Labels, channels and collectives have seen an immense rise in popularity over the course of this decade. With the rapid evolution of social media platforms that have become essential to promoting one’s brand, there has never been a more important time for artists to have a worldwide reach.
The main question that arises is how does an artist with great music but little followers have their music heard by the masses? Key players in alleviating this burden from artists are intermediate platforms that host music from up-and-coming talents on their established platforms. Trap Party is a YouTube channel-turned-record label that began in the early days of trap music with this exact goal in mind. In an era where it seems as though every platform is saturated with outlets for new music, we wanted to know more about what it takes to start such a platform, gain traction and become a leader in the scene. Check out our interview with the founder of Trap Party, Cristian Tugui, below to gain some key insights about becoming such a prominent force within the industry.
Let’s start from the beginning. What motivated you to start a YouTube channel centred around trap music back in 2013?
Ever since I was a kid, I was a big fan of EDM music, and especially house music. I used to listen to it everyday while driving with my family or just listening by myself in my room. So since I was a big fan of EDM music as a kid, it didn’t take much for me to fall in love with trap music, I really enjoyed the new style of EDM. Trap music was something new back in the day and there were not many YouTube channels that uploaded good content. So I decided to open my own channel and start uploading the content that I enjoyed that other channels didn’t upload. That’s how Trap Party was born and started gaining traction.
…there was no competition back in the day. I think I was the 4th trap YouTube channel, so a couple channels compared to thousands of channels nowadays.
How were the early days of the page? Did it blow up instantly or was it a slow process?
The early days were hard in terms of getting the channel out in front of people’s eyes and especially growing fanbase, but at the same time it was a fast process of growing because there was no competition back in the day. I think I was the 4th trap YouTube channel, so a couple channels compared to thousands of channels nowadays.
What tips would you give to someone trying to start a music-oriented YouTube channel? Is there one specific thing you wish you knew from the beginning?
If you are new to YouTube and especially the music industry, first of all do a good check on the song, check if it is released under a record label, and if so make sure to contact the label for permission to upload the content. If it is not under a label I would recommend trying to reach out to the artist, but be patient as it can take time to hear back from either the record label or the artist.
I would suggest start uploading smaller artists content in order to build a fanbase and slowly make your way up to bigger artists. They want to see that your channel is doing good and to approve the upload. It is hard to get upload approval when your channel has only a few videos live.
What led you to create spin-offs of the original Trap Party channel such as Chill Party, Bass Party, etc.?
As Trap Party was growing everyday, I came up with the decision to open a couple sister and brother channels to help promote other genres of music, that being rap, chill, bass, and house music. If you check our channels out you will notice that the majority of our uploads are from underground artists that we are trying to help to get heard outside of SoundCloud and other streaming platforms.
As of right now I am a one person running it all by myself, it gets hard at times but it’s good to always stay busy and stay on top of your brand.
Life must have gotten quite hectic as the channel grew to 1M subscribers and beyond. Do you have a team working with you? If so, when did you decide that you needed more people to grow the platform?
Since the channel reached over 100K subscribers I would say it’s gotten busy as submissions come in everyday, non-stop, as well as artists or labels reaching out for promo. As of right now I am a one person running it all by myself, it gets hard at times but it’s good to always stay busy and stay on top of your brand.
Soon I will start looking into growing the team to help achieve more goals.
How did you balance this rapid growth with staying true to the original vision of the Trap Party brand? What is the hardest part about retaining your original integrity?
When the channel started to grow rapidly it is important to keep an eye on your channel analytics and pay attention to what made the channel grow fast, what videos did well and what videos did amazing. We noticed that specific artists were getting more traffic and interest than others so we tried to upload more content from those artists to keep the channel growing as well as still upload other artists and mixes on the channel.
Sometimes it does get hard to stay in a straight line with the brand, but there are no rules really so it is good sometimes to jump from one side of the line to another just to experiment and try new things out and see how it will perform.
When did you decide to launch the Trap Party record label? What was the motivation behind this move?
The Trap Party record label started about 2 years ago but it was not as active as it is right now. I used to release maybe 1 track per month if so, but for the past 6-8 months I focused more on the label and started releasing between 2-6 tracks per month. The reason behind it is that Trap Party is mainly known for the YouTube channel and for the support we offer to artists on that specific platform. With the record label, I wanted to help artists even more by distributing their content to different platforms and help with the promotion, not just on YouTube, but on other streaming sites like Spotify/Apple Music/SoundCloud etc.
I am currently in talks with a couple brands to help underground artists get heard even more and make their job easier so they can focus more on their passion which is music.
What were the major obstacles when transitioning from a YouTube channel into a fully-fledged record label?
There were no real obstacles, it was more a fact of learning new things, new ways of promotion, and making people aware that our brand now offers exclusive releases, not just YouTube uploads, as well as building new connections with promoters, labels, distributors etc.
On the same note as the YouTube channel question, what do you wish you knew about the record label industry before jumping into it?
When I started the record label, I wish I knew more about the details of releases, for example when to release the track, how early to distribute it, where to look for promotion, support and just how to promote a release outside the YouTube channel.
Your growth is interminable. What’s next for Trap Party?
As of right now Trap Party brand keeps growing everyday, the label is doing great and we are very excited to see what new opportunities we will build for artists. I am currently in talks with a couple brands to help underground artists get heard even more and make their job easier so they can focus more on their passion which is music.
