By Gloria Adhiambo
The Writer is the Co-founder and CEO, Clientele PR
Treat your brand as an investment.
Making it in the modern music business requires more than just talent and good music to stand out one has to avoid being in the bad books as it is a competitive field, today's artists must work hard at defining and maintaining their brand due to the number of artistes rising and competing for airplay.
It is imperative for artistes and creative to understand that they have to maintain a certain image at all times and that branding is an integral part of their being. To be a powerhouse and a force to reckon with uniqueness, consistency and being intentional is key in making it in the showbiz industry.
Artistes need to know that music is not only about beats, sleek videos, with and competing to get views, there is much more work that needs to be put in especially when it comes to showcasing your brand in the competitive industry.
In a single day thousands of artistes are dropping new music and what stands out for them is the brand that they have cultivated for themselves and how they are perceived by the consumers of their music/content.
Several artistes have been rocked by cases of copyright claim and this has impacted their brands negatively or positively.
Ethics, Willy Paul, Otile Brown, Bahati and Harmonize from Tanzania have also been casualties of copyright claims that led to their music being pulled down from Youtube either for copyright infringement, label wars or pure malice.
In today’s music industry, branding can play more of a role in a musician’s success than the music they create.
People to identify with a certain artiste because he or she represents or stands up for something so the moment he or she falters then boom every Tom Dick and Harry will be on your case and no one will want to associate with you.
Its high time artiste put into consideration the reputation of their brands if they want to leave long lasting legacy.
No one would want to be known as that artiste who is always sampling other peoples works, or that artiste whose creativity is zero or that artiste that is always in the media for wrong reasons - Your brand reflects your story as much as your music- Guard it!
“To blow up, it’s 80% branding and business, 20% music.” You might read this and feel like it shouldn’t be this way. However, that’s the way it is in the music business. The music industry is over-saturated with hungry producers looking to make it big.
