The Impact of Social Media on the Music Industry
The music industry is definitely not the only industry that social media has played a huge part in, but over the past 5-10 years, social media has ramped up its presence and there’s no debate about that.
I want to talk about some positive things that social media has brought to the industry, and how Sink Or Swim Recording Studio can help you maximize your presence and use it to your advantage.
It may come to a surprise, but social media influencers and content creators are not the only people to benefit from social media. Most of the time, you will see certain celebrities get famous off these apps by gaining popularity by users following them and becoming obsessed with their content.
Content can include videos like “How to” or some comedic content—also things like exercise videos and dancing. What is interesting and overlooked is that these videos usually have one thing in common. And that thing is music!
There are a lot of different topics and directions we can go, but specifically, I want to talk about the social media platform Tik Tok, and how certain songs and artists owe their careers to Tik Tok.
To explain, a very popular trend on this app is creating short dance routines to a specific part of a song. It could be the song’s hook, or maybe the verse, the intro, or the outro as well. But whatever is picked will usually be something that people can remember.
The point here is to create a dance or piece of content that people will repost, and, more importantly, remake. What will usually happen is once enough videos or pieces of content use that same song, the more pushy Tik Tok will be with those videos and songs, because the algorithm picks up on the fact that many people are using the same thing and the content is all similar.
This is gold for you as an artist or producer because people will start to see the videos that Tik To pushes, and that creates a chain reaction within the Tik Tok network. Now everyone is using your song to create dances or other videos, and that is marketing and promotion at its best, and you as the artist can sit back and enjoy.
Obviously, in the music industry, you need to be constantly marketing yourself, and this shouldn’t be the only thing you do. You can take huge advantage of this, though and use it in other lanes of your networking and marketing plans.
Viral Artists
I want to share a few really popular artists that have had amazing success with their songs going viral on Tik Tok, and how they turned that into a full blown career.
A super popular one you may know, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, became super viral on Tik Tok in 2019 and ended up making its way to the Billboard Hot 100. Lil Nas X is still continuing his run now in 2023, and it all started from Tik Tok.
Another song and artist you may know of is Lizzo and the song called “Truth Hurts”. This is an interesting one because the song actually came out two full years before it eventually became a Billboard top hit, thanks to Tik Tok. Again, she was able to build a career off a song that has already been out for two years prior.
The last one I will mention is Jack Harlow and his song “Whats Poppin”. This one to me rings a bell, because I’m not a heavy Tik Tok user, but the times I was on it, I remember hearing this song on countless videos and content pieces. From comedy videos to workout content and just dances, this song definitely went viral on Tik Tok.
There are many more examples here and every single day people’s careers are being birthed just by having their songs played for 30 seconds at a time on videos.
Here at Sink Or Swim Recording Studio, we feel like we can help artists and brands create tik tok and social media content.
As mentioned before, a viral song has to start somewhere, and someone has to be the pioneer in creating this web of viral hits. I would assume that usually, when an artist is on their press run or are about to start rolling out their music, someone from their team, label, or management probably has people that will break the ice and create that first video. Then once that starts up, it will start to go on autopilot.
But the initial spark has to start somewhere. So why not be the first one? Here in New York, especially Long Island, there are so many beautiful locations that can pose as a background or theme for your videos. Beaches, parks, towns and even neighborhoods can be a great place to film your dances and content. Not to mention, our studio SOS is currently in an expansion stage, and one of our new rooms will be dedicated as a media room.
From cameras to green screens and everything in between, we will have all you need to create the first dance or video to your new single. It’s important to know that this formula does not always work, and there usually needs to be a plan behind it.
Of course, the song needs to be catchy, and people will need to feel an emotion with the song. But overall, this social media era is and will continue to inject itself into all different industries, and I think the best thing in today’s world is to figure out how you can use it to benefit your life and your success.
