Mastering Your Artist Identity: 5 Ways to Build an Authentic Brand for Musicians
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Mastering Your Artistic Identity: 5 Ways to Build an Authentic Brand
Mastering and defining your artist identity as a musician will help you build an authentic brand that broadcasts a clear message will help listeners identify themselves as fans and help you to create more success in your music career.
1. Define your sound and direction
The art of cultivating the sound, and direction will help you build your sonic vision to stand out in the marketplace and help the algorithms of social media and music platforms such as Spotify place your music.
You are the architect of your music. Every artist has a vision in their head of what they want. The problem is it’s deep in their brain and we need to bring it out. But one thing is clear. You are the architect of your sound. Yes, a producer can help, but if you don’t know what you want, it can make a mess of things.
Many artists have difficulty finding their sound or committing to a genre. Most artists listen to tons of music in multiple genres and this part can be hard to figure out. The first thing is you can probably include more elements of these genres than you think, but you will have to rule out some stuff. However, as you go through the process the pieces you weed out become obvious.
Finding the right sound and direction for your music is really important. It helps achieve a home base for your music and attracts your key audience. When finding a sound use these 3 to help guide your way.
Try this:
- Define your sound, genre and subgenres. Use https://cyanite.ai and plug in a song to let AI find the genre and sound for you.
- Listen to a lot of music but narrow down your direction. It’s good to have a wide listening palette. It’s a sign of a strong musical ear. But when you are ready to refine your sound and direction for your next project you’ll want to narrow the field to identify your signature and what you sound best at.
- Make playlists of songs and artists that have a similar vibe to you for reference. You’ll never find exactly the same sound but get as close as you can. This playlist will also help your producer to understand your taste and aesthetic.
2. Define your differentiator and what makes you stand out
Your Differentiator or Unique selling proposition (USP) is what sets you apart. But how do you find it? It starts with your Artist Mission (Click here for instructions on how to write your mission statement: 5 Musician Branding Tips To Attract and Connect With Your Audience
Your Differentiator can be identified in many different ways. When I help an artist find theirs, we start the search in one of these two key places.
- Music
- Sound + direction
- Message in your lyrics
- Artist Identity
- Visual identity
- Message
- Mission
- Work on your sound and direction (see #1 above) and bring your message into your lyrics and song concepts. Identify clear themes and messages in your music to build your brand voice right down into your songs.
- Write out your mission statement to identify your unique values and beliefs. Start with writing out an Artist Mission statement.
- Why do you do music?
- What got you started in music?
- Was it a difficult time in your life?
- What was happening in your life that led you to be a musician?There is important information in the answers that will help lead you.
- Create a Pinterest board of your unique personal style to flesh it out more! Get creative and allow yourself to identify what you really love regardless of current fashion trends. To stand out – you want to focus on being a trend setter not a trend follower. This requires an awareness of current fashion trends but getting ahead of them not copying them.
- Write out your story – how you came to be a musician. Include the odds you overcame to find the story!
3. Discover your artist archetype and message
The key to branding as a musician is to first identify your brand archetype. Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung coined the term “Archetypes” in the context of personality. He said we all have a “collective unconscious” that channel experiences and emotions, resulting in typical patterns of behavior. He created the 12 “Jungian Archetypes”. All major brands live by them.
You have 1 Dominant Archetype and 2 Sub-Archetypes. All 3 Archetypes will give you:
- The keys to the underlying themes in your brand
- Will better inform the words you use to communicate
- Will better position you for your ideal fan
- Will guide you to making the right pricing, experiences, products, and merchandise
To find out more about the brand archetypes get access to my entire presentation- The Art of Storybranding + Archetype Alignment for Musicians that is laid out in a full 80 slide deck recorded on video for the full outline and links to get your archetype and more! Click here to learn more. Use the COUPON: ASMSPECIAL. Once inside visit the Content Hub inside for immediate access.
4. Find your niche
One of the biggest mistakes most musicians make in marketing is pitching their music to a wide audience. We want our music to reach a lot of people and therefore cast our net too wide in our marketing message. While your music may have a wide popularity you want to find and define your niche as an artist to attract the right audience.
Music is a matter of taste. There are all kinds of music and audiences who love them. What are the elements of your music that you can distill down into a specific niche?
Here are some quick ways to identify your niche in your music and identity.
Try this:
- Does your music speak to a niche audience?
- What is the message and vibe in your music?
- Is your music about particular topics like relationships?
- or empowering females?
- or people in general?
- Is it healing?
- Is it fun?
- Does your music belong in traditional venues or more niche ones like yoga studios or community churches or healing circles?
- Are you a part of a community? Church, healing center, LGTBQ+, yoga community or particular local community? etc.
- What are the main demographics of your listeners? Ages? Countries? Look for themes for who is listening to your music.
- Is your music made for a particular audience? I.e. My album Circle of Fire was made for the readership of The Four Agreements (at the time of release there were 3 million readers worldwide).
5. Write copy that captures and connects with your ideal listener
Once you have your artist mission statement and have defined your sound, direction and artist archetypes, writing copy that captures and connects with your audience will be easier.
In marketing there are 3 Golden Keys that define success.
They are:
- The right product
- The right message
- The right audience
Without the right product (your music) that has the right sound + direction and message in your music you could easily miss your brand voice and miss your audience.
You could have the right product but not have the right message in your copy and miss your audience.
You could have the right product and message but not the right audience and your campaigns will fall flat.
It’s the magic of all three that lead to success.
Additionally it’s the visual that stops the scroll and gets people’s attention (so make sure it pops) and it’s teh copy that will convert your potential fan from scroll to opting in to your list or clicking play on your music. Make sure your copy is compelling and aligned with your brand.
JOIN ME EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 12 pm Eastern for my Weekly Livestream: Join me on YouTube (and Instagram, Facebook)– where I discuss the Blog of the Week followed by a short Q&A where you can ask me questions.
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Get instant access to all of our past 17 Masterminds. Here are the last few topics. Click here to find the full Curriculum from 2024 and beyond.
- August 2024: The Art of Storybranding + Archetype Alignment for Musicians: Mission, Message, Story and Branding To Build a Loyal Fanbase of True and Super Fans!
- July 2024: Music Marketing: How to Market Your Music to Capture Press, Build a Buzz, Grow Your Audience, and Get Your Music Featured on Key Playlists.
*Plus Interviews with Special Guest Experts on Music Licensing, Playlisting, Music Managers, Grammy winning Producers and many more!
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Hi, I’m Cari Cole.
You’ve got talent, but you want to become great at it. You’re in the right place! My mission is to help you refine your unique artist vision to bring to the world.
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About Cari Cole
Cari Cole is the CEO / Founder of caricole.com and CCVM: Label Without Walls. She is a Holistic Vocal Coach, Artist Development Expert, A&R Director, and Songwriter based in New York City helping artists for the past 38 years. She is a mentor for Women in Music and The Association of Independent Music Publishers.
Her latest venture, CCVM a label services company, provides artists with a seamless path from creation to completion. After 30+ years of observing the overwhelm and challenges that artists face, Cari pulled together the best top creative professionals and designed a new approach to supporting our artists.
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