Task 1: Social media and Artist promotion research project
Introduction: The Industry
Social media has propelled the music industry and created an alternative way to promote your music for a new generation of artists. Billboard.com conducted a new study and found that 9 out of 10 social media users do a music related activity within the framework of an app. (Rys, D. (2018). It is easier than ever before to put your music out into the world, however, it is harder than ever to get it heard.
In this essay I plan to research social media and artist promotion. Currently, I am struggling to promote my social media and grow my followings. For this task I hope to learn important and helpful promotional skills and grow a bigger understanding on how the social media algorithms work. My task is to evaluate how successful artists promote themselves to their target audience. I will be looking at techniques they use, how often they use social media, their most popular songs and social media posts and try to come up with my own formula for successful promotion. My research will include reading through articles and websites, case studies on relevant artists and practical work on my own social media. With the information gathered from the websites and articles, I will compare the techniques and tips to see if the artists do the same.
Case study 1:
The Weeknd:
The Weeknd is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer. His unique 80’s inspired contemporary r&b style and falsetto vocals have made him one of the most distinctive names in the music industry. Since his rise to fame, The Weeknd has amassed over 11 billion views according to Kworb.net and 7 songs in the Billboard global 200, 2 of which peaking in the top 10. He is widely known for his controversial music videos and lyrics, performing with a number of well known artists such as Drake, Ariana Grande and producers Daft Punk.
In an article I read from loopermasters.com titled “How to promote yourself as a music producer”, it says; “Your use of social media should be natural and real. That means you should use your chosen platforms like a real person, and only throw promotional posts occasionally” (Loopmasters, 2020).
This means personal posts, photo shoots and occasional promotion videos for upcoming songs or events. This gives the artist some personality and genuine character, also allowing some insight into their personal life. The Weeknd is no exception, regularly posting photo shoots and personal photos as well as promotional posts.
Recently, The Weeknd has attracted some attention for his newest music video “Save Your Tears’ where he added prosthetic makeup, made to look like botched plastic surgery. Of course, this stirred a lot of attention on the internet, with claims that it was real. This was a hugely successful marketing and promotion strategy, creating a topic of interest surrounding his newest music video which gained just under 80 million views on YouTube in its first week. Interpreting something unique and different into music videos is always a good way to gain attraction.
According to an article titled “Promoting yourself as a Music Producer: 10 Branding and Marketing Tips”. (Promoly (2020), the key to successful branding is making a professional website. This shows anyone in the music industry that you take your music production seriously, helps navigate your social media and promotes new music. Promoly says: “Keep your site simple and easy to navigate”, “Avoid having too much information. Clutter doesn’t look professional. You don’t need to include everything on your site. Just enough information to let people see how talented you are with an easy way to get in touch with you.” The Weeknd has followed this idea and has a simple yet effective website. The main page consists of his latest music videos from his newest album, with a banner at the top containing news, tour dates, music, videos and store.
With any artist it is important to brand yourself. Something that makes you unique and stand out above anyone else in the music industry. Popular YouTube channels such as ‘Trap Nation’ and ‘Majestic Casual’ Have a distinctive and repetitive branding. A bold logo and thumbnail makes them easily recognisable and helps build reputation easily. The Weeknd has created a new popular 80’s inspired subgenre of R&B with the release of his newest album “After Hours”. The Weeknd has adapted a new look. His new branding is his red suit with a black shirt and tie. As a small upcoming producer, the way I brand myself will be different – I plan to create a distinctive logo and a consistent aesthetic on YouTube videos.
Voltsgeist, a professional YouTube channel commented “His brand is amazingly strong. Songs by The Weeknd have an overwhelming air of darkness, tension, longing and above all, an altered state of mind. His music has risen above the pack as our generation’s soundtrack for drinking, hooking up, getting high or going out”. The Weeknd has been working on constantly mastering that persona of secrecy and darkness. Most fans associate his music with these activities and that is arguably why he is so popular with younger audiences.
