Features November 3, 2020

How Harrison Storm crossed borders during the pandemic

Senior Journalist, B2B

Harrison Storm has a name that lifts the spirits of headline writers.

While his career so far can’t be writ as a force of nature, it’s certainly brewing. And its impact can be felt on the other side of the globe.

In a connected, digital world, the Melbourne singer-songwriter is crossing borders. Outside of his homeland, Storm can point to Canada as his launch pad into the Americas and beyond.

His 2015 release ‘Sense of Home’ was recently certified Gold in Canada (40,000 units), where he’s signed to Nettwerk Music Group, the diversified, independent company which includes music publishing and artist management activities and the territory’s biggest independent record label.

A slow burner, ‘Sense of Home’ has amassed 70 million-plus plays on Spotify.

Stream Harrison Storm’s ‘Sense of Home’:

The love has spread for Harrison’s earthy folk follow-ups.

‘Change It All’ from 2017 has blasted to 40 million plays on Spotify, and a third, ‘Feeling You’ from 2018, has raced past 17 million spins on the platform.

Total spins of his music across all platforms are past 200 million streams.

Harrison’s story — like all the good ones — is about planning, players, and critical turning points.

Independent in spirit and international in ambition, the Mornington Peninsula native and his team drew up a digital strategy when the pandemic closed borders.

Watch Harrison Storm’s ‘Sea And Fire’:

Canada, a Top 10 market, according to the IFPI, has been a major market for Harrison and part of his wider strategy for a number of years.

A large portion of his fans are in North America, a fact identified through the data analytics from both streaming and social media platforms.

A concerted push was made.

“We needed to identify a way for Harrison to communicate in a meaningful way with his overseas fans,” says a rep.

With touring called off, Storm’s team went about building on the artist’s past streaming success. “We had the objective in 2020 to put out 6-8 releases. This was to optimise the engagement with DSP algorithms and also maintain the conversation with both fans and the media,” the rep says.

Among them was ‘Breathe Again’, written and recorded in the U.K. with producers Nick Atkinson and Edd Holloway (Lewis Capaldi’s Top 10 hit ‘Grace’).

In support of those releases, Storm got on board a live streaming tour in July via online platform Veeps.com, co-founded by Good Charlotte’s Joel and Benji Madden.

Watch Harrison Storm’s ‘Run’:

These shows were scheduled particularly for various timezones. For Canada, performances were slotted in for both east and west coast, and Nettwerk’s team on the ground promoted Storm’s music to local DSPs and media.

“Due to the importance of Canada as a market,” a rep explains, “it was important to allocate adequate marketing spend to assist in promoting releases and assets online to this market.”

Storm works closely with Sydney-based digital agency and label services company Comes With Fries.

Syncs have lifted his music into the mainstream. Storm’s latest release ‘Sea and Fire’ has been played on MTV’s 16 & Pregnant (episode 602) and his release ‘Be Slow’ was used in ITV2’s Love Island: What Happened Next (S1 E1). His debut appeared on Degrassi: Next Class back in 2016.

Terry McBride

Nettwerk co-founder Terry McBride has a long association with Australian acts, having worked with the likes of Xavier Rudd, Angus & Julia Stone, John Butler Trio, Boy & Bear, Hermitude, Japanese Wallpaper, Jack River, Mallrat and others.

McBride signed Storm after sending him a message on Facebook. “Canadians and Australians share a love of singer songwriter roots music, and I was certain the warmth and sincerity of ‘Sense of Home’ would resonate well beyond Australia as it did with me here in Vancouver when I first listened to it,” McBride tells TIO.

This Storm is only getting started.

He’ll embark on a headline tour of Australia next year, with dates in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane set for April 2021.