How Swedish Hard Rock Band Ghost Scored a Career-Best Smash Atop the Charts

So far in 2025, the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart has regularly been filled with some familiar faces: SZA, Lil Baby, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande. So this week’s chart — with Swedish hard rock band Ghost, as shadowy and mysterious as its name implies, coming in at No. 1 with its latest album Skeletá — may seem like an anomaly to most casual music fans in the U.S.

But it’s not a surprise to Ghost’s longtime fans, nor to its label, Loma Vista. And for those paying attention to the group’s growing lore over the years, it seems like it may have been a long time coming. Since first debuting on the Billboard 200 in 2013 with Infestissumam (No. 28), the group has steadily climbed up the chart with each subsequent full-length studio album: 2015’s Meliora (No. 8) was its first top 10, followed by 2018’s Prequelle (No. 3), 2022’s Impera (No. 2) and now, Skeletá’s chart-topping debut, which marked the group’s biggest sales, streaming and equivalent album unit mark in its career so far. And with that steady growth, not to mention the big album week, Loma Vista director of marketing Todd Netter is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.

Here, Netter breaks down the band’s growing fan base, the clever marketing tactics that went into Skeletá’s rollout and what this could mean for the band, and the hard rock genre, overall. “There are a ton of decisions, small and large, that go into a successful marketing campaign,” Netter explains. “A successful album marketing campaign really is a series of interconnected decisions, tied together by strategy, creativity and execution.”

This week, Ghost landed its first-ever No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Skeletá. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?

With Ghost, our goal is to always make creative decisions with clear intent at very pointed moments, like which songs to lead with and what the vehicle is for rolling those songs out and when; how to eventize the album announcement to generate maximum attention and enthusiasm amongst their large global fan base; and how to rev up that fan base going into release day. An example of such a decision was committing to creating “The Satanizer” — a first-of-its-kind music video experience for fans who wished to be “Satanized” — which was the title of Ghost’s first single, launched alongside the album announcement. “The Satanizer” morphed its users into characters featured in the song’s melodramatic music video. 

With a quick upload of their photo, “The Satanizer” sent out a personalized music video clip featuring the participant, who in turn could share via social media that they too had been “Satanized.” Strategically, it was a decision to create a moment at the launch of the campaign that personalized the experience of new Ghost music while simultaneously encouraging fans to create UGC on their socials. A powerful one-two punch that drew die-hard fans in while inviting other more casual music fans to pay attention. And, most important, it was a decision to have fun with this album campaign from its very launch.

This is the band’s fourth full-length top 10 album in the past decade, with each release achieving a higher position each time. What has gone into helping them build their career to get to this point?

We at Loma Vista fundamentally believe Ghost’s music and their vibrant fan community is for everyone. They have a sound and general appeal that draws people in. So we’ve made a very concerted effort at developing their passionate and creative fan community. It’s an immersive fan experience, rewarding for the most committed of fans and welcoming to the curious. An experience rich in storyline — we call it “lore” — chock full of creative content, loaded with call-to-action drivers for the fan base, and all culminating in real-world activity for the fans to attend, be it pop-up events, concerts — aka “rituals” — or feature film cinema screenings. It’s a fan-focused experience that is constantly evolving, mysterious, fun and always centered around the music of Ghost. And this has proven great for attracting more fans, be it by word-of-mouth, or simply by being a beacon to those who feel misunderstood but are proud of their creative and unconventional points of view in terms of music and culture. Focusing on Ghost’s fan community has allowed us to expand their audience size and the impact of the band, album over album, for the last decade.

The album also made a global impact, debuting at No. 1 not just in the U.S. and in Ghost’s native Sweden, but also in countries like Australia, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, and at No. 2 in the U.K. How did you set it up to make such a big debut worldwide?

It starts with our unwavering belief that Ghost’s music is universal. We’ve always seen our marketing campaigns for Ghost albums as worldwide endeavors. As a label, we have a global footprint with label marketing teams located in key cities across the globe including London, Berlin, Toronto, Mexico City, Sydney and Tokyo, allowing us to strategize, prep and execute globally. So any time we cook up an initiative or fan activation, we have teams positioned around the world to help us ensure the idea is executed properly in local territories, be that via social media, real-world events, or via hybrid experiences where we blend the two things. 

