Sydney Wiklund, Manager of Creator Partnerships at Genies, on Hyper-Serving Your Superfans

She launched avatars for Paris Hilton and Lay Bankz

Sydney is creator partnerships manager at Genies, a tech and marketing company that serves artists including Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton and Rihanna. Other partnerships include Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and the player associations of the NBA, NFL and MLB.

Prior to Genies, Sydney spearheaded label relations and partnerships at The Nations, an independent music curation network on YouTube. Earlier, she was an artist manager held posts at Buchwald and CAA.

Currently, Sydney is also an executive committee member on the City of Hope’s “Future of Hope” board. She also produces the Mycelium music festival.

We spent two minutes with Sydney to learn more about her background, her creative inspirations and recent work she’s admired.

Sydney, tell us …

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

I was born in New York and raised just north of Atlanta. I currently live in Venice, Calif.

Your earliest musical memory.

Going to NSYNC’s No Strings Attached tour with my mom. She was as big of a fan as I was.

Your favorite bands/musicians today.

Victoria Monét, Remi Wolf, HUGEL, Tyla

One of your favorite projects you’ve ever worked on. 

Helping to introduce Paris Hilton’s avatar and establish it as a piece of intellectual property. We helped her introduce it to fans on social media with the announcement of her avatar’s virtual performance at Decentraland’s inaugural Metaverse Festival. During the four-day virtual event, all other artists used pre-recorded video of their sets on a 2D screen. Paris, on the other hand, offered an immersive experience, since her avatar was there dancing in the 3D space with the rest of the audience (see here). After this, we helped create other social activations to build recognition for her avatar. This led to Paris’ digital fashion release where fans could acquire and rock a piece from her Y2K collection on their own Genie avatar.

A recent project you’re proud of.

Just launched Lay Bankz’s avatar. It has its own social accounts that will strategically cross over to her main channels. This is the start of a much larger plan. I believe it will set a precedent for how to properly build avatar IP.

One thing about how the music world is evolving that you’re excited about.

The creativity stemming from the importance of identifying and hyper-serving your superfans. Superfans spend 68 percent more money than average listeners and their social signaling and engagement can influence non-fans to become fans. So, besides the desire to give back to those who love you most, harnessing superfandom promotes longevity and success for artists in an era where attention is limited and choice is endless. In addition to special access or perks, superfans really want to interact with and impact an artist. I believe avatar and AI technology will continue to help address this need.

Someone else’s work, in music or beyond, that you admired lately.

Growing up as a dancer, I’ve been a huge fan of choreographer Parris Goebel. Her recent work for Doja Cat’s Coachella performance was *chef’s kiss*

A book, movie, TV show or podcast you recently found inspiring.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, which gives unique insight into human behavior through the lens of a psychotherapist. This book inspired me to look at my thoughts and habits differently and increased the amount of empathy I have for others. 

Your favorite fictional character.

Any character from the Harry Potter series. Except Dolores Umbridge—we hate her.

Someone worth following on social media.

@benmeer! He posts about systems that will optimize and brighten your life.

Your main strength as a marketer/creative.

Being able to put myself in the shoes of the artist or my audience.

Your biggest weakness.

Finding the free time to stay up to date on all the latest trends on a consistent basis!

Something people would find surprising about you.

I am a huge sci-fi and fantasy nerd. Love the Dune and Red Rising series. 

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in the music business.

One of my majors in college was psychology, so definitely something in that field—either research or therapy.