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

VK is mostly used for posting visual content accompanied by songs; provided VK allows for an opportunity to listen to music, and users on VK can easily repost content to their personal pages, attaching a song to a visual post is perceived as a good instrument of promoting songs and albums. In addition to this, VK is often used as a means of advertising upcoming events; artists announce their upcoming shows and sometimes encourage their followers to share the announcement on their personal page by offering them incentives (or motivating them externally). Organizing a contest, in which people can possibly win a ticket for the show if they reblog a post, is often one of those external motivations.

Instagram is predominantly used for sharing visual content in the form of pictures or lifestyle videos. Aleksandr suggested that lifestyle videos and videos from TikTok and Triller (social media platforms that enable users to create and edit videos) gained the most audience engagement. Instagram is also often used as a platform on which artists `tease' their followers with snippets of their upcoming music or music videos. In addition to this, Instagram stories are recognized as an efficient instrument of engaging followers and hence, grasping new audiences. Artists encourage their fans to create and share their own UGC (for example, videos of them dancing to an artist's song) by reposting the videos in which they are tagged to their own social media accounts - thus, motivating their followers externally with an incentive. This is recognized as a `win-win solution'. “People, on the one hand, want me to share their videos on my Instagram stories, they see it as an opportunity to be seen by other people, they want to be seen by other people; I, on the other hand, want more people to hear my music - so of course I appreciate it when my fans share my music with their followers, even if they do it just for my attention,” said KOUT.

In addition to this, artists recognized Telegram to be a good channel for interaction with their audience; nevertheless, artists themselves admitted that they did not use this social platform to its full capacity. Predominantly, artists use their Telegram channel as a means of sharing backstage videos which they do not perceive as appropriate for Instagram (due to their length, for instance, although Instagram does allow for an opportunity to upload lengthy videos - up to 10 minutes for regular accounts and up to 60 for verified (Bojkov, 2020) - via IGTV). In addition to this, KOUT shared that he often uploaded 15-second “teaser” videos to his Telegram channel in order for his followers to download and share them on their Instagram stories.

In response to the question of, “Which offline and online channels do you use for promotional activity? In case you use targeted advertising, which criteria are set for targeting?”, artists stated the following.

Regarding the offline means of promotion used by artists to expand their audience, the following promotional channels were integrated. First of all, printed posters announcing upcoming concerts were often used by the musicians; not only did they hang them in clubs or concert venues, but they also hung them in public spaces (bookshops, bars, cafés, etc.), whose customers corresponded with their target audience. “I cannot tell for sure how many people actually discovered us through our posters, but I personally find them a very good way to increase our offline presence and better establish our personal brand,” shared Nikita from “Brass”. Aleksandr, too, said that his artists often incorporated offline channels of promotion. Alongside posters, they also attracted attention of audience through street art or street performances. One time, he said, one of his musicians did a graffiti in the streets of his city, and a lot of people stopped by to take a picture - it gained a lot of attention on social media, significantly increasing an artist's virality.

Regarding the online promotion, targeted advertising on VK and Instagram are the most used means of promotion. The following criteria are set for targeting. Musicians target users who follow public pages of artists in similar genre, whose audience would hypothetically correspond with their target audience. Aleksandr, nevertheless, emphasized that criteria for their marketing campaigns mostly depended on the aim of the campaign: to gain followers, streams or engagement. Based on the goal, they did one of the following: a) targeted followers of similar artists; b) targeted people who liked a post with an artist's song attached; c) did audience parsing, or targeted users who added an artist's song to their playlist on VK; d) bought advertising from big music communities on VK and retargeted people from there to their own public page/external link. Thus, there is no universal way to advertise an artist's music online; means of promotion must be adjusted in accordance with the goal of the marketing campaign.

Regarding the question of, “Do people stream your music or do they purchase digital/physical copies?”, the following common tendencies were observed in the answers. Although artists did provide their audience with an opportunity to purchase their music (digitally in iTunes or Bandcamp and physically on cassettes ¬¬- as, for example, “Brass”), the number of sales in very low, and people mostly stream their music online, with BOOM and VK gaining the biggest proportion of streams, followed by Apple Music and Yandex Music.

In response to the question of, “Do you organize marketing campaigns preceding your upcoming releases?”, the following answers were given.

