Ahead of their fifth studio album, Kingdemonium, Hammer King frontman Titan Fox reveals the secrets to heavy metal success in 2022.
Have you heard about Hammer King? They’re not the biggest band in the world, but they’re on their way. For the better part of a decade, Hammer King has been working toward global domination with an incendiary take on heavy metal that emphasizes storytelling and precision musicianship over commercial viability. Their latest record, Kingdemonium, continues this trend with an unforgettable collection of tracks that challenges the listener while still delivering on the unique promise of the band.
People have a skewed perspective of the music landscape. There may be more musicians competing for attention and sales, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there is more great music to consume. If anything, listeners have to dig deeper to find relevant music, and that requires time many aren’t willing or able to make.
Thankfully, marketing and publicity can still do wonders for the right talent. There are no guarantees in this life, but an artist or group can find a promotional partner that helps them achieve the impossible—get noticed. Hammer King has done that by partnering with Napalm Records and Freeman Promotions. By surrounding themselves with people who understand their vision, the group can focus more on their craft, knowing the other work is being handled with their best interest at heart.
In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell chats with frontman Titan Fox V about the new record, evolving as a musician, and thinking globally about music with deep personal meaning. It’s an engaging and inspiring chat that lasts just under ten minutes. Enjoy!
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
Ahead of their new album, Voices In The Sky, Brymir chats with Haulix about the secret to their global success.
Finding your sound takes time. For Brymir, the Finnish metal greats spent multiple records pursuing a sonic direction that didn’t fit their personal aspirations. The band believed a ‘folk’ friendly sound would help them find success, but in recent years found a much more powerful marketing tool in honest and personal storytelling.
With their latest release, Voices In The Sky, Brymir tackle the world around them and the chaos it breeds. The material touches on everything from our relationship with nature to interpersonal conflicts and the wide range of feelings they can produce.
In this Fast Five interview, Brymir frontman Viktor Storm Gullichsen chats with Music Biz host James Shotwell about his band’s ongoing evolution and how embracing change has made all the difference in their career. The pair also discuss song length, Brymir’s writing process, and what the rest of 2022 holds for these wide-eyed metal masters.
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
A recent trend on TikTok allows users to showcase their favorite artist’s best song, and fans can’t get enough.
Let me set the scene: You’re scrolling through TikTok when suddenly, a video featuring a lone human walking through a doorway as an unfamiliar song begins to play. They pass through the room, grabbing headphones or other objects, as their friends, family, or coworkers slowly circle them. As soon as the song kicks into high gear, the room goes dark but is quickly illuminated by flashing lights as the protagonist begins performing the song, backed by everyone else in the room. It’s the kind of rowdy moment that previously would’ve happened during a sleepover or late night with friends, but in the digital age, it’s called content, and people love to see it unfold.
The #StudioChallenge, which has been blowing up on the video-sharing app, is centered around people acting as if they’re about to record a song. It is usually started by someone walking into a room, dapping people up, and grabbing the necessary equipment they need to deliver their act.
What makes the #StudioChallenge unique is its format. Unlike most TikTok trends involving dances or other act-outs, this challenge does not rely on a specific song. Users can pick a song that makes them feel the most alive. The content they create is an extension of themselves and their tastes, which makes their commitment to the bit more convincing for viewers.
Here are a few examples of the challenge in action.
No marketing rep could have developed a more perfect promotional tool than the #StudioChallenge. Labels and artists want fans to use their songs in content. This challenge presents an opportunity to do so while putting the music front and center. For every viewer, one more person is hearing what is—most likely—one of the best moments in that artist’s catalog. That’s the perfect bait to hook a new listener, and it takes virtually no effort to execute.
As TikTok continues to evolve and music marketers place greater emphasis on navigating its vast community, we will likely see more trends with room for variety emerge. The age of song-specific dances and reenactments is slowly giving way to more personalized user-generated content (UGC).
