Dance label Spinnin’ Records, part of Warner Music Group since 2017, has used its growing YouTube audience to push their leap into YouTube Shorts even more.
To mark the fact that it has passed 30m subscribers on its official YouTube channel, the label has created the Infinity animated series exclusively for Shorts.
The series features major Spinnin’ acts (such as KSHMR, Timmy Trumpet and Gabry Ponte) as well as emerging acts on the label (such as Lucas & Steve and LUM!X). It has a sci-fi theme and was created by anime artist David Bradshaw.
Looking like a revival of 1980s TV series Battle Of The Planets, the “plot”, such as it is, sees a collection of Spinnin’ acts in a spaceship but they have been attacked by aliens and have to defeat them.
It is heavy on the Spinning’ branding, with the characters having a giant “S” on the back of their uniforms and the “S” appearing again on their smartwatches and even in the background as screensavers on their computers.
Across the six episodes, they do battle and are put in grave danger but, inevitably, they emerge triumphant.
As a narrative, it’s hard to tell how exactly it all holds together, but that is arguably not the point. It is about branding and setting out a particular visual and sonic feel for the label in how it teases new music and cross-promotes artists.
The label has been posting on Shorts since 2021 and posted sporadically through that year, but it appears to have significantly upped its activity on the platform last year and this year. Infinity is just one part of its wider strategy here. It is now at the point where it is posting Shorts most days, with videos getting views in the tens of thousands.
Clips include a mix of performances, behind the scenes on promo videos, acts working in the studio and other viral-friendly content (men in swimming trunks near huge puddles urging cars to splash them, toddlers falling over, kids dancing at school discos, BMX tricks etc.).
It is all quite eclectic and seems to be a rolling experiment to find the type of content that connects most with audiences – so the Infinity series probably needs to be best understood within this context.