KOUT suggested that it was essential to announce an upcoming music/content at least two weeks ahead of its release date (in case of big releases, a month in advance). By `teasing' their upcoming music, artists can create buzz around their upcoming album/single, increasing their audience engagement. In addition to this, by teasing their music, artists can intrigue their audience, encouraging a feeling of anticipation and excitement. Also, teasers can sometimes gain even more engagement from audience than the actual release; provided people do not yet have content to base their opinion on, they are likely to engage even if the eventual product will not appeal to them.

BOOKER responded that a few months before the release of his upcoming album, he began uploading content that did not exactly `tease' the songs from his album but corresponded with its main theme visually and ideologically. Thus, he set a cohesive theme for his social media as a supporting foundation for his upcoming release. In addition to this, he started integrating the title of his album into his everyday posts on Instagram, by “dropping them here and there to get the title in the public eye.” He also shared that to build anticipation for his album, he often released singles before the album release or provided his followers with promotional videos.

Nikita suggested that it was essentially important to give audience an opportunity to pre-order or pre-add (on iTunes, for instance) an artist's album before its official release date. By providing users of streaming platforms with this opportunity, it is possible to grasp more attention towards the album on its release date. Not only because audience will be automatically notified on the release, but also because this feature provides an opportunity to retain audiences that accidentally come across the announcement for the release before the actual release date. Hence, they will be able to pre-add an album and listen to it once it is out; if pre-order is not available, people will likely have forgotten about the album by the time it is released.

One of the interview questions was, “Do you perform live in concerts or festivals? How do live performances affect the number of your audience?”. In response to this question, all artists said that they did indeed perform live in concerts (this was, in fact, one of the criteria based on which the respondents were the interview were selected). However, BOOKER was the only artist who had performed with solo concerts; the rest of the artists had mostly participated in festivals or performed as opening acts for bigger, more popular artists. Regarding the audience inflow, Nikita shared that although “Brass” had played in more than 10 local festival over the last year, it did not have a significant positive influence on the number of their followers. “Local festivals, and I am speaking about rock festivals here, are always attended by more or less the same audience, so it is practically impossible to reach out to new listeners,” he explained. Nevertheless, in December 2019, “Brass” performed as an opening act for “Spasibo”, a band from Moscow, during their concert in Saint Petersburg; Nikita shared that for their band, this had by far been the most effective channel of gaining fanbase.

BOOKER, too, suggested that it was difficult to gain a big proportion of audience via participating in festivals unless the performance was very good and distinctive. According to him, it worked just the other way around, “The main goal here is not to persuade festival attendees to follow you on social media but to, on the contrary, persuade your followers to come see you live.”

Vasiliy shared that one of his artists experienced significant growth in the number of their audience after performing on Russia-1 television channel; in addition to this, via performing on central television, they managed to attract attention of local mass media, which, too, resulted in further expansion of their audience base.

Another question asked during the interview was, “Have you ever had your music reviewed by media? If yes, how did it affect the size of your audience?”. According to musicians, although media coverage of an artist's music can indeed increase their media presence and an overall number of streams, it does not guarantee a growth in the number of their followers. “More people get to recognize you, sure, but there are so many albums being reviewed by media on a daily basis that another review will not persuade readers to go follow you on social media,” shared the front man of “Brass”. “Often, social media influencers are a much better channel of gaining audience,” shared BOOKER.

In response to the questions of, “How do you interact with your audience?”, BOOKER shared that not only did he interact with his audience online through live streams on social media, but also organized a number of offline events: autograph and Meet & Greet sessions, where he would chat with his fans `face to face'.

One of the interview questions was, “Do you motivate your followers externally to share your music/content?”. In response to this question, BOOKER explained that he often organized giveaways, in which his followers could win his merchandise products or concert tickets by, for instance, reblogging his post - thus, he encouraged the engagement via providing his followers with material incentives as a source of motivation from without. Aleksandr said that his artists often encouraged their fans to comment on their posts via promising them to release a new song once a post gained a particular number of comments. Hence, they, too, motivated their followers with external incentives. Vasiliy shared that they often organized “cover contests” across social media, in which their followers could win a prize by uploading a cover of an artist's song on their personal account.

In response to other questions, interviewees provided the following information.

Musicians reported that an appearance of their songs in playlists on streaming platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, Boom, etc.) had a significant positive influence on the overall streams of their music. Although it did increase the number of listeners, it did not significantly influence the number of their followers on social media. Nevertheless, artists revealed that they found it more valuable when their songs were included in human curated playlists - those compiled by music editors, etc. In response to a question of, “How can one get his song included in a curated playlist?” Vasiliy shared that in their case, the songs of his artists appeared in a number of playlists after they had been signed to a label (First Music Publishing Russia). Nikita admitted that in their case, it was after they had contacted an executive of ONErpm Russia, a platform for music distribution, that their music was featured on playlists across multiple streaming platforms.

