Predicting the “Death of Twitter.”

Heather Nolte remarks that Twitter’s latest usage numbers show a decline in active users, from 23 million down to 20 million. Whether the novelty has worn off for some passive users of the service or whether the entire social media trend has hit a plateau remains to be seen.

Still, as I wrote about yesterday, too many artists rely far too heavily on social media as the foundation of their music business growth strategy. Keep an eye on the next big wave of technology users: kids. Find a child in your family between the ages of 11-15. Chances are, they’re not on Twitter, and they don’t have any desire to be. They’ve already created their own social network, using text messages or e-mail. Are you getting yourself ready to promote your music in a market where a growing number of potential audience members don’t leave a search trail?

Artists tend to live on the bleeding edge of technology and innovation, since that’s part and parcel of the job. Audiences, however, tend to lag. Building an audience development strategy that doesn’t rely solely on social media is critical to your success as an independent musician.