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silverfoxlou · 1 year

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Behind The Campaign :: Louis Tomlinson

Former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson released his debut album in 2020 through Sony but moved to BMG for his second album, Faith In The Future, in November 2022. Lisa Wilkinson, director of UK marketing (new recordings) at BMG, explains how they looked to reposition him in the market, what learnings were coming from his live success as well as his own festival, why his merchandise strategy directly informed his multi-formatted record release strategy, how they were able to build him without mass radio support, where a wider male audience was targeted this time round, why Twitter remains his most powerful social media platform and how a highly vocal and engaged fanbase was nurtured further and directly involved in the campaign.

1 Coming to BMG for his second solo album 2 The centrality of merchandise 3 The radio conundrum 4 Targeting a male audience 5 Building his songwriting profile 6 Targeting the press 7 Boosting the digital strategy 8 QR code and interactive community map at his Away From Home festival 9 Twitter as his main platform and setting him up on TikTok 10 Chart battle with Bruce Springsteen and the power of in-stores 11 Stationhead and Tim’s Twitter Listening Party 12 Fan-made Spotify Canvases 13 Documentary and the next steps

1. Coming to BMG for his second solo album

This is his first album with BMG. His debut album, Walls in 2020, was with Syco Music [via Sony]. That was off the back of X Factor with Simon Cowell.

He had done a couple of more commercial singles – one with Steve Aoki [‘Just Hold On’] and one with Bebe Rexha and Digital Farm Animals [‘Back To You’]. They were really successful streaming singles, but that’s not who Louis is. For the boys in One Direction, the ones that have been successful and the songs that have been successful are the ones that have stayed super pop and commercial. Louis did that but it’s just not who he is.

I think he felt, in that structure, that he just wasn’t getting the support to be who he wanted to be. That’s exactly why people come to us. It’s an artist services deal and we’re there to support you and advise you.

You can see from his live business and his merchandise business – and every other thing that Louis does – that there is an incredible fanbase there for him.

When they [Syco] released Walls, they achieved 14,000 units in week one and got to number 4 in Q1 in January 2020. We thought that just didn’t feel reflective of what was happening [around him].

We went and saw him at various venues on his world tour. We went to New York and saw those two shows and we went to Italy and watched his Milan stadium show in front of 30,000 people.

You’re looking and you’re thinking, “Those numbers don’t make any sense. How on Earth did you fumble that?” We were confident that we could do better than that.

He had a signing dinner in October 2021 and then his world tour started in February 2000 [sic], which was the delayed tour [due to the pandemic]. It went all the way through to September, pretty much nonstop.

They sold half a million tickets that year. All the while he’s on tour, he’s still making the album.

‘Out Of My System’ was released as a DSP-focused track before the album. It’s the rockiest and heaviest track on the album. He came straight off stage, went into a vocal booth off the side of the stage [to record it]. Because of the energy, he was so fired up. It was a difficult process because it was creating an album on the road.

He wanted to make an album for live. It was a totally different experience for him. Covid hit just a few months after Walls dropped so the tour was out of the question.

Before we started working on the album campaign, he did a show at Crystal Palace Bowl, which was the first incarnation of his Away From Home festival that he’s created and curated, which is for up-and-coming indie bands.

He gave away 8,000 tickets in August 2021 when we could start doing outdoor things again. I was there and was thinking, “There’s something big going on here.” The fans were so committed and dedicated.

Considering this is someone who hasn’t had real radio support or is seen in celebrity magazines or on social posts, this is a huge phenomenon.

That continued into the tour.

2 The centrality of merchandise

We started on the creative really early and that was a key factor in how successful the album was. We knew early on from discussions with management that his merch business was berserk. We knew what kind of fans he has. With their merch drops during Covid, they played around with the strategy. They got in a really cool design team and they would just do regular drops – limited-edition releases and you’ll never see it again. Everything just sold out constantly.

That informed the whole product strategy.

We knew we had to make product that’s limited in its nature because it encourages demand.

The fans just want it. It’s got to look amazing; it’s got to have Louis looking phenomenal because they just adore him; it’s got to be priced right; and there’s got to be a selection. So it’s more stuff, but less of it.

Instead of treating it like a music product, treat it like merchandise. We absolutely nailed that strategy.

We sold 35,000 records and around 2,500 units were streaming. A good chunk of that was physical album sales. It’s going to inform our strategy for any other albums we do with him.

We did 19 products in the end. We did a standard CD, we did a CD ‘zine which had 82 pages of beautiful content and photos, we had a picture disc vinyl, we did around eight different exclusive retail vinyl albums, we had a splatter vinyl for HMV, we had a colour one for Amazon, we had a clear one for Spotify, we had several more for Urban Outfitters and Target, we had an indie retailers one.

It was a collector thing: how many of the vinyl albums have you managed to get? We did a double deluxe vinyl for D2C. We did cassettes where the artwork joined together when you got all three. They were embossed and glowed in the dark. Louis has Easter eggs that he drops everywhere. The number 28 is like a lucky number, so you see 28 dotted around places. The same with 369 – he uses it in many iterations. If you had a UV light, you’d be able to see ‘3’, ‘6’ and ‘9’ embossed on each cassette.

3 The radio conundrum

We have seen historically that it has been tricky to get radio for him – but not because of any artist proposition issue. It’s just sonically that he wants to do something different to what radio wants to play.

It’s tricky because it falls through the gaps a little bit with what he wants to do. We’ve always looked at it as: let’s just assume there are zero promo opportunities at radio, TV and press. Let’s just take out promo entirely.

What you have got is a global, engaged, fanatical fanbase. You can do more with that than you can with those other things if you don’t have fans.

I would much rather have an artist who’s got an absolutely berserk global fanbase and that gets absolutely no support from traditional media – because you can work with that – than have an artist that’s not really got a particularly big fanbase but radio loves them and TV loves them. What does that matter if you’ve not got the fans?

We did always want to get promo because we would love to be able to expand Louis’ fanbase. But you’ve got to compete against Harry [Styles] and Niall [Horan]. They’re the first people you’ve got to compete against because, to play three One Direction members on the radio, I don’t know if radio stations would. Then you’ve got the sonic battle as well where he wants to keep it pretty raw.

The first single was ‘Bigger Than Me’, which is a big song to sing. It was a good bridge between the last album and this album. It gave the fans what they wanted.

We had really good feedback from radio. They played it to Clara [Amfo, Radio 1] without telling her who it was. She loved it and she did actually play it as one of the hottest tracks of the week. Greg James’s producers said it was brilliant. They absolutely adored it. Matt Edmondson and Mollie King’s team loved it. They thought it was great. But it got blocked at playlist conversations. It was like, Come on!

That was really disappointing because, pre-release, we were getting incredible feedback from producers, but we just couldn’t get it through the playlisting. We’d always planned for it not to go on radio, but if it got on radio that’d be just a brilliant bonus. So it didn’t harm our campaign strategy at all.

He’s too pop for indie stations and he’s too indie for the BBC [Radio 1]. It’s frustrating, but he’s making the music he wants to make and the fans love it. So what do you do?

‘Silver Tongues’ came out just before the album dropped, which was the official second single. That bridged the gap between those two singles. It was much more guitar based. It was up-tempo but it wasn’t too indie.

On the day that the album was released, fans bombarded Greg’s show on the 10 Minute Takeover [on the Radio 1 breakfast show]. And he played it! It was lovely but you could tell it was done like, “OK, I’ve done it now. Go away.” Which is just so sad because his demographic is right in that lane. It’s 18-25.

4 Targeting a male audience

‘Out Of My System’ was released as a DSP track, and that was really to show a different side of what was going to be on the album. It was the hardest one, the rockiest one, the speediest one, it was all about the band. It is one of the best streaming tracks on the album; it has really taken hold.

That was really just to get the male audience because we knew from the analytics we had prior to release that, although his demographics on social media are largely female, wider research that we did with our media teams said that he has a male fanbase. They’re just consumers. If they were to hear him on the radio, they wouldn’t turn it off – that kind of thing – but they’re not necessarily following him on social media. We knew that there was an opportunity there to reach another audience.

5 Building his songwriting profile

We just gave him creative freedom. Louis is really smart. He was the most proficient songwriter within One Direction. He has more songwriting credits than any of the other four members. We know that he’s a talented songwriter so it was just putting him together with people who can give him the confidence, like this album did, to move him out of his comfort zone.

There are some tracks on there that he will say were inspired by people like DMA’s and their album The Glow. ‘All This Time’ and ‘She Is Beauty We Are World Class’ have that slightly more experimental sound to them, which I think took a few people by surprise. He has really incredible writers like David Sneddon, Robert Harvey, George Tizzard and Rick Parkhouse. He has said multiple times in interviews that they gave him the confidence to have fun with it.

I don’t think he expected to get the amount of tracks that he did. It was a big album with 16 tracks. Then we put another three tracks on a digital deluxe edition in week one which shifted another 15,000 units globally.

6 Targeting the press

One of the big wins we had on this campaign was the NME coming on board. They were not interested last time. There was no music press. So one of our key targets on this campaign was to get music press.

