Anson Seabra is Trying His Best, and It’s Working
Shawn Mendes found his start on Vine. Is Anson Seabra Tiktok’s version of the Vine story?
The internet’s impact on the music industry is large enough that most don’t need a reminder. If anyone knows how it feels to be caught in a viral current, though, it’s Kansas City native, Anson Seabra.
Seabra first started creating music at the age of six, when he learned how to play the piano. When he got to college, he studied computer science. Though he graduated and was working as a software engineer on the East Coast, his inner calling for music led him to pursue his passion back at home.
In a move you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a hopeful singer-songwriter, Seabra took to Tiktok. He noticed how much sway the Chinese-owned app had on global music charts. In his first video, posted May 7, 2019, he told his viewers “this is a really special platform and I’m excited to make memes.”
His first couple of videos weren’t necessarily music-related, but he soon began sharing clips of tracks he was working on. Periodically, he also created videos sharing the stats of both his and other artist’s music, demonstrating the relationship between viral Tiktok videos and music artist revenue.
@ansonseabrawhy tik tok runs the music industry♬ original sound – ansonseabra
Seabra had discovered something that was working for him. By October of 2019, he was averaging 794,000 monthly listeners on Spotify – a number he had no idea was about to triple in size. Today he has 3,162,000 monthly listeners and 222,000 followers – just on Spotify.
google searches for "anson seabra" over the last year pic.twitter.com/JzjjIh42of
— Anson Seabra (@ansonseabra) November 24, 2019
Let’s get down to numbers.
In the nine months that Seabra has been on Tiktok (he joined May 5, 2019), he has attracted 890,000 followers. As his presence on the platform took off, so has his music’s popularity – of course.
welcome to wonderland is doing almost 400k streams a day what in gods name
— Anson Seabra (@ansonseabra) February 11, 2020
At first, streams and views were trickling in, leading him to milestones of 180,000 likes on Tiktok or 13M streams on his song “Robin Hood”. Soon, he’d find himself on the Spotify US Viral charts, trending on Apple Music, and sitting atop the iTunes Top Singer/Songwriter Chart.
So how is he doing it?
Strategizing with technology is not a new game to Seabra. He created an app while in college and has worked for a Fortune 500 company, so one could assume he’s got his head in the game.
Is this all strategy? No. Seabra is objectively a talented singer, he just knows a few tricks that work. Should you keep your eyes on him? Absolutely. This is just the tip of the iceberg – he has a plan.
Who knows, though. He could have a future in comedy, too.
Find Anson Seabra on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and Spotify.
