The musician as a brand - with The Musicbrokers

This article is a guest contribution from our partners “The Musicbrokers“. The Musicbrokers connect creatives, the industry and the consumer. Their goal is to ensure that your product or you as an artist can achieve the widest audience possible. Find more information on our cooperation here.

“Musicians as a brand? What is going on? I’m not a product, I’m an artist!” This is true, of course – and yet there are possibilities and techniques from the world of marketing that you or your band can use to realise potential success more quickly. We’ll discuss that in this blog post.

The “brand” musician

A brand doesn’t only serve to sell a product. A special experience or an image can be associated with a branded product – this is also true for music. When turning music into a brand, the genre of music doesn’t matter; thanks to a brand, a product can not only be identified and differentiated, it can also obtain a distinctive profile through its positive properties.

Think about it: how many thousands of songs are uploaded every week to streaming services in Germany? How many concerts took place in the past (and hopefully will take place again in the future) in Germany every day? How many releases are made by audio media companies every week? In order to be noticed in this wealth of musical offerings, there needs to be a distinctive, personal touch, a unique selling proposition. Seeing an artist as a brand means advertising the person as well as all of the music they are offering. The aim should be to create a unique image of you and your work in the minds of fans and to establish it long-term.

A brand is created in the minds of the consumers

A brand is considered a product personality and is remembered as an image in the mind of the consumer. A brand in the world of music is recognised not just by the songs, but mainly by the artist’s name, appearance (including outfit), voice and a logo.

In extreme cases, the admiration of and identification by the fans is so great that they get the brand names – i.e. the name of the artist or band – tattooed on their body. They want to stand out from the anonymous crowd and show the world what they stand for. In this article we will show you a few general tricks on to how you as a musician can develop and build your brand.

You are important!

Central aspects of an artist’s brand identity are the artist’s personality, biography and visual appearance. What makes the person who they are, why are these features so important? These points represent a kind of projection surface for the music consumer. How the artist presents themself, what we call the self-image of the artist’s brand, is perceived as a brand image by the consumer. The aim of the brand management process is to maximise consistency between the artist’s identity and the respective target group.

via GIPHY

Your music as a brand

Of course the music itself should not be ignored – there are two main things to be considered here: the repertoire and the sound. The repertoire includes compositions and especially the lyrical content; these should reflect the core identity and the values of the artist that result from that identity. The sound aspect consists mainly of technical dimensions of music production as a design of the sound image. The aim should be to create a unique sound that touches upon the attributes of the core identity.

Where does the music play?

If the final master copy of your music is finished, the next step is to address your audience. It makes sense to focus strongly on social networking, social media and online forums because an enormous number of consumers can be reached as a result. In addition to an ever current homepage, standard channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube (Vevo) etc. should be managed regularly and in detail ensuring the consumer knows about the artist’s daily life through a constant flow of information.

The artist’s identity can be visualised further using music clips. Forums specially created for the fans provide exclusivity and are for sharing specific knowledge about the artist and their private environment. This increases the bond between the artist and their fan community. It gives fans the opportunity to not just take part in the life of the artist, but also in the creative process and to give feedback by sharing praise and criticism.

Practical tip for the first step

The most sensible thing to do in order to stand out from other artists and bands is to first take care of your so-called CI. The abbreviation stands for corporate identity – the key theme that runs through your entire external presentation. An attractive design that makes you easily recognisable should be present on all your social media channels, websites and other representations of you/your band. Concentrate on these points:

• Fonts used
• Colours
• Repeating logo
• Recognisable style

The more consistent, uniform and homogeneous your CI is, the more professional your music and your overall image will be. If that all sounds very complex and complicated for you, don’t be put off! It doesn’t all have to happen overnight. To establish a musician as a brand is a long-term process that is never fully completed and is always ongoing. The brand should continually be re-vitalised and further developed; a brand is only formed through constant repetition and a long-lasting presence in the outside world.

You don’t have to have all the knowledge and skills yourself, but start brand-building today and if it gets really serious, get professional help.