Saturday, September 27, 2014

Marketing

In music, as with any business, one of the most important aspects to be successful is being able to effectively market yourself.  Making yourself appealing to potential investors (Record Labels and Executives) is vital to not only getting signed to a label but staying signed to a label.  Marketing includes everything from your public image to who your friends are.  In most local rap/hip hop scenes you can find the cliques.  The groups of friends who are local heroes but will never make it out of their local area.  The main reasons for this can be seen all over their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all other social media.  Here are three examples I have personally witnessed in my local area that will and have limited artists from being marketable:

1. Blatant and over usage of drugs and alcohol.  Now anyone who doesn't realize most rappers have or do currently smoke weed, dab wax, or drink while partying is obviously blind.  In this case multiple times a day you will see them post their wax, drug paraphernalia, or them doing the drugs.  This is a sure fire way to turn investors off.  They do not want to inherit a "Problem Child" or someone who is addicted to these things so much it limits their productivity and availability.  If you need to be high or drunk at all times during the day while not on the road you will definitely over do it while on tour and cost the company money.  That is why groups like the Kottonmouth Kings and others have limited their reach.  Are they successful?  Hell yes but they came in at a different time where there was no social media.  Today your life is on peoples screens 24/7.  At any given minute people can log in and find out what you are doing, who you are with, and what you had to eat for dinner.  Social media allows fans and investors alike to see you scrapping for every dollar while still posting all your drug and alcohol pics.  If these artists invested that money back into their music and image they could be a lock for a contract.

2. Your friends.  In social media everyone knows who you hang with, get drunk and high with, and what you are doing at all times.  If you are hanging out with bums who can't hold job, act like thugs or gangsters, or post anti-establishment propaganda you will most likely not get any interest, no matter how good you are.  Your friends and associated are a direct extension of who you are.  In some cases give the best possible look into your personality and habits.  The days of Gangster rap are long gone so having a ton of pics or tags with you and your friends flashing gang signs is probably not the best idea.  Posting anti-cop posts is also not going to help you.  No label wants the authorities eye because of an artist who yells Fuck the Police every other post or tweet.  Another way this hurts you is that you may be in a group of 5-10 guys and no label is willing to sign all of you.  In most cases there is one or two guys in that group worthy and the rest become D-12.

3. Associates or political causes.  Not since Public Enemy came out with Fight the Power has there been a really successful political rapper.  Sure there are big names that have taken up causes like legalizing weed, helping foreign nations, or brought awareness to political candidates.  Most of the time these people are anti-establishment and it is ok because they have made it and are already huge stars.  There are very limited people who are unknown and new to the business that are successful when trying these things.  With popularity and money you can afford to tarnish your image a little and still be successful.  If you are struggling to make it this is a sure way to make them pass and move onto someone else.

There is way too much competition in this business to fall victim to any of these things.  All three of these are easily avoidable.  Now before anyone hits my comment section with "Yo I am from the street, this is who I am.  Fuck them if they don't want it." remember that your image is important. 

If you pay attention in your local area you too will see these artist and realize I am 100% right in this case.  I understand there are exceptions to these rules but for a majority of artists these will hold true.  The ones who make it are called out as being fake or selling out.  When in reality they did things the right way and made the right first impression.

MMFWFL,

Juggalotus

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Investing in yourself

I am back!  And within a few weeks, I know unbelievable right?  The past few weeks one theme has been brought to my attention on quite a few occasions.  That theme is artists who are unwilling to invest in themselves.  The ones I am speaking of are never willing to pay for quality studio time, quality album production, quality mixing and mastering, or any other quality products necessary to be successful.  To me there are only a few things any artist should invest in and they can achieve success far beyond what they are doing right now.

1. Invest in quality beats!  If you are rapping over tagged beats or beats that everyone else is rapping on you will not stand out.  Take time to research unique quality beats from all over the world.  The internet has allowed millions of beat makers world wide to be at your fingertips.  So what do you do when you find the perfect beat?  Some say rip it, remove the tags illegally and call it yours.  I say invest money in the beat!  Not only does it help the guy making the beat out it will open future doors for discounts, custom beats, and more.  Now you can buy exclusive rights (Which let you have the beat and no one else can use it) or lease it for a limited number of copies you can sell (But others can still buy the beat and use it).  Of course the first option is more expensive but it allows you to have sole possession of the beat.

2. Invest in a good quality studio to record the album.  Yes every rapper has a "studio" tucked away in his closet where them and all their friends make "hot tracks" but I promise you that will not get you any further than your local (Your city) market.  Do I think you need to pay for a studio at $200/hour?  No way!  But there are plenty of studios in every single city that can provide top quality recording, in most cases mixing and mastering, for between $40 & $70/hour.  By investing money in this process you will create a better product that could catch the attention of people outside of your local market.

3. Invest in quality CD Production.  If you hand me a CD to check out and it is a recordable cd with your name written on it in sharpie I am more than likely going to find the nearest trash can and scrap it.  Take pride in what you are doing and find reputable CD  replication company (Copy Cats Media as an example) to produce your vision.  In most cases these companies will have an online template that you can add pictures to as well as designing the entire album cover inside and out.  By doing this you give a professional appearance and can sell these for a few more dollars a piece.  Most of the time the larger the order the better the discount.

4. Invest in high profit merchandise.  Most artists who have made it in the business have T-Shirts, Sweat Shirts, Hats, Bandanas, and anything else they can mass produce to sell.  These items unfortunately have a very low profit margin unless you buy hundreds at a time.  For a newcomer in the business look for high profit items such as shot glasses (you can get these for .40/glass and sell them for $3-5), Di-Cut Vinyl stickers, and your album.  All of these things are low cost high profit.  Once you get the bigger return on those items you should invest in things like bandanas or t-shirts.  Research and time invested with pay dividends here.

5. Invest in going on tour.  Sounds expensive but you can find regional tours and even some national tours that if negotiated properly can be a low cost high return investment.  You should not dedicate yourself to doing 200 shows a year in your city or even local cities.  If you are going to invest the time and effort to promote those kinds of shows you should just research and reach out to national tours and commit yourself to exposing a huge fan base to your music instead of performing to the same 50 people show after show.

By investing in these five simple things you will find that success you are looking for.  If you do not want to take the risk and invest in yourself I can promise you nobody else will invest their time and money in you either.

MMFWFL,

Juggalotus