Creating Meaningful Music Marketing Campaigns: A Look at 6lack’s ‘6pc Hot’ EP
Atlanta-based artist, 6lack, recently released his highly anticipated EP 6PC Hot. The EP title is named after hot wings, his favorite comfort food—featuring “six different songs, six different emotions, six different thoughts, six different experiences that I felt during quarantine.” The marketing campaign executed for the new EP gives insight into the importance of engaging with your audience and the value fans place on artists giving back to the community and advocating for a more significant cause than boosting album sales. Acknowledging the prominent feelings fans have as a result of the ongoing pandemic and racial tensions that have given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement, the marketing campaign included all of the following:
EP Cover Art - 6lack made the EP’s cover art an augmented reality gateway to a version of his hot wing shop and transformed users’ surroundings into an interactive merchandise store.
6LACKBOX - a website offering 6lack content such as exclusive merchandise and snippets of unreleased from his upcoming third studio album — and a resource center for social justice reform that provides information and updates such as voter registration, a black business contact sheet, and a Black author reading list
600 Degrees - An original hot sauce by 6lack that L.A. based fans can get delivered via robot before its official release through 6LACKBOX. “It’s fun and it’s timely,” 6lack says. “We’ve been trying to practice social distancing, so we didn’t want more people pulling up to people’s houses.”
Goodfellas Pizza & Wings - 6lack partnered with the food delivery service, Postmates, to give Atlanta based fans the opportunity to order a 6LACK wing special from a local favorite, Goodfellas Pizza & Wings. Fans would receive a free bottle of the 600 degrees hot sauce and, in return, be supporting a black-owned business.
6LACKCARDS - Partnering with Amazon, 6lack will release ‘6LACKCARDS’. ‘6LACKCARDS’ are pre-loaded gift cards for up-and-coming Black firms and entrepreneurs who’ve submitted their business plants to 6LACKBOX. The cards will be able to use towards materials and other essential items needed for creative projects. “Coming from the area that I come from — and knowing that things were a lot different a long time ago, and seeing how much things can change — entrepreneurship is something that I try to teach to the people around me too,” 6lack says. “So that they can branch off, do their own things, and have their own ideas. I know that, when it was me back at my old engineer’s house, it was just having the computer and the microphone that literally propelled everything else.”
“I just followed the emotions of quarantine,” 6lack tells Rolling Stone. “I have songs that talk about how I can’t wait to go outside again — songs that remind you of being out on the late night. We just tried to pinpoint specific feelings that everybody was feeling. I had my ups and my downs. I didn’t know what I was doing some days. Sometimes, I was just scrolling on Twitter too much. So, I just wanted to have more outlets and different little things for people to do.”
Being creative in your approach to music marketing is essential to rise above the competition during these unprecedented times of COVID-19 and racial tensions. 6lack not only gave his fan base new music, but he’s given them unique memorabilia and everlasting resources to enhance the series of events for his EP release. By doing this, 6lack fans are prepared to promote and help publicize the word when his upcoming album is complete.