{"id":25053,"date":"2026-06-19T12:06:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/19\/how-do-you-stay-current-in-the-modern-music-industry-stay-on-tiktok-four-hours-a-day-music-ally\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T12:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:06:47","slug":"how-do-you-stay-current-in-the-modern-music-industry-stay-on-tiktok-four-hours-a-day-music-ally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/19\/how-do-you-stay-current-in-the-modern-music-industry-stay-on-tiktok-four-hours-a-day-music-ally\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you stay current in the modern music industry? \u2018Stay on TikTok four hours a day\u2019 – Music Ally"},"content":{"rendered":"Music Ally<\/a>
\t\t\t\t\tAnalysis, knowledge and skills for the modern global music business\t\t\t\t
Having built one of YouTube\u2019s largest music-channel networks as a teenager, Andre Benz sold it to Create Music Group in 2022 then launched label Broke Records in 2023 with co-founder Brandon De Oliveira.
A host of Billboard-charting singles and growth to more than 50m daily streams later, Benz joined us at our Music Ally NEXT conference to discuss the evolution of labels, and the gap he saw in the market.
\u201cThe big gap essentially is that every record label executive doesn\u2019t understand marketing, and the reason why is because they\u2019re traditionally A&Rs or producers: people that are in the rooms, mostly, with artists. It\u2019s really not people who have backgrounds creating social-media companies,\u201d said Benz.
\u201cWe\u2019re more or less a marketing company that also services artists. We\u2019re not an independent record label that also has an extension of marketing. We really emphasise the marketing.\u201d
Look away now, traditional A&Rs, producers and people in the room with artists, for Benz went on to talk about what Broke Records is looking for in its signings.
\u201cThe biggest one is just how engaged the artist is going to be on social media. What world and story are they telling online? Because I think that\u2019s the biggest thing that differentiates an artist that\u2019s interesting or nor interesting,\u201d he said.
\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s not really due to the music any more. It used to be way more based on music 10, 15, 20 years ago, but I think now it\u2019s really the story that you\u2019re telling online.\u201d
\u201cSo when we go after artists, most of it is targeting what story are they telling, what community are they building? It doesn\u2019t matter who those people are: it\u2019s our job to identify that, and then say hey, ow do we maximise that niche of audience as insanely as possible?\u201d

“The business model of a digital marketing agency doesn’t align with the record label” <\/blockquote><\/figure>
“The business model of a digital marketing agency doesn’t align with the record label”
While Broke Records does sign individual tracks, the company is more geared towards longer-term relationships with artists, persisting even if their growth is slow-burn rather than meteoric.
He cited one of its roster, American artist Tiffany Day, as an example. When she signed a year and a half ago, she was doing \u201c20,000 daily streams on Spotify and her audience was okay on social media\u201d according to Benz.
\u201cNow she\u2019s doing 500k-600k streams a day, so it\u2019s working out quite well! And then her social media is just going crazy. But that took really in-depth storytelling, visually, from her side, and then us seeding it on Instagram, Twitter and all these platforms.\u201d
[Day currently has 340,000 followers on Instagram and 173,500 on TikTok, although her growth on these and other platforms isn\u2019t just about her follower counts: it\u2019s about the posts and comments and activity of other people too.]
How does Broke Records, ahem, break down in terms of its structure? Benz explained that the company has 30 full-time digital marketers \u2013 out of a 50-strong team overall \u2013 meaning that it keeps all its digital campaigns in-house.
\u201cThe reason why we don’t outsource any of our digital is because the business model of a digital marketing agency doesn’t align with the record label,\u201d he said.
\u201cThey couldn\u2019t care less, if I pay them $10,000 how many streams my songs get. Whereas when I spend $10,000 with my marketing team I say \u2018hey guys, if we\u2019re spending $1,000 and we\u2019re not getting a return somewhere, this campaign is a failure for the artist\u2019. We\u2019re very particular about how we spend money.\u201d

