Most viral music campaigns of 2021

Read on and learn from some of the most viral music campaigns of 2022 from our friends at Symphonic.

A guest post by Randi Zimmerman of Symphonic Blog.

This year was a wild ride. All the while, independent artists have been pushing out incredible content and making major waves across the industry. We’re overwhelmingly proud to play even a small part in their success and are looking forward to the future! In the meantime, here are some of the best viral campaigns to come out of 2021…

Abbot

Abbot was no stranger to viral-hits when we first started working with Symphonic Brazil. Known for the viral hit “Hylander”, released in 2020, our team worked to make his first album “Abbot 2.0″ represent Abbot fully as an artist – from his fast flow and deep bass to his irreverent style. The singles “Ela é Branca” e “Alone” opened the cycle, but it was with black-empowerment trap-anthem “Ando Negro” that we saw the full potential the album could reach.

• With over 5 thousand user created videos on TikTok, the music video on YouTube with the reveal of the album release date was watched over 1.9 million times.
• The song has gotten over 1.5 million plays on Spotify and was featured on playlists “Dose Trap” and “faz a trend”
• “Abbot 2.0″ has now over 6.7 million streams on DSPs, with placements on Novidades da Semana (Spotify), Dose Trap (Spotify), Lançamentos da Semana (Deezer), Radar Rap ( Deezer), Trapical (YouTube Music), Fresh Trap (Amazon Music), Novidades (Amazon Music), Mix da Semana (Tidal) and Rising: Brasil (Tidal).

Carwash

Earlier this year, we partnered with carwash for the release of his debut EP which kicked off with the first single “boyfriend, girlfriend”. The EP was followed by the hit track “racetrack” in August, as well as the release of his “soap water” EP (focus track: “friendship”) in September.

• This year, “boyfriend, girlfriend”, “racetrack” and “friendship” amassed 31 playlist adds across Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Deezer.
• 1.25 million streams in under two months across EP tracks since the first release in July 2021
• Was added to prominent playlists including New Music Friday (Spotify), New Music Friday UK (Spotify), All New Indie (Spotify), Lorem (Spotify), Breakthrough Indie (Amazon), Breakthrough Alternative (Amazon)
• Featured as the cover of Lorem
• Received 114% Spotify listener growth and 50% follower growth since July 2021.

Doechii

Introducing herself with her bold and addicting track, “YUCKY BLUCKY FRUITCAKE”, Doechiiinspired thousands of TikTok users to flaunt their glowed-up selves to the tune of her song. In addition, the “Hi, my name is Doechii with two I’s, I feel anxious when I’m high…”sound has been features by TikTokers all over the world and been used in almost 1 million videos.

• Doechii has been featured on top Spotify playlists like Alternative Hip-Hop, Signed XO, and more.
• “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” amassed 24 million Spotify streams and nearly 2 million YouTube views and growing.
• Featured on the cover of Feelin’ Myself on Spotify.

Edapollo

Edapollo has has received radio support on BBC R1, BBC 6 Music, Worldwide FM, Triple J, Sirius XM and has been featured in many of the flagship editorial playlists including New Music Friday UK, Chill Tracks, Altar & more. He has also been called on to officially remix the likes of Hayden James, Emancipator, Elohim, Henry Green, Pines, and more. In 2021 Ed released a new chapter of music, with the new album “Blue Spring”.

• He also received 39 playlist adds for focus tracks “Wildflower”, “Free”, “View From The Airplane Window”, and “Afterglow” across Spotify, Apple, TIDAL, and YouTube.
• Over 1 million streams in under four months across 4 singles since the first release in June 2021
• Placements on New Music Friday’s (Spotify), Indie Dance (Spotify), Friday Cratediggers(Spotify), Electronic Rising (TIDAL), Today’s Chill (Apple), High Vibes Yoga (Apple), Fresh Finds (Spotify) and more.
• 335% Spotify listener growth and 64% follower growth since June 2021.

Grace Gaustad

19 year old pop singer songwriter, Grace Gaustad released an EP in early 2021 to tee up her debut album release BLKBX, an ambitious project which entailed releasing one song with an official video every week for 12 weeks straight.

• She received 52 playlist adds across Spotify, Apple, Pandora, Tidal, Vevo, Youtube Music and Xite.
• Over 5 million video views, 2 million streams (and counting!)
• Curated a playlist for iHeart’s Pride programming in June.
• Tidal & TikTok takeovers.
• 300+ third party playlist adds.

Isaia Huron

Isaia Huron released his first project simply titled, “Three” (as its three tracks long), in the beginning of 2021.

• Symphonic pitched Isaia’s music to editorial curators at all the major DSPs resulting in 27 playlist pickups, including two inclusions in Spotify’s New Music Friday, POLLEN, Apple’s New Music Daily, and more.
• The release for SELF! exceeded expectations and resulted in 40% growth in Spotify Monthly Listeners.
• Symphonic also worked closely with Isaia’s team on his latest release, Fallen/DGYLA, which premiered on Spotify’s New Music Friday.

Krawk

Krawk, the Brazilian Trap star who started in the rhyming battles of São Paulo, today accumulates over 300 million plays across the DSPs. The release cycle occurred between February and May 2021, with 5 singles, a full studio album with 17 tracks plus 17 visualizers uploaded on the artist’s YouTube channel.

• Krawk received a special project on Deezer – Track by Track album commentary playlist.
• The release cycle included 17 tracks, divided in 5 singles + full album, from February through May.
• Eurotrip Pt 2 (1.2M streams on Spotify + 2.1M views on YouTube)
• A 1 Passo (1M Streams on Spotify + 1.1M views on YouTube)
• Rainha (300K streams on Spotify + 1M views on YouTube)
• Famoso (300K streams on Spotify + 855K views on YouTube)
• Fake Homies (300K streams on Spotify + 242K views on YouTube)
• Pick up across Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Apple Music, Deezer, TIDAL, and Soundcloud.

Paulo Pires

With the growth of the “Piseiro” scene (a Brazilian musical genre that mixes country and regional music from northeast Brazil), our team partnered with Paulo Pires’ Label – Best Produções – to promote his single “Ameaça” on the digital space, specially on DSPs, while Best would focus on offline promotion. The results are still blowing our minds:

• Number 1 on Youtube Brazil’s Top Songs and Top Music Videos.
• Reached 3rd on Spotify’s Top 50 Brazil tracks and Top 50 Brazil Viral.
• Reached 13th on Spotify’s Top 50 global.
• Placed on the Cover of Top Brasil on Spotify, with over 6 million followers.
• Made the charts of Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer.
• Over 27 editorial inclusions on playlists such as Novidades da Semana (Spotify), Paredão Explode (Spotify), Viral Hits Portugal (Spotify), Diretoria Brazil Hits (YouTube), Summer Hits 2022 (YouTube), Tremidão (YouTube), Forró Paredão (Amazon), Explosão Brasil (Deezer), hitou (Deezer) and Pelo Brasil (Apple).
• Over 150 million streams across all DSPs.
• 50K user-generated content created on TikTok and 70K on Instagram