Según publica el portal forbes.com The music industry is always changing, and the same can be said for marketing in all fields. So the practice of marketing music is certainly something that is constantly evolving—sometimes at such fast speeds, it’s difficult for even the most seasoned professionals to keep up with new platforms, practices, and technologies. It seems that just as one company or person is getting used to how one thing works, something else comes along and upends what everyone in the business is doing once again.
Knowing what’s coming next is incredibly valuable for those who work in marketing in the music industry. They must be simultaneously aware of what’s happening all around them while also looking forward, trying to jump on the next trend or ensuring the musicians they work with are trying out something new to reach the largest audience possible.
With this new year still just beginning, five experts in the field of music marketing weighed in on the following question:
“What’s your top prediction for where music marketing is going this year?”
Jesse Kirshbaum, CEO, Nue Agency
It’s the year of TikTok in a lot of ways. I think TikTok is not going to end up being banned. I think that a lot of people are still making static posts and pictures of themselves, food, and everything…and it’s just not resonating. The thrill of virality that TikTok can provide and the way that it starts and ignites trends is probably the most important way to break artists, to break products, to break the intersection, versus anything else out there right now.
I think more and more people are gonna learn how to make TikToks, and I think it’s gonna become more accessible. And I think it’s going to age up and it’s going to survive the ban because it’s too big to fail, so to speak. I think it’ll become more of a place for executives and for the industry to flourish and not just [be] a Gen Z/Gen Alpha platform. I think it becomes the most important communication tool for product launches and brands.
Cassie Petrey, Co-Founder, Crowd Surf
We’re going to continue to see more marketing initiatives lean more heavily into direct messaging, and real life strategies. If you think about it, most of your time on social media generally takes place behind the scenes in DMs rather than publicly on posts and comments. I’ve been seeing a lot more artists see the value in investing fan engagement time in ways outside of posting on their main feeds, and I’m excited for these marketing tactics to continue to evolve.
Tim Gerst, CEO, Thinkswell
Music marketing is going to go more intimate. I mean by that, we will see more artists having to find ways to connect with fans on a one-to-one level. This can happen through more TikToks being made as responses to comments, direct one-on-one messaging with apps such as Community, or through content inspired by fans. When an artist can find ways to personally connect the dots to consumers, they buy in more.
Jennifer Frommer, SVP Partnerships & Commercial Sync, Columbia Records
I predict that music marketing becomes more authentic and organic to artists.
Sean Treacy, CEO/Co-Founder, D.O.M.
Music is an interesting place right now. The conversion of album sales to streaming equivalents has been something that the music industry has just overcome in the last half decade. Now it seems like there’s more of an emphasis on what’s going to happen next, outside of these streaming numbers on Spotify and the DSPs [digital service provider].
I’ve heard YouTube is going to be launching YouTube Shorts. Basically, if you launch a YouTube Short, it will ultimately go to the product that you’re advertising. So if it’s a music video for a new single for Post Malone, they might do video content from that BTS [behind the scenes]…and ultimately those will add numbers to the bottom line of the view count. So I think YouTube versus the DSPs is gonna be a big thing.
I don’t know how much of a factor TikTok can continue to be, since we’ve seen multiple examples of this kind of being upside down. An example is Arizona Zervas.
He had a record called “Roxanne” that blew up from TikTok.He was independent. He had a streaming history. All of his songs had over a million streams.
There was no indication on social or anything that he would potentially live up to the hype of anything after “Roxanne.” And that resulted in a multi-label bidding war for over $10 million as an advance.
So I think the labels need to get away from relying on data from TikTok. And the same thing that just happened with Spotify. I can absolutely see record companies purging the staff that they have, like A&R and people who have been working on the marketing campaigns.
I think they’re in trouble because the traditional methods aren’t going to work moving forward.
I think there’s gonna be more third party outsourcing for sure. I think a lot of the record companies lack vision.
Most of these companies aren’t doing anything experimental with new acts, but they’ll do it for the new Ed Sheeran single. I think we need to break the mold moving forward and get away from what’s happening on TikTok.
