Music Marketing in the Digital Age: Building an Identifiable Personal Brand, Promoting Records and Adapting to Market Demands

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Music Marketing in the Digital Age: Building an Identifiable Personal Brand, Promoting Records and Adapting to Market Demands

Technological development brought a significant change in the industry of music, making the need for digital marketing, new promotion strategies and an artist's strong personal brand more vital than ever. This particular research attempts to answer the following questions: How does an artist build a recognizable and easily identifiable personal brand? How does an artist succeed in promoting their records? How does an artist adapt to market changes? The research is divided into three stages and implements two research methods. First, preferences of Russian music consumers are assessed through an online-distributed survey; second, existing practices in music marketing and branding are explored via in-depth interviews with five representatives of Russian music industry; third, an alignment between consumer preferences and implemented practices is investigated, aiming to suggest the most efficient marketing and branding tools and channels. Throughout the research, it was discovered that unique visual identity of an artist (their logo, the cohesive style of their social media, their merchandise products) and incorporation of both online and offline channels of advertising can boost their local presence, which is the first step to global recognition. This study also suggests that collaborations between several artists are a good tool to strengthen an artist's presence and grasp new audiences. Finally, the research provides insight into how Russian music artists adapt to changes in the demand for music services evoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the research can be applied by both professionals in the music industry and independent artists in order to better understand how to adjust their branding and marketing practices so that their efficiency is increased, how to strengthen their personal brand and presence and successfully communicate with their audience both online and offline.

Technological development, emergence of “participative web” and new social media significantly changed the way brands and customers interact (Jenkins, 2006). The transition from `electric age', when messages were predominantly communicated through mass broadcast, radio play and television, to `digital age' with its quick and easy online access to any type of content, visual, audial or written, was accompanied by a change in business practices (Dubber, 2011). The industry of music, too, is heavily influenced by new technology. The emergence of cloud technology, streaming platforms and online distribution channels undermined the recorded music industry, which previously perceived `music' as a product, physically tangible in the form of a vinyl disk, cassette or CD. In the digital age, music is perceived as content rather than a product, and revenue for music is no longer dependent on the number of physical albums sold. Artists can now generate revenue from simply `lending' their music to such streaming platforms as Apple Music and Spotify; 100 song streams are now equivalent to one traditional song sale (Hull et al., 2010; Wikstrom, 2014). Due to mass availability of recording equipment and software alongside the ease of distributing music online, musicians are no longer heavily dependent on record labels for music production and distribution. For the similar reason, industry entrance barriers become lower, yet in order to grasp attention in the realm of growing supply in the music market, more emphasis has to be put on personal branding and marketing. In the era of attention economy, where value is assigned to a capacity of attracting customer attention and “eyes” (Marwick, 2015), artists come across a situation in which they have to compete for audience's attention and engagement by incorporating a variety of branding and marketing mechanisms. Creating an easily recognizable and distinctive personal brand becomes a necessity; so does maintaining a relationship with your audience (Kucharska & Mikolajczak, 2018). Over the past few years, artists attempted to differentiate their product in the market through a variety of marketing mechanisms: from `cryptocurrency', as in a marketing campaign for Years and Years (Musically, 2018), to ASMR videos, as in marketing campaign for Lewis Capaldi's “Someone You Loved” (Musically, 2019).

Previous studies on branding in the digital age emphasize how important it is for artists to deploy a personal brand and communicate their personality to their audience through social media. The more their audience knows about them, the more their audience resonates with their values, the more likely their audience is to come back to their music and to stay loyal to their fanbase (Brooks & Anumudu, 2016; Labrecque et al., 2011). Nevertheless, any audience has to be acquired first, and this is where marketing comes in. Trends in music marketing are, too, heavily influenced by digitalization. Previous research emphasizes that in the current media environment, the importance of user-generated content is incredibly high (Dhar & Chang, 2009), viral marketing is one of the most efficient means of marketing - in fact, much more efficient than mass-marketing or target-marketing (Bampo et al., 2008) - and collaborations between musicians are a good way to grasp a bigger customer segment and gain attention (Ordanini et al., 2018).

Nevertheless, due to constant development of technology and quick emergence of new social platforms, trends in digital marketing rapidly change and research quickly becomes outdated, creating a gap for further research.

Coincidentally, at the same time the research was being conducted, COVID-19 pandemic broke out, affecting every area of everyday life. Simultaneously, it affected a variety of business markets, music market included.

