The Other Songs has landed its first number No.1 album with Ren’s Sick Boi.
The breakout artist's sophomore LP was driven to No.1 by direct-to-fan marketing and sales. Thanks to strong download sales, Sick Boi by Ren overtook Rick Astley for the top spot in the last 24 hours of the chart week.
Sick Boi debuted at the summit with sales of 18,654 (including 8,886 physical copies, 8,619 downloads and 1,148 sales-equivalent streams), according to the Official Charts Company. The Other Songs partnered with The Orchard and Proper Music on the release.
Sick Boi represents the first No.1 entry for both Ren and The Other Songs. The Other Songs also looks after Ren's publishing, which it offers alongside label, management and animation divisions
Sick Boi’s success marks a personal triumph over ill health for Bangor-born Ren Gill, who has battled an autoimmune disease nearly his whole life. Ren did most of the promotion for his latest album remotely from Canada, where he continues to undergo treatment.
With Ren boasting 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube, a million monthly listeners on Spotify, and 879,000 followers on TikTok, The Other Songs targeted fans in the build-up to release. During the pre-order period, Ren and the team secured almost 25,000 global pre-orders.
Ren connected with fans through Discord, Twitch and YouTube. His daily livestreams, coupled with the label team's direct-to-consumer marketing, buoyed the campaign and secured the chart victory.
Alastair Webber, co-founder of The Other Songs, said: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Ren is going to be one of the most important artists of our generation. His ability to tell stories is unparalleled to any artist trying to break through today. Please remember, Ren has released this album whilst on a drip in Canada, not able to do any live shows and not able to do any of the promotion artists usually do.
“I am incredibly proud of the whole team, who produced a totally unique, utterly remarkable marketing campaign from start to finish. Huge almighty shoutout to Harrison, Danny, Connor, Louis, Jacob, Sophia, Richard and Vince. Billy and I would like to dedicate The Other Songs’ first No.1 album to our late brother Nick, who inspires us every single day, and his wife Polly. As he would say, ‘What could possibly go right?’ Luckily, Ren did this time.”
The Other Songs is a London-based independent entertainment company co-founded in 2018 by brothers Alastair and Billy Webber (formerly of Island Records and Warner Records).
The Other Songs’ roster has garnered over two billion streams, including tracks from Super-Hi, Endor and Raffa FL.
The company has ventured into animation with Good Morning Kevin, an original animated series made for social media in collaboration with ex-Pixar animation director, Andrew Gordon.
Since 2018 it has also hosted live events for songwriters, with a sold-out show at the London Palladium in partnership with the Ivors Academy raising over £65,000 for the BRIT School this year.
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