Sometimes in order to win the game, you have to switch up how you play. We take a look at artists who have found success playing by their own marketing rules over the years.
We've all heard the age-old saying that any and all publicity is good publicity. Although such an idiom is relatively still up for debate, with some artists learning the hard way that bad publicity can, in fact, yield negative results, many can attest they would rather get people talking than not be talked about at all. After all, this is the age of social media, and marketing has become almost as much of a focal point as the actual art itself is, if not more.
With everyone competing for the same 15 minutes of fame, in the contemporary forms of landing a slot on a popular playlist, inspiring the next viral Internet challenge or tactfully keeping their fanbases on high alert for new merch or music, how one plays the PR game in the year 2017 is a vital component to garnering any lick of success.
While the act of the surprise album may be a true art form (just ask Beyoncé), knowing how to market and promote oneself on social media is less of a high-intensity obstacle course to navigate through and more so a necessary evil of being a recording artist these days. It's just an essential component that directly correlates to helping achieve collective end game goals, such as sold-out tours, success on streaming platforms, an engaged audience, rising merch sales and if all goes well, the opportunity to do it all over again, but on a larger scale.
Knowing how to navigate social media and create engaging content doesn't come off without some artists doing the most and others not doing enough. While some artists have successfully pulled off some wild publicity stunts, others have found success by adding their own twist on some tried-and-true marketing methods.
Take a look at the gallery above to see 30 noteworthy moments that further prove when it comes to flipping the marketing script, the creative possibilities are increasingly infinite.