If musicians want to attract the interest of intermediaries (managers, A&R's, festivals, radio, etc) they need to create a ‘buzz’ around them, which in turn, presents them as subjects of value. Nowadays, with the rise of social media, the most common way of measuring 'value' is the amount of online followers, Facebook ‘likes’, Youtube views, Soundcloud plays, etc. Online following shows to potential gatekeepers (such as record labels) the commercial viability of the act, but also appeals to audiences as a mark of credibility; in an age where hundreds of digital EPs are released every week, it is hard to filter the good acts. The number of Youtube views, for example, acts as a previous validation and will attract new viewers, who will likely choose to click on the video with a million views, rather than the one with just a thousand. Of course, quality work is not necessarily popular, and popular doesn’t necessarily mean quality, but this has always happened, if we look at the opposition between mainstream and niche music.
Online popularity works both ways: one can have lots of views because they’re popular, and one can become popular because they have lots of views. A simple Google search reveals a big number of companies selling likes, subscribers, plays and even comments, against a small fee. ytview.com offers 1000 views for only $2, and 100 comments for $15. The website boasts ‘100% Satisfaction Guaranteed’, next to a caricatured version of PSY dancing ‘Gagnam Style’ (PSY’s video was the first ever to reach a billion views on YouTube). buildmyviews.org offers packages of as many as 100,000 views for $129, while encouraging its customers to ‘Gain YouTube views, gain respect!’
YouTube regularly checks if views are genuine, as buying views is against its terms and condition, so there is always the risk of video deletion. As Youtube has been owned by Google since 2006, they offer their own way of promotion, through Google Adwords for video.
The issue of Soundcloud fake plays is even more acute, since Soundcloud doesn’t seem to take any action against fake plays buyers. These can be easily spotted, through the discrepancy between the high number of plays and the lack of comments, or between plays and lack of Twitter and Facebook following. An interesting article on 5 Magazine, a website featuring news and reviews from the world of house music, exposes the case of a Soundcloud artist who inflated the plays of a track by 20.000 views and as a result got featured on multiple blogs and websites, such as Beatport or Traxsource, generating real traffic and real followers (Matthew, 2013).
By following conversations on Black Hat Forum (a forum dedicated to less orthodox SEO techniques) and seeing how these fake likes/play sellers communicate, how strategies and bots (software that can perform automatically simple human tasks, such as liking or following pages) are developed and tested, how Facebook fan pages are bought and sold, it became clear to me how buying views and followers is a real industry. This raises question marks towards the validity of this symbolic capital: in a world where careers are propelled on the basis of already existing popularity, if filters are flawed, who remains a gatekeeper of taste? It appears that even e-zines, or music blogs tend to feature music that already has gained some online following. On the other hand, these practices remind of a modern type of payola. With google Adwords for video, buying exposure is legal and real, but, accordingly, it’s more costly. To gain the hundreds of millions of views on a music video of superstars like Beyoncé, Rihanna or Taylor Swift, one would need to invest a huge amount. It would seem that, even in the online environment, record labels still have the monopoly on creating and maintaining superstars. Otherwise, how is it possible that new singles from popular artists reach millions of views in few days, when people are not even aware that a new promotional video has been released? Labels pay for promotion to get the ball rolling; grassroots marketing spreads the word, but only after the initial push, which is achieved with lots of money invested in Youtube promotion.
The research I've done on this subject made it apparent that in order to gain more fans or have a better chance of a positive answer when submitting for airplay/festivals/etc, I need more Youtube views! but for more Youtube views I need more fans and more exposure - it's a vicious circle. I have decided on two strategies to deal with the issue: 1) to try out Google Adwords for video; if it works well, I am considering saving a considerable amount of money (a minimum of £1000) and put it all in the promotion of one video 2) I will do some research into submitting tracks for promotion on dedicated Youtube channels.
References:
The research I've done on this subject made it apparent that in order to gain more fans or have a better chance of a positive answer when submitting for airplay/festivals/etc, I need more Youtube views! but for more Youtube views I need more fans and more exposure - it's a vicious circle. I have decided on two strategies to deal with the issue: 1) to try out Google Adwords for video; if it works well, I am considering saving a considerable amount of money (a minimum of £1000) and put it all in the promotion of one video 2) I will do some research into submitting tracks for promotion on dedicated Youtube channels.
References:
Matthew, T. (2013). How to Become a SoundCloud Superstar, One Fake Fan at a Time. Available at: http://5chicago.com/features/how-to-become-a-fake-soundcloud-superstar/ (Accessed 26.11.2015)
http://www.blackhatworld.com
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