According to the industry report provided by Music Ally (Dredge, 2020), in the first quarter of 2020, Sony Music showed impressive results, with revenue from the sales of music being 13.5% higher compared to the first quarter of 2019. Nevertheless, the pandemic resulted in a series of negative consequences for both Sony Music and music industry in general. First of all, music releases were delayed, primarily due to the fact that many artists were not able to record new music and shoot new music videos, as explained by financial analyst Hiroki Totoki. Besides, sales of CDs and other physical media declined due to restrictions on businesses; due to the global decline in advertising costs, the revenue of streaming services supported by advertising, too, decreased. Provided the COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact on film and television industry, delays in the production of films and television shows resulted in lower revenues from licensing music.

As streaming became the primary source of revenue in the industry, the pandemic had the most detrimental effect on the markets where the proportion of streaming revenues in the overall revenues was really low (such as those in Japan and Germany) (Dredge, 2020).

Russian music market, too, experienced negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (Zavyalov, 2020). Concert industry both in Russia and worldwide was massively affected by the pandemic. Artists had to cancel shows and thus, those artists whose revenue mostly depended on live concerts experienced detrimental losses. Zavyalov (2020) suggested that while rap artists could rely on streaming revenues, the situation was different for rock musicians, whose main income were concerts. Not only the artists were affected by the cancellation of shows, but also people involved in the concert industry in general. Hence, the activity of the Kassir.ru ticket operator (with nearly 700 employees working for them) had been suspended, resulting in financial losses for both the company and their employees (Zavyalov, 2020).

Due to a mass cancellation of live shows and thus, detrimental impact of the pandemic on the live music market, a number of artists adjusted their means of engaging with their audience via transferring their concerts from offline venues to popular online game platforms. For instance, famous British pop singer Charli XCX held an online concert on the server of a popular online game Minecraft (Knecht, 2020). Similarly, American rapper Travis Scott held a concert in Fortnite game, attracting 12.3 million players to watch his performance. The concert was also broadcasted on Twitch and YouTube, which resulted in an even higher number of spectators (Meduza, 2020).

At the same time, according to data provided by Spotify, people had begun to listen to music less during the pandemic (Quartz, 2020). Regarding the situation in Russia specifically, Warner Music Russia were not able to measure how the pandemic would affect streaming performance. “The data is scarce and inconsistent,” said Olga Kim, the label's general director of business and external affairs, emphasizing that it was difficult to evaluate the possible decline in streaming revenues caused by the pandemic (Zavyalov, 2020).

Thus, due to COVID-19 pandemic, music market has experienced a huge shift in the way it operates; hence, its activity must be adjusted to this occurring shift. To meet the changing demands of music consumers, artists are required to alter their supply.

Hence, this particular research aims to answer the following research questions: How does an artist build a recognizable and easily identifiable personal brand? How does an artist succeed in promoting their records? How does an artist adapt to market changes? (On the basis of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemics). The research will focus on the music industry in Russia, exploring preferences of Russian audience alongside current practices and trends implemented by Russian artists; it will also explore whether existing marketing and branding practices align with customer preferences and suggest ways to improve the alignment.

The first section of the research will examine existing literature on the topic of marketing, music business, digitalization, branding, etc.; it will also explore previous studies conducted in the similar field. The results of the existing research will be structured (in the research, an overall of 48 sources are cited), a gap in the existing research will be defined, and the most important results will be used as a basis for this particular research.

Then, a survey will be conducted in order to understand Russian people's behaviour, preferences and tendencies in the consumption of music and music-related content. The survey will aim to obtain information on people's attitudes towards an artist's personal brand and its alignment with their stage presence, the channels through which people discover new music and new artists, their motivations behind sharing and engaging with music-related content online, their preferences in consuming music-related content, etc. Once the information is obtained, descriptive statistics will be used to distinguish common tendencies and describe a general portrait of a Russian music consumer. The research will then proceed to the interviews with musicians, producers or music managers; it is anticipated that throughout the interviews, information on marketing and branding practices currently implemented by them, the channels through which they reach out to new audiences and maintain contact with existing audiences, the channels though which they promote their music, etc., will be obtained. The results of the interviews will be structured and then compared to the findings of the survey. On the basis of this comparison, the research questions will be answered. The research contains an approximate of 57 pages.

This research aims to fill the gap in existing research by doing the following:

Accounting for currently popular media platforms and trends (these differ from those popular before and may differ from those that will be popular in the future; as of February 2020, for instance, TikTok is one of the most influential UGC platforms with 800 million monthly active users worldwide (Doyle, 2020));

Exploring Russia's music industry, which changes rapidly due to constant emergence of new artists, new technology (local streaming services, etc.) and new generation of listeners. Currently, there is a huge gap in research focused on Russia specifically;

Filling the gap in previous studies on personal branding for musicians in particular. Although a number of studies on personal branding in general is available, there is a lack of research that focuses on personal branding in the music industry.

