The Inside Story of Early Rising: The Music Platform of the Future
Experience this story and others in the new issue of Highsnobiety Magazine, available from retailers around the world and our online store.
There’s enormous power in being a professional music curator; from the biblical flood of PR emails, only a trickle of artists will make it through. The process can be frustrating and even a bit unfair, but the joy in sharing a song that resonates with an entire world of fans is second to none. I experienced this firsthand when I served as Highsnobiety’s music editor, plugging this publication into every corner of the industry. I am particularly proud of the way that Highsnobiety continues to champion up-and-coming voices.
I have long moved on from my days as music editor, but the feelings that intensely rewarding work evoked is why I have such profound admiration for Early Rising, a music discovery platform dedicated to shining a light on the huge amount of great music from artists on the come-up. It’s something like the earliest days of Pitchfork, a site championing little-known bands with an egalitarian focus on sharing new artists. It’s a powerful feeling to give an emerging voice a platform — to champion their work before the Apples and Spotifys, before the magazine covers and fancy record deals. It’s why I believed in the music vertical I built and why I relate to Sam Morrison, the 26-year-old founder behind the platform. Similar to Pitchfork, Morrison doesn’t disclose how he picks musicians or the magic formula driving his curation. Instead, over Zoom, he is grateful and extremely humble. He doesn’t mansplain the music industry or brag about his particular position in it. You don’t have to be an elite tastemaker to be an Early Rising writer or editor; his DMs and e-mails are always open to pitches and he describes his beginnings as a “a war on gatekeepers.” But then he realized he became a gatekeeper himself, but “hopefully a nicer gatekeeper,” he says with a smile.
Since its founding, the team has grown to a robust 30-person operation. And with an empire of his own creation at such a young age, Morrison is still digesting how well he’s doing: “I have these little pinch-myself moments where I’m just like, ‘I can’t believe I get to do this and people are interested in what I do.’”
Morrison attributes his entrepreneurial spirit to his “super competitive” childhood. His father was a professional football player, and he grew up with four siblings in Virginia. Though Morrison describes an affinity for music at a very early age, he pursued sports like his father, going on to get a full-ride Division 1 football scholarship at the University of Arizona. He eventually joined his school’s acapella club while recuperating from an injury his junior year, and ultimately gave up sports. While immersed in the music program in college, he was almost immediately asked to manage various local artists.
“I need to get an artist on a blog,” he recalls as his first order of business as a music manager. “So I was reaching out to a bunch of blogs. I reached out to one called Lyrical Lemonade,” which would eventually be his first job in music. Lyrical Lemonade — the blog created by music video director Cole Bennett to document Chicago hip-hop that turned into a multimillion-dollar creative studio — contained all the seeds for Morrison’s future endeavors: He was not only offered a full-time job (his first!) but saw firsthand the power of press for a new artist. This was 2018, and there were still publications for emerging artists to dream about — Nylon, Rolling Stone, The Fader, Noisey — many of which barely exist now nor have staffs big enough to cover artists without connections, clout, or a hyper-loyal social following to drive clicks.
It was never about any of that for Morrison. “I just started writing for artists that I love. I was finding music and I was like, ‘I’m going to write the best pieces that I possibly can craft and create for these artists.’ And people started loving them… I honestly began tastemaking!” he says about his work at the time. Over 500 articles at Lyrical Lemonade later, Morrison launched Early Rising. The name, he says, was inspired by the infamous sports saying “the early bird gets the worm. You have to be an early riser to essentially succeed in life, or so hustle culture tells us,” he explains. “If you’re playing sports, you’re up early by 5 a.m.”
Since its launch, Early Rising’s success speaks for itself: Ethel Cain was first featured on one of its playlists; Dempsey Hope signed to RCA after being posted literally once; and Dora Jar’s first-ever LA show (thrown by Early Rising) catapulted her onto Billie Eilish’s Australian tour. Fana Hues, whom Morrison posted in 2020, went on to work with Tyler, the Creator. It also has the attention of executives, agents, and publications. Early Rising may only have a small following, but there are some important followers from high-profile publicists, A&R reps, and industry veterans. It’s one of our Editor-in-Chief’s favorite Instagram accounts, and it is reportedly studied in music business classes at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. In the same way that PR emails used to flood my inbox as an editor, Morrison sifts through piles of emails begging for coverage.
David Ecker, formerly of Spotify’s US Indie team, admits that Spotify uses Early Rising with their playlists. Over email Ecker tells Highsnobiety: “Sam isn’t merely a curator, he’s actively contributing to the success of the developing ecosystems he highlights on his site. He has a vested interest in the success of not only his featured artists, but the developing artist space as a whole.”
