In today’s music landscape, talent alone isn’t enough. With hundreds of thousands of songs dropping daily, the artists cutting through the noise are the ones treating their marketing like strategy—not chance. BigXThaPlug is proof of that.
His Billboard Hot 100 debut at #4 with “All The Way” wasn’t just a viral fluke—it was the result of a calculated, AI-powered campaign built by SymphonyOS and backed by UnitedMasters. His team didn’t wait for fans to find the song. They engineered momentum, drove 40K+ presaves, and tapped real-time fan insights to scale the impact across TikTok, streaming platforms, and beyond.
BigXThaPlug is having a moment. Building on years of hard luck and hard work, the Texas rapper has broken through with a triumphant Jimmy Kimmel appearance and a chart-storming new single.
“All The Way,”’ BigXThaPlug’s genre-blending collab with rising country star Bailey Zimmerman, didn’t explode by accident. Backed by UnitedMasters, BigX’s team used SymphonyOS’s AI-powered marketing to turn fan demand into measurable momentum. As unreleased clips of the track spread across social media from fan accounts to sub-artist pages, the team stayed active, consistently pushing the SymphonyOS presave link. This resulted in 40k presaves before the song even dropped, setting the stage for its Billboard Hot 100 debut at #4.
“This isn’t just a marketing victory for BigXThaPlug; it’s a testament to how the music industry works today, and how artists are making it work for them,” explains Chuka Chase, co-founder of SymphonyOS. “The rules have changed, and artists who use AI and other tools to position themselves strategically, while knowing their fans, are set to succeed.”
Superfans can become an artist’s best marketing team, so long as there’s something truly exciting to talk about. To unlock this superfan superpower, BigXThaPlug used a savvy combination of intrigue and ubiquity. He made connections with new fans across genre lines by cross promoting with Zimmerman across their socials. He got the audio on TikTok, leading to 15k videos using the song before it even dropped.
Most importantly, BigXThaPlug leaned into presaves on SymphonyOS, a simple way for fans to “opt in” to a release before it’s out. He also kept the actual drop date mysterious. Fans had incentive to click, thanks to the unknown release date. They spread the word throughout the community, creating real buzz and speculation. This mix resulted in more than 40k presaves, which in turn laid the groundwork for a spike in streams that sent “All The Way” up the Billboard Hot 100 to #4 (as well as getting the track to #1 on YouTube and #2 on Apple Music).
This wasn’t just a hype play; it was a long-term strategy. As BigX reached a new audience across genres, he wasn’t just earning streams; he was collecting names, locations, and contact info from fans engaging with the rollout. SymphonyOS’s AI tracked this data in real time, giving his team the insights needed to re-engage and retarget this emerging fanbase. The goal wasn’t going viral, but rather to build lasting relationships powered by data he’ll use throughout his career, all starting with a presave.
The one-two punch of combining disparate fandoms and giving fans incentive to promote a release via presaves got BigXThaPlug to the next level, and it reflects how artists are rethinking release strategies in this fragmented, distracted era. A low-trust, hype-fatigued environment means fans are more likely to trust fans than artists channels pumping out a drumbeat of posts and videos.
The right tech helps artists implement this new release approach, and SymphonyOS has been instrumental, not only for UnitedMasters and BigXThaPlug, but other artists including Tinashe, Uncle Waffles, and James Blake. “SymphonyOS has been running in the background of so many key moments in artists’ careers,” reflects Megh Vakharia, co-founder of SymphonyOS. “It takes the work that artists are already doing and boosts it in precise, AI-powered ways to give them the results they want.”
“At UnitedMasters, we’re always looking for ways to help artists build real, lasting momentum and not just viral moments,” notes David Melhado, VP of Music at UnitedMasters. “With BigXThaPlug, SymphonyOS gave us the tools to meet fan energy in real time and turn it into meaningful results. From presaves that lead to all time streaming spikes, we saw how powerful it can be when tech and culture move together. This is what artist empowerment looks like in 2025.”
This is the new blueprint: Artists who understand their audience, use data to fuel their growth, and approach marketing with the same creativity they bring to the studio.
“This isn’t just a marketing victory for BigXThaPlug; it’s a testament to how the music industry works today, and how artists are making it work for them,” explains Chuka Chase, co-founder of SymphonyOS. “The rules have changed, and artists who use AI and other tools to position themselves strategically, while knowing their fans, are set to succeed.”
40K+ presaves → debut at #4 on Billboard Hot 100
15K TikTok videos using the track before release
SymphonyOS tracked fan engagement in real time to retarget new listeners in the future
Cross-genre fanbase growth through Bailey Zimmerman collaboration
This moment wasn’t about chasing virality but about engineering it, with AI as the secret weapon. SymphonyOS, which also powers campaigns for Tinashe, Uncle Waffles, James Blake, and many more, is changing how indie artists think about fan growth in 2025.