š¦¾ Here's How We Used ChatGPT To Create A New Release Promo Strategy & Campaign
we're now at the dawn of a new era in terms of music promo: starting to use AI to create amazing marketing campaigns
Technology. The angel and devil of our times. Angel when it comes to freeing time to be more creative while reducing costs and connecting creative minds regardless the timezones. Devil when luring us with digital shortcuts into the mirage of becoming famous over night. More and more voices blame the technology for turning the artistic act into something so mundane that even a kid with just a computer hooked up to an internet connection can be the next Avicii or David Guetta.
We agree: starting from the idea that music is a way to express oneās feelings and emotions, a way to send a intimate message to the audience, we find it hard to believe that processor based machines, as artificially intelligent as they could ever be, would take over the human side of music. After all, we hear only about Artificial Intelligence, not Artificial Emotional Intelligence. Hence, AI can only produce AM (Artificial Music).
Yet, we really donāt want to turn ourselves into the grumpy Muppets old guys and advocate the old analog way of the music industry, when music promo meant offering CDsā at a street corner or fighting to get your song playlisted on a cassette compilation one could buy at the gas station.Ā
After all, we hear only about Artificial Intelligence, not Artificial Emotional Intelligence. Hence, AI can only produce AM (Artificial Music).
So, letās step into the 21st century, where AI is ready to lend the artists a helping hand for finding their way into the jungle of digital music promotion. We use the ājungleā term because the digital music world became so complex, itās impossible to cover all the aspects of music promo into one article. Letās focus on building a basic strategy for promoting a new release from a young pop artist. For this, we will rely on the help of one of the most hyped technologies in recent months: ChatGPT.
If you havenāt subscribed to our newsletter yet, itās time to do it. Music promo tips & tricks, detailed music marketing strategies as well as tools that would make your independent artist life way easier. Hit the subscribe button below.
In late 2022, ChatGPT was born: a large language model based chatbot, which enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language. Even so young, ChatGPT sent waves of disruption on every tech corner, from the giant search platforms to data analysis services.
Best way to showcase our little experiment is with a real example, so we picked one song and we started building a basic strategy with the help of ChatGPT. Basic strategy means: a coherent and consistent presence on social media (posts as well as ads) and a way to get the attention of music curators (be it playlisters, youtube channels, bloggers or music radio stations).
Social Media presence
Diamond Snake is a Romanian pop artist, brave enough to explore the darker sides of pop music, while finding balance between retrowave synth pop, indie and electronic music. His newest single, Moments, fits the Gen Z profile: not afraid to expose their feelings, for the world to take them as they are, questioning traditional beliefs, coming at peace with negative emotions, also.
Building a story
Based on these, we askedĀ ChatGPT to create a narrative story for the potential fans, just to build the foundation for social media content. Knowing the audience and the things they engage with on social media, we can start creating relevant content from this story.
First thing is to assume a role in ChatGPT and give it as much details as possible, just to create the proper tone of voice for our intended audience:
I am Diamond Snake, a young pop musician with a pop meets retro synthwave meets indie meets electronica sound. My music resonates with Gen Z: I am not afraid to express my own feelings with and open heart, I acknoledge and assume my negative feelings also, I embrace my dark side. I need to help me with a narrative story, with me as the main character, which i can use as a foundation for creating content for social media. Here are the lyrics from my newest single, Moments. Use them as an inspiration for this story:
Wish I could take these moments
Iāll lock them up, and leave it open
Iāll leave them open just for you
Just so you can see them too
Iāll lock them up, while I keep hoping
Once wrote a letter to a friend in heaven
He said Iād never even stood a chance
Iād forever be indebted, and Iāll never understand it
I guess Iād never really stood a chance
Time would win, and pass, the more we hope
So I block the wind, and walk these lonely roads
Wish I could take these moments
Iāll lock them up, and leave it open
Iāll leave it open just for you
Just so you can see them too
Iāll lock them up, while I keep hoping
Once wrote a letter to a friend in heaven
He said Iād never even stood a chance
Iād forever be indebted, and Iāll never understand it
I guess Iād never really stood a chanceĀ
ChatGPT response
Title: "Open Moments"
In the neon glow of a city that never sleeps, there's a young pop sensation named Diamond Snake, whose heart beats in sync with the rhythm of his music. Behind the glitz and glamour of his electrifying stage presence lies a soul that's not afraid to embrace the shadows within. Diamond Snake, born out of the fusion of pop, retro synthwave, indie, and electronica, shares his world with his audience, leaving no emotions unexplored.
