CHICAGO – Scattered throughout this year’s Lollapalooza lineup of musicians in Grant Park are artists that have risen in popularity in recent years, some with the help of online virality – even for those with careers spanning over a decade. Social media continues to play a hand in shaping people’s interests, including the artists they discover and how they engage with their music. For some, that looks like finding new music on streaming services and by word-of-mouth. For others, it’s scrolling on apps like TikTok until the next big artists reveal themselves.

For Elizabeth Nichols, a country singer and songwriter whose songs “I Got a New One” and “Little Birds” quickly garnered thousands of views, likes and comments on TikTok, social media is helping make music more accessible.

“I think that it’s really a cool way to connect with people, and it’s literally free,” Nichols told the Tribune. “I would never have found out that people liked my music or wanted me to release music if it wasn’t for TikTok. I would have never in a million years. I think that music is the most accessible it’s ever been.”

Over the past two years, Nichols has fully embraced the love she’s received online and given it back to the fans, both in person and virtually.

“I love posting, and I feel like that’s like the best way to connect with everybody,” Nichols said. “Especially meeting people, playing shows and going out and meeting people who listen to my music has been so cool and so awesome. For so long it’s been just TikTok comments, so it is different getting to hold them and hug them and say thank you and hear them sing the songs. It’s been really cool.”

Some festival-goers said they found their favorite artists through a mix of methods, including shuffling songs on Spotify, talking to friends and exploring social media. That’s the case for 23-year-old Eliza McManus, whose only goal for opening day on Thursday was to be at the barricade for indie-pop singer-songwriter Audrey Hobert’s set.

“My friend group, everyone has really great taste in music, so I’ll get introduced to a lot of artists through my friends,” McManus said. “I would say through friends and through social media would be the two (ways), and also I find smaller artists through bigger artists that I like, maybe as their openers.”

For 28-year-old Ian Hoffner, Spotify is the top way to find new artists, and its algorithm and recommendations have helped him build a musical catalogue.

“If you have the songs, you can easily find much smaller artists than I feel like you were ever able to before,” Hoffner said. “Before, I would find them because it was like Tumblr, then it was Instagram, then it was TikTok and Vine and whatever else. But now I just feel like Spotify is the main reason I find people these days.”

On the other hand, social media is how Alaina Sebring, 22, discovered Hobert, first hearing her music when the song “Sue Me” came out and went viral in 2025.

“A hundred percent, that’s how I find basically everybody now,” Sebring said.

Fellow festival-goer Victoria Morris, 20, echoed Sebring’s thoughts, adding that social media saturation helped heighten how much she likes an artist.

“You’re more inclined to see them and see their performances and see them posting, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ instead of just getting one song on the radio,” Morris said. “You’re hearing it over and over. You’re hearing it all the time, you’re scrolling on social media and you’re seeing ‘Sue Me’ every three scrolls instead of the radio where you hear it every 20 songs.”

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