David Kushner used Feature.fm to amass over 100K Pre-Saves, 87M Spotify streams and charted in Australia and the UK
TikTok has quickly become the best music discovery tool for new artists to be found by fans. It's easy to scroll through your FYP and find new artists that the algorithm effortlessly introduces along with cute cat videos and the latest trends.
Artists can use the platform to document the creation of a song, get immediate feedback from their community about lyrics and even just bring fans along on the journey of their career. TikTok connects fans with artists on a 1-1 level and makes the relationship between the two even more engaging.
One artist who has taken an organic approach to their TikTok profile is David Kushner. Kushner utilized TikTok to promote his very successful Feature.fm Pre-Save campaign for his single, "Miserable Man" which has amassed over 87 million plays on Spotify to date.
Let's take a look at how David Kushner reached that amazing number
Kushner began posting more frequently on his TikTok account in September 2021. His posting style was organic with short clips showcasing sections of a song he was working on and hopping on trends to interact with the algorithm.
@davidkushner #duet with @juliette.skhs MY FIRST TATTOO
♬ Miserable Man - David Kushner
As Kushner was sharing clips of the still unfinished song, fans began to comment on it. This strategy encouraged fans discovering his music or ones already following him to be a part of the music creation process. Kushner really enjoys teasing fans and seeing how interested they are in a potential track to gauge interest. His social strategy is how can I reach them in the best way?
@davidkushner mr. forgettable (demo)
♬ mr. forgettable - david kushner
On November 4th, Kushner uploaded an unfinished demo of the song,"Miserable Man", to TikTok and the release went viral immediately. In the midst of the chaos, his manager, Jack Steindorf, realized the value of the data involved in the song going viral and wanted to capture as many Pre-Saves and fan's email addresses as possible.
Enter Feature.fm.
Steindorf used Feature.fm's Pre-Save because it offered them the ability to create a Pre-Save without a release date. This enabled them to capture fan's data while they worked on finishing Kushner's song, "Miserable Man".
Kushner didn't want to release the unfinished track they'd uploaded to TikTok just yet, so he flew to Atlanta to finish "Miserable Man" and in the meantime they figured out the specifics around releasing the final version of the track. They were able to capitalize on the fans' interest in Kushner and his music in the meantime through the Pre-Save. Getting the song exactly right was Kushner's main priority.
"Miserable Man" is released
"Miserable Man" was released on January 7th, 2022. Right out of the gate the track was #8 on Pop Rising on Spotify. David was able to garner every important playlist for the single release including the coveted New Music Friday on Spotify. Gathering those Pre-Saves was helpful in driving the algorithmic playlists and David's followers on Spotify.
The results
"Miserable Man" charted in Australia and the United Kingdom. It was just 23 spots short of Billboard's Hot 100 and made it into the Spotify Top 200 on the day of release. It has amassed over 87M Spotify Streams to date. Fans who had Pre-Saved the track on Spotify already had it in their libraries to stream on release day and Kushner had amassed over 100,000 Pre-Saves.
In the future, Kushner plans to utilize his already effective strategy to release new music and music videos. Kushner's strategy is create content on TikTok about new tracks, generate a Pre-Save without a release date to drum up engagement with fans and finish the song + release timeline so all the stars align.