We really wanted to get a Rolling Stone cover but the one we wanted to go for Harry was on. So we shifted and we retargeted the NME. We took them to Louis’ Away From Home festival in Malaga [in summer 2022]. He sold it out – 15,000 tickets in 24 hours.

NME did various interviews with Louis for their website and for their socials. They spoke to the bands that were on. It was a real seal of approval. And from that point onwards, we had nothing but great press from NME.

They supported everything – all the singles and we got a four-star review of the album. It was not like we bought it, but it was because we put them in the right place to really see him.

7 Boosting the digital strategy

There were two real strategic decisions that we made at the beginning that affected the outcome: one was the physical product strategy; and the other was the digital marketing strategy. If you don’t have traditional promo, and you’ve got an ardent global fanbase, digital is the most important way of getting your marketing across.

When we first started working with management, they said to us that there were some things that were non-negotiable. Everything should be fair, so we shouldn’t feel like we’re only offering things to fans of a certain demographic or to fans in a certain territory. It’s global. It’s got to be accessible. It’s got to be affordable. And it’s got to be innovative.

They are so good at doing things that break records and break the internet.

They did their livestream in 2020 and Louis sold over 200,000 tickets. It was the most-streamed livestream of a male solo artist during lockdown.

They had quite high expectations of the digital campaign going forward.

We spent quite a long time, about three months, prior to launching trying to figure out how we were going to break the internet.

With #LT369, we trended within about five minutes worldwide of that hashtag going out. When you tweeted the hashtag, it took you to a mini site where a Twitter map was starting to flag where people’s locations were. Over the course of the teaser week, the flags started to fall away but would leave ‘BTM’ which stood for ‘Bigger Than Me’, so we were teasing the single name.

We did a playlist builder and it was generated on socials as a cassette mixtape. You could share it and design your own cover on it. These were just things that really got the fans talking and engaged.

8 QR code and interactive community map at his Away From Home festival

The interactive map was linked to a QR code. We put QR codes around the festival site with absolutely no explanation as to what they were. But the fans notice everything.

We put the track titles from the album in pictures. They were really, really hidden. It took the fans two days [to work it out], but they observe everything.

Everyone started using the QR code. It took them to a website. We hadn’t announced at that point that the album was going to drop or that it was coming. It was a real mystery but that started the chatter going and we started getting trending hashtags for the album.

9 Twitter as his main platform and setting him up on TikTok

Twitter is his biggest platform [with 35.7 million followers]. What’s really interesting about that is that it’s super conversational, and you can see what they’re doing – as opposed to other platforms like Instagram and Facebook. He’s probably one of the only artists that still uses it as their primary platform.

He is really active on Twitter. He will go through bouts where he doesn’t post but then he’ll go on a reply rampage. He just replies randomly to people and does 40 in an hour. The fans go absolutely wild. Twitter was our key platform for launching initiatives and activations

There is a HQ account on TikTok and it crashed part of TikTok when it launched. Management love knowing that they crash things. We “crashed” our D2C site within minutes. There was a queue of 200,000 people in the D2C store at one point within the first hour of launching.

We didn’t technically crash the D2C store but, because of the size of the queue, it shut the storefront down which is what it does, and then forms a queue so that it doesn’t crash. We went on there and could see there were 200,000 people queuing.

10 Chart battle with Bruce Springsteen and the power of in-stores

I don’t think he ever thought he wasn’t getting a number 1 album. We beat Bruce Springsteen, we did it in Q4 and we doubled the numbers that Sony did week one last time [on Walls].

When we were in week one, and we were battling out with Bruce Springsteen, we said that there were an easy 3,000 units there if we put on four Banquet Records shows [at Pryzm in West London] and bundle the album with the tickets.

Every time they put a show on sale, you could see the numbers on the webpage. There were 200,000 people on there, even people who were not in the UK. They were ridiculous numbers.

It was more than Banquet has ever done. We sold out three shows in under a minute.

That was on release week. We had a really solid release week strategy so we knew that we had three shows in the pocket with Banquet.

We had two tracks that had not been released at that point, that weren’t on the album, that weren’t on the deluxe and that hadn’t been released as singles. We created a £4.99 digital album that had another two brand new tracks on it. You could only buy it as an album product and it was a D2C download.

We sold 15,000 of those globally in week one. We sold 6,000 in the UK. We did 3,000 extra records with Banquet in week one via the shows. We did an additional 3,000 with signed product that we put on sale in week one, because there were no other signed products in the market.

The digital super deluxe did 6,000 units. We ran multiple competitions. We gave away a signed guitar with HMV. We did a golden ticket to the tour with Crash Records.

We did a two-day pop up in Camden [North London] and Amazon contributed with signage. We did a one-day one in New York as well. We sold pop-up exclusive merch and we re-sleeved splatter vinyl with a London pop-up sleeve. We did around 2,000 of those. We did the same with the CDs and re-sleeved some CDs with the London pop-up. They were unique and fans could not get it again so they flew out the door. We had 3,000 people show up for it. That was full capacity.

We premiered the video for ‘Silver Tongues’, the second single, at the pop-up. That was the weekend of release but the single, which came out earlier that week, the video dropped on the Saturday.

11 Stationhead and Tim’s Twitter Listening Party

Stationhead is an interesting concept and we’ve done it a few times now. It’s linked to streaming, so every time you play a track within the show, it’s technically streamed by the amount of people that are listening to the show. Louis did one of those and, in terms of Stationhead’s history, it was pretty successful.

We got an email from Tim Burgess’s team saying they wanted to do a Tim’s Twitter Listening Party with Louis. They had such a good rapport and the fans were asking for it.

Beyond the chart units from the streams, it is the noise that it creates online that is more important to us.

It was one of their biggest re-listening streams, which is amazing when you think about the demographic that they have.

12 Fan-made Spotify Canvases

Across socials, we asked people to rework the ‘Bigger Than Me’ artwork. As a way of getting people to go and stream the track, we would change the Canvas semi-regularly so there was a reason for people to go and play it to see if their Canvas was one of the ones that had been selected.

The only downside is Canvases are only seven-seconds long. So if you go and you watch for seven seconds, it’s not your artwork and you come off, it can affect your average listening rate.

We were mindful of that. Our strategy was to do that post-pitching for any real major lists so that they weren’t looking at the data.

He has got really good listening data. It’s around 15 plays per listener which is way over the average. The save rate to libraries is huge and shows that he has really got a good lean-in listenership.

13 Documentary and the next steps

He’s going back on tour. He is back on another world tour from April starting in Asia and then he goes to North America. Then he comes back to Europe, culminating in an O2 show in London this time around in November. He previously did Wembley Arena.

The documentary [All Of Those Voices] premiered on 16th March and then went to worldwide cinemas on 22nd March for a week.

Charlie Lightening made it and went on tour with Louis. He had previously made the Liam Gallagher documentary [As It Was]. Historically he’s done most of Louis’ music videos as well. It was only this time around that we wanted to branch out and see if we could do something a little bit different.

It goes from the band through to his personal life and where he is now. There is a massive focus on the tour. It will blow people away to see what the Louis franchise looks like. This kid has an amazing franchise and most people just don’t have any clue about it.

The recordings business is such a small part of what he does. Obviously it helps to have records out to sell merch and to go on tour. That’s where he really excels.

I’ve never worked on a project where the fans are like they are. You get to see your visions immediately. You get to see the reactions immediately. You get to see the activation work immediately. That is such a buzz.

On most other projects, you launch something and then you have to market it and push it. This was more about pre-strategy, because you know that when you launch something, if you get it right, it’s going to work and you’ll get to see that reaction immediately. That was so much fun. Campaigns like that are rare.

#BMG #FITF promo #or more accurately. the lack of it

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louisupdates · 1 year

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BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN: LOUIS TOMLINSON

MUSICALLY | 19 APRIL 2023

Lisa Wilkinson, director of UK marketing (new recordings) at BMG, explains how they looked to reposition him in the market, what learnings were coming from his live success as well as his own festival, and more.

[The article will be broken into sections, linked below.]

1. Coming to BMG for his second solo album

2. The centrality of merchandise

3. The radio conundrum

4. Targeting a male audience

5. Building his songwriting profile

6. Targeting the press

7. Boosting the digital strategy

8. QR code and interactive community map at his Away From Home festival

9. Twitter as his main platform and setting him up on TikTok

10. Chart battle with Bruce Springsteen and the power of in-stores

11. Stationhead and Tim’s Twitter Listening Party

12. Fan-made Spotify Canvases

13. Documentary and the next steps

☆彡

1. COMING TO BMG FOR HIS SECOND SOLO ALBUM

This is his first album with BMG. His debut album, Walls in 2020, was with Syco Music [via Sony]. That was off the back of X Factor with Simon Cowell.

You can see from his live business and his merchandise business – and every other thing that Louis does – that there is an incredible fanbase there for him.

When they [Syco] released Walls, they achieved 14,000 units in week one and got to number 4 in Q1 in January 2020. We thought that just didn’t feel reflective of what was happening [around him].

