Ryan Leslie Hacked Artist Marketing With an SMS. Then Bad Bunny’s Team Called

When Grammy-nominated artist and multi-platinum producer Ryan Leslie released his 2016 album MZRT, there were no billboards, bells, or whistles. Instead, he promoted it via an inbound SMS campaign, without a record label or intermediary.

To do this, he used Superphone, a product powered by his platform Disruptive Multimedia. The product empowers artists and creators to take full control of their business. The text push followed Leslie’s decision to withdraw the album from streaming platforms and ultimately generated $2 million in gross revenue.

Speaking during a panel at Mediaweek in New York hosted by ADWEEK’s community editor, Luz Corona, he explained he moved into the tech space because there was a “disconnect” in the ownership of his audience.

“I just didn’t know who they were,” he explained. “iTunes knew who they were, Spotify knew who they were, but I didn’t. I knew what I needed to do… and the ability to actually build an audience over text was ridiculously groundbreaking.”

Fast-forward 8 years and Leslie now has a direct line of communication with 53,000 superfans on SuperPhone. He updates them on new work and sells tickets to his shows, but SuperPhone has become much bigger than that.

In 2022, Bad Bunny’s (AKA Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) team called Leslie and said they wanted to collect 750,000 phone numbers while announcing details of his sixth studio album Un Verano Sin Ti (A Summer Without You.)

SuperPhone helped power an innovative push to meet this goal. The campaign started when the reggaeton star posted an ad for a Bugatti Chiron 110, on Clasificados Online under his real name. The car was listed for $3.5 million and accompanied by a phone number.

When fans dialed it, a voicemail played a snippet of an unreleased Bad Bunny song, and a text message in Spanish was then sent to callers. The result is a Rolodex of fans he can text about tickets and more.

Leslie added: “It’s transformative when you think creatively, combine the creativity of a marketing team with the power of a creative force like Bad Bunny. You can do what’s necessary to build true, direct, one-on-one conversations.”

In tune with innovation, and AI

Jesse Kirshbaum, CEO at creative music marketing shop Nue Agency, and Antony Demekhin, CEO and co-founder at ethical music AI business Tuney also discussed the increasing intersection between music, creativity, and technology.

“We’re approaching a big transformation era where the creator economy era is booming and we’re seeing AI start to eat everybody’s lunch,” observed Kirshbaum. “And musicians are out here paving the way for where the future is.”

Discussing his platform, which offers generative music tools for artists and creative teams, Demekhin—a classically-trained musician turned entrepreneur—said the idea was born out of workflow issues he’d faced as an artist, as well as brands and creators using “stock music,” to soundtrack social videos.