“Finding a band that is ‘yours’ is a feeling that sticks with you forever — Early Rising embodies that feeling,” says NYC-based singer-songwriter Diva Smith. “Being a part of the ER community makes me feel like I’m a part of something bigger, and makes me feel seen in ways that most other blogs and publications don’t.”
Morrison’s platform represents a new era in the music media: “Platforms like Early Rising, as well as Ones to Watch, The Luna Collective, Lyrical Lemonade, Before The Data, and Sheesh are essential for emerging artists right now,” explains Peter Quinn, a publicist at the LA-based 2b Entertainment. “In some ways, they almost feel like an evolution of the music blogs that defined music discovery in the aughts and early 2010s, giving under-the-radar or flat-out unknown acts an opportunity to receive meaningful exposure — and in some cases, even their first proper co-sign.”
“When an artist reaches out and says, ‘Sam, this is the first time anyone’s ever supported my music.’ That hits me deep,” explains Morrison about his impact on the industry. “When someone says, ‘Yo, I was going to give up. I didn’t think anyone liked my music. I was going to give up, but this article meant so much to me.’ I think success is… it’s serving [others].”
For the Summer issue of Highsnobiety Magazine, Early Rising and Highsnobiety curated a list of eight artists predicted to be at the forefront of music in 2025:
Hailey Knox
Age: 24. Hometown/Living Now: New York/Los Angeles.
Who is the best-dressed artist you know?
Tyler, the Creator.
What would be your dream fashion/clothing brand collaboration?
Loewe.
flowerovlove
Hometown/Living Now: London.
What’s a song that changed your life?
“Let It Happen” by Tame Impala.
Who is the best-dressed artist you know?
I actually think Rosalía has cool style and she’s always got the cutest shoes, so right now I’ll go with her.
Jensen McRae
Age: 25. Hometown/Living Now: Los Angeles.
Where do you see yourself (personally and professionally) on this exact day in 2025?
Professionally: Performing the last show of my global headline tour for my second album. It’s also the publication day for my debut novel, and I am flying out to a movie set because, surprise, the screenplay I wrote is being turned into a soon-to-be-cult classic film.
Personally: Physically healthy. Mostly happy. My loved ones are safe and healthy and thriving. My home library has expanded beyond my wildest dreams.
What’s a song that changed your life and how?
Most recently, “American Teenager” by Ethel Cain. I heard it for the first time in summer 2022 and proceeded to listen to it on a loop for an hour, sobbing the entire time. It was both completely fresh but also sounded like some lost deep cut from a playlist I would have made 10 years prior as a deeply sad and outcast high school sophomore. Her voice and her melodies… and her lyrics crack like a whip. When I make vaguely uptempo music, I want it to feel like this.
Dori Valentine
Age: 23. Hometown/Living Now: Amarillo, Texas.
Who is the best-dressed artist you know?
Dennis Rodman.
What would be your dream fashion/clothing brand collaboration?
I want to collaborate with Basketcase and Carhartt on merch. I also want to know where Heelys went.
Ellie Williams
Age: 21. Hometown/Living Now: Lawrence, Kansas/Los Angeles.
Where do you see yourself (personally and professionally) on this exact day in 2025?
On this exact day in 2025, I see myself touring the US, playing shows with my best friends and celebrating the release of my sophomore EP. I’ll be living with two of my best friends from college, who, by 2025, will become really cool with the idea of fostering a dog.
What would be your dream fashion/clothing brand collaboration?
Dickies and Doc Martens. I religiously wear my Dickies pants and Docs to every occasion, it’s a staple. It’d be awesome to add my own flare to their classics.
Dhruv
Hometown/Living Now: Singapore/Delhi.
Where do you see yourself (personally and professionally) on this exact day in 2025?
To be honest, thinking too far ahead freaks me out, but I hope I’ll have my first couple of albums out and that I’ll be touring the second one by this point.
What’s a song that changed your life and how?
“Wake Up Alone” by Amy Winehouse.
binki (Baraka Ongeri)
Age: 26 Hometown/Living Now: NYC
Where do you see yourself (personally and professionally) on this exact day in 2025?
I see myself still living in NYC. I have a washer and dryer in my house. I have a cat. I own property somewhere. I’m still making music, but I spend most of my time making movies. I’m also really into ceramics now.
What would be your dream fashion/clothing brand collaboration?
I’d say either Mowalola or Kiko Kostadinov.
Tiny Habits (Judah Mayowa, Maya Rae, and Cinya Khan)
Age: 20 and 21. Hometown/Living Now: Boston.
What’s a song that changed your life and how?
Judah: “Honest Light” by Ken Yates.
Maya: I would say a song that changed my life was “Happy & Sad” by Kacey Musgraves.
Cinya: “heavy focus” by Adrianne Lenker.
Who is the best-dressed artist you know?
Miss Gracie Abrams. She never misses.
