Social media teaches us about brands ruling the world. Popular platforms like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter began revolutionizing brand loyalty, identity and vision from the get-go. Independent artists are learning social media as a tool for promoting, selling music and success.  Social media’s popularity is as basic as our need to connect with other (Ramasubbu, 2017). Sharing images, videos and posts is a simple part of the connection process for an artist. But recommending products and services, sharing coupons and shopping habits are part of the complex behemoth process of connecting customers to brands.

The music industry relies on that behemoth process to promote music. Artists use social media as a channel for sharing details about their lifestyle, music and professional experiences. Popular artists aren’t unique when keeping fans engaged to their social media profiles. Their brand identity shines on a leveled ground where signed and unsigned artists work hard for fan engagement. And they use the same tools and strategies to do so.

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The relationship between a New Music Business model and independent artists resumes on using the current technology available for promotion. Social media is an essential part of our current technology. It allows artists to level-up the terrain and compete head-on with all major and boutique record labels out there. These labels have financial power to promote and fairly leveling up to them takes skills. Many music business executives are pushing independent artists to engage with our current technology. The broad availability of mobile devices and the access to information on-demand by music fans makes social media and the internet a wonder of the music business world. Social media as a tool makes this wonder, yet the success independent artists depend on learning how to use it effectively.

Rick Barker, former artist manager for the superstar Taylor Swift, is one of the most prominent mentors for independent artists. His experience in the music business and training on social media and content marketing makes Barker on of the most important sources of information for my upcoming article. Artists’ case studies and academic research backs Barker techniques. However, a successful outcome depends on the independent artists’ dedication to shaping social media skills that could potentially expose them to an almost infinite number of potential fans that can rise them to the top of the music charts.

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The heat of social media platforms is on. Many important music business professionals believe in social media as an essential tool for promoting music. At the same time, Independent artists have taken the initiative to describe how social media has helped launch their music career. But their essential argument is what they’ve learned about connecting to fans through social media.

Social media marketing is full of tricks. And many music business professional badvice independent artists about learning how to use these platforms and measure results. James Cortes, author of Streaming music and the music social media landscape (2019), talks about collecting data from social media and streaming music platforms to shape marketing strategies.

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