The Screen is Your Stage
Getting your music recognized is about more than being who people expect you to be, it’s about being yourself. Photo by Julianne Littlefield
Did you ever dream of becoming famous? Nowadays, creators have more of a chance to sparkle from screens than the stage.
Walk through a coffee shop or head to the gym, and you’ll find people all around you watching music on their phones or listening with earbuds.
Sometimes I find a song that describes how I feel when I can’t find the words myself. It’s a great feeling. And with music being all over social media platforms, we can use these apps to share our great moments with others.
For those with a passion for music who want to get recognized, current methods are different than before. New musicians are showing up on our phones rather than the floor of some coffee shop’s open mic night.
The scene on YouTube
Music is a large part of YouTube. According to writer Grace Y. Choi, in 2017, nine out of 10 of the most viewed YouTube videos were music videos. Some of these videos had over a billion views at the time.
I can only imagine how these numbers have grown since.
Record labels also post YouTube videos, so content posted to YouTube by new creators can be recognized by producers.
Posting on YouTube to jump-start your music journey is a great option because it gives you a space to express yourself at no extra cost to you. And starting with cover songs can work too.
Instagram and TikTok
Instagram and TikTok are also advantageous platforms for musicians.
On Instagram, users can easily create and post reels, which is a plus for music creators. And you can add music, by searching Instagram's song library, to your photo posts on the mobile app.
This allows songs to get more popular once they’re published because they begin to be shared.
TikTok has taken it a step further with a newly released feature. According to Social Media Today, TikTok now allows users to add the songs they hear on TikTok videos directly to their music app of choice.
I can only imagine how this new feature will help newly published artists gain popularity; once a user finds a song they like, they can listen over and over on their favorite app.
Stay authentic
But, overall, while putting yourself out there on social media might be exciting, it should be approached with caution.
As author Rebecca Coates Nee reminds us, it's important to remain authentic while staying professional on social media. If you're presenting yourself differently than you really are, people are likely to find out. And this can damage your reputation.
References
Choi, G. Y. (2017). “Who Run the Music? Girls!” Examining the Construction of Female Digital Musicians’ Online Presence. Popular Music & Society, 40(4), 474–487.
Hutchinson, A. (2025, July 29). Tiktok adds YouTube music to its “add to music app” options. Social Media Today. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-adds-youtube-music-to-add-to-music-options/756245/
Nee, R. C. (2022b). Managing Your Image and Building Your Brand. In Social Media in the Digital Age: History Ethics and Professional Uses (Second, pp. 97–98). essay, Cognella, Inc.