Get Followers Before You Get Signed
Bhad Bhabie making her appearance on Dr. Phil
Previously, the formula for becoming big in music seemed simple. An independent artist would send their music to a major record label and if it was good enough they would be offered a deal. Then labels would work tirelessly to push their new artist and get them to be as successful as possible.
While this storyline may have had more truth to it in the past, it is completely irrelevant to music consumption in the digital age. The first questions A&R’s ask when approaching signing an act has nothing to do with music, and everything to do with who has the most followers.
Angelo Toures, veteran A&R states, “were living in the clout age. These kids have a big social media game, and the labels are in this game of who has the numbers. Millions of followers on Instagram- I’m pretty sure if this person drops a song, it’s gonna reach millions of views”
This statement perfectly explains patterns amongst record labels like Atlantic- who have begun to sign artists with huge internet presence and no music out before being signed. A perfect example of this is artist/ internet persona Bhad Bhabie, who rose to stardom due to being meme’d for months on Twitter regarding her Dr. Phil episode where she told the audience to “Catch her outside”. One joke amongst Twitter made her famous in minutes and she now has a platform on Instagram with 16.4 Million followers. By promoting her music on her platform, she was able to generate millions of streams and make an extremely large amount of money purely because she has a built in fanbase.
While there is still a large number of talented artists who are making names for themselves based off of their art alone, it is not enough anymore. The mechanisms by which talented artist used to gain attention are not as effective as they used to be and have been replaced. No artist will gain traction by posting fliers on a telephone poll or performing at local venues. To get signed in this day and age there has to be fans already present. Becoming a personality is just as important, if not more important, as having good music.