Making something ‘go viral’ is (obviously) a lot easier said than done. Every single day there’s a new viral song or video doing the rounds, which in many cases becomes forgotten by the next day. though it’s not everything, having a viral song or video can really help an artist get noticed and become a stepping stone for their next career move.
So what’s behind a viral release? A great concept? Killer connections? Timing? Luck? We chatted to three musicians who have all had viral song/ video releases, (some intentional some less intentional) to find out what they’ve learn and to impart some wisdom for anyone else wanting to get their name/ music out there.
Marc Lucchesi is the Lead Vocalist, Sax, and Flute player in Melbourne band Vaudeville Smash. Though previously being a successful band, their popularity skyrocketed after the release of the single ‘Zinedine Zidane ft. Les Murray’. Currently clocking in at over 1.3 million views on Youtube ‘Zinedine Zidane’ is the band’s tribute to soccer player Zinedine Yazid Zidane. Released during this year’s World Cup ‘Zinedine Zidane’ made news worldwide and gave the band their first ever viral release. The band will be performing at The Toff in Town on September 13th.
Danny Harley aka. Kite String Tangle is a Brisbane based producer, who last year released his break out single ‘Given The Chance’ on Soundcloud. The song went on to amass well over one million plays on SoundCloud (currently clocking in at almost 1.4 million streams on Soundcloud alone). The success of his single has seen Danny feature on numerous music sites worldwide. His online success resulted in Danny undertaking two sell out tours of our country, a series of local festival appearances plus a trip to the US where he has performed at the highly-regarded South By South West and Coachella music festivals.
John Barrington is a member of Super Best Friends, a Canberra/Melbourne beased indie/ punk rock band. Last year the band made headlines with the release of their music video ‘Round & Round’ which featured politicians Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Senator Nick Xenophon, Anthony Albanese, plus Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Christine Milne and even Clive Palmer. The video which currently has just under 40o,000 Youtube views was released during the election period last year.
Have A Killer Idea That Can Be Executed Fairly Cheaply
Marc: “Our original idea for the clip was to film Zidane, himself, receiving the ball in the back half of the field during a soccer match and then dribbling his way around the whole opposition before scoring… All in super slow motion – that was never gonna happen! We then thought it would be funny to have four guys in Zidane masks robbing a bank as a parody of Point Break (presidents of the USA) – again, this was clearly not going to be possible on a small budget. So we scaled down and decided robbing a convenience store was a good third option; the concept evolved around that.
Once we had settled on it, we thought of as many ideas as we could to make it fun and appealing. Many were ditched due to the difficulty of doing the tricks with the masks on (we had the masks made specifically for the shoot). We found some amazing tricksters that were happy to do it for very little money and spent a lot of time going over our vision and getting it just right with our killer director, Sarah Jane Woulahan. We shot over one night at our local store in Coburg and the rest is history!”
Make Sure What You’re Releasing Is The Best It Can Be
Danny: “This is an obvious one but hugely important; make the best music you can possibly make. When you think you’ve finished a track, try leaving it for a week or so and then revisiting it with a new mindset. Would you be proud to show the song to other people? Do you think it is your best work yet? If the track were to be popular would you be happy to play it most nights for the next couple of years? These are all thoughts I find helpful when nearing the end of the songwriting process.”
John : “A pretty obvious one. There were several different cuts of the clip, before we decided on the final version. Not all potentially viral videos are going to rely on key cameos, but for example Tony Abbott’s appearance didn’t come through until the last minute.
When we got backbencher Kevin Rudd early on, we started getting excited about maybe being picked up by ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning, (yep… when most rock music fans are still passed out). Still, we sat on it and kept trying to get folks involved. Then-PM Julia Gillard, Joe Hockey and Julie Bishop never happened. But when we got Tony Abbott, it felt ready. Your video might be a one-shot wonder, filmed in five minutes. Just make sure you’re happy with it, unless you’ve run out of time. Music videos are a hassle for unsigned bands with day jobs.”
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When Making A Video Try To Appeal To People Outside Of Just Music
Marc: “We were lucky in that Zinedine Zidane found us. We never set out to write a song about him, it just sort of happened when we were messing around. My brother Dan started singing a melody that sounded a bit like Zinedine Zidane and the name found its way in. We thought that a song about soccer could appeal to a bunch of people that would otherwise never have known we existed and ran with it. We were hitting one of the biggest markets on Earth but knew that our song had to be good to stand out amongst all the other songs that were out there (there are heaps!)”
