How Social Media Has Changed Music for Artists
- Lauren DiGiovanni
- Jul 19, 2025
- 3 min read
How much social media do you consume each day? And how much of that media has some sort of musical element involved? Probably a lot. Each and every day, we hear music from all genres and all years as we swipe through our feeds. This, obviously, wasn’t the case 20 years ago. Just like social media has changed how we interact with one another, it’s also changed how we consume music. And for musicians, it’s changed how you promote your music to both current and potential fans. Learning these shifts in music consumption and promotion can completely change your trajectory and success as an artist.
When YouTube first hit the scene in 2005, it created a space for musicians to deliver music directly to fans and get instant feedback. YouTube was not only a place to post music videos and other promotional videos, but to create content to connect with fans on a personal level. Now, with short-form video platforms like Instagram and TikTok, artists can go viral with their music and reach hundreds of thousands of people in just 15 seconds. You can make a visual brand for yourself through your content and specifically target potential fans that you think would enjoy and repeatedly consume your music.
Short-form video has been proven as a crucial part of music marketing, and it produces results. Billboard came out with a TikTok Billboard Top 50 Chart in 2023, tracking the most popular songs. Labels have recognized the importance of the utilization of social media, and it is now a large part of single or album rollouts. Labels or management can pay influencers to post videos using an artist's song or to promote an event the artist will attend. Using social media as a marketing method is also much more cost-effective than other traditional marketing methods, which can maximize profits. You can also track your real-time success through each platforms data analytics programs, allowing you to see which kinds of posts work the best for your audience.
Not only has social media allowed for new artists to explode, it has allowed for older artists to be revived. Countless trends have been created with older songs on TikTok and Instagram, all fueled by nostalgia. And in conjunction with the ease of music consumption on streaming platforms, this symbiotic relationship forms where each platform fuels the other. We’ve seen this with Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”, Aly and AJ’s “Potential Breakup Song”, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”, and much more, and it’s a trend that we won’t see stopping any time soon.
Just as easily as social media can make being an artist, it can also make being an artist difficult. The ease of artist promotion on social media, alongside the ease of publishing music on streaming services, makes it enticing for everyone to put out music. This creates an oversaturated market, where standing out is a big feat. Putting out regular content as the artist yourself can also be difficult, as creating organic content on top of your regular artist duties can be daunting. Fans can easily spot inorganic content, and the pressure of producing increasingly successful content on a regular basis only adds the stress of being an artist.
Despite some bad side effects, social media has changed the music space for the better. Social media has created a space where artists connect with fans, fans connect with fans, and artists connect with artists. This huge ecosystem that has been created in the age of technology has forever changed how we produce, promote, and consume music for the better.
Written By Lauren DiGiovanni
*copyright not intended. Fair use act, section 107.
