Being a musician in Canada can feel like an uphill battle. You can choose to receive government grants and stay local, which risks the chance of you never breaking beyond a country whose population is less than that of California’s. Or you can take a risk elsewhere, venturing into uncharted territories in the hopes of attracting fans. But if you choose the latter option, prepare to answer some questions as to why you’ve decided to keep your talents to South Canada. A recent article written in the Citizen, states that Canadian content is either made as “entertainment for export” or “entertainment for Canadians,” making it seem like if you choose to get government grants, you’re essentially making insular art that can’t reach beyond your borders.
As a television reporter and branding specialist that has worked in the entertainment industry for almost 2 decades, this mentality is simply not true. Receiving Grants is definitely not the problem, but not using allocated funding towards marketing is a huge problem. As an emerging artist, you may think that you don’t need to be concerned about branding yet, but you absolutely should be. You must create your own unique brand to have a long, successful career. Branding helps you create your persona and stand out from the countless other artists trying to get their music heard.
There are 963 main stream radio stations across Canada and only less than 14 that regularly promote reggae culture, so as an artist it takes more than just raw talent to make a name for yourself to sustain a steady income.
7 top marketing strategies for musicians
- Find out who and where your fans are. …
- Don’t ignore existing fans while trying to make new ones. …
- Social media music marketing strategies. …
- Focus on creating compelling non-musical content. …
- Send your music to blogs, playlists and press outlets. …
- Create and monetize your own artist website. …
- Pay for a PR/radio campaign.
You now need to work on getting it in front of your target audience and convincing them that you’re worth buying into. Many would argue that the marketing stage is just as important as making a good song. Realistically, if you market a poor song, a lot of people still won’t buy it once they hear what you’re trying to sell so both talent and strategy are equally important. On average, marketing budgets for the average small business make up around 10-14% of total company budgets, however as an artist it is advised that you invest much higher on marketing
Many artists have also invested in a Brand Manager or Product Manger whose role is to help create and implement marketing campaigns to maximize the sales of music from a particular record label, artist, online music service, radio station or other music products.
In today’s times of Covid and uncertainty, its up to an individual artist to stay on top of their game. As an artist, YOU are ‘a business. There is so much to explore, research and study but like every successful business and entrepreneur, the key to success is possessing the knowledge of every aspect of the business so remember to always keep something set aside for marketing and branding.