We went and saw him at various venues on his world tour. We went to New York and saw those two shows and we went to Italy and watched his Milan stadium show in front of 30,000 people.

You’re looking and you’re thinking, “Those numbers don’t make any sense. How on Earth did you fumble that?” We were confident that we could do better than that.

He had a signing dinner in October 2021 and then his world tour started in February 2000, which was the delayed tour [due to the pandemic]. It went all the way through to September, pretty much nonstop.

They sold half a million tickets that year. All the while he’s on tour, he’s still making the album.

He wanted to make an album for live. It was a totally different experience for him. Covid hit just a few months after Walls dropped so the tour was out of the question.

Considering this is someone who hasn’t had real radio support or is seen in celebrity magazines or on social posts, this is a huge phenomenon.

That continued into the tour.

#louis tomlinson #lisa wilkinson #louis press #bmg marketing #19.4.23 #musically #louis masterpost

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louehvolution · 2 years

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I don't know if it's an uo but I don't think Matt Vines is a good manager. He seems to live in his comfort zone and I believe he has never had a client with a fanbase. It's clear from the promo so far that he, Louis and BMG were hoping the fandom alone would bring the song success. Louis' emphasis on co-dependency with fans does more harm than good because most fans don't know that to be successful artists need gp support. And this image of him being a nice guy (a dad) as marketing isn't working

Anon 2: #this actually has to be the least promo he's ever had... ? I feel like I have to bring up DLIBYH promo [...] It was probably the saddest single release I've ever seen. However, that fact does not erase that although BMG is getting Louis some interviews and performances in the US, it's still not enough. He deserves so much better. Literally, just the bare minimum would be a tremendous improvement and they can't even muster up enough respect or effort for that. It's so disappointing. Nothing has changed.

Hi, anons. I don’t even count DLIBYH as a proper single release, to be honest, though it should have been. There was also Miss You US promo: one MRL interview—and they never played the song.

It's been two and a half years since Louis last released music, and Walls got minimal, substandard promo. In the intervening time, despite a record breaking livestream concert—exclusive went to a 1D and Eleanor blog—organizing his own festival, and a successful world tour… people at large have not heard his music or about him beyond 1D and fatherhood headlines.

Louis needed and deserved a strong relaunch, with not just good promo, but in fact extraordinary measures considering the amount of artistic erasure and belittlement to overcome.

Like, BTM on a list from radio host in Z100 and instead of talking about the song what he does is beg Louis to get 1D back together. There’s a culture of disrespect for Louis as an artist, that needs to be countered. What is his team doing to work towards having him known as a credible solo artist and securing a long term career?

We aren’t even reaching bare minimum at this point. Not one UK performance—and from what he said in an interview it doesn’t seem like there were plans for more UK promo. GMA performance is great, but he needs more. Corden’s is the usual—and I’m not sure he will be performing. A dozen listening parties for fans in random cities will not expand his audience at all.

Every artist who’s done F1 takeover includes their song(s), but not Louis’ playlist—and while Louis can be retiring and love boosting other artists, he is an artist doing promo, he wants his music to be heard like everyone else. He’s proud of his music, and doing radio takeovers before has played his own songs. He celebrates charting like every other artist—including indie ones—but we’re at the point people think he’s sabotaging himself. And charting and sales do matter in order to have a solo career, as he’s expressed and demonstrated he wants more than anything. 

Seems out of character for Louis—known for checking in and thanking fans constantly—to do nothing for the end of tour or new music. However the pattern of his socials being inactive during promo season is nothing new.

Matt Vines should know what he’s dealing with as he’s been around for years now. BMG had over a year to research and prepare, teased for months how excited they were about what was to come—but this is it? So discouraging if they were not only incompetent but also eager to be lazy?

Louis talks about studying artists and the market—as far back as choosing EDM as the best entry route into the market. He knows how things work. His words and actions speak of ambitious hopes and dreams for his career: he loves performing to big crowds and selling out venues, he has a multiple album plan and wants to keep touring; he wants to expand his festival. He is well aware of the lack of support and roadblocks from the industry, and while he’s been mistreated and hurt, and it cannot but have taken a toll, if he has persisted, I do not believe he is throwing away promo opportunities and refusing to engage a wider audience and diversify his fanbase. He’ll make himself go through Lorraine, to his detriment—press about 1D and fatherhood proven useless—but won’t go on Graham Norton for instance? It makes no sense. Who would choose to remain dependent on an a precarious fanbase, and why do promo at all unless you want more people to hear your music? And whatever psychological damage he’s sustained after years of abuse, there is a team of professionals behind him who are supposed to be working in his best interest.

This promo won’t even build towards a better future if it’s just a repeat of what led to this situation in the first place.

I just want his faith in the future to be rewarded. Want him to continue feeling confident in himself as an artist, motivated, feeling worthy of good things; to see him shown the respect and recognition he deserves; for him to be able to continue doing what he loves and does so well for decades :(

#anon #solo louis #it's all... :|

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skepticalarrie · 2 years

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Hmm i dont know about the bbc blacklisting but i saw some fans from the uk weirded out because bbc and capitol arent playing Bigger than me but in the US stations are playing it. So they are trying to find reasons and one was that one interview when they asked Louis about his family tragedies and he walked out and then called them out on twitter.. so lots of radio/tv people were shading him back then ( also a Gemma liked a tweet defending him back then). I dont think thats the reason though.

Yeah, I really have no idea. I don’t think getting radio plays is necessarily what Louis have been seeking at the moment, I think is more about being allowed to have some sort of space to do what he wants and acknowledged in this specific niche. But people need to be willing to support his music for that, which didn’t really happen before. And it sucks that it seems to be a problem right now as well, if that is really what is happening here. Personally I think BTM promo is already doing much better than his previous ones, so I don’t really have much to complain about it… I think we’re going to have to wait and see if there’s any consistency to it, because that’s where they really fucked up with Walls.

#ask #bbc radio 1 #btm promo

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seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 2 years

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I just wanted to remind people that supporting Louis is a gift in itself. We know the kind of person he is. I wanted to remind people that last year he donated money to a band who had their gear stolen so that they could buy their instruments back. You wouldn’t read about that in the big papers, he did it for his love of music and the people who make music. We love him because he loves his fans with all his heart, he literally paid for parking lots so that his fans could camp out safely. He paid for water in biodegradable bottles because he cares about everything. It wasn’t published in any magazine and no one will know about it. So every Louis can be confident that they support the artist who has the biggest heart and loves his fans and music like no one else. He is not promoting already established high profile musicians as they do in this industry but unknown bands who really need support. His openers are not Grammy winning musicians like Kacey Musgraves or Maren Morris. He is taking unsigned bands on tour. So, don’t feel bad when Liam Gallagher doesn’t talk about him. With our support we can make everyone take notice. I think we have to spread the word through the communities we have. Introduce our friends, colleagues, family to his music. Get our local radio stations to play his music. That’s how 1D got big. We have to show the world Louis was the heart of 1D. 1D was invited to local radio stations because fans would keep tweeting and requesting. We have to do the same. LT2 is coming, we have to get organised if we want to do this.

I agree. It has been a privilege to be Louis’ fan. Beyond good music, Louis is a role model and an inspiration in so many ways.

However, 1D’s label— Syco and Columbus music— actively pushed 1D to succeed. Of course fan fervor played a big part, but 1D doesn’t have road blocks like Louis did with Walls.

@beccasafan set up a good and incredibly useful database for radio requests. Louies used it extensively, but got very few actual responses. The reason was that USA radio stations have a higher hurdle to play the song when it isn’t uploaded to AllAcccess, and of the Walls singles, only WMI and TOU were available on AllAccess (Walls - the single- was available under the Adult Contemporary category).

Fans sent individualized care packages to radio stations all over the country. It didn’t matter.

Similarly, after TOU, none of Walls singles were available on BBC Radio playlists, which at one point had three songs from Fine Line on playlists for BBC1. Niall, Zayn, and Liam’s singles were ALL featured on BBC1 playlists.

In contrast, Louis’ songs were more frequently played in Latin America, because it was easier to request play on radio stations.

That translates to higher listenership, higher charting, higher Walls popularity, and higher concert audience numbers.

So you can see that fans have influence, but the gates were tightly closed to USA, UK, and Australian audiences — the largest areas of English-speaking music in the world.

Fans can spread our love by word of mouth, and by more viral means — by making Tiktoks and Insta reels. These are Louis’ numbers on Tiktok, without even having an official account.

Louis has gained approximately 200 million TikToks under the hashtag #louistomlinson alone since the Latam leg started. That is a huge number— much bigger than gains on his YouTube music video views! This is where fans can take him viral with the right organization and project.

#louis tomlinson

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dailytomlinson · 3 years

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2020 is finally coming to an end, and we can’t say we’re disappointed about it. It sure has been a long way for everyone, yet some artists had a lot on their plate. Take a look at Louis Tomlinson’s year. As complicated as 2020 has been for him, he still unlocked achievements and outdid himself in the best way. So let’s take a look at how Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year, let’s go!

