In today’s day and age, it’s not enough to just make music and release it. While it is not impossible to just release music, go viral, and jump-start your career, it’s becoming increasingly harder to do so.
The entry level for producers to create a professional sounding track is very low because of how affordable professional grade equipment is. The result of this is an overwhelming amount of music being released every day. This makes it more and more difficult for artists to stand out and build a career.
The playing fields have been leveled for music producers all over the world making social media an absolute necessity for artists.
What does social media provide?
Social media provides you with a free opportunity to market yourself. All the major social media platforms are free to use and can reach a global audience. This fact alone is the reason why social media is a required tool for artists. If you are taking your career seriously then you are going to be looking to take advantage of every opportunity to advance your career. Social media provides you with opportunities that no other platform can provide.
To build a career as an artist, you need people to listen to your music, people to enjoy listening to your music, engage with your fans, and build relationships. Before you can do any of these things, you will need the attention of your target audience. If you do not have the attention of your target audience, then you are not going to build a successful career. It is that simple.
Today, the attention of your audience is on social media. Social media provides a large target audience that cannot be found elsewhere.
Could you do without social media?
The only time I would recommend for anyone not to put time and effort into social media is if you are not looking to build a career and are just looking to put out music. If you don’t care about gaining an audience, releasing music on labels, playing shows, being featured on blogs, or doing anything to advance your career, then social media is not necessary. If all you want to do is put out music and nothing else, then social media is not necessary.
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Why is it helpful as an artist?
Social media helps you connect with your target audience. Social media platforms are built off of a community and this community is built off interactions, through text, images, audio, and videos. These four forms of communication can be used in all shapes or forms to send a message to your audience on a global scale for free. This is an incredibly powerful tool to have as an artist. In the blink of an eye, you can share your latest track, chat with someone from China about your latest show, live stream your studio session, and sell tickets to your next show through images. The biggest building block for any artists’ career is their audience. Without an audience, you will have little to no hope of starting a career in today’s hyper competitive industry.
How should you use social media?
There are three ways for you to use social media as an artist. I recommend using all three.
1. Build a Community: Building a community grabs the attention of your audience and keeps the conversation going on your social media platforms. More importantly, it helps you build a connection with your target audience. This community is what will make or break your career.
Here are a few ways you can build a community on social media:
- Reach out to people individually – Doing this will help build a connection and trust, both of which are necessary for building a responsive and dedicated community. Send people direct messages, post on their wall, shout them out, or send them a video or voice message. Anything that is a direct line of communication to your audience will work!
- Live stream – Live streaming helps your audience get to know who you are as a person and gives your audience the ability to interact with you in real time. Live stream a Q&A, a studio session, getting ready for your next show, or anything that you feel will bring you closer to your audience.
2. Provide Value: Providing value is an important and often overlooked step when artists are trying to build a community and career on social media platforms. What exactly does this mean though? Providing value means giving your audience something that they find helpful, useful, or insightful. If you come across a person that is always helping you for no cost, then you will naturally like this person and feel thankful towards them. The key here is to not expect anything in return from your audience when you provide value.
Here are a few ways you can provide value as an artist:
- Give away your music for free
- Help other artists out with their music
- Give away free merchandise
- Take the time to get to know people
3. Be Sincere: Many people on social media are fake. They lie about who they are, what they do, and create an appearance that everything in their life is perfect. People respond best to sincerity. This may sound incredibly cliche, but just be yourself. This will generate a positive response from your audience and help build trust within your community.
If you are taking your artist career seriously, you must have a social media presence. Social media allows you to connect with your target audience on a global scale. By taking the time to build a community on the various social media platforms available, you will start to see an increase in interest for your artist project, reach more people with your music, and build the music career you always wanted.
Daniel is a caffeine-dependent entrepreneur, music producer, sound design junkie, and world traveler crazy about teaching modern electronic music production through his site SoundShock.
