The rise of digital music production since the 1980s cuts the formerly
exorbitant music production cost down, democratizing music production and allowing everyone with interest to participate in making music. Since Facebook’s introduction into Taiwan in 2008, it has become the dominant platform of networking with friends and exchanging information, providing an additional platform for information apart from the traditional media.
While independent music in Taiwan already has three decades' history, it’s fascinating to examine how the rise of social media influenced the new generation of indie musicians since the once monopolized power for information transmission is now given to everyone for free digitally or on the Internet. In the chapter “Popular Music, Independence and the Concept of the Alternative in Contemporary
Capitalism” by David Hesmondhalgh and Leslie M. Meier (2015) from the book Media Independence: Working with Freedom Or Working for Free? they state that what has happened to indie and alternative music is symptomatic of a broader
relationship between musician and recording company. They argue that digital music production technology has given birth to “democratization” of popular music
production and therefore led to a boom in the indie music sector. Nowadays, the authority to produce and release pop music or indie music has been taken away from mainstream music label and given to every ordinary person who has the interest to pursue it.
In Jien Miao-ru’s essay “The Production Politics of Taiwan Independent Music” (台灣獨立音樂的生產政治) (2013), the author offers a data table for us to compare the production and promotion and release amount of both mainstream music companies and indie music labels in Taiwan.
Chart 3: Taiwan Mainstream Record Companies and Independent Music Promotion fee NT$ 3-30 million NT$500,000 or
less
Several thousands.
Less than 10K Published album
number per year 700-800 albums
100-150 albums
Huang Wei-jie (黃瑋傑)
Accusefive Band (告五人樂團) Palette Band (調澀盤樂團) Party Sense Band (派對紳士樂團)
(Source: Jien Miao-ru’s essay “The Production Politics of Taiwan Independent Music" (台灣獨立音樂的生產政治) (Jien, 2013))
One notes that Jien has further divided indie music production into label-sponsored and DIY home made albums. She cited a survey that Taiwan’s indie bands have grown from 600 bands in 2009 to 1500 bands in 2013.
Her theory about the “production politics” of Taiwan’s Independent music points out the fact that one doesn’t need to break one’s bank account to produce an album of music to share with audiences.
In addition to the democratization of music production/distribution, the emergence of social media also allowed many indie singers who have no access to mainstream media to promote their music by themselves.
According to the article “Lin Sheng-Xiang’s 20 Years’ Career: the Near Dark Moments that 7 Golden Melody Awards Could not Shine on” (林生祥出道 20 年—7 座金曲獎也擦不亮的臨暗時刻) by journalist Fang Hui-zhen published in the authoritative Reporter (報導者) news website (2017), Lin went through a career low
phase since 2003 and could not even get any opportunity to perform live for fee in 2009. “I don’t even know why. I already won seven Golden Melody Awards and I couldn’t even support my family and kids. How ironic?!” The emerging of social media in Taiwan since 2011 provided access for indie musicians to promote their music for free. “My friend helped me set up Facebook account. I started managing my work, posting content on Facebook everyday. I reclaimed all the lost fans during these past six years.”
Section Two. Music Marketing on Facebook
Facebook marketing has been utilized in all sorts of companies, including music industry. As A.M. Kaplan and M Haenlein state in the essay “Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media” (2012), Facebook allows the musician to establish the image of pop icon and also to promote their music by creating a conversation and interaction with fans and consumers on.
In the essay “Online social networks and insights into marketing
communications” (2007), AS Acar and M Polonsky argue that marketers are able to identify consumer tastes and likes, which is essential in creating market segmentation and targeting and positioning strategies.
In the book Music, Social Media and Global Mobility: MySpace, Facebook, YouTube by OJ Mjos (2013), he examined the relationship between media,
communication and globalization, investigated electronic music producers’ use of the global social media, such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter; illustrated the
significance of emerging connection between social media and music in a global context, and explored the aspects of production, distribution and consumption among electronic music producers as seeking for audiences' attention through social media.
Britney Spears is one of the most successful female recording artists in contemporary music. In the essay “The Britney Spears Universe: Social Media and Viral Marketing at Its Best” by A.M. Kaplan and M. Haenlein (2012), they analyze how Britney Spears and her team create and maintain her celebrity brand image by using social media applications to communicate around the pop icon.
