December 5, 2017. That was the day Sam Moreland, now a Digital Marketing Manager at APG, realized his dreams of working in the music industry. Moreland always had a love for music, but after watching Scooter Braun’s interview for the Complex Blueprint Series, he began learning everything he could about the music industry and how to manage artists.
Over his time in college, he developed a collective of artists and producers at Florida State University, who he worked closely with and often put on shows together. Through utilizing social media, starting a TikTok trend, and landing a placement on the NBA 2K20 soundtrack, the artists he managed began to go viral, leading him to move to LA and start his own management company. After closing multiple deals for his artists, Moreland decided to transition to working within labels and focus on digital marketing, leading him to his current position at APG.
The independent label, APG, has grown immensely over the last few years, largely due to its propensity for diversity and exploration. Moreland discussed how the label’s been able to expand, bringing on new artists and new unique projects, such as their work on the recent Fast and Furious soundtrack.
One such breakout artist is Odetari, to whom Moreland spearheads digital marketing. Odetari began with just 8,000 subscribers on YouTube, but after Moreland began working with the artist to implement various content strategies in late April 2023, Odetari rose from 8,000 to 2 million subscribers on YouTube in less than 9 months. He also grew from just 60,000 followers to 2 million followers on TikTok, now having been one of the most viral artists on TikTok in 2023.
“We’ve really been attacking shortform content strategies. Anything shortform content related, we’re on top of it.” From YouTube Shorts, to TikTok, to Instagram, they’ve targetted different platforms and niches online, and built trends around Odetari’s songs, allowing his music to thrive within both micro and macro influencer communities. Even massive celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian and North West, have taken part in these trends. Moreland also highlights how Odetari doesn’t fit into just one genre. Now coined as Odecore, this new genre blends multiple styles of music including hip-hop, hyper-pop, and EDM, among others, and has created a new polarizing sound that performs exceptionally well online, and more specifically in shortform content.
Odetari has grown significantly over the last year, in part due to his connection with Gen Alpha through the team’s strategic marketing efforts, with one such campaign being his Roblox takeover. After a petition from his fans for the collab started circulating online, the team at APG jumped on the opportunity. Moreland’s colleague, Jesse Wylde, brought on game developers to create a Roblox server that fits the aesthetic of Odetari’s new project, Door to Dusk. The team also created exclusive UGC items, including skins and beanies, that users could purchase for a limited time and use on any game going forward.
Moreland and APG promoted the server’s launch heavily leading up to the event, focusing on omnichannel marketing, and diversifying where and how they advertised. Starting a week before the live stream, they released flyers online and used AI news anchor clips to post announcements of the event. They also launched a live stream of the takeover on YouTube, beginning the countdown to it three days prior, creating even more excitement and showcasing Odetari’s album to his newly acquired subscribers.
When asked why he was focusing on Gen Alpha, versus Gen Z who has been a topic and target of media companies for years, Moreland stated, “Music is young… In order to stay ahead of what’s happening in pop culture, you have to focus on the youngest target audience.” Part of staying in touch with younger audiences has been staying engaged with the ever-changing digital space, just as APG and Odetari have done with the Roblox event and utilizing a plethora of social media platforms. “I think the digital landscape will always change but I think what matters most, is the step that’s right in front of us and prioritizing innovation, rather than focusing 100 steps ahead. It’s important to focus on what we have available to us now and how we can properly innovate to super-serve the next generation of music listeners.”
Easy to say that Sam Moreland has pioneered new avenues of pushing creator content. His strategies, well documented in this article, are a perfect fit with todays obsession for short form content. He has his client’s names’ ringing in spaces most would not even consider catalytical to achieving marketing success. This is a great article and I am looking forward to being tuned into this conversation going forward.