Facebook's organic reach for business pages: 0.07% of followers per post. Instagram: similar. TikTok: volatile and declining. The strategy the music industry sold independent artists for a decade - build a social media following, go viral, grow your audience - was, at best, a lottery. At worst, it was a decade-long transfer of value from artists to platforms, enforced by the funding bodies that were supposed to support the sector. And it's no longer working for any of us.

67% of musicians report heightened anxiety linked to maintaining a social media presence. Gen Z is retreating from platforms they built their social lives on. Oxford named "brain rot" its 2024 Word of the Year. Social media is being recognised as the bunch of BS that it is.

The reckoning is here. But what comes after social media could be beautiful. What if it means genuine community engagement, direct artist-to-fan relationships, live music, independent radio, channels the artist owns. Not just a 'return to the before times', but a new economy - a caring economy - a well-being economy. Wouldn't that be just incredible?

Bandcamp has paid artists over a billion dollars in direct revenue. The model works. It just doesn't make a platform billionaire. And The Pack's OK with that.

New blog on what went wrong with the social media era of arts marketing, and what the artists who kept building real relationships in real places already knew.

👉 https://www.packmusic.au/blog/the-great-social-media-reckoning-why-arts-marketing-must-evolve-beyond-the-algorithm

#IndependentMusic #ArtsMarketing #SocialMedia #MusicIndustry #ArtistWellbeing #ThePackMusic #CommunityEngagement #MusicEconomy #ArtsPolicy