Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Why Artists Need Coaching - Where Do We Start?


As someone whose career goal is to essentially help artists connect with their fans and build a lasting career in the music industry, the first question I had to ask myself is, “Where do we start?” I know many artists who are doing independent demos, performing at any venue that will have them, and attempting to market themselves through social media. These artists just want to share their music, their creation, with the world. But in the world of digital media, it’s hard to get noticed. Not everyone can be a YouTube sensation like Justin Bieber or Karmin and suddenly get a record deal with a major label. That just doesn’t happen for the majority of artists, despite how incredibly talented they may be. So I started searching out in the world of cyberspace for established businesses that focused specifically on artist development. One site I found actually listed a directory of several major artist management firms. The site also offered a book written by Paul Allen called Artist Management for the Music Business. Many of these firms boast that they will organize an artist’s career so that they can be successful. Instead of shopping their music around to record labels for potential contracts, artists can now partner with these artist managers to develop their entire career. It would seem that in this day and age, with the flood of artists trying to get noticed so that they can connect with their fans, it is absolutely essential to have an artist manager. The artist manager role is one of a true partner with the artist, putting their needs and interests above all else. My goal as an artist manager is not just to make my artist commercially viable (after all, it IS the money that we all want to make) but also to develop that artist as a person. I don’t want to just manage…I want to COACH. Life coaching is my strong suit. It’s what I bring to the table that sets me apart from other artist managers. It is my feeling that any artist trying to make a lasting career for themselves needs to not only be interested in the business aspect of their career, but personal development as well. Without growing as a person, an artist will likely have difficulty making the right choices for their career. It is this pairing of an artist’s career management with their personal development that I hope will make me an effective, sought-after artist manager and coach. Thus why I branded myself as The HipHop Coach! Finally, after years of personal development on my part, I finally know what I want to be when I grow up.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Artist Managing and Branding: The Need for .MUSIC


As I began this journey of thinking I wanted to be an artist manager, I had no idea of all the aspects that I needed to learn about in order to be the best manager/coach/promoter that I could be. So I started reaching out to some people who I knew could point me in the right direction. One of the resources I found was a great website that offers a book on artist management. It is aptly called Artist Management Resource. Did you know that there are 6 types of managers in the music business? They include: The Music or Personal Manager, The Business Manager, The Road Manager, The Tour Manager, The Production Manager, and The Technical Manager. These roles are all described on the artistmanagementresource.com website, so for more information, CLICK HERE. They also have great resources for sale, of which I plan on purchasing as I begin my own career in this wonderful business of artist management and artist development.

As a manager for any artist, one of the things I consider to be most important is branding. In this day and age of digital music, it has become critical for any artist to have an online presence. I recently read a great article by Constantine Roussos that addresses the need for a .MUSIC domain name for the music industry. He makes a very compelling argument that a .COM extension simply isn’t sufficient enough for artist branding anymore. For today’s artists, having an Internet presence is absolutely crucial, so Roussos makes a great case that a .MUSIC extension is the perfect way for any artist in the music industry to accomplish this goal. The hard truth is, no matter how talented an artist may be, if they don’t have effective branding, they will have a very difficult time connecting with the people they want to hear their music - their fans. One of the ways to accomplish this branding effectively will be the use of the .MUSIC extension. This gives a very clear message as to what an artist’s website is all about. Roussos gives a great example that I will illustrate here: If I were an artist who wanted to be found online, would it make more sense for my web address to be amydawn.com or amydawn.music? Obviously, the amydawn.music tells the person searching me that my website is about MUSIC without even clicking on the link. I fully support this initiative, as I think it will provide a great resource for the branding process of any artist. If you want to get behind the initiative as well, CLICK HERE. I think this initiative will be an incredibly simple way to unite the music industry and help all artists connect with their fans more effectively, as well as help with copyright/trademark issues that are only getting more complicated as the digital age progresses. After all, anything that helps get the music to the masses is something that all of us in the music industry should support, right?

This issue is only one aspect that is covered on Roussos's website. I highly recommend Roussos's blog. It's full of great articles on the every aspect of the music industry from Artist/Band to Website Strategy and everything in between. If you visit there, be prepared to learn!