How Legacy Publishing Uses Cultural Events to Grow Catalog Consumption
Legacy Publishing uses its relationships, capital, platform access, clearance support, and data to create new campaign opportunities around selected catalog titles. Octav helps us identify works with room to grow and measure listening before and after each campaign.
July gave us two opportunities to grow consumption: Pretty Ricky’s VERZUZ appearance and the 25th anniversary of Aaliyah’s self-titled album. Each opportunity required a different strategy. Both were designed to reintroduce selected works to new audiences and move listeners into the catalog.
For Pretty Ricky, we supported clearances, live fan engagement, and playlisting around VERZUZ. For Aaliyah, we built anniversary programming with ESSENCE and SOULECTION and supported it with targeted promotion. The largest song-level jumps appeared within the first month.
01
Two opportunities to grow consumption. Two different strategies.
Both strategies gave new audiences a direct route into selected catalog works.
Case one · Pretty Ricky
Clearances, live fan engagement, and playlisting
Support the VERZUZ partnership, help clear the works, bring fans together live, and use playlists and replay links to move audiences from event hype into the catalog.
501%largest Pretty Ricky SoundCloud jumpCase two · Aaliyah
Curation and cultural programming
Select overlooked album cuts, place them inside anniversary programming with ESSENCE and SOULECTION, support the work with promotion, and measure the response.
54%largest Aaliyah Spotify jump
03 · Case two · Aaliyah
We used a cultural moment to move listeners deeper into the catalog.
The 25th anniversary of Aaliyah’s self-titled album created a reason to return to the music. Octav showed that several Red Album cuts had more room to grow than the flagship songs that already attract large audiences.
01
Select
Octav identified Red Album cuts with room to grow.
02
Festival
Legacy Publishing helped bring an Aaliyah tribute to ESSENCE Festival.
03
Program
We supported an Aaliyah-focused SOULECTION set on Apple Music 1.
04
Promote
We funded targeted social promotion around the set and tribute.
05
Extend
Fan accounts shared clips and carried the music beyond the festival.
One in a Million, ForeverThe ESSENCE Festival tribute put Aaliyah’s catalog in front of a major festival audience.Captured July 28, 2026 · ESSENCE Festival ↗
Sahar Habibi on Apple Music 1Sahar Habibi framed the set around Aaliyah’s classics, deep cuts, and unreleased music.Captured July 28, 2026 · Apple Music · Episode 737 ↗
Fans received a direct route to the setThe announcement connected the Aaliyah tribute, SOULECTION, Apple Music, and Legacy Publishing.Captured July 28, 2026 · Apple Music · Episode 737 ↗
“The result was not a larger spike for songs that were already popular. It was new listening across the album.”
Aaliyah · Listening results
Five Red Album cuts grew between 43% and 54%.
The fastest-moving songs were lower-volume album cuts. “Read Between the Lines” rose 54%, “I Can Be” rose 53%, and three more cuts rose between 43% and 47%. All 14 Red Album tracks increased. The movement was concentrated in songs that had previously received less attention, not in Aaliyah’s established flagship titles.
Matched nine-day windows before and after the ESSENCE Festival period.
Read Between the Lines · Spotify
54%
I Can Be · Spotify
53%
Never No More · Spotify
47%
U Got Nerve · Spotify
44%
Extra Smooth · Spotify
43%
14 of 14Red Album tracks increased on Spotify
6.3Mlisteners first discovered Aaliyah through the Red Album, according to SpotifySpotify anniversary post ↗
Pretty Ricky and Aaliyah used different routes, but both produced the result we were testing for: listeners moved from a cultural moment into specific catalog works with room to grow.
02 · Case one · Pretty Ricky
Our Pretty Ricky works jumped after VERZUZ.
VERZUZ created the first scheduled opportunity. Legacy Publishing supported the event partnership with Complex, facilitated clearances, created live fan engagement, and used playlists and replay links to funnel audiences from the event back into our owned Pretty Ricky works.
01
Clear
We helped facilitate clearances for the songs and tracks used around the event.
02
Engage
Legacy Publishing created a live Pretty Ricky versus B2K fan watch party.
03
Playlist
The official 29-song playlist gave listeners a route into the music.
04
Funnel
Social and replay links kept sending audiences back to the catalog.
05
Measure
Octav compared listening before and after the event period.
A clear result for fans to shareThe win graphic kept Pretty Ricky’s songs in the conversation after the battle.Captured July 28, 2026 · Complex ↗
Legacy hosted a live watch partyThe event gave fans a place to watch, react, and discuss the catalog together.Captured July 28, 2026 · Legacy Publishing ↗
A 29-song official playlistApple Music gave listeners a direct route back into both catalogs.Captured July 28, 2026 · Apple Music ↗
Pretty Ricky · Catalog listening
Four owned Pretty Ricky works more than doubled on Spotify.
“Stay,” “Go Getter,” “Chevy,” and “Leave It All Up to You” each grew by more than 100%. Across the 13 tracks reviewed, Spotify added 468,317 streams.
Recent 30 days compared with the prior 30 days. These are rolling periods, not a controlled event study.
VERZUZ created the hype. Legacy Publishing helped convert it into catalog activity by facilitating clearances, bringing fans together live, and keeping the owned works one click away through playlists and replay links.
The second case used a different route: the 25th anniversary of Aaliyah’s self-titled album became a platform for focused cultural programming around overlooked songs.
04 · How we repeat the work
Octav is the command center.
Octav turns individual campaigns into a repeatable process. It shows which songs earn today, which songs have unused potential, and what changes after marketing spend.
01See current earnings
02Find songs with potential
03Study listening patterns
04Select campaign partners
05Set marketing budgets
06Compare results and adjust
OCTAVCOMMAND CENTERSee → select → spend → learn
Before the work, the team studies listening by song, platform, place, and period. This information helps us select songs, partners, and marketing budgets.
After the work, Octav compares listening before and after. This shows which songs moved, which channels worked, and where to focus next.
The strategy changes with each catalog. The goal remains the same: help more songs reach listeners and create more earning titles across the catalog.