Dissemination of Music

Sarah Scott

Where do you find your new music recommendations? I usually surf YouTube for new music and sometimes use Spotify or other music streaming services to find new music. But all in all I use YouTube because I like to see the bands I am listening to. I read an article on Mashable about how Instagram is becoming the new place to find new music. This article written by James Wellemeyer is entitled The best place to discover new music? Instagram. As I read the article, I realized that this really is true. I share music on Instagram all the time. Usually it’s along with an ASL cover of the song, but other times I listen to a song on Spotify and share it to my Instagram story. Today, I shared a song from Spotify and put it on my Instagram story.

Music has a way of connecting people. Through social media it is easy to share your favorite songs with your friends. The Mashable article shares some thoughts from different Instagram users. “Josie Milisci says she finds more new songs on Instagram than on Spotify because she “generally [doesn’t] like the music Spotify recommends.” She goes on to talk about how songs her friends share usually fit a certain mood that is more relatable than relying on Spotify to recommend songs that she will like. The article talks about how these songs that are shared are not even necessarily the major artists songs being shared. The article says that a lot of up and coming artists’ music is shared and found on Instagram. This was true for Josie Milisci, “Milisci has found a lot of up-and-coming or lesser known artists through Instagram stories.” At the beginning of the article it has several up and coming artists share that Instagram was the best place for their music to be discovered. The article quotes Maude Latour as saying, “My audience is my publicity team, and when people share songs on Instagram, it helps so much.” Often, I see bands re-sharing their fans’ Instagram stories where they shared the link to Spotify. The song I shared today was from the band Tenth Avenue North, who re-posted some of the fans’ Instagram shares on their own story.

Generally, I know what kind of music I want to listen to, but sometimes my friends will recommend songs that I will go and enjoy listening to. I then add these songs to a Spotify playlist so I can go back and listen to them. The Mashable article says, “More and more, it seems that Instagram is becoming a place for discovery, while Spotify is more the place you go to listen and catalog those discoveries.” Instagram has definitely become a major place where people share their favorite music, and where people find new songs that they might enjoy.