Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has called out the music industry for focusing on virality and social media instead of, well, music.
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has a few words for labels who want their artists to make Tiktok-viral songs.
Shortly after Halsey revealed that their label was blocking the release of new music unless it could go viral on Tiktok, Shinoda took to Twitter to call out the new trend in the music industry.
“I’m tired of hearing musicians be told they’re not investing enough energy in social media content.” he tweeted.
Shinoda also pointed out the irony of the situation, saying that artists were creating more videos to support their music than, well, actual music.
“Every artist I talk to right now has this feeling. They say they’re spending way too much time making little videos to support their careers, but wish they could spend more time making and playing music.” he said, before pointing out that social media only took away time that artists could use for their craft.
“How is a young artist expected to put in enough time to get great at their craft when they need to feed all these content channels?” he said. “The time they spent generating mind numbing “content” might have been at the expense of the best song they never wrote.”
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Shinoda’s comments come days after pop-star Halsey claimed that their label was blocking the release of a song until they were sure it would go viral on Tiktok, or could engineer a viral moment for it.
When a fan claimed that Halsey shouldn’t complain because selling music was her ‘job’, Halsey hit back by saying: “It’s not about making the tiktoks I already make tiktoks! They are saying if they don’t reach some imaginary goalpost of views or virality than they won’t give me a release date at all. I’m not claiming to be oppressed! just saying that all not all marketing methods are universal.”
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Check out Mike Shinoda’s tweets:
How is a young artist expected to put in enough time to get great at their craft when they need to feed all these content channels?
The time they spent generating mind numbing “content” might have been at the expense of the best song they never wrote.
— Mike Shinoda (@mikeshinoda) May 23, 2022