One night, under the starlit sky, Diamond Snake found himself wandering down a quiet alley, lost in his thoughts. He gazed up at the infinite expanse above, feeling the weight of the moments he wished he could capture. "Wish I could take these moments," he whispered to the universe, his voice carrying the essence of his longing.
In his music, he expressed the desire to lock these moments up, to preserve them like treasures, yet keep them open for the world to see. It was his way of inviting everyone into his vulnerable heart. He knew that by sharing his open moments, he was letting others glimpse the universe that resided within him.
But life hadn't always been kind to Diamond Snake. He remembered a time when he had penned a letter to a friend in heaven, questioning the unfairness of fate. The friend had told him he'd never stood a chance, a truth that cut deep into his soul. Yet, Diamond Snake had chosen not to dwell on the bitterness. Instead, he channeled his pain into his music, transforming his struggles into melodies that resonated with the hearts of his listeners.
He understood the relentless march of time, how it could sweep away dreams and hopes if one wasn't careful. Determined not to be defeated, he learned to block the wind, to shield himself from the harsh blows of life. Even on the loneliest roads, he found solace in his music, a faithful companion that never abandoned him.
As he walked those lonely roads, he continued to wish he could capture those fleeting moments, locking them up in his heart while leaving it open for others to connect. Each note he played and every lyric he sang became a testament to his resilience. Diamond Snake had embraced his dark side, acknowledging and accepting his negative feelings. In doing so, he discovered the strength to keep hoping, to keep believing in the power of his music.
And so, the saga of Diamond Snake, the pop icon unafraid to bare his soul, continued. His open moments became a beacon of light for those who had also wandered into the depths of their emotions. In his music, they found solace, understanding, and the courage to confront their own vulnerabilities.
In a world that often tried to dim his sparkle, Diamond Snake shone brightly, illuminating the path for others to follow. With his heart wide open and his music echoing the sentiments of an entire generation, he proved that even in the face of adversity, moments could be transformed into something beautiful, something timeless, something that resonated far beyond the confines of a song.
So now we have a few elements we can start using for social media, adding a visual component: a neon city at night, a lonely man lost in his thoughts, a hostile world, but with hope at the end of the tunnel.
Creating the visual side of the story
Nowadays, social media is all about the visuals. Hiring an illustrator to create some eye catching visuals could be an expensive deal, so we turn once again to AI, namely Midjourney, a prompt based platform that can help us create illustrations based on our story. Itās the perfect tool to create a visual framework, from where we can start remixing frames based on our storyline.
A neon glow city at night, in style of retro synthwave, depicting a dark eerie atmosphere, realistic illustration
A close up with a lonely man starring at a shooting star through a window, where you can see a neon glow city at night, in style of retro synthwave, depicting a dark eerie atmosphere, realistic illustration
Finding the proper audience for Meta Ads
Now that we have a story and a few images for social media, we need to show them to our proper audience. Back to chatGPT, to help us find the right audience. A quick enquiry showed us the obvious: TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular social media platforms for our targeted audience. ChatGPT has also helped us narrow down the audience to a certain age range where this unconventional sound is supposed to be appealing (teenagers to mid - late twenties) and it also gave a list of countries where synthpop and indiepop are popular: UK, USA, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Japan. As we want our ads to hit the right people, we can even narrow it to the people showing interest in artists like Depeche Mode, Erasure, The Human League or Pet Shop Boys, as ChatGPT recommended. Yet, we felt the listeners for these legends could be a bit too old for our audience, so we asked ChatGPT to rebuild the list with bands that became popular in the 2000sā and 2010sā: Cvrches, La Roux, Purity Ring, Years & Years, The Naked Famous.
All we have to do is create the campaigns on the given social media platforms, set the budgets and start testing various types of content, while using Moments as the music background. Keep in mind that each social media platforms favors a certain type of content. You can also use ChatGPT to help build a more detailed content strategy.
Pitching your music to independent music curators.