According to KOUT, a big proportion of his audience came from his music videos on YouTube. “It is much easier to engage people through visual content,” he said. “A music video gives you an opportunity to differentiate yourself from other artists not only through your sound, but also through the visuals and the story that you decide to tell in your video. This way, viewers get a better understanding of who you are, they feel closer to you, they are interested in you.”

According to Nikita, the main emphasis during a marketing campaign should be put on appealing to an artist's primary audience - the audience they have acquired previously - instead of trying to immediately grasp as many followers as possible by targeting them on social media. Supporting the findings of previous theoretical studies (Susarla et al., 2016) and addressing a hypothesis that people are more likely to rely on recommendations of their friends than on online targeting (Bampo et al., 2008), he suggested that in the initial “life stage” of their band it was their friends and acquaintances who comprised their primary audience. Over the time, once they established their presence and musical identity among their primary audience, they gradually expanded to new audiences. This was mainly due to their primary audience recommending music of “Brass” to their friends and acquaintances, and then those friends recommending their music to their friends in their turn, that led to an increase in the fanbase of the band.

Another way to increase an artist's interaction with their audience is by releasing merchandize products. Supporting the findings of Brown and Knox (2016), artists suggest that a big proportion of their merchandize products is purchased at concert venues. Nevertheless, they provide their fans with an opportunity to purchase merchandize products via the Internet. Responding to the question of, “What are some of your motivations behind producing merch?” Nikita shared:

“Our main motivation, I guess, is to give our fans something they want, and what they want is a cool T-shirt from their favorite band. The demand for our T-shirts greatly exceeds our supply - people very often buy our merchandize after our live shows, as a souvenir that will later remind them of a day when they had fun seeing us live”.

In addition to this, interviews showed that the musicians understood the importance of integrating their personal accounts on social media into their musical identity and their brand. Nikita said that, “by sharing your music on your personal account, by sharing your project on your personal account, you simultaneously show people that you care about what you do, that your project is a huge part of your own self, and thus, you inspire them to care about your project, too”.

BOOKER added that it was very important that the personal image he projected on his social accounts corresponded with the image he projected through his music. “People appreciate a cohesive personal brand,” he said.

Finally, we asked the interviewees about how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the engagement of their audience and whether they anyhow adjusted the ways of interaction with their audience.

There were significant discrepancies in the information provided by the musicians. While Nikita from “Brass” said that during April 2019, the number of their streams increased by almost 50% in comparison with March 2019, Aleksandr estimated an approximate of 10%-15% increase in the number of streams. BOOKER, however, reported a decrease in the number of streams, justifying it as, “Previously, people mostly listened to my music at parties or on their way to work - currently, they go neither to parties, nor to work”.

Regarding the changes in their interaction with the audience, KOUT said that he participated in an online concert alongside some other Hip-Hop artists from Saint Petersburg. The event was being streamed from a club, and people at home could watch it live on Instagram. “A lot of people followed me after the concert,” he said. “In fact, much more than would have followed me had I performed in an actual concert”. “Brass”, too, mentioned participating in an online concert organized by “Sadwave”, an online media source about rock music. BOOKER shared that during the pandemic, he held a number of livestreams on his Instagram account.

Overall, judging by interviews, a conclusion may be drawn that artists constantly try to adjust to the emerging demands of audience, and the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic provides a good example for that. To meet their audience's demand for entertainment in the realm of confinement, they participated in online concerts, giving their fans an opportunity to vicariously experience the atmosphere of an actual concert.

Overall, summing up information concerning promotional channels perceived as effective by the musicians, a good way to increase the number of an artist's follower base is by grasping the audience of similar artists. Although this can partly be done via targeted advertising on social media (with a criterion for targeting being people following social media accounts of musicians in similar genre), some artists report that targeting campaigns are not always an effective way of actually gaining audience. This can be attributed to a lack of expertise in social media marketing, due to which other criteria are not accounted for while targeting, and thus, wrong audiences are eventually reached. Nevertheless, musicians suggested that audiences could be reached through the actual collaborations with artists of similar genre whose audience is bigger in size yet corresponds with the set audience criteria. First of all, this can be done via performing as a supporting act in the concerts of established musicians. Nikita of “Brass” shared that for their band, this has by far been the most effective channel of gaining fanbase. KOUT suggested that one of the predominant channels of reaching out to new audiences were songs collaborations (or “featuring tracks”) with more popular Hip-Hop artists.

