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Mike Shinoda: “I’m tired of hearing musicians be told they’re not investing enough energy in social media content”

Following Halsey’s frustrations earlier this week about having to make TikToks, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has weighed in on the issue of artists and their social media requirements.

Mike Shinoda: “I’m tired of hearing musicians be told they’re not investing enough energy in social media content”
Words:
Emily Carter
Photo:
Frank Maddocks

Earlier this week, Halsey ironically went viral for revealing that their label wouldn't allow them to put out a new song unless they could “fake a viral moment on TikTok”.

Ever since, the entire internet pretty much has weighed in on the issue and shared similar sentiments, with Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda also expressing his frustrations that artists are asked to put "too much time" into creating social media content – and it eats into their time actually being creative.

"I’m tired of hearing musicians be told they’re not investing enough energy in social media content," Mike tweeted.

"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."

And then, the all-important point from Mike: "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?"

In their TikTok video from Monday, Halsey had explained that, "Everything is marketing. And they [the label] are doing this to basically every artist these days."

In a follow-up tweet, the New Jersey star added of their current situation: "At this point I don’t know what to do because I told the truth about what’s happening and now I STILL don’t have a release date AND some of you think I’m lying about this whole fiasco. so I’m double fucked lol. if you have questions, I have answers. I have nothing to hide."

Read this: The 20 greatest Linkin Park songs – ranked

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