3 Types of Social Content Working For Artists Right Now
Explore three effective social content types for music artists: performance clips, band practice snippets, and vibey footage with lyrics. Each style offers flexible variations to fit your genre and creative approach.
By Andrew Southworth
Hey friends!
Today we’re going to go over three types of social media posts that are working right now for music artists.
A LOT of artists I speak to express their frustration with social media to me. In a lot of cases i’ve found it’s really helpful for them to just hear some ideas about content they could be doing. Coming up with ideas from scratch is hard when you got into music to do music, not be an influencer. But taking influence from videos that already work and using your creativity to make them your own - that’s the key.
In particular we’re covering:
Performance content
Band practice content
Vibey footage content
Each of these types has infinite variations you can play with. I grabbed examples that i’ve seen in the style of music I mostly listen to, but you can find social media videos like these in almost every genre. There are many more types of videos we can cover so let me know if you want me to do this again in a future newsletter.
Also, my agency Southworth Media has been working on some services behind the scenes to help artists out with their social media content. We’re at the point where we’d love to hear what people actually want in terms of help, so we made a survey.
The point of the survey is to let us know what people are most interested in, and then contact some good fits to function as beta testers for this new service at a reduced price. So please fill out the survey if you’re interested! It’ll only take 2-3 minutes.
Performance content
Performance content is when the artist is on screen lip syncing, or otherwise performing, their song. Often there are lyrics on screen and a lot of the time there is some type of ‘hook’.s
Like in this first example the hook is to ‘Send this to someone that’s been through a lot & rarely gets the credit they deserve’.
**Note i’ve noticed that the video embeds don’t work great in email. I’ve linked to each video as well, but you can also read this newsletter on our website here to have a better viewing experience.
@citizensoldier I know you know someone 📲❤️🩹 #trauma#mentalillness#therapist#ptsd#mentalhealth
♬ original sound - Citizen Soldier Official
It may seem odd at first to make hooks this specific, but being specific is what you want. You want to give people that feeling that this video was MADE for them. Shout out to Citizen Soldier as well, they’re cool dudes.
Sometimes the video itself can just be engaging without a hook though. This next one has the vocalist just doing a fun dance, and the color grading gives you some eye candy to wonder whats going on.
@thrillerrecordsofficial Replying to @DanAvidansPoofyHair sure! #thehometeam#alttiktok#altrock#paramore#withconfidence#tour#donbroco#newmusic#issues#panicatthedisco#magnoliapark#honeyrevenge#falloutboy
♬ original sound - Thriller Records
I’m sure you’ve seen a million videos like this on social media, but here’s another cool one I saw. In this one the band is focusing in on the relatability of their lyrics.
Band practice
I came across this band that seems like they just film their rehearsals and cuts them up for social media. They’re already practicing with a lighting setup, so it makes total sense to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and use this as content.
@dakotatheband Let us know in the comments 😏 #fillintheblank#band#metal#interactive#fypシ゚
♬ original sound - DAKØTA
They use a clever hook in this video asking people to fill in the blanks “They’re like _____ mixed with _____”.
Instead of telling the audience what they are, they’re letting the audience define them. People love leaving their opinions, and this post has 3,300+ comments
Vibey footage
This style of content involves simply putting your song over some footage that fits the vibe of the song. Then you put lyrics on it. It’s completely faceless, meaning you don’t need to get on camera.
@aleister.temple Have you ever heard of healing metal? Walking Disaster ~ Aleister Temple, produced in 432 HZ, music good for the soul. Chapter II: Awakening 10-31-25 #healingmetal 432hz, #aleistertemple#metal#djent
♬ original sound - Aleister Temple
Conclusion
My newsletter platform is telling me these video embeds are taking up too much space, so i’m calling it there.
If you’re new to this social media thing, I recommend spying on other artists that are doing well. Specifically look at up and coming artists, not just the big ones. Big artists can post about anything and get attention. Up and coming artists often have content that is working because they’ve worked hard to find what’s working, and what they’re doing now is often what’s working now.
Once you find some content that works well for your brand and your level of comfort, start filming and uploading. With most social media sites nowadays quantity is better than quality. But also, the quality will come with quantity.
Don’t upload trash, but try not to overthink your content. On TikTok especially most views are from new people that have never seen you before.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:
My courses. Spotify Growth Machine teaches you how to use Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify. YouTube Growth Machine teaches you how to grow a YouTube channel organically and how to use YouTube ads. Fan Growth Machine teaches you how to build a website, online store and grow your email list.
My ad agency Southworth Media specializes in running Meta conversion ads to promote your music on streaming platforms, email list growth, tour promotion and more.
Website / Store / Funnels. MusicFunnels and FanFunnels are the best all-in-one platforms for music artists to make a website, online store, sales funnels, build a mailing list and more!
1-on-1 consulting. You can book 1-hour calls with myself or my team here.
New Content
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** There are affiliate links on this site, meaning I may receive a kickback when you purchase a product or service using my links at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I’d recommend to friends, but i’m obligated to inform you that these affiliate links are present. Overall affiliate income is not my focus and is a relatively small part of my income.
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