Here's how I got product placed on T-Pain's Twitch Streams

Mike Dias

August 27, 2024

Here's the backstory on how I got 10 of our microphones placed on one of the hottest top channels on Twitch.

First of all — TPAIN is one of the funniest entertainers to master the platform. He's an absolute joy to watch. He's a true gamer and he understands his fans and the space much better than I do.

His channel is a mix of gaming, music and fan interaction. And his legendary intros are imitated and copied by us all. Boop Boop!

He certainly doesn't need my help to look or sound any better. He already dominates. But my mics do fit his brand and they do make his team's life easier on tour, in the studio, and during the streams.

It's always about relationships

The relationship actually started on the road. And it started with his sound engineer -- Grayson Barton of StarScream Studios. During a recent run in New Zealand and Australia, the artists wanted to capture some ideas and flows backstage and on the bus and Grayson made the recommendation.

Grayson knew that I delivered and that I was easy to work with and more importantly, that I held to my commitments. He also knew how the mics held up and how they performed through the work that we had done on a few previous projects with Casey Cooper — drummer and content creator for the hit YouTube channel COOP3RDRUMM3R. And that's the combo that opened the door. Solid product backed by stellar service.

Placements are based on trust

No one makes a recommendation at that level if there's a shred of doubt or any flag on the field. Had I failed any of the previous litmus tests, it never would have even come up. Truth is — I had no idea Grayson worked for Pain. He never mentioned it and I never asked. I simply excelled doing my job while he took care of business while Casey just dunked over and over and over again. And that's the thing. Each of us played our roles and performed our parts of the whole. And the results were fantastic each time. All pros in the room.

So when Grayson asked about the mics for the short run, it didn't matter that it was logistically impossible to pull off. And I didn't blink. I got it done anyways and made him look like the star that he is. And I didn't ask for anything or say boo about it. I was simply there to support and to serve. Just like he was for his artist. That's the game.

Placements happen when you solve problems

And when Pain started loving the look and sound of the mics backstage and in the greenrooms — he started thinking about his channel. Because that's the thing. They're just tools. They're only there to support. T-Pain's the focus. He's the talent. He's the channel. He's the one to watch — the mics are irrelevant. They're just window dressing like the chairs and the neons. They're just there to telegraph his level of commitment to the craft and to make his engineer's life easier.

And that's how I got the placement. Because I didn't make it bigger than what it was. Because I'm not a rookie and because this isn't my first rodeo. Because I took care of everybody along the way. Because I've done this hundreds of times before. And because I went into it knowing that those mics deliver and that they should be there. That's my job. That's what I'm paid for.

And that's the only way to approach placements. Everything else that you read is a gimmick or something that someone else is trying to sell you. There's no shortcut to the work.

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