Why artists need to pay attention
Your fans are on TikTok. Maybe not all of them, but you have a community of followers, and they are likely making content. You can sit idly by, hoping they use your music, or you can encourage them to take action. There are many ways to accomplish this, starting with competitions for the best video, but the key to your success will be engagement, not from outsiders but from you. Listeners want to know you notice them, and they want to interact with you. By engaging your TikTok audience, you encourage them to include you in future creative efforts.
But encouragement alone is not enough.
Every artist with the bandwidth to experiment on a new social network owes it to themselves and their audience to explore TikTok.
I’ve yet to see a rock or metal band participate in the #StudioChallenge, but it seems like an easy win.
Picture a band using the framework of the challenge to tease a new breakdown or highlight one of their biggest hooks. They can keep things simple and follow the blueprint or use their stage production to take the whole affair to an entirely new level. Either way, people will be hooked.
Take a chance on yourself.
It’s easy to understand why people hesitated to make video content three or four years ago. But it’s 2022, and the entire planet is spending free time scrolling through looping videos made by strangers. Everyone is doing it, and you should too!
I know, I know. This sounds like one of those” “if your friends jumped off a bridge” scenarios, but it’s not.
The cultural focus has shifted from still images and written word to video. The artists making waves of any size right now are doing so—at least in some small part—with the aid of video.
It’s no longer a question of “if” you need video content. You absolutely need it. The only question is, how creative are you?
The first step to winning fans and building a community on social media is knowing what to post and where to post it. We can help.
I don’t know of any artist making a living today without social media. They may not run it themselves, but every musician must have an online presence. More often than not, most musicians need multiple profiles spread across numerous platforms requiring all types of content in various sizes and shapes.
If you want to make the most of an Instagram account, for example, you need to know the following information:
Profile picture size
Photo thumbnail sizes for Story highlights
Photo and video sizes/aspect ratio for posts to a user’s feed
Photo and video sizes/aspect ratio for Instagram stories
Video sizes/aspect ratio for Instagram Reels
And that’s before we even discuss effectively marketing through the platform.
Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, not to mention YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Linktree, Tumblr (it still exists), and the platforms we are no doubt forgetting, it’s practically impossible for anyone to remember every size and aspect ratio required to make high-quality posts everywhere an artist is expected to exist online. We know because we’ve tried it ourselves, and we bet you have.
We scoured the internet for the best guides to social media sizing, and to the surprise of nobody, countless examples exist. We tried to find the most straightforward, easy-to-follow options available and gather them here to live in perpetuity.
Facebook
Content
Size
Aspect Ratio
Facebook Profile Picture
400 x 400 px
1:1
Facebook Event Cover Photo
1920 x 1005 px
1.91:1
Facebook Group Cover Photo
1920 x 1005 px
1.91:1
Facebook Business Page Cover
1200 x 674 px
16:9
Facebook Profile Cover Photo
1125 x 633 px
2.7:1
Facebook Photo Post
1200 x 630 px
1.91:1
Facebook Video Post
1280 x 720 px
16:9
Facebook Linked Image
1200 x 630 px
1.91:1
Facebook Stories
1080 x 1920 px
9:16
Facebook “Our Story” Cover
1200 x 445 px
2.7:1
Facebook Ad (Carousel)
1080 x 1080 px
1:1
Facebook Ad (Single Image)
1200 x 628 px
1.91:1
Facebook Catalog Image
1080 x 1080
1:1
Instagram:
Type of Instagram Post
Aspect Ratio
Instagram Post Size
Square Photo
1:1
1080 x 1080px
Landscape Photo
1.91:1
1080 x 608px
Portrait Photo
4:5
1080 x 1350px
Instagram Stories
9:16
1080 x 1920px
Instagram Reels
9:16
1080 x 1920px
IGTV Cover Photo
1:1.55
420 x 654px
Instagram Square Video
1:1
1080x1080px
Instagram Landscape Video
1.91:1
1080x608px
Instagram Portrait Video
4:5
1080x1350px
Soundcloud:
GRAPHIC
SIZE
Profile Photo
1000 × 1000 px
Album Cover
800 × 800 px
Minimum Header
2480 × 520 px
TikTok
TikTok video dimensions should be 1080×1920. Aspect ratio: The aspect ratio should be that of a standard smartphone screen, 9:16. 1:1 is also possible, but it won’t take up the whole screen.
