Colby Acuff is sick and tired of how the social media’s algorithm works.
Fresh off the release of his new album, Handmade Horsepower, the country music artist joins Whiskey Riff Raff to talk about the viral origins of his “Dunk That Sh*t” mantra, the art of meme marketing, and shares his thoughts on some of the most talented artists in the genre still not getting the recognition they deserve.
Colby also dives into his frustrations with modern country music, explains why he believes Nashville is still the place to be for aspiring artists, and shares why Handmade Horsepower is the record he wants to be remembered for. He also discusses writing every song on the album himself, the short film that accompanies the project, and the impact artists like Sturgill Simpson have had on his career.
It was a jam-packed conversation, and things really heated up when we got to talking to Colby about social media. He’s grateful that being online has enabled him to connect with more and more fans, but he’s frustrated by the monster that social media has become in the music industry:
“If you follow somebody, you might all of the sudden never see their content again, which is a very strange situation. When this whole thing started for me, which would have been 2020ish, it was all about monthly listeners. I remember having conversations with labels and they were like, ‘You’re listenership isn’t where we want it.’
Then it shifted to followers. It went from monthly listeners to followers. When it shifted to followers, that was a tough time because there were moments where I was losing festival slots because people had more followers than me, but my consumption numbers were like 6-times more.”
Unreal, right?
Acuff says that labels became uninterested in monthly listenership, and even didn’t care to know how many tickets artists were selling. It was just, “How many followers do you have on social media?” When you hear that, it makes sense why some of the best artists in country are still fighting to make a name for themself.
It’s not about the music, it’s about the social media. And Colby thinks even that is going to get a bit fuzzy, considering how the modern algorithm delivers content to social media users:
“The algorithm now, if you look at your analytics when you post, almost always its going to be a 20-80. No matter how many views it gets, its going to be 80% non-followers, because they are always trying to give it to a new batch of people who don’t follow you. It is frustrating, because what is the metric? How many views your videos have?
So much of the content you are getting on your phone is not who you follow anyways… I just don’t like the way the algorithm works. On TikTok, I have like 150,000 followers. If every day, I could post a video that went to 150,000 people, that’d be fine. But that’s not how it works, which is bullsh*t.”
@whiskeyriff @Colby Acuff #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff ♬ LONG WAY FROM THE BOTTOM – Colby Acuff
Pardon my French… but it is, in fact, bullsh*t.
Acuff went on to say that he feels as though anything he posts should be run by the test batch that he’s already built up himself: His own followers. After that, the algorithm can feel free to take it from there. As Acuff said, that’s unfortunately not how it works, so he’s (and many other artists out there) trying to figure out how to break through to the people that already want to hear from him.
You can hear about all of that and more from Colby Acuff by checking out the interview on YouTube or making sure to download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or by clicking here.
We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts.
Cheers, y’all.
