u/acupofjen

This is only one since it doesn’t allow you to save the pics for me to upload them, so this is all I’m posting on here.

But HD slideshow pics can be found HERE!

Hear me out:
- it would widen their Australian reach and work to entrench them in the AUS music scene
- their label mate Aleksiah is already performing
- there are bands and artists with way lesser followings that have been able to be booked for this festival
- they have a great opportunity to interact with their peers and make new connections

Lastly, 3 of their top 5 listener cities on Spotify are Australian cities. Showing Australian organizers you can bring in a crowd would go a long way towards making some inroads and maybe getting to play larger venues in AUS. Or, as long as we’re on the topic, nabbing an opener spot—even if it’s just AUS dates to start—can happen by showing you can put butts in seats in a particular area.

Which is all to say: please, Chugg. If you could make Spilt Milk happen, that would be awesome. 🙏🏻

MTM has obviously released 3 new ones since then, but these are just for the ones first released this year.

I think it’s done okay for not technically being new music from the guys. I’m biased, but I really need “Gracie” to rise to the top here. It’s one of their best and deserves all the love, so please keep streaming it! 🖤

It’s also been a while since they’ve had a song reach 3+ million streams, and I’d love for them to hit that milestone again. What I’m really curious to see is how “Anything” performs when it’s released.

(Graphics come from my fan account. Please credit me if you use them. Thanks.)

Mason sang this with the help of his friend Andrew Lawson. This is one of several I saw and I’m glad to see a few people did give him some change. 😊

credit: tiffsweet220497 on YouTube

I've been turning this around in my mind and trying to connect some pieces together, and I've got a take based on some things I've seen. I could be wrong because obviously none of us are privy to these things, but this is where I'm at right now.

I've wondered on here before what exactly the master plan is, and I'm starting to come to the idea that virality seems to be the main goal for MTM right now. There have been several things said and posted as evidence. The biggest tells come from the guys themselves.

- In his live a while ago, Shane said their supposed plan was to release a track a month, and if it did well (aka caught on), they would have more of a greenlight for an album. When they leaked a part of "Baby Don't," all of the guys posted the same message for fans:

“Management will let us release this if it goes viral." (pics)

Why does anyone think it's a good idea to not only withhold music, but attach virality to it as a condition of its release? What does virality have to do with music production and output? I'm going to say this as nicely and gently as I can because I care deeply: it's been almost a year since they released Afterglow. Up until just now, they had put out a grand total of 1 song. One—in 10 months. And even that felt like it had to get dragged out of them. I naively thought that would mark the beginning of a steady rollout of the "unreleased tracks," as we dubbed them. But no, there was no real follow-up for close to 4 months until now. And yes, we know new music is coming (finally!), but there are several rubs with this. First, they’re not indie and putting music out if they have the means is their job. Going viral is not, that’s just a bonus. Virality is random and lucky and might never happen, but if it does, it should be a byproduct of your good music and consistent releases. Second, having an inconsistent music footprint, especially as a new band, won't help anyone. Before now, they’d dipped below 200K listeners on Spotify due to lack of consistent playlisting, "soon" taking 7-8 months which causes people to lose interest, and a lack of boots-on-the-ground promotion in a particular market. And they feed into that inconsistency by saying, "Hey, you only get this if you do this or if this reaches a certain number." If you're trying to make it, music can't work that way.

And even if it's just a quirky marketing strategy, it's still a weird one that doesn't do them many favors. I know the industry has changed massively. I get that. But there has been a growing criticism in recent times that more and more music is being made for TikTok or oriented with TikTok in mind as opposed to for the sake of artistry or fans. We know the boys are plenty artistic and they're great writers and care a lot about the music, but virality and TikTok is what they push and what their HQ offers. You are what you do. You are what you chase. It's such a of-the-moment type strategy that does not always reflect what I think their view of music and its purpose is, and instead, falls prey to the above. Even now, despite an initially stellar rollout (praise for Chugg here!) there’s no playlisting for these songs, no interviews ready to talk about any of these songs in their first week because they learned nothing from “Math” in April, no concerted regional promo to try to get it to chart in Australia’s Singles Chart, but what they do offer? TikTok challenges and competitions. And I've stayed consistent on this. One of my first comments on here was about how, even though they looked amazing, I didn't think Mason and Conor attending the TikTok Awards was the best move. They're artists/singers, not TikToker's, and going draws a certain line in the industry sand. Those spaces are reserved for provocateurs like JoJo Siwa or Dave Dobrik, not serious artists. Social media is a big part of the game, they have to work with what they've got, and as a new band they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, but it's obvious things skew heavily in one direction.

- The fact that everything is now, "Here, make a TikTok!"

