Tips for Artist Branding in the Music Business

Like any business, artist branding is an important piece of building a successful music business empire. In this post, you’ll learn about the importance of branding, and tips music artists can use to brand themselves.

Before we go there, you need to understand what branding actually is.

What is Artist Branding?

In simple terms, artist branding is a process of creating a strong perception of an artist that people can identify with.

The idea is to develop a unique perception so that it’s possible for an artist to differentiate themselves from the competition.

There is no specific way to achieve this but all involve careful and creative messaging and media selection to convey the story while presenting the perception you want to create.

As a rule of thumb, make sure you pay attention to who you are, what you do, and most importantly why it matters.

Here are some tips to help you with branding yourself

#1: Be Yourself

As simple and obvious as it sounds, many artists fail to do this. Branding is an ongoing process, and it’s tough to keep up if you’re not being yourself.

As Bob Marley said, “You can fool some people sometimes but you can’t fool all the people all the time”. People can see through the fakeness. Being yourself just makes your life easier and your fans will love you for it. Actually, all the other branding aspects should be developed around who you truly are.

#2: Choose a genre

Many diverse artists hate the idea of being defined by a genre. But let’s face the truth, fans will always categorize you in a genre. Now, in most cases, this will be according to a song a fan likes the most.

Choosing a genre doesn’t mean you don’t have to perform other genres, but it’s essential because it helps you control your messaging. You can have a main genre you identify with for branding purposes but still perform other genres.

But if you can afford to, it’s just much more beneficial for your brand to be associated with a specific genre of music.

#3: Create memorable live shows

Live shows create an environment where people can feel the energy of the crowd and connect with others. As an artist, you can make these memorable to elevate your brand. Props and costumes are a great way to achieve this. The most common and cheapest is to have branded t-shirts.

#4: Consistency in your visuals

Whether it’s a cover art, social media post, or concert flier, make sure the design is consistent. A less busy artwork with strong colors can make your pieces pop up. Staying consistent with a design style or recognizable font style helps your fans easily recognize your media. If you can, a visual artist or graphic designer is highly recommended to pull this off.

Conclusion

Having a thriving music business takes much more than just producing music. Branding is one of the essential pillars. We hope this post helps you put your branding in motion. If you have any questions or suggestions about artist branding, please reach out to us and we’ll do our best to answer you or include your suggestion into this blog.