Record executives are enamored with the loopy video service, which they view as part talent show, part viral distribution network. But how much is Vine stardom really worth?
Vine star-turned-major-label-recording-artist Shawn Mendes.
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As president of Island Records and a veteran A&R man, David Massey would like to think that he can find talent anywhere. His ears are open and his senses battle-tested. In some instances, he says he can tell whether an artist will have a career in music within two minutes of meeting them.
Thirty years ago, Massey might have found the Next Big Thing at an open-mic night in a dimly lit dive. Ten years ago, he and his team were crawling Myspace for signs of life. But these days it's thriving digital platforms like YouTube, Soundcloud, and, most recently, Vine — the Twitter-owned social network comprised solely of looping, six-second, user-generated video clips — that Massey looks to as a hotbed for gifted young performers.
"It's a viable way to glance at someone and see if there's magic," Massey told BuzzFeed News of the bite-size video service. "In that short window of time you can get a real sense of their intelligence, their sense of humor, their vocal talent."
Since its launch in January 2013, Vine, which now draws more than 100 million visitors per month, has often felt more like a hyperactive talent show than a social network. Unlike the gaping maw of its bigger cousin YouTube, where videos can stretch the length of a feature film, or even the comparatively generous Instagram Video, which allows for 15-second clips, Vine's unsparing six-second rule seems to have attracted a disproportionate number of exceptionally creative strivers.
In six seconds, an aspiring filmmaker may not be able to tell much of a linear story, but they can use slick editing skills to turn ordinary household chores into treacherous sorcery. In the hands of Vine's many devoted comedians, the service's abbreviated videos become mini-master classes in setup and punchline. When it comes to musicians, the brief runtime affords only the tiniest taste of a song, but it can be more than enough to spotlight a winsome personality, telegenic face, or sticky hook — all important prerequisites for any would-be superstar.
"Getting across your charisma does not take long — even a photograph can tell you a lot about a person," said Massey. "You take a combination of a few great little Vine ideas and a face-to-face meeting with someone, and then you know."
Earlier this year, Island Records signed Vine phenomenon Shawn Mendes, a 15-year-old singer and guitarist with a Clark Kent jawline and a cherubic grin. Mendes migrated to Vine in 2013 from YouTube, which was by then saturated with wide-eyed bedroom crooners dreaming of becoming the next Justin Bieber. On Vine, Mendes posted a video of himself playing guitar while singing the hook to Bieber's song "As Long As You Love Me" and received 10,000 likes overnight. He followed that up with covers of Bruno Mars and other pop singers, and, by this spring, when Island and Massey came calling, had already amassed over 2.5 million followers on the service. (He now has 3.1 million.)