We recently connected with Tyler Melton and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tyler thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

I’ve always been a part of music, whether its been in a band personally during my middle school/high school/college years, or now since I am a vinyl record & music influencer. Even that awkward period in between where my “life was getting started” after college, I was searching for a way to get closer to music.

TikTok and Instagram had always been an interesting tool I admired from a far, until about 2 years ago when I posted my first vinyl record video on my personal account. Nobody saw it…but that put me in the mix with the algorithm to come across some other Vinyl Record accounts on TikTok that got me inspired.

That is when @tyler.fortherecord was born. I started full force on TikTok in December of 2022 posting music and record content, which going back and looking at just 2 quick years later is quite cringy. I quickly learned what viewers LIKED and what they DIDN’T like or care about on the app and I think that was the key to my success early on.

Within 10 months I had grown to 25,000+ followers on TikTok, started making money off my content with brand deals, views, commissions, you name it. That was all exciting for me because I have a business background, so I leaned into it.

After a year of only using TikTok, I decided to expand over to Instagram. I was able to take the tools of editing videos, having a concise concept for my videos, and brand deals with me and fully lean into the app to grow at a similar pace to what I did on TikTok.

With any social media account, or business, they’re will be ups and downs. I’ve learned to push through the downs and lean into the ups even harder. It always pays off if you’re consistent and always committed to improving.

Tyler, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a music enthusiast at heart. Always have been and always will. My musical taste is all over the place, and to some that’s hard to imagine. I feel my purpose is to invite fans of one genre into a world where there’s plenty of other music to enjoy.

As a vinyl record and music influencer, my “job” is to first and foremost post about music and audio equipment I love. I say “job” in quotes because I’m doing this out of pure passion for creating content, editing videos, and talking with all my followers/mutual vinyl record friends, but at the same time I am able to make money with what I do.

I often promote products on my page that I use every day, but also promote products I don’t use. I will always be transparent to anyone who asks if I truly recommend a product, or if I use it personally or not. I feel it’s my job to bring folks options on how to curate a space THEY love, not just MY personal favorites. Everyone is different and they deserve to lean into what they love.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I love this question, because I am ALWAYS willing to help someone who aspires to be an influencer. I have a few “rules” (more like guidelines) that I follow myself, and suggest others to follow, but the main thing to note is: What works for me may not work for you.

My main rules are: Find what’s special about your content and lean into that. Your content should try as much as possible to be unique if you want to grow (unique as in unlike others in the niche). Make videos for people who are NOT following you, not people who are. Always try and make your videos with gaining new followers on your mind. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already taught someone something. The NEW people haven’t learned it yet, so do it again! Last but not least, less is more. People on these apps skip videos QUICKLY if they are disinterested, so it’s up to you to hook them in the beginning, and not waste their time throughout the video.

Tools: I pride myself, and am INTERESTED in having well-edited videos that are concise, to the point, and don’t waste the viewers time, while still remaining interesting to watch. This heavily relies on my ability to edit my videos, but that skill takes time. If you watch a video of mine from 2 years ago and a video I posted today it’ll be night and day in regards to the quality, editing skill, scripting, everything involved. That takes time to work on. Often people get discouraged and say “I can’t do it the way you do it” or “I have no idea how to edit videos”, but you absolutely aren’t going to learn by telling yourself you can’t do it. Just do it and focus on improving over every single video you edit and post.

The short and sweet of it is: Start posting NOW and improve SOMETHING with every video you make. Invest time in creating better quality videos, and the viewers will come.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A lot of my early success on social media was fueled by “How to:” videos. “How to sleeve a record” or “How to take care of your collection” etc. but a lot of it got repetitive to my viewers who currently followed me, and especially repetitive to other creators who I had been friends or mutuals with for a long time. I loved making those videos, and kept making them because (if you read earlier) I make my videos to attract new followers and not just simply for those who are already following me. Plus those videos were successful, and if I’ve learned anything as a creator it’s that you always lean into something that works.

Well I continued on my course gaining followers with my “How to” content, and it was met with a lot of nasty comments from creators I truly admired and even creators who inspired me to start my accounts to begin with. Did it phase me? Nope.

I knew that the creators and viewers who get it, get it. And the ones who can’t see what I’m trying to do here and grow my social media into a business are the ones who would create that narrative.

A lot of people write nasty things to try and discourage creators who put a lot of hard work into creating content, videos, and also a lot of time communicating with their communities like myself. Unfortunately, that gets to some people and discourages them, or makes them second guess their choices. It’s important to stay YOUR course, and just know if something is working then not to worry about what others think or say.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tyler.fortherecord/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564046305914
• Other: TikTok:
  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564046305914

Image Credits

All credit of images go to myself, Tyler Melton.