If you ever wondered how to get a person more interested in your music look no further than this post. Here is the answer. Give the listener more you. That’s right, give them more of who you are, if you want them to “buy in” to what ever it is you offer. People do it with YouTube posts or blogs or more importantly with live shows. In this type of setting, you can be yourself. You add personal charm and side conversation that won’t be found on a song.
This idle chit-chat and witty banter, if you’re capable of it, has the effect of making you more understandable. People have a chance to connect with you as an artist and possibly allow themselves to be entertained by you. After all, there are thousands of choices each person has to be distracted by, other than your latest song. You are asking people to give up their normal stride, to stop for your particular message. Why should they bother, when they could be much more entertained, enlightened or distracted by someone else? Again, there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ways to be distracted in today’s digital landscape.
What you’re fighting for as an artist, is to become part of more people’s evoked set of entertainment choices. An evoked set, is the normal list of sources an individual has in the mind, about how to receive entertainment. Each choice is categorized by cost, effectiveness, convenience, accessibility and so on. These choices usually include television, the internet, video games, mp3 players, gyms, movie theaters, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and books to name a few. And when I say the internet, let’s not forget the numerous amount of sources you can find entertainment there. There are endless sources of entertainment a person can spend their time on before even considering whether or not they will listen to your new song.
Why should they listen to you? Well, the way most see it is that, if they can get other people to listen, others will follow. That does work to some degree. People are more apt to listen to or watch a link that has been deemed popular by the masses. One problem with this scenario is that a lot of artists know that already.These artists can skip the leg work and just purchase a ton of views. This practice still does work to some degree, but now, everybody does it. So you are still stuck in the same position, even if you purchase a ton of hits. ‘Why should they listen to you?’ is still the question.
Artists have to treat marketing like businesses do. Everyday, businesses spend millions of dollars on brand promotion, which hopes to ingrain itself on the psyche of future customers. New customers are emerging markets to businesses, and they are sought out because they represent the growth and stability of a company. If a company has a certain percentage of new clientele, they are assured of being able to continue, even when their core supporters stop buying their product. Branding helps consumers get to know a product or brand. With proper branding, consumers can be made aware of the benefits of a product or even how the product benefits the community through charitable giving for example. This should be the same incentive for artists trying to sell their music.
You must attempt to show potential consumers more about yourself, so when the choice for entertainment arises, you become part of the listeners evoked set of choices. Relying solely on your cover art is a risky gamble that can leave you overlooked by listeners who would otherwise enjoy what you have to offer. Become part of a new listeners evoked set of entertainment choices by revealing more about yourself, what you do, why you do it and how your music fits in to the picture. Do more YouTube videos, blogs, interviews, and live shows that reveal who you truly are, or if you’re really innovative do a personalized Mixtape Magazine…
Kurt Nice
Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE’s National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
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Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE's National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
