Last night, Twenty-One Pilots, a band that hasn’t even officially released their debut album from their first record company, sold out the 2,200 capacity LC Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus natives, Tyler Joesph and Josh Dun, have become widely popular online through the use of social media and letting the fans do the marketing for them. Both Joesph and Dun stay very active on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with their YouTube videos receiving hundreds of thousands of clicks. They have begun to let fans do their marketing, not wanting to over promote themselves. The band has only sparingly played shows in their hometown of Columbus, choosing to play in clubs outside the state’s capital to make their Central Ohio fan base larger.
The band has used social media as a major marketing tool in their rise from playing empty basements to sold out night clubs. The duo hired a videographer to tour with them and stream the shows online, as well as uploading content all over the web for fans to gain access to. The videographer even joins them on stage to get close ups of the band’s acrobatic piano jumps and crowd diving. The duo has even went one step further and integrated social media into the band’s live performances. An official hashtag is set up for each show and fans are encouraged to tweet about the performance as tweets are scrolled across the video boards on stage.
Twenty One Pilots has shown that music marketing and promoting has changed drastically in recent years. No more are the days of releasing an album and promoting it only through constant touring. Now are the days that bands will use content from live shows and upload it all over the web via social media, giving fans the chance to reblog, retweet, and share videos with all of the fellow fans. Bands and record labels don’t have to worry about constantly promoting anymore because the fans are doing all the work for them.
