Up-and-coming country singer is a marketing star
How Ashley Wineland built her audience, one live streaming at a time
HARK!
I hear an OLD young singer…
You've heard that corny phrase (often an attempted pickup line), You seem like an old soul…
Well, with an old–in terms of being around the music block–singer of just 24, that phrase fits like a pair of snug cowboy boots.
Speaking of which, country girl Ashley Wineland is almost always wearing cowgirl boots, plus a cowboy hat and Western outfit, when she "saddles up" for yet another Facebook Live…
We might as well rename Friday as "Ashlandday."
Today, if all goes well, she'll be doing her 5:30 p.m. (Arizona time; 8:30 on the East Coast) live show–a mini-concert, introducing songs, chatting with (unseen) fans, then belting out booming originals and sassy covers.
There might be a slight glitch, as she’s on the road in Nashville, and, according to her longtime publicist Kiki Plesha, “Friday she is performing for the KOA Summer Concert Series, so I'm not sure if she will be able to swing a broadcast or not. It all depends on the availability of WiFi.”
Usually, as when HARK Valley sat in for a behind-the-scenes look (click here to see and hear our Facebook live of her Facebook live) at what Wineland does, her streams blast out from an iPhone set up in a garage-turned-studio at her parents' north Glendale home, where she lives and was raised.
Wineland told HARK Valley she has been doing weekly streaming for six years.
She’s got a killer, sell-anything smile and All-American chic look, absolutely at ease on camera, whether pitching tequila and water brands or nailing her songs.
She started off her June 17 live by answering a few questions from HARK Valley, then shouted out to a Michigan radio station for an interview–followed by thanking fans for helping her hit 30,000 Spotify streams of her new single Cheater Cheater. Since then, that song’s views have surpassed 50,000–though it still has a long way to catch her Spotify plays of I’m Gonna Ride (172,450) and Daddy’s Creed (180,677).
The suburban home near North Phoenix is a few blocks away from Desert Valley High School, where Ashley was a bit of an oddball, blowing off gossipy hangouts to focus on making music–country, that is–as opposed to the punk rock and rap blaring from her classmates' phones and cars.
A decade into her career, she is an unsigned singer with a staggering following: going on 700,000 followers on her Facebook page and nearly 50,000 on Instagram.
A crucial part of her marketing strategy–and one any aspiring singer or band might want to consider–has been her grind-it-out schedule of Facebook lives, which she started as a teenager. An “old soul,” indeed.
While most often, the live streamings are just her, solo, here at her studio a few weeks ago, she was joined by her backing band, who came to town to get ready for a summer tour.
A few feet from the cozy tour bus parked in the driveway, Ashley was ready to go at the start time her fans know to jump on Facebook and watch…
Ashley's father scoots in and out, checking the wiring and electric connections. Seated in the back are her mother and two others–a 20-something guy in a ball cap and an older woman with a wipe-off board for cues.
But the cues are just an occasional thing, as Ashley knows how to wing it, mixing in promotions for a few sponsors.
She has a quirky charm and flirtatious smile, but when she gets down to singing, she's all business, often closing her striking, bright blue-green eyes as she loses herself in the emotion of songs.
Wineland played Cheater Cheater, I’m Gonna Ride, Drive Me to Drink and many of the songs listed on her website as “top plays”:
A big part of what she does–and other excellent lessons for up-and-comers: Set things up for a professional presentation, promote-promote-promote and then follow through.
Days before her Lives, Ashley pushes out reminders, such as this:
And don’t you just hate it when you click on a stream, and it’s glitchy or filled with silent moments or just…crappy?
Not so with Ashley Wineland, who every week will put on a kick-ass professional show that is fun, filled with different arrangements yet somehow intimate that pulls you into the room to feel you are part of the audience.
On her June 17 Facebook Live, Wineland had thousands of viewers, with 1,400 comments.
She doesn’t get them all, but takes the time to reply to many:
And it’s obvious these are personalized responded, not “canned”:
She also puts multiple stories, reels and video posts on her Facebook page every week, mirroring most of it on her Instagram page.
A Nov. 13, 2014 Glendale Star article noted, Ashley Wineland is putting her money where her mic is.
The Deer Valley High School sophomore and Glendale native is donating 100 percent of the digital sales of her song, “Red White and Blue,” to veterans’ charities and families of fallen soldiers…the video on YouTube has garnered almost 44,000 hits to date. Her Facebook page has almost 47,000 likes. She has nearly 30,000 followers on Twitter and 23,000 fans on reverbnation.com….
Oh, she is also enrolled in honors classes at DVHS and participates in band and DECA.
Not bad for a 15-year-old.”
A decade later, Wineland remains unsigned–despite a few nibbles. But she is doing just fine on her own, as evidenced by her almost bewildering stats; and, growing her road show month by month, she is showing she’s not just an “Internet phenomenon.’
Ashley Wineland is real.