Twitch
GRAPHIC
SIZE
Profile Photo
800 × 800 px
Profile Banner
1920 × 480 px
Video Player Banner
1920 × 1080 px
Video Thumbnail
1280 × 720 px
Cover Image
380 × 1200 px
Info Panels
320 × 200 px
Twitter
Finding information about Twitter’s content options proves slightly more difficult than options for Facebook and Instagram.
Profile Photo: 400×400
Header Photo: 1500×500
Image from a Tweet with shared link: 1200 x 628 pixels
Tweet sharing a single image: 1200 x 675 pixels (recommended, but most images with standard aspect ratios will not be cropped)
Tweet sharing two images: 700 x 800 pixels (both images)
Tweet sharing three images:
Left image: 700 x 800 pixels
Right images: 1200 x 686 pixels
Tweet sharing four images: 1200 x 600 pixels (per image)
Four is the maximum number of images available on one Tweet
Recommended aspect ratio is 16:9.
Can edit images if tweeting from Twitter iOS or Android app.
Maximum file size of 5 MB for photos, and 5 MB for animated GIFs on mobile and 15 MB on web.
YouTube
TYPE
SIZE
Channel Icon
800 × 800 px
Channel Art
2560 × 1440 px
Desktop Display
2560 × 423 px
Tablet Display
1855 × 423 px
Desktop and Mobile Display
1546 × 423 px
Video Thumbnail
1280 × 720 px
Video Guidelines
Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p), 1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
The popularity of TikTok is leading a revolution in music release strategies that is unlike anything we’ve witnessed in decades.
Music marketing and release strategies are at the heart of every artist’s career. How and when you release music matters as much as the content itself—sometimes more—and for the better part of twenty years, virtually every album has followed a similar promotional path:
Step One: The artist or group announces the upcoming release of a new song
Step Two: The artist or group teases that release with audio clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and anything else they can develop while sharing Haulix links with journalists and tastemakers.
Step Three: The artist or group asks fans to presave and preorder the unreleased material.
Step Four: The song finally comes out.
Step Five: The artist or group continues promoting the song’s release.
Step Six: The artist or group continues teasing the song with audio clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and anything else they can develop.
Traditional industry thinking tells us that you must promote music before its release because it’s the only way to guarantee strong first-week sales, which often determines how much support a record will receive moving forward. History teaches us that if an artist fails to deliver an impressive launch week, the likelihood their label continues to pump money and attention into their career falls drastically.
That line of thinking is outdated.
As Bob Dylan said, “The times, they are a-changin'” because a new generation of musicians refuses to follow tradition. Between the boom of TikTok and the rise of the “give it to me now or I don’t want it” culture, artists are choosing a more direct path to release and promotion.
Step One: The artist or group releases a new song.
Step Two: Promotion.
That’s it.
TikTok is an amazing tool for discovery, connecting users with an endless variety of content creators algorithmically-tailored to their interests. When someone hears a song snippet they enjoy, logic dictates they will head to the creator’s profile, hoping to find their music online. If the user then visits the artist’s page and FAILS to find the song they heard on TikTok, the chances they save the artist and return later are virtually non-existent. In other words, you have one chance to grab someone’s attention, and if you blow it, they [most likely] won’t return.
To avoid this problem, artists are now choosing to skip promoting new material until it’s available worldwide. The risk of losing potential fans because you went viral before the release date is too high for most to gamble, but that’s not the only reason.
