![]() All of my Research and Bibliography and CRAP tests can be found here During my research, I learnt about many things, from marketing to branding to the different genres of music. I broke my research into three different categories; Branding, Marketing and personal expression. Branding: I learnt, from Guy Gordon at medium.com/@guygordon how branding is all about catering to your audience and learning how to sell it to them while also keeping your style. Branding yourself in terms of music is similar to branding a company, except, you are the company. The same things apply, you still have and audience, you still have a goal and you still need followers to achieve that. I learnt about how it is okay to make something (in my case, it’s music) that has already been made before or similar, but to transform it is what will really get people looking. In other words, it’s okay to use other songs as inspiration for your own covers or songs, but something that’s been covered or heard a thousand times won’t stand out until it’s made new again. No musician can really ever create music that hasn’t been thought of before. There will always be something similar. I’ve learnt that how to make my brand stand out is to not try and make it different, but to transform it into something better and more likable, since it’s all about the fans and followers you have supporting you in the music industry. Reading all these articles I found that branding is just being yourself. I read an article by Kendra Gaines at medium.com/@KGAINEZ about how to build your fanbase as a musician and I learnt that you need to put in the time to make your music sound good enough that your listener goes to show their friends. If they like the music enough and it's quality, they will go show others which will broaden your fanbase. You need to go after the right people that will actually enjoy your music, don't go selling your music to people who you know won't like the sound. It said that you should set realistic goals about where you want to be in the near and distant future. This can help you to know the vision you have for yourself and help you to follow up with it. Also, something that can help is to write stuff down, to help you keep on track. In relation to the article above, I found another one, by Cara Martner at medium.com/@cara_, but about building your fanbase in terms of music for introverts. I think I would refer to myself as more introvert than extrovert, I'm not exactly the loudest outgoing person, but I can be when I want to. This article told me that the way to build your fanbase is to record quality music, find the fans that are true to you, and exploit them to use them to your best advantage. The key is hunting down the truest fans that will stick by you. The article, by James Schiff at medium.com/@jameshunterschiff that was about followers was very interesting. It said to follow the leader, to learn from the people that have many followers. See what they are doing to make it that way and try the same. You need to learn where to post to get the most views on your music. It said to nail down your target market, so you know where the music is going to, so you can, again, cater to their specifications. The last thing is to think about what makes you different from others aside from the music. People don't just want an alien behind the music, they want a human being, and they want to know that person too, so think of what that is you need to show them. According to Safwan Hak at medium.com/@safwan.hack, the 4 questions you need to be asking yourself about building your personal brand are: Am I using social media strategically? What makes me more interesting, different than others? What am I passionate about? What value can I bring? Although this article was about personal branding, not specific to music, it was so helpful to me, since I can use these questions and apply them to my music to help me stand out. They can also help me to reflect on my own actions, se what's working well, what isn't working so well and how I can change things up to make sure the fans and followers don't get bored and move on. Marketing: Marketing isn’t the focus of my project, but it will be something I will keep doing in the future. So I’ve learnt about how to market in terms of music, how you can learn from your favorite artists or bands. One article I read, by Nate Hirshberg at medium.com/@natehirsh, said that it’s it’s all about the emotional connection between a band and their fans. The key goal is to achieve this level of connection. They say that you can learn from another person’s story, how to overcome things or do things. You can also learn stuff from the emotion in their songs, or their followers. I can try and achieve this by reading up on how many of the most successful musicians back stories,and how they found their style or brand, and I can learn from it. Maybe I decide to take some of the same steps, but maybe I just get some ideas from them. Some quotes from the article I read “The question is how to turn a customer into a fan, part of your following” (Nate Hirshberg) “Invest the customer, not just financially but emotionally” (Nate Hirshberg) Taking the advice from the previous article, I decided to read up on one of the most famous artists right now; Taylor Swift. I found an article, marketingprofs.com, that actually wrote 5 lessons they learnt from watching Taylor Swift. 1. Be willing to reinvent yourself… Good brands never stay the same, they move around and change. That’s what makes them so fresh and new and keeps people wanting to hear their new music. 2. Lead the conversation… Your brand should portray confidence, lead the conversation. 3. Send the message, don't wait for others to figure it out… You need to be straight up and say what you mean because people appreciate that. 4. Humanize your brand… You don’t want to be fake, people like to talk to real people. If you aren’t relatable or real, people won’t support you or your brand. 