Luke Combs Says Country Artists Can Skip Important Steps Going Viral On TikTok: “Record Labels Are Calling & You’ve Never Even Played A Show”

For better or worse (I lean towards worse), social media plays a big role in the modern music industry.

One person that utilized the power of social media back in the day was country music star Luke Combs. He actually credits getting his foot in the door of the music industry with some of the success he experienced and following he gathered on the short-form, now-defunct social media platform known as Vine.

Combs spoke about Vine’s role in his early career on The Joe Rogan Experience back in 2023, saying:

“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.

That wasn’t ever really happening at that time. I was on this social media app called Vine. Do you remember that? I wasn’t mega big on there or anything, but I had enough fans where I was selling music. And I didn’t realize that was weird until I got to Nashville. They were like, ‘Wait, you’re selling how much?’”

The “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old” singer went on to say that the following he had grown on social media helped him have negotiating power when he started having discussions with record labels. Combs didn’t think much of what he was doing online, but it ultimately helped him sign with Sony. And he’s one of the first country artists to transition their fame from social media to the music industry, a route that is now more commonly used by young artists trying to break into the business.

It’s interesting to hear that though Luke Combs got his start in country music thanks to social media, he’s not exactly a proponent of modern day artists doing the same. Luke sat down with Bev Rainy for an interview, and detailed that using social media as a tool was critical to his success… but he sees it more as a crutch in 2025:

“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.”

What does Luke Combs mean by steps?

Well, even though he was propelled into stardom thanks to posting videos on social media – before it was commonplace for artists to do so – Combs still participated in the “build up” that prepares artist for a traveling and touring life. He was always playing gigs in the Carolinas before he moved to Nashville, and now he’s worried that some of the “TikTok artists” are going straight from playing songs in their bedroom to playing in front of an entire arena:

“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.

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.”

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Love that Luke Combs hit the interview with a “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” when in all seriousness, there is something wrong with that.

It makes no sense for artists who have never played a gig to suddenly throw themselves in front of a crowd of tens of thousands of people. They are called “growing pains” for a reason. Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, and now a lot of young artists are just skipping right to the destination (labels aren’t blameless in all of this either).

Anyways, allow me to get off my soapbox while you cue up this compilation video of Luke Combs’ best vines:

The post Luke Combs Says Country Artists Can Skip Important Steps Going Viral On TikTok: “Record Labels Are Calling & You’ve Never Even Played A Show” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.