How Digital Marketing Rewrote the Rules of the Music Industry

Discover how digital marketing has revolutionized the music industry, from social media promotion and streaming strategies to viral campaigns that help artists build global fanbases.

It started as a pipe dream. The idea of breaking into the music industry meant joining a label (if you could get through all the other artists also doing the same thing), getting played on the radio, or selling CDs out of your trunk. Now we fast forward to today, where one video on TikTok can make you go viral or an Instagram ad can put you on thousands of people’s radars in seconds. Basically, any unknown, independent artist can become a global superstar. 

It all comes from one thing: digital marketing. 

Social media and digital marketing have given these starving artists a platform to create and share on a mass scale, to lengths we have never seen before. Artists are now able to build their own brands and connect directly with their fans. Where the music industry was once about pure profit and selling the music, it's now about community and storytelling. 

How streaming changed music promotion 

Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube have all drastically changed how audiences listen to and discover music. Digital marketing is the reason for all of this. Artists now have control over their own destinies and data, able to control their own demographics, play-listing, etc., to tailor and refine their music and content for mass appeal. 

Artists don’t have to rely on record labels anymore and can take their chances with their own digital marketing and promotion. This music reaches millions globally. 

Apps like TikTok have turned people into overnight sensations due to the amplification of artists' music through strategic marketing and jumping on trends. For example, the artist Sombr blew up from TikTok sounds and simply reposting his music and clips onto many of his own accounts. 

Social media: the opportunity of a lifetime

Media is the stage for marketing. Artists use social media to post their music, tease their music videos, collaborate digitally with other artists, share behind-the-scenes moments, and directly connect with their fans. With this addition comes a world of new challenges and things to balance. It's advanced the music industry so much but has also opened the door for a potentially troublesome para-social relationship with fans and opened the floor for questioning the true intentions and authenticity of musicians directly. What’s the balance between authenticity and promotion? How much is too much sharing and connecting? Everything big artists post is a part of a much larger digital strategy; however, fans do crave that authenticity and storytelling of their personal lives now that digital marketing has set them up for it. So how can artists navigate this?

Beyond the music 

We are not just passive listeners in today's digitally charged music industry. We are active participants and can interact and share our own stories through these new digital campaigns, emails, online collectibles, etc. The ability for artists to gain a large community without the need for a middleman is something that has stemmed from the rise of digital marketing. It spans past conventional advertising and gives an opportunity for organic growth and more methods of promotion. 

The future of digital marketing in music 

Marketing and the digital world are not going away any time soon. An essential part of being an artist in today’s music industry is recognizing that not only do they have an opportunity to take their marketing into their own hands and connect on scales never before seen, but that it is a necessity in surviving the ever-changing, ever-growing digital world we now live in. Being adaptable to these changes is the key. 

No longer bound by the constraints of a record label contract, musicians can build their own audiences, careers, and share their stories. 

Digital marketing is the future of the music industry and the world.