You and 500+ other subscribers read Vibrant Revolt, a music promotion newsletter that doesn’t suck. Every Wednesday we’re firing this bad boy out, jam-packed with anti-cringe advice for those who are sick of bots and bullshit.

// What’s Inside

💣🔥 Disruptive Discourse // Why Repetition is your Best Friend. By the time you’re sick of playing it, they’re hearing it for the first time. Same is true for promoting your work. But here’s how to do it without becoming ‘mono-tuned.’

🗑️❓ Truth or Trash // Each week, we'll present you with three headlines and one lie. Think you know your industry news? Prove it: read the headlines below, and try to guess which one’s the fake.

🛠️🥾 Riot Guide // Why a Premiere? We deep dive into what a premiere is, and why you should be looking to score one (and how hard that is these days).

// Disruptive Discourse

Why Repetition is Your Best Friend

Musicians often worry about repeating themselves. When I ask why, they often tell me things like,

“I don’t want to be cringe.”

“I don’t want to annoy people.”

“It just feels so try hard.”

“I get sick of other people constantly banging on about it; why would I do the same thing?”

I'm here to tell you, I get it.

When I was promoting my band, I had this exact fear. I worried that my fans would get tired of hearing the same messages in my songs, my social media posts, and during my performances.

But then I learned a valuable lesson:

This holds true for you. Your fans are not as engaged with your content as you are. Only around 10-20% of your followers will see your posts on social media (if you're lucky). That number jumps all the way up to 50% if you email them (again, if you're lucky).

All this is to say one thing: you should feel like you’re constantly repeating yourself.

Repetition helps ensure your message is heard. It’s crucial for promotion. Being known for something requires consistent (and constant) messaging.

Plus, there’s little to no chance anyone’s going to care if they see you promoting your album or song or whatever if they see you doing it differently each time (more on that in a minute).

YNG Martyr, the Dude Down Under Who Does It Over And Over

Someone who excels at this approach in a major way is YNG Martyr. He’s a 21-year-old Indigenous rap artist from Canberra, Australia who got his start in just about the strangest way you could imagine: challenged to a freestyle rap battle in a video game chatroom. Maybe it’s this inauspicious start that affords him his devil-may-care attitude. All we know is he’s killing it on TikTok by beating repetition to death—and it's working. In fact, it’s been working for years now.

@yngmartyr

I ❤️ TAX EVASION

By hammering his tracks like "Melancholy Dreams" and "50K" into his videos over and over, he's making sure those hooks get lodged in your brain. And with over 5.1 million likes on his videos, it isn’t just a gimmick; it's a calculated assault on the TikTok algorithm, shoving his content into more feeds and making his name impossible to ignore. But don’t take our word for it; just peruse the wild variety of takes on a hook he can come up with.

How MAAFA Does It

An example of this ability to repeat your message without it ever going stale comes from our good friend and long time family member, Flora Lucini of MAAFA. She’s been hammering away at the inequity and divisive politics that permeate not just the superstructure of the industry, but in her very own scenes in Brooklyn, NY. There isn’t a day that goes by when Flora isn’t repping her community, whether it’s through stories, reels, interviews, posts, or shows. No matter the medium, she continues to educate, support, and protest, all in equal measure—even when she’s being interviewed by The Guardian.

It’s partly why she’s a fixture within the community, and partly why the release of their debut album last Juneteenth continues to impress, leading to shows with bands like Sick Of It All and Zulu. Throughout it all, there’s Flora’s wicked way with words, able to effortlessly adapt and repurpose, but always hitting with power. (Just one of countless examples below)

For more advice on how exactly you can repeat yourself and repurpose material, check out the rest of the article here →

// Truth or Trash?

Welcome to Truth or Trash, where the gullible are rewarded with gifs and the sleuths with news. Can you guess which one is the fake?

This Week‘s Headlines:

🦞 Red Lobster Announces New Flava Flav Meal

📼 Vinyl Records and Cassettes Make a Triumphant Return in 2024

🇸🇪 Swedish Music Festival Adds Stage for Sperm and Egg Fertilization

🚀 Metallica to Launch Space-Themed Album Recorded in Zero Gravity

(Answers below)

// Riot Guide

Why a Premiere?

Let’s start with a stat:

Every day, roughly 60,000 new songs are added to Spotify.

Every single day, more songs are released than someone could reasonably be expected to listen to in a lifetime.

That’s to say nothing of podcasts, audiobooks, and YouTube videos. Or TV shows, movies, and radio programs.

Democratization of creation brought with it the bummer reality that if anyone can do it, then most will, in fact, do it.

But you’re not going to let an army of mediocre cOnTeNt hold you back are you? Good. Then read on.

What is a Premiere? 

One of the sharpest tools in your promotional arsenal is the premiere.

A premiere is when a website hosts a song, video, album, or another piece of content before it's publicly available anywhere else, typically posted 24 hours to 7 days in advance. The hosting site pushes the new music to their reader base, giving your release a powerful initial boost. The bigger the site, the bigger the push (usually). It’s also a Marketable Moment.

Marketable Moments

Every shareable event in your campaign is a “Marketable Moment.” It’s a piece of content that can add momentum to your campaign and overall trajectory. A premiere is a prime example of this—a moment that can be capitalized on to amplify your reach.

For more about premieres and how they can help promote you, read the rest of the article here →

Trash or Truth Answer:

We made up the Metallica one (#4). But let’s be honest with ourselves, do you really think they’d pass it up if given the opportunity?

Folks, please, a moment of your time:

We know you’re the coolest person on Planet Earth, but don’t gatekeep this shit. We’re entering a new era of transparency, and in order to destroy the old guard we all need to support the emerging talent around us. So: if you see something worth sharing in here, do it.

To sweeten the deal, we’ve come up with this fun little referral rewards program. After all, we can’t just ask you to do something from the kindness of your hearts, right? No you’re right, it’s better to offer cool merch as a thank you.