The so-called “TikTok Approach” is also a cost-effective promotional solution for cash-strapped independent artists whose marketing budgets often equate to whatever they can spare after paying for living expenses. Rather than waste your money teasing a song or record people cannot yet enjoy, spend your pre-release time creating content you can share immediately following the song’s premiere. Any engagement will lead to immediate streams (AKA money).
And it’s not just independent artists shifting their thinking around releases. Everywhere you look, the time between a song or album announcement and the release date is shrinking. Even Post Malone, arguably one of the world’s biggest musicians, announced his recent 2022 album only six weeks before its initial release. The first single? A surprise release.
What about preorders?
We live in a new world where the pipeline delays of recent years have drastically changed consumer expectations. Delays between digital and physical releases are to be expected. Most fans don’t mind because they view your vinyl, CD, or cassette as memorabilia. Its primary purpose is to be a physical manifestation of their fandom, which they can hold, showcase, and enjoy. Using it for consuming music is, for better or worse, becoming secondary.
Launch preorders on release day. Launch everything on release day. The same people who would preorder the vinyl three months before release day will still place an order because they want the product regardless.
Making this one adjustment to your next release strategy will ultimately save time and money. More importantly, it will give anyone interested in your music instant access to it. You want as few barriers between strangers and hearing your music as possible, and in our quickly evolving world, that requires making changes as culture dictates it necessary.
Remember the phrase, “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus”? The same applies to release strategies. Stop fooling around and deliver. Your fans will be thrilled to see new music, and anyone new won’t have to wait around to see if you’re as good as your teasers claim. Everybody wins.
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Pure Noise Records, and more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
What’s in a video view, and how long does it take to earn one? The answer is more complicated than you might expect.
Everywhere you look online, video content is king. Blame the influence of TikTok on culture, but each social platform is now promoting a video feature that—for the time being—offers more views and higher engagement than traditional content.
But what is a view?
Unfortunately for artists and music marketers, A “view” isn’t a standardized unit of measurement. Each platform has a unique set of rules that define how views are counted, and knowing the differences can help you measure the success of your campaigns. For example, a video receiving 100 views on Youtube could hold as much—if not more—value than a video receiving thousands of views elsewhere. The opposite can also be true.
Why does the math behind view counts matter?
Knowing how views are measured provides a greater understanding of how your content is performing on various platforms. If plays are counted instantaneously, like with TikTok or Instagram Reels, you’re likely to have incredibly high view counts regardless of how much engagement (Likes, Comments) you receive. Anyone who even glimpses at your post will be counted as a “viewer,” but how much did they see? Did they even see your name? What, if anything, will they retain?
Receiving 50,000 views on a clip is a cool talking point that sounds good in conversation and looks good buried three paragraphs into a press release, but how many viewers are engaging with that content? Of them, how many followed you?
Understanding the value of a view helps us better gauge the success of our promotional activity. The more we create and share, the better our understanding of what people like and what moves them to take action.
So, what counts as a view?
On TikTok, a view is essentially an impression—meaning, the very millisecond your video starts to play, it’s counted as a view. In addition, the platform also measures repeated views.
Instagram Reels follow the same logic as TikTok. A view is counted the instant a video is viewed. The amount of time watched beyond that initial split-second interaction does not matter.
Over on Facebook, a view is counted after a video autoplays for 3 seconds consecutively. Unlike TikTok and Reels, replays are not counted, so the same viewer watching a video repeatedly will not increase your view count.
Twitter, meanwhile, claims the ‘total video view’ metric is calculated by the sum of “any views which are at least 50 percent in-view for 2 seconds.” That means that to count as a view, at least half of the video has to be visible and playing on a user’s screen for at least two seconds.
Professional networking site LinkedIn counts video views after 3 seconds as well. According to a post from John Espirian, that short wait time “means a quick thumb-scroll past a video isn’t going to count, but if you pause and give the content even brief attention, that will count.
The grandaddy of them all, YouTube, counts a view after 30-seconds of continuous viewing and only when the viewer elects to play the video. Autoplay does not count toward views. YouTube also manually reviews all videos after passing 301 views to ensure the authenticity of viewership.