?

Comparison

In this following section, results obtained through the survey will be compared with the results obtained during the interviews, and research questions will be answered.

To answer the first research question, “How does an artist build a recognizable and easily identifiable personal brand?”, the following results should be taken into consideration. As seen in the interviews, musicians try to integrate their personal accounts on social media in their marketing campaigns and musical identity; this was best explained by Nikita Zharko of “Brass”, who said that by sharing his musical project with his followers on his personal social media, he could show people that his music was not just a product but a part of his own identity. BOOKER supported this opinion, also emphasizing that it was essentially important that an artist's personal social media accounts corresponded with an image projected through their music. The opinions of the musicians overlapped with the findings of Kucharska and Mikoajczak (2018), who showed that professional success was higher for people who did not distinguish themselves from their art but instead integrated their art into their personal identity. According to the survey, 54% of respondents shared that it was indeed important for them that an image of an artist on social media corresponded with their stage presence, yet only a small proportion of them (9%) said that this correspondence was significantly important and could influence their desire to listen to an artist. Thus, although people do indeed tend to appreciate it when those two images align (especially that a majority of people follow their favorite artists on social media and thus, often know the person “behind the scenes” of the music they listen to), it definitely is not a determinant factor.

Nevertheless, the results show that some aspects of an artist's personal life should indeed by separated from their public presence. Supporting Labrecque et al. (2011) and Zhou and Whitla (2013), who examined the influence of negative publicity on the reputation of an artist and suggested that negative publicity could be detrimental to professional success and thus, should be avoided by not disclosing some aspects of an artist's personal life, the results to the survey showed the following. 36% of people expressed their unwillingness to continue on listening to an artist's music if an artist made a negative radical public statement. Nevertheless, as 64% of respondents shared that even if an artist's personal opinion contradicted theirs, they would very likely still listen to their music, an assumption may be made that quite often, listeners do indeed perceive an artist and their product as two separate entities. Although such results contradict the importance of a personal brand, some further factors must be taken into consideration to explore whether negative publicity could ruin an artist's career.

One of the aims of the research was to evaluate Russian audience's attitude towards “industry plants”, or artists who appear out of nowhere and rapidly gain popularity due to, from the perspective of the audience, them being produced and promoted generically by record labels (Rindner, 2020). The interviews with the musicians showed that in general, musicians tended to try and be transparent with their audience and show the “human side” of their music. However, only 13% of the survey respondents expressed a radical negative opinion about industry plants; for the rest of the respondents, the origin of an artist was of no significance as long as their music appealed to their personal taste. Hence, the results of the survey supported the finding of Sridhar (2019), who suggested that the perception of an artist as an industry plant did not generally interfere with their overall career success.

The results of the survey supported the previous findings that a distinctive visual style of an artist's product could boost the level of their recognition (Achacoso, 2014). First of all, according to the survey, it was more likely that people would listen to an album of an artist if they liked the album cover; thus, unique visual style may, first of all, attract attention of the audience and help to differentiate music of an artist not only by its sound but also by its visual style (which is responsible for the first impression). Also, the results of the survey showed that if an artist's merchandise products had a unique, eye-catching design, the interest of people in the artist would quite likely increase. With 41% of respondents admitting that they would look up a previously unknown artist online if they met a person wearing their merch in the street (provided merch looked distinctive), merchandise products could be a very good tool for increasing public presence and recognition of an artist.

Further exploring the topic of merchandise products, we can see that they are an indispensable part of an artist's brand. All the interviewed musicians said that they either had their merchandise products available for purchase or were about to release them for purchase. Their merch was available for purchase through both offline channels (in concert venues) and in digital marketplaces (for instance, BOOKER sold his merch through “Mamcupy”, an online aggregator marketplace). A research by Brown and Knox (2016) suggested that merchandise products were an impulsive purchase most often bought in concert venues; nevertheless, the survey findings show that although an approximate 50% of respondents do indeed buy merch, 24% buy merch online while a little less - 20% - buy it in concert venues. This information contradicts the finding of Brown and Knox (2016), but this contradiction can partly be explained by the fact that 15% of respondents said they had never attended concerts of their favorite musicians and thus, had not had an opportunity to buy merch directly from an artist at the venue. Nevertheless, provided that 71% of those who purchased merch said they often wore it, creating merchandise products with unique stylish design could be a good way to establish a personal brand and increase an artist's presence.

