TikTok & Social Media Quickly Becoming the Primary Thing that Matters in Music

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.” –a quote commonly misattributed to Charles Darwin.
It nears the realm of impossibility to put enough emphasis on how monumentally important the seismic shifts occurring in the music business at the moment are, and how they’re reverberating throughout every sector of the industry—from the writing, recording and releasing of music, to the business of independent and major labels, to the promotion of music, to radio, and the coverage of music in the media.
Not only is the ground shifting in both exciting and catastrophic ways, it promises to do so for the coming weeks and months in motions that will revolutionize the music business forevermore.
Forget everything that you think you know about promoting and consuming music. Take it all, and shove it to the side, because little of it matters anymore. It all boils down now to one thing and one thing only, and for better or worse. It’s TikTok … with perhaps a secondary mention to social media in general, especially the formats specializing in the interfacing of audio and video like Instagram and YouTube.
Radio? It’s dead as a relevant medium, and it’s been that way for a few years now, including in country, which was one of the format’s last holdouts. Local and region radio stations still can hold sway over their markets and the niches they serve because certain people still love the live aspect of radio and the human touch of a DJ. But overall, radio consolidation and nationalized playlists by the major corporations have eroded the medium’s impact at the corporate level, and AI will finish the job in the coming months.
That doesn’t mean a major label still can’t push a song from some no name male country up-and-comer to #1 on radio. But when that artist goes out on tour, they can barely fill the rooms. And despite multiple #1’s in country, most people in America couldn’t pick these radio performers out of a lineup. Established artists already at the arena level are simply using radio to maintain their grip on their fan base.
Meanwhile, Tyler Childers and Billy Strings are selling out arenas, and Zach Bryan is packing out stadiums without any meaningful radio support. Noah Kahan is one of the biggest artists in all of music. If you go to the concerts of guys like Wyatt Flores, Dylan Gossett, and Sam Barber, you’ll see the same phenomenon we saw early on with Zach Bryan: legions of fans singing every single word to every single song. This is all due to the power of TikTok.
Speaking of the live aspect of music, you now have massive festivals drawing 30,000+ people entirely off the names of artists that have never seen significant mainstream radio play, while guys like Wyatt Flores and Sam Barber might be in arenas themselves sooner than later.
All of this has caused a dramatic shift in power in the music business away from major labels and mainstream artists, and towards an independent approach to music. It also puts more of the power in deciding who succeeds and fails in the music business in the hands of the fans themselves.
This has officially sparked an outright war bisecting the music business at the moment, with the massive Universal Music Group pulling its catalog from the TikTok format, and now even doing the same with the publishing arm of the business, affecting the songs of non-UMG performers, including major artists such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.
UMG is saying they believe TikTok should pay out greater royalties for the clips people use on the format, with TikTok holding the line with the current arrangement. For certain, advocating for greater payouts for the use of songs on social media platforms to fairly compensate performers and songwriters is an important cause, and one worth advocating for. So is protecting creators from the encroachment of AI, which Universal also wants TikTok to work towards.
But these are really secondary concerns for Universal. What this issue really comes down to is who will have the power to choose the winners and losers in the music business moving forward.
TikTok and social media in general are taking that star making power, and putting it back in the hands of the people. This has been the trend for going on 20 years now, but with TikTok and other social media networks like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube mimicking TikTok’s algorithm and format, it has sent this trend into hyper drive.
Social media may be a more democratic way forward for music. But this doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with some very concerning caveats, including ones that have beset the radio format for years, and perhaps deserve their own regime of regulations to make sure transparency and fairness are part of this phenomenon.
One of the great powers of TikTok and other social media platforms is that they allow performers to go direct to consumers, cutting out middlemen, gatekeepers, corporations, and others who get in the way of the music sharing process while taking their financial tithe along the way. A performer can simply record a song on their phone, and upload it to social media.
This is how Zach Bryan got started via Twitter and YouTube. This is how Oliver Anthony shot to #1 in all of music without any prior career, and no music infrastructure behind him. This is how others have leveraged the TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube platforms to create massive fan bases, putting the power in their own hands, even if they ultimately sign to a major label. And since these performers can approach labels from a position of strength with an established fan base, they can negotiate their own terms like creative control and ownership of their own masters.
But sharing music directly with fans is just one way artists are leveraging TikTok and Instagram. No different than paying a publicist to get press or a radio promoter to get radio play, artists and their representatives are now paying to have songs trend on TikTok. There are two ways to do this. The first is to outright pay important influencers to shout out your song or to use your song in a TikTok or Instagram reel. The second is to pay people to attempt to start a TikTok trend with your song. This could be some sort of dance-based trend, some sort of situational scenario, or a physical challenge.
The problem with this is the lack of transparency in this activity. In radio, promoters can’t just pay radio stations to play songs. That’s called “payola,” and is regulated by the FCC. Because of the previous power of the radio format, if labels or artists paid for songs to be played on radio, it could make them popular enough where the public would ultimately request them, buy the album, buy tickets to the artist’s shows, etc., recouping the payola cost. Payola was eventually banned, and the industry was regulated. Right now, no such laws or regulations govern what’s happening on TikTok.