We will update these numbers are new information becomes available. Follow Haulix on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
Nearly two decades since their peak popularity, CDs are having a moment, but how long will it last?
Compact Discs are back (not that they ever went anywhere). According to data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), shipments of compact discs rose from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021 – a rise of 47%. Revenue also increased from $483.2 million to $584.2 million. The last time sales of CDs were on the up was in 2004.
These figures may seem small compared to CDs’ 2004 peak when nearly a billion discs shipped in the US alone. But it seems possible that compact discs may soon follow vinyl’s footsteps by having a revival moment. In 2021, 39.7 million vinyl records were sold in the US, generating nearly $1 billion, a noticeably higher return than CD revenue.
The true sales figures for compact discs are likely higher than the RIAA report estimates. Many independent artists sell a large portion of CDs to fans at live shows or through online merch stores and never report sales. Its possible tens of thousands, if not millions, of CDs are sold this way annually.
But Why?
The motivations behind our renewed cultural interest in CDs likely differ depending on whether you’re a music fan or professional.
For fans, physical music is often viewed as a souvenir. Owning a vinyl or CD is tangible proof of fandom, proving to other listeners that someone financially supports the artist(s) they love.
In the world of K-Pop, which has taken young listeners worldwide by storm in recent years, music as a keepsake is commonplace. Physical media releases in this genre often include exclusive photographs, merch items, and unique packaging. Fans view each release as a collector’s item, increasing demand and sales.
For the industry, CDs offer a cost-effect alternative to vinyl, which is experiencing a production backlog due to increasing demand and ongoing supply chain issues.
While per-unit costs drop with larger orders of both formats, the savings that CDs offer the artists and labels making them as well as the fan buying them are substantial. As Hypebot points out, at Discmakers, a limited run of 100 CDs in full-color jackets can cost around $2 each. That same run of 100 vinyl records costs $20 – $25 each.
The turnaround time for CDs is also much quicker than that of vinyl. Discmakers currently list three options for compact disc production times, with the longest taking fourteen business days. By comparison, Gold Rush Vinyl now warns customers that new orders are facing a turnaround time of eight to ten months. Several services offer shorter times for higher prices, but the fastest we’ve found is sixteen weeks.
CDs are also easier to transport than vinyl and take up less space, which is useful when touring in a van, car, or bus.
What does this mean for artists?
Artists from all walks of life should consider utilizing CDs as merchandise items. Not only are they cost-efficient and easy to make, but the options for customization are endless. Physical releases provide a unique opportunity to expand upon your record. You can help fans decipher the stories behind the songs, provide them with lyrics to sing along to, or create an engaging layout that pulls us further into your world of sound. Best of all, the low cost of creating CDs means the risk is equally low. It’s better to spend $200 on a hundred CDs you struggle to sell than $2500 on a similar amount of vinyl.
What does this mean for streaming?
Absolutely nothing. Streaming is king, and it’s highly unlikely that the resurgence of physical media in any form will dethrone it. Paid subscriptions to streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music accounted for over 57% of music revenue ($8.6 billion), with ad-supported streams bringing in another $1.8 billion. CD and vinyl album sales combined accounted for less than 11% of revenue.
There are a million songs written about virtually every topic imaginable, so why should anyone care about your music?
Music is all about who you know. If you don’t know anyone, like most people when they start, you better be good at making connections and selling yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re pitching music or your talent as a professional—nobody will care unless you give them a reason to pay attention. Don’t know how? No worries. I can help.
There are countless ways to gain exposure in 2022, but most will agree that playlists are the primary way people discover new music. Be it through algorithmic selections like those curated by Spotify or the trusted taste of an influencer, placement on the right playlist can change any artist’s career overnight.
