All eyes, no ears Why virality is not building fandom

Over the last five years, labels and artists have invested in social media, betting that a steady stream of artist content and influencer campaigns will engineer virality. The theory is simple: virality leads to streams, streams lead to fandom, and fandom leads to long-term, sustainable artist careers. With fandom pivotal for sustainable growth, the music industry does not simply want this vision to work – it needs it to. However, cracks are showing in social’s social contract.

Artists such as Lola Young (‘Messy’), Chrystal (‘The Days’), and Kenya Grace (‘Strangers’) have all struck viral gold. Yet, despite generating hundreds of millions of streams, these tracks have not translated to uplift across their broader catalogues. People love these songs – why are they not exploring more from the artists? Why do viral hits not always deliver armies of fans? This is more than a music business dilemma. It is a fundamental question about the exchange rate between effort on social platforms and music fandom that results, and whether the benefits of virality flow more to platforms than to artists.

This complex question requires a sophisticated approach to answer it. We have employed a global study of 10,000 consumers and their discovery habits across platforms – illuminating not only how, why, and where discovery moments happen, but also what happens next. Discovery is not the goal, it is a means to an end. Although discovery does not pay the bills, it is what it leads to that does. 

It is clear that music discovery is at a generational crossroads. Music discovery is traditionally associated with youth, but today’s 16-24-year-olds are less likely than 25-34-year-olds to have discovered an artist they love in the last year – and less likely to listen to more music from that artist when they do. TikTok is gaining ground among the youngest users, and when they do engage with music on the platform, they often stay within the app’s walls. 

When songs hit peak virality, as with Lola Young and ‘Messy’, it is a clear win for the song.  In an industry betting on fandom, however, music discovery needs victories for the artists. In this study, we present the pitfalls and possibilities of a music discovery ecosystem that is ripe – if not desperate – for change.