How Slothrust boosted playlist placement and followers with Sonikit

When indie rock band Slothrust was gearing up to release their new album, they knew the typical pre-save campaign wouldn’t cut it. Instead, they leaned into the mystical themes of their lead single, Strange Astrology, creating an interactive website experience that brought fans directly into their world—powered end-to-end by Sonikit.

🌌 The Concept: An Astrological Pre-Save Journey

Together with their label Dangerbird Records and creative partner Wayward Creative, the team built a custom playlist generator that combined horoscope-style storytelling with mood-based music curation.

Here’s how it worked:

• Fans visited a custom microsite inspired by Strange Astrology's themes.

• They were prompted to select their zodiac sign and answer mood-based personality questions.

• Based on their answers, they were presented with:

  • A custom horoscope written by Slothrust

  • A personalized playlist that matched their sign and mood

  • A prompt to pre-save the new album to Spotify or Apple Music

Behind the scenes, Sonikit’s pre-save tools made the magic happen—capturing fan engagement, delivering analytics, and ensuring a seamless streaming integration.

🔧 How Sonikit Powered the Experience

This wasn’t just a flashy microsite. It was a deeply integrated music marketing campaign designed for fan acquisition, streaming optimization, and first-party data collection. Here’s how Sonikit played a key role:

1. Custom Pre-Save Embed, Fully On-Brand

Instead of linking out to a third-party landing page, the Sonikit pre-save component was embedded directly into the site, giving Wayward Creative and the Slothrust team total control over design and UX. This helped maintain a cohesive experience from start to finish and avoided losing traffic due to redirects.

2. Multi-Platform Streaming Support

Fans could pre-save the album to either Spotify or Apple Music—all within the interactive site. No friction. No drop-off. Just seamless streaming integration built to support real fan behavior.

3. Better Ad Retargeting & Funnel Tracking

By keeping everything on one domain, the team was able to maintain full control over ad tracking pixels and analytics tools. This allowed for precise retargeting of visitors, particularly those who started but didn’t complete the pre-save flow.

4. SMS Fan Collection for Future Messaging

Sonikit’s pre-save flow didn’t just collect streaming credentials—it also collected fan phone numbers for SMS messaging, giving the Slothrust team a direct line to fans for reminders, merch drops, and future promotions.

5. Detailed Fan Insights & Performance Analytics

Using Sonikit’s backend dashboard, the team was able to view:

• Pre-save conversion rates

• Fan location & device insights

• Streaming platform breakdowns

• Phone opt-in rates

These insights helped Dangerbird fine-tune their paid ad strategy and better understand the segments of the fanbase most engaged with the campaign.

🎯 Campaign Results

✅ A significant boost in pre-saves compared to previous album launches
✅ A high conversion rate among site visitors who completed the playlist experience
✅ Thousands of new SMS subscribers collected for ongoing fan engagement
✅ Rich analytics data that informed the team’s future messaging and tour planning

💡 Key Takeaways for Music Marketers

This campaign proves what’s possible when great creative meets smart technology:

• Don’t settle for generic pre-save links—custom experiences drive deeper fan engagement

• Integrate pre-save functionality directly into your site to control analytics and retain traffic

• Use first-party data collection (like SMS opt-ins) to future-proof your fan marketing

• Leverage tools like Sonikit to blend creativity with performance

🚀 Ready to Launch Your Own Interactive Campaign?

Whether you're an indie artist, record label, or creative studio, Sonikit can help you build immersive pre-save experiences that don’t just look great—but actually convert. Get started for free to explore what’s possible.