How social media gives producers a sense of entitlement
Social media has undoubtedly changed the way that producers, record labels, influencers, and PR companies voice their opinions. As well as being a great content platform, sites such as Facebook & Instagram have enabled us to interact with fans & generate meaningful relationships with the audience. For better or worse, it has definitely changed the shape of the music industry over the past few years. During this article, we’re going to be discussing the psychology behind how producers have a natural sense of entitlement due to social media.
Love it or hate it, social media has definitely managed to reduce some barriers to entry within the music industry. Due to the major record labels no longer being in control of the charts, producers with big fanbases have been able to rally their fans behind a track to get it Spotify & iTunes charting positions. Likewise, a large fanbase has always (and will continue to) provided leverage when it comes to making record deals, blog features, and other important steps within an artists career.
In addition, so-called “viral videos” have allowed producers to be instantly catapulted into the limelight of culture. For example, Baauer’s ‘Harlem Shake’ managed to gain over 50 million Spotify streams and resulted in a worldwide trend of people dancing along to the song.
Despite all of the incredible benefits that social media can bring to artists, it can also bring an enormous sense of entitlement towards some people within the music industry. As everyone is essentially being given a microphone to voice their opinion, and share their music with (potentially) millions of people, it feeds our human urge to be validated and accepted for who we are.
Likewise, producers with extremely high social media counts often have a feeling of entitlement in comparison to other producers. Whether it’s purposeful or not, they tend to act like they are more important than almost everybody in the music industry. Whether it’s not engaging with fans, not replying to demos from other producers, or simply refusing to be humble, their sense of humility is completely wiped out just because of a few numbers.
Fed on numbers and statistics to inflate producers egos, it is undoubtable that the music industry is surrounded by a strong sense of entitlement. But with new social media platforms taking hold, and other producers feeling like social media is useless (when it obviously isn’t), it is certainly possible that this feeling of entitlement will fade away over the coming years.
Despite all of this, there are multiple ways to reduce a sense of entitlement on social media. For example, you could easily interact with every single comment posted to your uploads. No matter whether they are positive or negative, it will ultimately provide a strong sense of humility, and you’d also be able to gauge a strong perception on how your audience reacts & engages with your content. Also, you could give away free stuff to your fans in order to show your appreciation for them. So many producers in EDM are fixated on social media being a public spam account of them self-promoting their music – hence why so many have low engagement. For example, this could easily include free tickets to shows, meet & greet sessions, and free merchandise that can be won in giveaways etc.
As a (most likely) producer reading this article, ask yourself that if Facebook, Instagram, and other current social media went away, would you be able to rebuild a fanbase on whatever platform came next? If you are entitled, the answer is probably not. Instead of building a sense of entitlement based around a follower count, consider focusing that energy towards increasing the relationship between yourself & your fanbase – which is undeniably what matters.