You may have heard of JVKE, or at least listened to his most famous single: Golden Hour. Often referred to in the media as the “musician from TikTok”, he built a successful social media strategy that let him to have billions of streams on his singles and be signed to AWAL, part of Sony Music Entertainment, along Disclosure and Young the Giant, former AWAL artists were Rex Orange County, Ethel Cain, The Wombats, or Girl in Red.
In terms of statistics, JVKE is quite impressive. His first video on TikTok was posted in 2020 and, since then, he has built an online community of 12.1 million of followers on TikTok, 2.5 million on Instagram, 24.75 million of monthly listeners on Spotify, and has a fan base estimation of 28.7 million on Chartmetrics! Golden Hour, only on Spotify, has over 998 million of streams.
In order to understand this rise to fame, we’ll try to highlight JVKE’s social media strategy so it can inspire you, and you can hopefully find some tips and ideas!
1. JVKE’s original concept
Back in 2020, JVKE started on Tik Tok with a series of videos where he filmed his mother, and, together, they would “remix” and make mashups of different songs. His first videos went viral, and now cumulate, each, between 5 and 45 million views.
The success of these videos can be analyzed on different levels:
- First of all, the songs he chose to remix were music used in TikTok trends. Therefore, they were all highly popular & trending which made his videos more likely to bop, and they did!
- Then, putting his mother under the spotlight was quite unusual on TikTok in 2020, where mainly GenZ were making videos. Seeing his mom, making bangers out of the most popular sounds of TikTok definitely drew the attention of the viewers!
- Finally, by making videos with his mom, and, later on, with other members of his family, he gave to his audience the image of a sweet musician, close to his family members. Working on your image and building a social media presence that corresponds to you and, at the same time, to which people can identify and feel attached to, is key in the music marketing strategy nowadays!
2. A differentiated strategy between Instagram and TikTok
It is interesting to highlight that the trending videos on Instagram are not the same as the ones on TikTok. Therefore, he adapted to this difference of audience and algorithm by offering different types of content, depending on the platform.
To get a better understanding of the strategies to adopt, and the specificity of each platform, join Groover where you’ll be able to interact with professionals and build a strong social media presence! Having an external point of view who can proofread your ideas and help you improve is the best way to learn and grow as an independent artist.
Now, let’s dig into JVKE’s content on TikTok and Instagram:
On TikTok, his most viewed videos are the ones with his mother and the ones where he reacts to videos of people performing his songs. These videos do not require a lot of editing, they are quite simple, often the repetition of a same concept, for example him eating popcorn while watching someone perform Golden Hour.
On Instagram, on the other hand, his most viral videos are the ones where he performs extracts of his songs, him on tour, and extracts of his music videos. Therefore, those videos require a higher editing quality and are, also, more music and “artistry” focused. Further, a great concept to underline is the one where, to tease an upcoming song, he puts an extract of the song and concludes by asking the viewer to DM him to have a chance to discover the full song as an exclusive. It is great because he kills two birds with one stone: he promotes his music, creates curiosity, and induces interaction with his audience, which is always a good thing for the algorithm.
| Read also: How to use TikTok to promote your music
3. The teasing of Golden Hour & cashing in on the wave of its popularity
Another aspect of JVKE’s strategy that is worth mentioning is how he fully exploited the potential of his single “Golden Hour”.
First of all, the single really blew out after a video where he performed for the first time his single in front his piano teacher from high school. According to his manager, the video was made to show his “artistry” and skills, so he would not be categorized just as a “TikToker”. The aim was achieved more than expected since, nonetheless did the video blow up, but, furthermore, performing Golden Hour on the piano became a trend. JVKE played it really smartly by, then, posting videos of him watching and reacting to the people playing his tune. The Golden Hour hit is outstanding since it started as a viral video in itself (69.9 million views on TikTok & 4.5 million on Instagram), then became a trend where people performed the open theme of Golden Hour, and is, now, also a trending sound on which people make TikToks (398.8K videos made so far).
Besides, in addition, JVKE released quite a number of remixes and different versions of Golden Hour, a speed up one, a holiday one, an orchestral version, etc. This adds to the popularity of the original single, by offering other variations that are TikTok friendly (there was a time when speed up versions were on top of the TikTok algorithm), and opens the song to a wider audience.
| Read also: How to turn your followers into fans
4. The singles strategy: a continuity
JVKE made sure there was a visual uniformity between his different singles and his album. They all have similar covers, some flowers with a Japanese inspired style, from which the color of the background varies. Also, the tittles are reminiscent of each other. The album is called “This is what ___ feels like (vol. 1-4)” and, includes, among other titles, “This is what falling in love feels like”, “This is what sadness feels like”. Further, his latest releases were “This is what winter feels like” and “This is what autumn feels like”. This uniformity helps to identify his work very easily and it builds a continuity in his musical project.
5. His branding: an “everyday” boy but still recognizable
Finally, it is quite relevant to focus on his fashion. Throughout his different videos, he keeps a classic and a little bit oversized style that reflects the image of an “everyday” boy, which goes well with his persona of a sweet and sensitive young man, close to his family and who does what some call “pop cinematic”. He always wears a necklace over, either, an oversized sweatshirt or sweater, either, an oversized tee-shirt. These are classic pieces, but they make his style quite recognizable.
To sum up, JVKE is the example of an amazing and very talented artist who made the most of social media, and especially of TikTok. Hope this article helped you build a better understanding of how to fully showcase your music on social media and inspired you! Don’t hesitate to use Groover to get feedback from professionals of the music industry who will guide you and advise you!
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