Today I want to talk a little bit about marketing. As a musician, you need to realize that marketing is single-handedly the most important thing that you will do. No matter whether we're talking about merch, whether we're talking about your music, whether we're talking about your name, image, and likeness, or your brand, or how you're pushing yourself out there in shorts and reels and TikToks and long-form content, the marketing is what is the most important thing to your music career. Because marketing is the totality of all those things brought into one to really focus that attention on pushing it to the fans, leveraging those fans to gain more fans, and turning your music project into something that is sustainable. So with you as a musician, I want you to take a step back. We do this all the time with our artists. It is something that managers try to go over as much as possible. We want to work on branding here.
So take a step back and look at your social media profile. Look at your Spotify profile. Look at your music in general. Do they match? Is that something in which the marketing... the branding is all of one? Is that something in which you can take a look at all of your profiles and say, they are the same person? I am pushing the same message, and I am giving this across in a way in which I want to. If so, perfect. Your branding is on point. But if not, you're just like most other musicians out there, and you are struggling to be able to look at your business, which is your music career, as an actual business. Instead, you're throwing content at a wall and seeing what sticks. It is something that I highly recommend that you do in the beginning stages. Find who you are, find your niche, and push yourself out there as much as humanly possible. But don't change your identity every 30 seconds. Make sure that you as a musician are honing in on that niche. That you are going out there and you are grabbing every single fan possible from that niche that is available to like your music. Understand that the demographic is just an extension of you. Your demographic, your fans, are not going to be that far off from what your thoughts are.
I have too many musicians who worry about the media that they put out, the short form content that they put out, is going to offend their fan base. If it offends their fan base, then it's probably offending them as a musician. They really need to understand that their music is not going to reach such a broad scale that they're going to have to worry about being cancelled, or they're going to have to worry about being pushed to the side, or they're going to have to worry about their topics hurting somebody's feelings and losing fans. Let's be honest, you have 1,000 fans to 20,000 fans. That's not that many people when you consider there's 350 million people walking around in the United States today. You need to worry about your demographic. The people who will like you, the people who will fall in love with you, and in turn fall in love with your music. So really focus on that brand. Focus on making sure that it shows the totality of you as a musician. It shows the art, the inspiring nature, and the goal in which you want to push, the message you want to get out to everybody. That is what the most important part of your branding is. It's not a pretty logo, it's not making sure all your videos look the same. It is making sure that you are driving home a point in which you want to drive home. If you are a pop musician, you are not going to be doing regular fishing videos, unless you are doing one every now and then for a laugh. For something that's funny, for entertainment value, for entertainment purpose only. You need to realize that that is a possibility. You do need to be doing stuff for entertainment purposes only, if that fits your brand. But yet, if you are a country musician, you may be able to talk to people. You may be able to resonate with fans on a level in which if you are out there fishing, and you are just speaking to them about your music, or your upcoming release, or your upcoming shows, that is something that they may watch. I've had many people put together simple videos of stuff that they enjoy doing. Fishing, cars, tech, all the way out to shopping. They put together short videos, they use those videos to push their music, they use those videos to push their name, image, and likeness out to potential fans through reels, through TikToks, through Vines, whatever you want to call them nowadays. They are in a sense the same exact thing. All they are short form content used to push out and gain and retain new fans. So, your main goal and your main purpose through all this is needing to know who you are, needing to make sure that your branding is on point through all your social media channels, and making sure that it is targeting your demographic. Don't reach for a wide swath when it comes to your fans. Home in on who your fans are, because if you can use a small demographic, if you can build up pods in regions, if you can target a certain type of people, you will grow your audience. Nike didn't truly become a national brand until Michael Jordan started wearing his shoes in the NBA and making a huge fuss about the coloration patterns and paying the fines and all that kind of stuff. Nike started off as a brand that was mostly worn in the Northwest. As a regional brand, those people fell in love with that product. Those people were proud of that product. It was something in which they could take and tell their friends about. As those people migrated all over the United States, which now we can do. Very, very easily through social media. But as those people migrated all over, they started to tell more and more people about this product called Nike. Nike started to build up its war chest in which it could go after somebody like Michael It is not something in which you and your music career need to focus on reaching a broad base of people. You need to go out there and you need to try to find who your fans are. You need to make sure that you are on brand for your demographic, meaning that you are on brand for yourself. And reach those fans by being true to who you are. By busting your butt and making sure that the work that you are putting in is genuine.
So in a conclusion, branding is one of the most important things to your music career. Branding is something that is going to separate you from everybody else. Look at branding as your name or your social security number or your EI number or the clothing that you wear every day. It needs to be something that is just as unique to you as one of those things are. So today I ask that you take the time, you step back, you make sure that your brand is aligned with you. Your brand is aligned with who you are and your brand is not trying to reach everybody. It is trying to reach your fans. Not everybody regardless is going to like your music, but your fans will. Not everybody is going to go out and like you as a human being, but your fans will. Not everybody is going to understand the day to day that you do but your fans will. Not only will they understand the day to day in which you do, they will love the day to day in which you do. They will want to know what you are doing on a regular basis. They will engage with your content. They will share your content and if we can get them to fall in love with you as a person, we can get them to fall in love with your content We can get them to fall in love with your content. We can get them to fall in love with your music and That is what we need to focus on There's your homework for the day Go out and do it
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