Aaaah, the ordeal of getting in contact with the gate keepers of music platforms, the almighty editorial playlists curators. As many of us probably know already, itās almost impossible to get in direct contact with them, but there are ways to catch their attention. After all, they are also humans, using certain channels to dig for music, besides the editorial pitch artists should fill in before releasing a song. Letās ask ChatGPT:
What are the top 5 sources for the playlists curators to find new and good music for their playlists on spotify?
The response
Spotify playlist curators often rely on various sources to discover new and high-quality music for their editorial playlists. Here are five top sources they commonly use:
**Spotify's Editorial Team:** Spotify's in-house editorial team actively seeks out new and trending music across genres. They curate official Spotify playlists, and their selections often feature emerging and established artists.
**Music Blogs and Review Sites:** Influential music blogs and review sites, such as Pitchfork, NME, and Stereogum, regularly feature new releases and emerging artists. Playlist curators often keep an eye on these platforms to identify promising talents.
**Independent Record Labels:** Independent record labels are excellent sources of fresh and innovative music. Playlist curators often collaborate with these labels to discover artists who might not yet be in the mainstream spotlight.
**Music Festivals and Conferences:** Music festivals, especially those focused on showcasing emerging artists, are treasure troves of new music. Events like SXSW, The Great Escape, and CMJ Music Marathon have a history of introducing groundbreaking acts to the industry.
**Social Media Platforms:** Social media platforms, particularly Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, are essential for artists to share their music and gain visibility. Playlist curators often follow hashtags, artist pages, and music-related accounts to stay updated on trending tracks and artists.
From all these, music blogs and social media seem to be more at hand than the other sources, so letās focus more on music blogs:
Can you give me a list of 10 music blogs that are focused on my genre synthpop indiepop?
The response:
Here are ten music blogs that often feature synthpop and indiepop artists. Please note that the popularity and focus of blogs can change over time, so it's a good idea to visit these websites to ensure they are still actively covering your genre:
**The Line of Best Fit** - *thelineofbestfit.com***Indie Shuffle** - *indieshuffle.com***Earmilk** - *earmilk.com***Stereogum** - *stereogum.com***DIY Mag** - *diymag.com***All Things Go** - *allthingsgomusic.com***The Wild Honey Pie** - *thewildhoneypie.com***Hillydilly** - *hillydilly.com***Nordic Music Review** - *nordicmusicreview.com* (Focuses on indie music from Nordic countries, including synthpop)**When The Horn Blows** - *whenthehornblows.com*
By all means, ChatGPT can help us create a proper pitch email, which we can fine tune to our needs:
Subject: Embracing Synthpop Magic: [Your Artist/Band Name]
Dear [Curator's Name],
I hope this email finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I am the creative force behind [Your Artist/Band Name], a project that fuses the nostalgic allure of synthpop with a modern, innovative twist. Inspired by the likes of Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, and contemporary acts like Chvrches and Years & Years, my music captures the essence of synthpopās timeless melodies and emotive storytelling.
I am excited to share my latest release, "[Your Latest Single/Album Name]," which encapsulates the spirit of the genre. [Describe briefly your music style, influences, and what makes your music unique]. With catchy tunes, ethereal vocals, and a blend of retro charm and contemporary production, my music aims to transport listeners into a world where every beat is a heartbeat and every lyric paints a story.
I believe my music would be a great fit for playlists that celebrate synthpopās evolution and the artists shaping its future. Tracks like "[Your Song 1]" and "[Your Song 2]" exemplify the energy and emotion that characterize my sound.
I invite you to listen to my music on my Spotify artist profile: [Your Spotify Artist Profile Link]. I would be honored to be considered for inclusion in your playlists. If you find my music resonates with your vision, I am more than happy to provide high-quality audio files, press materials, or any additional information you might need.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I am looking forward to the possibility of collaborating and bringing the magic of synthpop to your audience.
This is just a quick example on how to use the power of AI to promote music. For example, using ChatGPT+ (the more advanced subscription based platform), opens the way to other strong tools, like crawling the internet in real time and using plugins to feed prompts into specific tools (AI animation or SEO services) that could cut down time and costs. ChatGPT can save hours of research and data scrapping and can also give a headstart to creating content and ads for social media. Yet, it will never replace the creativity and feelings. The funny thing is that these ingredients can now be ingested in the machine learning platforms through text prompts.Ā So, embrace the technology while leaving the soul to deal with what it knows best: express feelings and emotions through art!