Sing Along: Newsletters From Your Favourite Bands and Artists — The Weekend, Ed Sheeran, Metallica, Billie Eilish, and More

The Weeknd

Let’s start with the big one and see how’s it going for our most recognizable superstar, The Weeknd. The ‘Blinding Lights’ artist’s newsletter showcases recent news, track appearances, and tour dates when they happen and if they happen.

What we liked about it:

This minimal approach looks excellent on any device; maybe it could fit other artists if they try it. They didn’t overdo it and made it pretty recognizable and straight to the point. Though we think they could try out a few more updates per email.

Run The Jewels

Run The Jewels is a rap group, and what they offer here is quite thorough for established, albeit not worldwide famous, musicians.

What’s even better is that both artists appear down to earth: you’ll learn about something more than new merch and concert dates here. Personal thoughts and reflections sometimes require an intimate space rarely found on social media.

Aside from reading, you can check out some fan art and stay up-to-date on everything else going on with music: tours, releases, etc.

What we liked about it:

That personal feel is what makes this newsletter so tempting to read and keeps the fans excited. We also liked that simple but recognizable design. The newsletter is detailed, too, but not to the point of overdoing it.

Billie Eilish

This young star established herself quite quickly, which is why her brand looks stronger than ever. The design is sleek and extremely ‘selling’: it has everything needed in one place with quick links to the store, tickets, videos, the whole nine.

What we liked about it:

The feeling of a newsletter being a full package is hard to earn, but it’s truly magical when it happens. This one is a lovely visual bite for people to go back to ― if not for all the offers in the world, then at least for how appealing it looks.

Ed Sheeran

Though most of his newsletters look somewhat formal, this particular email includes a very casual message from both Ed and Sir Elton John himself! I guess you can still surprise your fans while being at the top.

What we liked about it:

Though it is very polished and ‘I’m the biggest music act of the last five years,’ this newsletter still feels surprisingly intimate. There are no secrets to that: it simply calls ‘Ed’ by his first name! It’s never too late to go back to the basics; sometimes, it can make you appear surprisingly humane.

Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa’s newsletter looks quite stylish at the first sight, but something is missing. I’d dare say, certain parts of it look somewhat unprofessional. Can you guess what I mean by looking at it?

It’s that font, yep. It creates the impression that this email was written last minute and the one who designed it didn’t care too much about the font choice. I can see more of this so-called carelessness in one of her other emails. Or is it just some personal feel she’s trying to create? Look at these suspended dots and no introduction whatsoever about what “Service95” actually is.

What we liked about it:

• Cute “signature” header. It looks like the actual signature of the artist.
• It’s always signed “Dua x”. This definitely makes her messages more personal.
• There’s not too much content. Actually, that pink font they’re using won’t allow more content anyway, unless you want that content to “scream” in your face each time you open her emails.

Metallica

Newsletters by Metallica are a pure personification of the legendary band: dark colors and tough-guy style. At the same time, they look very professional (compared to the Dua Lipa ones). The black background makes a great contrast with whatever the core product of their newsletter is, be it a new album or a limited edition of a new poster or… a gift box, like in their recent newsletter!

The announcement of their limited edition deluxe numbered box set of Metallica (Remastered) looks so incredibly cool on that black background, I’d even buy it myself, though I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Metallica.

They also like to use very specific emojis in their subject lines. When it’s more of a general newsletter, they’d use the high voltage emoji — ⚡— which reflects their logo and their style. When it’s about their Black Box (meaning TV) concert series, the TV emoji is there. It’s a great example of how a brand can use emojis that contribute to the meaning of their newsletter, not some general emojis.

What we liked about it:

• Emojis that fit the subject lines
• Good frequency: unlike others, they regularly send their emails. After I subscribed to most of the others on our list, I sometimes had to wait for weeks to get anything from them!
• Professional design that reflects the grandeur and the spirit of the band

Rihanna

Rihanna surprised me with the most minimalistic design of a welcome email ever. I thought I’d seen it all with Dua Lipa, but it seems not.

Just compare it with Twenty One Pilots welcome email. I actually planned to include them in this article too, but their email frequency leaves much to be desired: I only got 1 email from them in like 1 month.

Looking at Rihanna’s website where I subscribed to her newsletter, I expected something more exquisite:

But my expectations got way lower when I saw the confirmation email after subscribing.

What we liked about it:

Not much, to be honest.

Mac Miller

This one has a history. This newsletter represents the Mac Miller Estate, established after the tragic passing of Mac Miller in 2018. Since Mac’s parents started to operate it, everything around it has been very simple and non-intrusive — three years later, the tragedy is still fresh for many. The result is a non-regular message that rarely showcases more than one thing at a time. But really, sometimes the least amount of info can say volumes about you.

What we liked about it:

The newsletter is very lowkey and features only the essential stuff. It’s also an excellent example of the larger idea of how to treat one’s legacy. Its occasional frequency makes each message even more special.

Conclusion: the big contrast situation

After thoroughly going through all the abovementioned newsletters, my main point (and my biggest surprise) is that I expected way more from some of them. You’d think that the most beautiful newsletters come from the art (music, in this case) sphere. But it seems we live at the time when cool e-commerce brands can easily beat many world renowned music stars at least in terms of how their newsletters are made (design, selling approach, strategy).

While for many e-commerce brands email marketing is often one of the core promotion channels, it’s clear that it is not a priority for some artists/bands (like Rihanna, for instance). I can understand: most music brands still live mostly in social media. At the same time, some of them really manage to create a masterpiece newsletter that reflects their brand spirit on all possible levels (like Metallica). And we can learn so much from these, especially in terms of design.