5. Think different… She said that ‘different’ gets noticed, and that ‘same’ is just overlooked. I learnt that you need to be able to step out of the box and be different in order to get noticed, people like different and if you can get over the fear of people judging you, you will get noticed. FURTHERE RESEARCH (added later): I did some more research into branding and found out that I need to focus on these things in order to get my brand across better: A website I read (linked below) said that I need a clear message that my music will get across. I agree with this, but not fully. I believe that I need an overall general message that I believe in, but my music doesn't always need to have one message. That would make my music boring, and I intend to keep in engaging. I need to know what expresses me and what makes me unique and memorable. I believe I have this, I know that my music expresses me, and that is what I am using to get my brand across, to show the question I have been focusing since the beginning of this project: 'who I am as an artist'. My music and style are what make me unique, and hopefully memorable I also needed to know what distinguishes me form my competition, which would essentially be other artists with the same type of music and style as me. I think that my brand will help me to stand out, as well as things like my Instagram account. I have a strong internet presence as well as just music. The last thing was what your target audience connects with, emotionally and what makes them want to work with you. I think that my target audience is everyone that wants to listen to my music. I don't really feel like putting a specific age or type of people that should listen to my music. I would love anyone who wants to enjoys the type of music I am producing to listen to me. Hopefully they will listen to my music because they like my voice and what I'm doing with songs and they believe in the things I'm singing about. Maybe an example of someone who would listen to my music would be other Third Culture Kids, since they can relate to me. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/careers/campus/assets/img/programs/personal-brand-workbook.pdf http://www.astridbaumgardner.com/blog-and-resources/articles/personal-branding-for-musicians-and-artists-using-your-unique-gifts-to-connect-with-your-audience-sp-1016948968/ http://femusician.com/blog/music-business-personal-statement-of-purpose-the-lifeblood-of-your-music-career/
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![]() I know a band here in Bangkok who do a really good job of branding themselves so I would like to interview the lead singer Jenny. I am arranging for this to happen soon. Questions I am thinking of asking her:
![]() I was looking over this document of all my research and reflections and thought about how I didn’t actually like how I am just using Google documents to record all of my thinking and research. I looked around and different ways to put all of my things in one place, and I saw that I could make a website. This way I could upload my blogs posts and research, but also have different pages to post my covers of songs and link everything to it. This can also be part of the ‘branding’ that I am doing, because this website can show my style and I am able to incorporate the photos that I want and everything that comes under ‘my brand’. While I was back home, all the relatives, other IB kids not at NIST, or any people I know outside of NIST were interested in what my topic was and asked me all about it. In this, I learnt that being able to properly articulate my project and product is really important. I feel that each time I had to explain it I got better and better at saying what I want to do and how I will go about doing it. This was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to me in the long run, because, somehow it had made it more clear to myself about what I wanted to do and why I was doing it. I realize that this is more that just a product, that it can actually really help me with what I want to achieve in life, not just PP.
![]() Something very cool popped up on my Facebook feed one day, it is this guy called Alex Aiono, and he covers songs, but he uses the Dub-step board to remix the song. I thought this was amazing, because sometimes he completely changes the song. For example, he took a song I don’t particularly like, One Dance by Drake, and changed it and I really enjoy listening to his cover. It’s very clever how he changes things. This was great inspiration to me, since I realized that I can actually use songs I don’t like, they don’t have to be kept the same. I also like how he uses some unusual instruments, like the board and all of these sounds on his computer. This made me think about how people don’t want to listen to something the same, that they want something new, so if I’m covering a song, try to make the sound, look or feel different so that people enjoy it and want to listen to it. Even though they’ve heard the original, they will feel this is a new song. ![]() While thinking about my Personal Project one day, and my goal for it, I came to realize that being a TCK is my point of difference to many other aspiring musicians in the world. I’ve lived in New Zealand, Vietnam and Bangkok, so three different cultures and each have very different points of view. Being a TCK has helped me to become more open-minded, as I travel around a lot too. I realized that my life story is something unique and can help me be more known, and I should use to my advantage while creating my musical identity. While traveling around various places of the world, I have been exposed to many different cultures, and all that comes with that like music and mindset. Something else that widens my perspective about different cultures is going to an International School where there are so many different nationalities. While if I went to school in New Zealand I would be one out of a whole school of kiwis, in NIST I am the only New Zealander in the whole of my year group. ![]() Over the summer, I went to an art gallery in my hometown. Inside was this very interesting exhibit called the ‘Obliteration Room’ where you got handed a sheet of colorful circle stickers and you could place them anywhere in the room. The room first started out as everything white, but so many people have come in and put stickers over the walls it’s covered. In this room is where I got some cool photos that I may use as part of my project. |
AuthorI'm Bella. I'm a New Zealander growing up in Thailand. I'm defining my style and brand as an artist. Archives
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