Welcome to Friday!
Here is where I'll be sharing my thoughts and ideas on social media, specifically on its radical influence on how music is accessed, promoted and shared. It is my view that in a time where illegal downloads and music accessibility is so widespread to the point where some have argued that the passion and thrill of enjoying music is waning, social media helps to offset this by bringing the listener in closer and building stronger relationships between artists and fans. However, while this is a proven effective tool, bringing an audience closer can remove the marketing gloss that management works so hard on polishing. This and other issues related to social media and the music industry will be explored here on Friday.
So why "Friday"?? Yes, you guessed it, Rebecca Black. Black's story is the ultimate social media marketer's dream and demonstrates the power of this phenomenon. While her song "Friday" gained notoriety purely through public ridicule, in the process she has gained worldwide publicity, surpassed Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber in YouTube hits, topped Twitter trends for the first half of 2011, gained numerous Facebook fan (and hate) pages, and now is recording a debut album.
All of this achieved simply by recording a song about her favourite day of the week.
Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO) by timesbg
So while you learn how to "get down on Friday", let me ask you this -
Does content matter in social media? Or does sharing only occur when content is of some importance and/or relevance? Leave your comment below!
Good blogging Craig, terrible tune! Although I was born in the tape cassette era, I really like to follow the music scene. I do download music from iTunes but if there's a cd I really like I still tend to go and buy it. Triple J also provides some good free downloads, which benefits the artist's exposure, but I guess they dip out on the sale? Anyways, look forward to reading more 'Friday' :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Hubba. Yeah I agree, I think the days when going out and physically purchasing music are quickly dying... along with it is cherishing music. Music is everywhere now and i think it's a real test for marketer's to used social media effectively to keep fans entertained and engaged and ultimately, spend $$$!
ReplyDeleteI agree. although i think artists should be careful that the messages etc they send out are authentic. From what i hear a lot of artists have teams that manage twitter accounts etc... common public awareness of this could hurt their brand
ReplyDeleteCouldn't have said it better myself rory! I'll actually be discussing those issues in later posts... thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat blog Craig! Catchy song but terrible :)! I guess its intesting to see how the music industry has evolved with social media. When a new song comes out, a lot of the times we or myelf would head straight to Youtube to search for the new music videos. And it seems like Sociql Media has become one of the main album promoting tools for artist yet many underground of home made artist. Also, Social Media has also created many new opportunities in finding new talented people. Like you said the music industry has a big challenge and opportunities to come. I think it all depends on how wellthey adapt and utilize social media as amarketing tool.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting :) I would be happy to learn more!
Great topic! Love the ongoing debate about using social media as a marketing tool.
ReplyDeleteOngoing challenge for any business is to utilize Social Media to drive brand awareness / sales / popularity (whatever the objective is)... but how do put a price on how much to invest in social media and how do you measure the success?
I don't believe you can truly plan a Social Media exercise that delivers an exact measurable return on the investment. It often comes as a surprise and takes the world by storm... like our superstar Ms. Black. Happy to be proven wrong though if anyone has examples?
Completely agree on the point that "sharing only occurs when content is of some importance and/or relevance" ... so at the end of the day, is the goal of social media to make things relevant???
Yes I agree, sharing can only occur when the reader/viewer perceives it to be of some relevance to them... if no one perceives it to be relevant, no sharing will occur. I'd argue that content is critical in social media - we already have enough content thrown at us with traditional media etc..!
ReplyDeleteLooking at the Biebers of the world, perfect example of how a target was reached. He was discovered on youtube (as far as I know) and even though the content (I imagine) would be bad to a great group of youtube users, the Bieber target would spend a lot of time on youtube, and therefore he exploded with success.
ReplyDeleteno matter how good Rebecca is, her success is due to social media, the power of word of mouth
ReplyDelete