But there’s a problem. Everyone who is anyone wants to be on playlists, and that means curators are inundated with requests for inclusion. The big-name talent often has little-to-no problems getting heard, but what about regular musicians? How can up-and-coming talent stand out from the overwhelming amount of competition?
Your story is unique, but you have to know how to sell your story for tastemakers to understand that.
Each day, in offices and remote workspaces around the globe, playlist curators and industry gatekeepers sift through countless songs from artists hoping they’ll give them one of the very limited spaces available on editorial playlists. Certain tastemakers specializing in mood-themed playlists may hear upwards of one hundred or more tracks with a similar theme or story in a single day.
If you want to be the ONE song that stands out from the competition, there are two factors you have to nail:
The song needs to be GOOD. Obviously.
You need to sell the heck out of that song.
Part one is up to you. As for part two:
The only thing separating your story of wanting to leave home and every other dreamer is how you sell it to someone else.
Start by breaking your song down to the simplest description possible.
“My song is about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape.”
Great! We have a relatable perspective that millions, even billions, can easily recognize.
The only problem is—everyone has a song about wanting to leave their hometown.
If you want to attract playlist curators, tastemakers, or anyone, you need to be more specific.
Let’s start with the “why” of it all. WHY do you want to leave your hometown?
“My song is about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape because I have big dreams.”
That’s better. You’ve narrowed the target audience slightly, but you’ve also gotten closer to your true market.
Let’s add another detail, perhaps explore WHAT made us want to leave our hometown. Was it our family, the community, or something more existential? Maybe it’s all three!
“My song is about growing up in a conservative small town and how nobody, not even my family members, can relate to your ambitions of a life outside the village limits.”
The significance of your song and your perspective on life increases exponentially with each detail we add to our story. Those same details attract entertainment gatekeepers and inspire countless passive listeners to seek out more of your music.
With a little effort, our song about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape can be sold as an epic tale of wanderlust and misadventure inspired by unfortunate yet relatable circumstances.
“My song is about growing up in a conservative small town and how nobody, not even my family members, can relate to your ambitions of a life outside the village limits. It’s about taking advantage of the opportunities presented to you and exploring them. Sometimes we will fail, but that’s okay because failure is part of the journey. What’s more important, to me, is that we try in the first place.”
A few things to keep in mind as you develop your selling power:
You are already a storyteller. Your music proves that. Don’t let the lack of music cause you to lose confidence in yourself. The story you are telling is yours (or one you made up). Nobody can sell it better than you.
Storytelling is a skill you never stop developing. It will take time to build great pitches, but it’s worth the effort.
As you refine your story, always look for new angles to promote your single. Maybe the song elicits a very specific feeling or reaction from the listener. If so, there’s probably a playlist for that.
Not all stories are created equal, and the same goes for the recipient. You may need to develop multiple pitches for a single song to maximize its reach.
Playlisting is the way of the future. Taking time out of your schedule now to develop and refine your pitching skills will expedite the promotional process down the line. Best of luck, and if you have any questions, email james@haulix.com for advice.
Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got and more, but the men of RXPTRS make it looks easy. Today, they tell us the secrets to their success.
Take a moment and try to remember life in 2018. It was only four years ago, but it feels like several decades have passed since any of us lived such simple lives. There was no COVID, no average gas price over $5, and endless opportunities for young talent to make themselves known—both online and in person.
Life back then may seem easy in hindsight, but that’s not the world RXPTRS frontman Simon Roach remembers. That wasn’t long after he was nearly decapitated in an incident that caused him to rethink his approach to life. He coined the phrase Living Without Death’s Permission not long after, which has since become a mantra for the band.
“We never approach anything with a genre or an audience in mind, it has to be what we’re feeling in that moment. If it comes out punk, sick, if it sounds metal, awesome, if it doesn’t sound like anything else, even better. Nothing’s off the table,” explains Roach. “We all come from different backgrounds and have all been inspired by so many different genres, we wanted to hear a sound that mixed all those influences, so we thought, ‘let’s be that band.’ I totally get that genres help steer people, but we don’t want that stability. I feel like nothing great can come from a comfort zone.”