In the essay “Korea Observer. From B2C to B2B: Selling Korean Pop Music in the Age of New Social Media” (Oh & Park, 2012), Oh and Park argues that K-pop industry establishes a new way of communication between artists and their fans in the entertainment product promotion by making use of social media such as Skype, Facebook, and YouTube. Other researchers have joined to analyze the K pop
phenomenon. In the essay “Social distribution: K-pop fan practices in Indonesia and the 'Gangnam Style' phenomenon” (Jung & Shim, 2014), Jung and Shim argue that K-pop industry implemented social media marketing by forming partnerships with social media companies like Facebook and YouTube. YouTube has begun to act as an
important role in live broadcasts of concerts and showcases for famous singers. It is apparent that K-pop industry is making use of the live broadcast functions of social media in order to approach potential overseas consumers. For instance, Psy’s
HAPPENING concert in Seoul’s Sangam World Cup Stadium on 13 April 2013, was streamed live through YouTube in an estimated number of more than 120,000
"watching now" audiences.
The article “Seven New Trends in Digital Music Development 2016” (2016 年 數位音樂發展的七個新趨勢) by Blow editor (2017) delineates strategies about how to maintain fans in the digital music era. It discusses tactics including: building
playlist, exclusive release, Safe Harbour laws implication, the emergence of YouTuber and Live Streaming non-talent celebrities, Amazon’s entry into the digital music market, and the emergence of Greater China or pan Asia digital release system. It investigates and analyzes the new trends in digital music market and how they affect the efficacy of music marketing. (Blow editor, 2017).
Live streaming as a new technological tool has slowly caught on with consumers. According to StreetVoice 2016 Year End Report, the top three live streaming music events hosted by the site in 2016 all passed one million viewings.
These top three StreetVoice live streaming events include: Ma Yuen and Hush's
"Singing Novice with Therapeutic Poet" (馬頔 + Hush 唱作新銳與療癒詩人) with 1,645,278 views, Hao Zhen and Zhao Zhao with "So You Can Listen to Folk this Way" (郝雲 + 趙照 民謠原來可以這麼聽) with 1,508,056 views, and Chen Chu-shen with Faith Yang with "Feel the Heat underneath the Iceberg" (陳楚生 ＋ 楊乃文 感受冰山下的火熱) with 1,024,293 views. (StreetVoice, 2016)
Finally, one concludes with theories about the psychological motives of why consumers wish to participate in the various functions of social media. A study “The Use of Social Media for Artist Marketing: Music Industry Perspectives and Consumer Motivations” (Salo, Lankinen, & Mäntymäki. 2013) addresses the question of why consumers use social media especially in relation to music consumption and how music industry companies could refine their social media efforts by matching
company strategies with consumer motives. This study investigates the psychological motives for consumers in participating in social media activities regarding music product. As a result, this study found five motives for social media participation: (1) access to content, (2) sense of affinity, (3) participation, (4) interaction, and (5) social identity. For music marketing personnel this study offers a detailed social media strategy that corresponds with components of consumer motives for participation in social media featuring music entertainment.
Section Three. Word-of-Mouth
According to the article “Networked narratives: Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Online Communities” (Kozinets et al., 2010), one of the marketing means through social media is viral marketing, a relatively new phenomenon and has been discussed in the literature under a various terms such as word-of-mouth, buzz marketing, stealth marketing, and word-of-mouth marketing.
It is defined as electronic word-of-mouth through the use of social media
applications as a form of marketing message transmitted in an exponentially growing way (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011). It is a phenomenon that consumers mutually share and spread the information, which initially sent out by marketers to stimulate on word-of-mouth behaviors (Van der Lans et al. 2010). To create a viral marketing epidemic three conditions need to be fulfilled which is the right message to the right messengers in the right environment. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011).
According to the book “Social Media Marketing” by T. L. Tuten and M. R.
Solomon (2015), social media provides a “horizontal revolution” in which
information no longer flow from big companies or governments down to the rest of us. Today, each of us communicates by a click on a keypad and information flow across people. This new method of communication is performed by interconnected networks of people and communities enhanced by technology. Social media featuring its user-generated content and two-way interaction has been taken as the alternative platform for artist advertising or music advertising. Users love to use social media because it allows people to participate in producing and passing on the content. Social media platform users don’t get paid to contribute their content. However, they benefit from earning the respect and recognition of other users. This creates a reputation economy where the value that people exchange is measured in esteem as well as in dollars. The number of likes on social media and reviews on amazon.com carries equal power as the best album ranking published by traditional media.
