The widespread access to digital technology has played a major aspect in the increase in democratisation of the music industry and the distribution of the products.
Due to the Social Media development allowing independent artists to create and distribute their own music without the partnering of a music industry’s oligopoly, artists such as Alex Day have become successful due to how helpful the viral marketing of his music can actually be. One of the songs he released independently "forever yours" reached number 4 on the 2011 Christmas singles chart, this just shows how much the social media plays a part in the knowing of the produced single, because its very rare to get into the charts without having a music industry oligopoly relationship. Alex appeared to have a marketing theory which was to create a YouTube holiday which was on the 8th of December, this was called "forever day". The intentions of this was to bring the awareness to his fans of his plans and aspirations to get into the Christmas music charts without being signed. His YouTube channel was extremely successful with over 1,000,000 subscribers re-posting, and sharing his videos through different Social Networking sites, some of them being Twitter and Facebook this helped with the increasing awareness of his music. This shows that with the development of the Media, unsigned artists can distribute their product at a low cost which is more beneficial, than causing extra expenses to be lost if joining with an oligopoly such as Sony Music to market their music. Another musician who started off like Alex Day is Justin Bieber, he distributed his music through his own YouTube channel, by doing covers of a variety of songs. In this instance he was very clever to do so, because it created a larger audience to appreciate and share his videos. This then led him to have the break in his music career where a top music producer noticed Justin and then went on to sign him to the record label itself leading him to have a relationship within the oligopoly system. This shows that without the availability of the social media, Alex Day as well as Justin Bieber would not have been able to persue the future they have now created for themselves. Although the social media helps with the marketing of self produced music and the distribution of it, it will have to show a major development in order to get the same results as the other oligopolies such as Sony. To back this point up i carried out a Questionnaire which consisted of two basic questions, this was given to a class of 30. These are the results in percentages below: Do you know of the Musician Justin Bieber? 100% Do you know of the Musician Alex Day? 35% Therefore my primary research can show that yes the social media does increase the awareness of musicians and their products, but not nearly enough as the oligopolies such as Sony do. current band London Grammar have made it apparent how digital technology has been a major aspect of their key to success and praise within the last year. They released their debut song ‘Hey Now’onto their YouTube Channel on December the 12th, this has now been views almost 2,000,000 times over the last 11 months. Their fan base does not only consist of those of the United Kingdom, but it has become Global, with people blogging about the band, tweeting about the band, using Instagram to mention the group and mentioning them on Facebook. This all helps with the international recognition of the new alternative group.
When going onto the bands website, there are links already shown that lead to their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Soundcloud pages. This shows that the group have the dedication to expand their audience and in order to do so, they choose some of the top mainstream online social networking sites. This is good due to social networking becoming an increasingly important part of peoples social life, as well as peoples every day life. By using these sites which are free of charge, an unsigned group such as London Grammar this works to their advantage due to the cost being so low. Therefore they actually gain profit for themselves through being an unsigned group. London Grammar’s website allows the audience to listen to their biggest and newest song, Strong, which was published on the 26th of July 2013. In a few short months this video gained over 2,500,000 viewers. This had already shown the growth in the bands audience. Also it can be assumed that quite a few of the viewers then purchased the bands songs on ITunes, which for a band with barely any funding, this can show the major increase in their profit. An article from the Guardian in April 2013 described them to be a ‘blog-buzz band’ this suggests how the band actually became world known by their audience,therefore the article creates the realization of how the band actually started, it also comes as a shock because the groups single reached number two in the charts,with their album "if you want" released on the 9th of September. This sold an astounding 33,130 during the first week of being released. which is why it was more than likely noticed a lot more, due to them not being signed or having the power of the oligopolies to help them to succeed. http://prezi.com/zvrb2qc0brzx/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
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