Independent UK musician Kelvyn Colt has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, but even he is feeling the same loss of connection with fans that most artists are feeling right now.
As social media algorithms increasingly favor viral videos over posts from those that the user deliberately followed, the artist/fan connection is taking another hit.
“Are we really telling artists to become masters of algorithms rather than masters of their craft? To not release a record if it doesn’t go viral first,” wrote Colt on Instagram.”At times it feels like we have become an indirect-unpaid-full-time employee of several social media companies, creating and posting content non-stop.”
It’s a problem without an easy solution.
Colt’s answer has been to decide who he is and what he wants his work to convey without worrying about what the social media overlords want from him.
“As an artist, I gotta make the decision whether I want to be a fast food chain or a gourmet restaurant.”
Read his full Instagram post below.
H/T to Fabrice Sergent, whose love for emerging talent uncovered this post.
Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