“If we sign a record… we can immediately market within the next 30 minutes” <\/blockquote><\/figure>
“If we sign a record… we can immediately market within the next 30 minutes”
Benz went on to talk about the nature of those campaigns, with Broke Records spending \u201creally, really heavily on narrative seeding online\u2026 like, how do you build narratives and storylines for artists where people start to create conversation?\u201d
That covers platforms like Instagram and X, but Broke\u2019s work necessarily also involves tickling the TikTok algorithm \u2013 currently a hot topic in industry circles.
\u201cHow do you get a song trending on TikTok? It might not have anything to do with the artist: it could be anime edits or whatever it is, but it is driving actual organic consumption once it starts to take off in the algorithm.\u201d
\u201cThere\u2019s really no red tape,\u201d he added. \u201cInstantly, if we sign a record\u2026 we can immediately market within the next 30 minutes. It\u2019s very, very fast, and I feel like those things make a massive difference over times of, like, 10 months for an artist.\u201d
This desire to move quickly also applies to campaigns that aren\u2019t working, with Benz saying the key is to stop, then swiftly move on to the next idea. How does it know? It turns out that the comments are key.
\u201cIf we\u2019re running a TikTok campaign\u2026 let\u2019s say we spent over $5,000 getting 100 videos and nobody is engaging with the song in the comments or asking what the song in the video is\u2026 then we\u2019re like, okay, cool, this is not working,\u201d he said.
\u201cUltimately, if you\u2019re going to pay for content associated with music, you need people asking about the music in comments, or else it\u2019s just not converting. So that\u2019s a really big indicator for us, and we\u2019re pretty quick to look at things and say \u2018this isn\u2019t working, let\u2019s try a different niche\u2019.\u201d
Joint ventures are also an increasingly important part of Broke Records\u2019 business. Isekai Records in the UK is one example and TikTok star Jillian Webber\u2019s wbbr. another. Benz confidently suggested that these kinds of labels can punch well above their weight in the modern music industry.
\u201c10 years ago, the proprietary value of the major label was more or less funding. That\u2019s what separated them from independents,\u201d he said.
\u201cBut now with so much capital and recourses coming in from private equity to the independent-music sector, I think that playing field is pretty level at this point. We\u2019re going out and offering deals to artists very competitively, in essence, to major labels.\u201d
But Broke is also extending that idea to startup labels with its joint ventures. \u201cIf we give them money, and we give them incredible marketing infrastructure, distribution, accounting, financing, all those different things, we can allow them to run a two, three-person team and compete with these 15, 20, 30-person outdated labels \u2013 and most of the time beat them on these deals.\u201d
\u201cPartnerships is the number one most-valuable asset that we\u2019ve been prioritising as a company. Where we\u2019ve seen some really exponential growth is through these unique partnerships,\u201d he added.

“I\u2019m on TikTok for easily three, four hours a day. Which sounds miserable! But it\u2019s just the reality…” <\/blockquote><\/figure>
“I\u2019m on TikTok for easily three, four hours a day. Which sounds miserable! But it\u2019s just the reality…”
Benz wasn\u2019t done with the industry-feather-ruffling just yet, turning his attention to the other options these fledgling labels might have for joint-ventures: distributors.
\u201cDigital marketing services is the biggest thing. If you go to The Orchard or Believe, sure, they can give you a cheque. If you guys are here, congrats,\u201d he said.
\u201cBut I think ultimately they\u2019re not going to service the companies, the entrepreneurs, when it comes to doing intuitive digital marketing, and how to service, blow up and break an artist. You\u2019re just not going to get that at a distribution level. Why would they give you that at 20% or whatever it is?\u201d he continued.
\u201cWith us, all our partnerships are joint ventures, and the way that we look at it is: hey, if we\u2019re going to go to somebody and invest capital into this person, they\u2019re going to be able to access the world\u2019s best digital marketing team, and also access individuals of the company that understand how to work these artists effectively.\u201d
\u201cLike, new artists, not artists from 20, 30 years ago. The new artists that are breaking now.\u201d
Benz was also asked for his advice to other budding label entrepreneurs about how to stay on top of the digital marketing landscape and its key platforms.
\u201cStay on TikTok four hours a day. I\u2019m not gonna lie: I\u2019m on TikTok for easily three, four hours a day. Which sounds miserable! But it\u2019s just the reality: if you want to stay relevant in the industry, you have to be on social media every single day for a lot of time. That\u2019s just how you stay current.\u201d

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