Digital platforms has become a major way in which brands and consumers are connecting with each other with the rise of the internet and the accessibility people have to smartphones saw the rise in social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

The rise of the internet saw about 414 million users having access in 2000 to about 4.7 billion users in 2020 (Ritchie et al., Internet, 2024). This caused massive changes within multiple industries such as music videos switching from posting on television like MTV to posting on platforms like YouTube and streaming services such as Spotify.   

The era before digital platforms’ music releases had a different lifecycle. Artists would drop vinyl and CDs and use MTV to promote their music to an audience to climb music charts but then would fade after weeks causing massive clashes for spots.

Users are now able to access an artist’s whole discography through streaming services which usually is a partnership between the platforms and record labels. These services allow music from different eras to still be relevant till the present day whereas before platforms

The internet was a major player in changing the landscape of music videos as platforms like YouTube it was able to release to a more global audience leading artists to switch from television to online. Music videos were seen as a different way to consume a song with artists adding a story and an aesthetic to their sound through technology, colour and rhythm which has changed since 1980 (Vernallis,2013) and example can be seen through Keith Urban’s song Superman.

by Mirza Zafar Tariq

References

https://www.b2w.tv/blog/history-of-music-videos

https://ourworldindata.org/internet

Vernallis, C. (2013) ‘Unruly media: YouTube, music video, and the new digital cinema,’ Choice Reviews Online, 51(08), pp. 51–4342. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.51-4342.