The Echo Vol. 10 - Sabrina shows how it's done

HOW WE DOING?

Just like always, this week’s Echo is filled with awesome stuff :) Let’s jump into it.

GLOBAL TIKTOK TREND (SOUND) OF THE WEEK

LOCAL TIKTOK TREND (SOUND) OF THE WEEK
Australia

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook starts rolling out new Friends tab

Facebook has just launched a new Friends tab aimed at bringing the platform back to its true social roots. It’s currently being rolled out in the US and Canada first. The Friends tab is a dedicated feed that displays only content from your Facebook friends. There are no ads, no algorithmic recommendations, and no posts from groups or pages.

We think this feature can lead to increased performance of true organic content, especially when posted by many creators. This is the case since it won’t be the largest accounts with strong algorithms that fill up your feed, but people you actually care about. So if one of your friends posts something about a new song for example, you won’t miss it anymore.

DATA | THE WORLD OF MUSIC QUANTIFIED

Spotify’s weekly global top 5 songs

— #1. Manchild | Sabrina Carpenter // 39.8 m weekly streams (NEW TO LIST)

— #2. Ordinary | Alex Warren // 39.5 m weekly streams

— #3. back to friends | sombr // 33.3 m weekly streams

— #4. Die with a smile | Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars // 30.7 m weekly streams

— #5. Birds of a Feather | Billie Eilish // 29.7 m weekly streams

Spotify’s weekly global top 10 artists

— #1. Bad Bunny // Latin trap

— #2. Taylor Swift // Pop

— #3. Drake // Pop

— #4. The Weeknd // Alternative R&B 

— #5. Morgan Wallen // Country

— #6. Billie Eilish // Alternative Pop

— #7. Fuerza Regida // Varied // Regional Mexican

— #8. Kendrick Lamar // Hip Hop

— #9. Arijit Singh // Playback Singer

— #10. Sabrina Carpenter // Pop (NEW TO LIST)

TIKTOK VIDEO OF THE WEEK:
Bikers perform “Rock that body” trend

Views: 177,000,000 | Likes: 30,300,000

170+ million views and over 30 million likes from a relatively small creator sure is impressive. Here’s why this video rocks (hint: it’s close to perfect in the right ways).

— #1. Excellent execution of an already established trend. The “Rock that body” by Black Eyed Peas trend with two people (usually boyfriend and girlfriend) is very popular. Jumping onboard it was a very wise move.

— #2. Awesome twist of the trend with the cool biker gear. While most creators’ videos doing this trend look very similar, this biker edition looks much more interesting. This is the strongest hook of the video.

— #3. Wholesomeness from father/daughter moment. People love cute videos, and the father/daughter combo here is adorable. It makes people stick around, watch again, and share it with others.

— #4. Super cool background. The background is peaceful and visually striking. What more can you ask for?

— #5. Fantastic lighting and angles. The angles are great (since you see how much smaller the kid is) and the lighting is also very visually striking.

— #5. A perfect splash of “unperfectness.” While this video is perfectly executed in plenty of ways, it’s not always correctly timed and there’s a few mistakes here and there. We’d say this is a good thing though, as it increases the genuineness.

MUSIC EVENT OF THE WEEK:
Danube Island Festival Vienna

Danube Island Festival 2025 returns to Vienna from June 21–23, transforming the city’s iconic Danube Island into Europe’s largest open-air music celebration. This event is known for its unbeatable atmosphere and free entry which together draw hundreds of thousands of fans every year.

This year’s lineup is more diverse than ever, with headliners like Milky Chance, Kim Wilde, and Rag’n’Bone Man bringing indie pop, classic rock, and blues to the main stages. Metal and rock fans can see Steel Panther, Halestorm, and Beast in Black, while more local stars such as Josh, Avec, and Conchita Wurst shows Austria’s own talent. 

The event is spread across 16 stages and 17 themed “islands,” and since it offers such a diverse experience we’re confident there will be plenty of content circulating on socials.

TIP OF THE WEEK
Filming using the Rule of Thirds

Framing your artist using the Rule of Thirds makes your videos look instantly more professional. It’s a small compositional shift that subconsciously signals quality to the viewer. Even if someone doesn’t know why your shot feels “better,” they’re more likely to watch longer, engage more, and take the content seriously.

How to get it right

— #1. Turn on gridlines in your camera or editing app — Most phones and apps (like CapCut or InShot) have a 3x3 grid option. This overlays your frame with guide lines so you can line things up easily.

— #2. Place your subject on one of the vertical lines — Instead of centering the artist, position them slightly off to the left or right third of the frame. This creates a more visually interesting shot and opens up negative space for overlays like lyrics or CTAs.

— #3. Align the eyes with a horizontal line — If someone’s in the shot, especially for talking or singing to camera, line up their eyes with the top third horizontal line. It’s a subtle way to draw focus to the face.

— #4. Use the “look space” trick — If the artist is looking to the side, make sure they’re looking into the frame, not out of it. For example, if they’re on the left third, they should be looking right. It feels more natural and keeps the viewer engaged.

— #5. Leave room for context — The negative space you create with this framing can be used to show off a setting (like a studio, city, nature backdrop, or the bikes in the cute biker video) or to place on-screen text that supports the sound.

PARASITION: Campaign breakdown

WEEKLY HUGO UPDATE

The development of Hugo is moving fast. The most notable update this week is a new tool we’ve built that makes it extremely easy for anyone to identify which part of their song has the highest chance of going viral on social media. This is super important for promoting tracks on short-form socials, since it doesn’t matter how good your song is if you don’t show the most suitable parts. As of right now, it can only be used for MP3s. Check it out here

What’s Hugo?

Hugo is a marketing operating system that knows your music label’s entire catalog. Hugo then constantly monitors all of social media to spot, present, and execute campaign opportunities across regions and formats. By using Hugo, your music will be more viral than ever, since all campaigns will be 100% optimized for success.

Does this sound interesting to you? Sign up to the waiting list and be one of the first to gain access.

ROUND-UP 

— Sound recognition is one of the most fundamental parts of establishing a trend

— One of the best ways to quickly establish a strong trend around a song is for the artist to create it themselves

— Facebook is starting to roll out a new Friends tab, which we think will lead to organic being even stronger

— Riding an established trend but doing a unique twist can be a fantastic way to create videos that truly explode

— Songs that aren’t as mainstream can be harder to advertise, but once you have a concept that works it’s usually no issue

— Hugo’s development is moving rapidly, and this week we launched a feature that lets you find the parts of song that are most likely to go viral

Thanks for sticking around — we hope you had a nice read!

If you’re someone who works in music marketing and wants to make your music more viral than ever, you should reach out to us at Parasition 🕺🚀

// The Echo Team