EDITORIAL
What’s the secret
to going viral?
by Gareth Shute
It seems to be a regular
occurrence these
days that a young
artist suddenly finds
themselves doing huge
numbers on a streaming
service like Spotify or
getting a spike in views
on YouTube. Where did
these millions of streams/
views come from?
Clearly, if there was an
obvious route to success,
then everyone would be
taking it but there is still
some preparation you
can do to give your music
the best chance of pick-
up online.
PLAN AHEAD
From the outside, it might look as if some
tracks just randomly get picked for big
Spotify playlists and suddenly get a million
streams, but usually there’s been dedicated
work behind the scenes to highlight the
track to the curators of the playlist that got
people listening or the blogger who gave
the song its initial boost.
If you are supplying your track to streaming
services via an aggregator (the biggest one
in New Zealand being DRM) then they will
need up to a month to prepare material
for sharing with the editorial staff at the
big streaming services. This will give you
the best chance of getting on one of their
playlists. If you are with a major label that
aggregates its own material to streaming
services, then they will still need time to
plan their promotional approach.
16 • NZ MUSIC COMMISSION MAY BOOK 2020
The questions your aggregator/label will
want to know are:
• What has your act achieved in the past?
• What press/radio interviews/etc have you
arranged to go with this release?
• Are you planning to do any advertising to
promote it?
• Will there be live streams or online
activity that coincides with it?
• Is your release supported by NZ On Air
funding or is there a music video for the
song?
This information is then compressed and
presented to the editorial teams at Spotify,
Apple Music etc, so there needs to be
enough to draw them in and make them
want to give the track their full attention.
If the genre of the music is outside the
mainstream, it might even be worth
investigating which playlist the track might
suit - e.g., if it is relaxing instrumental music
it might suit the popular Spotify playlist,
Sleep. Similarly on Bandcamp each genre
area has their own staff managing them,
so it’s worth trying to connect with these
people.
These factors apply equally strongly
to getting interest from music blogs or
other music media. If a journalist/blogger
receives a track via email with very little
information supplied along with it, then
there’s only a slim chance they’ll even listen
to it. It pays to make it clear in the email
that you’re an avid fan of the writer/site/
blog/etc that you are submitting your music
to, since there’s nothing easier to ignore
than a generic form email. Even the title of
an email could be used to draw them in by
outlining what it is that makes your music
special - e.g., “NZ rapper with 80s beats,
who plays his own sax breaks.” It needs
to be something intriguing that you think
would tempt someone to have a quick
listen. This brings us to our next point…
BE OPEN TO POSSIBILITIES
The great thing about releasing music
online is that you have a potentially
unlimited audience, the only problem is
that it’s such a crowded marketplace. It’s
worth looking at local acts who’ve received
great pick-up online and see what it was
that got them attention. In some cases,
their audience received a great leap from a
usage of their music that they hadn’t even
planned for, but the key thing is being
open to these opportunities as they arise.
Recently Benee found one of her songs
being picked up for a dance challenge on
TikTok, following a short clip posted by a
teen in Rotorua (Waiata Jenning) going
viral on the app. It ended up featuring in
over half-a-million TikTok vids and within
a few months this led to a huge boost in
her Spotify numbers (up to half-a-million
streams per day). The temptation for a
young artist might be to try to get on the
bandwagon on this new fame by doing
one’s own TikTok video, but users of the
app could equally be turned off by the idea
that an artist was trying to cash in on their
interest.
Instead, Benee continued on course with
her music - focusing instead on releasing
a catchy single as a follow-up and creating
a music video with her own personal
aesthetic front and centre. She was positive
about the pick-up of her music on TikTok
in interviews, but didn’t try to force it.
By taking this approach, TikTok users
subsequently embraced her next single
‘Supalonely,’ which soon had its own dance
and went on to staggering streaming
numbers (over 125 million on Spotify and
27 million views on YouTube … not to
mention all those 10 million+ TikTok vids!).
In other cases, it can be an openness to
collaboration that gives an artist a boost.
Consider Kimbra’s feature on the Gotye
song ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ - a
video that now has over 1.3 billion views.
For Kimbra’s part, it was a pay-off from her
willingness to work with interesting artists
- for example, she’d previously sung with
Australian dance music outfit Miami Horror
and also got to No.3 in NZ singing on a
track by Nesian Mystik. What’s more, by
the time her song with Gotye came out,
she already had an album ready to drop
so was able to take full advantage of her
newly found fame when the video went