Brand new Brand YOU
"Personal branding reflected in the zeitgeist. Watching the pros in entertainment, politics, business. And now you. What makes YOU different?"

Through Bob Baker’s Independent Music Promotion Blog, I came across a brilliant article, written by Ritch Esra (former A&R at Arista Records) and Stephen Trumbull. It’s a really long, long article but highly informative for anyone interested in the entertainment industry. It deals with the changes in the music industry and music marketing that are going on.

One of the major points is the importance of personality. Throughout music history, it has been important for people to connect with an artist or even identify with one.

“And, as most of us have known for years, the market is far far broader (yes, people between the ages of 30-50 WILL BUY MUSIC when presented with Artists that they can connect with) than the Major Labels ever cared to acknowledge. How else could Ray Charles sell two million copies of a CD via a coffee chain or James Taylor sell over one million Christmas CD’s via Hallmark without his CD even being available at retail?”

The authors show a few examples of how a solid artist branding and marketing can be set up. Stand-outs are, in their view:

Damien Rice by Ken Levitan (Vector Management)
Dave Matthews by Coran Capsahw (Red Light Management)
Jamie Cullum by Martin Kirkup & Steve Jensen (Direct Management)

“Careers are not supposed to be events that have huge a build-up and then are over like The Super Bowl. As we all know, the best careers (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Neil Young, U2) are long journeys that have been built on solid and viable foundations that can (and do) sustain a wide array of paths and experiences. “

Later on, they hit on a very controversial subject. It’s about if an artist can be over-exposed or not. There are still a lot of promotors out there who believe that there is never enough promotion going on. But the thing is, as stronger an artist is unique, the easier the promotion. For someone who is provocative, or is some kind of vanguard and has a unique style, the word about him is spread faster than he even can talk, or the best promotion strategy will work.

“More than ever, today’s youth culture is looking for something real, something it can feel a genuine connection with, not something it’s oversold on!”

Read more on their website: http://www.musicregistry.com/main.html