Louis Tomlinson Released His Debut Solo Album Walls

After four years of anticipation, and a good two years of teasing, Louis released his debut album, Walls, on January 31st. The record received positive critics and fantastic feedback from his loyal Louies. From the party anthem ‘Kill My Mind’ to the emotional ‘Two Of Us’, with a few sweet escapes such as ‘Too Young’, not to mention the punchy ‘Always You’, the album brought the fans everything they had hoped for. In addition to that, Louis stole our hearts with heartfelt and sincere lyrics that only he has the secret of. Magic.

Louis Started His Worldwide Tour And Gave His First Solo Show

Louis started his worldwide tour in March before it got interrupted. Touring was what he had always been looking forward to, ever since he’d decided to start a solo career. Louis had expressed the exciting feeling and positive stress that he feels right before going on stage. Luckily enough, he had the time to perform twice in Spain at the beginning of March. His first whole solo show took place at Razzmatazz, in Barcelona, and reunited around 2000 fans (sold out). An hour and a half of musical bliss, a performer who shares a lot with his fans, and an incredibly talented band. What else?

Walls Went Number #1 In 53 Countries And Worldwide Upon Release

Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year in the charts too. He always had a dedicated fandom, and that’s no surprise. However, he seemingly wasn’t expecting the global success of his debut album Walls. Indeed, it went number #1 on iTunes in 53 countries upon its release on January 31st, including the United Kingdom and the major part of South America. Not only that, but the album also climbed the iTunes Worldwide Chart to reach #1 in a matter of hours. Legends only.

Louis Released The Music Video for ‘Walls’, And It’s A Masterpiece

January 16th revealed the final single off Walls, the album, which was none other than the title track itself. Louis described it then as his proudest song on the album, with strong influences of Oasis. A few days later, on the 21st, Louis blessed us with the music video, shot in Morocco by Charlie Ligthening. The camera follows Louis through the Sahara desert and traces his path through a ballroom and dancing crowds. Some other scenes show him surrounded by masked people, or behind four silhouettes that he identified as his four former bandmates. The Easter eggs, the quality of the video, and the suit (yes, the suit, don’t you lie) made it a fans’ favorite, for it now counts more than 12 Million views.

Louis Reached 1.4 Billion Streams on Spotify

It looks like the fans’ streaming parties paid off this year. With only one album, four other songs, and remixes or edits, Louis reached the milestone of 1.4 Billion streams on Spotify this year. Additionally, he also made it to 4 Million followers on the platform. The numbers speak for themselves, and the achievement is huge for an artist who only received little promotion for a debut album, stopped on its way due to the pandemic. Here’s to his first billion, and some more soon! Overall, Louis knows he can count on his devoted Louies to increase the number of streams significantly with new challenges, the way they did it in December with #12DaysOfWalls. (Original idea by @miss_always_you).

He Launched Only The Poets Internationally

If you’re a Louie, there are big chances that this name rings a bell. Only The Poets, a band coming from Reading in the UK, literally skyrocketed this year. After their first performance as Louis’ first act on stage at Scala in February 2020, their popularity started increasing. And Louis confirming them as his first European act only made it better for them. They continued their year with live-streams, private Zoom calls, and pre-listening sessions of their singles with fans. They ended it with a social distanced show in Banbury and a Zoom Tour in a few European countries and South America. And the mutual support Louis and these lads give each other is heartwarming.

Louis Decided To Part Ways With Syco

This one is for the fans. After ten years of collaboration with Sony’s label, Syco, Louis decided to part ways with them for a new adventure. He officially announced his decision with a tweet on July 11th that took no time to break the Internet. Soon enough, hashtags related to the news trended around Twitter, other artists, and radios congratulated him on his decision. Louies celebrated with funny memes and GIFs but made sure to surround Louis with love and support through it all. Now we wait (for the new label announcement).

Louis Didn’t Only Postpone His Tour, He Made It Bigger

Another proof that Louis Tomlinson made 2020 better. Not only did Louis pursue his dream and goal to tour, but he also grew it out. After postponing the tour three times, the newly announced European dates include a few more stops, including Reykjavik (Iceland), Warsaw (Poland), Prag (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria), Zurich (Switzerland), and an additional date in Paris (France)! The shows sold out in less than 40 minutes, making it more than 15,000 tickets purchased. Due to the high demand in Zurich, the venue changed and 500 more tickets went on sale! In Argentina, a wild mobilization of fans on Twitter led him to open the whole Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires. Some additional tickets went on sale for the Chilean show as well. And guess what? They all sold out.

Louis Was Crowned Artist Of The Summer With 13 Million Votes

Still, doubting that Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year? A radio station from Philadelphia, @965TDY, launched a Twitter award ceremony last summer to crown an artist ‘Artist Of The Summer’. Many polls, 13 Million votes, and 26 Billion points later, Louis was elected and was all over Twitter thanking his fans for their dedication. Louies had acquired the absolute record of 26 Billion points thanks to their votes on the radio station’s website, and thanks to their mass voting parties. Another proof that Louis and his fans are unstoppable altogether. The support is always undeniably strong, and so is the bond between the artist and the fans. Happy days.

Walls Magically Rises On The Itunes Charts In October

Indeed, nine months after its release, a new wave of fans bought the album on iTunes and made it rise in the charts. The magic truly happened after @UpdateHLD (a Twitter update account), reminded new fans to purchase the album if they had not already. Considering Louis gained a certain amount of fans during the global lockdown, the initiative went successful, and soon enough, Walls was climbing the charts just like it did on January 31st. As incredible as it seems, it even received its first #1 on the USA iTunes chart. Louis didn’t miss on thanking his fans for their continuous support, expressing how amazed he was by the chart climb.

Louis Offered An Online Live-Stream Show, #LTLivestream

Early December, Louis announced his first live-stream show from London for December 12th, entitled #LTLivestream. He promised a very special show, hosted by the platform Veeps, and didn’t lie. The general sale for the tickets (of course) crashed the website, making everyone panic. Louis then confirmed that the tickets were unlimited. The show was as incredible as originally announced, with an orchestra, fans participating through a digital wall, and a new haircut that conquered the fans. The numbers later revealed that Louis had sold over 160,000 tickets. #LTLivestream is the most sold live-stream for a male solo artist in 2020. Being the generous philanthropist that Louis is, he has given the $2.8 Million raised to many charities and his touring crew. The charities benefitting from the funds are FareShare UK, StageHand, Crew Nation, and Bluebell Wood. And they wonder why we love him.

Louis Surprised His Fans With A New Song Called ‘Copy Of A Copy Of A Copy’

Last but not least, after spending a year on a rollercoaster, Louis revealed a brand new song during #LTLivestream. He had been hinting at it through a teaser for the live-stream and via a cryptic tweet that made everyone think he was referring to ‘Copy Of A’ by Nine Inch Nails. However, he proved everyone wrong during the show with a brand new song. ‘Copy Of A Copy Of A Copy’ reminds us of the general sound of ‘Walls’ (the single), and stole everyone’s heart and soul once again. Immediately after the show, the fans asked Louis when the single would be out, to which he replied that he wasn’t sure about it being one. The disappointment faded away when he said it remained an option and would put it on the second album. We’ll take that.

And that, folks, is how Louis Tomlinson made 2020 his year for us! We have so many memories of Louis this year and can’t pick a favorite! What would be yours? And what do you think is yet to come from Louis next year?

#the honey pop #long post #press #2020 #louis tomlinson #291220

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louistomlinsoncouk · 3 years

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'Louis Tomlinson Live From London'

A Special Event To Raise Money For FareShare And Other Charities

Louis Tomlinson today announces a special one-off live streamed show to be broadcast on 12th December.

The multi-camera event will feature Louis and his full band performing fully live, and will be available to watch for 28 hours, giving fans globally the chance to view at a time convenient to them.

Profits from the show will be split between FareShare, Crew Nation, Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice and Stagehand. Louis will also be donating money to his own touring crew, many of which have been out of work since March.

The show will feature songs from Louis' smash debut soloalbum 'Walls' (Top 3 in the UK and Top 10 in the USA), alongside a few surprises.

Tickets for the show will be go on sale via https://louis-tomlinson.com/live from 4pm on 25th November.

Louis says: "I was absolutely gutted to have to postpone my world tour this year as I was really looking forward to seeing all the fans. Performing for a live crowd is the most important thing to me, this live stream is a step back into that world and is something I can't wait to film. I want to put on a real show for the fans, with scale and production, creating something special to end 2020 on a positive upbeat note and raise money for charities that are especially close to my heart. I also want to give my touring crew work, and raise some vital money for them, as without my crew the show literally couldn't go on."

In addition to the concert, Louis is also releasing an exclusive range of new merchandise that will also go on sale on the 25th November. All profits from this merch will go to the above four charities and Louis' touring crew.

January 2020 saw the release of Louis' debut solo album 'Walls', a lyrically personal album that proved he had found his feet as a solo artist. The album produced a clutch of acclaimed singles including the emotive first release Two of Us, the raucous Kill My Mind, the reflective We Made It and the soaring pop perfection of Don’t Let It Break Your Heart.After postponing his 2020 World Tour due to Covid-19, Louis is looking forward to finally getting on the road with his first solo tour next year, which is already completely sold out.. In 2019 Louis headlined the Coca-Cola music festival in Madrid to an audience of 25,000 people, and performed to 65,000 fans at Premios Telehit in the Foro Sol stadium in Mexico City.

