Create an Additional Flow of Income Early

Create an Additional Flow of Income Early

When I initially decided to begin my own business, the focus was on artist management and artist marketing. As time goes on, I notice a significant trend in artist’s revenue. Over the last few years, record sales have declined significantly. This is why there are so many artists who look to other streams of income. We have seen artists establish themselves in the television/movie, fashion, cosmetics and healthy living industries. Recognizing this trend early is imperative for any new artist looking to be successful in their industry. With this principle in mind, I wanted to look at what types other streams of income, with the focus of merchandising, more successful. 

It is not uncommon to see artists promote themselves and their brands through apparel such as T-Shirts and headgear. However, if this is the only type of merchandising that the artist uses, they are limiting themselves. Artists should take time to look into every area of merchandising that’s available. A good example of this would be the Hip-Hop Artist 50 Cent. He positioned himself to be successful as a rapper, as well as an actor. He also tapped into the healthy living industry by creating Vitamin Water. 50 Cent has recently tapped into another merchandising venue, as he is now promoting his new headphones, known as SYNC.

It is important for new artists to see that merchandising is not limited to selling items that show their name or brand, but rather an item that they have created and made popular. A great example of this would be Katy Perry and her heart sunglasses.

A great way to ensure that your merchandise is available and noticed, is by first making it visible. This may come easier for an artist who is already somewhat established; however, even with a new artist, anytime they do a show or an interview, they should wear or show their merchandised item. Katy Perry’s heart sunglasses became popular because she wore them all of the time. This then lead to the knowledge of her full line of eyeglasses.

This is a great way to follow rule number one in Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” The Rich Don’t Work for Money. A major step in becoming rich, is understanding how money works. One must find a way to make money; that way, when they are not working, they are still making money.

References:

Kiyosaki, R. T. (2011). Rich dad poor dad, what the rich teach their kids about money that the poor and middle class do not!. (1st ed.). Scottsdale: Plata Publishing.

Where Is Your Focus?

Where is your focus?

One of my favorite blog authors is Seth Godin. One of his latest blog posts was about people strategy. He talked about how the focus of any business should be reaching the “people.” When talking about marketing, much emphasis is placed on methods of marketing, and even more so, what different avenues are available for marketing. Seth brought out the point that behind all of these marketing strategies and marketing avenues remained only one thing, and that is “people.” Companies should make an effort to realign their focus on actually reaching and captivating the people, and not just being only visible, but tangible as well.

In my research on various ways of being sure to truly reach people through marketing, I came across an article that gave 5 ways to use social media to reach people who don’t use social media. The 5 steps are:

1)   Develop Relationships with People Who Bridge The Gap Inside Other Organizations

              Using vendors such as twellow.com, friendfeed.com, and RSS feeds allow one to be able to find    general areas of interest within their niche or community, and reach the necessary individuals as such.

2)   Use Web 2.0 Tools to Learn About Real Life Public Events

      Subscribing to a RSS feed reader that list relevant events allows one to come in contact with individuals that attend different events that are not usually advertised on main platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.

3)   Make Your Blog an Email Newsletter and Promote it Elsewhere

      While there are many people who do not take the time to subscribe and/or read blogs, there is a platform entitled FeedBurner.com that allows one to submit their blog posts to reach non-bloggers via email blasts.

4)   Look Harder, Your Audience Probably is Using Social Media That You Aren't Aware Of  

             Marshall Kirkpatrick made a great reference to LinkedIn.com. Just like LinkedIn.com, there are many other social media platforms that various individuals use on a daily basis, that are not as widely known as others. Kirkpatrick provided a website where one can see where their company or their industry is being discussed: Kingsley Joseph’s Social Media Firehose.

5)   Use the Internet to Make Yourself Smarter In Real Life

A Simple Discussion That Changed An Elaborate Outlook

“Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.” This has to be the most profound statement that Brene’ Brown made during her TED session “Listening to shame.”

In this session, Brown begins by captivating the audience with a personal story, an instance in which she found herself at her most vulnerable state. Brown polled the audience to see if the majority of them had the same initial perception of vulnerability: weakness. The results were just as expected; many people only relate vulnerability to a state of weakness. This is how the above-mentioned quote was birthed. “Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.” Vulnerability occurs when someone is positioned in a way to receive emotional or physical harm. Brown breaks down this often feared word as, “to be vulnerable, to let ourselves be seen, to be honest.” Understanding this take on vulnerability clearly shows where courage is moved to the forefront. Brown explained to her listeners that she “did not learn about vulnerability and courage and creativity and innovation from studying vulnerability. [She] learned about these things from studying shame.” She further explained that there is a very significant difference in “shame” and “guilt.” My favorite example she gave is “Guilt: I’m sorry. I made a mistake. Shame: I’m sorry. I am a mistake.”

I loved Brown’s approach in this session because she began with a personal experience. It was an experience that was directly related to the audience she was addressing, therefore, they were able to immediately connect with what she was revisiting. Brown also incorporated several sly instances of humor during this session. I kept the tone of the session light and easy to follow. Another thing I liked about Brown’s presentation was the she made everything easily flow together. Her story of vulnerability created a great transition into what vulnerability is, and then further into how it relates to shame.

