Learn Something From Lil Tjay
Right off the bat, I’m not saying Lil Tjay is the first or only one to do what I’m about to say, but he is the most recent I have noticed and the one that prompted me to want to write this.
Lil Tjay dropped his album “222” on July 14th, 2023. That is nearly 6 months ago now. He has done something with his rollout that I try to tell artists all of the time. Which is ‘just because it’s old to you, doesn’t mean it’s old to everyone else. There is always an opportunity to gain a new fan from “old” music.’ Especially for those still trying to make a name for themselves. Lil Tjay dropped his album, released 4 music videos, went on tour, came back and dropped a Christmas song, then proceeded to drop videos to more songs from “222”. Videos to songs he didn’t even perform on tour.
You see by doing videos even months down the road, you give a song another lifeline and momentum. There are so many different ways you can gain fans and traction for a song or even an entire album. For instance, someone may not like a praticular song as much, but if visuals are associated to it, it could grow on them more and now they are streaming that “okay” song to them, in their car while driving because the video made them like it more. Someone could have tagged along to a show with a friend who is a fan and decided afterwards, ‘you know what that was really great, let me go Google this artist.’ Google favors YouTube videos because they own YouTube. You’re helping your search results with doing videos even if it’s 6 months later. I almost forgot to mention, when “222” released, Lil Tjay released every single song as an audio on YouTube. People want to talk about “algorithm this”, “algorithm that”, how’s that for algorithm! He even mixed in album trailers, can we just clap one time for his team 👏🏽👏🏽! Mind you, he has BEEN doing this, the receipts are on his YouTube.
Lil Tjay with 9 million Instagram followers and 5.75 million YouTube subscribers, isn’t scared of what people will say or that they might laugh that he’s still working his album all these months later. So, neither should you be afraid, you put endless hours, sacrificed so much to complete a project that you are calling “old” after just 4 weeks?! You mean to tell me, YOU, who wants to grow a fanbase, wants to make a living from your music, and something you spent months working on, only deserves one or two Instagram post from you and now you need to move on to the next thing. WHAT?!? Your music is your product, you don’t see Apple advertising their laptops once and saying ‘okay, wrap it up.’ Or whatever your favorite product is, think about it, do they only advertise it once, I’m willing to bet that the answer is no. So, why is your product only getting a tiny bit of promotion before you burry it for the next thing??
Please stop doing yourself a disservice and work your project, singles, and videos before moving on to the next thing. Even Kendrick Lamar said in an interview and if I find it, I will link it below. After ‘Good Kid mAAd City’, he was asked, so when is new music coming out, his response was along the lines of, ‘it’s not, I’m going to ride this wave out, until I can’t anymore and then we will think about new music’. That answer was the definition of MILK IT!!! I get it, you worked on music for months and YOU personally are tired of hearing it which is why its “old” to you, but the world isn’t, it’s new to them. Exhaust all avenues or promotion before you say, ‘hey look, new music’. Let people sit with it, let them get hooked and start asking for new music before you rush into it.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just some woman sitting behind a computer screen in Los Angeles and a fly on the wall of a household that has sold over 7 million records 🤷🏽♀️.
