Company
Round
Round, as described on the show by Vishal Ramakrishnan.
Episodes (1)
Vishal Ramakrishnan of Round explains why music marketing shifted from celebrities to micro-creators and how the company grew without raising capital.
Questions these episodes answer
Why did Round never raise outside investment?
Vishal says Round started only to solve a personal problem, Aaron's frustration managing marketing campaigns across dozens of spreadsheets at his day job, rather than a plan to build a large company. He says starting as an agency was the only way to make money and fund the business, and Round has never raised outside capital.
From: Building a Music Career Fans Can Emotionally Invest In
Why are labels moving from celebrity endorsements to micro-influencer marketing?
Vishal says fans can spot inauthentic promotion instantly, and a celebrity post is generally assumed to be paid, which limits its impact. A message from a smaller, seemingly unpaid creator reads as more genuine, which is why Round built a product targeting creators under 100,000 followers instead of chasing mega-influencers.
From: Building a Music Career Fans Can Emotionally Invest In
Why is it hard to prove a marketing campaign actually increased music streams?
Vishal says marketers rarely get access to the actual streaming data behind a release, so a label might see hundreds of thousands of TikTok creations with no visible change in streams, or the reverse, with no clear reason why. Without that access, he says there is no formula that reliably converts ad spend into streams.
From: Building a Music Career Fans Can Emotionally Invest In
How did Round help Shakira build a direct relationship with her fans?
Round built a website for a Lambo giveaway where Shakira asked fans to use her sound in a creative post, collecting fan data directly instead of renting an audience from a platform. Vishal says the campaign drew over half a million visitors and around 200,000 entrants, giving the artist an email list she can reach directly for future releases.
From: Building a Music Career Fans Can Emotionally Invest In