Team Billie Eilish to Independent Artists: Start with Singles and a Plan At this years Career Jam, the group that manages and promotes Eilish spoke to students about both the star and the industry at large.
By
Kimberly Ashton
April 29, 2021
Billie Eilish
Image by Lars Crommelinck/Wikimedia Commons
Earlier this week, Billie Eilish made headlines by announcing that her greatly anticipated sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, will be available July 30. She also dispensed a third single from the record, as part of a slow-drip, momentum-building campaign that began July 30 of last year, when the album's first tune, My Future, dropped.
Nothing about this timed-release approach is arbitrary, nor is any other aspect of Eilish's promotion, as was evident when her tightly knit marketing and management team appeared at Berklee's Career Jam earlier this month to talk about how they helped one of musics freshest voices achieve extraordinary success.
During the event, the team-which included Paul Wachter, CEO of Main Street Advisors; Justin Lubliner, CEO of the Darkroom; Chelsea Dodson, manager of creative at Interscope; Eilish's managers, Danny Rukasin and Brandon Goodman, from Best Friends Music; and Hannah Gold, vice president of marketing for Interscope-discussed a host of topics:
The importance of artist authenticity
What makes an artist stand out
How to best use social media
NFTs (non fungible tokens)
How to get the attention of a label
The evolving role of a label
How an artist's team influences their success
Their reaction to the Billie Eilish documentary
Singles or an Album? Toward the end of the panel discussion, which was moderated by Panos A. Panay, Berklee's senior vice president for Global Strategy and Innovation, student Maksym Pisotskyi asked the group about the strategy it appears to have used to promote Eilish's upcoming album: Is it better to release an album or try things out with a single release, for an independent artist? Here's an edited version of what they had to say:
Lubliner: For an independent artist, one thousand million percent single release. Its incredibly hard to get a full project, each individual song, recognized. You might have a shot at one of those songs in the project becoming big and then the other songs getting, you know, 1,000 to 2,000 streams, and then you kind of just threw everything you had at the wall and only one stuck.
I think, to build a fan base, slowly tiering out songs, in an organized fashion, with having as much creative assets as you can-with having a visual narrative, covering all your social media platforms-and giving each song its own priority and attention and a shot, and then [you begin] slowly building into a project-based artist.
Ultimately, to break as an artist, you need to have albums, you need to have a project that people can listen to from start to finish to get to the next level, and we saw that again and again with Billie. But I feel like to give your music your best shot, you have to tier them out slightly, because each song could be that one song that takes it over the edge.
Were in an attention economy, and people dont even have the ability to listen to more than, like, a minute of a song. So, forcing 25 minutes on people early on, its a little bit too aggressive.
-Danny Rukasin
Goodman: And youre creating more moments by doing so that way as well. But it's just better in general: youre louder that way, theres more potential press moments.
Lubliner: But if the song does catch, you want to quickly have music available. The last thing you want is to have one or two songs out and one catch and then you dont have other music for a year. Thats also a huge issue.
Gold: It's important that you have singles, for sure, but then also that you have the year planned out. You know what song is coming next, you have the assets ready to go, and that youre just consistently releasing, driving back to your project.
Lubliner: You have to really take it one at a time as an independent artist. The rules change once you have a huge following. The biggest mistake some people make when they release music one at a time is not having anything prepped. I feel like you should have five to six songs banked before you start releasing music, and then start to just think about how youre doing it. If you just throw songs out without any plan, it can quickly catch up [to] you and you can find yourself in a very dangerous situation, especially if you do start getting recognized by fans and labels and partners, [and] everyone is focused on whats next.
Rukasin: Were in an attention economy, and people dont even have the ability to listen to more than, like, a minute of a song. So, forcing 25 minutes on people early on, its a little bit too aggressive at the beginning.
Gold: Every moment where youre releasing a new song youre driving back to the whole catalogue, so youre giving those other songs another chance to be heard, maybe from a new audience.
Lubliner: But when you start to tour, you need to have a body of work out. So when you start to tier your singles out, if you have shows coming up, thats a perfect time to start having a project on the platforms because thats when youll have new fans wanting to listen to you and go through your body of work. And if you only have two singles out, it makes it a little bit dangerous.
Watch the whole discussion here:
Related Categories
News
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Get Hands-On with Interfaces & Mic Preamp Brands
If youre after a new interface or preamp, then GearExpo UK is the place to be! Well have a whole host of au...
10/06/2026
November 13-14 2026, The Midway, San Francisco
Following their recent rebranding, MONO Music Conference (formerly Music Expo) have officially announced thei...
10/06/2026
Debut instrument free for limited time
deFORM is the debut release from newly founded developer ebbandflow, and it's being offered as a free download fo...
10/06/2026
Alone Australia Season 4: Meet the Cast
10 June, 2026
Media releases
WATCH THE TRAILER
Smash-hit survival series Alone Australia drops its highly anticipa...
10/06/2026
DEADLY THEN, DEADLY NOW, DEADLY ALWAYS: SBS & NITV IGNITE NAIDOC WEEK 2026 WITH ...
10/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF advance laser-based drone defense with THORIS LCS Rohde & Schwarz is showcasing THORIS at ILA 2026: A sovereign, end to end counter...
10/06/2026
MAHLE and Rohde & Schwarz develop application for sensor testing of modern drive...
10/06/2026
Production and Development Funding supports the creation of compelling, commercially viable, artistic and culturally relevant South African screen content. Deve...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
10 Jun 2026
VEON's Banglalink Brings Every World Cup 2026 Match to Football...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
How to watch every ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 match live on Sky Sports
Where is the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 availabl...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
P RLA brings first-ever Beautifully Clean Oral Care'...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
Sky reveals pulse-pounding first teaser trailer for upco...
10/06/2026
Wuppertal June 10, 2026
Riedel Artist at the Heart of the 14th World Live Neurovascular ConferenceAt the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Li...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC
Product
10 June 2026
GlobalSouth KoreaJapan
Link copied to c...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions
Business
10 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
N...
10/06/2026
Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
Team Billie Eilish to Independent Artists: Start with Singles and a Plan At this years Career Jam, the group that manages and promotes Eilish spoke to students about both the star and the industry at large. 
