Hello and welcome,
I'd like to be able to say it's easy to 'make it' in the music industry, and that it is all fun and rainbows, but I think that is quite obviously not true. There's no set way to 'make it' and everyone who works in the industry has a different story of how they got to where they were, some spent years at university studying and training to become event managers and business savvy, and others just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and spoke to the right person. Last week I attended the Swn industry mixer at the University of South Wales where they revealed some top tips for artists who are trying to make it in the industry, weather that be through DIY methods or by trying to find third party support such a manager, record label or publishing deal.
Over the two day conference hosted by the CMU (Complete Music Update) we
discovered how to make money from the fundamental areas of the industry such as live events, streaming, protecting your intellectual property and direct to fan relationships; and how the turn from 'just a musician' into a business, like artists such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran.
The above image is from one of the panel talks where some industry professionals shared what they saw as the key tips to creating momentum around an artist, some key tips included simple things that are often overlooked, for example Megan from BBC Horizons suggested the idea of having two separate social media accounts, one for private life and what you had for dinner and one that is full of professional photos and videos that are going to say to anyone looking to work with you: 'Look at me I am a professional and I am serious about this industry.' This can differ between different types of artists, take Andromedous from my last blog post (What's your Story?| Andromedous). If they were to post photos in their masks and gear and then had a random selfie while at the pub it breaks the persona that is key to the bands success and can influence how they are viewed in the industry. Compare this to a singer song writer such as Maisie Peters, her personality is a part of the music, the songs such as 'Favourite Ex' reflect her life and experiences and therefore her fans are more likely to want to invest their time in learning about her beyond the music.
Another area that I was inspired to develop and learn more about was 'Direct to Fan' (D2F) and how to develop these relationships. Without your fans your music will gain no traction, and without true fans no one will 'Buy a ticket, turn off Netflix, leave the house and come to the show', as said by Megan Lawrenson (Hotvox). Three main things to consider with D2F are: building a fan base, understanding your fan base, and selling to your fan base. As at the end of it, as an artist, you are the business and your music is the product that you can sell in multiple ways such as online, live shows and physical records. As an artist at a grassroots level myself, the key part for me is to build a fan base and to understand them, find out what they are looking for from me so that I can give it to them. To understand the fans i need to know who they are, this can be done by social media and Spotify analytics, but also on a more personal level such as mailing lists. The thought of a mailing list, especially to my generation, seems silly or mad as we barely use email anymore, however email is one thing that over the years has not changed in the professional industries. An emailing list allows you to beat the algorithm of social media and make sure that all your fans can hear the latest news and updates, but also not just your fans but businesses and companies that may also sign up, these are people who will be sat at their computers all day looking for that one email to pop out at them. So make that one email that stands out yours. Go to mailchimp.com to set up a mailing list, it's FREE!
My top 5 favourite tips from the SWN Industry Mixer:
1. Start an emailing list (you can sign up to mine at the bottom of this webpage *wink wink*)
2. Separate private accounts and professional, you don't want an industry professional to be reading the tweets you posted while having a mid week break down.
3. Sign up to PRS, MCPS and PPL, as this is easy money that you can be gaining simply from turning up to a gig and playing your own songs.
4. Don't say "Link in Bio" on social media posts as the algorithm will detect it and your post will become shadow banned.
5. Learn about your fans and ask them what they want from you? Create a meaningful relationship by posting regularly about what you're doing.
So...
What's your top tip for making in in the modern music industry?
Yorumlar