MUSIC ARTISTE BRANDING AND MANAGEMENT
By ‘Seun Adeogun


The Music and Entertainment industry is a multimillion dollars industry. This industry has engaged millions of young and old people across the world. The industry is one of the few that surmounted the eloping global economic crunch. Apart from the sports and movie segments of the entertainment industry, the music segment is one force that is fast producing thousands of gifted celebrities across the globe.

As witnessed in most part of underdeveloped African nations today, the music entertainment industry has engaged majority of unemployed youths. it has made majority of once hopeless but creative youths become wealthy individuals. Most Corporate organizations are fast initiating and sponsoring talent development shows, in a bid to execute their corporate social responsibilities and also promote their products and services.

To some extent, the effect of this has relatively help several young people discover their talents, while shooting them to limelight and more importantly, limiting the level of crime in some African nations.

It should be noted that in spite of this massive incursion of many young people, not many of these music enthusiast have being able to become celebrities of sort. While some are making waves, majority are still fighting hard. One factor that have helped some to become celebrities, is the use of simple artiste branding concepts and principles.

To an extent, branding helps a musician to create a strong appeal that favorably intrudes the mind of listeners. This is why Branding plays an essential role in the artiste management and musical presentation.

For an individual venturing into music or already in it, carving a niche and strategically positioning yourself should be desired. As a music act, what you communicate matters a lot. There's need to be deliberate and organized in various ways of communicating with your audiences. Consequently, you will need to project particular sets of trait capable of influencing a favorable perception from your fans.

The following questions will be useful when starting out:

 What genre of music do I intend to float on?

What’s your style of music? A blend of all genres or a mixed culture or a brand new music category entirely?

 Am I competent enough in to be a player in this industry?

 What’s my music message? Love/romance, happiness, fun, street life, struggles & hope, tradition, satire, gospel, etc.

 who are my targets audiences? Children, young people, middle age adults, etc.

 What segment of the populace? Fun lovers, matured minds, miscreants, street boys, working class, church people, political officers, etc.

The following tips can also be useful to developing a powerful brand as a musical artiste;

 Good Package : this is a combination of your music genre, style, message (through the lyrics) name, dress sense, stage craft, etc. the totality of these brings about your niche which helps differentiate you from the pack.

 Originality or Innovation: Having a unique style-something that can spark up or trigger your listeners’ interests-is also essential in building a powerful brand as a musical act. You can create your style and you can also improve on an existing style.

 Good Lyrical Content and Beats : Good music attracts listeners. A blend of good lyrics and good beat makes a good music. This is one reason why you must work with good producers who understand the street language. Endeavour to engage hot & sizzling music producers. Music with good beats has been proven to attract audience despite having meaningless lyrics. Your music should entertain, motivate or inspire your listeners.

 Consistency : while you create music style for yourself you must be consistent with it as possible as you can. But make sure your consistency blends with street urges. You can rule the game provided you are creative, meaningful and consistent.

 Good PR : Public Relations is not giving bribe as widely believed. It has a lot to do with building positive reputation and perception in the minds of your audiences. In PR, every little thing you do count. Employing a contract service of a PR professional or firm will help. Better still, your management can help you in handling this effectively. PR involves managing your reputation and relationships with your various audiences in which the media and authorities are inclusive. The media should be one of your best partners in business.

 Character : your character is quite essential and is paramount to your success in this show biz. Self-discipline and cautious lifestyle will help you a lot. The Beetles Band (one of the older generation American music band) shattered its music career as a result of a puffery statement made by one of the band members at a press conference. So many musical celebrities have shattered their career due to character flaws. Avoid joining issues and having scandals; perhaps if there’s any; employ the services of an experienced publicist to help manage the information flow.

 Good Publicity strategy : this involves the way you publicize what you do. Some publicity strategies may involve working with respected and local DJs to get your music across to your audience. In this regard, remember, a good DJ will love to play a good and danceable music. So also a good Video Jokie. The rule is to make good music and good musical videos. Media relations tactics such as: press mention & interviews, TV interviews, media house goodwill visits, press conference for album release, news mention, show appearance and video play, radio show appearance, interviews and regular air play, etc. can also come into play.

To reach your audience some other creative tactics such as: Album listening party, Collaboration with some of the best acts in the industry, online video releases & free rip, Social media platforms utilization (fan & personal pages on Facebook, twitter, YouTube, MySpace, etc.)Can be utilised. CSR initiatives, creative Marketing & distribution and Other Publicity stunts can also be brought to bear.

 Good Artiste Management :< /b> Artiste management is also important…very important. If you can’t get a good and creative manager then negotiate with a well-structured artiste management outfit.

 Good Record Label : Having a good and well-managed music label will do you additional leverage and boost your efforts.

 Strong Appeal : Your music should strongly appeal to your audience. Most listeners want to be identified with your music message. If your work appeals to them you easily carry them along.

 Personal Development & Trend Tracking : a musical act who desire to be on top of the game must groom and develop himself periodically through. Besides, understanding street trends will help you get into the hearts of your fans and prospective.

Conclusively, a powerful musical brand can’t be built overnight but gradually with a blend competence, confidence, creativity and consistency.

If you have the good lyrics, good beat, good tune and good image with creative management and effective music distribution, you are most likely to rule the game. Good network and energetic stage craft are essentials to make you get shows.

Writer's profile: Seun is a PR/ strategic communications analyst. He has written a number of reflective articles on PR, Personality Branding, Political communications and Human Capacity Development. He resides in Lagos, Nigeria. For comments send mail to: luseunbravura@gmail.com.