Louis picked up the Best Song Award at the 2019 Teen Choice Awards for 'Two Of Us', which has so far hit over 100 million streams on Spotify alone. In 2018 Louis won an iHeart Award for 'Best Solo Breakout', and an EMA Award for 'Best UK & Ireland Act' in 2017. He was ranked No.5 on Billboard’s emerging artists of 2018 and has over 60 million combined followers on social media. This year he won 'Artist Of The Summer' in Philly radio station 96.5 TDY's annual awards.

As a member of One Direction, Louis has sold over 100 million records. Overall Louis’ solo music has garnered over a BILLION streams.

About FareShare

FareShare is the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, with more than 30 warehouses across the UK. It takes food from the food industry that can’t be sold in shops, either because of packaging errors, a short shelf life or overproduction. That food, which is the same as the food you’d eat at home, is then redistributed through a network of 11,000 frontline organisations, across the UK such as homeless hostels, school breakfast clubs, domestic violence refuges, older people’s lunch clubs, food banks and hospices. Since the pandemic, FareShare has more than doubled its work, providing the equivalent of more than 2 million meals a week to people who might not otherwise eat.

About Crew Nation:

Live music inspires millions around the world, but the concerts we all enjoy wouldn’t be possible without the countless crew members working behind the scenes. Crew Nation is charitable fund, created to help the people who were supposed to be working on shows planned for 2020. Crew Nation is powered by Music Forward Foundation, a charitable 501c3 organization, that is administering and managing the fund.

So far, the fund has raises $15 million, helping 15,000 live music crew members across 36 countries who were impacted by the rescheduled or cancelled shows scheduled to take place through June.

About Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice

Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice cares for children and young adults whose lives are sadly just too short, both in their own homes and at the North Anston Hospice. The charity supports children and young adults with life-shortening and life-threatening conditions, and are currently helping over 300 families at the hospice and in their homes across the region. Bluebell Wood is very much a happy, joyful place focused on helping families make wonderful memories together whether they have weeks, months or years together. in their homes across the region. With only around 15 per cent of its funding coming from Government sources, Bluebell Wood is reliant on its fantastic supporters, volunteers, fundraisers and staff who all consistently go above and beyond to help the charity reach as many people who need it as possible.

About Stagehand

The live events sector is in crisis and the largely self employed workforce faces a long winter without work, many of them without any form of alternative financial support. Those that could find alternative work have done so; many can access enough Government support to survive for the next few months, so our focus is on those who have seen income drop to virtually nothing.

Stagehand is for those people, to provide grants that help to cover basic living expenses for the crew and their families. These grants are already helping to relieve the financial and mental burden of keeping a roof overhead and providing for families throughout this crisis.

#louis tomlinson #simon jones #24nov20

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hlupdate · 3 years

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'Louis Tomlinson Live From London'

A Special Event To Raise Money For FareShare And Other Charities

Louis Tomlinson today announces a special one-off live streamed show to be broadcast on 12th December.

The multi-camera event will feature Louis and his full band performing fully live, and will be available to watch for 28 hours, giving fans globally the chance to view at a time convenient to them.

The show will feature songs from Louis' smash debut soloalbum 'Walls' (Top 3 in the UK and Top 10 in the USA), alongside a few surprises.

Tickets for the show will be go on sale via https://louis-tomlinson.com/live from 4pm on 25th November.

As a member of One Direction, Louis has sold over 100 million records. Overall Louis’ solo music has garnered over a BILLION streams.

About FareShare

About Crew Nation:

So far, the fund has raises $15 million, helping 15,000 live music crew members across 36 countries who were impacted by the rescheduled or cancelled shows scheduled to take place through June.

About Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice

About Stagehand

#louis tomlinson #articles #241120 #lt livestream

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tommosupport · 3 years

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We get some asks from time to time about where to get data from. Of course, we want to preface this by saying that you need proper context in order to be able to use the data fully and build on it. Nevertheless, there are a bunch of platforms available for you to use - we’ve added caveats where necessary.

1. Kworb (http://kworb.net)

a. Provides realtime iTunes chart updates for both singles and albums, as well as iTunes popularity updates for both singles and albums. You can sort by country or get worldwide data, and the platform also offers some data on YouTube and other metrics, such as Artist Popularity.

b. Drawbacks: Keep in mind that even though it’s realtime, there is a lag in Kworb’s data nonetheless. Popularity is updated only every four hours or so. iTunes charts will update more regularly, but will lag behind what people may already be able to see in their own iTunes stores.

2. DigitalSalesData (http://digitalsalesdata.com)

a. This website used to be able to provide you with the sales numbers for singles on iTunes charts.

b. Drawbacks: It no longer gives accurate data, because this is no longer included in the iTunes Store API. Nonetheless, it does give you an indication of the market as a whole in a country – are the margins to get into the Top 10 close or not, and what’s the sales velocity like? Keep in mind that these numbers therefore should be interpreted, and not just blankly copied or taken as reflective of the actual sales numbers.

3. Chartmetric (http://chartmetric.com)

a. Probably one of the most elaborate websites that lets you collect many KPIs from various platforms – TikTok, Shazam, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube, etc. They have over 25 different data sources. It also shows you things like fan conversion rate (the ratio of monthly listeners vs artist followers on Spotify, for example), and lets you sort playlists on whether they are editorial, personalized or both. They provide data on trends and give you updates in percentages as well when it comes to relative change in subscribers, views, etc. There’s a separate section on social insights, too. They also developed their own cross-platform index which is a useful tool to see if an artist is able to really create a robust fan foundation across all various social platforms. Chartmetric regularly publishes interesting pieces on their latest finds and data analysis. Reading them will help you understand the data they offer, and will let you know how to interpret it all.

b. Drawbacks: You can only follow up to 5 tracks/items and get email notifications for the free version. And most importantly, you need to actually put in some work to understand how you can interpret their data points. Otherwise it can be overwhelming, or you may just copy-paste the numbers without contextualizing them, which isn’t going to help anyone. It’s great for trends, but you need to be able to identify those and explain them, supported by the numbers. You also don’t have as much insight into radio on the free platform.

4. Songstats

a. Similar to Chartmetric, SongStats offers data on an artist and their discography, using various inputs (Spotify, Beatport, AppleMusic, Deezer, Shazam, SoundCloud, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, TraxSource, 1001 Tracklists, YouTube, iTunes). It can also provide you with an overview of the top current playlists where any music by Louis is playlisted. You can customise what data inputs you want to see.

b. Drawbacks: The data they provide for the free version is very limited, and while they do provide some analytics for free – those are all cumulative data. For example, they’ll say Defenceless is on 114 playlists and has a reach of 2,04M. This is in total, across time. It is not always current, so again you have to be very careful with reading the data they give you in analytics, and how you need to interpret it. It also depends per input source. iTunes & AppleMusic do offer a distinction between current or total/cumulative.

5. Soundcharts (http://soundcharts.com)

a. Similar to Chartmetric and Songstats (more like Songstats in how it’s formatted, but more like Chartmetric in the data it lets you see). Very useful specifically if you want to see a breakdown of radio play per country.

b. Drawbacks: This is only free for two weeks, then plans start at 41$ a month. Moreover, again, be careful in how you interpret data. They don’t properly account for syndicated shows, and they use a questionable metric to track audiences. It also makes no distinction between internet/terrestrial radio. (There’s a difference, because internet radio is traditionally not counted for charting, whereas airplay on ‘terrestrial’ radio does count if radio is tracked for charting purposes like in the US). When you look at e.g. radio play, make sure to use the function to filter out plays shorter than 30 seconds!

6. SpotifyCharts (http://spotifycharts.com)

a. The official site of Spotify that updates on Viral and Top 200 playlists. You may find that there’s a difference between the numbers shown here and on an artist’s own profile. It’s because these numbers have been audited extra carefully to filter out any sort of artificial inflation or fraudulent streaming activities. These update daily around 3PM EST, usually a bit earlier than the song specific numbers.

b. Drawbacks: While they do update daily, the time thereof is incredibly irregular.

7. Chartmasters (http://chartmasters.org)

a. A site that allows you to quickly see an artist’s overall Spotify streams in a table. You can sort based on popular songs or on discography.

b. Drawback: You need an account and only get to use it 3 times a day. Make sure you use them wisely.

8. Billboard (http://billboard.com)

a. Billboard offers a variety of charts – aside from the most well known Hot 100 and Album 200 (and the Social 50 in the past). It also used to offer artist-specific overviews of peak chart positions.

b. Drawbacks: We said ‘used to’, because they technically still offer it – you just need to have a paid subscription to be able to access that data, as well as the other charts they have. Think of split-out charts on digital download sales or streaming, as well as radio airplay or genre-specific charts.

