How Musicians Use Replies To Get MILLIONS OF STREAMS // ACT FAST!!!

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One of the funniest things about music marketing is its all about shiny object syndrome. We focus on what’s new and in front of us and forget that there’s really powerful methods that keep working that have been around for years. Today we are going to talk about how replies on TikTok (and other platforms) do the work for getting your videos seen and your music heard.

Why Community Matters for Content

I'm always going on about how important it is to find your community, and so is everyone else who does what I do. That's because it really can make your content explode. I'm about to show you why. If you don't reach out to people and keep being an island, it doesn't go well for promoting your music.

The last time I did a metaphor for content, I messed up and used the example of the human centipede. Some of you didn't find that as funny as I did. So I'm not going to call this next lesson the “circle jerk” of content or the “lemon party” of content. Instead, we're going with the very wholesome "circle of content life."

The Circle of Content: How Replies Drive Growth

The first basic example of the circle of content life is the endless replies you can get caught up in when artists and their friends are replying to each other on TikTok. It creates almost a scene effect where the fans of each person replying continue to see all the other content. You almost get brought into a whole world of artists who know each other.

An example I saw go viral and get huge gains was the artist Medium Build's song with X Ambassadors.

@xambassadors

“Friend For Life” feat. @medium build 6.23.23 #friendforlife #eg #comingsoon #newmusic #friends #bff

Enjoying this? Forward it to a music friend you’d like to be closer to and start a discussion!

They were replying to each other, singing along, making duets and other content together, and tagging each other. If you got brought into one, you'd probably see the reply to another. When you continually reply to each other and others who make videos, you get locked into this circle where TikTok sees this as something you'd like to see.

Another example of this happening to me was Sophie Powers and Ashley Sienna's TikToks for their banger "Obsessed." Seriously, go to their TikTok pages and watch a masterclass of replying.

@sophiep0wers

🔗 in b!o #manifestation #crush #manifesting #newmusic #manifestationtips #manifestacion #lovespell

Why This Works: Understanding the Algorithm

When you're replying to one another, TikTok sees this as a conversation. They want to keep you going in that conversation. They don't get that it's just musicians who work together—they see it as a hint that you want to be involved in the conversation.

If I were trying to market your song right now, one of my first questions is: which of your friends can you coordinate with to do fun replies to some of your best content so it gets an algorithmic boost?

Content that gets replies, especially video replies, gets pushed. Reply to comments, do stitches or duets, and to some extent do reposts—these all juice the algorithm.

Some of you are thinking you don't have features on your track, so how could you do this? Between you and your friends' bands or other artists you play shows with, or even just your friends, you can be doing this. Simply duet where your friend sings along and endorses you or acts something out to your lyrics. Encourage fans or whoever to make replies—it ignites the algorithm even if they have few followers.

If a fan gets locked into this circle of content where TikTok's algorithm is continually serving it, your earworm is more likely to get in their head. The algorithm helps them get addicted to you and then become a fan. If you have more friends participating in this, it gets an even bigger circle of content that can really loop people in. These replies are one of the main indicators to the algorithm that this is good content that should be spread.

You continually get served this conversation for as long as you engage with it. The algorithms inherently see these videos as all a conversation, and if the viewer is interested in that conversation, they know they should keep serving it.

YouTube Example: HEALTH's Strategy

Let's do another example of this circle, this time on YouTube. The group HEALTH (which we did a big interview with on the members-only feed)

The group did a “What’s in my bag” video and got some interesting comments, so what did they do? They made a reaction video where the singer reacted to some of the comments.

I know many of you are thinking, "That's nice, Jesse, but no one's show has me on. I'm not cool." Let's say you have one friend who's an artist, and you decide to do a sketch or just fake a conversation. Imitate a couple of singers in your genre going back and forth. Put it on one of your channels, then the other person should reply to the comments it gets. As you make videos, make video replies and have it become a circle where people are responding to the content and creating a conversation.

