Tips to Musicians: Things you need to know before you enter the music industry

Image by AgloX via Medium.com

It’s the beginning of 2020, time flies without saying, how music has evolved, not just sound but as content and product as well.

Back to 2011, I still remember I have to record a K-pop song- Bubibbu by Apink from the radio in my devices. During that time, radio is the only platform to approach new songs. If I didn’t grab this chance, I might lose the good song. 

Today, I don’t need to worry about that because every song can be accessed via YouTube and Spotify. I can play the song anytime and everywhere. 

All thanks to new technology, the music industry has evolved a lot from the last decade. Now, we are listening to our iTunes and Spotify on our smartphone.

I believe that the changes in the music industry are not just involved in the way people listen to music, but also artists, content and product as well.

Let’s talk about how technology improves the current music industry.

From CD to streaming

According to HuffPost, in 1999, Sean Parker and his partners first founded peer-to-peer file MP3 sharing service where users can share their songs. This invention leads to the lost revenue of those artists and musicians who sell their music as the audience are not legally purchasing it.

Coming along in 2014, record companies and musicians started to involve streaming services as a part of marketing strategy. Through streaming services, their revenues have defeated the sales of the CD. Based on the research, there are slightly less for CD at 1.85 billion U.S dollar. 

Meanwhile, consumers are moving to stream services and the music industry is making a transition as well. 

The musicians can just submit their new songs to digital platforms such as YouTube, which only takes a few minute's processes and their songs can reach out to the whole world.

One of the K-Pop artists, Eunji just covered Frozen II theme song, “Into the Unknown” to her YouTube channel, and it has reached more than 2 million views. 

Content production

In the age of digital, we have observed how the artists grow and develop such as the pop stars, Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes, and Ed Sheeran. 

They are not only changed in their music but also brands as well. We have seen their collaboration with prominent photographers, videographers, and dancers have become an important part of their brands. Meaningful music videos and lyrics would improve their brands.

Now, the audience wants to know more than just music, they love to see the mind or the life of the musician. For instance, the last song in Taylor Swift's reputation album was named "New Year's Day" and it represents her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn. It gained the curiosity of fans as they wanted to know the feelings of Taylor Swift. 

YouTube is now the most used music service, the recent research proves that there is 82 percent of all YouTube visitors use it for music purposes. In this generation, we as the new millennials are using the Internet to listen to music. Therefore, YouTube is a great platform to build a strong community for fans. 

If you want to start your music career, you can think about blogging, videography, or vlogging on YouTube to show the audience more of your life as a singer or musician. 

Social Media 

Social media has become a part of life for people around the world. It is an extension of service marketing, customer relationship management and promotions to the product.

If you want to start your music career, you can use social media as a tool to gain more effective results. 

Firstly, you can post your links to your songs on all of the social media platforms. It would encourage people to access links and explore your music. The statistic shows that 92 percent of users interact with social media by clicking links.

Second, interact with your fans is the key to gain more. Nowadays, artists are not just staying in the studio or their office. Instead, they have scheduled the time with their fans through social media. For example, many K-Pop idols have their social media accounts to interact with their fans such as V Live, a live broadcasting application. The app allows users to follow their favorite artists and use comments and send ‘hearts’ to express their feelings to the artists. Remember “Talk to your fans, get to know them a little as communication is a key.

The Internet has given the authority to people to be in many places you have never been all at once. We need to grab opportunities to the max. You don’t worry about your songs can’t listen by anyone, as YouTube is behind you. That is the power of the Internet. 

Technology has granted many opportunities for musicians nowadays. Young new artists are rising in the music industry, new songs are being discovered in many new genres.

Opportunities are all around us every day. It depends on how that person grabs the chance to go into the music industry.