Happy Hongbao for the music industry: get inspired to share your music

Happy Hongbao! For those of us that don’t speak Chinese, it means Happy New Lunar Year.

Hongbao is a Chinese tradition, a red envelope filled with money, given away during Lunar New Year. For centuries Chinese people gave out these red envelopes to their relatives or friends, as presents.

Hongbao went digital: a sign of an upcoming revolution

As we move on into a digital age, Hongboa could use a makeover too. It started in 2014, by Chinese tech giant Tencent. They decided to make digital Hongbao on the WeChat social media messaging platform. Chinese people were offered the opportunity to send a sum of money to a group of friends, which WeChat randomly splits among the group.

Hongbao: inspiration for artists

Over the past few years, other tech companies (and also the Chinese government) also started making digital Hongbao to increase customer experiences. Free giveaways only feel natural in our day and age, and can be seen as a huge inspiration for artists. Imagine receiving a Hongbao from your favourite artist, containing free music, exclusive pre-listen or simple music videos. 

It empowers the relationship between fan and artist. Relationship marketing in its purest form.

Give, share and grow your fanbase

For all artists and record labels, it is crucial to reach as many people as possible, and building a solid customer relationship is key to success. In China Tencent embraced the digital Hongbao as online marketing, Tencent being a major player in the music industry. Let’s all learn from this digitalization of an old tradition: give out presents to your fans. Music marketing that will benefit you, as an artist, in many ways.

Get inspired

Our new year’s message to all artists around the world is a simple one: get inspired! Start sharing your exclusive content with your fans. Kwettr lets you improve relationships with customers using free giveaways through social media channels.

It doesn’t have to be a red envelope, but a blue bird carrying a message, or a personal message on Instagram, can do the trick as well.

新年快乐 (Xīnnián kuàilè), which means Happy New Year, from the Kwettr team!

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