Every artist I talk to says they loathe the whole social media thing. But as far as they can see, its a necessary evil.
From a label perspective, its almost the ONLY metric they look at nowadays. Going viral isn't easy. And even that isn't a guarantee. But you usually have to have all that and then some to even get noticed by a major.
The way I see it, youve already put in the hard work to get to the top of the social media game. You wasted time tapping a screen instead of the strings. Time lost you could have been perfecting your craft. All that just so a label can step in and take 50% off the top (at best) and tell you what/how to record?
#demu gives artist a chance to ditch that model and let the best talent rise to the top.