While lockdown measures were being imposed in many parts of the world, artists and fans alike feared for the future of music releases and touring plans, this fear soon became a reality when artists started shelving release plans and either postponing or entirely cancelling pre-planned tours.

Normally, the music business is run in such a way that artists need to always be out in the field either promoting their music either via TV shows, Radio interviews or even live concert tours, these were all put in jeopardy by restrictions caused by the Lockdown.

“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” ― Billy Joel

But as we all know Man always finds a way around challenges, what seemed to be an end to the never ending floods of new music soon taught us new ways to explore and reach out to people even without being in direct contact.

So How does social media help?

INSTAGRAM

The Instagram live feature has been around for a while now but it was mainly just used for fun by influencers and other marketers, artists never really took advantage of it as a means of promotion or engaging personally with fans, but now there’s literally a notification every 5 seconds about an artist going live.

Virtual concerts are now the temporary replacement for live concerts with some artists even charging fees for their Instagram live concerts (I see you Erykah Badu😂).

Nevertheless Instagram live is now a new avenue for quick and easy interactions with fans with neither of you having to leave your homes or spend money. But, there are a few considerations to put into place before starting your live video and some of them are;

• Timezone constraints: Figure out a way to accommodate multiple timezones in a timeslot that’s comfortable for everyone
• Give fans notice ahead of time (make a post announcing when you’d be going live)
• PLAN AHEAD: impromptu live streams are great and all but no one wants to see you looking a complete mess and unsure of what to do or say
• Interact with fans; this helps to keep them interested in the livestream, read comments and reply
• SELL YOUR MUSIC; what’s the point of a livestream if the viewers are not curious enough to go check out more of your music after the show? Give them quality music and they’d definitely beg for more!

TikTok

All banter aside, I guarantee you that at this instant there’s an artist in the studio somwhere recording a song with the sole intent for it to go viral on TikTok!. There’s no argument that the biggest hits (Streaming wise) from the past few years have been songs that went viral across the video sharing platform which is one of the fastest growing social media platforms today.

Just recently megastar Drake released “Toosie Slide” a song which fans generally decided he made solely to go viral on TikTok, he even made a dance to it which has been recreated million of times on the platform, with the increasing popularity of the song on the platform It’s no surprise the song debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was released with one of the years biggest streaming week.

A similar scenario occurred last year with Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” a song which went on to break the record for the longest streak at number one on the aforementioned chart and still holds the record for the biggest streaming week for a song ever. These are just a few examples of how TikTok is the new gateway to a hit song globally.

FaceBook

Facebook is still the undisputed king in the world of music promotion. After claiming the social media throne from Myspace, they are still the best way of effective promoting your music.

Facebook offers you the most ways to connect with your fans and get new people to hear your music. With live streaming, video and photo sharing and the largest number of users, Facebook offers you a wide variety of options to promote your music.

Artists pages with millions of followers can promote their new music with the click of a button and notifications are sent out to followers who can easily access their content via links sent out.

Twitter

Twitter offers the simplest way to reach out to others and promote your music. With a quick and catchy 140-character tweet, you can let your followers know what is going on! This is a great way to craft a catchy sentence that will grab your followers’ attention.

Networking on Twitter is easy. Create an account, make your profile look great, and tweet often! Mention other industry accounts and engage with other musicians and music executives. You never know who might read one of your tweets and check your music out.

In addition to networking with previously inaccessible industry insiders, Twitter is a great place to keep your fans up to date on your tour dates.

With the advent of more social media marketing platforms including:

• Twitch
• Youtube
• Snapchat

Music Distribution and promotion even while on lockdown mode has been a breeze for most artists and the fans couldn’t be happier.

Do you think social media will continue to get artists engaged with fans or will musicians ditch the beloved tool when it’s safe to go back on the road?

Leave your comments below!

Sage💙