9. NextBigSound (http://nextbigsound.com)

a. NBS is monitored and used by Nielsen to compile the Social 50 for Billboard. It provides you a good overview of social media clout and activity. It also gives margins as to whether or not an artist’s activity and engagement are on par with what you’d expect of an artist what x amount of followers, for example. Also unique: It gives you insights in Pandora. Pandora is part of SiriusXM, as well as its own streaming service and is therefore influential in US radio play as well.

b. Drawbacks: It only tracks a limited amount of data sources (Facebook, Pandora, Twitter, Wikipedia), and used to provide more insights as to e.g. gender & country demographics. It no longer will do that, unless you have access to an artist’s AMP on Pandora.

10. Radio Airplay Chart UK (http://ukairplaychart.com/)

a. Gives you an overview of Top 40 songs being played on UK radio. You can also choose whether you want a rolling overview or see last chart week.

b. Drawbacks: It doesn’t tell you how often a song needs to be played and if this is based on audience or amount of plays (or when songs were most often played)

11. AllAccess (http://allaccess.com)

a. This is the database that is most often used by radio in the US to find new songs to play and to track radioplay across the country. It’s also a great platform to keep updated with the latest changes in terms of program directors or hosts at particular radio stations (which is useful when requesting). It will show you when a song was played and how often, and the estimated audience that was reached. All these things factor in airplay charting, so it’s nice to have a breakdown of it. It’ll also tell you which radio stations are giving support.

b. Drawbacks: You need to have an existing account with them and you need to know how to navigate their platform, which can be quite tricky. Moreover, they use the callsigns of radio stations, which can further complicate finding the data you need, because you’re most likely not going to be familiar with those.

12. SpotonTrack (http://spotontrack.com)

a. Sends you daily reports of Spotify and AppleMusic tracking data for a song. Useful for playlist updates!

b. Drawbacks: Only lets you track one song for two weeks in the free trial, after that you’ll have to pay for the service. You could technically also monitor radioplay, but this is not available for free trial users.

13. RadioMonitor (http://radiomonitor.com)

a. This site shows you radio charts around the world, but can also provide aggregate data for particular regions.

b. Drawbacks: Only useful once a song has started charting in airplay Top 10s.

14. WARM Music (https://warmmusic.net/)

a. Allows you to track radio play starting from 3E per month

b. Drawbacks: Not sure how accurate their data is, though they monitor over 28000 stations around the world. When using the free trial from time to time, it always seemed somewhat limited and not in step with what other sites would say (i.e., currently it says Defenceless was only played 49 times in total over the past two weeks. We know this is not correct.).

#info #resources

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gingerandblue · 3 years

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I know that people want to defend Louis in light of people demeaning him, and not recognizing all of his accomplishments, but we don’t need to pretend that he was charting #1 in the US and UK to do so. The fact that Louis gets barely any support from his label, that radio show hosts have implied that they are unable to play him, that Louis’ name has been dragged through the mud since 2014 does him no favours. I’m sure he would be much more “successful” (commercially) if he had proper promo and didn’t have so much bs tying him down.

I just want someone in his court who will play and pitch his music to streaming partners and will get them excited about his upcoming releases, someone who’ll get mad marketing ideas that will get people to pay attention, I want his cleverness to translate in his campaigns, and more than anything I want the industry and the gp to recognise him for more than his fortitude (which is undeniable but we all know there’s more to him). They’ve been doing okay, not the worst, but with his name and such an engaged fandom at their fingertips they could be doing much bigger & cooler things.

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1ddiscourseoftheday · 5 years

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22 Oct 19

"Are you ready??" asks Sirius radio, "Louis Tomlinson week is in full swing!" The official announcement for We Made It came out and oh, it is beautiful! The picture is of Louis centered in front of the multi colored carnival wheel we saw in the video teaser. The image is evocative of Christian religious iconography with Louis as a saint with a rainbow halo; it's also evocative of Harry's Lights Up publicity shots with the green under lighting. The post has the same layout as the KMM one but switches the red color scheme for orange- a random seeming choice unless they're going to... dear god... keep going down this path for the rest of the singles and make a whole... ass... RAINBOW?? We haven't even got this single properly yet and now I'm dying of impatience for the next one just to see if it's yellow, fucking hell. Anyway it shows the worldwide release times, with a spot for Doncaster, aww. More promo spots are being announced, and it looks like there's going to be a Louis Fan vs Artist trivia video OMG that will be great. And while only one fan will get to do that one, Louis is going all out for all of us and I think given the publicity narrative for this song ("it's about the fans!") we can expect lots more amazing content- in the meantime the quotes about how much he loves us are truly incredible, just yesterday giving us him saying that while his biggest inspiration as a teenager was Liam Gallagher now it's his fans, and, no offense to other artists but that he has one of the best relationships with his fans, ever. So much good stuff! And then team I-don't-know-a-UK-time-who's-she over at LTHQ were like hmm not quite enough, this seems like a great time to announce a Late Late Show appearance (Oct 28!) and post the official single cover to Louis' instagram. Louis! In front of the rainbow wheel! It's gorgeous! Three more days...

Meanwhile, HARRY. It looks like he recorded a "Later... With Jools Holland" performance spot tonight, first of all. The 60 min show features multiple artists per episode performing more than one song each (and sometimes together). Harry's spot will probably air sometime in November and we were told he played Lights Up and a new song! Maybe called Watermelon Sugar! Well that was exciting enough to spawn a hundred Watermelon Sugar treatises and memes in about twenty minutes- but that wasn't enough for Harry, no. "Kiwi walked so Watermelon Sugar could run," he tweeted, scattering chaos like melon seeds. AND the doyouknowwhoyouare site was updated with a new theme (black on white!) and new compliments, a strangely high percentage of them food themed, and some seeming like song title Easter eggs (even more food!) Watermelon Sugar is in there, as is the conspicuously capitalized "Like That Summer Feeling." Harry also (earlier) liked a tweet begging him to say when his album was out, thanks very informative Harold, and a unicef commercial featuring Sign of the Times debuted: we're told he donated use of his song to support their work vaccinating children internationally.

Niall, fanfic trope notwithstanding, didn't have anything to say about food today unless you count the "I'd eat my own hand for a Grammy nom" quote, but he is snatching this week's King of Cute Funny Videos title from Liam, there's Nice To Meme Ya or Fan vs Artist Trivia, and of course, the Irish slang video! Is the best part him making fun of Americans (and scarily well) or him going "you know how English people will just be like lads lads lads" while waving his arms around (Louis texting him like lad do I have to give you a talking to as well I thought we covered this with Liam?) or is it how absolutely hysterical he finds the whole thing? You be the judge! Asked about whether he and his bandmates coordinate to avoid overlapping releases he says not at all and that's how you get this kind of pile up, and suggests that it happened because they all got in the habit of releasing new music this time of year and are still doing that. He posted an audio snippet of NTMY being workshopped, neat! He says he's delighted for Louis, that he's nailing a sound that's really right for him, and that Harry's album is really good.

Liam has a cover and interview for an Esquire Spain special issue, took a fan pic in London, and of course he still has cute funny videos coming out too! Just not as many all at once. He's chatting more about his Ant Middleton TV special/interview as air time gets closer, reminding us that we'll soon see him out there "enduring nature" in Nambia while being pressed for details about his personal life. The Hugo underwear packaging images are up now, as are cute bts pics and video from the Esquire shoot.

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kingupdates · 5 years

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#PROJECTKMM - LOUIS TOMLINSON’S NEW SINGLE. 9/5.

Kill My Mind on Spotify.

Kill My Mind 10 hour playlist on Spotify.

Kill My Mind on Apple Music.

Kill My Mind on Deezer.

Kill My Mind on Tidal.

Deezer & Tidal → Refresh the page after each play.

Spotify → Use our playlist to stream Kill My Mind, add the track to your own playlists, and play it from other popular playlists.

Kill My Mind on iTunes.

Kill My Mind on Google Play.

Kill My Mind on Amazon (US).

Kill My Mind on Amazon (UK).

Gift #KillMyMind.

Receive #KillMyMind.

This is for anyone who would like to gift or receive Kill My Mind via iTunes. Everyone who fills out the forms must: make sure your email is spelt correctly, check their emails regularly, and retrieve their copy of the song ASAP.

Here is a FAQ page.

1DSponsorships runs this program.

* NOT AVAILABLE YET *

Note: Performances are posted on YouTube under license. This means that may only be available for short periods of time.

YouTube → Make sure you are signed out of your YouTube account! It will not count as streams if you are signed in. DO NOT use multiple YouTube tabs at once! YouTube will not count those views. DO NOT mute the song! Plug headphones into your laptop/phone, or keep the volume on low. DO NOT replay the video. Refresh the page. Every handful of views, exit the browser and open YouTube again to begin a new cycle of plays. The view count will not update automatically, be patient. Share the video with family and friends and feel free to stream on multiple devices!

Shazam Kill My Mind.

Download the Shazam app (Apple).

Download the Shazam app (Google Play).

Shazam → Download the Shazam app, play Kill My Mind on another device and allow the app to recognize Kill My Mind. The more Shazam's, the better! Radio hosts often turn to which songs are trending on Shazam to decide what to play on their shows. Share the song with family, friends, and post it to your social media.

