Social Media & The Entertainment Industry : LJ8

       This week's readings were very intriguing because it's something I think about often. Social media has affected the entertainment industry in various ways. Streaming services are starting to ruin the "going out and seeing a movie" experience, with digital media driving "46% of movie box office revenue, despite making up just 14% of studio marketing budgets" (Malnar, 2020). Likewise, music streaming services and traditional ways of promoting and showing music are being affected by social media. Record labels are already beginning to shift away from focusing on streaming services, saying "With an expanding number of partnerships including Facebook, Tiktok, and Snap, among others, social media is already a meaningful nine-figure revenue stream for us and is growing at a faster rate than subscription streaming (Ingham, 2020). 

    I believe there are pros and cons to this advancement. Before social media, famous people usually had connections or money to get into the industry. I love that social media has given ordinary people more chances to show their talents and personalities and potentially get famous off of it. However, I dislike how social media has affected the music industry and the entertainment industry in general. For a lot of artists, it's not as much about the artistry anymore. They have to become their own marketers and already have a social media following before a label signs them. They have to work more on promotion and make songs that can work as Tiktok audios instead of focusing on their art. With the way that algorithms work, you have to post consistent content in order to grow on social media. Artists and creatives tend to not work in ways that can produce consistent quality content every week for each platform. They usually like to take their time on a project, release things less frequently. This does not work with the social media marketing model and it is leading to a lot of artists and creatives experiencing burnout.

    I use social media to interact with many forms of broadcast media, including TV and music. I do not directly communicate with social media influencers outside of a comments on their post. Also, I don't communicate about influencers with others unless there is drama. I don't want to be an influencer and reading these readings have not changed my view on social media influencers. I've grown up on the internet and have gone through my teenage years during the rise of influencers. They've become a staple in social media and I'm accustomed to them being around. Because of this, I've already developed a good basis of beliefs and boundaries that I use to navigate social media. 

References:

Ingham, T. (2020, December 4). Social Media, not streaming, is the music industry's future. Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/social-media-tiktok-instagram-video-games-music-money-1097428/ 

Malnar , K. (2020, April 7). Social Media's impact on the entertainment industry. Mediatoolkit. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.mediatoolkit.com/blog/social-medias-impact-on-the-entertainment-industry/