Fashion And Entertainment

Fashion and entertainment go hand in hand. I have been working with an artist that believes they don’t need a stylist, which is fine, but they are not fashion forward. The funny thing is he dresses like the artists that came before him. I want artist to understand that vocal and optical art go hand in hand. Many times we see singers and actors and believe that the way they dress or present themselves is effortless but that is far from the truth. There is always a method to the madness, designers are always looking to get press and any artist can become a tastemaker. Artist like PharrellWilliams or Lady GaGa may get ridiculed in the press for their attire but just as many consumers clamor to copy their style. All art is relative to the user and will be judged by the consumer more than the critic at some point. So what’s the real correlation between entertainment and fashion? Fashion is entertainment, Models walk the runway on beat to the latest music it’s covered buy the entertainment magazines and attended by the hottest celebrities. Image is something that must be addressed. In the food industry people understand that presentation is every thing. A great tasting meal that looks like slop will be approach tentatively but mediocre food that looks appetizing will be revered and recommended. Needless to say presentation goes a long way with selling a product. For instance an Artist like Bruce Springsteen Known for his blue jean and white T-Shirt understands that correlates with his working class image. Sure it’s not the most fashionable choice but it syncs with his narrative. I believe that all artists should dress the part and have a style that your audience identifies with or aspires to. The world is a judgmental place and the difference between novice and stardom could simply be your image and not your talent sad to say but often true.     

How famous Do You Want To Be?

The correlation between Fame and talent is a topic that a lot of starving artists debate all the time. Many times artists compare them selves to their more famous counterparts and of course as you would suspect the less famous artist feels they are more talented. There is no doubt that there are many artists that we’ve yet to hear of that may surpass the talents of a Miley Cyrus or Justin Beiber.  But in my opinion being able to adjust or even thrive in the face of fame is a talent in itself. Not all people that are talented are equipped to deal with the things that fame brings. Just because you are a great actor or singer does not mean you have the mental capacity to deal with the scrutiny of the public. Many people love Britney Spears and many people don’t but in the face of intense scrutiny Britney basically broke down due the pressure. Brittney has since seemed to be doing 100% better but now you see the focused attention shifting to Justin Beiber. Justin is a young man and may be making bad decisions but I do not believe a young person is mentally ready to deal with massive public scrutiny. Schools deal with bullying issues everyday and many young people hurt themselves, abuse drugs, commit violent acts or even kill themselves because of it. The side effect of fame is extreme ridicule, which is a form of bullying. So as I said before, maintaining fame is a talent in itself and art is relative to the user so there will be many things people don’t like about a specific artist but the quest for fame is a foolish one in my opinion the quest to reach larger audiences is valiant one but fame may be the side effect of that.

The Miracles of Cross Marketing

So what is cross marketing? Basically cross marketing is taking your brand or product and using another brand or product to market your own. Think about athletic endorsements or your favorite song being played during a Pepsi commercial. Cross marketing is the way that products piggy back on one another. The music business has been suffering a bit lately but the one thing that has always thrived is the capability of artists and labels to associate themselves wit other products. When you go to a sporting event you will probably see many people handing out fliers or selling a CD in the parking lot because they are taking advantage of a place where people gather. In my opinion this is the only way to gain a real audience when you are a musician. These tactics are not always done physically today its also done on the web.  Just because you click on a site to watch a movie doesn’t mean the ubiquitous pop up wont appear with some new song you’ve never heard or a clip of an artist showing their talents. Television shows are also a key vehicle for this. The cameo appearance is cross marketing at its best. Lets say your watching the Simpsons and all of a sudden ConanO'brien Shows up as a cartoon character he’s not only there for comic relief he’s there to remind you that he’s relevant and hopefully you’ll tune into his show the next night. Music is probably the easiest thing to cross-market because it’s ever present in every facet of entertainment. I believe if you really want to push an artist you have to find ways to subliminally insert them into the minds of other audiences even when their not looking for them. Some people do this with logos or even merchandise but song placement in TV and public events is the natural way to do it in my opinion.  

What To Do With All This Music?

What should we do with all this music? This is a question that I hear often fro managers, artists and D.J’s. Often time’s artists find themselves with an extensive catalogue but no real outlet or platform to share all the music. Sites like Sound Cloud and MySpace are a great platform to share music and YouTube is a great place to share videos. The sites I have previously mentioned offer a way to expose yourself to the public but its hard work to make your songs go viral.

I have noticed that many artists overproduce. These artists simply spend too much time and money recording and producing music. The time and money these artists spend creating music could easily be better spent marketing past or current projects instead of starting new ones. Too many artists record just for the sake of recording. I believe an artist should feel free to create at will but consideration for the marketing plan should take precedence of perpetual recording at a considerable cost per hour.

Every artist must decide whether they simply want to be a working musician or a celebrity/ superstar. There is considerably more work from a marketing standpoint that goes in to creating a superstar. For instance, image reigns supreme in the pursuit of superstardom. Accessibility to the public is also very important and the seclusion of studio recording does not lend it self to a sustained marketing campaign. In my opinion an artists should treat recording like athletes treat sports, never stop practicing but save your energy for the game and don’t over exert yourself in preparation.

So what do we do with all this music? We test singles with our core audience and pick the ones that garner the best reaction. Market your single to the best of your ability by performing and perhaps finding ways to cross promote the song through commercials, movies and other forms of entertainment. Stop finding new singles to promote half heartedly while the first is still under promoted.   

Why Separate The label From management?

The TLC biopic on VH1 created a lot of outrage due to the questionable practices by the former manager of the group Pebbles. Most of the problems that occurred should have been foreseen considering that LA Reid who at the time was pebbles husband also owned the label they were signed to. Most people would call this a conflict of interest but technically its not since the companies are separate entities. Managers play a big role in the career of an artist and they should also be a level of confidentiality between the two.

A husband and wife are as close as two people can be and having that level of intimacy between management and the label cannot be healthy for the artist. Record labels are known for being shrewd but if they have such an advantage they will be at an unfair advantage. The movie depicted a group who were grossly underpaid and overworked. The problems they had were to be expected because their manager basically worked for the label.

The record company is a business and their goal is to make money. An artist has many other goals such as stardom or just simple creation of art but while the artist is focusing on these things a manager must handle the business to ensure the artist is taken care of financially. A record label should never hire managers, attorneys or accountants for their artists those people must have your best interests in mind. The group suffered many financial hardships due to management even though they were one of the top selling groups of all time. Artists have to learn how to say yes or no to certain proposals from the label but the person who’s responsible for teaching the artist should be management. Because of the closeness of management and the label TLC suffered.