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Ebooks
DIY Music and the Politics of Social Media (2021)
This book shows that a platform-enabled DIY approach is now the norm for a wide array of cultural practitioners; this "DIY-as-default" landscape threatens to depoliticize the call to "do-it-yourself."
Music 4. 1 (2016)
Written for artists overwhelmed by the seemingly endless options of the quickly evolving Internet, this is the only book that offers a comprehensive strategy for online success.
Articles
Making Monsters: Lady Gaga, Fan Identification, and Social Media
Like her chart-breaking musical success, Lady Gaga's relationship with fans, built by her messages of self-acceptance and by her intense engagement with fans through social media, is unprecedented. Through one-on-one interviews with an international sample of 45 self-described Little Monsters, we explored this unusual fan-celebrity relationship and found that Lady Gaga's re-articulation of the negative connotations of "monster" enabled fans to use her as a mirror to reflect upon and embrace their differences from mainstream culture. We argue that social media amplify fan identification and raise questions about the changing nature of fan-celebrity relationships in a digital environment.
Building a Social Network for Success
This article proposes a framework for studying how a brand, firm, or individual can use networking activities to manage a social network and drive its success. Using data from ego networks of music artists, the article models how artists can enhance their social networking presence and stimulate relationships between fans to achieve long-term benefits in terms of music plays. The authors use a Bayesian modeling framework to model the heterogeneous and dynamic impact of networking activities on network structure and on music popularity, while relying on instrumental variables from another independent online social network to handle potential endogeneity. The results imply that artists can shape network structure via marketing activities and thereby achieve a long-term impact on success that far exceeds the direct and short-term impact in magnitude. Specifically, improving the density of ego networks enables long-term effects beyond those that stem from growth in network size.
Algorithmic (In)Tolerance: Experimenting with Beethoven’s Music on Social Media Platforms
Popular social media platforms, such as YouTube and Facebook, see insurmountable volumes of media uploaded every day. The extent of which cannot be feasibly monitored through human efforts alone to identify infringing activity. Such companies employ algorithmic methods to enforce copyright by removing or monetizing content on behalf of copyright owners; however, occasionally flagged material is misidentified as infringing. These instances represent a potential loss of income for independent artists by way of misappropriated revenue or removal of material, and time spent challenging automated decisions. This article discusses an experiment seeking to ascertain the false positive rate of YouTube’s Content ID and Facebook’s Rights Manager. This is put in the context of existing legal precedence in the United States, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Does social media pay for music artists? Quantitative evidence on the co-evolution of social media, streaming and live music
Recent commentaries on the music industry have emphasised the importance of social media in creating a monetisable fan base. However, no quantitative evidence yet exists regarding the correlation between social media follower numbers and artist income. Using a unique dataset of 255 artists signed to a large UK-based independent music publisher, we undertake growth curve modelling to provide a novel quantitative analysis of the correlation between following across major social media and streaming platforms and royalty income from music rights. Findings from our modelling suggest that while there is no correlation between numbers of followers on major social media platforms and an artist’s total royalty earnings, there is a strong correlation between numbers of followers and royalties from music streaming specifically.
Exploring the Impact of Social Media on the Music Industry—From Music Consumption and Discovery to Health and Wellness—And Developing a More Sustainable Future
This article delves into the multifaceted impacts of social media on the music world, emphasizing its potential toll on artist well-being. Proposing both industry-wide and artist-focused solutions, this research advocates for a balanced approach that prioritizes artists' mental health as the digital era advances.
YouTube and Music: Online Culture and Everyday Life (2023)
This first open access sustained exploration of YouTube and music shows how record companies, musicians and amateur users have embraced YouTube’s potential to promote artists and artistic culture online.
DIY Music and the Politics of Social Media (2021)
This book shows that a platform-enabled DIY approach is now the norm for a wide array of cultural practitioners; this "DIY-as-default" landscape threatens to depoliticize the call to "do-it-yourself."
The New Rules of Marketing and PR; Eighth Edition (2022)
Provides everything you need to speak directly to your audience, make a strong personal connection, and generate the best kind of attention for your business.
Music 4. 1 (2016)
Written for artists overwhelmed by the seemingly endless options of the quickly evolving Internet, this is the only book that offers a comprehensive strategy for online success.