Mitski has scored another hit album in the UK and US.
The critically-acclaimed Nothing’s About To Happen To Me (Dead Oceans/Secretly Group) debuted at No.4 in the UK, matching her previous peak with 2023’s The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We. It is her third consecutive Top 10 album in the 2020s.
But while the chart positions for the US singer-songwriter’s last two albums were the same, Nothing’s About To Happen To Me opened with increased consumption of 13,832 (11,581 physical copies, 278 downloads, 1,973 sales-equivalent streams – Official Charts Company) – up 115.4% on The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We. It was Secretly Group’s biggest ever weekly physical sale and second-highest overall week one performance ever in the UK after Bon Iver’s 22, A Million in October 2016 (19,813 units in week one).
Nothing’s About To Happen To Me debuted at No.10 in the US with 43,000 chart units, based on 31,000 pure sales and around 12 million on-demand streams. It is Mitski’s second US Top 10 album.
The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We featured Top 10 hit My Love Mine All Mine, which peaked at No.8 in the UK (883,548 units to date). The viral TikTok track has 1.9 billion streams on Spotify, where Mitski has 23.2 million monthly listeners – the highest for any Secretly Group artist. What’s more, she has another billion-plus streaming track with Washing Machine Heart on almost 1.2 billion Spotify streams.
According to Music Week analysis, Mitski is Secretly Group’s most successful artist in the UK with four entries in the independent music company’s overall Top 10 biggest albums ever – Be The Cowboy (No.4, 140,983 units), Puberty 2 (No.6, 77,291 units), The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We (No.9, 46,820 units) and Laurel Hell (No.10, 45,514).
Following the All Points East headline slot in 2024, Mitski returns to the UK in May including a Royal Albert Hall date and as part of the line-up for BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland.
Here, Secretly Group’s Ali Murphy, international marketing director, and Maxie Gedge, project manager, discuss the latest album campaign and the ascent of Mitski…
Mitski more than doubled the opening week sales in the UK compared to the last album, what was behind that big increase?
AM: “We really entered this campaign with the wind at our backs with the success of the last album as well as the Top 10 single My Love Mine All Mine, so it felt like such a gift that Mitski came back with new music so soon. We made sure to put together a campaign that would aim to reach all those new fans as well as Mitski’s core audience here. In terms of Secretly Group’s overall results, it’s one of our highest performing chart weeks to date, and our biggest physical week overall”
MG: The UK is such an important market for Mitski – on the last cycle she came to the UK three times, so alongside the incredible success of My Love Mine All Mine, which activated many new fans, we know that there’s a longstanding connection to Mitski in the UK that runs deep. We built a relatively short timeline – five weeks from announcement to release – and our marketing team did an amazing job of keeping fans engaged, entertained and intrigued throughout.”
We made sure to put together a campaign that would aim to reach all those new fans as well as Mitski’s core audience here
Ali Murphy
How did you work with indie retail on the campaign, how did record stores help drive the success alongside your own D2C?
AM: “As always, indie retail was a huge part of our campaign for this record. We held fan-focused listening events a week before release where fans were given goodies and prompted to ‘scrapbook the songs’, reacting and making art in real time. Mitski’s fans really showed up and made some incredible pieces, it was so wholesome to see so many reactions online. We are also holding out-stores [concerts] with some key partners later in May which helped drive pre-orders.”
MG: “We also created a dynamic pricing structure with indie retail in mind. The packaging is super-ambitious but it was really important to us that fans could go into their local record shop and buy a beautiful record at a reasonable price – so we worked hard with Mitski’s team to make that happen.”
The album artwork and visuals are striking – how did that help in terms of the vinyl release and increased demand from fans?
MG: “The packaging really invited fans into the joyful and playful nature of this album – in collaboration with Mary Banas, Mitski created an experience for her fans; listening to the vinyl became an act of participation and a creative experience. The front cover of the album is a painting by Marc Burckhardt that Mitski commissioned of two cats ‘caught in the moment before’ – even that image itself is so rich with cues and the concepts surrounding this campaign.”
