Billie Eilish: Music Marketing

Billie Eilish is an American singer, songwriter who approached pop with a unique style. She grew up in a musical family, and began making music with her brother, Finneas O’Connell. They were both homeschooled, allowing them to immerse themselves in music and creativity from a young age.  

She wrote ‘Ocean Eyes’ and released it to Soundcloud at just 14 years old. It quickly gained a reaction which resulted in her signing to Interscope Records. 

Her music is a blend of pop, electronic, alternative, indie, and dark pop. She uses a lot of whispered vocals and minimalist beats which an ambient production.  

Her songs explore mental health, love and identity, and self-doubt. She has spoken out about anxiety, depression, and the pressures of fame with consistent references to the media. Her vocal delivery is one of her most distinctive features. She has a breathy, intimate, and vulnerable tone. 

Text 1, Happier Than Ever Music Video 

This song has a huge switch up. The music video begins in an almost vintage setting, the microphone sounds distorted, as if she is singing through the phone she is holding. It adds a personal, intimate effect to the video, as if it is conversational and directed to whoever is on the line. 

The room completely matches the ‘Happier Than Ever’ album cover, with the colours, costume and hair. The room feels relaxing at first, with the soft music playing over it. However, she eventually opens up the door which allows a flood of water into the house, the lighting and furniture being destroyed in the process. This transition happens with the song too, going into a more rock tone to convey her internal anger. The door is also a reference to her recent album ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’ as the album cover is of her falling out of a door into dark blue water. Since this is a transition in the song, it could also represent a transition in her persona too. HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is angry and each track sounds like she is getting emotions of her chest. She is less censored and it is pure emotion on those tracks. 

The video continues to show us her finally out of the house and on the roof, screaming at the camera with pure anger and frustration. We see her as fed up, she is finally saying what she has been holding back from saying.  

Text 2, Billie Eilish’s Website 

The website instantly introduces us to her recently released album, taking up at least 70% of the home page. Beneath it is her store, all of her merch gathered on the first page. The heading for the merch says ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY’, which acts as a celebration fans can get involved in. Billie being the model in the photos promoting the merch would convince fans to buy it more as it shows her in direct connection with the merch store, and that it isn’t just something her team run. 

They also used the HIT ME HARD AND SOFT font on everything just to fully indulge in the new era. 

There is a mailing list option at the bottom of the page where an artist can engage with the fans on a more personal and exclusive level, by only sending updates to those who have signed up to the list. A lot of artists do this to tease new albums or releases to big fans rather than just making a public post for everyone to see. It makes the fans feel special and acknowledged by her. 

There is a page labelled ‘Sustainability’ which informs fans about the efforts Billie and her team are putting in to reduce carbon emissions whilst on tour. This shows she has interest in acting against global warming and is an environmentalist. It also influences her fans as they might look up to her and follow her on her reducing carbon emissions journey. She is represented as considerate and aware of issues such as climate change and is using her platform to do something about it rather than turn a blind eye. 

These pages aren’t commonly included in artist websites because they would rather use their website to promote themselves, so this sets her apart from other artists and makes her appear more authentic from others. 

Website can be accessed by clicking this

-Chelsea Horton