You can do this with your record label or manager. I saw a great video yesterday of a manager telling the story of the early wins for the band they manage. It'd be so easy for that band to reply to points of this, make a stitch of the video, or reply to the comments and create a circle of content. Replying to another account that's posting about you just creates this circle.

More Examples

Artemis, who had the most viral song in America last year—that horned-up banger "I Like the Way You Kiss Me" was doing a collab with the original Tube Girl. They reply to each other's content, and it hits the algorithm.

@sabrinabahsoon

Shoutout to Artie for always catching me 🫶🏽 @Artemas #tubegirl #tubegirleffect

I know some of you are thinking you can't get someone with that many followers to do this with you. Trust me, this stuff starts at a small scale even if the person isn't that big, and you can work up and keep scaling upwards. There are a million clout goblins willing to do collabs these days. Remember, any musician is a little cooler than the average person, so you could probably find someone to do this with.

Some extra sauce here with what HEALTH did was really smart: they also made short-form versions where they cut down the YouTube videos. This stimulates all sorts of different algorithms, and they interact with each other. Algorithms cross over and help you grow on each one. When you're spreading content from algorithm to algorithm and people start to see you there and get caught in different circles, you begin to grow more and embed yourself in people's minds more, making it more likely they're going to hear your hook.

Building Your Own Circle

Here's another way to do this. When your best friend drops their newest track, you do a video like "This Spring's 5 Best Wojack-Core Tracks" and put their song in one of the five. They stitch your video where you dropped their song. When your new song comes out, they do the same thing. Both of you reply to the comments these videos get about your songs and create that circle of content.

One of the fun things about TikTok is that people have no idea who you're watching, so they have no idea if an artist is pumping up a friend. If someone watches that video and then you stitch it, when they reply it will probably hit them if they watched it at all. They'll hear your hook again and hopefully get addicted to you.

Starting From Zero Followers

Many of you are thinking that none of this matters because you literally have no one who follows you. I have a trick on how you can get this started when no one follows you. People have been using this on TikTok for years to get their followings in a really classy way.

Many of you claim it's impossible to find artists whose fans would like you who have 10 to 50,000 monthly listeners. While I think most of you are just not doing your homework (like when you cut class to hang out with Frank Ocean), this actually works really well to find those artists.

You know how, when you comment on someone's content one time, you're going to see their videos for weeks in your feed? Here's a way to get into people's feeds just like that.

Let's say you found one similar artist whose fans would also like you, and they have 100 to 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Let's say it's the artist Two Shell, who I really like. First, head to Musicstax and see what micro-genre they're in. I see it's Grimewave.

Make a TikTok, Reel, and YouTube Short and say, "My Grimewave people, I am really loving Two Shell. If I'm into them, who else should I be listening to?" Hashtag it with the micro-genre tags you just saw on Musicstax.

Post that video and wait for some replies to come in. Then start posting your own content. I bet those people who commented on it are now going to be the people who get served your video and will probably reply to you. You will hopefully grow from this. If you repeat this every two to six weeks with something different, you'll probably see some pickup in the algorithm and get out of algorithmic jail.

If you really want to pour some extra sauce on this: when someone replies with a really sick artist recommendation and you really like them, make a reply video from that comment. Say how sick they are, tag them, and maybe you'll connect with that artist.

Culture-Specific Tactics

You can even do this with other things that belong in the culture. Let's say you make djent, which is like heavy metal for those who don't get it. Ask what pedals you should pick up aside from the one you already have, like the Horizon Devices pedal. Ask what other ones should be on the djent-head's pedalboard.

Or if you're DJing some of the modern queer techno parties in Bushwick that I used to go to, point to a picture of a shirt that everyone seems to have and ask where you get it and what other shops sell things like it. It'll do the trick for you, especially if you use the local tagging thing on all the apps.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

From all the nice collaborations you've done with others to make your music blow up and create this circle of content life, I sure can. If you really want to grow your fanbase, you need to understand algorithms a little bit better. I made a great video to teach you that, so you can get fans while you're asleep, which is on the screen right now. Make sure you watch that next if you really want to level up.

Thanks for reading.