Artist Development 101
What is Artiste Development ?
Essentially it is everything you need to do to build, promote, and enhance your music career.
Today, when most labels consider signing a new act, they are looking for artists that already have a solid independent foundation, a story, and the songs and image necessary to make it to the top.
You may ask yourself .... How in the world are we going to accomplish all that with little or no money or connections? The answer is very hard work, and a little knowledge and expertise. It sure wouldn't hurt to have the advise and counsel of an Artist Development expert either. You must set your goals, lay down a good music marketing and promotion plan and follow it. In a sense, in today’s music industry environment, every artist has an equal chance of getting where they ought to be, as anyone else provided they have the songs, and image.
In the Nigerian music industry, structural issues are crippling business for Labels and Management firms. So instead of signing up new acts, they are downsizing on their numbers, some even have closed shop. And so very few have the fortune of professional Management or Label Backing . For an artist who is not involved with a manager or an artist management firm, producer, or label that actually has a budget for artist development (which is not likely) you have to stick to that independent route and develop yourself.
Developing Yourself
As an independent artist you must approach your music career as a business. After all, if you want to make a living at it, that's exactly what it is. The responsibility for developing yourself as an artist, and developing your records is on you.
A music artist must start somewhere, that’s usually locally, but it’s better to not just dive in without a plan. But begin you must. Create a plan with some ideas and set goals as to what you need to accomplish weekly, monthly, and yearly. Start small and make it progressive. Reach bench marks and keep at it.
Image is everything. Image is the complete package - artist name, look, performance, merchandise, and style, to how that brand is marketed. A stage name can be a descriptive statement of the image you project. Be unique and interesting to look at in some way....build your own unique persona for stage and public appearances.
You may be a truly great talent, but without getting out there and consistently marketing yourself, networking, meeting the right people, maintaining your image, and being humble, your talent will only get you so far.
Listen to various and the best of materials, especially the ones that have the sound the you want to sound like. Practice and practice and practice. Longevity in the music business means learning new things, constantly creating, and always improving.
Use the Net to your advantage. Properly use the tools of the Internet to build your online brand.
Create a web site. Buy your own artist name URL for your web site, keep it simple, easy to remember, make sure it loads quickly and is easy to navigate. Almost everyone lives on planet Facebook today, you could to use that and other networking websites to your advantage.
With the astronomical amount of competition out there in the Music Market, it is essential that your music, image, and marketing efforts rise above all the rest to even stand a chance. Trying to develop yourself and effectively implement all the strategies that are necessary to stand out from the crowd may be a difficult task. So it is advisable to seek the counsel of an Artiste Development expert.
Intending Artiste development professionals, Label execs, Managers should bear in mind; nearly everyone has the same opportunities available to them for massive global exposure. The difference maker has to be the right guidance to the right opportunities at the right times. A lot of the emerging artists are young and very talented but with no guidance. As we get older we learn the ropes but by then the window of opportunity may have passed.
Artist development comes through carefully evaluating the artist, his or her strong points and weak points and where the greatest opportunities for advancement in the industry may lie. Then the key is exposing that artist to the right people within the industry who can mold, shape and carefully develop the strong points, advance the weak points and prime the artist for the right exposure to the right people at the right times HL
" I'm not a business man i'm a business, man! let me handle my business damn!" Jay Z
0 comments:
Post a Comment