Tweet for Billboard.

Tweet with the hashtag #KillMyMind.

Hashtag → Whenever you refer to Kill My Mind on Twitter/Instagram/SnapChat, make sure you include a hashtag: #KillMyMind. This will help the song on Twitter's Trending Topics and will fill Instagram's #KillMyMind hashtag with relevant, Louis-centric posts!

Billboard → Click the generated tweet link above, then click tweet when the site prompts you to. Billboard considers this positive interaction with the song and will count towards charts. Make sure you are always tweeting #KillMyMind as a hashtag, mentioning Louis’ Twitter @ as well as including words such as 'play', 'listen', '#nowplaying'.

Print the flyer above. (Print in black and white if necessary) Once the flyer is printed, head to the most popular locations in your town/city and paste/staple/tape the flyer to bulletin boards, poles, advertisement walls, etc.! Place the flyer under windshield wipers, hand them out, and try doing this with friends to make the experience all the more fun. Don't forget to tweet us (and Louis!) photos and videos of your promotional outings. For a paperless promo method, we encourage you to save the image above and post it to your social media platforms. Make sure you are doing this within legal limits and have fun.

OR: Use an air drop method! Air drop these images to random people in public!

For more information on other fan-based projects and promotional activities, head over to our LouisT91Promote twitter account and check out what other fans are doing to support Kill My Mind!

Below is an auto-tweet that will require you to insert an @. By clicking “REQUEST TWEET” below, you will be brought to a pre-generated tweet that will have copy to request Kill My Mind. You must place the @ of the radio station you want to request #KillMyMind on at the end or the beginning of the tweet. You are encouraged to add emojis, words, photos/videos/gifs, and any creativity to the tweet so they are not too repetitive. Be original, have fun!

You can also head over to our LouisT91Radio twitter account dedicated to radio promotions and requests and retweet and reply to those tweets as well.

Radio play is a crucial aspect of the promotion of #KillMyMind, as locals will hear the song and Shazam it, purchase it, interact with it, and it contributes to chart positions in the US. Let's get requesting!

REQUEST TWEET

RADIO REQUEST DATABASE

You can also use the fantastic Radio Request Database developed by beccasafan.

“Global radio station coverage, with over 1000+ stations, DJs, and radio shows from more than 35 of countries world-wide. Want something added? Click here to contact us!”

An endless amount of template tweets in multiple languages which you can easily personalize before sending.

All available contact information for each station - this includes social media, website, email, text and phone info.

Fully searchable by country, location, station name and a number of other options. Results are randomized as to minimize spamming one station again and again.

It’s free, easy, and best of all, it’s designed to reduce the suspicion of spam!

All you have to do is click to send a tweet, get a request-line phone or text number, or send an email. Simply choose your preferred method of contact and get requesting!

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If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us on Twitter: @LouisT91Updates! Let’s do this, team! #KillMyMind

#Louis tomlinson #kill my mind #projectkmm #kmm

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claritalunaluna76 · 5 years

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MBW’s World’s Greatest Managers series profiles the best artist managers in the global business. This time, we speak to Mark Gillespie, founder of Three Six Zero and manager to huge artists like Calvin Harris. The World’s Greatest Managers is supported by Centtrip Music, a specialist in intelligent treasury, payments and foreign exchange – created with the music industry and its needs in mind.

Mark Gillespie grew up in Redditch, just south of Birmingham, England – where, as a teenager in the mid-’90s, he developed his passion for electronic music as a record collector and amateur DJ.

From there, he met local promoter Eddie Boulton, who gave him a job handing out flyers for Birmingham’s soon-to-launch legendary superclub Godskitchen.

Within a couple of years, Gillespie – deemed something of an internet-age whizkid within Godskitchen – was becoming an increasingly influential figure within the club, helping pick out emerging DJ talent, while also building websites, launching digital marketing campaigns and acting as a talent liaison.

This was a heady lifestyle for an 18-year-old dance music fanatic, which, by Gillespie’s own admission, invited “all kinds of crazy shit” into his life. Including the fact that local gangs – particularly the notoriously violent Birmingham Zulus – liked to frequent the club.

“For quite a while, I wore a bulletproof vest to work,” says Gillespie, matter-of-factly. “That was just being sensible; there’d always be standoffs between various gangs over who was and wasn’t allowed in the club. And then one night, this guy pulled a gun out and waved it right in my face.”

Funny thing is, Gillespie (pictured) doesn’t actually count this incident as his worst ever day at work. That came a couple of years before, when he considered turning his back on the music game for a ‘proper job’, by starting an engineering apprenticeship (similar to an internship) at UK car maker Rover.

“They were good people, but I hated it,” he says. “One day, I just stood up and walked out; I realized I had to make my music stuff work, otherwise I’d be at Rover for the rest of my days.”

Getting a gun thrust in his mush for Gillespie was, relatively speaking, still living the dream.

By 2003, Gillespie had progressed to booking the DJ’s at Godskitchen and its related festivals, as well as processing payments for talent and managing project budgets.

If anyone ever tells you that learning on the job is somehow bested by an academic education, let’s just run through the skills that Gillespie acquired within a few years of joining a nightclub as the flyer kid, aged 16: promotion, artist liaison, accounting, digital marketing, coding, talent booking, self-preservation – not to mention one of the best contacts books in the world of electronic music.

The next step was inevitable, wasn’t it? Godskitchen began releasing compilation albums through Sony Music, giving Gillespie a taste of how the wider record business worked.

Inspired by the likes of UK indie labels Defected, FFRR, and Toolroom, he hatched a plan to launch his own part-time record company – while still working at Godskitchen – and began scanning MySpace “for hours and hours most days, just trying to find new music played by interesting people”.

Eventually, Gillespie landed on the MySpace page of Scottish producer/DJ, Calvin Harris, and hotfooted it up to Glasgow to meet him. Leaving the city deeply impressed, Gillespie made a life-changing decision. “I pivoted,” he says. “I decided I didn’t want to be Calvin’s label – I wanted to be his manager.”

This was the beginning of what would become globe-straddling artist management powerhouse, Three Six Zero. Via his role at Godskitchen, Gillespie had become friendly with influential UK DJ and broadcaster Pete Tong and, in mid-2006, Gillespie passed Tong a CD with a bunch of Harris’s music on it. Tong played his track, The Girls, on his Friday night show on BBC Radio 1, and Gillespie’s cell phone began lighting up.

“I made the decision, right then, to quit my job and become a manager full time,” says Gillespie. “Calvin said to me, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Looking back now, leaving [Godskitchen] probably was a real leap of faith, but it didn’t feel like it at that moment.”

Before we come on to the status of Three Six Zero in 2019, it’s worth reiterating the enormity of Calvin Harris’s worldwide success. He has sold 12 million records globally to date, including 44 million singles, and has had 14 UK No.1s. He has also amassed over 16 billion audio and video streams.

Originally signed by Mike Pickering at Columbia in the UK, Harris is one of Sony’s bestselling, and perennially prioritized, global artists. He’s worked with everyone from Rihanna to Dua Lipa, Florence + The Machine, Sam Smith, Khalid, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande and Migos.

In tandem with Harris’s rise, Gillespie, alongside his former business partner Dean Wilson, has built Three Six Zero into a truly blockbuster player in the global music industry. Based in Los Angeles, TSZ has one of the strongest rosters in dance music globally – with Harris, Tiësto and Disciples on its books, amongst others. It also reps leading lights in other genres like Louis Tomlinson, Kacy Hill and Grammy Award-winning producer Noah Goldstein.

Gillespie has an excellent story about his first foray into the United States with Three Six Zero: A major record label was interested in hiring the British exec to run a dance music-focused subsidiary. He took the meetings, and the paid flights to New York, gladly – but while in town, he was also meeting with Roc Nation’s Jay Brown, with whom Gillespie and Three Six Zero ended up going into business with for almost a decade.

Today, after a transformational year, Three Six Zero is fully independent, and fully-owned by Gillespie. TSZ recently launched a new office in London, headed up by long-term friend of the company, Phil Sales.

Gillespie, a major movie buff, has also quietly made a name for Three Six Zero in the film world, managing the likes of feature-maker Brady Corbet, Shameik Moore – the lead actor in Academy Award-winning animated movie, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse – and bestselling author/ scriptwriter Bret Easton Ellis.

Three Six Zero’s ambitions in Hollywood moved up a couple of leagues earlier this year, when Music Business Worldwide broke the news that the firm had acquired Westbrook Entertainment. That firm’s on-screen talent – including Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jaden Smith, Willow Smith, Kenna and Crespo – are all now integrated into the TSZ family.

What’s more, Three Six Zero launched its own first feature film – the acclaimed Vox Lux, starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law – at the end of last year. The soundtrack to the movie was released on Three Six Zero’s in-house record label, headed up by Pete Tong, which Gillespie runs as a JV with Sony Music Entertainment.

