How Royel Otis Used Simple Content to Explode Their Fanbase

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Music Marketing Trends is a Newsletter by Jesse Cannon that breaks down how musicians really get their music heard. If you know a story we should be telling or an artist we should cover just hit reply to this email./

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Let's dig into Royel Otis, a band making waves in the indie music scene with their innovative marketing strategies. If you listen to indie music or you're a TikTok addict and still don’t know who Royel Otis is, you are one of a kind. In September 2020, they had only 5,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and at the time of writing this newsletter, they sit at 9.4 million monthly listeners. And since they released their last record, they’ve not only had a recent surge of 3.67 million new listeners in the last 3 months, but an 8x increase in listeners over the past year.

Let’s crack into the many interesting things Royel Otis has done to achieve their massive success today. One of their strategies for doing well on TikTok is particularly controversial:

Writing Song Hooks to Cater to TikTok

We all remember “Yummy” by Justin Bieber and agree it’s a song written for TikTok. That song hook seemed intentionally made to be repurposed as a soundbite for content creators and to make the TikTok algorithm go brrrrr. Royel Otis has a lot of songs like “Oysters In My Pocket” & “Sofa King” that feel engineered for the TikTok algorithm in the same way. I have a lot of respect for the band, and they put great art and craftsmanship into their music. However, it’s very conflicting since their music also includes that obvious appeal to TikTok. While it personally gives me the ick, I think musicians could do great crafting hooks specifically with TikTok-friendly elements.

How They Built Their Fanbase from 0 to Millions

This is a growth pattern I see all the time. There's a reason I've sworn by the 6-8 week release strategy for years. I've seen so many people successfully build their fanbases off of it. The size of Royel Otis’ fanbase is a testament to the strict consistency of their unique style and vibe for years.

They’re consistently re-upping the relationship with fans and giving them a dose of that mood-altering drug that makes them feel the way they'd rather feel.

The Inception (2021)

In 2021 they released 7 songs in their first year, dropping every 6 to 8 weeks, doing the Consistent Sustained Promotion thing - which they've obeyed well and really worked for them.

The Breakthrough (2022)

They set an example with their consistent release schedule. Their numbers really popped off when they put out their first single of 2022 "Oysters in My Pocket". After the release, they used the waterfall release strategy to roll out their EP, releasing a new song every 8 weeks. The band didn’t stop after their EP, literally 10 weeks later, they were back at it waterfalling again, going right into the next record.

Blowing Up With Cover Songs (2022-2024)

The other interesting thing is they're doing a lot of alternative versions and some covers. Their covers are massive hits. Their cover of The Cranberries’ "Linger" hit 533.9 million video views on TikTok, and their cover of "Murder on the Dance Floor" hit 403.6 million views. Those numbers are bonkers.

These covers spread like wildfire because they brought their unique, modern sound perfect for TikTok right now. People love it when an artist or band does a really great cover.

Debut Album and Beyond (May 2024)

Their debut LP Pratts & Pain comes out May 2nd, 2024, and strategically time the release of their two covers immediately afterward, one of them being their viral take on “Linger”, just in time to capitalize on their enormous virality.

Yet again, they remained consistent and released a remix of one of their singles just weeks after, and started working towards the next record already.

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