When we talk about utilizing social media in the music industry, one of the really important things to think about is something that social media is really good at: spreading stories. A lot of times, especially in the music world, we look at it from a different lens. We’re focusing too much on just what we’ve made and not the story around it.
I’m sure everyone reading this has a friend who worked really hard on a song, was excited to put it out, and posted a link to the SoundCloud on Facebook. They think, “Watch it go; it’s going to be huge.” They post it, and then nothing happens. That’s because the existence of your content is not, in itself, interesting, and not something that will spread in social media. A story around it that’s truthful absolutely can.
An Online Music Education Assessment of Social Media Success
In the music video for “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, they jump in the air and transform into cowboys.
What about that song made it perfect for a meme? Music education will show you there’s usually one line or something strange in the song. In this particular song, it’s the phrase, “I got the horses in the back.” For some reason, that’s what people latched on to.
Social media was one of the biggest factors in the song’s success. Social media is the biggest factor in every song’s success nowadays.
The Proof in the Practice
I used social media to my advantage, and it worked. I produced a record a few years ago that I was really proud of, and I did that exact same thing I say above. I was really excited the day it came out. I was like, “Watch it go, it’s going to be huge.” I posted a link to it, and nothing really happened.
Fortunately for me, at the exact same time, someone else related to the record took a very different approach. The artist’s little brother, actually, went on Reddit and not only posted a link to the album on Bandcamp, but also started telling the story around the album. And the album had an interesting story.
We had recorded all these different musicians in different places, different locations, 30 different studios. It was interesting, inherently, and the little brother just started talking about that story and linking to the album. Lots of people started asking questions about that on these music threads, and people started linking to the album. By the end of the week, it was the number one album on Bandcamp, all from him posting the stories on Reddit versus me just posting a link. No one cared when it was just the link itself.
That was an amazing lesson for me: it’s context that leads us to the content. The content alone will not be enough to get us hooked in first. You need to think about the story around what you’re doing.