This research can be considered applied and has a practical implementation; it aims to provide musicians, music marketers and other people involved in the music industry with a better understanding of customer needs, preferences and behavioral patterns alongside an overall picture of current marketing and branding trends within the industry. It will, thus, offer them a better understanding of how to increase the efficiency of their branding and marketing practices. By aligning their practices with customer needs, preferences and behavioral patterns, they will be able to implement new, more effective marketing techniques that will help them adjust the channels through which the audience is reached and thus, acquire a bigger and more loyal audience, as well as a better established, easier recognizable personal brand.

Theoretical foundation

Definition of “Music industry”

First, “music industry” itself should be given a definition. Music industry can be defined as `an industry based on the creation and exploitation of music-based intellectual properties' and is comprised of activities associated with music recording, music publishing and live performance (Hull et al., 2010; Wikstrom, 2014).

Wikstrom (2014) divides music industry into three sub-industries:

1. The recorded music industry -- the main focus of which is to record music and to deliver it to the customer via diverse distribution channels;

2. The music licensing industry -- the predominant activity of which is to license compositions and arrangements to businesses;

3. Live music industry -- the focus of which is to organize and promote live entertainment (concerts, tours, festivals, etc.).

In the book `The music business and recording industry: Delivering music in the twenty-first century' (Hull et al., 2010: 31), the emergence of recorded music industry in the commercial market is associated with the emergence of first commercial musical recordings in 1889.

By 1929, the music industry had become a major consumer business with annual sales of approximately $75 million. In early 1930s, RCA Victor introduced the first mass-oriented 331?3 RPM, or revolutions per minute, record player, but the Great Depression, which began in 1929, undermined the sales greatly, affecting the industry in a negative way. In 1950s, however, LPs (or `long plays' recorded on 12- or 10-inch diameter vinyl disks and characterized by a rotational speed of 331?3 RPM, or revolutions per minute) and 45s (or `singles' recorded on relatively smaller 7-inch vinyl disks; their RPM was equal to 45 compared to LP's RPM of 331?3) became widespread (“The History of Vinyl”, 2014; “Why Do Records Spin at 33 1/3 RPM?”, 2017).

The 1950s were characterized by the emergence of new record labels, the introduction of stereo recording and consequently, the transition to a heavily concentrated mass-market with rapidly expanding mass music consumption.

In 1982, CDs (or `compact disks') were introduced. According to the New York Times (Pareles, 1986), the sales of 45-RPM singles decreased significantly during the 1980s, accompanied by fluctuating demand for albums on vinyl disks. The sales of cassettes and CDs, on the contrary, increased.

Before that, 45-RPM singles were widely purchased by jukebox owners; jukeboxes were considered a great promotional vehicle for records. Nevertheless, by 1986, the number of licensed jukeboxes in the United States decreased to just under 95,7 thousand (compared to an approximate of 145 thousand in 1978, the number was smaller by 50 thousand).

Although the number of singles' sales still indicated whether the song was likely to be played by a radio station, the purchase behavior of customers changed. Previously, a customer would buy an average of four to five albums and a couple of singles, but in 1986, a typical customer bought three or four cassettes instead (Pareles, 1986).

Record labels, however, perceived the shift in the consumption pattern as an opportunity to increase their revenue. When singles were no longer available for purchase, it was guaranteed that consumers would buy a full album instead of just one song and, as a consequence, generate more revenue (Burgess, 2014).

With the development of the Internet, music became accessible from digital platforms. The economic crisis of the early 2000s and then of 2007-2008 alongside the emergence of digital music undermined the recorded music industry, negatively affecting physical sales. Record sales in the United States dropped from $14.6 billion to $8.5 billion during the period from 1999 to 2008 (Hull et al., 2010: 29). Online piracy became widespread, and new business models for legal online music distribution were required; first streaming platforms emerged (Wikstrom, 2014).

Figure 1. Evolution of music industry (Hull et al., 2010)

Trends in music industry

In this following section, current trends in music industry will be explored based on the Global Music Report provided by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (2020). This is to be done in order to take a deeper look into the industry and get a better understanding of the latest changes in the situation within the music market.

The following trends could be recognized.

In 2019, global market for recorded music grew by 8.2%, this growth has been continuing for 5 years. This growth is mainly associated with an increase in the involvement of music lovers with paid streaming services. By the end of 2019, the number of accounts on streaming platforms with purchased streaming subscription has reached 341 million, and the corresponding income from streaming increased by 24.1%.

Revenue from digital downloads (excluding streaming), on the other hand, decreased by 15.3%. Such a decrease can be explained by a sharp decrease in digital purchases across different digital marketplaces.

