It’s hard to judge this as our social media accounts are so personally tailored to us, but there’s been a huge rise of ‘sponsored’ posts since the start of the pandemic.
It seems now that every other post is some really bad artist/band that I must be a target demographic for with their ‘sponsored’ ads, and, it has the reverse affect on me that the artist was probably hoping for (I’m generally thinking ‘get to f##k with your s##t mediocre music’)… I’ve genuinely not heard ANYTHING in this way that I’ve thought ‘this is cool…’… the BEST case has been me thinking that ‘if they developed/tweaked this slightly it would be comedy gold’, but that’s not going to happen.
If I do open IG these days (which I now try to limit because of the above, and because it’s a useless time-drain) I usually just check stories across the top… but I do this less and less.
Is this everyone’s experience of IG now?
Is IG on its way out?
Does anyone use it to promote their music?
For the record, I am always on the look out for new music/artists that I like… I don’t think IG is the place for discovery, maybe it’s just a place to check an artist out further when you’ve discovered them elsewhere.
A couple of additional thoughts that might be a positive benefit of the above.
two years ago I was convinced record labels were done for… I now think they’ve got an important role to play in the future as curators/filters… I hope we see a rise of labels who have a vibe (like Factory, Warp, 2 Tone, etc, etc) and can consolidate artists.
personally I’ve gone back to spending more time on forums, like Elektronauts, where I feel there is a definite benefit to developing interests and skills. Even though it’s easy to lose a lot of time to Elektronauts, it generally feels positive (pleasant, helpful, educational).
I’ve been talking/listening (ClubHouse) to music producers about that topic. And everyone was giving advice to send a few thousands dollars every now and then to Instagram for self marketing / pushing your stories into the phones of others that are interested in “music production”. It’s bloated. It’s the start if the end - just like Facebook.
I quit instagram years ago. And I don’t look back.
…i was never a click me click me click me selfpromoting guy…
and never will be…
i also believe, that ur next big music love discovery does’nt come by some promoted boost of any sort…
my all time claim remains…
share music…from hand to hand…and ear to ear…
and jesh…insta account is a must…but only for feel free to discover…to stumble upon…
to be found if u, as an artist are already found elsewhere out there…
word to mouth remains the best and priceless promo…
so patience is a must…
and we will see the day, where all that suckerbug empire is tumbeling into histories leftovers…
and all streamingfarms run on consumer centrified payrolls…
I used to be on IG and followed a load of climbers and some film photographers. My feed was relevant mostly but where you look for similar posts, the biggest loudest posts were just a load of popular cretins throwing their bullshit down your throat.
I never really got that aspect as the tailoring to individuals of what you might want to see was biased anyway but just filled with “look at me” wankers.
I rarely log in anymore, got tired of seeing promoted content and the all too frequent selfie, but as time goes by I’m getting increasingly jaded about the internet in general, and I think that lots of other people are too.
It’s not on it’s way out, it’s just showing it’s true colours now.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the vast majority of humans now actually enjoy having self-serving shit goblins whining at them all day through their phones. So any social media platform you use (beyond the old man forum cul-de-sac) will inevitably turn into this, as it’s actually what most people want now.
I’d like to think that now is peak social, and in that sense, yes, the start of the end.
My kids don’t have twitter, think it is toxic and for old people (like millenials and older) they see facebook as a place for far right and grandparents, they don’t have facebook. They used to be on IG but think it is full of wannabee influencers, and also causes mental distress, though they both have sleeper IG accounts for DMs.
They do use snapchat and one other “private” social, but in general they’re signal/sms for comms.
If the young can’t abide that toxic trash it will die out with the millenials, so yeah, on its way out…eventually
fair, I like to think they are, but they have whole groups of friends who feel the same way. But maybe it just means IG/FB/Twitter are at the start of decline, and other (more noxious?) socials are on the rise. What do I know?! I just hope it is the start of the end for IG et al
It’s probably the end of smart or creative people having much to do with it, now it’s the same idiot hate playground that all the other social platforms are, presumably because that’s what most people want.
Teenagers are great, because they can smell when something turns to bullshit and they’re not hampered by the older generations’ weakness for familiarity and fear of change, so they’ll always drive new ideas. The problem is that once their new ideas gain a bit of traction, everyone else piles on and starts using it to complain about some celebrity that did something once and should probably be killed, or at least never work again or something.
I don’t use social media (does this forum count?!) but I’ve always wondered if people were always so attention-seeking and the tools just gave them an outlet, or if the tools caused them to be attention-seeking.
It’s probably a thread I don’t actually want to pull on…
about your point of discovering new artists, i can say that i do this through soundcloud. personally i listen to a certain genre a lot and my favorite artists have automatically linked other labels and artists there, which in turn leads to new artists. and then I can hear it all on the go without any problems. however, i don’t know how it pays off for the artist. but i came across a lot of new music and think the layout of soundclod is great because it’s simple with the player.
Do you have recommendations of other forums with a similar atmosphere as here? I know of a feel but the vibe varies greatly so Elektronauts ends up being the one I visit the most, hehe.
I actually still quite like instagram - for the following reasons
I block anyone who starts posting selfies
I unfollow accounts regularly
I don’t read comments
I block anyone who starts to preach at me
So basically - II curate my instagram
basically I’m heavily curated and keep it in check. As a result it is weirdly a platform where the tailored ads I get are pretty good. I’ve found some good stuff on there!
Having said that - it’s definitely on it’s way out as it blends into facebook.
I don’t use any social media accept IG but it’s not my private account, just for creative stuff. All I use it for really is talking to my ex partner as she has to so it on the hush, and for making stupid short films and so on. I don’t really give a fuck about influencers or anything, I kinda just find it funny.
I’ve interacted with a couple of elektronauts
and got to hear their music/see their creative stuff, and it’s a way of keeping track of what’s happening locally for gigs. Personally I’m not interested in gossip or influencers. I used to use forums years ago, and it’s a much better system, this one being the one visit the most.
One of the best things that ever happened to me was having my mobile taken off me for most of the 3 years I spent in various treatment institutions. I only had a burner phone up until recently. I also had no access to a computer or the ability to go online, and it was proper liberating, it actually was the reason was allowed to keep my OT and my guitar so I could make music without a computer in my pad. Dawless hipsters original here, before it was cool (i didn’t even know it was an actual thing until recently haha)
I’ve found IG by far the least toxic of the main big three, I’ve never had a Twitter account, I got rid of my Facebook years ago because it was a toxic as fuck feedback loop, and it also caused a lot of drama for myself and people I knew…
I much prefer just talking to my actual friends in our WhatsApp or whatever, I’ve got enough people in my actual life that I interact with. Social
Media has become a scourge in so many respects, if it’s on it way out then I say good.
I only recently created an instagram account and am not sure yet how good it will be for me because I’m going through a phase of not caring and doing very little about music promotion (just focusing on creating). What I like about it so far though, more than fb and twitter is the fact that text feels less important than on twitter/facebook (feels a bit like soundcloud in that respect), so the music/video seems to speak more for itself (experienced users, correct me if I’m wrong as I haven’t used it very much yet). This comes from the fact that when I’m on it, I’ll just watch stuff and like it without looking for any description (I also enjoy this more).
I see the same thing on Twitter. I swear every 3rd post is sponsored content, it’s ridiculous. The entire thing has become wholly inorganic which is completely counter to what even drew anyone there in the first place. It’s done and it was never worth anything in the first place.
