How do songs go viral in today’s music landscape? And why has making it as an artist never been more strategic? Jesse Coren and Andrew Spelman, co-founders of Chaotic Good, joined Billboard On The Record for a live episode at SXSW to break it all down. Speaking from their experience building one of the leading viral marketing agencies in music, they explain how TikTok trends, niche audiences and volume-driven campaigns shape which songs take off. Coren and Spelman share how they simulate trends, optimize placements and use data to help artists reach the right listeners while freeing them to focus on their art. From algorithm insights to creative strategy, they reveal what it really takes to turn a song into a hit and navigate the fast-changing world of music discovery.
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Billboard On The Record is a podcast in partnership with SickBird Productions.
Host:
Kristin Robinson
Executive Producers:
Diona DaCosta
Jade Watson
Produced By:
Kayla Forman
Mateo Vergara
Edited By:
Rachel Derbyshire
0:00 – Intro: How songs really go viral & the business of engineering virality
0:42 – Welcome to the live SXSW taping — meet Chaotic Good
1:19 – The history of TikTok marketing: from Charli D’Amelio to trend simulation
2:44 – What is “trend simulation” and how does it actually work?
4:10 – Top-down vs. bottom-up: the shift from macro-influencers to volume campaigns
4:44 – Wait… how many phones do you have? Inside Chaotic Good’s operation
6:34 – Can you tell when the TikTok algorithm changes?
7:33 – TikTok under new ownership — what does it mean for marketers?
8:35 – Genre-specific campaigns: country trucks, rap video games & “pastel talk”
10:05 – Why Chaotic Good was founded: managers solving their own problems
11:47 – Does TikTok virality actually translate to Spotify streams?
13:00 – Case study: Kevin Atwater + Yellowjackets = 40,000 TikTok creates
13:23 – Case study: Childish Gambino’s “Letter Home” — how they cracked it
15:40 – The “quote on screen” format explained — why it works
16:20 – “Everything on the internet is fake” — controlling the narrative at scale
17:50 – How they flood comments after a big SNL or Tiny Desk moment
19:03 – Tour announce day: why a static Instagram flyer is a missed opportunity
20:53 – Is this manipulation? The ethics of engineered virality
21:10 – How this actually frees artists from desperate self-promotion
22:01 – Is AI being used in these campaigns? The honest answer
23:19 – AI dancing babies and where AI does fit in
23:59 – “What Would You Queue?” closing game
24:49 – Outro
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The Secrets to Song Virality on TikTok w/ Digital Marketing Agency Chaotic Good | On The Record
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No matter how much hate you have for these parasites, it’s never enough.
Steel yourself now for the things we will have to do.
They also just explained why this shit is not viral
complete slop- nothing new at all, they buy thousands of iphones thousands of dummy accounts, that’s not strategy, it’s desperation .., it’s old, bot farms, stream farms, etc. means nothing in terms of quality of viewership, it’s slop total slop- they’re greasy people who work for desperate people who for the most part make music to be famous…
Let me guess $$$$
Gross
These people should go to prison for their crimes against truth.
Those people are the reason we cannot have nice things…