Musicians currently face the challenge of leveraging social media to motivate brand engagement among their millennial audience. This generation is characteristically different from generations past, meaning not only are their primary communication channels different, but their values, desires and expectations are as well. Social media is the main source of acquiring information for this generation, and online platforms will allow a musician to achieve increased visibility. However, simply sharing the same space with millennials is not enough to accomplish brand engagement. Unlike baby boomers and generation Xers, millennials “aren’t influenced at all by advertising” and “value authenticity” (Schawbel, 2015). These characteristics will impact the type of content that is meaningful to them.

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In a short period of time, the music industry has experienced the shift from physical format music to digital music and finally to platforms like Spotify and Pandora, which are free and accessible to any Internet user. Now that fans can opt to acquire music for free and the millennial generation has become a prominent target audience, the direction of music marketing has changed. Musicians must adapt to their role as a human brand and to the concept of strategically marketing their personal identity. Social media, millennial values and the unpredictable nature of the industry have created a major communications challenge for artists. Can musicians build brand engagement and form loyal brand communities of millennial fans on social media? This paper will continue to explore what makes this generation willing to engage with a musician and pledge their allegiance to an artist’s brand.