In partnership with

How 1,500+ Marketers Are Using AI to Move Faster in 2025

Is your team using AI like the leaders—or still stuck experimenting?

Masters in Marketing’s AI Trends Report breaks down how top marketers are using tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Breeze to scale content, personalize outreach, and drive real results.

Inside the report, you’ll discover:

• What AI use cases are delivering the strongest ROI today

• How high-performing teams are integrating AI into workflows

• The biggest blockers slowing others down—and how to avoid them

• A 2025 action plan to upgrade your own AI strategy

Download the report. Free when you subscribe to the Masters in Marketing newsletter.

Learn what’s working now, and what’s next.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

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

I've been working on short-form video guides for weeks, but every time I sat down to write them, something felt off. Here's the thing - there's so much mediocre advice floating around that I wanted to create something that actually hits different. Something that makes you walk away thinking "oh fuck, that changes everything" - like walking out of Star Wars in the seventies.

So I spent the last five days interviewing everyone I know who's crushing short-form content. Managers, creators, and people who work with artists who are absolutely killing it. I've been finding the gaps in my knowledge and building toward something bigger that's coming in September.

What I learned completely changed how I think about TikTok strategy. Since part of this member feed is showing you what I'm learning in real time, let me be brutally honest - most artists feel like they're about to break through, but they're not quite there yet. There is tons of potential, but something's missing.

So here's everything I've discovered about TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. You're getting this knowledge way before anyone else does.

Time to spill some sauce.

The Brutal Industry Reality

Every conversation with managers and label people starts with the same question: "Who's killing it right now without posting short-form content?"

The answer was unanimous. If you're not creating videos that regularly remind people you exist and show you're actively building, industry people probably don't want to work with you. This perspective is becoming universal across genres - you need content that isn't just music.

It's like saying, "I really want to date someone incredibly attractive, but I don't have a job." What exactly are you bringing to the table?

That insight was fascinating, but it's not the main thing I want to dive into today.

The SFV Tent Poles Method

What I really want to talk about is this concept I've been developing - and this is still a work in progress, so call out any holes you see. When I develop ideas, I cook on them for months to make them solid and useful.

Think of your TikTok page like a circus tent with ten supporting poles. Two massive center poles form the highest peaks - these need to get the most views and draw people in from a distance.

Here's the critical part: if your supporting poles consistently outperform your center poles, your entire structure becomes unstable. People get confused about what your page is actually about, and the tent might collapse.

You could potentially make it work if what's happening inside is incredibly compelling, but everything works better when all poles are properly positioned. When your tent structure is solid, your page becomes more diverse and creates a better overall experience.

Let me break down what each pole represents so this metaphor makes practical sense.

The Two Center Poles: Your Foundation

The two massive center poles that should dominate your performance metrics are:

Stories around your new songs - These are videos that create compelling narratives around your latest releases. Not just "here's my new song" but actual storytelling that gives context, meaning, and emotional connection to the music.

Stories around your old songs - Content that brings fresh perspectives to your existing catalog. Finding new angles, sharing creation stories, or connecting older tracks to current moments.

Now, you might ask: should these be equal? Should I promote old songs and new songs with the same intensity? Not necessarily. The key is that both of these categories should consistently outperform everything else on your page. Ideally, your new songs’ content performs as well as your old songs’ content, but sometimes you're in periods where you haven't released anything new, so obviously, your old songs’ content becomes more prominent.

What matters is that these two poles stay higher than all the supporting poles around the edges. These music-focused stories should be bigger than everything else that's holding up your tent structure

Subscribe to Premium Subscription to read the rest.