That said, not all songs that trend on TikTok are paid for. Often the trend activity is organic, meaning songs find a life of their own on the format, including sometimes older songs that have nobody actively promoting them whatsoever. Also, as numerous representatives from the music industry have told Saving Country Music, you can’t just get any song or artist to trend on TikTok. There has to be some underlying organic appeal in the song first.
Often, people looking to leverage social media to promote a single will first see what songs are bubbling up on TikTok and Instagram by monitoring tracks getting added to videos naturally. Then once a song proves itself to have appeal, they put money behind it to make it explode. Any investment in the track is then recouped when consumers get off the app, and pull up Spotify to stream the song, or buy tickets to see the artist perform.
How did Sam Barber get his song “Straight and Narrow” to 131.5 million streams on Spotify alone? It’s because it became popular on TikTok. How did Noah Kahan become one of the biggest artists in all of music without anybody seeming to really know who he was or where he came from? You guessed it, TikTok.
For some performers, TikTok has been vital to creating a fan base. But much of this activity is happening outside of the purview of major record labels, and is taking their power as kingmakers, regulators, and gatekeepers away, though some of the smart labels are engaging with this phenomenon directly and leveraging it for their benefit as well.
Ultimately though, the fear of where all of this is headed is why the Universal Music Group is pulling its power move on TikTok. For the record, Universal says it’s not looking to get in the way of this social media trend. It understands this is where everything is headed. They just want a bigger piece of the pie each time a song is used for their artists and songwriters, but for themselves as well.
Make no mistake about it, music is flush with cash at the moment, with major label groups posting record profits, and performers getting rich off their music like never before. But amid these record profits, major labels are actually laying off employees, cutting costs, and retooling their workforces to meet the new realities. We’re seeing this across the industry in the recent earnings calls from labels.
Despite the Warner Music Group announcing revenue up 17% to $1.75 billion in the last quarter, the label also announced in early February they would be cutting 10% of their workforce, or about 600 employees. The chairman/CEO of Warner Music Group’s subsidiary Atlantic Records label spelled it out even further on February 26th when announcing the release of about two dozen employees from the label.
“The changes we’re making today are primarily happening in our radio and video teams. We’ll preserve our industry-leading position in those areas, while bringing on new and additional skill sets in social media, content creation, community building and audience insights. This will allow us to dial up our fan focus and help artists tell their stories in ways that resonate,” Julie Greenwald of Atlantic Records said.
Amid it’s fight with TikTok and record profits itself, Universal Music Group is also laying off employees and retooling its workforce. Though the label is not saying how many people its laying off or in what positions, they said in a statement the layoffs are, “designed to achieve efficiencies in targeted cost areas while strengthening labels’ capabilities to deepen artist and fan connections.”
Phrases like “deepen artist and fan connections” are code for shifting attention to social media. But Universal is also showing no signs of backing down in their TikTok fight. By broadening their ban to artists signed to the Universal Music Publishing Group instead of just Universal labels, it now means a majority of the most popular songs in music at the moment can no longer be used on the TikTok format.
Specifically, this could directly affect Beyoncé’s move into country music. Early on, TikTok was instrumental in driving her new track “Texas Hold ‘Em” to #1. But now Beyoncé’s catalog is being taken off the format entirely because her publishing is tied to Universal.
Where does all of this TikTok trending leave radio? In short, it leaves it in a lurch. The format’s approach of cutting costs, nationalizing playlists, and syndicating programming has made radio virtually obsolete to consumers who would rather pull up their favorite streaming playlist as opposed to sit through commercials to hear a personality attempting to appeal to an audience whose reach is coast to coast.
Last week’s annual Country Radio Seminar in Nashville came with a massive re-evaluation of the format’s approach compared with the trends over the last twenty years. As Billboard reports,
Radio personalities’ importance has been on the decline for decades. They used to pick the music on their shows. That privilege was taken away. Then many were encouraged to cut down their segues and get to the music. Then syndicated morning and overnight shows moved in to replace local talent.
But once the streaming era hit and started stealing some of radio’s time spent listening, terrestrial programmers began reevaluating their product to discover what differentiates it from streaming. Thus, this year’s CRS focus is talk.
Though for many major corporate radio stations, it may be too little, too late, especially as AI options are coming online that can play the role of DJ. However, independent and regionally-owned radio stations catering to local markets that still feature actual DJs from their local community are in a better position moving forward to weather these shifting trends.
In the country space, Americana radio stations and Texas/Red Dirt radio stations are not just more insulated from the coming changes, they may actually have an advantage moving forward as consumers seek out those more human and personal connections as AI is rolled out on radio.
It’s that human connection that younger consumers feel with TikTok and Instagram influencers that they didn’t feel, or never felt with corporate radio. Niches are now becoming big enough to rival the mainstream in popularity as the actual appeal of music is represented more accurately as opposed to appeal being imposed upon the public by the powers that be in the music business. It turns out that when consumers are made aware of all the choices they have in music consumption, they make better ones.