MBW recently sat down with Gillespie over dinner in Los Angeles to map out Three Six Zero’s history, and to learn what the British entrepreneur has up his sleeve for the future…

YOU’RE NOW FLYING SOLO AS THE HEAD OF AN INDEPENDENT THREE SIX ZERO – HAVING ALWAYS HAD BUSINESS PARTNERS SINCE YOU LAUNCHED THE COMPANY IN 2007. WHAT’S THAT LIKE?

The idea of running this company solo used to terrify me. But now it’s different: I like the autonomy, and I like that you can craft decisions that are entirely yours.

There isn’t any interruption in what you’re doing. In some ways, it’s more difficult, but in other ways it’s more enjoyable.

WHAT ARE THE BEST THINGS ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS IN THE US?

I love the professionalism; people really take pride in what they do and that resonates with me. The level of execution that you see in the US business is very impressive – some of the festivals and the live touring setups in particular. You regularly come across people that are prepared to push the envelope [in order] to be able to ensure that really great and interesting things happen.

The potential scale in America is fascinating – the business here really thinks about things on a global basis. I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve managed to handle our business over here, and I’m really grateful that we’ve been enabled to do that.

We all know that some people [from international territories] come to the US with an attitude that they’re going to tell people what to do – to me, that suggests those people believe it’s somehow easy to conduct business over here, and it’s really not.

The flow of business and the way that things are done is totally different to the UK but I love it, and I’m hugely passionate about it.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TRANSITION FROM CALVIN HARRIS THE FRONTMAN TO CALVIN HARRIS THE SUPERSTAR DJ? SOME PEOPLE IN THE STATES MIGHT NOT KNOW THAT HE STARTED OUT AS A SINGER, VERY MUCH IN FRONT OF THE DECKS – BEFORE EMBRACING HIS KINGMAKING ROLE AS THE ARCHITECT BEHIND THE SCENES….

It’s one of the smartest decisions that he made in his career – and it was all him. He used the live touring circuit in the early stages of his career to help establish his business and hone his identity.

At that moment in time [indie/dance crossover acts with ‘frontmen’] was what was happening in the UK, but he saw what was coming and very intelligently saw that the world was turning in a slightly different direction. He also happened to write some of the greatest records ever released at the right time. That always helps.

HOW GOOD IS CALVIN?

His successes broadly speak for themselves. I may seem biased but I think he’s the best writer/producer of his generation.

I love him as an artist and a person. He’s ridiculously hard working, always has been, and he’s a huge a supporter of mine. His drive has definitely helped pushed me along over the years.

OTHER THAN JAY BROWN AND ROC NATION, WHO ELSE HAS BEEN MENTOR FIGURES IN THE US FOR YOU?

Rob Stringer. He’s really perceptive, and gave me some of the soundest advice in the early stages of my career. He’s also helped guide me, on more than one occasion, through what can sometimes be quite a complicated and political business.

Then there’s Michael Rapino – one of the smartest guys in the industry. He has a very direct, knowledge-based approach, which I respect him for. [That approach] is why, above anything else, I think he’s so tremendously successful.

On the subject of mentors, no-one comes close to my mum. She was an entrepreneur and raised three kids on her own. We didn’t have a lot, but she managed to get us into a place where we all had enough.

Redditch is a very ‘normal’ place; part of it’s really nice, part of it’s shitty, and the town center is ‘burger, fries and two black eyes’. It’s not South Central, but it’s not Kensington either. She’s been an incredibly good example to me that if you work really hard, you can achieve important things.

WHY HAVE YOU GOT SUCH A HUNGER TO MAKE MOTION PICTURES OR AUDIO/VISUAL CONTENT?

Partly because I think that the world that we live in now requires the ability to work across multiple disciplines. And partly because I love film, and always have.

Film, TV, short-form digital content, music and socials all used to be very separate, different disciplines. But over the past few years, with the massive growth in streaming, they’ve all moved closer together – and I think they’ll continue to move closer together.

A lot of people ask me whether I’m moving more towards film [at the expense of music] and I’m not. I work pretty much every moment that my eyes are open, and the film thing began as a hobby. I decided to do a few things that made us a bit more of a [Hollywood] entity, and which showed that we have reasonably good taste.

We’ve had a few successes now, and I think that all of the practical lessons that we learn from the [film] business will be hugely beneficial to the music side of our business. But, by no means, am I getting out of the music business. If anything, I’m more focused on music than I ever have been for my entire career; I think this is the most exciting time that the music business has ever seen.

WHY?

There are fewer barriers. There is opportunity for all different types of music to be able to break through.

Also, streaming is working, so there’s the revenue there, if distributed correctly, for the industry to develop and build big artists.

Interesting things are happening in the music business on a daily basis. Since the start of my career, I’ve been hugely into technology, and hugely into music, and I feel like at this moment in time, I get to do a bit of both every single day.

WHY DID YOU START A LABEL WITH SONY?

Three Six Zero has always run labels since the beginning of our business. [The company previously released albums from the likes of The Prodigy in the US via a JV deal with Warner Music Group and label-managed Mau5trap, Rising and Fly Eye Records.]

Running a label helps define your level of taste as a company. It also means you can have different levels of involvement in the careers of talent. The most enjoyable part of that is the ability to work with other managers, actually.

As for why Sony, part of it is because [via Calvin] I’ve spent eleven years getting to know everyone in that system; if I need to ask a question of somebody in Mexico, I know who to pick the phone up to. I know all the label heads in all the major markets, and there’s some really great people there.

Sony’s a really good company at the moment with a great perspective.

YOU’VE HAD SOME BIG CHARACTERS AS CLIENTS DOWN THE YEARS, INCLUDING TRAVIS SCOTT, MORRISSEY AND FRANK OCEAN. ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS MOMENTS INVOLVED FRANK AND THE RELEASE OF BLONDE, WHERE HE COMPLETED HIS ALBUM DEAL WITH UNIVERSAL WITH A VIDEO-LP, ENDLESS, THEN INDEPENDENTLY RELEASED WHAT APPEARED TO BE HIS ‘REAL’ ALBUM WITHIN DAYS. HOW DID THAT SITUATION COME ABOUT?

Frank is a private guy, and that’s part of what makes him so great. So if that story is ever to be told, he should be the one telling it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO BE THE NEXT MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL SEA CHANGE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?

The business needs to find a new format, in order to protect itself.

The biggest threat to the music business right now is decentralized networks. Thanks to Daniel [Ek] and Spotify, a new economy has been created in the business from streaming, but decentralization is a potential threat to that. Decentralization [i.e. blockchain technology] is something that was super buzzy for a year or two, and has gone away a bit, but I think it will swing back around at great pace in the next five years, and could be potentially devastating for the entire entertainment content business.

What happens after streaming is something that we need to focus on. The good news is that there are people within the major record companies and major publishers that are a hell of a lot more technologically savvy than they were when Napster hit.

One other thing is that I think other streaming platforms, from outside music, will want to get into music. That’s going to make things interesting but it’s potentially a threat as well – making sure that music is valued at the correct amount when that happens.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THREE SIX ZERO?

We’re in a place where we can largely do what we want, which is interesting. Over the last eighteen months, I’ve spent a lot of time reconnecting with my British roots, and I’ve come to the conclusion that, if everything came to an end tomorrow, I’d like to be seen as the guy who took some good British stuff to America and made it successful.

I hope for us to do more of that, which means spending a bit more time back in London, re-establishing the business there. I love seeing some of the new, young managers from the UK having a go at moving out [to L.A] and getting stuck in.

And obviously I’m really excited to see what we can achieve with Will [Smith], Miguel [Melendez] and the Westbrook guys. I’ve known them for seven or eight years, we all share a similar philosophy, and they’re very smart and innovative people. There is a real opportunity to work with them to grow our intellectual property [portfolio] while expanding our entertainment management business.

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THREE SIX ZERO UK? LAST WE HEARD IT WAS BEING CLOSED BUT NOW IT’S BACK.

It would be impossible for us to be champions of British talent and not have an office in London. Phil [Sales] is our head in London; we’re partners in the UK business and we’re building it around him.

He’s very direct, he’s honest, he truly loves music, and he’s incredibly passionate about what he does. I’m seeing lots of great things happening in the UK, musically.

The British business seemed to get very locked off [outside the US] for about a year and a half, but that seems to be changing now.

WHAT SIZE DO YOU WANT THREE SIX ZERO TO BECOME AS AN INDEPENDENT COMPANY?

I’m definitely not looking for mass scale – I’m not trying to be the biggest anything ever again. That’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my career so far; being the biggest is not necessarily being the best.

Continually re-assessing what success means to you – especially after you have prolonged success – is the most difficult bit of running a business, but it’s essential.

A specialist in intelligent treasury, payments and foreign exchange, Centtrip Music works with over 450 global artists helping them and their crew maximise their income and reduce touring costs with its award-winning multi-currency card and live foreign exchange rates. Centtrip Music also offers record labels, promoters, collection societies and publishers a more cost-effective way to send payments across the globe.

Music Business Worldwide - July 10, 2019

#“sony’s a really good company at the moment with a great perspective.”#rob stringer is one of his mentors #mark gillespie #three six zero #louis management #music business worldwide #music industry #for context #for the record

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