Case study 2: Putting into practise
I have gathered the techniques I believe are going to produce the right results.
Unfortunately due to covid I was unable to go out and actually make face-to-face contacts in the music industry, however, I am able to communicate with other artists and producers over social media and email. So to help with this I created and joined a number of producer group chats. This way we are all able to help shout out, promote each other’s work and find people to collaborate with. So far this has been a pretty big success. I have spoken with a few other producers and I am currently working on a track with producer “Walid AI”. I have also spoken with successful producer “Saint6” about his promotion techniques and tips.
I’ve started to post 3 times a day on my story to keep my audience interested and give them some insight into what I’m doing day to day. I’ve posted polls so my audience feels included and can interact with me. This also means I can see which genres and beats people like the most, that way I’ll be able to post the right ones on my YouTube. On top of that I’m posting at least twice a week on my YouTube otherwise I lose interest, making sure to keep to the same genres. This seems to be relatively effective as my views are starting to increase with each track I release.
I did a £5 paid promotion on my Swarmz type beat to see whether the results differed from a usual post. Usually, I will average around 70 – 100 views per video. My paid promotion got me just under 600 and counting. I made sure the track was suggested after a music video in the same genre was played rather than as an ad before. This way it does not seem forced. Not many people like watching ads before a video, so it may have made it more of an inconvenience than a suggestion. I believe i’m going to continue to pay £5 – £10 a week for promotions as I think it would be a smart investment.
I created a website using Wix for a more professional approach to my artist promotion. Just like The Weeknd’s site, it’s simple and easy to navigate. I’ve uploaded a few tracks from my YouTube and put them on the main page as well as links to my social media. I have even put my EPK up there to explain a little about me, where I’m from and what my goals are. I will also be purchasing a domain name so my website is separate from Wix.com.
Evaluation and Conclusion:
Overall, I was pretty successful in my attempt to grow my following, gain more views and make contacts in the industry. My Instagram has grown from 1250 – 1380 in just under 3 weeks. The track I promoted on my instagram has 5 times the number of views compared to a normal beat on my account. To top it off, a couple successful producers such as “Saint6” have reviewed my tracks and helped me with some criticism and given me a few tips they use to promote themselves.
I’ve learnt that paid promotions would be a wise investment. It seems the only way to grow and have my videos on YouTube’s feed is via a paid promotion and it’s also a good way to find out which kinds of beats your audience likes and dislikes. Secondly, posting regularly on all social media platforms is key to growing a following. Keeping your audience engaged with live streams, polls and other interactive story posts and having an overall presence online.
I plan to continue to post regularly on all social media platforms – at least twice a week on Youtube and Instagram. My website will continue to be worked on, hopefully getting a domain name so it’s not connected to Wix.com. As soon as I am able, I plan to go out and make some contacts with other producers and artists around Brighton at radio stations, recording studios and record labels. My aim is to have had a track debut on a relatively big radio station by the end of the year and to collaborate with an upcoming artist.
Bibliography:
Rys, D. (2018). New Study Shows Close Relationship Between Social Media & Music. [online] Billboard. Available at: https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8468780/new-study-shows-close-relationship-social-media-music.
Loopermasters (n.d.). How to Promote Yourself as a Music Producer. [online] http://www.loopmasters.com. Available at: https:///www.loopmasters.com/cloud/blog/4402-How-to-Promote-Yourself-as-a-Music-Producer
[Accessed 18 Jan. 2021].
Kworb (n.d.). The Weeknd YouTube Statistics and History. [online] kworb.net. Available at: https://kworb.net/youtube/artist/theweeknd.html [Accessed 18 Jan. 2021a].
Billboard (n.d.). The Weeknd. [online] Billboard. Available at: https://www.billboard.com/music/the-weeknd/chart-history [Accessed 18 Jan. 2021a].
Volksgeist (2020). Understanding The Weeknd. YouTube.
Promoly (n.d.). Promoting Yourself as a Music Producer: 10 Branding and Marketing Tips
Level 3 Music Tech (Second Year Blog) 