Halsey’s label gives in to new song release — without ‘fake’ viral marketing

Halsey’s new music will finally be shared with the world — with or without a viral TikTok moment.

The 27-year-old singer took to social media last week claiming their record label, Capitol Music Group, wouldn’t let them release new music unless there was a “fake viral moment.”

Capitol Music tweeted in support of Halsey, saying they will release their new single “So Good” next week.

“@halsey, we love you and are here to support you. We are committing to a release of ‘So Good’ on June 9, 2022,” Capitol wrote.

The label shared a written statement with the tweet, saying: “We are an artist first company that encourages open dialogue. We have nothing but a desire to help each one of our artists succeed, and hope that we can continue to have these critical conversations.”

Halsey celebrated on social media, tweeting, “I didn’t expect so much conversation about this record, all I know is that I wanted you guys to hear it and now you can. So Good, song on June 9th and video the next day.”

They also joked on Instagram that “if you have the internet you have probably heard that I’ve been trying to put this song out for a long time.”

Conversation spiked about the release of the new song when Halsey unintentionally gave Capitol a true viral moment when their TikTok about their desire to release the song blew up.

“Basically I have a song that I love and I wanna release ASAP but my record label won’t let me,” Halsey wrote on the TikTok.

“I’ve been in this industry for eight years and I’ve sold over 165 million records and my record company is saying I can’t release [the song] unless they can fake a viral moment on TikTok.”

The singer added on Twitter: “it’s not about making the tiktoks I already make tiktoks! They are saying if they don’t reach some imaginary goalpost of views or virality than they won’t give me a release date at all.”

“Everything is marketing,” they added on TikTok. 

Halsey shared a follow-up video that appeared to be the audio from a conversation about the dilemma.

The voice on the line can be heard explaining how the singer could release the song if they were “OK” with it. 

“I just hate this,” Halsey replied, to which the man responded, “Oh, I know — I hate it.”

Halsey wrote on TikTok that labels “are doing this to every artist these days.”

Several other musicians have opened up about pressure from their labels to create viral TikTok moments.

Charli XCX posted a TikTok in October joking about her label asking her “to make my 8th tiktok of the week.”

Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, posted a video of her singing a cappella with the caption: “The label are begging me for ‘low fi tik toks’ so here you go. pls send help.”

Ed Sheeran filmed himself eating out of a bag of chips and snarkily wrote over the video: “When you are supposed to be making promos for your song, but you just really want a snack and you decide that eating a snack can be promo for a song because everyone loves snacks.”

In a since-deleted video, artist FKA twigs wrote in a caption, “It’s true all record labels ask for are TikToks and I got told off today for not making enough effort.”

Adele told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in an interview posted in November that “the conversation of TikTok” came up a lot while she was recording her latest album “30.” The 34-year-old singer said that if everyone was making music for TikTok, “Who’s making the music for my generation?”