Regarding income from physical sales, in 2019, it experienced a decrease of 5.3%. However, physical sales still comprised approximately a fifth of the total market. Moreover, the decline was not as significant as in 2018 (-10.3%). In addition to this, some countries experienced an increase in income from physical sales (for example, in the United States of America, the largest music market, physical income increased by 3.2%, and in the Spanish music market - by 7.2%). Global revenues from the sales of vinyl records grew by 5.3%, making up 16.4% of all physical income.

In the beginning of 2020, the focus of recording companies and labels was shifted to creating a sustainable and reliable music environment in global markets, which was recognized as of big importance considering the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected all areas of music industry, especially the market for live music. Alongside investing in artists and their music, recording companies worked on improving their infrastructure and their human resources. Labels and record companies continued to work on finding ways to support their artists during the crisis and developing strategies of recovery.

Definition of “Digital age”

Dubber (2011, p. 19-24) suggested that in the industry of media, the following five periods can be recognized based on technologies (or the lack of technologies) used in each:

Oral age - when messages were communicated through oral speech;

Scribal age - when the increase in the level of literacy allowed people to transmit messages through handwriting and reading; books were being copied by hand, sheet music appeared;

Print age - when the first printing machines were introduced, allowing for the mass-production of books;

Electric age - when the messages could be communicated not only in writing but also through audio or images; mass broadcast emerged, followed by the introduction of television shows and radio airplay; mass production of music and films became widespread, providing people with an access to their favorite films and music recorded on vinyl, cassettes, compact disks, etc.

Digital age - when the development of the Internet provided for the opportunity to produce, distribute and access media through computers and web.

Although the music industry follows the overall historic trend for media industries and corresponds with the periods described above, some authors suggest a more industry-specific classification. Hull et al. (2010, p. 30) distinguished the following three periods, or `ages', of music:

Agricultural age

The `agricultural age' was characterized by live performances. Music was performed in real time by orchestras, folk musicians, troubadours. It was the era of composers, and transcribing music to sheet was the only means of music recording.

Industrial age

Industrialization and Industrial Revolution resulted in growing scale of music instrument production, making both music instruments and equipment more accessible. By the late 1800s, music recording emerged alongside music printing and publishing. Throughout the `industrial age' of music, the focus of the industry was dedicated mainly to the production of a final physical product: vinyl disk, cassette, compact disk, etc.

Information (or digital) age

The `digital age' is characterized by the perception of music as content instead of a product. The `information', or `digital', age of music is associated with digital music, online streaming platforms, online distribution channels, etc.

Figure 2. Three periods of music (Hull et al., 2010, p. 30)

One of the distinctive characteristics of the `digital age' is that in the `digital age' of music, music businesses do not have to sell a copy of a song to generate revenue - with the emergence of streaming platforms, they can profit from simply `lending' their music to customers, or providing them with access to their music library for a limited period of time at a monthly subscription fee (Wikstrom, 2014).

Participative web and user generated content

One of the main features of the contemporary Web is the emergence of “participative web”, defined by OECD (2007, p. 17) as “a concept used to describe the more extensive use of the Internet's capabilities to expand creativity and communication”. It is comprised of web services and online platforms which enable and encourage users to contribute to the creation of digital content via sharing and leaving reviews and comments on existing content or producing their own user generated content (UGC). In the participative web, `media producer' and `media consumer' are no longer perceived as separate roles, enabling Internet users to actively participate in the online culture (Jenkins, 2006).

User generated content (UGC) is defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p. 61) as “the sum of all ways in which people make use of Social Media; the various forms of media content that are publicly available and created by end-users”. Blogs, microblogs, social media feed, wikis and music-, video- and picture-sharing platforms are some of user generated content platforms (Lobato, 2012, p. 28). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007) specifies three criteria based on which UGC can be identified:

The work is published online and can be publicly accessed via the Internet (although can sometimes be aimed at smaller audiences or closed communities);

Creative effort is required to either produce new content or modify previously existing content; work is given additional value by the means of creative effort;

The content is created “outside of professional routines and practices” for non-commercial purposes. Users are typically driven by their desire to express themselves or connect with fellow users - not by profit or remuneration.

OECD (2007, p. 34) recognized the following types of music and audio content as `user-generated': “User-created audio content on the Internet varies widely, ranging from the combination of two or more songs into a single track to the posting of self-created music by amateur musicians to creating a radio-like broadcast show that users can subscribe to (i.e. podcasts)”.

Definition of “Marketing” for the music industry

In 2017, American Marketing Association (AMA) suggested the following definition of `Marketing': “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (“What is Marketing? - The Definition of Marketing - AMA”, 2017).

Marketing in the music industry is comprised of a number of activities that include sales (retail) promotion, radio promotion, publicity, video promotion, merchandizing, grassroots marketing, corporate sponsorships, tour support, etc. (Hull, 2010, p. 229).

