{"id":977,"date":"2024-05-23T15:34:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T14:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feedbackmag.co.uk\/?p=977"},"modified":"2024-05-28T15:50:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T14:50:26","slug":"who-are-you-social-media-following-is-now-a-dealbreaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jusmedia.co.uk\/feedbackmag\/2024\/05\/23\/who-are-you-social-media-following-is-now-a-dealbreaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are you? Social media following is now a dealbreaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In todays music industry, talent alone isn’t enough to catch the eye of record companies. Record labels are increasingly starting to prioritise artists’ social media following before they consider signing them. What does this mean for the aspiring artists for instance, Sunda Blue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22-year-old Fred Greaves, from Merseyside, Liverpool is one of three members in aspiring band, Sunda Blue<\/em>.<\/a><\/strong> Feedback spoke to him about how social media nowadays can be a make it or break it part of a music career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the electronic alt-pop group is all about using social media, especially instagram and TikTok, to grow their fanbase and get their name out there. As an aspiring band, Sunda Blue found it tough playing gigs across the UK without a solid online following. They took a leap of faith, hit pause on playing live gigs, and put all their energy into mastering their social media game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE: How \u2018a drunken, mad weekend\u2019 with the ex-Catfish drummer birthed the band Hearts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe loose plan for the next 6 months is focusing on releasing and growing an online following before we think about playing shows again, because the benefit of an online following, for the amount of effort you put into preparing a live show, is not worth the growth at this point,\u201d said Fred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunda Blue’s dream outcome, like many other aspiring artists, is for the TikTok fame to translate into streams or following for their other platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fred Greaves, Photo: Fraser Wright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019m only making TikTok content because you have to. One of my friends actually, he is in a band called Dutch Criminal Record<\/a>,  big on TikTok, and off the back of it they have signed their first record deal. He says one of the first things you get asked when labels will come to you is and look at is how big you are on TikTok,” said Fred. “I think a big part of it is, they\u2019ve realised that TikTok is already a lot of the work that they would do, they wouldn\u2019t have to do for a lot of the artists because they\u2019re able to generate this audience without the support of a label, and all the money a label would throw at it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Valla is an up-and-coming alternative pop band from London, and like Sunda Blue, they leverage social media to build their fanbase. Even with a decent follower count, impressing record labels with numbers seems impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by The Valla (@thevallaband)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>