What about music websites and blogs? Sure, they still hold some small sway, but that influence is primarily over the dedicated music listeners who actually take the time to read about the music they love, as well as music industry folks whose job it is to stay connected. Music discovery is now significantly more direct through social media.
The idea that there are publicists out there that still think placing a feature in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, or Billboard (or even Saving Country Music for that matter) is the road to success for a performer is archaic thinking. These things can play a role for sure. But you’re way better off getting a direct mention from a major social media influencer. This is multipliers more effective at moving the needle compared to print or online media, or even late night talk shows.
Along with Warner Music Group cutting 600 employees from its workforce, it’s also selling its online media properties like Uproxx and HipHopDX, which is likely to result in further cost and employee reductions at these properties, if not the shuttering of them entirely. Vice used to be the juggernaut in online media, with its music platform Noisey being a big player in the music space. Now it’s been shut down entirely. Pitchfork has been gutted, as have pretty much every other major music publication in existence.
90% of the music outlets that were around 10 years ago are now gone, and what is left is running on a skeleton crew, and diversifying content to politics, lifestyle coverage, and sports to make up for clicks lost in the music realm.
Though this media trend has been catastrophic for music journalism and objective music coverage, it has also eliminated some of the unnecessary gatekeepers, as well as the high burden of entry for an artist to receive attention for their music. It has instituted a democratization of music unlike we’ve ever seen before, even in the days of radio’s open request lines. You no longer need a major label. You no longer need a publicist. Just take to a social media format and start creating. This has given incredible power and leeway to artists.
But the ease of accessing the format is also one of the issues with it. The marketplace has never been more crowded, and the competition has never been more fierce. The idea that streaming and its fractional penny payouts is what has sapped artists’ ability to make a living is to misunderstand the problem. Music has never made more money. It’s the competition that has made the economics difficult for some individual creators.
No different than in any other era, music is still an elective occupation, and works off of economies of scale. An artist still has to stream lots of songs, or sell lots of records to justify a full-time occupation, let alone to become a star. But music has never been more flush with money as a percentage of the expendable economy, and post pandemic, live music is booming like never before.
Due to social media and direct-to-consumer models, it’s never been easier for an artist to break out, if the music resonates, and if the artist or their team is skilled at leveraging the technological tools available. Even performers appealing to very niche markets can create enough interest in their music through leveraging social media to find enough fans around the world to make it work. But due to the excessive competition in the marketplace, an artist can also go overlooked or forgotten very quickly.
Also with all the TikTok talk, there is a great ignoring of millions of older music consumers who are not on the format at all, yet are not necessarily technologically illiterate. They stream music. They go to shows. They have disposable income unlike younger audiences. As opposed to just streaming the hot song they heard from someone on TikTok, these older consumers purchase the entire album on vinyl, as well as a hoodie at a show. They often become the fan of a band for life, and materially support them in ways the fly-by-night TikTok fans don’t.
Sure, it’s always the 18 to 34-years-olds that the market and advertisers most covet. But the majority of the American population is over this age. The average American is 38.9. Acting like these music consumers aren’t an important demographic is to overlook a huge opportunity. In fact, these older listeners are part of the reason music’s back catalogs are so robust with activity at the moment.
And finally, despite the social media dominance, this war between TikTok and Universal Music should be a wake up call to everyone to just how flighty and finite these trends can be. Remember when MySpace was the dominant force in social media and music networking? That’s how Taylor Swift forged her fan base. Now it’s no longer around. Congress has already been floating the idea of banning TikTok entirely since it’s Chinese owned and utilizes unprecedented data collection. It also might be gutted, age restricted, or regulated in some other way that will usurp its current power.
Now that Universal is limiting so many tracks on TikTok, more people are exploring Instagram, which is domestically-owned (Meta, which owns Facebook), feels more stable, and compensates artists more fairly. TikTok may be the thing today, but tomorrow it could be a resurgence in X/Twitter, or it could be something different entirely that hasn’t even been invented yet. This means artists need to be industrious, fleet of foot, and need to diversify their social media strategies. Putting all your eggs in the TikTok basket could be perilous.
Some artists also complain that they’re not good at oversharing on social media, and it’s intrusive to be asked by labels and managers to be more engaging with fans. Shouldn’t making good music be the top priority? Shouldn’t that be good enough?
None of this means that getting out on the road and making meaningful human connections with local fans all across the country still isn’t important. It doesn’t mean that radio, or print and online media still don’t play some role. But nostalgia for the way things once were is dangerous. Love it or hate it, TikTok, Instagram, and social media are now driving the music business. And anyone who wants to be a part of music’s future must adapt.
March 5, 2024 @ 12:38 pm
Risky Whiff are doing well!!!
March 5, 2024 @ 1:06 pm
Whiskey Riff does continue to do well because they have dramatically diversified into covering sports, lifestyle topics, Outdoor stuff, because it’s very difficult for any single entity to sustain by simply covering music. One of the reasons Rolling Stone is surviving is because they cover so much politics, but they cut staff from Rolling Stone Country last year, and have to rely on rage clicks to support the music coverage.
