30 Innovative Ways Artists Got Their Start

Guest Post by Vin Clancy

1) 24K Golden made a “USC anthem” for his college (USC) which went viral around the campus. Hyper-local songs are a very good idea for building that local following

2)

Neffex (over 2 billion streams) released one song a week for 100 weeks, and made their songs “copyright free” for copyright free YouTube channels, gamers, and influencers to use

3)

Arctic Monkeys (allegedly) bussed the same 200 people from their hometown of Sheffield around the UK, making it look like every gig they played anywhere was packed.

They got signed soon after

4)

Blink-182 booked a show and put thousands of flyers in every locker in every high school in the area (the lockers were outside the school )

1000+ kids showed up

5)

Alison Wonderland, Steve Aoki, and many others put on parties in their hometowns that got bigger and bigger, allowing them to grow their network and headline their own shows

6)

Soulja Boy uploaded “Crank That” to Napster with titles like “50 Cent in da club” “Eminem my name is” knowing people would like it, google the lyrics, and find the song

7)

Eminem would battle rap anyone, eventually giving a demo tape to someone he met after (he lost) a battle rap which ended up in the hands of Dr. Dre (footnote: He also sent his tape to Fat Joe six times and got rejected six times. Don’t worry about people saying no!)

Lil Yachty, 6ix9ine and many other viral rappers built a personality brand on social media before releasing any music (Halsey posted stuff for SIX YEARS before releasing her first songs!)

9)

Biggie smalls walked up to a DJ and said “I know you know a lot of people. Let me rap for you.”

The demo they made that day got them both signed.

10)

“Too Short” sold mixtapes to drug dealers and charged them $20 to put their name in a verse on an exclusive track he made just for them - every dealer in Oakland wanted one

11)

Oasis (allegedly) were at a gig and jumped onstage and played another bands instruments for three songs, who had set up and were waiting before their set started

(or they harassed the promoter to go on, either way they weren't on the bill)

12)

Ed Sheeran illegally “jumped” trains around the country opening for anyone who would have him, often playing hostile support gigs for UK gangster rappers.

He played 300 gigs the year before he got signed (2009)

13)

Jessie J (allegedly) moved into an apartment next to a pub next to a major label.

Every night she’d be there making friends with the label people.

Eventually, she ended up writing songs for big artists, then herself

14)

The Hunna’s manager ran targeted ads in a small geographic location around the venues they were about to play in, selling out shows across UK/Europe/USA within their first six months

15)

Oliver Tree made himself into a living meme, amassing a huge social media following for his in-character skits, then writing and performing songs in that same character

16)

Travis Scott and Kanye West made beats for other rappers for YEARS before getting known as solo artists

17)

Nipsey Hussle released the world’s first “$100 mixtape” and got a lot of attention (and cash) for these

18)

Young Thug, Gucci Mane, and Future released never-ending mixtape collections to make sure their fans were always engaged, sometimes dropping 3 or 4 mixtapes per year

19)

Machine Gun Kelly won a local talent show!

20)

Imagine Dragons scored a dream collaboration with Kendrick Lamar just before he hit the mainstream

21)

21 Savage got to Metro Boomin’ and said “You have to listen to my mixtape”.

The rest is history

22)

Russ released one song a week for a year

23)

Sia, Blackbear, Mod Sun, and countless others wrote a LOT of songs for other people, until it was finally their time to shine. This route I’ve seen work more than maybe any other method on this list

24)

Logic uploaded his mixtapes to the various mixtape websites to get his sound out there (I imagine they manipulated the charts to appear top, but I have no proof of this...It’s...what I would do if I was working with a new artist!)

25)

Wu-Tang Clan somehow got into a radio DJ’s booth during a live broadcast and forced him to listen to their first proper recorded song.

He started playing it, New York went crazy, the “Wu-Tang” was officially a thing

26)

The Chainsmokers (management) got many influencers and celebrities to take a selfie for their song “selfie”, who then shared it on their Facebook and Twitter when the song came out. Major traffic

27)

(EDM DJ) Borgeous ran a popular EDM blog/curation page on Facebook called “Borgeous Beats”.

He dropped the “beats” and had an audience of EDM heads ready to be into his music.

28)

(UK Dubstep legends) Modestep popularized the new electronic music “Dubstep” with a weekly radio show which reached millions of people before they started releasing their music

29)

Limp Bizkit broke through to the mainstream with their cover of George Michael’s “Faith”.

Rock band A Day To Remember covered Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U’ve Been Gone”.

American Idol winners cover a hell of a lot of songs, of course. A bit played out by now but could still work given the right song

30)

Garth Brooks was asked to play early on a Nashville open mic as the artist all the labels were there to see didn’t show up. He played instead and got signed

What's your favorite origin story?

-"Vin Clancy is the founder of roastmyartistproject.com, the service that grows artists' fans on autopilot. More info at http://roastmyartistproject.com"