AM.RADIO 007: How We Packed 1,300 People into a Coffee Shop in a City We’d Never Been To
Austin just proved that AM.RADIO is bigger than we ever thought.
We wanted to show that AM.RADIO isn’t just an LA thing, but that we could travel even further from California, and that people in a brand new city would wake up early for it. So we pulled up to Austin with zero ads and no local street team. And the result?
At 8 AM there was already a line around the block.
1,300 people showed up for AM.RADIO 007—in a city we’ve never been to. Here’s how we did it:
Why Austin? Why Now?
Austin was the top city that people were recommending in our comments on Instagram and TikTok, so we knew pretty quickly that people were in love with the idea. We then saw a string of Austin based events that started to pop up in the morning and use the “Coffee + DJ” idea, so we knew if we came to Austin we would need to do it right. We put SXSW on our calendar and worked on getting partners on board to help us get there and carry out an AM.RADIO without cutting any corners. We were able to get some interest from a dream partner:
SoundCloud wanted in. Now we’re partnering with them for our full-length audio sets
This partnership brings full AM.RADIO sets exclusively to SoundCloud before anywhere else, letting fans relive the experience, discover new music, and hear unreleased tracks exactly as they were meant to be heard.
We’ve only posted the full sets from AM.RADIO 001-006 (Vail) on YouTube. This is where the full sets have lived and SoundCloud wanted to change that. We knew this was the perfect partner for AM.RADIO given the established brand for artists and DJ’s that SoundCloud has been known for. And with all the ID’s that artists like SIDEPIECE were playing (over half the set) we needed a partner that could give fans the best way to experience the full set audio.
For the first time ever, full AM.RADIO sets are exclusively on SoundCloud before our full sets go live later this month.
Fans: Unlock full AM.RADIO sets with SoundCloud Go+.
Artists: Submit your SoundCloud mix and play a future AM.RADIO
We brought one of our label artists with us
OKAYVAL is one of the newest artists on Putyouon Music Group, and we knew Austin was the perfect opportunity to showcase her. Just a couple weeks after her song “Techno Sh” went viral, and a day after it’s release— we brought her out with us to play a full set, capture content, and give her the exposure she deserved in front of a packed crowd. Techno Sh just became #1 on Beatport Electronica, and we think our content will continue to drive this record alongside hers.
Now, how did this all come together?
Here’s a breakdown of how I was thinking about rolling our Austin:
We went live with the Austin RSVP link, and I first put up this post on Instagram with the message: ‘800 Shares and we’ll drop the lineup’.
Then, we sent our music club the RSVP link first, not knowing how many people in Austin were in the music club. In the first couple hours, we had 300 RSVP’s.
I then went live with this post, and also said we’d announce who’s playing if we got 800 RSVP’s.
The photo only got 650 shares, but the video got over 1,300. 48 hours later?
All 1500 RSVP’s were gone.
Now that we were “sold out”, we cryptically posted that we were following three new artists on the AM.RADIO Instagram: Louis The Child, Daniel Allan, and OKAYVAL. These stories didn’t “blow up” or anything, so it still felt like this was a secret waiting to get out.
We saw hundreds of people lining up to be first in to AM.RADIO 007 starting at 8 AM. I took 25 coffee’s on a couple trays and handed out coffee’s to the first people in line waiting and the doors opened at 10 AM. The people who were there were amazing, having fun, and felt really excited to be there. It was awesome.
What worked, and what’s next?
We tested a new way of rolling out an event by asking for shares before we dropped the lineup, letting the community build the excitement alongside us. 2,000 shares turned into 1,500 RSVP’s in 48 hours, and before we even revealed the artists — we felt like people were anticipating us coming.
The artist’ sets were amazing. Louis The Child (Listen here), Daniel Allan, (Listen here) and OKAYVAL (Listen here) gave us a high energy lineup which we were after.
Whether you were in Austin or experiencing it for the first time on SoundCloud, you’re part of this.
We’ll see you at the next one in LA.
-Steve