Don't be good, be great!

Promotion is key when advertising and branding an artist, but what happens when there is next to nothing in the budget.  Today’s technologies give individuals access to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  With artists having these tools at their fingertips it has been easier for those aspiring artists with low cash flows to promote himself or herself.  However, we all know that when anything is free it usually does not have much value, but when faced with a skimpy budget, most artists are willing to make the best of the situation.  The problem with this is that now the artists are now satisfied with these sites as their major source for branding.    These same artists have become reliant on someone else’s site, ultimately leaving control up to someone else.  I recently read an article about this same issue.  In this article they called this marketing mistake, digital sharecropping, defined as relying on a service you have no control over and then being the victim of their whims. 

With free being the problem, the underlying symptoms I found were that creativity and concepts become absent.  I have the perfect example for you.  I am currently working on an event for my artist Chris DeVille.  With this event we are partnering with another local artist.  We were invited to take part in a show that this artist had put together.  In my opinion this partnership is kind of a step back for us as far as where my artist and I are in his progression as a hip-hop artist, but as an artist you have to stay in front of an audience.  While planning for this event we were told “not to worry, everything is covered”.  Knowing that our stamp was now on this event we of course could not accept that.  That same day this artist released a flyer.  

This flyer, as you can see, is so elementary.  Once I saw the flyer I immediately turned to Chris DeVille and said “maybe he hasn’t updated his software since ’85.”  This just goes to show that once an artist becomes complacent with the word “free” they develop a lack of creativity and concept and feel that what they put out for free is okay.  This is a problem folks!  Your brand and reputation is all you have in this industry, especially as an aspiring artist.   It takes money to make money. If you want more out of this industry, you are going to have to put more into it.  Here is the flyer we had created. 

Yes, we spent a few dollars to have this flyer produced, but it was well worth it.  Audiences are going to associate your brand with anything you do.  If an artist goes into something with nothing, nothing is what he or she will get in return.  Own your brand and remember that your reputation always precedes you.