Central to the module of integrated alternative marketing is the concept of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing, which seeks to allow consumers to try out the product for free and then disseminate positive word-of-mouth willingly. One huge advantage WOM marketing has over traditional form of advertising is that the conveyed
messages are not seen as paid and possibly exaggerated advertisement but as true testaments from other satisfied customers.
The other study titled “Effects of Word-of-Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing:
Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site” by M. Trusov, R. E. Bucklin and K.
Pauwels investigates the effect of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing on member growth at an Internet social networking site and compare it with traditional marketing
vehicles. Because social network sites record the electronic invitations from existing members, outbound WOM can be precisely tracked. Along with traditional marketing, WOM can then be linked to the number of new members subsequently joining the site (sign-ups). Because of the endogeneity among WOM, new sign-ups, and traditional marketing activity, the authors employ a vector autoregressive (VAR) modeling approach. Results from the VAR model shows that WOM referrals have significantly longer carryover effects than traditional marketing moves and produce substantially higher response elasticity. This study confirms the fact that Word-of-Mouth marketing is far more powerful than the traditional media advertising. (Trusov, Bucklin,
Pauwels. 2009)
Trusov’s WOM theory explains why the word-of-mouth generated by social media can overpower the authoritative reviews written by professional critics
published by traditional media. Facebook’s algorithm system shows you the posts and opinions of a network of friends with similar lifestyle and education background. It would be far more accurate if you wish to know if you will like a movie. Social media has emerged as the most efficient way of marketing because in contrast to possible political/social slant of traditional media, social media represents more honest word-of-mouth from the consumers.
According to the essay “The Rise of Social Media and Its Impact on Mainstream Journalism” by Nic Newman (2009), the rise of social media and its participatory approach caused a historical shift of news transmission from institution-to-audience towards audience-to-audience directly. The option of exchanging news and opinions with like-minded friends on social media greatly challenges the way news was fed to
consumers by corporation before.
In Robert M. Entman’s article “Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power” (2007), agenda setting, framing and priming are regularly practiced by news institution according to their political affiliation and esthetic slant. Traditional media are known for their obvious news slant which seeks to influence the distribution of power in the society. Most readers can discern the slant of traditional media and would choose to avoid reading the media they dislike and favor online media or social media opinion instead.
In the book Social Media Marketing by Tracy L. Tuten, and Michael R. Solomon (2017), they argue that when social media marketing first emerged, the focus was on organic participation; the media itself was free. Nowadays, social media have
developed complex algorithms to customize each person’s experience. Social media is about relationships. Social publishing allows every normal person to share knowledge and experience with people. Participation and interaction are what draw audiences away from traditional media towards social media.
However, the democratic nature of public opinion expression in the social media era can be used as well as abused. Word-of-mouth, which by definition means honest, sincere feedback from audiences, can be manufactured too.
The Taiwan internet term “internet army” (網軍) refers to someone who is sent by a group with political slant under an anonymous identity to post content favorable to that group in a public forum. This is a strategically planned move used to simulate the word-of-mouth effect that could have been performed by non-paid audiences voluntarily.
In the essay "Is This a Fake Review? Analytics on Types of Opinion Posting and Social Network of Spammers" (這是業配文嗎？網軍的貼文型態與網絡分析) by Lin Yu-ruei (2016), he points out that many of the opinions posted on Taiwan's social media, BBS or forum sites could be fake review orchestrated by entertainment or political institutions as a means to promote their agenda.
Section Four. The Megaphone Effect
In the article "The Megaphone Effect: Taste and Audience in Fashion Blogging"
(McQuarrie, Miller & Phillips. 2013), the authors state that the Megaphone effect refers to the phenomenon that the Internet allows ordinary people the access to mass audience. Using 10 fashion bloggers as research sampling, the authors offer
theoretical account of bloggers' success. Bloggers achieve fame (cultural capital) by publishing their writing and displaying their taste and opinions to the public.
Although available data proved that the probability of indie singers to break into the mainstream market is very low, I apply this theory to explain and elucidate the privileged few ones who have achieved the feat.