The digital music revolution continues to be revolutionized. In the midst of our ambition, it is vital that we create music brands that stay true to the art, while avoiding selling out. Both consumers and sponsors need the artist to remain true so that they can connect with their audience in the music business.
In the current music business, the money is not there in the traditional sense.
Therefore, in order to adapt and carve out a sustainable music career, the record company has to help artists create a brand that remains consistent to what that brand represents.
Artists are less able to express themselves in today’s music business, a persistent problem that spans decades. If an artist does choose an expression counter to the established brand, the artist can run the risk of creating brand confusion.
In a way, our favorite music artists are becoming more like our favorite sitcoms and television dramas. A television show’s primary function is to entertain viewers long enough to sell commercial airtime.
Now that record sales are at an all-time low, with no hope of rebounding anytime soon, this has also cut into the ever-profitable music business publishing incomes.
Innovative artists are finding other ways to make a living doing what they love.
They are becoming marketing experts by inventing clever ways to connect with their fans through social media. Their ability to attract eyeballs has the corporations spending millions of dollars in online advertising on artists who have accumulated a loyal list of followers.
For some artists, their music is merely a tool used to sell concert tickets, where they can again sell merchandising and corporate sponsorships.
There are pros and cons to a sponsorship-driven music business.
The con is harnessed freedom of speech. The glaring pro is that some artists can earn more money independently than by signing with a major label, simply by going viral and knowing how to maintain and nurture a burgeoning audience it so that it continues to grow.
Which brings us back to the con of all this newfound independent success: sponsors are protective of their brands. They literally have an image to protect.
Many parents support the Disney Animation brand because it consistently represents itself as wholesome entertainment, which is why its animation outperforms the competition.
Parents watch animated projects from other studios, unsure of what our children might see. Therefore, some parents may be reluctant to purchase a DVD without first doing their research.
This may be the difference between making a sale or a lost opportunity. On the other hand, when the same parent sees the Disney brand, they will toss that DVD into the basket merely because they believe they are secure in the standards of the name, Disney.
In a sponsor-driven music business, corporations won’t come out and say it, but traditional-music artists scare them when their brands are inconsistent.
One top artist may put out a music video that is universally accepted for the entire family to enjoy, while the lyrics to that hit song may be powerful, uplifting, and popular. However, the same artist’s follow-up video may portray and describe lewd acts with highly sexualized video images.
This confuses the sponsor, because if a minor downloads their favorite artist’s album sponsored by a big company, how much of that album is appropriate and representative of that sponsor’s corporate brand image that is displayed on the music website?
Some people may say, “What does it matter what the parent says if the child has already purchased the record?” Parents complain and protest directly at sponsors with threats of boycotting their products. Moreover, a high percentage of decision-makers at the big ad agencies and corporations are executives that must conform to conservative practices.
The music game has changed.
If music hopefuls do not capitalize on social media’s ad revenue, then that music company is merely trying to survive on concert income. The problem with that scenario, is that now concert promoters and the public at large judges both the artist and companies on web traffic.
The ability to get your views up requires time and money, or a strong network of people who have nothing better to do than sit on the Internet all day creating artist hype.
Now your brand has to be Hot or Cold to succeed. Lukewarm and shades of gray are confusing to the sponsors, and thus the check-writers.
Modern artists who see themselves as brands, with a service and products to sell, have an advantage over artists who hold on to the antiquated expressions of sex, drugs, and run-ins with the law.
If that’s you, there are sponsors for you and your Bad Boy image.
Just don’t expect Tide detergent to send you a big endorsement check, offering to clean up your image as a means of showing off how well their brands can clean up the dirtiest artist.
If you are an artist, you are like a sitcom. Consumers expect to follow you. To laugh with you. To cry with you. And they know that comes with banner ads and commercials.
Creating a brand is vital to your identity as an artist, and can make the difference between staying ahead of the revolution, or revolving out.
Your truth in your art and in your brand share a common bond, and that truth speaks to your audience and your sponsors alike.
For another great read on this topic, check out Medium.com‘s 2019 Music Business Resource Guide.
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