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The impact of social media on the music industry

The Impact of Social Media on Music Discovery

Social media and music have both witnessed rapid evolution over the past decade.

Acquiring music habits has changed, and how we get our music has completely shifted. Where previously you could share music files from peer-to-peer sites like LimeWire, Bearshare and iMesh, now there are paid-subscription alternatives available on our mobile devices that grant us access to millions of songs at our fingertips for a very reasonable price.  This has resulted in a decrease in physical media sales, dropping from 132 million sold CDs in the UK in 2009,  to 32 million in 2019. Services like YouTube and Soundcloud have also done a great job at giving their audiences agency over their music through personalised, curated, and branded playlists.

Music artists, as well, are uploading their projects to online streaming platforms and speaking to their fans directly through their social media platforms. In the era of online streaming, music artists are no longer confined to limitations of physical mediums, which is why there has been an increase in the length of albums from popular artists, and singles are getting shorter. Reports state that the average length of a #1 song in the 80s was close to five minutes, however, since 2009, we’ve seen a gradual reduction, clocking in at around three minutes.

One reason is that modern consumers tend to listen to shorter tracks as they enable them to cover a larger number of songs and increase the chance for these tracks to be added to curated playlists, thereby increasing streaming numbers.

It’s this combination of music being released strategically on online streaming platforms, combined with how fans consume it, helps reveal how much of an impact social media has on the music industry.

Social Media Platforms and Music Engagement

The ability to share songs, albums, and playlists on social media platforms have given people new ways to show their followers what they’re listening to. In 2018, Facebook introduced music stickers on both Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram Stories. The feature allows users to add a song to their stories, putting the powers of personalisation in the hands of the users and allowing music fans to share their current favourite tunes. A study conducted by MusicWatch revealed that 90% of social media users take part in some form of music- or artist-related activity on social platforms. Social media users discover new artists on online platforms, and nearly 60% of them visit online streaming platforms to listen to music after they see an update, tweet, or post.

People are using different social media platforms for different music-related activities and content. Over half of those surveyed use Twitter to follow and get updates from music artists and bands, and 63% of Snapchat users are either sending or looking at photos and videos from live music events. These stats helped unravel the growing trend of sharing music-related content on social media, both from artists and fans alike.

Amine Mneimne is Account Manager at Cicero & Bernay Public Relations, an independent PR agency headquartered in Dubai offering new-age public relations consultancy to the UAE and across the MENA region. | www.cbpr.me