AM: “Mitski came to us with a fully formed world and character alongside this body of work. It was so immersive and we immediately had so many threads to pull at. One piece I’d like to highlight in terms of vinyl was the deluxe product available at D2C, the packaging included furniture you can make yourself in order to recreate the ‘Tansy House’ [the house the character lived in] and this really resonated with fans, we saw so much excitement around that variant and it sold out the quickest.”
Nothing’s About to Happen to Me cover artwork – painting by Marc Burckhardt
With the album concept about a reclusive woman, how did you work with Mitski on the marketing for the album, including collaborating with New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake as well as videos/photos of Mitski in character?
MG: “Mitski really gave us so much to work with. The cat lady; the inspirations of Grey Gardens and Shirley Jackson; the tansy cats, the fictional house! But also the connection to universal themes like isolation, neglect and emotional and physical baggage. The world that Mitski created is nuanced and vivid – we’ve had so much fun as a team running with that, and I think fans have too. Our creative team led by Robby Morris really nailed it, giving fans an entry point into that world. Lexie Alley has produced a lot of the visual content with Mitski and the eccentricity and abundance of it has really been a gift.”
AM: “Exactly, they did an amazing job across the campaign from the videos for the singles to recreating the Tansy House as an event in the Shed in New York, it was very cool to see fans fully immersed in the world. It also resulted in fan-led activations such as book clubs reading Shirley Jackson novels at the same cadence as the album release timeline!”
The world that Mitski created is nuanced and vivid – we’ve had so much fun as a team running with that, and I think fans have too
Maxie Gedge
The album did a substantial amount of streams in the opening week – ahead of some pop acts – how have you helped to establish Mitski on DSPs? How has My Love Mine All Mine, alongside new music, helped to push her past 20 million Spotify listeners?
MG: “Emily Puterbaugh and our streaming team work hard to collaborate in meaningful ways and to make sure that the successes we’re seeing at UK radio or on TikTok are reflected on DSPs and vice versa. We’ve had amazing support from partners who have played a significant part of Mitski’s growth over the years – on this album, as well as support via prominent playlist covers and global OOH billboards. We also did a Spotify Fans First variant for her top fans, and a partnership on the Tansy House event that Ali mentioned – there’s a performance video of Where’s My Phone? on her profile from that show. We also worked with Apple Music on a Mitski radio takeover, and have some big plans with Amazon coming up too.”
How significant is the Royal Albert Hall show in terms of Mitski’s live business in the UK? How did All Points East establish her as a major live act in the UK?
MG: “The Royal Albert Hall is going to be such a special show. On the last campaign she did three very different legs in the UK, and I feel like this one is going to combine all three. Her agent, Matt Pickering Copley [at Primary Talent International], has done such a great job in managing her contour of growth in the UK and to me the Royal Albert Hall feels like a bit of a celebration of that.
“Headlining All Points East felt like a statement and a community moment that rounded off the campaign for The Land… perfectly. Mitski has spoken about the latest album feeling like she’s hoarded her sonic background and put it on one record – I think fans are going to love experiencing the heavier edges of live Mitski again.”
AM: “Mitski’s also just been announced to play Radio 1 Big Weekend in Sunderland so we’ve got a lot more ahead of us in the UK!”
As a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter with global reach, where do you think Mitski can go from here?
MG: “I think she’ll continue to surprise – it will never be boring with Mitski and her work creates cultural moments and communities in a way that few artists can.”
AM: “The live shows that are coming up later in the year will continue to expand the world she’s created and, as fans, I’m excited to see what journey she takes us on next. Mitski is also slated to write the score for the musical adaptation of The Queen’s Gambit, which will no doubt be another pivotal moment in her expansive career.”
PHOTOS: Lexie Alley