Luke Combs Says TikTok Fame Can Bypass Important Live Show Experience

Luke Combs is sharing his straight-up, realistic perspective on the music industry at the moment, especially the advantages and disadvantages of achieving fame through social media. In a recent interview, Combs discussed how he initially picked up Vine and what it allowed him to do to build a following before landing a contract with Sony Records.

"It was an outlet to push my music to the fans, and obviously, that's the industry standard now, right? You can push your own music to whoever you want to push it to on your own terms. But I think sometimes you can get in trouble because now you can skip a lot of steps by doing that," shared Combs.

While social media was definitely a huge platform in his rise, Combs acknowledged that experience and live performances are extremely important, especially in comparison to what he perceives as a lack of experience and traditional live performance exposure among many of today's upcoming artists.

"You push your music out, and maybe you've got one great song that you've written, and you live in Idaho or wherever. Then all of the sudden you've got record labels calling you and you've never even played a show before. Then you get on stage and, dude, the moment sometimes can be really big."

Combs expressed concern over the trend of artists jumping straight from online virality to major arena tours, without the grounding of smaller live shows.

"You can go from… there's guys and girls now that have exploded on TikTok or Instagram or whatever and their first tour or shows they've ever done are in an arena opening for somebody. And they're on a bus, and it's like, 'You don't have any experience doing that.' Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I played hundreds of shows before I came to Nashville."

He credited his own steady rise and fan-building efforts for enabling him to have leverage in record label negotiations.

"The artist now has the power in a lot of ways, right? With the rise of the internet. I think I was really kind of one of the first people who was able to bring something to… like when I got my first deal, I already have a built in fan base."

Combs showcased examples like Warren Zeiders, Gabriella Rose, and Zach Bryan as artists successfully making inroads in this new world, but reiterated that it is about the foundational experience at the end of the day for them to stay in it long term.