Finally, although initially perceived as a marketing instrument, outside posters may serve as a means of establishing an artist's distinctive personal brand. However, even if they may indeed increase the offline presence of an artist, it is difficult to tell how many people actually notice those posters, provided only 4% of respondents admitted to had ever discovered new artists from posters in clubs / outside.

Thus, the analysis of interviews and survey responses suggest that in order to successfully create a distinctive personal brand, it is important for an artist to differentiate themselves visually (through their merchandise products, through their logo, through their visual style for their music and their social media). In addition to this, it is essential to find a healthy balance between fully integrating personal accounts into their musical identity (in order to increase the level of their transparency and thus, encourage fan loyalty) and hiding some personal information (such as radical personal opinions on social issues: minorities, inequality, etc.). Moreover, as suggested by BOOKER, brand identity depends on the way an artist communicates with their audience; by replying to them on social media, by engaging with them through online and offline platforms, it is possible to increase the sense of “intimacy” and loyalty - supporting the previous findings of Molyneux (2014).

To answer the second research question, “How does an artist succeed in promoting their records?”, the following results were taken into consideration.

The conducted survey showed that many people tended to share music either directly via sending music to their friends' inbox or indirectly by attaching music to their posts on social media. Moreover, it was discovered that a majority of respondents were very likely to listen to music shared by their friends; the vast majority of those respondents noted that music recommended to them by their friends would very likely end up in their playlists. These results support the findings of Bampo at. al (2008), who suggested that the efficiency of a marketing campaign was strongly connected with the behavioral pattern of users and was directly dependent on the general tendency of users to share content with their friends; Bampo et al. (2008) emphasized that `word of mouse' marketing was more efficient than mass marketing (or targeted advertising) and thus, users were more likely to interact with content if it was initially shared by their friends.

Similarly, one of the interviewed artists claimed that at the beginning of his band career, it was mainly their friends and acquaintances who made up the main audience. Eventually, their band managed to attract more listeners and form bigger audience; this mainly happened due to the fact that their primary audience recommended the band's music to their own friends and acquaintances. Hence, it worked as a snowball effect, with music being gradually shared and spread on to bigger audiences. All in all, it led to the expansion of their fanbase.

Hence, taking everything into consideration, a conclusion may be drawn that it is not always necessary to allocate huge budgets for targeting on social networks in order to expand an artist's audience base. Instead, an artist should aim at viral marketing, which is perceived as one of the most efficient means of marketing (Bampo et al., 2008), by encouraging their followers to share their music with friends.

Moreover, using the survey it was possible to estimate the value of features (collaborations between artists). The survey showed that in general, featuring tracks encouraged the general interest of listeners towards the music. 60% of respondents claimed that singles and albums with features often attracted them more and increased their interest in the artists.

The vast majority of interviewees, too, noted the importance of features and collaborations between artists. The musicians suggested that collaborations often led to the exchange of audience between artists and thus, helped them attract more listeners. Moreover, collaborations with artists of similar genre whose audience was bigger in size could potentially help expand the fan base and attract new listeners. Some of the interviewees emphasized that performing as a supporting act in the concerts of more established musicians had been a very effective channel of gaining new audience for them. Hence, the interview and the survey results support the finding which were described in the research by Ordanini et al. (2018); in the research, it was suggested that collaborations between artists on a song increased a song's popularity.

Interestingly, one of the research objectives was to see whether featuring tracks (Ordanini et al., 2018) and high popularity of a song (Lynn et al., 2016) affected an individual desire to listen to a song. Although, as seen previously, a feature of multiple artists on a song did influence the overall level of interest towards it, it did not influence the preference of one song over another. This conclusion was made on the following basis: when asked about how they will listen to a newly released album by an artist, only 1% of respondents suggested that they would first listen to tracks featuring other artists. 13% of respondents, nevertheless, shared that they would first listen to the most popular songs from the album; hence, the impact of song popularity on their individual desire to listen to a song was higher than that of featuring tracks, but still not determinant.

On the basis of the survey, it was possible to obtain information on the most popular social networks among Internet users in Russia. According to the responses, those were VK social network and Instagram. This information supported the information provided by Media Scope digital survey (Kurnosova, 2019), according to which, VK and Instagram social networks had the highest monthly reach in 2019 (reaching respectively 72% and 56% of population on a monthly basis).

