Everyone agrees that having a million followers on Instagram is impressive. Or even 30,000 likes on Facebook, like one LA-based band, 'Threatin'. Why are we impressed by that? Because it means a lot of different people care about the brand or what it stands for or who the person is.

Having a 1,000 followers on a given platform puts you above average; 10,000+ puts you in the controversial 'influencer' category, and anything with multiple tens of thousands of followers indicates a substantial online following.

And substantial following, demonstrably, means money.

While the likes themselves don't add up in our bank accounts – the eyeballs are an opportunity for product placement, and the product makes money. Products like books, or tickets, or tshirts. That's why YouTubers get book deals and go on tour, because they can sell books and tickets and why Kylie Jenner can sell enough make-up to build a billion-dollar empire.

Music and Social Media have gone perfectly hand-in-hand since the public loves seeing what the rock-n-roll lifestyle looks like on the inside, from the insiders' perspective – and in return, they hand over hundreds of millions of dollars a year for merch and concert tickets.

As Social Media reaches maturity, we're seeing the glamour and potential of what it could be wearing off – and starting to see it for what it really is.

Incredibly powerful and a gamechanger in many ways, yes. Perfect and utopian? Absolutely not. Social Media has been facing serious criticism in the last little while, including privacy concerns, but also on what legitimacy does the whole thing have, given bots and fake accounts and bots again.

As becoming a brand online has become integral to anyone whose income is dependent on having an audience, so have followers and likes and views become a commodity like no other.

Because the truth is that it's pretty easy to fake impressive numbers. If you have the time or money or are a bit clever, you can definitely 'hack' your way to impressive looking Instagram and Facebook profiles – and 'padding' audience numbers a little by those who have the know-how is not uncommon.

And while we're sure most people don't need to be told that fake Instagram followers don't buy concert tickets, it is nonetheless so delightful to see someone actually take that as far a possible. Which brings us to the story of LA metal band THREATIN, which did exactly that.

The excellent MetalSucks article goes to explore, that THREATIN has faked their entire online presence. Compare and contrast 38,000 likes on Facebook to 43 monthly Spotify listeners.

As far as we know, it's not so easy to fake Spotify listeners – but the Facebook likes were all seemingly bought, and there was even a Facebook event for Bristol with 100 confirmed attendees. Except for the teensy fact that all of the confirmed attendees were located in Brazil. Hmmm.

But that's not all. Here's a direct quote from the article: "It apparently all started to unravel when the band’s “agent” convinced the Underworld venue in Camden that Threatin had pre-sold 291 tickets to their gig on November 1st. It turned out three people showed up."

Not only had the Social Media following been faked, but the THREATIN camp also straight up lied about how many tickets had been sold. The article goes to list that this was not just the story in Camden, but the ticket sales numbers for every date on the UK tour were complete fiction.

Here's another quote from the article reporting on the Bristol show:

If you think this is a joke, the Asylum Venue in Birmingham has since issued this statement:

It was in Birmingham actually, were THREATIN went on to play to literally ZERO people "aside from their tour manager and a couple of guys from one of the support bands because they felt bad for this guy".

This photo shared by the Consequence of Sound shared was taken at the Manchester show, by a photographer who was literally the only one there:

The brutal cold irony is that in this attention economy, we are now talking about THREATIN; and not any of the other bands who did the right and honest thing.

Our gut is telling us that if THREATIN is able to ride this scandal so the band will ever be booked again, this could actually boost their career and not the other way around. The central question here is if the media hype can outweigh the deception and the scam that took place. 

When we went on to verify the numbers above, this exact tension revealed itself. THREATIN Facebook's page has been taken down, but the band is currently at 5,284 monthly Spotify listeners, up by more than 12,000% from the 43 it was before.

But is there a line to cross here? Buying fake followers, sure, that's one thing. What about faking an entire ecosystem, to get to go on tour in Europe? Well looks like Jared Threatin, seemingly the only member of THREATIN, did just that. 

Jared Threatin also faked live videos on YouTube (where he cut together crowds screaming with clips of himself with instruments), posed as the booking agent communicating the exaggerated ticket sales numbers from before, and set up many websites representing fake entities made up solely for the purpose of booking this tour.

These entities include:

• a fake booking agency with a roster of fake artists
• a fake record label, utilising the same roster of fake artists
  • including a Facebook page with 1,832 likes
• a press outlet that, and get this,
  • gave him a fake award "Top Rock Artist of the Year Award"

And while we can all agree this is completely despicable, it is also completely hilarious. Hilarious, and also such an interesting reflection of our time. Can someone really get away with this?

And while we definitely don't condone lies or unethical business strategies; the tour is happening and people are talking about it.

Another commentor points out
that all the effort clearly gone into this
deception could have been used to,
y'know, build an actual following. 

right.

Saying that, this LA based artist has now been covered in the BBC, NME, the Guardian and pretty much the entire music publication scene in the UK on his first international tour – which Jared himself is happy to point out on his Twitter account #guesswegotplayed

While we've all been fascinated by this saga, the most interesting question remains: how is what Jared did that different to what other brands (in music, or even media and politics) do to build themselves up?

Well, the answer to that of course, is if their following consists of hearts and minds – and not just bots.

Following of real people that really care.

Care enough to like and subscribe and buy tickets.

And listen.

guess joke's on us, huh
#marketing #psychology #socialmedia