Now, not only did I like Brown’s TED session because of her presentation, but I also enjoyed it because I found it very helpful. After listening to her speech, I am able to incorporate what she expressed, into my every day thinking. Prior to watching this TED session, I was one of those who only associated vulnerability with a weakness, and did not bother to understand a difference between guilt and shame. This session has helped me tremendously. 

Who Are You?

Who Are You?

It seems as though now a days, more and more people are becoming “managers” for different artists. However, I wonder how many of those “managers” really understand their role in the artist’s career. It is almost like it is becoming a fad. While this can seem okay and not harmful in the beginning, as time goes on, that may change. The same way artist’s talk to each other to gain knowledge and learn what works and what doesn’t, new artist managers need to do the same.

Talent Managers Association is a great resource for this very need. The Talent Managers Association consists of entertainment managers all over the world. This is a resource that the managers use to network with other managers, as well as gain access to many other resources that Talent Managers use all of the time. The Talent Managers Association hosts various events throughout the year, in an effort to create a physical gathering for all of the members to meet and network even more. This association is known for its major focus on ethical behavior towards artists from their manager. In order to become a member of the Talent Managers Association, the interested individual must first agree to abide by the Code of Ethics that has been established with the association. By agreeing to do so, and joining this association, this brings a great amount of credibility to the talent manager.

Throughout my journey of entrepreneurship, one of my major focuses is on artist and musician management. I do not want to be just another manager lost in manager heaven; I desire for my management company to stand out amongst the others. I know that becoming a member of the Talent Managers Association will do one part of making this happen. The ample amount of members who have already joined this association will serve as great networks to help me execute my goals. 

iTunes vs. Spotify

iTunes vs. Spotify

Today I ran across an article regarding the new music streaming service, Spotify. The article was discussing the assumption that Spotify will overtake iTunes within two years. If you were to ask me to describe/explain Spotify, I would say that it is a mix between iTunes, Naptser, and Pandora. Now, I am not sure if I agree with the prediction that Spotify will overtake iTunes, however, I would not doubt if it came close. I had to look at this from a personal standpoint first. Over the last couple of weeks, I have noticed that I hardly ever open my iTunes anymore; I am always using Spotify. What drew me to this new application was the Pandora-type feature. I do feel that Spotify can easily overtake Pandora within the next two years. At the same time, there are some individuals who genuinely love the idea that they can search an artist name and create a station of all similarities. I on the other hand love the fact that I can use Spotify to  search an artist name and pull up all of their music.

Because my entertainment industry of interest is artist management, I believe that this new application will cause a bit of up rise within music artists, if it hasn’t already done so. After downloading Spotify, I learned that one is able to search an artists’ name, create a playlist of all the music they like from that artist, then have it available to them, ready to play at any time. This came as a shock to me, simply because of all the artists that I searched, the returned results were all updated. For example, the same day Robert Glasper’s new album “Black Radio” was released, it was available on Spotify. I believe that this can cause artist to lose out on money from CD sales. While I did not find an option to burn music to CD, subscribers to have the option to access the mobile apps and have their same playlists with them wherever they go. 

Talk About Me If You Please

Talk about me if you please.

One thing I love about my life is the fact that I am always gigging. Every weekend, if not every day, I am doing what I love most, and that is playing the drums. I joke with people and tell them that I could probably write a book about some of the things I have seen/experienced while travelling. This past weekend, I was able to add something new to my list of gig surprises.  I had to play in Gastonia, NC on the 25^th of this month. When we walked in, we realized it was the normal, church setting, bunch of different groups, as it was a benefit concert. There was a group singing gospel artist, Fred Hammond’s, “Blessed” as I was setting up my equipment. I paid no attention to them, until I heard something rather strange. The leader of the group was using Auto tune through the entire song! Never in my life, had I heard someone use auto tune to such an extreme in this genre. As you can imagine, this became the talk of the night, weekend.

That’s when I had an epiphany. As foolish as it was, it was almost ingenious. It reminded me of this year’s Grammy Award Show and the highlighted performance by Nicki Minaj.

While her performance may have been considered demonic, crazy, foolish etc., the fact of the matter remains that it is still the “talk” of the Grammy’s. I realized that these acts might have been more purposeful than people think. Whether people enjoyed the gospel hit auto tuned and the outrageous wardrobe/performance or even hated it, they still talked about it.  For the artists, this turned out to be great marketing tools for each of them. I believe I can speak for many when I say I will never forget hearing that classic gospel chart being auto tuned.  The same goes for the Nicki Minaj performance.  In a recent interview, Nicki Minaj spoke on her performance and shares how she was strategic in introducing her new movie “Roman Holiday. Minaj said, “I can't do a song like that and stand up there with a microphone and a band behind me - I have to paint the picture and I'm gonna always do that to the fullest."

One thing new and old artists should consider is their personal branding/self-marketing. What part of their performance or presentation really captures the audience and makes them continue talking about them? Once the outlying marketing tool is discovered, find out if it is working as positive or negative marketing. Deciphering between the two will help one see why they receive the recognition they receive.