Promotion Tips From Your Favorite Artists
Understanding the art of music promotion comes with determination, discipline, and creativity. Simply posting whatever whenever on social media is not a promotion. Neither is launching a Spotify playlist campaign. Despite the process and concepts of music promotion being merely too complex to unfold in a single article, grasping major promotion takeaways can enhance the potential reach of your current project or inspire your plans for your upcoming release.
Learning about music promotion campaigns or strategies from the most well-known, favored, or highest-listened-to artist can throw some color on a blank canvas!
Hidden-Meaning Messages
Tip-toeing around directness surrounding your next project may not be the most recommended approach for every artist, but hidden messages can be effective if the shoe fits. This is especially true for icons where mysteriousness is often indulged by fans. One major GRAMMY-winning approach was performed by Taylor Swift and her latest ‘Midnights’ album release. Beginning with grand consistency, Swift announced each track of ‘Midnights’ in the form of a video on TikTok. Like a waterfall, the promotion delivered 13 videos, one song per video, amassing over 83 million views. The series was named with a savory soundbite, “Midnights Mayhem with Me.” Swift empowered the long-term relationship built over time with her fans by giving the album her sentimental number of 13 tracks.
Ashley at Fortune states,
“Her promotional savvy has already made her one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. While many artists follow a tried-and-true playbook—social post, press junket, tour—Swift employs an ever-changing burlesque act of selectively revealing details while maintaining an aura of mystery and excitement. Her strategy contains marketing lessons that go beyond the music and entertainment industries. Like Ryan Reynolds’ advertising success following Deadpool, companies and CEOs could undoubtedly benefit from studying her promotional playbook.”
Reinventing
One critical strategy that Swift has mastered is reinventing herself while staying true to her identity and overarching brand. Playing different roles while continuing to be who you are is a skill that tastemakers, music critics, record label executives, and brand experts often look for in talent. With every album appealing to various themes and storylines, Swift is a professional shape-shifter who continues to appeal to a particular demographic with chic eloquence.
Easter-Eggs
Major players like The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Nirvana, and Pink Floyd, and alternative acts such as Twenty-One Pilots and PVRIS have taken advantage of this unique promotion technique known as “Easter Eggs.” A commercial example of this technique is addressed in an article by The Capitol Theatre about The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields.” “The infamous “Paul Is Dead” conspiracy comes from this iconic song. During the song, the words “I buried Paul” can be heard during the creepy outro. The theory claims that Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash in 1966 and replaced with a double.” Another inventive technique developed by Taylor Swift employs an intimate connection with fans. Fortune adds,
“Before Evermore’s release, Swift styled her hair in a French braid and used tree emoji, which were later revealed to mirror the styling of the album. The simple act of tweeting red heart emoji led fans to surmise that her re-release of Red would be her next album.”
Fans devoured the hype of Twenty One Pilots’ easter eggs. The fashionable, alternative duo is historically known for their clever easter egg trail in their musical journey. They dig deep with their hints and clues, locking a devoted connection with their fans that establishes a long-term relationship. Rather than pulling fans along a mini scavenger hunt in a traditional easter egg promotion, Pilots offer a rich, complex storyline identified through eras. The eras are identified by the timeline of each album. They view their albums as a body of work, pursuing an artful approach to their release strategy. This concept acts as a creative function that uniquely defines the brand and the fulfilling themes of mental health surrounding its message. Call The One describes,
“Tyler has always had a very different way of talking about the difficult and often taboo topics of mental health, and his music has been that outlet. The songs give a voice to his demons, and very enigmatically tell a story. This narrative has been ingeniously constructed through an incredibly complicated and cryptic nature, all of which started with the album ‘Blurryface’. The record is named after the character that Tyler created and this persona is a representation of insecurity. The album itself explores topics like self-doubt, depression, and anxiety, with a dark and hybrid sound paired with lyrics that make you think.”
Conclusively, no matter how simple or detailed your easter eggs may be, find effective ways to tell your story as an artist. Build your fanbase over time by providing a connection through the gifts of storytelling that adds flavor to the aural experience of your music. When developing promotion campaigns through storytelling techniques, make sure your ideas flow and make sense. Avoid over-complicating concepts and stick to meanings that make sense to you and your audience. Fortune adds,
“Using easter eggs works “marketing wonders” for artists and franchises because “consumers love the feeling of accomplishment when they figure out a puzzle, writes Ian Ausdal at WIUX. “To find answers, they search for clues in artists’ past works, which increases streams and sales for older releases, marketing them to the public in a new light. This leads to the growth of an artist’s fanbase,” Ausdal writes. “As fans work together to sort out clues, excitement about the artist spreads to people who were originally unfamiliar.”
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