Musical artists, in competition with both one another and the constant stream of new media that is being put out, are forced to constantly come up with new marketing techniques to promote their shows and albums. With so much content available so readily, a simple promo video or demo release doesn’t seem to captivate people’s attention anymore.
Today, we want everything, and we want it now. Let’s face it, no one wants to wait six months for a new album or TV show when Netflix will give us a whole season at once. Why would anyone want to wait for the weekly incremental episode releases?
The same thing applies to albums. Why would anyone want to wait for a release if artists such as Beyoncé will just drop an album out of the blue—with no wait period? Unsurprisingly, that sales technique worked extremely well; with over 500,000 copies sold within the first day, it became the fasting selling album ever released on the iTunes store. But then again, she is Beyoncé.
For artists who aren’t as big as Beyoncé or who are promoting their tours, they have to get a little more creative, but can still do so with the same overarching strategy in mind. Just like Beyoncé, they can take advantage of people’s love and dependence on the internet. The web doesn’t just allow people to be as weird as they want; it celebrates that weirdness.
For his upcoming tour, rapper Yung Gravy posted a ticket giveaway on his Instagram “for moms only.” The rules read:
“SEND A DM TO MY TOUR MANAGER @vonboolery WITH
1. Your mom’s first and last name
2. A picture/screenshot of your own ticket or ticket receipt (link in my bio)
3. A picture of you and your mom
WE WILL LET YOU KNOW IF YOU WON. TAG FRIENDS WITH ICY MOMS”
Yes, for Gravy, this kind of promotion is on brand; since part of his humor is the fact that he loves MILFs. However, for people who don’t know about Gravy or know him very well, this is definitely an attention catching post. After I entered, I sent the submission to my friends, since they know my mom well. As I expected, a few of them responded with interest in entering too because of how ridiculous the contest was and because they wanted to see if their moms were Gravy MILF material (Ed. note: Keep us updated on how this goes).
Vince Staples also shocked the internet with his #GTFOMD (Get the Fuck Off My Dick) GoFundMe campaign. The campaign had a video description, in which Vince Staples told his haters to donate to the campaign goal of two million dollars, which, if reached, “will allow [him] to shut the fuck up forever.” He donated the $2,022 he did raise to charity and will now continue to do whatever the hell he wants.
Staples isn’t even a huge name in the rap game, but the promotional technique worked in his favor. One comment on The Grapevine’s article on the campaign read, “Well this worked for publicity because I’m sitting here thinking 'who is Vince Staples?' and 'he’s big enough to have a lot of haters?'” Then, shortly after he ended the campaign and the release of articles about it died down, he released a single titled “Get the Fuck Off My Dick.”
Or artists might even pull a Kim K. All anyone needs to release a sex tape now is to have a phone. Portland band YACHT wrote a long post on Facebook about how upset they were that their sex tape was leaked onto PornHub. Turns out the "leak" was intentional and just a promotion for their new song "I Wanna Fuck You Till I'm Dead." The PornHub video itself was not actually a sex tape—just kissing and cuddling leading up to a gross twist ending.
These funny, eccentric promotional techniques become memes, and, just like memes, are shared more easily and frequently than articles or other media that just isn’t as funny. We all just want to be entertained in the moment, and that manifests itself in different ways. For bigger artists, that may mean playing to our impatience with a surprise release, but for smaller ones, that just means making us laugh now so we’ll know about them later.
