Soar Above The Clouds! Be An All-Encompassing Entertainment Brand
December 14 2011, 09:37 AM
Filed in: Indie Advice
Your songs have to rock harder. You have to make people dance more intensely, cry longer, think deeper and love more passionately.
Sure, one or two great songs can give you a taste of success, but beyond that you're going to need something more long term to keep your career on track. To keep people interested, to stay fresh, to keep people talking and spreading the word about you... you need something that goes above and beyond what everyone else is doing.
So aside your music, what else are you doing to rise above the noise of the cluttered music scene? Here's an idea, you need to think of yourself as an all-encompassing entertainment brand, right from the beginning.
Aside from your music, what else are you offering your fans? When you think of the most successful artists in the world, how many additional elements do they have tied to their brand?
Successful artists are creative with their entire career, not just with their music.
The obvious first place to start is with merchandise. Don't just have one t-shirt for sale, how the hell is that setting you apart from all of the other bands out there? Have eight. In different colours, styles and designs. With limited quantities. With new artwork that changes every few months.
And while you're at it, what other textiles can you sell? How about a scarf? A toque (a beanie for you non-Canucks)? Hoodies? Underwear? Dog sweaters? Baby onsies?
Of course you need to be careful with the quantities you produce while you grow your audience, but all the more reason to work with extremely limited quantities. Like five or ten of each.
And don't just sell your music via a CD, a digital album and that's it. Create a fucking hand-made, limited edition box set. Yeah I know, you only have one album. So what. You can do whatever you want. Make something special for your fans. It'll keep 'em happy and more importantly, will keep them talking.
How about a hand-made lyric book? Or jewelry? Or lithograph prints of gig posters? Or your own goddamn hockey puck. Dude. Seriously. The ideas are limitless.
And that's just the shit you can sell. What I'm talking about is something much bigger than just merch. I want you to think of yourself as a cross-platform multimedia brand, not tied to any one single thing. A do-it-yourself content creating machine and one-of-a-kind event organizer.
Daily blogs? Of course. Regular video updates? Hell yeah. Music videos? Duh. Live concert footage? Yup. Original fucking cartoons? Now we're talking! Limited Edition Comic Books? YES. A weekly Internet TV Show? Baby… now we're cooking!
And don't just stop with media and content. How about band-hosted air balloon rides for your fans? How about an annual bungee jumping party for your fans? How about your own fucking festival? Fuck yeah.
The power to do all of this is at your fingertips. You can do it all. There are no fucking limits anymore. None. There's no excuses. Don't have the cash to produce some of this stuff? Most don't. That's what pre-order campaigns are for. Collect the money up front, get the stuff made, pay for it and ship it.
As for the other creative stuff like videos, photos, posters, designs, cartoons, comics, action figures, whatever... source that shit out! Chances are good that there's a brilliant artist right around the block from you, a hungry art student who's itching to expand their portfolio and work with someone who has a growing audience.
Don't limit yourself to just your music. Yes, you need to rock that shit and rock it hard. But you also need to kill it on every other imaginable front you can, including ones you haven't even though of yet. And once you do that. the world simply won't be able to ignore you.
And remember... the number of people who didn't achieve something because they didn't try is exactly 100%.
—Brian Thompson