Definition of “Personal branding”

Personal branding is defined as “the distinctive presentation of a person's character and capacity” (Brems et al., 2017, p. 456). In an online environment, personal branding refers to “self-presentation in computer-mediated environments using social networking profiles, blogs, and personal Web pages” (Labrecque et al., 2011, p. 44).

Industry plants

When exploring branding practices, one can come across “generic branding”, also referred to as “industry plants”. As defined by Rindner (2020), “Industry plant” is a popular term which refers to artists who continuously gain loyal audience but have neither a clear background nor a history of formation - in other words, appear out of nowhere. Such artists often get their unique distinctive sound and visual aesthetics at the expense of the production team and the label. Provided their songs are actively promoted through playlists on streaming platforms and the radio, people perceive “industry plants” to be musicians whose success in the industry is based solely on their connections or the large amount of money invested into them.

According to Rindner (2020), the origin of the term is difficult to track yet back in 2012, such famous artists as Lil Wayne and 50 Cent were accused of being “industry plants”. He suggests that before the emergence of the Internet, artists would always appear from nowhere and it took time for audience to understand which of the artists gained popularity only because of their personal connections within the industry. However, due to the technological development, the industry has become more transparent to the audience, and more emphasis is now put on the authenticity of an artist. Hence, listeners may become suspicious when in their recommendations, their news feed or in other media sources they come across a previously unfamiliar artist who has “never appeared on their personal radar”.

In order to understand what an industry plant really is and why this concept has been of interest among people over the past years, Rindner spoke to eight artists, journalists and industry representatives.

Noah Callahan-Bever (entrepreneur, former CCO of Complex/EVP of Def Jam Recordings) suggested that in the past, there was no way for fans to learn about an artist other than through record labels. The publication and mention of the artist in the media were the first acquaintance of an audience with an artist, although by the time they were signed by a label, some artists had often had years of hard work behind. Hence, artists appearing out of nowhere were a common practice, and few people perceived the sudden appearance of a previously unknown artist as something unacceptable or suspicious.

Nevertheless, the perception of an artist as an industry plant may be attributed to their lacking background in music. For instance, a Californian rapper “Guapdad” made his debut with an album which featured many famous artists on its tracks, including such famous American Hip-Hop artists as Tory Lanez, 6LACK, Chance the Rapper, G-Eazy, Buddy and Denzel Curry. Although he was not familiar to the audience when he released his first album, he had already entered the industry by then through a different channel. For instance, he participated in the project “Revenge of the Dreamers III (music album from the label Dreamville Records)” and starred for a number of popular publications. Moreover, a rather important role was played by the fact that he toured with many artists from Earthgang to Jack Harlow and Thundercat; by doing those activities ahead of debuting with his solo project, he was able to gain connections within the industry which were later utilized during the production of his debut album (Rindner, 2020).

The topic of “industry plants” was also explored by Sunidhi Sridhar in his article, “The Significance of “Industry Plants” in the Music Community” (2019). In the article, he aimed to answer whether it mattered if the actual history of an artist's origin corresponded with a story presented to the audience. According to his research, accusations of artists being industry plants rarely had a significant negative impact on their careers. For example, Lizzo's “Truth Hurts” album was positioned in the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five weeks, and Post Malone's “Hollywood's Bleeding” album was being massively streamed in 2019, outweighing other artists in the number of streams. Both artists at the beginning point of their careers were perceived as “industry plants”, yet regardless of the truth behind their origin, they managed to gain a loyal fan base that supported them and listened to their music because they genuinely enjoyed it.

During a more detailed examination of the industry, it became clear that a lot of artists had experienced a particularly successful year at some point in their careers, with their music completely dominating the biggest top charts; Lizzo and Post Malone were two of those artists. Popular artists are often signed to major music labels, which provide them with a wide variety of instruments and support, thus, allowing for greater opportunities and easier access to resources and connections; by utilizing those resources, artists are more likely to achieve monopolization of the industry. It does not, however, mean that an artist is “generic”. Neither does it matter how limited or incomplete an artist's background story is as long as his music appeals to the listeners. Accusations that a particular artist is a generic “industry plant” negatively impact a rather small proportion of people and do not typically interfere with the overall success of an artist (Sridhar, 2019).

Previous research on marketing

In this next part, an analysis of previous research in the field of digital marketing and music marketing is conducted in order to evaluate the main findings on advertising strategies.

The first section focuses on the role of user-generated content and viral marketing in advertising.

Virality is defined as obtaining a large number of views over a short period of time due to sharing and reposting (Tellis et al., 2019). Viral marketing refers to marketing strategies that encourage individual users to share advertised content via eWOM (electronic word of mouth, also referred to as `word of mouse' and `word of web') (Bampo et al., 2008).

