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BECK'S SOCIAL STUDIES

Having dropped new single “Wow” earlier today, Capitol’s Beck continued his Instagram takeover today with a first-ever song premiere feature in the social giant’s search/explore tab, a place typically used so Instagrammers can discover content based on their likes and frequent activity. Targeting U.S.-based followers of Beck and similar audiences, the page was made to play a continuous video experience, comprising the 21 clips posted yesterday.

The clips were created by an array of artists and users across 19 different accounts. Participants were sent exclusive snippets of the single before its release, invited to collaborate with Beck on his premiere and asked to create unique visuals based on their niche interests, art forms and followings; think everything from pop art to sculptures, marine biology videography, avant garde makeup and a girl who presses her face into slices of bread. The project—spearheaded by Steve Barnett and Scott Greer's team—brings to life the message of the song by bringing together people from all walks of life with the shared love of “wow moments” and the eccentricities of life.

The videos currently have 1.6m combined views (we like ‘em all, but coralmorphologic’s "Cosmic Shrimp Dance” is a standout). The song also received support from Instagram-owned handles @Instagram and @Music, which boast more than 164m followers. Preview it here, though it's best experienced within the app. Meanwhile, a Q&A with the artist earned 800k views in just two hours.

Nowadays, a song or set can drop at any moment, and Team Capitol’s move proves it can also happen on platforms previously unconsidered. It’s safe to say we can expect other labels to follow suit with this strategy.

Beck also became a Twitter Moment and was trending on Facebook. For a guy who broke into pop culture as a self-described “Loser,” he sure seems at home in a social environment.

The Grammy winner also appeared on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music Beats 1 show on Thursday night.

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