The Process of Branding a New Independent Popular Music Artist on Social Media

Abstract

This thesis examines the process of creating a new popular artist brand on social media. In the past two decades the music industry has gone through major changes and new technologies have enabled artists to emancipate themselves from labels, creating new means to generate income, distribute music and build a career. Social media has become an important tool to create artist brands and independent artists can utilize it to their benefit with very little resources. However, the branding process is not explicit and seems to vary from artist to artist. This thesis explores what is the branding process on social media, what factors influence the process and how artists perceive the branding process on social media.

The research was carried out as a qualitative case study, where five individual interviews were conducted with new independent popular artists who are at the beginning of their careers. An important framework for the chosen artists was that they are independent, thus not having a contract with a major label. As a result of the study, it can be said that there is no clear formula to the branding process of an independent popular music artist. However, it seems that the artists personal values are in the core of the process, as they are affecting the decision-making on social media content as well as the artist’s perception of branding.

Social media content was also inspired by their music. Thus, it could be concluded that music is one of the main influences in the branding process. Another important influence was resources, such as money, time and knowledge, as independent artists do not often have the support of a label. Critically examining, five cases do not provide enough data to draw definitive conclusions of the topic. In order to gain more insight on the topic I would suggest a wider study to be conducted, where more artists could be involved. Thus, some more reliable and clearer ideas about the branding process could be formed.