RXPTRS debut album is filled to the brim with seamless combinations of varying corners of rock. There are elements of rock, punk, metal, and hardcore present—often in a single song—yet it never feels overstuffed or forced. Instead, RXPTRS lead listeners on a sonic journey through tough times in search of the strength needed to persevere when all hope seems lost.
In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell chats with Simon Roach about the origins of his band and the birth of their debut album. They also discuss how RXPTRS built a name for themselves while the world was in lockdown and how algorithmic playlists may have changed their lives virtually overnight. Check it out:
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
Playlists are the key to discovery and growth for many musicians, but very few know how to pitch tastemakers successfully. We can help
Every artist has a story to tell, but alarmingly few seem to realize how many artists are telling similar stories. Every life is unique, but there are only so many relatable experiences that can be mass-marketed through song. That’s why there are so many love songs and an equally large amount of heartbreak anthems. The same goes for songs about realizing life is short, mourning the dead, aspiring to better oneself, and of course, the timeless desire to flee one’s hometown and chase big-city dreams.
Your story is unique, but you have to know how to sell your story for tastemakers to understand that.
Each day, in offices and remote workspaces around the globe, playlist curators and industry gatekeepers sift through countless songs from artists hoping they’ll give them one of the very limited spaces available on editorial playlists. Certain tastemakers specializing in mood-themed playlists may hear upwards of one hundred or more tracks with a similar theme or story in a single day.
If you want to be the ONE song that stands out from the competition, there are two factors you have to nail:
The song needs to be GOOD. Obviously.
You need to sell the heck out of that song.
Part one is up to you. As for part two:
The only thing separating your story of wanting to leave home and every other dreamer is how you sell it to someone else.
Start by breaking your song down to the simplest description possible.
“My song is about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape.”
Great! We have a relatable perspective that millions, even billions, can easily recognize.
The only problem is—everyone has a song about wanting to leave their hometown.
If you want to attract playlist curators, tastemakers, or anyone, you need to be more specific.
Let’s start with the “why” of it all. WHY do you want to leave your hometown?
“My song is about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape because I have big dreams.”
That’s better. You’ve narrowed the target audience slightly, but you’ve also gotten closer to your true market.
Let’s add another detail, perhaps explore WHAT made us want to leave our hometown. Was it our family, the community, or something more existential? Maybe it’s all three!
“My song is about growing up in a conservative small town and how nobody, not even my family members, can relate to your ambitions of a life outside the village limits.”
The significance of your song and your perspective on life increases exponentially with each detail we add to our story. Those same details attract entertainment gatekeepers and inspire countless passive listeners to seek out more of your music.
With a little effort, our song about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape can be sold as an epic tale of wanderlust and misadventure inspired by unfortunate yet relatable circumstances.
“My song is about growing up in a conservative small town and how nobody, not even my family members, can relate to your ambitions of a life outside the village limits. It’s about taking advantage of the opportunities presented to you and exploring them. Sometimes we will fail, but that’s okay because failure is part of the journey. What’s more important, to me, is that we try in the first place.”
A few things to keep in mind as you develop your selling power:
You are already a storyteller. Your music proves that. Don’t let the lack of music cause you to lose confidence in yourself. The story you are telling is yours (or one you made up). Nobody can sell it better than you.
Storytelling is a skill you never stop developing. It will take time to build great pitches, but it’s worth the effort.
As you refine your story, always look for new angles to promote your single. Maybe the song elicits a very specific feeling or reaction from the listener. If so, there’s probably a playlist for that.
Not all stories are created equal, and the same goes for the recipient. You may need to develop multiple pitches for a single song to maximize its reach.
Playlisting is the way of the future. Taking time out of your schedule now to develop and refine your pitching skills will expedite the promotional process down the line. Best of luck, and if you have any questions, email james@haulix.com for advice.