March 6, 2024 @ 1:26 am
Well said. As in pop, music has become an aspect of lifestyle in a world where tribalism is less important. Keep doing what you do in the face of new media and cutbacks. You can’t cut back yourself!
March 5, 2024 @ 12:43 pm
Some previous commenters have stated how their wives or friends loved Jelly Roll, Walker Hayes, and Laney Wilson because of the “authenticity” of their social media presence – as if that was the main conduit and reason to follow these peoples’ music.
How freakin’ sad.
March 5, 2024 @ 1:27 pm
I will never use TikTok and recently deleted my Instagram account.
If social media is the place to be, leave me out.
The way everything is censored on these platforms worries me for the future of music.
March 5, 2024 @ 4:06 pm
Not quite sure this is related but this past weekend I saw my first busker with a QR code for their Venmo account.
March 5, 2024 @ 4:10 pm
At the end of the day, most people are sheep.
TikTok is the CCP Shepherd.
Also, the industry will capitalize any new trend to push their music.
March 5, 2024 @ 4:19 pm
BREAKING: Thing You Hate Most Is Massively Important To Thing You Love Most
jerm pinny ripz
March 5, 2024 @ 4:30 pm
I have NEVER had a Facebook account, an Instagram account, a Tik-Tok account, a Twitter account, or any other type of “social media” account. For the life of me I cannot understand the mentality of people who are so hungry for attention that they would stoop that low in order to get it. Circuses used to have “freak shows,” but “social media” have taken the place of those.
March 5, 2024 @ 6:22 pm
Tex,
I can say exactly the same. I echo your sentiments. Personally, my time has always been spent doing things in real life. I have so many hobbies and pursuits I could never be bored. But the last two generations have gone all in on this online madness and for what exactly? What’s there to show for it all?
I grew up running small businesses, learning to work with my hands, woodworking, masonry, construction, fixing cars and so on. Also, the great outdoors, camping , hunting, backpacking, etc etc. Today’s kids can’t do literally any of it. But they are on Tik- Tok! Alright!!
To quote the great Hank Jr, you see I’m a dinosaur, I should died a long time before, have pity on a dinosaur, excuse me ma’am, hand me my hat…and where’s the door!
And get off my lawn! ????
We are a dying breed.
March 5, 2024 @ 7:37 pm
: D Oh! Get it you guys!
Not even moving down the list to other comments – yet.
REAL music is being played across communities all over the world.
Love going to real. live. music.
Say Trig …
Stop giving so many craps about what “everyone else” is doing.
Do what you do.
: D We’re still here aren’t we? Through your growing pains, & ours.
March 6, 2024 @ 4:21 pm
“Stop giving so many craps about what “everyone else” is doing.”
Um, this article is very much about Saving Country Music. The walls are closing in. This isn’t about everyone else. This is about the future of the music environment as we know it.
“We’re still here aren’t we?”
Yes, the trolls remain after running everyone else off.
March 6, 2024 @ 6:51 pm
“Yes, the trolls remain after running everyone else off.”
Very adult.
March 6, 2024 @ 5:40 am
or as the greta BlackBerry Smoke said: ” everybody’s got an instagram and they call it being free”
March 5, 2024 @ 4:35 pm
I just released a record and have been doing a little work to try and get it heard. I was shocked how many places wanted numbers of instagram/facebook/etc followers before they would even take a submission. I don’t do – and won’t do – any of that stuff. I ain’t mad: that’s the way of the world and I’m just not interested in jumping on that merry-go-round. But, it is very clear that the long rumored death of the A&R man is way past official. It used to be that a record company used their power to get something into the market they believed in – or at least believed could sell. If I was a kid today and managed to get followers enough to whet the appetite of these radio stations and labels, my question would be: what the hell do I need you for? Anywho…
March 5, 2024 @ 5:56 pm
IThe thing I dislike the most about this new way of engaging with music is it makes a recorded music feel disposable. As an independent artist you can’t afford to blow your budget on 10 songs, because you are up the creek if one of them doesn’t catch fire. If you are able to produce your own music, it feels like you just have to throw content and songs at the wall til something sticks, which doesn’t feel good either.
Overall though, I’m glad to be alive and creating in 2024. There’s never been so many opportunities for young artists. You just have to figure out how to make a little bit of money a lot of different ways.
March 5, 2024 @ 5:57 pm
Two things: I am hearing more Lumineers and Mumford & Sons being played on our local independent rock station. Thanks for bringing them back from the grave Noah Kahan. Sarcasm implied.
Streaming The Ranch on my inbound commute a few days ago and a woman called in to request a song in honor of her mother that passed the day before. The DJ remembered that this same lady called a couple years ago requesting the same song when her mother-in-law died. They both cried together. Suck it AI. That’s why independent radio with real live DJ’s will always be around.
March 5, 2024 @ 6:08 pm
I agree with most of this, but not everyone is totally manipulated by social media and have more than one particular medium where they discover music. I agree that radio is a dying medium, but I wouldnt rule out the power of a good media story or TV interview as methods of reaching the millions of people who are NOT addicted to social media. I think it depends on your age and personal interests of where you learn about and consume music.