The evidence? "Math's" initial promo strategy was just daily TikTok's for a month since virality was clearly the goal before they retroactively booked things like interviews and radio stops for it, as they should've done from the beginning. Asking fans to make "Math" TikTok's for a calculator contest. Deciding the "Song of the Summer" through TikTok video submissions with hashtags. The "Midnighter of the Week" thing also involved making TikTok videos. Polling fans to decide what song they should release in April involved voting through TikTok's and hashtags. Now, they’re using TikTok to promote signed art. (pics). They try so hard and so obviously to go viral. That isn’t something you can force and it isn't everything. What they could've done? In preparation for this release: "For the first 500-1K downloads (submit receipt here), you'll receive never-before-seen art (digital through email)!" Encourages sales? ✔️ Pushes them to possibly chart in AUS iTunes and the Singles Chart? ✔️. That would be the artistic idea that would net them actual gains, and even more importantly: legitimacy.

Now, for the second part of this post, and this is just kind of me personally. July was MTM Anniversary month. When we all saw the calendar and saw the icons for each of the Afterglow songs (one per day), what were your assumptions? Mine was that we were getting some exciting BTS gems or footage. A look at either the making of the MV's or the recording of the songs would've been so cool. They were formed on a reality tv music show. Surely, they see the value of opening the vault and giving fans an inside look into the process? They did it for "Bye." Mason and Shane have both posted BTS pics of the "Heart on Fire" shoot so they have it. Instead, HQ posted daily TikTok challenges. And yes, most of them were cute and fun and meant to stoke fan engagement which you do need, but it's also an obvious play to kickstart a trend for virality. All of the examples I've listed with pics show a strategic turn of, "Here's something we want you to do for us," instead of, "Here's something we'd like to give to you." Imagine an inside look into Afterglow. They had a chance to do the artistic thing and chose the TikTok route.

TikTok rules in today's music industry, and I'm not saying to shun it completely, but I wish there was a more artistic balance and concerted effort, and that their team would think beyond just virality as a means of launching them and more about different approaches and how it ties into how they're viewed from a personal brand perspective. We know that they're artistic, but you have to also choose to be artistic in how you sell yourself to the public. I've said before: give fans industry jobs, because instead of having to put out PSA's like "Don't TikTok and drive" because they gave out questionable instructions (🤦🏻‍♀️), they could've been like, "Here's some BTS footage. Enjoy!"

(P.S. I drafted 99% of this 2 weeks ago. Since then, we’ve gotten two great examples of BTS footage, so thank you boys, Murli/Jared, etc.)

Glad to see their publishing home supporting the new tracks!

(Post HERE.)

I know Chugg can’t lurk on here every minute of every day, but I do hope they see this. Hear me out.

As a fan of the original version of this song, for the most part, I did like the new sound, but still want that acoustic version out. Because what you do with these changes is alter the, shall we say, flavor of the song. It goes from a 1D “Little Things” feel to “Riptide’s” little sister. Okay. What can you do now and how can they work with what they’ve got? By sending it to country radio.

Someone else had a post here a few days ago about their slow follower count—which I’ll have a larger opinion post on—and I mentioned outside the box promo and getting out of the current mold. This would be it. It would net them more followers across socials and help expand their audience/reach. If we’re being honest: Mason brings indie folk. Shane brings rock. Conor brings punk. Zach brings country. What is the point of having all these influences in the band if you don’t use them to fish you new fans? Likewise, in the future, if they put out a punk rock song, send it to rock radio stations.

Also, because I love explanations as a writer, I was somewhat disappointed by the surface level answers they gave in interviews for “Math.” All they said every interview was, “It’s a fun track. The fans love it. Filming the MV was fun.” Yet, “Gracie” is a special track that means a lot to each of them and I’d like to think they’d give more substantive answers, which would be a PR credit to them. Last point on this: I think Conor has to take point more in these interviews. He’s the most articulate. Zach and Shane stay quiet, Conor lets Mason lead but Mason is not the explanatory, emotional type and so their answers leave a bit to be desired at times.

Finally, HQ tries to push TikTok a lot for virality and to try to force a trend to take off. I’ve LOVED the small trend I’ve seen amongst Midnighters of posting “their gracies” in response to this song and spotlighting people who are special to them. That’s happened completely organically and that’s how it should be. There’s real natural opportunity there from a social media standpoint.

I don’t know much else or if they work in conjunction with TT Publicity, but they seem to be used by some of MTM’s label mates as well. 🤷🏻‍♀️

(Their Instagram account is followed by Mason, Andrew, and Chugg Music.)

I don’t know if this is an Apple Music regional issue or a Chugg issue. Either way, I hope they see this because I believe they’d still have to submit an appeal to Apple to get it sorted.

I don’t know what happened in the rollout process for the US, but it’s their biggest demographic, and personally, I’d just like to buy the songs instead of wearing out YouTube. Thx.

I messaged Mason and Conor, and just messaged Andrew Stone about an hour ago. I thought this would be fixed by the next day (in AUS time), but it hasn’t been. It’s one thing to not have true access to physical copies of their work if you’re not Australian, but to have it now impact digital releases? That can’t happen. They have to fix this.

I don’t know if they’re even aware of it or not. Most people my age stream music so I don’t think they’d care if it wasn’t available to buy, but I still buy music and music sales are important for artists so please fix this ASAP. And also, if they do know, a message of acknowledgment for fans would be great. Takes 30 seconds.