In their research, Tellis et al. (2019) assessed the factors behind virality via exploring the motivations of users to share content; according to them, motivations can typically be divided into three following categories: self-serving, social and altruistic. Interestingly, results showed that users were more likely to share content that presented new information and thus, made them appear more acknowledgeable and acquainted with the trends in the market. Hence, users were likely to share content for “social” purposes - to look better in the perception of their followers, friends, etc.

According to Bampo et al. (2008), efficiency of a viral marketing campaign depends on three factors: the structure of the digital platform through which the message is shared (the convenience of content sharing via reblogging, forwarding the message, etc.), the behavioral pattern of the users (their general tendency to share content, comment on the content, etc.), and a “seeding strategy that initiates the process”, or the content itself. In their research, they emphasized the importance of `word of mouse' over mass marketing. According to the research, the level of user exposure to content (the number of times it appeared on their social media feed) was not directly connected with the level of user interaction (views, likes, clicks or reposts); however, if the content was initially shared (through forwarded messages or reblogs) by their friends or acquaintances, it was likely that the users would interact with it. Thus, for a viral marketing campaign to succeed, it is essential that the audience is encouraged to share the content with their friends or social media followers.

A research by Susarla, Oh, And Tan (2016) supported the previous idea by suggesting that to succeed in an online marketing campaign, exploiting network ties is essential. These network ties, in accordance with the researchers, can be built via actively engaging with followers, or audience, on social media and thus, enhancing their loyalty. Hence, if a brand manages to encourage consumer loyalty, followers will be intrinsically motivated to share content with their friends or followers when a new marketing campaign or product are introduced. This way, network will continuously expand, resulting in virality. Summing up, they suggest that a marketing campaign will lead to better success if a brand initially aims to establish more profound relationship with their already established audience instead of switching their target at new audiences.

Direct connection between album sales and user generated content posted on social media and blogs prior to the release of an album was recognized by Dhar and Chang (2009). According to their research, blog `chatter' was a helpful tool in predicting album sales; higher number of user posts result in higher awareness among Internet users and thus, higher number of sales (or streams, or downloads). They also noticed that this connection was stronger for: genres which are popular with younger audiences; genres which are not typically covered by mainstream media. However, their research showed that it was significantly more difficult for debut artists to create `buzz' on social media than it was for already established artists. Besides, as major record labels started to comprehend the influence of UGC on the level of sales, blog posts were at risk of becoming highly manipulated by the record labels.

One good example of UGC importance in music marketing would be the promotional campaign preceding the release of `Youngblood', third studio album by an Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer, in 2018. The main aim of the campaign was to create `buzz' on such social media platforms as Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. The band uploaded a tweet featuring a teaser for the first music video of their new album and, to encourage the production of user-generated content, replied with a direct message to every user who engaged with the tweet. This resulted in 145% increase in average daily engagement (views, clicks, etc.), 335% increase in daily likes and a 628% increase in average daily mentions. Alongside the tweets, a Snapchat filter featuring a 5SOS song, `Youngblood', was created; over the course of three days, the filter was viewed almost 200 million times, which resulted in a number of Shazams (song recordings through a song-recognition software called `Shazam') exceeding average (“Musically”, 2018).

Another example of incorporating virality into a marketing campaign is a marketing campaign preceding the release of a new single by Mabel, an England-based female singer, which aimed at increasing the singer's presence among young female audience. The primary mechanism for that was achieving the virality of a song through TikTok. By uploading a 15-second snippet a day ahead of a launch date and by encouraging a number of social media influencers to record a TikTok video to the song, they managed to increase the awareness of the audience towards Mabel and get over 250 thousand user generated TikTok videos (Musically, 2019).

The role of incentives in UGC creation is illustrated well by the following example. For the release of `Somebody Special', the first single of an upcoming album by Nina Nesbitt, her fans were asked to create Valentine Day-themed playlists featuring `Somebody Special' and share them with their friends; one incentive to doing that was a `stream to unlock' model of the release of a music video to the song. The date for the video release was not specified; instead, Nina's management specified a number of song streams required for the video to be released. This way, the song was shared actively across social media. As a result of this campaign, Nina's Spotify streams increased from 615 thousand a month to 4-5 million (“Musically”, 2018).

This next section focuses on the factors behind song popularity. The research conducted by Ordanini et al. (2018) showed that combining artists of different genres on one record increases a song's popularity. According to them, not only does «featuring credit» increase attention towards artists but also helps artists focused on a specific genre to contribute variety and appeal to the audience while retaining their unique style. On a featuring track, artists combine their talents to create a noticeably hybridized product, therefore increasing its likelihood to appear in top charts.