All interviewed musicians shared that they most often used VK and Instagram in order to interact with the audience; those were the two platforms on which they would post new music and publish new visual content. Moreover, as suggested by the musicians, the vast majority of their audience was concentrated in those social networks. Consequently, the interviewed musicians mentioned that they used both those social networks in order to attract new listeners, via setting up and running targeting campaigns on those two platforms.

Moreover, some of the interviewees mentioned that they organized various giveaways. This way, they gifted their fans merchandize or concert tickets for reposts. Musicians expressed their belief that by motivating their followers externally with material incentives, they could achieve a higher level of engagement. However, according to the research, the impact of material incentives on an individual motivation to share content was not that high. The respondents of the survey noted that getting a possible material benefit was not their predominant motivation behind sharing content. Only 16% of respondents said that they would very likely reblog an artist's post if offered a material incentive (while 50% of respondents said that they would never); thus, although it can indeed be a good motivation for some people, there is not a big proportion of people motivated by the reward which is promised for sharing an artist's content.

When asked about whether they organized marketing campaigns preceding release of their new music, artists suggested that they would often post snippets of their upcoming songs and ask their followers to leave likes and comments (often promising them to release a song once a particular number of comments is obtained - thus, trying to appeal to their motivation externally). Interestingly, not only did the findings of the survey prove the insignificance of incentives' impact on an individual desire to share / interact with content, but also discovered that the majority of respondents rarely leave comments on the posts of an artist in their social media - thus, suggesting that artists should find another ways of appealing to and encouraging their audience.

On the basis of the survey, it was also possible to obtain information on the channels through which people listen to music. The Global Music Report (2020) highlighted the growth of streaming services popularity, suggesting that by the end of 2019, the number of accounts on streaming platforms with purchased streaming subscription had reached 341 million, and the corresponding income from streaming had increased by 24.1%.

Using the survey, it has been discovered that the majority of respondents (64%) listened to music using the streaming platforms such as Apple Music, BOOM, Yandex Music, Spotify and others. Simultaneously, 53% of respondents shared that recommendations on streaming platforms were one of the main channels for them to discover new music.

The interviewed artists supported this information, suggesting that streaming was one of the main sources of income for them, with their music uploaded to all the major streaming platforms in order to grasp a bigger proportion of listeners. However, the most popular streaming platforms which brought the most streams and the most significant revenue were BOOM, Apple Music and Yandex Music. The artists shared that the biggest number of streams had those of their songs that had appeared in playlists on streaming platforms. As artists suggested, they managed to get their songs featured on playlists after they had reached out to label / distributor representatives, who then sent their music to playlist curators.

Finally, music media plays an important role in the marketing of an artist's records. In the digital age, when people are constantly exposed to a huge amount of music content, music media works as a mediator between an artist and the audience, filtering produced content and sharing the most significant and interesting releases on their platforms. Over the course of the survey, it was assessed that the majority of respondents (60%) followed music media in social networks, and those were their primary channels of discovering new music artists. The survey also showed that, in their majority, respondents would read music-related news in VK and Instagram. In their turn, the interviewed artists shared that coverage of their music by VK music media and music-related communities resulted in a much bigger audience inflow than articles on news sites and print media did. To conclude, music media in social networks can indeed be a good way for an artist to grasp bigger audience and market their records.

Finally, exploring the question of, `How does an artist adapt to market changes?', the change in artists' interaction with their audience during the COVID-19 pandemic was explored. As mentioned previously, the COVID-19 pandemic made a serious impact on the music industry, resulting in live shows and concerts being rescheduled (Zavyalov, 2020). Supporting this information, the interviewed artists also complained that their concerts were canceled.

Trying to adapt to new conditions, people within the industry explored a number of new channels of interaction with their audience. One of the main trends was online concerts and online live shows; many artists performed live via broadcasting on Instagram or other social networks or via participating in online festivals organized by big music platforms (Zavyalov, 2020). Artists who were interviewed over the course of this research also shared that they had begun to go live on Instagram more often, and some of them had already taken part in online concerts. To see whether this new type of entertainment was demanded by general audience, the survey asked the respondents whether they were generally interested in online concerts. The survey managed to discover that 43% of respondents did indeed watch online concerts. Although these results show that people who watch online concerts are in their minority, this proportion may be expected to change, supported by the fact that the format of online concerts is new and not everyone has yet gotten used to it. To conclude, it may be assumed that in order to stay in touch with their audience and maintain their presence despite the COVID-19 restrictions, it is suggested that artists did online performances and online concerts, thus providing their audience with an alternative to offline concerts.

