Breaking Assumptions
When it comes to music, social media has been seen as the 21st century’s un-skippable steppingstone to success. All modern popstars come from somewhere, and that place is virality, whether it’s a sound going mainstream on TikTok, an iconic moment uploaded to Instagram Reels, or any other post that might spark interest from a pool of potential fans. However, a report from media watchdog group Midia Research questions the assumption that virality, especially on short-form content platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, is a free ticket to music industry fame.
Only Half the Picture
The group surveyed 10,000 people about their music habits and patterns of discovery. While there was a promising finding on the side of social media in that 52% of people reported that they had streamed music in the past month because of hearing it on social media, this still means that a full half of the music they streamed came from other sources. And besides that, not all platforms are created equal: YouTube and music streaming services themselves were the most dominant and influential platforms when it came to discovering music, not TikTok, despite the app’s music and sound-focused features and marketing combined with social aspects.
A Snippet Is Enough
Perhaps just as shocking, young people were more likely to have high engagement with music, but at the same time, after hearing a song on social media, younger users were actually less likely than older ones to go through all steps of music discovery. In other words, when young people hear a viral sound on TikTok, they are less likely than older generations to go stream the full song it’s sourced from or add it to a playlist. The report concludes that “the music [young people] hear on TikTok, Instagram, and other social platforms is enough for them.”
Full Report
So, while social media is an important piece of the puzzle for artists trying to determine how to get their music to reach a wider audience, their engagement coming from these platforms even after virality may be much lower than anticipated due to low follow-through. Additionally, there are other areas of discovery to be explored that artists shouldn’t neglect, with this report showing some evidence that these avenues might be undiscovered and untapped. The full research report is available on Midia Research’s website.
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