3 Pillars for Success in Music

This week I’m talking about my three pillars for success in music, and how I work with artists to drive success.

1.) Branding - this is huge. Artists have to think of themselves like a business. Any successful business has a strong brand identity. What makes you unique? What do you want to be known for? Why should people care about you and spend money on you and give their time to you? The sooner you can figure out what your brand is, everything you do will revolve around that - and it’ll make it so much easier to go about all the things you need to do to be successful.

It’s like how powerful CEOs wear the same color every day. They don’t have to think about what to wear when they wake up. This frees up brain power to focus on other things. If you have a good brand identity, that is your north star!

2.) A quality product. This of course will tie into your brand. Do you want to be known for really good Disco music? How about Hip Hop? Maybe you’re an insane guitarist and your metal band is on the brink of stardom. The product you put out is a reflection of the brand. Make it as high-quality as possible. Work tirelessly to make good music, put on a killer live performance, and offer something that fans will pay for. Maybe you’re not a performer but you want to make money as a producer. Ok! Do good work, get your clients talking about it, and get their referrals or repeat business! Quality over quantity, friends.

3.) Sales and Marketing. Okay, so you have a great product and a great brand, but what are you doing to let the people know about it? How are you pitching yourself to labels and talent buyers, or potential clients? How are you marketing and promoting your new music? Are you leveraging social media? Are you using email lists? Are you pitching music to playlisters?

I did a Reddit AMA recently and one of the questions I was asked was “which of these artists will be more successful in 2024: Artist A who makes Grammy quality music but doesn’t do anything to promote his or her work, or Artist B who makes mediocre music but promotes the shit out of it?” My answer was Artist B. There’s no way around it - if you don’t have really good sales and marketing strategies, your business isn’t going to succeed.

So, those are the three pillars any artist should be focusing on. Doesn’t matter where you are in your journey.

Keep at it and good things will come!