/ The Hit of the Moment in the Age of Social Media: Unexpected Innovation in the Music Industry
April 21, 2025Associate
In April 2025, Shakira visited Chile for three massively successful concerts, selling out the Estadio Nacional. The Barranquilla-born artist is truly a musical icon. Twelve studio albums, four Grammy Awards, fifteen Latin Grammys, and nearly thirty-five years of artistic trajectory are just a few highlights of her extensive career. A fruitful journey supported, of course, by her intellectual property assets, with her musical works standing out as her principal cultural legacy.
Let’s go back to 2006. A 29-year-old Colombian singer, after a life dedicated to music, numerous contracts, and connections with various industry players, saw one of her songs reach the top of the charts for the first time. On June 8, Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching listeners across the globe—an extraordinary achievement for a Latin American artist.
The road to that milestone was long. Before that, she had recorded six albums, worked with three different record labels, and toured internationally, all in pursuit of the goal of taking her music worldwide. This effort required mass distribution through contracts and various legal tools, getting her songs onto radio, television, and physical album sales. In other words, success depended on a long and complex chain of events. Without it, we might not know the global pop icon she is today.
Now let’s jump ahead in time. It’s 2019. A 20-year-old is producing music in his bedroom, using a basic home studio with the tools he had at hand. He begins inviting friends and acquaintances to sing over tracks he’s produced and shares video recordings of these sessions on YouTube. Unexpectedly, these videos go viral—gaining millions of views across platforms like Instagram and TikTok in just a few hours. Soon enough, this young artist, just like Shakira years before, breaks into the music industry in a big way, earning his first #1 hit with one of his own productions. This time, though, it’s on Spotify, not Billboard. We’re talking about Argentine producer Gonzalo Julián Conde, better known as Bizarrap, whose “BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 52”, featuring Spanish singer Quevedo, became the most-streamed song in the world on July 16, 2020.
Are There Differences? Their Contribution to Intellectual Property
The impact of the musical works and the valuation of the intellectual property assets of Shakira and Bizarrap came through different paths. Both Bizarrap and other emerging artists have cleverly taken advantage of the tools of their time, just as the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer did in her own era. So, while today terms like “record labels” or “distribution contracts” are not necessarily synonymous with “YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok”, it’s undeniable that each of these channels has contributed to bringing artists’ intellectual property works to a global audience.
The emergence of new forms of mass information distribution has led to the democratization of access to music of all types and origins. And yet, it’s not only the public that benefits. It is precisely musicians who have gained the most from this revolutionary way their intellectual property works are now consumed, creations which, it’s worth noting, are protected under copyright law and other legal mechanisms. Digital platforms have enabled, and continue to enable, a widespread dissemination of artists’ works, providing tools for even direct monetization, and at the same time offering income through advertising, sponsorships, and more.
It is undeniable that their respective journeys are quite different. Still, it is equally indisputable that both share highly significant milestones, such as having successfully massified their music and brought it to the top of the industry, earning them a place in the select group of Latin American artists who have achieved global recognition.
It’s no coincidence, in fact, that both artists decided to collaborate in 2023 on the song “BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 53”, which currently boasts over one billion streams on Spotify. This shows that innovation, hard work, and talent go hand in hand, regardless of their origin or era. It’s no wonder that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) stated years ago: “There is now an air of optimism in the global music industry. Never before has so much musical variety been accessible to so many people.”[1]
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[1] https://www.wipo.int/es/web/ipday/2016/creating_value_from_music