Insights into social media and online digital music

This chapter investigates social media along with traditional assessment channels and their roles in music evaluation. For the current popular social media (such as Facebook and Twitter), marketing applications in the music industry are found to be limited. For certain specialized social media (social media sites specifically dedicated to music and audio sharing and product reviews and opinions), they are neither well known nor commonly used. More efforts to promote these social media are required to increase consumer awareness. This chapter also includes findings which describe consumers\u27 different attitudes about social media related to new artists and established ones. The use of traditional music evaluation channels and the use of social media are positively correlated. At present, social media do not significantly impact consumers\u27 music evaluations, but they do impact how much consumers are willing to pay for music products. Analysis of respondents\u27 statements about social media demonstrate that social media marketing applications potentially can have a great impact on digital music product evaluations and willingness to pay. Overall, findings indicate that the music industry should take better advantage of social media to influence consumers\u27 music evaluations and willingness to pay. Traditional channels and social media are correlated, indicating that the music industry should not neglect traditional channels while expanding the use of social media