Blake Benson, founder of Project A&R and Kyro Clipping, is heading to BIGSOUND next month as one of the industry guests on the star-studded conference line-up.
Project A&R is Australia’s largest independent music marketing agency. As a 21-year-old figure in the music industry, Benson represents the new guard of Australian entrepreneurs in creative industries.
If you weren’t already impressed, Benson continues to surprise with his ever-expanding resume. He’s run creator campaigns and digital marketing strategies for the likes of Shaboozey, Dominic Fike, Teddy Swims, Davido, The Kid LAROI, Malcolm Todd, Julia Michaels, The 046, ONEFOUR, and stacks more.
Ahead of his appearance during the BIGSOUND panel, If You Only Get One Shot, One Opportunity, Benson has caught up with The Music and shared the three things artists need to avoid (and three essentials) on social media.
3 Things Artists Need to Avoid (and 3 Essentials) on Social Media
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There has never been a better time to be an independent artist, but the sheer volume of daily releases means that great music alone is no longer a guarantee of discovery. For the next generation of acts breaking through in 2026, short-form video is the primary bridge between a great record and a culturally relevant career.
When you look at the artists who are consistently scaling their audiences and building real, tangible communities, they aren’t just posting more volume. They are all moving with intentional strategy. Whether you are prepping for a tour or mapping out your next release cycle, here are three common pitfalls to leave behind, and the three operational plays driving the most successful modern rollouts.
3 Things to Leave Behind
1. Never shoot content without a distinct Visual Anchor
We hear a lot of abstract advice in the music industry about "finding your brand," but in practice, that rarely gives an artist clarity when they’re standing in front of a camera. What actually moves the needle on the timeline is a distinct visual signature.
When a potential fan scrubs through your video on mute, they should be able to recognise it as yours within the first second based on the visual texture alone – whether that’s your specific colour grading, lighting choices, camera focal lengths, or editing cadence.
When an artist relies entirely on the audio to capture attention, they often lose their audience before the track even has a chance to be heard. In a saturated feed, an intentional visual aesthetic is what buys your music the time it needs to connect.
2. Never optimise for vanity metrics
It’s easy to get caught up in top-line view counts and like totals, but those numbers rarely tell the whole story of a campaign's health.
In 2026, the algorithms heavily prioritise "dark-social" metrics – specifically direct shares, saves, and completion rates. A video with moderate views that generates high share velocity will always build a more dedicated fanbase than a passive, million-view clip that audiences watch once and forget.
Instead of focusing on raw impressions, shift your lens toward why a piece of content resonates deeply enough for someone to send it to a friend. When your retention curves show a drop at the five-second mark, treat it as creative feedback to refine your pacing.
3. Never recycle music industry formats or trends
By the time a specific TikTok or Reels trend permeates the music industry, the attention opportunity has usually moved on.
Simply adapting a format that worked for another artist often risks making your project feel like a copy of someone else’s rollout rather than a unique cultural statement. The most effective tactic is what’s known as “cross-pollination”.
The most exciting campaigns draw inspiration from completely outside verticals, such as looking at pacing structures from high-fashion cinematography, sports, or independent cinema. Then finding ways to map your music into those visual architectures is how you carve out an original lane and own a creative format.
3 Things You Must ALWAYS Do
1. Split-test your concepts before deploying heavy budget
One of the most powerful shifts an artist can make is treating short-form content as a testing ground for their creative direction. Before committing significant capital to a high-production video or a large seeding campaign, use organic social as a low-friction prototyping tool. Capture several distinct, run-and-gun visual variations for a new record – testing different lyric hooks, tempos, camera angles, and visual settings. Let your community's organic response guide your paid efforts.
This exact framework is just as vital when running seeding, clipping, UGC campaigns – or whichever names we’re attaching to it this week. The concepts that end up being stickiest are almost always built from organic traction, or are reactive to smaller, phased-out marketing spends.
Rather than blowing a massive creator budget on day one, test micro-spends across diverse niches and observe what genuinely influences audience behaviour. Once the data and audience sentiment clearly highlight which variation connects on a visceral level, you can aggressively double down and deploy your scale capital behind a proven concept with confidence.
2. Build a frictionless bridge to an owned platform
Social media platforms are incredible for discovery, but they often result in rented attention when algorithms and organic reach shift constantly. A sustainable, long-term career requires building a direct, unfiltered line of communication with your audience.
Every strong content rollout should include a seamless bridge off socials and into infrastructure you control, whether that’s a curated SMS broadcast club, an active Discord community, or an exclusive email journal for secret drops and intimate show announcements. Use short-form video to capture initial attention, but always focus on converting that attention into a permanent, independent community.
3. Edit for visual rhythm and continuous engagement
Capturing a viewer’s attention in the opening two seconds is the first step, but holding them through a 30-second narrative requires a dynamic visual rhythm. Modern viewing habits respond to thoughtful pattern interrupts, such as subtle shifts that refresh the viewer’s focus and keep the piece moving forward.
Incorporating rhythmic edits – for example, changing camera focal lengths, introducing alternate lighting setups, or blending in complementary B-roll every few seconds – prevents a video from feeling static. When your visual pacing complements the natural cadence of your track, you create an engaging experience that carries the viewer effortlessly from the opening frame to the final loop point.
TL;DR
3 Things to Leave Behind
Shooting Without a Visual Anchor: Don’t rely on your track to do all the heavy lifting. Ensure your content has an immediate visual signature – distinctive colour grading, intentional lighting, or specific camera lenses that make it instantly recognisable on mute within the first second.
Chasing Vanity Metrics Over Dark-Social Signals: Stop prioritising top-line view counts and public likes. Modern algorithms favour "dark-social" distribution: direct shares, saves, and completion rates. Optimise your creative around concepts that compel fans to actually send the video to a friend.
Recycling Inside-the-Industry Trends: By the time a content format is trending across the music industry, the attention arbitrage is over. Avoid cloning peers. Instead, cross-pollinate by pulling visual structures and editing pacing from external cultures, like high fashion, independent cinema, or sports.
3 Things to Implement Instantly
Split-Test Before Deploying Scale Capital: Treat organic socials as a low-friction testing lab. Capture multiple run-and-gun visual variations of a track to organically test angles before committing budget to premier production or paid media. This also applies to creator seeding, clipping, and UGC campaigns.
The concepts that end up being stickiest are almost always built from organic traction, or end up being reactive to smaller, phased-out marketing spends. Rather than blowing a massive creator budget on day one, test micro-spends across diverse niches, see what genuinely influences audience behaviour, and aggressively double down only on validated formats.
Build a Bridge to Owned Infrastructure: Social platforms are rented land where algorithms and organic reach shift overnight. Protect your career by building a frictionless funnel that moves attention off socials and into direct-to-consumer spaces you actually own, such as curated SMS clubs, private Discord servers, or email journals.
Edit for Visual Rhythm: Hooking a viewer in the first two seconds is the entry point. Holding viewers requires intentional visual rhythm. Introduce subtle pattern interrupts – focal length shifts, lighting transitions, or dynamic B-roll every few seconds to prevent visual stagnation and carry the viewer effortlessly through to the final loop point.
BIGSOUND returns to Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley from Tuesday, 1 to Friday, 4 September. To find out more about this year’s industry conference and music festival, head to the BIGSOUND website.