March 6, 2024 @ 11:49 am
I think it is important to not overlook the consumers who still watch television, go to websites to read about music, or even turn on the radio, especially independent radio, but corporate radio as well. There are still millions of these people, and they actually make up the majority of the country.
But I also think we all must be clear-eyed as to what is going on. I have no choice because it is an existential threat to my occupation and this very website.
CBS Saturday and Sunday morning segments can still move the needle. So can important and well-placed features on artists in print/online media. But the effectiveness of these things is dramatically dwindling. That is why we are seeing massive cutbacks. I think it’s really important to be honest with ourselves about what is happening.
March 6, 2024 @ 12:42 pm
Any chance you could do a write up about internet/satellite radio sometime? There are a ton of great shows all over the internet. A lot of independent country/rockabilly/classic country stuff is on mixcloud but most people don’t know about it and don’t have the habit of even listening that way.
March 6, 2024 @ 1:48 pm
The problem with doing a write up on all the tons of great internet/satellite shows is there is a ton of great internet/satellite shows, and if I do a write up trying to run them all down, it will just be a forum for people to complain about what was missed, and be used as a vector of attack on Saving Country Music, because the only reason that could be justified for not including every single online radio station in existence is that I hate the ones I didn’t include.
Instead, I hope to highlight some one at a time if possible. I’ve reached out to SteelRadio.org folks, and hope to have something on that soon.
March 6, 2024 @ 6:10 pm
Yeah I wasn’t thinking about the need to talk about every single individual radio show, more like platforms. What I’m finding after trying to promote internet radio shows is that MAN people are really tied to just doing things inside of Spotify or whatever their default streaming app is.
That was all fine when you could have a music podcast on Spotify but they literally just yanked the ability to do that so a lot of podcasters who had something like an internet radio show via Spotify, and had a very easy way to get there things seen, or suddenly completely left out to dry with no good way to do it
We had a discussion thread about that to try and see if there was any obvious solutions. Pretty sure we’re going to keep trying to figure this out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CountryMusic/s/ny7yWmfH95
March 5, 2024 @ 7:11 pm
Fuck I despise tiktok so much. Nothing more than a toxic attention span-destroying black hole of vacuousness. The world would objectively be a better place if it disappeared tomorrow. Or better yet never existed at all.
March 5, 2024 @ 7:53 pm
Tik Tok was responsible for making the Walker Hayes Applebee’s song a hit. No one would have heard this song if not for being pushed on that app, with the stupid dancing trend videos that went along with it. Tik Tok is garbage and I hope it dies out soon.
March 5, 2024 @ 7:54 pm
Some days ago I was telling a woman about an obscure Tom T. Hall album cut that I had, surprisingly, heard played. Curious as to where I might have heard such a rarity, she asked, “Are you streaming?” I looked down at my pants and said, “No, I accidentally walked into the path of a lawn sprinkler a few minutes ago.”
March 6, 2024 @ 1:22 am
Great article. Things are always changing but the rate of change seems to have speeded up. I am not sure I can keep up. Social media has never been for me but there are a lot of people addicted to it. I have never been able to get into digital downloads either. I much prefer a CD which is making it difficult to get music by some artists. Maybe it is my age. It probably is!
March 6, 2024 @ 1:26 am
Yeah, not buying it.
So we have a bunch of people who appeal to the zeitgeist who are famous through the medium of the day.
We just think its relevant because the current zeitgeist is music that crosses over with country.
But its just more pop sensations just in a different form.
Once again pop (meaning popular) music is annoying me when I want to listen to country. (Or a few other genres that I like).
Democracy in music means we listen to popular music. I.e. pop music.
Good luck to Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Zach Bryan, but just because billions of people watched a video of you and millions read your calculated inane thoughts, it is not a metric of how much I want to hear it.
I’m glad that there are some talented people such as Billy Strings and Colter Wall who are getting recognition because of the trend, but overall, music is still a hard road and the right people will never get the success they should.
March 6, 2024 @ 12:05 pm
There is a difference between hating what is happening, and refusing to acknowledged reality. Most anyone who reads a website like Saving Country Music is going to hate this news. But it’s still the reality. Even if TikTok implodes, Instagram and YouTube will be there to pick up the slack. Meanwhile, the media infrastructure to cover music independently no longer exists. The websites have shuttered, the writers and DJs have been laid off. Nobody new is getting into the profession. They’re all becoming social media influencers, exacerbating the trend. This is what’s happening. It doesn’t mean there aren’t alternatives. But they are the exception, not the rule.
March 6, 2024 @ 7:54 pm
I agree, but what I meant is: I feel nothing much has changed for actual country music.
I fell that its just that pop has become more country sounding and we are getting some of the pop culture as bleed off from mainstream.
Yes, its not good that journalism has been replaced by recommended shorts, but was good country ever really covered by journalism? Other than yourself. And you kind of prove the point by still being in demand servicing the genuine country listeners the same/similar as ever.
10 years ago you sold out with 808 drum machines, now you sell out by making up an ‘authentic’ story and pushing it daily on social media.