Conclusion

This research aimed to answer three research questions concerning marketing and branding of an artist alongside the means of them adapting to market demands, explored via the case of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To conclude, it can be pointed out that a personal brand is a very complex entity, compiled of a number of elements, as previously suggested by Hackley (2015). The results of the research showed that unique visual identity of an artist's brand was a very important means of increasing attention towards them. Although research shows that incorporating visual elements (such as hanging up posters in public places) is not always a good channel of grasping new audience, it simultaneously is a good way to establish an artist's identity in the local community, which is perceived as a necessary first step to more global recognition. Merchandise products, too, can massively contribute to an artist's recognition - people very often pay attention to merchandise items if they encounter someone wearing them in the street. Thus, by producing stylish wearable merchandise items (such as, for instance, T-shirts), musicians can encourage people to buy and wear those; and if, for instance, an influential person appears in their merch, it can help them further establish their presence and “spread a word about themselves”. Networking is also a very important way to establish brand identity. By, for instance, participating in local concerts with artists of similar genre, by collaborating with artists of similar genre or niche, a musician can express their musical identity and gain support and recognition from, first, local community and then, global community. Finally, an important aspect to take into consideration is the way artists position themselves on their social media. Although people's desire to listen to an artist's music does not depend fully on whether their stage presence is aligned with their social media presence, it is still important that they position themselves as an `artist' and do not separate themselves from their music. Being transparent with their audience, communicating with their audience via social media (by replying to their comments, by doing live streams, etc.) could increase the level of intimacy between an artist and their audience and thus, give followers a sense of being artist's “friends”, responsible for his/her success.

Answering the question of, “How does an artist succeed in promoting their records?”, the following key factors of successful music promotion can be distinguished. Firstly, due to the digital age and the era of social networks, it is very easy for people to share content online. This way, artists who have just begun their music career can rely on their friends and acquaintances to help them increase their fanbase, which can easily grow and expand via a snowball effect. Hence, it is not always necessary to allocate a big amount of money for target advertising which may not even be efficient.

Secondly, the collaborations between artists provide a good basis for marketing opportunity. For instance, featuring tracks can very likely lead to audience exchange between different artists, helping them attract more listeners. Moreover, as collaborations often are a product of combining two talents, doing a collaboration with another artist may significantly increase the likelihood of a song ending up a hit and making its way into the top charts.

In addition to this, the conducted research helped to prove that VK and Instagram can be considered as the most attractive and effective platforms for targeting and reaching out to new audiences (especially that a half of the respondents admitted to following the public pages of their favorite musicians on VK, meaning that they could be subject to targeted advertising of musicians who target people on the basis of them following musicians in similar genre).

It is important to point out that streaming platforms will definitely be the predominant means of digital music consumption in the future, bringing solid revenue to popular artists and offering an enjoyable and convenient listening experience to the consumer. This way, it is really important for an artist to maintain good relations with labels and distributors; those two can potentially provide an artist with a big number of opportunities: via them, artist's latest music releases can appear in curated playlists on streaming platforms, which are a good channel of gaining audience. Also, it is important for an artist to have their music published in the music media on popular social networks (e.g. VK and Instagram); in accordance with the research, this channel of promotion can significantly affect the audience growth. Finally, some emphasis should be put on the marketing campaign preceding a release of an artist's album/single. By arranging pre-release marketing campaigns in the form of, for instance, posting teasers, track snippets and promotional videos, musicians can warm up the interest of the audience and achieve even higher engagement level than after the actual release.

When exploring the ways of how artists can appeal to current market demands altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was evident that live streaming on social networks and participating in online concerts was a great way for artists to keep in touch with their audience.

Regarding the contribution of this paper, it is expected that the conducted research manages to fill the existing gap in music-related research not only in Russia but across countries. As recognized in the beginning of the paper, although there was research exploring the topic of personal branding, little research was devoted to the topic of personal branding for musicians in particular. By asking the musicians about the branding practices they perceived as effective and simultaneously asking general audience about their attitude towards different aspects of a musician's personal brand (such as whether it was important if their stage presence corresponded with their social media presence, etc.), not only did we manage to expand the existing theoretical research on branding, but also provided artists with suggestions on how to improve their brand identity. Moreover, although briefly, the attitude of Russian audience towards “Industry Plants” was examined, providing basis for further research on the topic. With our research, we also intended to deepen the existing research on marketing practices in the music industry. Relying on previous research as foundation, we examined such aspects as different channels of promotion and audience engagement, various factors behind individual motivation to engage with the content, etc. Finally, we exploited the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to examine how artists adjusted their interaction with their followers in accordance with everchanging demands in the music industry.

