Us Becomes Vine's First Major Label Signing

After generating 18 million views and over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, folk-pop duo Us have found another venue to make their presence felt and to achieve success in the music industry with Vine. Due to the high popularity on the app, the band signed with Republic Records, thus breaking new ground for a platform that has mainly been associated with comedy performers.

Six month ago, the husband and wife duo have started to experiment on Vine by recording six-second covers (or #6SecondCovers) to their Vine account, @UsTheDuo, which had around 4,000 followers at that time. The cover versions increased the anticipation for their self-released debut album of original covers, No Matter Where You Are. With their relatively unique technique of filming only half their faces to focus on harmonies over looks, the couple also helped boost re-Vines. In mid-December, Vine star Jerome Jarre caught wind of their take on The Neighbourhood’s “Sweater Weather” and re-Vined the clip to his 4.9 million followers. Ever since then, the duo’s follower count began to skyrocket as they caught the attention of outlets like BuzzFeed and Business Insider. By late January, they had 1.5 million followers, and scored a Good Morning America appearance. Today, they have over 2.5 million followers — and, as of March 18, a record deal with Republic Records. The label has singed the band to a deal that will include a re-released version of No Matter Where You Are later this spring, including new mixes. Nate Albert, Republic’s senior VP A&R, says:

“There’s a universality to what they’re doing, and I don’t think there’s a glass ceiling to it. Their songs are like walking through the birth of their relationship, and it’s really rare that you see something that has that level of earnestness to it. These are songs that everybody can relate to, but there’s an elegance to how they do it.”

While acts like Justin Bieber (Island Def Jam) and Karmin (Epic Records) paved the way several years ago for artists that featured their music primarily on YouTube, Us has the potential to do the same for other musicians who may turn to Vine to break ground and leave behind the world’s leading video platform.