Social Media is One Big Party

When I grew up, when you went to a party, you sneaked out of your house, gather your friends in the neighborhood and go to whatever friend's house where the parents went away and play some great 80s music.    The social aspect was calling everyone on your analog phone or leaving written notes around the neighborhood about the big party happening that night.  You play some shiny new music CDs and learn about what is going on by talking to people in person.   You even find out about that surprise relationship again in person, seeing the two lovebirds getting chummy in the corner at the party.   When the party is over, everyone went home and got on the phone with their friends until the wee hours.  This was the 1980s going into the 1990s.  Ah, those days, so simple, and full of surprises.

Fast forward to 2014.  Things are getting complicated.   You got Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Google Hangouts, Facetime, Skype and any other social platform of the month.  The whole idea of a party is let's hide out in our basement, and do group texts on our iPhones, Driods, Windows phone, iPads or any other mobile device.  Your party is now online instead of at someone's house.  Everyone's idea of a hangout, is Google Hangout.   The music, let's fire up some Spotify or Pandora and share some tunes online... again not in person.  You want to meet someone, send a picture via Instagram and do some Snapchat.  How many teenagers have a special someone that they have never met in person?

But look on the bright side.  You can have an international party with people all over the globe sharing music and pictures from the comfort in your home in your jamas using social media.   You can play and video record a song using your iPad and post it on YouTube for your friends on the other side of the world to see.  Social Media has brought a new concept of the party.

So let's have a party this Saturday night and bring your mobile devices.  Let's fire up some Pandora playing some processed EDM music and text and tweet each other while in the same room about how much they like the person next to them without actually looking at them and talking to them.     If only the 1980s party concept came back.   Would social media still be as relevant?

Social Media in the Music Industry - Have Things Changed or What?

The days of the rock star are dead.   You know, the rock star with the long hair, earrings, spinning their guitar around their neck and having groupies following them city to city.   Back then, as a fan, you could not wait for that Van Halen, Michael Jackson or Duran Duran album.  You always wondered what where they going to look like and had to wait till that new album came out to get your answer watching MTV.  Success was measured on how many albums were sold and how many t-shirts were sold on tour.  But besides shows and celebrity appearances, how did yesterday's rock star understand if their music is making a difference?  MTV was basically one-way communication.

Fast forward to 2014, and yesterday's rock star has now become today's social media celebrity musician.

 Instead of album sales, it is how much hits on their You Tube video which determines the artist's popularity.
Speaking of You Tube, it is simply the most powerful social media platform there is for musicians today.   Musicians can post interviews, test new music, and engage with fans.  Also You Tube is the new MTV.  For a while there in the late 1990s into the early 2000s, music videos hit a lull and a lot of bands didn't think of the music video as a powerful promotional tool.   With You Tube, it is now essential to have a music video for that hit single or it will not be a successful single.

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are also powerful tools for promoting music.    Why? Simply fan engagement.   Today's successful music stars all focus on engagement.   A musician will know if a new musical direction will work by asking fans to let them know what they think before they spend money on cutting an album.  An example is if a song is posted on Facebook, a musician can review the comments and even ask for their fan's opinions on that guitar solo on one of their demo songs.  A musician can also easily post pictures of their fans at shows via their mobile devices and make the fan's day.   Pretty powerful stuff.   Finally, Twitter can be used to announce that surprise appearance or that secret song they just wrote.

I can go on with other examples, but it is obvious that social media is the new channel for music today.    Now if only today's musician not be too corporate and be more "rock star", we would be in a perfect world.   With most bands, you cannot tell if the singer fronting a band is a banker or a musician.  That said, unfortunately, the days of the rock star is dead, and the days of the social media star are now here.