The music industry has perpetuated some of the largest fandoms in the world and the Internet community, especially among younger audiences. The popularity of various bands/musicians has skyrocketed due to media sharing sites and social networks on the Internet. One of the first musicians to fall under the classification of a social media success is Justin Beiber.

Justin Beiber’s rise to fame and sustained popularity was nearly entirely a byproduct of effective social media use. Beiber’s videos on youtube eventually garnered a number of views and amassed a fairly substantial collection of videos online. His popularity continued to climb steadily (and almost exponentially) on youtube as more and more people began to discover, watch, favorite and subscribe to his video channel. He was initially ‘discovered’ on youtube by thousands of fans before his popularity reached individuals in the music industry. Beiber’s rise to popularity shows, to a certain extent, the power of consumers/fans. Although Beiber’s videos on Youtube were a success, he was essentially ‘unknown to the professional music industry.’  Once he signed a deal with a music label, his popularity continued to grow, in large part due to his existing fan base.

The fandom which previously online existed online, now had an opportunity to enter the physical world. Beiber’s introduction into the professional music industry, provided fans with the opportunity to meet together for the purpose of attending a concert, or show. Yet, his initial online popularity spawned not only physical excitement – ie. teenage girls screaming as he walked by – but also generated more members being part of the online fandom community. It has been argued that Justain Beiber is more influential in social media than United States President Barack Obama or the Dalai Lama. Beiber’s continued interested in his online community has increased his online following which has reached over 30,000,000 followers on Twitter, and over 3,000,000,000 views on youtube. He continued to generate interest in his online persona by maintaining an online relationship with his fandom. He continues to upload videos to his youtube channel – mindful and grateful for his initial supporters. He has also become a model for handling media controversy through social networks, and most importantly continually maintains and open two-way communication channel with the public. This interest in fans and enemies alike has sustained Beiber’s popularity even as his average audience ages.

Fandoms revolving around Beiber express themselves both online and in the physical world. Numerous tumblrs have been spawned that either support or condemn the young musician, facebook pages have been dedicated to him, blogs written about him…and the list continues. Yet, as Justin Beiber’s mainstream popularity wanes his fandoms remain, bolstered by Beiber’s online interactions with the community.

Another recent phenomenon is the rise of British boy-band One Direction. Although they haven’t reached such a mass Twitter or YouTube following, they followed a similar path of success as Justin Beiber. One Direction was relatively unknown, apart from their appearance on Xfactor, in the professional music industry – yet they had thousands of followers. Their ‘agent’ Simon Cowell insisted that their online popularity would soon result in their official introduction to American audiences at the discretion of music agencies. Their widespread popularity reached critical target audiences before the American music industry asked to bring them to the states. Increasingly musicians and other artists are relying upon initial online popularity to launch their careers.

Yet, their fandoms do not stop there. Especially among teenage and young adult females, One Direction has been a source of much discussion and debate. In particularly nearly one-third of tumblr users have at one point either mentioned One Direction or have created pages devoted to them. Twitter, in particular (like Justin Beiber) provides members of the and with a way to communicate with their audience. Each members has approximately 7,000,000 followers each, which while it isn’t the massive following of Justin Beiber, it is still a sizeable community to foster online participation. Whilst these fandoms did not arise overnight, their popularity can largely be attributed to the almost cult-like following of fans.

Materials have been marketed with One Direction or Justin Beiber trademarks that sell for a significantly marked-up price that a similar item without their brand. Yet, these items continue to sell on the market. Their fandoms have brought an online presence largely into the physical world, as any other musician who arose through traditional routes.