I may well be wrong, but you can find me searching bandcamp for well crafted albums and not reading the bios or comments. They still exist.
March 6, 2024 @ 3:58 am
In the battle of big music labels vs. social media, I’m rooting for the asteroid.
March 6, 2024 @ 6:59 am
Great Article. It’s kind of crazy that this website is one of the last places on the web that produces real journalism. I sure hope you can keep it up for a long time Trigger. This is from someone who likes a few country artists but not someone who would say they love country music. I am old, finally threw in the towel on radio a few years ago and subscribed to spotify. I miss radio and find it odd to have access to almost every song made with a device I hold in my hand. I decided to roll with it as being upset is not changing it.
March 6, 2024 @ 7:59 am
Hey BP, look up the real roots radio app. It’s a local station out of Xenia OH. Live djs all day
March 6, 2024 @ 10:46 am
I second real roots radio. I live in North Central Ohio and listen time to time on the app. Makes me wish I lived down around South east Ohio lol
March 6, 2024 @ 8:11 am
Go to Mixcloud.com where lots of small radio stations have their archives, and where lots of people put up custom DJ sets. There are a ton of classic country, independent country, and rockabilly DJs on there.
March 6, 2024 @ 7:57 am
Radio is “dead” as a major part of the business model for commercial music.
Radio still exists, though. Presumably radio stations can be bought, established, and re-imagined in their programming, relationship to local scenes, and so on. I don’t know how much an FCC license costs, or how much it costs to run a radio station. I was a radio DJ in college, and it didn’t seem like it was expensive to run.
So is radio really “dead” as a medium? If it were totally re-imagined, decentralized, and made creative, doesn’t it still have some kind of off-Broadway freedom and potential? The tech is just sitting there, like Victrolas, like vinyl …
March 6, 2024 @ 11:52 am
I always make sure to distinguish independent radio for corporate radio, and to make sure not to say “radio is all bad.” That is unfair to the DJs out there working double time to keep good music on the format.
That said, the numbers don’t lie. Neither do the consultants who’ve been sounding the alarm for years that radio consolidation is eroding the loyalty in the format. People are now listening much more to podcasts, because they will cater specifically to their tastes, as opposed to a national playlist served by a syndicated personality. I actually think there could be growth in radio for real live people looking to serve specific audiences.
March 6, 2024 @ 8:00 am
It can also be said that a song’s use in a TV series or a movie can suddenly lead to its jump in popularity on social streaming platforms. For instance, British songstress Kate Bush’s minor 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” found new life on the charts two years ago after it was used in an episode of the Netflix series STRANGER THINGS. And just last year, HBO’s post-apocalyptic series THE LAST OF US used Linda Ronstadt’s 1970 hit “Long Long Time” as the centerpiece (and title) of a pivotal episode; and that song had a 49-fold (4900%) increase in steams on Spotify (as a sidenote, Linda recorded that song for her album SILK PURSE in a studio in the east part of Nashville).
Point being, a lot of songs and artists from the distant past that few, if any, contemporary audiences had ever heard before have benefited from streaming services.
March 6, 2024 @ 8:02 am
I deleted my social media accounts a few years ago just due to the overwhelming glut of political posts and anger. I then reopened a twitter account that focuses only on sports and sports news, and then a instagram account that I used my music library to go and follow all of my favorite music artists and nothing else. Anyone who posts too much overtly political posts get axed, whether sports figure or music artist.
Two positive things came out of this:
1. I simply found myself much happier without the political noise from every direction.
2. Following my favorite music artists has led to so many discoveries of new music through instagram. I noticed right away that many of these artists actually followed me back, and some even reached out to say thanks for following them. Artists I didn’t know started following me, and I discovered many more by looking into who my favorite artists toured with or recommended, and by checking artists recommended by Instagram.
Social media can be an unhealthy scourge to one self and society, but if used in a controlled and targeted manner, it can also be useful. I don’t miss the daily negative posts, the ridiculous arguments, or the attempts to format my mind to group think. Deleting and then taking control of social media has made my life better, and my music library better as well.
March 6, 2024 @ 1:28 pm
The other way to do this is to follow artists on bandsandtown.com. not everybody and not every venue is on there but most of them are. It looks to me like they scrape social media to post tour dates in your town. You can subscribe to follow a genre, a venue, or individual artist. Most of the larger in your town. You can subscribe to follow a genre, a venue, or individual artist. Most of the larger indie country artists are on there and many of them use it to announce new albums as well as shows.
March 6, 2024 @ 1:45 pm
I have the bands in town app. Doesn’t always work so great for me because I live kind of in an area that is sort of in the middle of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Charleston. It always wants me to pick one, then I miss on other locations. It never seems to have shows within minutes of me either, like in Columbia or Augusta. I still use it, but they seem to cater to bigger acts and large cities. I prefer the smaller venues these days.
Still a good source for concerts, though not so much for finding unknown artists.
