Are labels paying for their music to go viral?

Industry plants or simply marketing? A look into music marketing.

Aug 09, 2024

There’s been an increase in people calling out artists for shoving their music down their throats. Marketing tactics aren’t working the same way they used to, and we’re starting to call it out. In a now-deleted quote tweet by @mazzypopstar responding to a tweet by @PopBase announcing Sabrina Carpenter’s biggest streaming day, they said: “Like this If Spotify automatically plays her music for you too I’m trying to see something”. The replies were filled with people sharing their experiences and screen recordings of how Sabrina’s latest song was being pushed.

Similarly, a TikTok creator under the name @maddieshiesty shared a video with the caption “Just letting y’all know this dance is not trending, they’re getting paid to do it and not disclosing that it’s a paid partnership. So if you’re doing it without getting paid you look a little silly”. This video was later followed up with another video showcasing a screenshot of the campaign brief she had received to participate in this trend.

@maddietshiesty I was talking about content creators not ppl m doing it for fun, its not that serious

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

While people might argue that both Charlie and Sabrina are industry plants, it is important to understand the term industry plant. According to Wikipedia, an industry plant is:

“…a term used to describe musicians who become popular through nepotism, inheritance, wealth, or their connections in the music industry rather than on their own merits. Artists described as industry plants often present themselves as independent and self-made, but are alleged to have their public images manufactured for them by record labels.”

As far as I am concerned, both Charlie and Sabrina don’t fit into those categories. What we are seeing is simply marketing. I’m going to give you all the tea behind why some songs “go viral” as part of their marketing tactics.

It’s all part of their business model

One thing you have to understand is that apps like Spotify and TikTok are BUSINESSES. This means they have different sources of revenue to maximize their profits. Most tech companies have both a B2B and a B2C side. B2C is usually the side we see as consumers. It’s the subscriptions we pay for, etc. B2B is where the big money and the big contracts come from, which usually includes advertising, partnerships, and collaborations. For example, a contract can be $100,000 from one brand vs $14.99 for one subscription.

Spotify revenue model

In 2021, Spotify generated $9.668 billion in revenue. $8.460 billion was from premium subscribers and $1.208 billion was from advertisements (source: usesignhouse.com. While it is not their main source of revenue, it still made them over 1 BILLION dollars.

Taking a look at the chart below, you can get a better understanding of Spotify’s different revenue streams. On the B2C side you can see:

The Freemium model: Users who sign up to use Spotify for free. The ads being played “pay for their subscription”.
Premium subscriptions: Users who pay for their monthly Spotify subscription and get access to premium features.
Family & student plans: Discounted subscriptions for specific user groups, making their app more affordable.

While B2B are mainly:

Advertisers: As a brand, you can promote your business on the Spotify platform with targeted ads.
Partnerships: Spotify collaborates with huge brands to create unique experiences that are live or in person.
Artists: Artists can use Spotify to market their music through collabs, ads, and features.

The reason I am highlighting this is because once you know how platforms like Spotify make their money you won’t be surprised at the next part.

Spotify for artists

Spotify was originally created for people to have a legal way to stream copyrighted music and share it with others, especially during a day and age when piracy was going INSANE (if you remember the YouTube to MP3 days LOL). Spotify wanted to make sure artists got a cut from people streaming their music.

That’s where Spotify for Artists comes in. Artists can create an artist profile and:

Promote their music
Pitch their music to Spotify’s playlist editors
Manage their analytics on the platform

Music promotion

This is the part where I tell you how artists end up constantly popping up on your playlist or homepage.

There are three big promotion features Spotify highlights.

Playlist pitching: At least two weeks before the release of a new song, artists pitch their song to playlist curators for a chance to be featured upon release. This helps them gain more visibility.
Marquee: This feature pushes out your music to a wide range of listeners based on their listening history. It will be pushed to both premium and free users.
Showcase: That’s the little ‘New Music’ pop-up on the app, which is also based on your listening history.

Now you know why artists like Sabrina Carpenter “randomly” end up in your shuffle or why you constantly get messages about Taylor Swift’s new album. It’s simply marketing.

Now let’s take a look at TikTok.

TikTok Revenue Model

TikTok actually has an agency side to them, where they help brands advertise on their platform and manage huge campaigns. Think of TikTok covering the Super Bowl, for example. Unlike Spotify, TikTok has fewer sources of revenue. Their two main ones are:

TikTok Ads: As a brand, you can promote your business on the TikTok platform with in-feed ads, branded hashtag challenges, and branded effects.
Virtual gifts: Users can buy virtual gifts for their favourite creators. TikTok takes a percentage from that.

Here’s the catch with TikTok. Usually, when it comes to challenges and music promotion, brands have to hire influencers, and they mainly go through a third party—for example, Pearpop.

Pearpop is a platform that allows brands to manage creator campaigns. A brand will post a campaign and creators can apply to be a part of it and get paid. Chipotle used the platform when launching their “Keithadilla” campaign in 2023.

It wouldn’t be farfetched to think music labels would reach out to big creators to use and dance to their artists’ songs. Look at Sabrina Bahsoon aka Tube Girl constantly collaborating with artists to promote their music.

@sabrinabahsoon With the original maneater @Nelly Furtado 🥵🥵this was a dream come true!!! #tubegirl #tubegirleffect