A great recent example of that in our Skeletá album campaign were the Midnight Sales and the complimentary online album countdown event that we staged to celebrate the release of the new album. I knew we had a global fan base, one that loves to dress up and participate with other fans. I also knew Ghost’s sound and aura can harken back to previous eras of rock’n’roll, and that the album’s release was heavily anticipated by the band’s passionate fan base. We created Skeletá-Eve Midnight Sales, a series of events at 150 independent record stores around the globe, where fans could gather, listen to the album together for the first time and purchase it the minute the clock struck midnight. And for fans not near one of these many stores, we created Skeletá Rockin Eve, a global live stream event where fans tuned in at midnight locally to count down together the release of Ghost’s new album and hear new music. Coordinated timing-wise, thematically complementary, and global in scope. An example of how our strategy and execution allow us to cultivate a global fan base and have a major impact with Ghost’s music around the world. 

Ghost has a very particular aesthetic and look. How did the marketing campaign for this album differ from prior releases, and from other acts on the label?

Ghost are the most unique-looking band in music. They stand out, and the way they look is an instant attention-grabber for any onlooker. But it’s not just sensational — their appearance has a very strong creative point of view and a sophisticated design intent. They challenge norms and push boundaries in terms of rock’n’roll presentation, and music fans gravitate toward that. 

That said, I’m not sure our approach on this album cycle differed so much as it evolved. Their photos, wardrobe, stage design and overall aesthetic continue to elevate, album over album, and so our marketing campaigns aim to match that elevation. We look at every visual facet of our marketing campaign, be it vinyl jacket materials, music videos, band photos, band store merch, social media platforms, magazine covers, out-of-home billboards, etc., as an opportunity to establish Ghost’s creative point of view, to leave a meaningful impression on their fans and the public in general. As the band’s growing popularity collides with loftier opportunities coming their way, it enhances our ability to enrich the band’s overall aesthetic, music presentation and visual world. Our marketing campaigns have always been heavily integrated with the band’s aesthetic, so it was an evolution on Skeletá, not a different approach. 

The album represented Ghost’s biggest sales week ever, but also its biggest streaming week ever. How did you balance each to get such a big debut?

The easiest explanation is the band’s audience grew a ton. Following a very successful IMPERA album campaign, viral TikTok moment for “Mary On A Cross,” and a No. 1 feature film, Rite Here Rite Now, the band simply had a lot more fans. That said, the Ghost fan base is not a monolith, nor is the music consumption landscape these days. I knew we needed a comprehensive plan to tackle all the different ways people listen and consume music these days, to best understand what motivates people to listen and how they choose to do so. 

We had specific marketing plans for each streaming service, with specific platform targets and goals so that we could best position the band and their music. We took a similar approach with physical formats, creating 30 vinyl formats worldwide, as well as multiple CD and cassette formats, working with specific retailers from independent record stores to big box stores to boutique online retailers. The final component was creating a really rich and rewarding experience on the band’s webstore, offering special formats and early access to drive home the connection between the band and their fans. The music consumption landscape is fractured these days. We understood we’d never be able to funnel fans to one place, so instead we dug in and really catered to every platform and retailer’s strengths and customer base, to reach Ghost fans where they were. 

This is also the first time in four years that a hard rock album has reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, since AC/DC’s Power Up in 2020. What is the significance of that for the genre, and what can you take away from that?

I’m a little hesitant to wax poetic about knowing exactly what Ghost’s accomplishment can mean for a whole genre of music. Nor do I think of Ghost as simply a rock band. I do think their music, presentation and overall appeal transcend genre — they’re simply Ghost in my mind. But so far as I can offer a little professional and personal insight into what this means for hard rock, it never hurts when a band achieves something big like this for other bands in their genre. It shines a light on a sound and puts the genre in the zeitgeist alongside arguably more popular genres and artists. The spotlight should open doors for other bands and labels looking for opportunities, as it’s “proof,” in an industry validation sort of way, that the sound and genre have some cultural cachet. 

I think with real people, average music fans and listeners, genres are becoming less and less important. Most people’s tastes bounce all over the place and artists are constantly crossing genres and audiences. More anecdotally speaking, and where my optimistic side takes over, maybe Ghost hitting No. 1 on the album charts inspires some young kids to pick up a guitar or learn to play the drums, instead of opening up a laptop, and a whole new generation of bands are formed.

This is Loma Vista’s first-ever No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. What does that mean for the label?

It’s terrific! We made a promise to our roster of artists that we’d match their vision and aspirations for their music and their careers. And this might sound cliche, but this team of people wakes up every morning with that artist commitment front of mind. None of us are personally motivated by accolades or awards. Instead, Ghost debuting at No. 1 drives home what we believe as a label: that with great music, strong creative vision, a commitment to collaboration, hard work, and an unwavering belief that anything is possible, special things will happen. A No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 reinforces that we’re right about the philosophy we take when signing and working with artists. And if I’m honest, it’s also just a really fun week for a record label when one of their artists goes No. 1.