If there’s anything consistent about the music industry, it’s that fans drive the trends and each decade seems to feature an unexpected transition into how the world is consuming music. Now-a-days, it’s all about going viral on whichever social media platform is trending and leveraging that audience for cross platform promotion. Indie artists, in particular, have strategically mastered this concept and have found innovative ways to keep their growing audiences engaged.
With TikTok in particular, a significant contributor in what music is topping the charts, indie artists are not only promoting their new singles through normal singing and encouraging presaves, they are also creating viral dance challenges, memes, and doing frequent lives for new fans to get to know all about them. From there, indie artists are transitioning to Youtube for longer more music focused content, but still engaging with the comical, viralbility type of content that Gen-Z and younger Millennials have become known for.
In the age of aesthetic and relatability, indie artists are also on the rise due their fresh and unique sounds. While not indie, the emergence of artists like Willow and Olivia Rodrigo is reintroducing the Alternative Pop and Pop Rock teen angst and nostalgia sound back onto the scene which seems to be a common factor in many of today’s trending sounds. Indie artists in that genre waiting to be discovered really feel like a hidden treasure to the followers already rooting for them.
However, the platform growth from several up and coming artists of different genres like, Sub Urban’s “Cradles” and Flo Milli’s “Beef FloMix”; or Tokyo’s Revenge’s “GoodMorningTokyo!” has major record label’s already taking notice. Both labels and fans alike are quick to support the next big thing and with the current system in place, it could quite literally be you.
Written By MaKenzie Hall