Some actions that help you succeed as an artist are simple but highly valuable. Yet, too often that artists are lacking in these areas and not progressing in their careers. You might be familiar with the concepts presented here but if you’re not engaging in them, chances are you could be doing much better!
1. Stop thinking and start doing
When it comes to being productive, this is a stone-cold truth. Using your mind to think and plan is very good and encouraged but once the thinking is done it’s time to take action. This applies to every aspect of your career and from a marketing perspective, it looks like this: artists could and should be posting consistently on social media to gain more visibility and exposure but they don’t do it because they don’t know what to post about. Fair enough. If this applies to you then this is our tip: dedicate a time block where you research what other artists like you are posting and see which ones you like. You may draw inspiration from those posts and stories to come up with your own ideas. Or if you don’t want to do any research, then post raw stuff about you and things that are related to your music. The key element here is to deliver posts, show that you’re active on social media and that you care about your fans.
2. Be authentic
Whether on social media or in real life, many lean towards that what makes the group feel good because we are only human and we want to belong. What it means is that we change our behavior according to what pleases the people around us most. This is a key aspect to reflect upon: are you a people pleaser or do you stay true to yourself?
As an artist, it is of uttermost importance that you follow your own road and stay authentic about yourself. People look up to artists because they see something real, someone, who is expressing themselves and making the fans feel something, which is what they want. If they don’t like your authenticity, don’t worry about it, they are not your fans. Just don’t change your style in order to please some people. In this day and age, people can sense sell-outs and inauthenticity miles away.
3. Waiting for x before doing y
Often times artists come up with excuses for not doing certain things such as putting themselves out there because they think that they’re not good enough yet, that they need to first accomplish this before they can move on to that. Once again in a simple marketing context: You don’t post about your upcoming music because it’s not ready yet. It’s a fair thought if it’s something that you wish to surprise the world with – you want to keep it hidden before you bring it out with a bang. If, however, you’re working on other things as well – post it! Don’t wait for this or that, just do it and tell what you’re up to so people know.
4. Analyze your data
The more posts you have and the more followers you get, the easier it is to understand what kind of content your fans like. Don’t misunderstand: this is not contradictory to no. 2. Be authentic, not at all, it is absolutely all about posting authentic content and seeing which ones of your posts are performing better in terms of likes, comments, views, and shares. When you follow the data you can post more original (and authentic) content that is likely to get more likes and follows, which will benefit you as more people become potential fans. The truth is, the bigger your account is, the more likely you are to be noticed.
5. Stay consistent
You might have heard us rambling on about this in our posts before but it just cannot be stressed enough. Consistency brings results. Think about one-hit wonders: they happened to make one song that was so good that they reach instant success, they rode that wave of fame until the hype started to die, and eventually, they became has-beens. All because they didn’t produce more, they didn’t stay consistent. They quit. That’s not what success is made of. Success is made of trial and error, and that can’t exist without consistency.
Apply consistency in all areas of your career that need it: production, releasing, posting, playing, pitching – you name it.
Those are 5 key elements that we’ve noticed that most artists are lacking. As a bonus: the last action we want to mention that helps you succeed in your music career is to just show up, even when life is giving you lemons and you don’t feel like doing things. Do it anyway, you will be rewarded with good feelings and results!