By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

As the music industry works feverishly to discover a new business model that will repair its rapidly decaying orbit, the creative side of the business suffers. With less money being put into promotion and A&R, it’s become increasingly difficult for artists to be picked up and promoted effectively. As a result, up and coming artists are forced to use grassroots tactics of get their product in front of the right set of ears. In recent years, the Internet has replaced standing in front of a record label executive’s office, hoping to get lucky and get a demo into a famed starmaker’s hands. Nowadays, it’s all about the grind and making enough noise in the trenches to reach the corner offices belonging to music bigwigs.

Recent examples of sucessful of Internet noisemakers including the polarizing Soulja Boy and the world’s former most sought after free agent, Drake. The latest artist to step into the spotlight via the viral power of the Internet is Priscilla Renea. To quote the words of the late, great Notorious B.I.G., it was all a dream. The 18 year old built a rabid following through straight hustle, posting videos of herself singing covers of popular songs on YouTube. At the height of her YouTube assault she had posted 3oo videos and while she built up a healthy following through grassroots promotion it was her guerillla tactics that really got her noticed.

“I went and I searched and searched for the YouTube editor’s email. Then I pretended to be someone else and sent them an email. It was like, ‘yo, you need to check out this chick, she’s dope!’ (laughs) It worked and they put my video on the front page. That’s when I really started getting a lot of attention. There was a lot of self-promotion going on.”

The self-promotion will continue for the release of her upcoming album Jukebox set to release in October. The campaign definitely has some more juice behind it since she’s been signed to Capitol Records. But it’s more than promotion to Priscilla Renea. ” It’s not just a tool to promote my success, it’s also something I really enjoy. I like expressing myself. I like editing and posting the videos on YouTube. Now you’re going to get a lot of behind the scenes footage as well as the videos of the things I do with the label that’s all going on YouTube.” In addition to YouTube, Renea recently released an EP of three songs to whet fans’ appetites. Available on iTunes and Amazon, the EP includes the wildly popular single “Hello My Apple.”  She also has a new website (www.priscillareneamusic.com) where fans can catch up with Priscilla’s latest happenings.

In addition to her new site, fans can also connect with the artist via her twitter page (www.twitter.com/priscillarenea), where she likes to get a little more personal. “I definitely love being able to keep everyone in the loop of what’s going on. I guess it’s a little bit of both – what’s going in my life, letting fans feel like the know me on a personal level, but at the same time I’m keeping them informed.”

Clever promotion tactics aside, Priscilla Renea is the real deal. Her upcoming album promises to be a  “more organic” presentation of the quirky, heartfelt style her fans know and love.

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

TAGS: Amazon, Capitol Records, Drake, Hello My Apple, iTunes, Priscilla Renae, Soulja Boy, YouTube.com

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