Recently, we wrote a post on why you’re not developing as a music producer, but being a producer and an artist involves different aspects and skills, so here’s why you may be developing as a producer, but not as an artist.
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. You need to step up your marketing game, otherwise, nothing really matters. The most exciting news without the right outlet and the right spot to be distributed could end up forgotten quickly, without getting attention. In fact, sometimes the artists we consider ‘the best artists’ are not the most ‘successful’ artists from a Streaming performance / Djing perspective because a lot of them don’t like the marketing side of music, and that is when you need to hire someone to help you out with this. Of course, first, you need to make sure that your music is top quality since a successful marketing campaign won’t be able to hold you up high without constant promotion and content. But, if you’re sure your songs are great but hate marketing, hire a PR Agency to help you distribute your music to multiple outlets in the industry. You might ask me if you need a manager, which we’ve talked about in this post, and the answer is yes only if he/she has experience with PR, which then having someone onboard can help you since it will cover something that you don’t want to do, or if you can’t handle / don’t want the work to find agencies and run a campaign.
2. You need a goal to guide you through your journey, otherwise, you’re just floating in space. If you don’t know where you want to go, how will you get there? Imagine you’re driving a car, but you don’t know where you want to go. Could you end up at a nice place? Yes, but likely you’re just wasting time or driving in circles, and it’s the same with music. For example, if you don’t have a strategy on how to make your next release more successful than your previous one and you’re just making music, it’s unlikely that your next release will be the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for. Therefore, start forming your artistic goal of what you want to achieve so then you can start pursuing it and define your purpose. Are you a hobbyist? Do you want to make music to release only? Or, do you want your songs to have millions of streams? Your strategies, pace, and involvement will change according to your answer, so you better know what it is.
3. You need to start networking with other artists to meet more people that could eventually benefit your artistry. Music is not only about doing your own thing and focusing only on yourself. All the major musicians have done collaborations and the main reason for that is because it expands their exposure to new audiences that they wouldn’t reach without it, something that would only be possible by meeting new people. In addition, until you have a manager, and maybe even if you have a manager, you’ll have to do it a lot of networking on your own. In fact, if you know how to network well, you’ll be able to identify if a prospective manager who is saying he’ll help you with PR/networking is legit or just another scam. Therefore, to start your networking, the best way to start meeting new artists is (1) at events that you go to, especially Miami Music Week or Amsterdam Dance Event since all artists are there and in the mindset of meeting people, or (2) online in forums like Discord or Facebook Groups. Be friendly and focused on helping others without expecting anything in return and this will help you tremendously because people will genuinely become interested in you as well and, in the end, want to help you back.
4. Start doing something unique that will help you draw attention to your music and you as an artist. How can you stand out from the crowd other than with your music? For example, Bound To Divide is a really good producer who is also a streamer on Youtube. Because of these streams, many discovered him and then started looking for his songs, which then made his numbers on streaming become a lot bigger. Or, you could be a really nerdy producer and be the best sound designer / audio engineer in your industry, and that could make big producers start working with you, which could also open doors to you as a producer, which is how ‘Getyoursnackon’ got known and started mixing Skrillex’ songs. In any case, the more you can do outside of only music to stand out, the easier you’ll make it on your artist profile to push your songs to a crowd. If you’re not into streaming production content, you can start doing live mixes on Youtube, like Chris Luno, who now has an average of 600-800k plays on his mixes, which can (1) open doors to gigs, (2) draw exposure to your music, (3) build you a loyal fan base for your songs, and eventually open your own label to capitalize on the audience that you’ve built and on your own releases.
5. You need to consistently release great songs. To build and grow your audience, you need to consistently be releasing new content to your audience to keep them entertained and wanting more of your content. That’s why, as mentioned before, doing something else other than music is helpful as it keeps putting new content in front of your audience. But, releasing constantly is all about producing more than you can release and, not only this, but consistently putting in the work to have multiple songs ready to go at all times of the year. Ideally, for every new release, you’ll have 3-5 songs already done waiting to be released so you’ll never run out of releases. At the same time, you don’t want to release new music too close to each other because too much promotion from you can go unnoticed, so, instead, schedule your releases with at least 3 weeks of distance from each other, but not more than 6 weeks apart as well. In addition, remember that you need to put good music out, as it’s better to not put an average song out just to fulfill our schedule since this can actually drive your audience away from you.
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
What else can you do to stand out from the crowd?
1. Organize a party: Vintage Culture was already a big artist before he started organizing events, but after making his events around the country, his career took off internationally.
2. Set up a Spotify playlist and make it huge: The bigger your playlist is, the bigger audience you can reach with a new release. Not only this, but other artists and labels will likely reach out to you, which you can then exchange for things that benefit you. Learn more about streaming services in this post.
3. Build a strong artist persona: I never liked Fisher’s tracks, but I started following him on Instagram, and that made me like him, which made me like his tracks. Having a strong personality can help you build a stronger connection with your audience, and that is important because having true fans is what sell shows and what can get you booked for gigs.
