How Stephen Sanchez used this music marketing secret for his TikTok hit

 

With more than one billion active users worldwide on TikTok, it’s no wonder that TikTok trends can have a huge impact on music careers. It’s becoming the first choice for billions of users around the world, definitely the next generation. Due to the influence of TikTok, some of the top tracks of the year have risen in the rankings and remain popular in the app months after they first appeared in the video.

The discovery of music is at the heart of TikTok’s identity. Aspiring musicians simply upload their original songs to the platform and use it to promote their music and build global followers. Undoubtedly, TikTok can turn songs from relatively unknown into viral overnight. Users can also upload their original songs or select TikTok music on the app’s Sound tab. In today’s digital age, musicians often play many roles. Creating and producing music is at the top of the to-do list, but creating a marketing strategy is an important step in getting your song out to the world.  

With a huge amount of new music released regularly, the decision of whether your music resonates with your audience depends on how it is explained. Your challenge as a musician is to build often deep, personal, and emotional stories around the songs you’re bringing out into the world in a measured and strategic way. If you’re marketing your current music on your own, make sure to check our latest article on how to further grow your TikTok fanbase. 

You have probably heard of the song trending on TikTok called “Until I Found You” by Stephen Sanchez. “Until I Found You” feels like a classic love song with a slow dance on the beach and can captivate listeners. Stephen Sanchez became famous for a series of TikTok posts highlighting his singing and writing skills. Other singles like “Lady by the Sea” and “Kayla” have won millions of views and likes on social media sites, but “Until I Found You” still blows them away. The combination of Sanchez’s live and powerful vocals and the beats inspired by the 1960s provides an immersive listening experience. Now you may wonder…

How has an upcoming artist released a song that landed on top of the charts through TikTok? 

It’s all in the marketing. First, the artist released a cover of the song with an electric guitar. A simple video with his guitar and his voice. TikTok’s algorithm pushed the song even further, he got tons of comments and likes. Afterward, he dropped an acoustic cover of the song, which was even more appealing to TikTok’s users. Next to it, he dropped an official version on Spotify, and he created a TikTok trend with this song, called “POV: You found her”, which focuses on finding the love of your life. By using the trend, the song got even more popular and became the number one most listened song on Spotify in the USA.

To keep the song trending he kept on posting videos on TikTok with the song in the background. For example, he wrote in one of his videos “Wanna slow dance with a warm body to the perfect winter song? my song is out now”. So, the artist kept on promoting the song. What Stephen continued to do is creating and dropping a piano version as well. Later he also did a collaboration on the same song with a female artist. Some days ago, he also dropped a lyric video in which he continued to promote the song.

All these activities helped him get on the charts, leading to currently over 100 million Spotify streams. His Spotify gained 10.6 million monthly listeners, and he is the 500th artist in the world by listeners, which has been achieved in only two months. Moreover, his song also got reposted by Charlie Puth and he got invited to play on “Late Night with Seth Meyers”. Furthermore, he also got a lot of press attention that pushed his song even further. Now, let’s look more in-depth into his song release strategy.

Strategy breakdown:

1. Defining a fan base

• He started by determining his fan base. He then knew to constantly post covers and originally written songs so the algorithm recognised a good response from his followers, as well as a clear direction of the type of new people it could reach. This pushed him further on the platform. After he had published an acoustic version of a few songs of his own, he already had the analytics to specify his content even further.

Expert Tip: Knowing the content borders your target audience allows gives you the option to construct an advertising and marketing method that reaches them most effectively.

2. Engaging with fans

• Stephen was engaging with his fans. He interacted with every comment which made fans love him even more. They felt listened to and invited for their attention, and they had a fair shot at getting a reply from Stephen.

Expert Tip: Part of effective music marketing is connecting with your current fans through playlists, social media, or blogs. These are fans who not only support you but also share your music and help you reach more listeners. Any communication is another opportunity to tell your story and attach them to your project.

3. Social Media Strategy

• Stephen had a strategy for promoting his song on TikTok mainly by releasing different versions of the songs but also by creating a TikTok trend that ignited user content creation. To popularize the song even more he promoted it across all platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, on stories and reels.

Expert Tip: Use social media as a tool to bring fans back to your music and explore content and music deeper. This will likely increase the chances that your listeners and followers will turn into real fans who will continue to follow and support you through your career journey.

4. Press release

• As a result of the success of Stephen’s song, he received a lot of press attention. Many blogs and TV shows interviewed and asked him to perform his song there.

Expert Tip: When promoting an album, you can gain momentum for your release by teasing your music in advance. As part of a music marketing effort, it involves putting music in front of the media to increase exposure. This will help to increase the weight of your release.

To Wrap It Up

Originally, you had to rely on the label’s resources and network to bring your name to the world. Now you can upload one song to TikTok and Spotify and sail on algorithms when executed correctly. As an artist, you shouldn’t be afraid to post your songs and videos. Pick a starting place that will benefit you. You may be posts away from receiving viral attention and Stephen is only one out of the many to prove it. With the cultural developments of TikTok, you don’t even have to rely on a “dance” or “lip-sync” anymore. Create your own space.

Curious if you can use more help in growing your artist career? We’ve been in the game with a focus on playlist marketing since our start, which led to having helped over 7000+ individual artists with their journey to a successful career. Check out our programs to help you scale to real results. If you want to keep learning, follow us on our social media channels for weekly bite-sized knowledge. Moreover, feel free to ask us your questions on our Instagram (@daimoonmedia)!