Several approaches to featuring are recognized. First, there may be collaborations between two artists working in the same genre such as collaborations between hip-hop/rap artists (example: “Drip Too Hard” by Lil Baby featuring Gunna). Second, there may be features between artists with unsimilar signature sound; they erase boundaries, combining completely different elements of genres (example: "Groupie Love" by Lana Del Rey featuring A$AP Rocky). A song that features a guest artist from another genre is more likely to enter the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. The greater the discrepancy between the genres is, the greater is the likelihood that the song will achieve extraordinary success in charts (Ordanini et al., 2018).

The importance of distinctive sound in success of an artist was also explored by Askin and Mauskapf (2017). In their research, they managed to prove that a song was more likely to compete for top position in a music chart if its typicality index was lower than average (or, in other words, if it differed in genre or sound). Nevertheless, a substantially different sound reduced its chance to score a top position. They, supporting the findings of Ordanini et al. (2018), suggested that a combination of different genres within a song led to more expansive audience appeal and thus, increased the chances for a song to be positioned in a top of a chart.

A study conducted by Lynn et al. (2016) explored whether the popularity of a song (determined by the collective number of its downloads on music platforms and cumulative rating, from 1 to 5 stars) affected the private perception of its likeability. Researchers suggested that the influence of popularity would be higher for objectively less likable, lower quality songs. The results showed that the perception of a song still depended significantly on listeners' intrinsic preferences, especially regarding those songs that were rated as “four-star” or “five-star”. Nevertheless, for songs of lower quality, the effect of popularity was substantially higher, and audience were more likely to adjust their intrinsic perception based on extrinsic opinions - authors referred to this effect as a “likability halo”.

Lacher (1989) emphasized that the consumption of music by an individual depended on whether an individual did or did not experience strong emotional connection to the music; thus, even if a song was well-produced, it did not guarantee commercial success unless it evoked strong emotional response. Similarly, strong emotional response (the feeling of “happiness”) to music positively affects an individuals' intention to attend a concert and re-experience this feeling live, even if an individual is not well familiar with this music (Kawase & Obata, 2015).

Lamberton and Stephen (2016) conducted a secondary research aiming to explore the trends in digital, social media and mobile marketing; the research showed that the efficiency of online marketing was highly dependent on external offline environment. Andrews et al. (2015) provided evidence that in busy, crowded environments (for example, on trains or public transport) people used their mobile phones more yet at the same time, did not have a specific purpose for the use and thus, mindlessly scrolled through their feed. During that period, the level of their engagement and response to online advertising was higher than on average. Thus, it was suggested that “digital” and “non-digital” advertising should not supplant but instead complement each other. Finding ways to incorporate “new media” into previously existing marketing models is required in order to create more value for customers and maximize their engagement.

Finally, existing cases in music marketing show that a great vehicle to drive audiences' attention towards an artist's brand is by redirecting their attention from other sources. For instance, a marketing campaign for M.O, an England-based group, and, more specifically, their new original single, involved posting YouTube videos of the band covering top-chart songs. By picking songs that people liked, they aimed at virality. As a result, M.O drew mass attention of people towards their videos and thus, their YouTube channel, managing to gain over 3.7 million views on the music video for their new single (Musically, 2018).

Existing research on marketing practices shows that in the era of digital technology and social media, the importance of user-generated content in marketing campaigns is vital, and `word of mouse' advertising, where users share content with their friends, may be more effective than mass, or targeted, advertising. Nevertheless, users need some external motivation (some incentives, for instance) for spreading, engaging with existing content and creating their own. Interestingly, among internal factors that motivated users to share content on their social media, their desire to maintain their social identity was distinguished as the most determinant factor. Some previous studies also emphasize how important collaborations between the artists are for extending the audience and grasping a bigger audience segment, and how a combination of different genres within one song could lead to its better commercial success. It is also highlighted that advertising should not be solely digital but instead incorporated in an external environment and taking into consideration behavioral patterns of target customers.

Previous research on branding

This next section focuses on the previous studies in the field of personal branding. Drea Achacoso (2014) explored the aspects of brand identity by studying the branding of new emerging artists. In order to understand which design, media and album/single covers can effectively represent genre and artist's distinctive style as well as deliver vision to the audience, she developed brand identity for a rock group and surveyed potential audience. The results proved that a unique visual style gives artists an additional opportunity to become recognizable, helps to achieve a positive first impression and establish a well-known trademark which will further motivate fans to purchase albums, buy merchandise and attend concerts.

Labrecque et al. (2011) explored the subject of online personal branding. They emphasized how personal branding, similarly to corporate branding, helped people differentiate themselves from others, capture their uniqueness and maximize value brought to their target audience. They suggested that uncareful information disclosure could result in negative outcomes and thus, significantly harm a personal brand and professional status. According to them, separation of social and professional worlds in an online environment is required to avoid the risks that could emerge for individual reputation.

