Music and social media

Interviewer: Hi, Jordan.

Jordan: Hi.

Interviewer: Thanks for talking to me today. Erm. What would you like to talk about?

Jordan: Today I was going to talk about music and, erm, how it's changed in terms of distribution and influence on social media in today's generation. 

Interviewer: Great.

Jordan: Erm, so, I'm a big fan of music. I grew up listening to it on the radio and my mum's old CDs in the car. And, erm, it's funny how growing up you see how in today's digital age and generation, how music is distributed and shared. Erm, when I was young and my parents were young, you'd only ever hear music on the radio or on television on Top of the Pops. But nowadays, music gets shared around all the time on YouTube and Twitter and Instagram. As an artist myself, I found it really interesting how, erm, songs are going viral and acts are breaking not from a prime slot on a television show but just by, erm, music gaining heat online, getting shared around and numbers exponentially growing. Er, it's also made things very difficult because the pool's so much bigger now – everybody's doing it. Er, but, equally, you could have a hit in your bedroom as some, many people, many artists are. They have one song that goes online, a DJ ends up playing it in a club and, er, it goes viral overnight. And it's a great, and a lot of people are making a career that way, erm, which I just find really interesting. As a musician myself, I'm making a lot more of my music from a home studio because it's more accessible for a lot more people now. 

Interviewer: Do you think the changes are for the better or for the worse?

Jordan: Er, I'm interested to see how it goes. I think in many ways it's a good thing because it opens lots of doors to many people that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford studio time and being able to get their creativity in the best possible format it can be. But, equally, I think there are negatives to it because the opportunities are getting less and less, and people's interests and hopes for instant gratification are having a detrimental effect on the ability of making new music. Erm, there's not much time given to be able to really make your craft and sonically engage in an audience 'cause you don't have long enough, you don't have their attention long enough, for them to really listen and invest in your development. 

Interviewer: Right. And what, which is your favourite platform for putting your music out?

Jordan: My favourite platform is YouTube because, erm, that's where most of my subscribers are, and what I do is every week on my channel I put out covers of my most favourite songs and the most famous artists of the songs that are doing really well. So that's how I'm able to garner more fans and subscribers over to my channel, so they can hear more of my music and through that they are able to hear my original music as well.

Interviewer: Uh huh. Do you want to mention the name of your channel in case our listeners want to subscribe?

Jordan: Sure. My channel's called JordanClarke500 [note from the LearnEnglish Team: Jordan's channel has changed to JJ Clarke], erm … 

Interviewer: Clarke with an 'e'?

Jordan: Yes, it's JordanClarke (with an e) 500.

Interviewer: Ha ha.

Jordan: You'll find covers and some original material on there. And you can find out more about me. So, yeah, please check it out!

Interviewer: Great. Thanks so much, Jordan.

Jordan: Thank you.