The music industry is an ever shifting landscape that, like everything else, adapts to the times and the world around it. With the Coronavirus pandemic still raging on, the world of music has shifted and highlighted some exciting new music industry trends. Let’s take a look at what 2021 music industry trends you should look out for!
2021 Music Industry Trends To Look Out For
Indie ‘Bedroom’ Artists
With the need for record labels having diminished in recent years, more independent or ‘bedroom’ artists are emerging. These independent artists are recording in home studios and bedrooms, and self-releasing via music distribution services. In most cases, they are also doing their own artwork, production, promotion… and anything else you can think of. Using various social media platforms, indie artists are going viral left right and center. Sometimes, this is even with their first ever releases! Listeners love to stumble across the next big thing whilst the artist is still underground, and its amazing as a fan to see indie artists finally receiving the recognition they deserve!
Livestreaming
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the music industry has had to follow suit in adapting to a fully digital world. Artists are hosting livestreams for Q&A’s, giving intimate performances, introducing future releases, streaming gigs and more! Whether the platform is Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok, livestreaming on social media channels allows millions of people to congregate digitally. Fans of today look to connect personally with musicians where possible, and this is one great way to take advantage of this and get your fans involved. In short, if you’re not using livestreaming to connect with your audience and keep your fans engaged, you’re missing out!
Genre Fusions & Collaborations
More so than ever, musical collaborations and genre-bending is popular with listeners. Take the viral success of Lil Nas X’s country hip-hop mash up Old Town Road, or Meghan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s collaborative hit WAP. Audiences love to see their favorite artists collaborating, and are more open-minded than ever when it comes to experimentation with genres. It’s why tons of artists release remixes of popular songs, and why featuring on another artist’s track can help to raise your profile significantly. All the more reason to get creative and fuse some quirky genres!
Themed, Genreless Playlists
Audiences these days are less likely to create playlists based on specifics such as genre. Instead, a more fluid movement of genre crossover within playlists is becoming prevalent. Playlists are focused more on lifestyle and cultural tendencies, or creating ‘aesthetics’ with various tracks. Whether it’s a party playlist, a studying playlist, or a ‘walking in a field whilst it heavily snows at 8pm’ playlist, they are focused on feeling and capturing a moment.
Streaming Visuals: Music Documentaries & Visual Albums
In the same way that music videos took the world by storm in the 80s, music documentaries and visual albums are becoming more popular in the past few years. In recent times, stars such as Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga and Shawn Mendes have all tapped into this trend and combined their music with visuals, through documentaries and visual albums. This creates greater storytelling, adds another layer to keep listeners engaged, and interests audiences that are already fans of popular streaming services.
About Audiosocket
This article is all about 2021 music industry trends. Whether you’re an artist looking to stay ahead of the curve, or love to keep on top of what’s going on in the industry, we hope you found it helpful.
Audiosocket are a music licensing company that offer awesome tracks for audiovisual projects. Whether you’re a YouTuber, vlogger, Twitch streamer or social media content creator, you can find authentic, top-quality music at Audiosocket. Sign up today and access tens of thousands of songs to bring your vision to life! You can access Audiosocket’s music catalog for just $15 a month as a Personal creator. Not only that, but this allows you to license an unlimited number of tracks at no additional cost. Talk about win-win!
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