A reputation of an artist is, too, an indispensable part of their brand. In their research, Zhou and Whitla (2013) tried to analyze the influence of negative celebrity publicity on the consumer attitude towards their products. According to the research, a “transfer of emotion” from celebrity to their advertised product occurred. Thus, in case of negative celebrity publicity, audience were likely to transfer their negative perception of the celebrity personally to their product. Nevertheless, the research showed that although the impact did occur, there was no direct significant damage. Hence, to some extent, people perceived celebrity and their product as separate. The research also showed that the effect of negative publicity could be mediated by attributing bad behavior of a celebrity to external social factors (i.e. those factors which were outside their control).

Molyneux (2014) conducted a study on online branding for journalists, according to which an interaction between a famous person and their audience on social media is necessary to establish a personal brand. Reblogs, replies and mentions help demolish a “wall” between a person behind the brand and their audience, which results in increasing sense of “intimacy” and loyalty to the brand.

Research by Kucharska and Mikoajczak (2018) showed that the level of one's creative performance and professional success was dependent on the way they identified themselves. Professional success was higher for people who identified themselves as a `personal brand' than for people who saw their art as a separate product and distinguished themselves from their art.

Hackley (2015) claims that branding is a basic requirement rather than a strategic tool; according to him, artists must by default have a website, logo and tracks uploaded to streaming services, and those components of web presence do not guarantee any success. Success, nevertheless, is rooted in understanding these components and implementing a branding approach that includes recognizability, integrity, continuity, creativity and quality.

An important part of artists' brand is their stage presence, which is proved to significantly influence fans' individual intentions to attend live concerts. Fans are more likely to go see an artist live if they perceive their live shows as a unique “once in a lifetime” opportunity. Put simply, fans are more interested in seeing live those musicians who each time offer a varied altered concert program with unique visual elements, unique interaction with the audience, etc. (Brown & Knox, 2016).

A substantial compound element of an artists' personal brand and musical identity is their merchandise products. According to a research by Brown and Knox (2016), fans appreciate it when they are provided with an opportunity to purchase a band's or an artist's merchandise; via purchasing merchandise, they feel closer to their favorite musician, experience a stronger feeling of “intimacy”, which leads to increasing fan loyalty. Nevertheless, although some fans do appreciate an opportunity to buy merchandise via the Internet, majority reports that it is the concert venues where they typically purchase merchandise (as a souvenir or to maintain their musical identity). Merchandise is reported to be an “impulsive” purchase.

A study by Chiou, Huang and Chuang (2005) shows that people's individual intention to purchase merchandise of a particular celebrity (if those people themselves do not have a strong opinion on the celebrity) is affected by the attitude towards this celebrity expressed by society; this way, by increasing their exposure to an artist's merchandise products, it is possible to encourage them to purchase their own merchandise and form a more positive opinion towards the artist.

Overall, a conclusion may be drawn that creating a recognizable personal brand with easily identifiable and distinctive brand attributes (logo, visual style, etc.) as well as maintaining an interaction between the brand and its customers (or, in case of music, artist and their fans) via social media platforms (posting content, engaging with audience through reblogs, likes or replies) is essential in order to both position yourself in the market and increase the level of loyalty to your personal brand. Instead of separating themselves from their music, artists should incorporate their music into their personal brand in order to be perceived seriously. Nevertheless, total disclosure of personal information can result in negative publicity and undermine an artist's reputation; thus, it is necessary to distinguish personal and professional live and carefully select what to post online. Also, merchandise products can be an effective tool of increasing an artist's public presence and the attitude of audience towards them and their brand, as suggested by Chiou, Huang and Chuang (2005).

After the analysis of previous studies on branding and marketing, the following research gap was recognized. First of all, although research on the topic of personal branding is available, there is a lack of research on the topic of personal branding for musicians in particular. There are no studies examining the importance of alignment between a musicians' stage presence and their online presence, of their interaction with the audience, etc. In addition to this, while exploring the phenomenon of “Industry Plants”, it was difficult to obtain any information on the attitude towards the topic of Russian people specifically. Hence, this gap in research was identified as an opportunity. Besides, while some previous research focused on internal motivations behind an individual interaction with content online (Tellis et al., 2019) and emphasized that an individual's desire to interact with music depended on whether the music was perceived by an individual as appealing to their emotions (Lacher, 1989), little research accounted for both internal and external factors behind motivation, providing comparative analysis between their impact. Moreover, provided technology constantly emerges, there is a lack of up-to-date research that explores users' online behavior accounting for currently popular Internet platforms and channels of influence. Finally, there is a huge gap in Russia-based research on music marketing, branding and music industry in general.