META’S Dona Inthaxoum ON how to make an impact ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is now one of the most important ways musicians can make an impact with their sound. In a rapidly evolving digital landscape that’s often beholden to the power of the algorithm, developing a strategy and building a brand around your online presence is how to cut through the noise of social platforms. This is what META’s Dona Inthaxoum hopes to shed light on as part of the 2024 Indie-Con panel for the ‘Creating Content — How to Get Seen and Heard’ this week.

We’re very excited to have you in Australia for Indie-Con 2024! Tell us more about your role and the perspective you bring to the ‘Creating Content – How to Get Seen and Heard’ panel.

I’m very excited to join Indie-Con this year! As the head of international music labels partnerships at Meta, I lead the team responsible for developing and managing relations with the music labels in APAC and EMEA. I lead Facebook and Instagram music product launches and adoption in those regions. My team and I work closely with music partners to help them utilise our platforms to find success, in addition to better understanding their needs so we can continue to optimise our platforms.

On the panel, I hope to provide musicians and labels with the keys to leverage our products better to make them work for them and whatever goals they have in mind. These days, we are seeing a lot of independent artists being discovered on social media platforms [because listeners] can find new trends, connect and engage with their favourite artists.

Discovery no longer depends on industry executives or radio stations, and Meta recognises it. That’s why we bring music into places where people already are sharing and connecting. That makes our opportunity with music even more distinct: we work with our partners to build social music opportunities for artists, writers and people across our family of apps -- in particular, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Oculus.

In your opinion, how has social media disrupted the music industry?

Reels are a key part of our discovery engine, driving incremental engagement across the platforms. As reels continue to grow, the opportunity for discovery also grows - people re-share them across our apps more than 2 billion times everyday!

They’ve unlocked new international audiences for Asia Pacific’s growing music talents and have become a key marketing tool for labels and artists to promote new music due to their ability to reach unconnected audiences at scale. For example, The Teskey Brothers went from 165K IG followers to 831K (+386%) in one month by posting a series of performance reels showcasing their soul voices that resonated with audiences beyond Australia.

Artists are also using Reels to bring fans behind the scenes while on tour. Budjerah created 13 reels during his Australian tour with Ed Sheeran to share what it was like for him and his crew to work with one of the biggest pop stars. It helped him grow his fanbase by 51.4% and led the song, ‘Therapy’, to reach the Top 100 of the Spotify AU charts. We’re excited to see that by creating BTS content and connecting with fans, Budjerah’s song was able to break through competitive international charts - reaching new audiences for an emerging artist.

Strategy-wise, how can musicians find their niche and create content that’ll cut through the algorithm and make an impact?

We always recommend musicians and creators remain authentic and consistent and engage with their fans. People like to be inspired and entertained! They also love to learn. Above all, they love to be recognised by their favourite artists. Liking or replying to peoples’ comments can turn them into lifelong fans.

A great example comes from the Thailand group PERSES. They have constant Instagram follower growth thanks to their frequent use of reels, which they use to connect and engage with fans. At the end of last year, they grew their fanbase by 1290% in just two months by creating reels that reflect their style and personality, [while also] collaborating with other musicians and creators to amplify their reach.

We recently shared plans to update how recommendations and originality are highlighted on Instagram. Here, the goal is to integrate a process that’s designed to give every creator an equal chance of breaking through in surfaces where we recommend reels.

Every piece of eligible content (e.g., original content that doesn’t violate our community guidelines, has no visible watermarks and satisfies our recommendation guidelines) is shown to a small audience that we think will enjoy it, regardless of whether they follow the account. As this audience engages with the content, the top-performing reels are shown to a slightly wider audience, and then the best of these are shown to an even wider group.

Some musicians may feel hesitant about aligning their craft with being a brand. In your opinion, why is building a brand around your musical output a way to be seen/heard on social media?

There is not one model of success on our platforms – it’s up to the artists (and their teams) to define what success looks like for them. Not everyone wants to be Taylor Swift.

Reels are a key part of our discovery engine, driving incremental engagement across the platforms. As reels continue to grow, the opportunity for discovery also grows - people re-share them across our apps more than 2 billion times everyday!

What does the future hold for musicians in this space?

We continue to focus on building and improving our products to help musicians revolutionise their profiles on our platforms and capitalise on users' visibility. These are exciting opportunities for musicians to reach new audiences with their music and build communities in the most creative and effective way.

If you had to give musicians one piece of advice on creating content that’ll get them seen and heard, what would it be?

Create content that will make you react, 'Woah! This is super good!” or, 'That could totally be me!'. People love content they can relate to or that takes them out of their ordinary. Original creation will always be great. AI creations will be enhanced.

What else are you looking forward to at Indie-Con 2024?

I look forward to connecting with new people and discovering new music. And, I also hope to learn more about what’s top of mind for indie labels and musicians and how we can support them as a social platform.

Dona will speak at Creating Content — How To Get Seen and Heard on Friday, August 2 at 10:30am as part of 2024 Indie-Con. The panel, which is moderated by Sound Australia’s Glen Dickie, also consists of Reggie Ba-Pe (AWZA), Sarah Hamilton (Golden Hour) and Josh Pyke (PPCA, Artist). You can read our interview with Josh Pyke here.

Indie-Con takes place from today, July 31 until August 2. Find out more about 2024 Indie-Con here.