March 6, 2024 @ 8:18 am
Great article, Trigger. Social media is just the most recent way to communicate. If you’re trying to communicate your art, you better embrace social media. I loved radio as a kid, listening late at night to Dr. Demento and other great shows. I still love it – to me, nothing sounds better than a cheap, dirty, portable radio in a barn. But I also love the fact that I can pull up literally any song that crosses my mind any time and hear it on my phone. That’s badass. Humans just keep finding new and amusing ways to be human. These creations don’t change us, they just play us back to ourselves at different volume and quality. Everyone needs to quit the idea of ‘manipulation by media’. That’s BS, and a cheap way of discounting the tastes and ideas of people you identify as not you. TikTok isn’t manipulating us into watching cat videos. We want to watch cat videos, and TikTok gives them to us. Music delivered via social media is what we want, for whatever reasons. And so we have it. We create what we want. End of story. Fifty years from now some old fart will be lamenting the end of music on cell phones because now it’s beamed directly to our brains bypassing our ears. There will be ‘ear authentic’ music clubs. Whatever.
March 6, 2024 @ 10:03 am
I haven’t thought of Dr. Demento in years. I used to tape record shows like King Biscuit Flower Hour and other radio shows. It’s a different world.
March 6, 2024 @ 8:32 am
I mostly find new music by browsing iTunes on new music Fridays similar to the way I used to browse new music sections at a record store. That’s how I discovered Leon Majcen the other day. maybe that qualifies as social media? I know one thing for sure, I’m too scared of China to ever us TikTok.
March 6, 2024 @ 6:48 pm
Even without China being involved, that format is super addictive. A bunch of other platforms are trying to imitate it. I’ve noticed that YouTube’s homepage in the app can be super pushy about their YouTube shorts TikTok clone. Even though I try not to click on those things they still distract me when I’m opening the app to look for something specific. I feel like the shorts/TikTok clone feature is making YouTube experience more annoying/distracting then it was a couple of years ago.. I’ve just refused to pick up one more internet addiction with TikTok.
March 6, 2024 @ 11:27 am
I realize this is kinda ironic but I asked ChatGPT to summarize Trigger’s 3,000+ word story:
The seismic shifts in the music industry are revolutionizing every aspect, from creation to promotion. TikTok and social media are now central, rendering traditional methods like radio obsolete. Independent artists are thriving, challenging major labels. A battle between Universal Music and TikTok highlights the struggle for control. Despite record profits, labels are restructuring. Music journalism has declined, but social media democratizes music promotion. However, the market is oversaturated, and competition fierce. Older music consumers are overlooked despite their significant impact. Trends like TikTok are volatile, urging artists to diversify strategies. Adaptation to social media dominance is crucial for success in the music business’s future.
March 6, 2024 @ 11:31 am
Pretty good summation.
If I’d had more time, I would have written a more succinct story.
March 13, 2024 @ 6:17 pm
Don’t like it too much. AI will put you out if a job…one of the magazines just got in trouble for fake AI generated articles …
March 6, 2024 @ 2:01 pm
I’ve never been on TikTok and don’t really care to look. I did have lurking type Facebook & Instagram creepy faceless nameless profiles which I had used for years for “just checking things out” or a post here and there. Trigger, and a few local folks/artists know I’ve recently created JB-Chicago profiles on both, not to find out about new music, but more just to be able to communicate in the way that I do and have here on this site for 8 yrs. with a little more congruency and ease. I know most people, especially the younger artists, are all IG most of the time, leaving FB as an afterthought, and that’s fine, as the Boomer that I am I’m still learning both. Please be patient.
I do enjoy seeing some of the differences in the way artists post on IG. Some just post goofy fun shit, others are great salesmen and put up every new anything, and one of my favorites has been posting right from the studio as they’re tracking the new tunes, and I love it!!! It’s kind of almost like the way artists handle their socials is an art form in and of itself. I don’t really look at numbers, followers, likes, etc…..to make my decision on anything. You all know me, I find new music the way I have for 50 yrs., either on recommendation from someone here or looking at the new releases each week and giving em a spin. Some things never change……….some do.
March 6, 2024 @ 2:10 pm
I think social media sucks, too, at least for the most part. But in the end, is that any better than the label system that was in place? There you had a very small group of mostly white men deciding what you could and could not hear. At least with social media it somewhat democratizes the process somewhat.
I get that nobody wants to wade through the crap you have to wade through on social media to get the things you want, but if Tiktok has any redeeming characteristic it’s that the algo will eventually hone in on what you like and keep showing you more of the same.
There is a book that came out recently titled “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture” by Kyle Chayka that is about, well, the title of the book. 🙂 He looks at this as a negative because it ends up limiting what we see/read/hear. But the other side of the argument is that it allows us to become aware of the small range of things we do want to hear withing the broader spectrum of art (e.g., Red Dirt music within the broader idea of music).
Social media is not inherently evil. It is the way evil people use it that makes it evil.
March 6, 2024 @ 6:53 pm
Usually when people are critical of social media the biggest issue is the algorithm, not just the format in general. With TikTok the algorithm is really obvious because you don’t really make your own decisions about what you watch. But there’s also an algorithm behind what you see on Facebook, and it pushes people to post rage-bait more and more.
