leader, political party or group or issue at the federal, state or local level — including election-related ads, advocacy ads or issue ads.”

TikTok is unique in the world of social media. While the vast majority of companies in the social space hail from America, TikTok started in China. The app was called Douyin at launch, which means ‘vibrating sound,’ but was changed to TikTok in 2018 when the it was made available in other countries. 

In addition to having a different name outside of China, TikTok also existed on different servers than Douyin, which was necessary to comply with strict Chinese censorship laws.

As TikTok became a global phenomenon, advertisers took notice. The app offers in-feed video ads, launch screen ads, and sponsored hashtag challenges. The TikTok Creator Marketplace recently launched to connect brands with TikTok creators for their marketing campaigns.

However, as political tensions around the world rise, TikTok is making the smart decision to remove itself from all conversations. The platform understands its young username is susceptible to the messaging its advertisers share. By rejecting all political and advocacy advertising the company is maintaining a space for fun and self-expression that cannot be accused of leaning one way or another on hot button topics.

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Tik Tok’s third music superstar is coming, and her name is Stunna Girl

Following the breakout success of Lil Nas X and Blanco Brown, Tik Tok users are currently creating a viral smash for Bay Area rapper Stunna Girl.

Tik Tok is unstoppable. Not only has the video-sharing app generated more than one-billion downloads worldwide, but it has (so far) created two new stars in the world of music. The first was Lil Nas X, whose success on the platform with “Old Town Road” lead to the longest-running number-one song in Billboard chart history. The second, Blanco Brown and his song “The Git Up,” took a talented songwriter from obscurity to RIAA certified Gold status in less than three months.

Now, Tik Tok is about to have its third star-making moment of 2019. The lucky artist connected to this moment is Stunna Girl, a Bay Area rapper with a moderate string of YouTube hits, but nothing that compares to the moment she’s about to have in the months ahead.

Recently, Stunna Girl uploaded her song “Runway” to Tik Tok. Users quickly discovered the song, and shortly thereafter a new trend emerged on the platform. Dubbed the #RunwayChallenge, Tik Tok videos using Stunna Girl’s song look more or less like this:

Currently, there are more than two-million Tik Tok videos that use “Runway.” Over 1.3 million of those videos were created after August 1. During this same period, “Runway” hit the top 5 on Spotify’s Global Viral 50 song chart, amassing more than 1.6 million plays overall as of August 12. The track also has more than 500,000 plays on Soundcloud and millions of streams on YouTube from numerous fan uploads.

That last point is important because fans and fans alone are the ones responsible for Stunna Girl’s breakout success.

“Runway” was initially released in February 2019 as part of Stunna Girl’s album, YKWTFGO. The song was not released as an official single, and it does not have an official video. Stunna Girl herself does not have a YouTube channel or a Twitter account (she does exist on Instagram). No major outlet has covered or highlighted the song outside of sharing Tik Toks on their social channels.

Google Trends reveals a huge jump in searches for Stunna Girl and her song “Runway” beginning in late July. The song was released in February 2019.

In short, no one would care about “Runway” if it did not connect with consumers.

Much like the success of Lil Nas X and Blanco Brown, Stunna Girl’s sudden rise through the internet ranks can be entirely attributed to music fans. It’s the users of Tik Tok that made “Runway” a hit, and it’s their enjoyment of the song’s opening lines that are quickly making Stunna Girl a name on tip of everyone’s tongue.

The virality of “Runway” cannot be manufactured. No amount of label money can force listeners to create original content based on a song from a largely unknown artist, let alone listen to the track in the first place. Stunna Girl has tapped into hip-hop culture by going straight to the source of its energy, the audience, and giving them something so catchy and fun that they cannot help making it their own.

Tik Tok has nothing left to prove. If Tik Tok users like a song there is no doubt the artist behind the track can have a career. Not everyone that goes viral on the platform will become the next Lil Nas X, but they will develop an audience that seeks out their music outside of the platform.

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PSA: Your band does not belong on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the place where professionals from every industry connect, but the platform has nothing to offer groups trying to promote their new release.

Social media plays an essential role in music today. Every artist has at least one account. Most have several, and if they’re smart, they create unique content for each. 

Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the web’s most prolific business strategists, says people should share 100 pieces of content per day on social media. That is a lot of work, especially if you are creating content for platforms with nothing to offer your career.

LinkedIn is no place for bands. Musicians balancing their passion for performance with the need to work a day job may find it useful for networking, but it is no place for music promotion.

That should be obvious. No aspect of LinkedIn or its marketing is meant to engage musicians. Some could argue it barely engages the music industry at large. Still, not a week goes by without musicians — or worse, bands — send invitations to industry professionals at all levels of the business.

This does not convey “I understand the internet.”

Using LinkedIn to promote your music with a profile could even be detrimental to your career. Label executives and A&R reps are seeking talent that knows how to leverage social media for success. A profile on LinkedIn for your music career reveals a lack of understanding. It says, “Hey world, I’m flailing. Please give me attention because I don’t know how to capture your eyes and ears.”

Instead of adding more social media profiles to your brand, focus your efforts on the platforms where people are already engaging with your music and similar artists. Specifically, work on maximizing your presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram before going anywhere else. That is where the online masses are engaging with content, and that is where the chance of discovery is highest. 

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The best (and worst) times to post on Facebook in 2019

Though its popularity among young consumers has waned in recent years, Facebook welcomes more than 2 billion monthly users.

The music industry loves to complain about Facebook. The social media juggernaut boasts more monthly users than any other service, but algorithmic changes made in recent years have severely limited organic post reach. So much so in fact that many believe the only way to ensure fans see their content is to pay for increased exposure (to people who already asked to see your content).

There may be some truth to that. Organic reach is undoubtedly down, but there are still tricks users can implement to help posts get in front of their fans without spending any money. It’s all a matter of timing, and thanks to the team at ShareLov we now know the best times to post text and video content to Facebook in 2019. Check it out:


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