Top 10 Artists Who Are Marketing Geniuses

Unlike other major artists, Kendrick lets doesn’t rely as heavily on his social media accounts to promote his work. Instead, he lets his music speak for itself. Like Beyoncé, he’s a fan of the surprise album; with a few tweets he released 2016’s “untitled unmastered,” an album that debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. With “To Pimp a Butterfly,” he surprised everyone when he released the album a week early on Spotify, where it set a record for most first-day streams, at more that 9.6 million streams in a day. He makes fans guess at what he’ll do next, which keeps them coming back for more.


 

Indie artist Father John Misty might not be a household name but to his fans, he is an Internet troll at its finest. On his now deleted Instagram, most of the posted photos were of Misty staring at his phone. In many of his interviews and tweets, he’s said things that have followers scratching as they wonder whether he’s being sincere or not. However, that’s all part of the fun with an artist like him. He still uses his Facebook page to communicate with fans and keep up his beloved pastime of trolling Taylor Swift.
 



Kanye is the master at stirring up controversy and creating a media circus, whether it’s by interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs, or saying George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people. He’s able to raise hype about his projects by talking them up on Twitter, or creating a spectacle around them like he did when he released “The Life of Pablo” during his fashion show in Madison Square Garden. In the past, he’s also done the unexpected, like giving away free songs through his G.O.O.D Music label. He never does the same thing twice, so it’s always fascinating for fans and the media to anticipate his next move.





Justin may seem like a guy who lives his life by the seat of his pants, but he’s been marketing pro since his YouTube days as a preteen. While he was deemed an overnight success, Justin connected with his early fans by doing mall tours and radio station visits. He made the “Never Say Never” documentary as a way to control his public image.  He’s sold himself as the boy next door, the bad boy, and the reformed bad boy by using his various social media accounts and talk show appearances to reach out to his fans. On Instagram, he has over 93 million followers, and he has the most successful Vevo account with around 16.5 billion views.
 
 

As one of the most enduring popstars of the 90s, Britney has always been the talk of the town. Just like Madonna before her, she knows the key to staying relevant is to be constantly changing. First, Britney was sold as the girl-next-door, then she was at her sexiest in the “I’m a Slave 4 U,” era, and following her breakdown, she seems to have made a full comeback as a cool mom and Vegas performer. She’s more in control of her image than ever, directly communicating with fans via her Instagram stories and photos that show her doing things like painting or dancing to Adele.
 
 

Rihanna has created the perfect image of being both exceptionally famous and relatable at the same time, a tricky balance for any celebrity to achieve. Through her very active Twitter and Instagram, where she boasts more than 82 million and 58 million followers respectively, Rihanna engages with the Rihanna Navy by sharing a mixture of business and personal posts with fans. She might be advertising for Fenty Beauty or her Puma collection in one tweet, and clap back at haters in another. It’s because of her candid attitude that Rihanna has one of the biggest Vevo channels on YouTube, in addition to one of the most liked Facebook pages.
 
 

Since the beginning of his rap career, Drake has been in on the joke about him being ‘soft’. He’s used that image to make himself both relatable to a wide range of fans and advertiser friendly to brands like Sprite and Apple, whom he’s done numerous commercials with. He keeps fans on their toes by releasing mixtapes, songs, and guest verses all time, so there’s constantly a Drake song on the radio. Drake is also very meme-friendly, as evidenced by his infamous “Hotline Bling” dance, or the cover of his mixtape “If You’re Reading This Its Too Late”, both of which the internet loved to modify and remix.


 

Radiohead understands just what the Internet can do for an artist. Way back in 2000, the group decided not to release any singles to promote their album, “Kid A.” Instead, they released the whole album and short video clips online, a strategy that was unheard of at the time. Their digital blitz worked, and it was streamed over 400,000 times and still got them a #1 album in the US and UK. Since then, they’ve had other guerilla marketing campaigns like offering a pay-what-you-want price for  “In Rainbows,” and deleting their entire Internet presence and sending fans a card that read “Burn the Witch” before the announcement of “A Moon Shaped Pool.”


 

If there’s one talent of Taylor’s that rivals her songwriting, it’s her ability to connect with her fanbase. Taylor has created a close-knit feeling amongst her fans by doing things like leaving clues to who her songs are about in the liner notes, giving her dedicated followers gifts, and having secret listening parties for a select few before her album comes out. Even when she’s doing a brand deal with corporate partners like AT&T, she produces content that feels like fans are getting an inside look into her life. Before the release of “Reputation” she even released an app, “The Swift Life” and created a special portal for fans to earn points for her ticket sales.
 
 
Before we unveil our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
 
The Weeknd


 
Lady Gaga
 
 
Selena Gomez
 
 

Beyoncé has tight control of her celebrity. The first step in gaining that control was when she stopped publicly talking to the press around 2013, which shrouded her personal life in mystery. She’s made the surprise album a big deal, dropping her fifth studio album, “Beyoncé,” with no warning or advertisement. She’s released subsequent albums in a similar fashion, and excels at creating a buzz of anticipation amongst the Beyhive. We see so little of Beyoncé besides what she wants us to, and her highly curated Instagram and documentary, “Life Is But a Dream,” are other tools she uses to cultivate her public image. She’s the queen of marketing, and we bow down.