This week on the podcast I caught up with Ashley Cooke and Chris Ruediger, the founders of Nashville's very own 615 House. The group of rising country artists have recently been going viral on TikTok, collectively reaching over one million viewers each week. Tune in to hear how the group came together, the secrets of great content, the strangest DMs they have ever received and so much more. See some highlights from our conversation below and click here to listen to full episode. TNB - How have you seen fans on TikTok crossover to other platforms like Spotify? Ashley - The was a big concern, because I was like "people follow me and care about me on TikTok, but will they go and listen on other platforms?" Really what we are doing here is selling our music. Yes we are getting to connect with people, but the goal is that they will go listen to our music. I recently put up a cover of the Morgan Wallen song "Chasin' You". It was an overnight release with little planning, and it just hit 300,000 streams on Spotify. That was with no playlisting or anything. Just TikTok to Spotify fan conversion. My newest song "Jealous Of The Sky" charted at 13 on the iTunes chart, the same way. It's crazy! TNB - How do you guys brainstorm and come up with content? Chris - A lot of the best content just comes naturally. For example I will often just have a camera put on me and someone will say something like "Hey Chris sing this lyric." I think that kind of stuff comes across as really natural. A lot of content comes from the fans as well. Lately, since our following has grown, it has been really cool to see people comment on our videos and ask us to sing something or do something. TikTok is all about that interaction and we try to do as much fan requested content as we can. TNB - What's the selection process like for new artists? Chris - We have an application that's on our website. We get a lot of people sending in their music and followings. Really what we are looking for is someone who can add something different to the group. We are all in country but we have a lot of different influences and we are pursing different styles within the genre. We also try to look for personality and someone who we think will fit in the group naturally. We had Lindsay Ell stop by the house and she was amazing. We are hoping to start a collaborative process with other artists who maybe have a single release or just want to come and hang out.
|
