Last year, Adult Swim had a solid lineup for their annual singles series, where an artist releases a new single every week for 19 weeks. Everyone from Shabbazz Palaces to Big Grams to Skrillex were involved, providing Cartoon Network’s young adult late night viewers with some quality music.
This year, they once again did not disappoint.
From Wednesday May 25th, tune in for a round of free downloads from a variety of amazing artists including (but not limited to) Against Me!,Vince Staples, Rae Sremmurd, Die Antwoord, Mike-Will Made It, Metro Boomin‘ and Earl Sweatshirt, as well as Flying Lotus and Run The Jewels, who both participated last year too. As well as being available online, Cartoon Network will, along with promoting each track via the old fashioned TV ad, also play them on air.
Cartoon Network’s Creative Director Jason Demarco spoke to Fast Company’s Co-Create about the process of creating their yearly lineup and why they continue to do it.
“It’s always a balance, because you want to balance it out with a few recognizable names, because people will talk about those names more, and they’ll drive interest in the overall program. They’ll say, ‘Oh man, there’s a new Against Me! track from Adult Swim. Oh, it’s part of a single program that they’re doing!’ So in a way, it’s using not just the television and what we bring to the table, but it’s using the artists with higher profiles to draw attention to other artists who don’t have as much clout,” he said.
He mentioned that, “The reaction from Adult Swim fans has been so positive, and all the music press has been so great,” so they “would have been stupid not to [continue the tradition].” Thus, here they are running for the sixth year since 2010. “Selfishly, I enjoy exposing audiences to music that might be new to them,” he said, sneaking in the personal value it has for him.
Blanck Mass
Clark
D∆WN
DJ Paypal
Earl Sweatshirt/KNX
Elysia Crampton
Flying Lotus
HEALTH
Jenny Hval
Jlin
Kitty
Metro Boomin’
Mica Levi
Mike-Will Made It
Protomartyr
Rae Sremmurd
Run the Jewels
Ryan Hemsworth
Sannhet
Thelonius Martin ft. Joey Purp
Tim Hecker
VHÖL
Vince Staples