Economics & Sociology

Internet changed dramatically the commercial music industry landscape: digitalization is the new standard, and the specific business models are in constant evolution. Thus, the industry has evolved from the traditional model of the big music labels to the much criticised peer-to-peer music file trading and, today, to the legitimate online downloading model (Vaccaro, Cohn, 2004). This last one is also changing, as there is a constant trend not to download music anymore, but to listen it directly through social media such as the older MySpace or the actual very popular YouTube, Facebook, and other similar national or regional networks (Mjos, 2011). With the social media opportunities, as never before, international success is possible for artists from small commercial music markets, such the ones of the emerging countries, who become rapidly well-known. The aim of this paper is to analyse the international success of Romanian “popcorn” wave musicians, a constant presence in the last years’ international commercial music charts, through social media – Facebook and YouTube. Our research is developed on the social media perceived image of two representative artists of the “popcorn” wave, Inna and Alexandra Stan.