Is cross platform marketing the new key to owning the charts?

Call it sheer dumb luck or a stroke of marketing genius, either way Travis Scott may have given us a peak at the future of clout chasing in the music industry. 

With more registered players than the entire US population, it’s safe to say Fortnite was no flash in the pan. Developers Epic Games continue to grow the franchise into something of a mega conglomerate, and rapper Travis Scott is the latest beneficiary. 

The two joined forces last month with the intention of raising the bar for in-game spectacles, and boy did they make it work. The ‘Astronomical’ concert featured an oversized replica of Travis Scott stomping across Fortnite Island lip syncing to his standout tracks, while the freely traversable environments became more elaborate and fantastical as the show wore on. Astronomical also culminated in a premiere of ‘The Scotts’ with Kid Cudi.

Now, this is hardly the first time an artist has hopped on the back of a recent pop culture craze to fastrack success. But it’s looking increasingly likely that it may not just be a winning formula, but also something of a necessity to reach the top of the charts today.

Remember Justin Bieber actively begging his fans to use VPNs to get Yummy to #1? Or how Drake was suddenly catapulted back to relevancy after creating that sickly DJ Casper-esque: Toosie Slide, which is now plastered all over Tik Tok? All things considered, it looks as though Scott has found the perfect balance: tapping into a young demographic for maximum virality without completely ‘selling out’, as it were. 

For the laymans out there, Astronomical was an in-game music concert accessible from the Fortnite main menu. The event lasted for 10 minutes and spanned across multiple days last month to give players from all regions the opportunity to attend a server at least once.

Watching it myself, it was hard not to recognise the immense potential of digital performances like this. Corny as it may have been, Epic Games and Travis Scott really pushed the boat out to create a thrilling and original interactive experience, but not many – including Cactus Jack – will have foreseen this becoming a career defining moment for both parties. 

Less than a month after the live event, Travis Scott is celebrating his third No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the previously mentioned collab with Kid Cudi. And surprisingly previous hits ‘Highest in the Room’ and ‘Goosebumps’ have returned to the rankings at 38 and 49 respectively, with digital sales and streams seeing meteoric rises since Astronomical. 

It doesn’t take a world class detective to recognise the correlation between the two events, considering a record 12.3 million Fortnite players tuned in to partake in the digital festivities. And that doesn’t even take into account the number of people watching via the likes of Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer.