Legacy Publishing uses Octav to distinguish established earners from catalog works with room to grow. We then use focused capital, industry relationships, platform access, and clearance support to build campaigns around scheduled events.
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.
Both campaigns used limited budgets. 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.
Both strategies gave new audiences a direct route into selected catalog works.
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 jumpSelect 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 jumpThe 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.
Octav identified Red Album cuts with room to grow.
Legacy Publishing helped bring an Aaliyah tribute to ESSENCE Festival.
We supported an Aaliyah-focused SOULECTION set on Apple Music 1.
We funded targeted social promotion around the set and tribute.
Fan accounts shared clips and carried the music beyond the festival.
“The result was not a larger spike for songs that were already popular. It was new listening across the album.”
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.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.
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.
We helped facilitate clearances for the songs and tracks used around the event.
Legacy Publishing created a live Pretty Ricky versus B2K fan watch party.
The official 29-song playlist gave listeners a route into the music.
Social and replay links kept sending audiences back to the catalog.
Octav compared listening before and after the event period.
“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.
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.
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.
These results show that Legacy Publishing can identify an opportunity, build the right campaign, and measure the effect on individual works. We can apply the same approach to future anniversaries, birthdays, reunions, artist pairings, live events, and other moments across the catalog.