The way artists reach their audience and present their work has evolved greatly with social medial platforms and interactive websites and applications, especially Snapchat. With this amazing app, artists are able to bring a taste of their music directly to their audience even before the album is out, while revolutionizing the way listeners experience music.
Gaining an Audience Through Filters
Adding filters to their recordings allows people to act out or play a 10-second clip of any song, creating their own personal world of music within their group of friends, and while this might not seem to be favorable for the music industry at first sight, in the long run, it brings great benefits such as recognition and audience reach.
Filters allow for the musicians to get personal with their fans, establishing a deeper emotional connection. Additionally, artists have discovered the benefits of getting the audience “hyped” for a new release by posting their music on Snapchat before it’s even out, and as a result of the small preview, the audience is ready to buy, stream and download the new music as soon as it becomes live.
The Statistical Benefits of Snapchat
These days, Snapchat has become a media outlet powerful enough to dramatically increase an artist’s popularity. Although it has surfaced rather recently, it has already surpassed Twitter and Tumblr in popularity as well some other media sites, with the percentage of Americans who use Snapchat going from 17% in 2015 to 23% in 2016. In the coming years, these percentages are expected to grow even more, especially with Snapchat being a critical part of the music industry.
Averaging at 2.5 billion snaps every day, Snapchat offers amazing promotional possibilities for artists around the world. The possibilities are endless, and artists can use 10-second videos to promote anything from their new tunes to items like accessories and branded shirts that people can purchase and further promote the artist.
Authenticity and Copyright
Unlike social media platforms, like Facebook or YouTube, where videos can last for an unlimited amount of time and thus present serious legal copyright issues across the board, Snapchat negates these problems due to the core functionality of the app. Rather than saving the content, Snapchat offers a 10-second video that later disappears, avoiding any copyright infringement.
The app has also taken on a similar role to mainstream music media such as MTV and VH1 by premiering and debuting music videos from renowned artists such as Madonna, Goldroom and the Weeknd.
And while Snapchat is approaching the MTV popularity status by securing its own exclusives, these giant music media companies have already secured their place on Snapchat’s discover network. Smart move.
Snapchat Keeps the Artist Happy
Artists and record labels see mutual benefits in using Snapchat for its numerous advantages. Many artists are reporting that this is one of the best platforms for directly interacting with their fans because they aren’t burdened with character limits and because of the private atmosphere, people are able to see the real person behind the artist’s name.
In its beginnings, contrary to Vine, Snapchat offered creators authenticity and simplicity.
Unlike Vine, which was confusing and had unrealistic demands – the users were asked not to reuse their content from other platforms but only to produce original content – Snapchat allows creators to produce lower value content on a daily basis. This model proved itself far more appealing to both users and audiences alike.
Discovering New Hits
Snapchat has proven to be a new and effective way of discovering the next top chart hit. The latest partnership with Shazam enables you to identify music playing around you directly from the Snapchat app, proving to be invaluable in the search and recognition of new artists and content.
All of this points to the potential of Snapchat integrating with other music apps such as Spotify, YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud. What awaits Snapchat further down the road are tech integrations like augmented reality and QR codes, and with the integration of Spectacles, Snapchat would allow the audience to experience a unique perspective that only the artist has.
With endless technological possibilities and an ever-growing fan-base, Snapchat is paving the road for an even brighter future, but if the fate of Vine is to be avoided, the company needs to keep the artists satisfied. After all, the music industry and Snapchat have become two inseparable parts of a whole.
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