Today we're dissecting Raybull, a group that demonstrates a fascinating approach to music promotion. I chose to analyze them particularly because they exemplify an effective cover strategy that many of you have asked about. What makes their case particularly interesting is how they leverage covers to drive listeners to their original music.

BACKGROUND & DISCOVERY

I discovered Raybull through Rachel Karten's Link-in-Bio newsletter, an excellent social media analysis publication that I pay for. While she typically covers general social media trends rather than music specifically, she featured Raybull in a compelling issue about digital culture.

BAND PROFILE & PROOF OF CONCEPT

Based in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Raybull's sound blends Strokes-inspired elements with bedroom pop and R&B sensibilities. Think Julian Casablancas meets Frank Ocean and Steve Lacy. Their growth trajectory is particularly notable - about two years ago, they had plateaued at around 23,000 monthly listeners. Then they figured out something on TikTok that made them explode, as we see very regularly.

Let me talk about something I discuss a lot in consultations - what I call proof of concept. Here's the thing: when you have 23,000 monthly listeners, you're in the top 1% of musicians. That's just a fact. It's like how having 65,000 YouTube subscribers puts you in the top 1% of YouTubers - which is hilarious to me considering how much YouTube pays me being in the top 2,000 of all YouTubers.

The point is, when you have proof of concept - and I tell this to people on calls all the time - if you have, say, 18,000 monthly listeners, you can basically say, "Okay, people like my music way more than almost anybody alive. So now I should really go all in because if I get more people to hear it, they're probably going to like it."

And Raybull clearly understood this concept. Here's what they told Rachel Karten in her newsletter - which, by the way, you can find this in her free posts, but definitely subscribe to her Substack:

"When I asked Ray Bull about these covers, they told me it just really boosted our visibility in our profile. The whole idea was like, we just need to go viral somehow, we need to get followers, we thought that if people are just following us, they'll naturally think, oh, I wonder if they have any music I could listen to, which is now kind of silly, but there's also a certain percentage of people that it didn't work on. These mashups boosted our monthly listeners and people who knew about us."

CONTENT STRATEGY

One thing that really stood out from Rachel's interview was their structured approach - they alternate between music days and content days. It's undeniable that people who get good at content get their music heard. And they had a clear foundation to build from.

TIKTOK STRATEGY

What they do is create these mashups on TikTok. They really hit on something when they combined "Sweet Disposition" by The Temper Trap - that's like a 15-ish year old indie rock song that was a huge deal in guitar-focused music. When that came out, it was a slow climber but people really came to love it. They paired it with "Oblivion" by Grimes - if you don't know Grimes, you're probably better off, but that song was a monumental hit in the underground dance-pop, rock, indie world, the whole Pitchfork scene.

@raybullraybullh

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Both these songs have this massive classic status for a certain age group, especially people who were teenagers around that time - though honestly even more than teenagers too, since I was much older. The video took off - it got 2.2 million plays for them. That really launched this whole series they do now.

Their approach is super consistent visually - they film in various New York City locations with nice backgrounds, always with great color correction and lighting. It's always the two of them with this mic with the yellow cable. That consistency makes them instantly recognizable. They've clearly got some good LUTs and they've played around with color correction because they really get everything looking great.

But watch how smart this is - they bring their own music into their dual-song mashup content template they always do. The results speak for themselves: 178,000 views with a 16% engagement rate, which is very high. That's exactly how you do it - when you get a shtick going, you figure out how to work your music into it. Super smart.

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