There’s a lot of good discussions of the algorithmic social media issues at the Factually With Adam Conover YouTube channels And he’s done interviews where he and other creators have talked about how much the algorithm on YouTube and Facebook also screws them when they are trying to connect with their fans. I’m definitely seen a bunch of country artists complain about this, and have seen for example Bopflix Films complain about this recently. Apparently the platforms are making room for their TikTok style clone video format by reducing how much you see notifications from the creators you actually subscribed to.
I know the way they did that on YouTube in recent months is by creating a new level of notifications. Previously you subscribe to either personalized or ‘all’ And I think in the last year they took everybody that had And I think in the last year they took your “all” subscriptions and turn them into personalized (ie algorithmic) and created some other level on top of that. I had to go through my subscriptions and resubscribe to everybody to make sure I keep seeing their new content. I think Facebook has been doing stuff like that for even longer.
March 7, 2024 @ 8:02 am
I have an idea. I’d like to see a site like YouTube, TikTok, or Spotify that gives you some control over how the algorithm operates. The platform provider would give up control and likely some ad revenue, but in return customers would pay for different levels of control and/or the number of changes that could be made in a given time frame.
So, for example, there might be a “bronze” tier that allows the user to modify the algorithm so that you get a less (more) broad spectrum of recommendations within a range and that can only be changed twice/quarter. There also would be a “silver” tier that costs more but allows for a broader range of spectrum changes and more changes in a quarter and access to other changes in how the algorithm operates. And so on.
Those willing to do that may be limited, but they would likely be the people who engage more and have the greatest loyalty and therefore are the most attractive customers.
All I need know is some motivation, some people much smarter than me, and a few million dollars. 🙂
March 6, 2024 @ 7:37 pm
Don’t understand the hate for TikTok. I have an account and it has lead me to a lot of good music. Yes there is a lot of crap you have to swim through at first but most of my feed is music or inappropriate jokes. Which I think is what led to Dac’s Linda Lovelace comming on. Now I hadn’t heard that song in nearly 20 years. I didn’t know Sawyer Brown had a new single out until I heard it on there. If a song comes up I like I will find the artist on Spotify and stream them there. In my 50 years on this earth one of the most important things is don’t judge something if you don’t really know anything about it. Once you know or have that experience then judge away
March 6, 2024 @ 7:45 pm
It forgot the quotations on “restructuring”.
Or just come out and say ‘Firing people’
March 7, 2024 @ 9:21 pm
I would even propose that we are seeing differences in the influence and effect of social media between different platforms and audience demographics, with sometimes vastly different and surprising results. This follows a similar trajectory that traditional media has gone through over the years.
Last summer, Stoney Creek Bluegrass Band sold 1,300 tickets at an amphitheater in Frederick, Maryland. This is probably a huge draw for that genre. Unsigned act, relatively large Facebook following, other socials are not at the same level. This show was the talk of the local music shop, because a bluegrass act signed to a national label
had previously sold only 30 tickets in the same market.
I doubt any media outlets picked up on the attendance or drew a comparison to the other act’s low turnout. It was mostly discussed by word of mouth.
Lesson I learned: so many missed opportunities. A potentially big music story was missed by the media. I would say the wrong bands are getting signed, and the right bands are getting missed because their fan base is on Facebook and not Instagram. Festival promoters will most likely book a signed band first, so the cycle continues. Those in the business who missed the boat will not acknowledge a story like this after the fact, so it happens virtually in isolation.
My point is, some of these social media platforms truly are reaching large numbers of people and building fan bases and audiences, but it can still not be enough to move the needle. For the most part, gone are the days of disc jockeys and concert promoters genuinely wanting to be the first to discover the next big thing and break a new or unsigned artist.
March 8, 2024 @ 11:03 am
we kno that ..and that is eaxctly while new music sucks ..even those indie artists breaking are actually generic and bad ..nothing authentic can trend on tiktok =not possible
and that why the older authentic artists are struggling to be heard now..its all disgusting
March 10, 2024 @ 10:52 am
All the fans, both guys and gals, standing up through both Troubadours and Jinks at Friday night’s concert in Eugene and singing every word of every song didn’t look to my eye like Tik Tok fans but what the hell I’m not surprised by much these days. It was just nice to be surrounded by so many people that felt passionately about the music. It would never occurred to me to use Instagram for music discovery much less TikTok. Don’t seem to have a lot of time for video oriented formats but I may look into Instagram per one of the other comments. I’m a dinosaur. I use Pandora for pretty much all of my streaming cause I’m lazy and it seems to do a good job of playing what I like us some new. What has made the difference in broadening out my Playlist has been this website and your articles us the comments. I’ve found so many artists mentioned in the comments that I’d never know about. Hope you stay around for a long time.
March 12, 2024 @ 10:21 am
Monkey see monkey do…monkey pee all over you.
Hickory dickery dock, the kids are slaves to TikTok. Their habits are sold, the content is bold, and dissenting opinions are blocked. Oh!
March 12, 2024 @ 8:12 pm
The MAJOR problem with Tik Tok is that Emperor Xi has the admin password….
(Aside from tbe torrents of shallow narcissistic “influencers”, bullies, trolling and disinformation…)