Apart from their theoretical contribution, it is expected that the findings of this research will be helpful to emerging artists, who have just entered the market and do not yet have an established brand identity and fanbase, and their managers. When selecting musicians for the interviews, an attempt was made to diversify answers by choosing musicians with different audience size, performing in different genres, etc. Thus, the results described practices perceived as efficient across various audiences and musicians, independent of genre. Also, as both small and already established artists were interviewed, the practices described in the paper could be applicable for musicians with both small and big branding and marketing budgets.

Hence, by providing findings on the current preferences of Russian audience, by compiling a detailed picture of their behavior both offline and online across various social media, accounting for up to date social media platforms and trends, and later comparing the survey findings with the perceptions of the musicians interviewed, an attempt was made to create an aligned description of efficient practices. It is expected that artists will be able to take this provided information into consideration when developing their marketing and branding strategy and thus, find a more effective channel of reaching out to new audiences.

Finally, this research may provide basis for further research on the topic, both in Russia and across countries.

The following limitations to the research may be recognized. First of all, the cross-sectional nature of the study may not be enough to obtain a full picture of how trends have changed over time and thus, will make it rather difficult to predict trends for the future. In order to get a better understanding of how trends in music market evolve over time, it is suggested to collect panel or time-series data. Also, it may be suggested to conduct a series of interviews with representatives of the audience in order to get a more profound understanding of their listening behavior.

In addition to this, the COVID-19 pandemic has made a significant impact on the industry. Hence, some data obtained over the course of the research can be considered as consequent to changes in the market due to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on industry. Moreover, provided the situation with pandemic is still progressing as of May 2020, it is hard to predict how it will have affected the industry by the time it is over. Thus, the results which are applicable to the current market situation may quickly become outdated, and new methods of adapting to external market conditions will be required.

Finally, regarding the interviews, as the musicians selected for interviews come from a relatively similar background (although this limitation was avoided to the extent possible by selecting artists who differed in genre) and have a rather small audience (due to difficulty in establishing contact with big name artists), the data gathered throughout the interview process may only be relevant for emerging musicians but not for those who have already established a big fan base.

This research aimed to fill the gap in the existing research on music marketing and branding in Russia. Having divided the research topic into three subtopics, or questions, we aimed to cover a wide variety of aspects, from channels of an artist's interaction with their audience to merchandise products to motivations behind user interaction with music-related content (which later gave us an opportunity to distinguish content that users would more likely interact with). The information for the research was collected via surveying general Russian audience and interviewing Russian musicians / people within the industry. Then, the information obtained was compared both with each other and with the findings of previous research. Nevertheless, aiming to cover a variety of aspects, some of those aspects were explored not as thoroughly as could have been had another assumptions and methods of research been used. For instance, as an assumption that `word of mouse' marketing was more efficient than targeted advertising was taken as a basis for the research, the survey aimed to evaluate whether people shared content with their friends and engaged with content shared with them, yet did not assess the efficiency of targeted marketing itself. Thus, by switching focus to targeted advertising, introducing an assumption that targeted marketing was less efficient than `word of mouse', the research could have more thoroughly examined the actual efficiency of this advertising channel.

Another assumption taken as a foundation for the research was that negative publicity could potentially harm an artist's reputation and thus, it was essential to find a healthy balance between an artist's personal life and their career, not totally disclosing personal information. Nevertheless, while the research aimed to assess how detrimental the effect of negative publicity was, it did not examine whether negative publicity could, on the contrary, be a way to market an artist. Had this research objective been set, the research could have obtained information on whether “anti”-marketing was an efficient channel of grasping new audience.

In addition to this, by using other methods of research, different information could have been obtained. For instance, when evaluating the motivations behind an individual desire to share music-related content on their personal accounts, an experiment could have been conducted. Throughout this experiment, the participants could have been offered to look through a number of posts on social media (different in their nature and appealing to various motivational factors, both internal - for instance, perceived by an individual as informative, etc. - and external - offering an incentive for a reblog) and reblog those perceived as the most appealing. Thus, by conducting such an experiment, it would have been possible to evaluate the actual motivations behind an individual desire to share content on social media. Similarly, when assessing channels through which people discover new artists, they could have been encouraged to search the Internet for new artists and compile a playlist of music - thus, the information on this aspect could have been obtained through an experiment.