John: “A video from a Canberra band with a whole lot of politicians in it? Who’d want to see that? We’d been writing songs with a political-satire bent all through the Rudd-Gillard years. We got on the radio and played a heap of shows, but I don’t think the lyrics ever had an impact on people. Maybe the lyrics weren’t great. Maybe no-one cares what bands think. Maybe it was the Labor Government “Camelot” thing and people weren’t fired up like they are now. When we wrote ‘Round & Round’ about two of the band members’ experience working in the media at Parliament House, we thought it’d be funny to get a whole lot of politicians in the video. We thought it was a good idea and that it might get some traction in Canberra, but that was about it.”
Having A Personality Feature In The Project Can Make It More ‘Credible’
Marc: “We thought that collaborating with a well known and respected commentator would give weight to the song and make it sound better. The choice was a no brainer. Les Murray is a legend and the voice of Australian Soccer.
He was brilliant to work with and has done so much to help promote the song. My brothers and I grew up watching him commentate – I actually got a little star struck when we first met! He was a bit of rocker in the 70s so his timing was good when it came to actually recording. We knew that with Les on the track people in the Australian soccer world would take notice and that’s where the initial ground swell began. ”
Make Sure What You’re Releasing Is Easy To Share
Danny: “Don’t forget that you’re trying to sell / give something to people that they have no idea they want. If you want something from someone you need to make it as EASY as possible. We live in a very fast-paced music climate and people don’t have very lengthy attention spans. Make your pitch is brief but as highly effective as possible (possibly try a few different ones and see which has the highest success rate) and make sure that whatever you’re trying to sell or give away is one or two clicks away.”
John: “In April last year, we recorded five tracks at Soundpark Studios in Northcote with producer Luke Postill. This was supposed to be a prelude to an album and Round & Round was never going to be the single. We all liked the other songs better, but then couldn’t agree on a single. It was from that indecision that the video came about.
In June or something, we had a listen to the five tracks together back in Canberra, continued to disagree on the songs we liked more and then joked about how we could try get politicians to be in a video for Round & Round. “’It’s an election year… people will be getting bombarded with politicians… maybe we release Round & Round?’
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Timing Is Key
Danny: “When writing music Try to resist the urge to release all the songs you’ve written to date on one double-length album unless there is demand for it. A full album is a big time investment for a listener and you’re best bet is to try to build an audience slowly through carefully selected small releases (singles) and try to carve out your demographic.
Release a full length EP or Album when the demand is there otherwise you run the risk of having much of your work go unnoticed when it may well deserve to be heard by the masses (unless you’re making it solely for your own pleasure, which is fine too).”
Marc: “We actually wrote the song over a year ago and shelved it. When we realised that the World Cup was around the corner we decided that if we were ever going to release the song, now was a golden opportunity. A lot of things fell into place at the right time. We found a really amazing publicist that had ins at SBS and knew the soccer world, which, as you can imagine, helped immensely. I believe this song would have done well regardless but the fact that the world was soccer crazy when it hit really helped it along, especially within Australia.”
John: “Wearing my evil music-marketing hat, you need a hook. An idea that’ll never get old, or something big happening in everyone’s lives right now, that they won’t give a shit about next year. Pick your release time wisely and have a follow-up plan. Our video got big because of the election, but also because of the election, we weren’t able to hit the road straight away – because one of us had to cover that election for work.”
Have Realistic Expectations
Danny: “Remember that social media is exactly that – ‘social’. It’s a great tool but it is designed for people to interact and talk and share things. Never feel entitled to peoples attention. That’s valuable to you and you have to work to get it. Be social and talk to other people about their work. Make relationships with anyone and everyone that may be of use to you and that you could potentially help out. Find a balance between talking about your project socially but not spamming. Give and take.”
Marc: “At the end of the day, you just can’t tell what will strike a nerve with people. We had a feeling this song would but we’ve thought it before with some of our other stuff. Social media is what pushed this, especially Facebook. Our fans embraced it and shared it like demons! We love them.
I guess it would have been nice if radio had supported it a little more in this country, especially Triple j. They played it a few times just as the cup was starting and the response was really incredible. I’m a bit surprised and bummed they didn’t run with it and play it more – it would have done wonders for us here in OZ.”
John: “Ultimately the hype fades and basically your single becomes just another song in your set. Not saying we weren’t stoked with the outcome (which we never expected) and getting supports with Calling All Cars, Regurgitator and Future Of The Left. But, if you want to make the most of it as a band, hit the road like King Parrot did! You could end up touring the US!”
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