REFLECTIVE JOURNAL // ARTIST DEVELOPMENT

Description

This essay will describe my individual development in this year within my Artist Development course. The rst half of the year was about the artist and the manager, different types of relationships and the importance of team behind the artist - building and developing the brand. First coursework had to contain information about managing creative individuals, contract types and different management techniques. Second half of the year, we looked at A&R, videos, the overall image of up-coming artists and the most important - where is the attention and why is it there? We lightly touched social-media principles and marketing, the pros and cons in digital world like maintaining the reputation and creating the buzz. Second coursework was about creating an artist and writing a bibliography for the artist in a group. The assessment was fun and creative, made people communicate in their free time and considered equal contribution. All we had to was just to keep up with writing because the ideas were owing as soon as we set the rst key points. I am talking about it to give a brief explanation about what we had to do, but most inuential was not the part we had to do, rather topics we discussed, the videos we watched and the real hands on experiences the lecturers talked about which all proved that real-life music management is a lot more complicated than it seems on the paper.

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Interpretation

Now I am going to talk about what I have learned and how I interpreted the signicant knowledge about the industry to myself. Many artists start off from their bedroom hoping to get noticed. Some are waiting for celebrity Svengali to make them a commercially valuable product, but in the end every artist needs a manager and the relationships can be very varied in the light of developing the artist. First of all, there must be some kind of material (recordings) what should be up online so the people can easily access it and suggest the music to their friends and relatives, because eventually the rst fans are always artists friends. Manager should worry about the overall image like what kind of pictures and videos artist should put up or where and when to promote the act including where to perform and how to create a wider buzz around the artist. The manager is there to advise you, to guide you through your career in the music business (Harrison, 2008, p.32). Social networking sites are the key elements of success because the most people see the artist only online, so its critical to get it right to attract the right audience. Pictures, videos, artwork - it all says a lot about the artist and listeners subconscious mind will know right away is this artist their cup of tea or not. The marketing of an artist can be quite difcult because when the artist does not have a clear opinion about the concept of marketing then it will be up to the manager. The manager must deal with the image and tables turn managers have to be the creative individuals. The importance to get it right is critical because people are very quick to make their minds whether they like the artist or not. The artist also has to be physically present for live shows, videos and interviews. Manager and the artist should decide whether they put the songs up as a free download in Soundcloud or nd a indie distributor to put them on sale in iTunes. If the artist does not have many followers then there is no need to put it on sale because people do not know yet what they are exactly paying for. In case the artist has many followers, performs often live and theres a lot of buzz going on, the songs should be on sale digitally to generate some kind of income for both parties. The artist and the manager have to decide will they work with a contract or without, there should always be a trial period where they both decide whether they are right for each other or not. The managers main duty is to get the artist signed to a record label, but this follows only if the rst steps of artist development has been successful. The information I have gained in this course has all been very useful in terms of being part of the artists development in my future career. I enjoyed the course as we did
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a lot of creative thinking and tried to gure out why artists create the buzz and what it exactly is what has not been there before. Azealia Banks with her New York attitude and harsh speaking manner created a lot of buzz and I rst saw the video 212 in a seminar and then couple of weeks later it was everywhere I looked. Lana Del Ray phenomena with the Video Games video although she was an major label artist before, but it did not sell so they did a rebirth with her including the whole image, genre, look and attitude - it worked. Interesting was also when we watched 4-piece girl band Savages live video. I did a little bit of research and found they were signed to Pop Noire Records and as I emailed them saying if I could do internship for them, they said they are just 2 people (Savages lead singer Jehnny and their producer John) asking how did I know to contact them. The most interesting is the fact that they have no idea that people are talking about them in the industry and I kept the holy secret with me. This course lead me to these people, who are now my great friends and I will have many benets because of it in my future career. The part of the course where we did branding and looked at marketing side in terms of creating a commercially valuable product was one of the most relevant and interesting parts of this course. We watched videos from different collaborations in the dance music scene and how the majors take underground producers and mix them up with mainstream female singers to create commercial value (Breakage - Fighting Fire feat. Jess Mills). These facts created a very good picture in which the music industry works and how exible everything has to be. The assignment we had to do as a group connected me with my fellow students and we all enjoyed the evolution of cooking up an artist from the roots. Writing the biography was very smooth because we decided right away the genre of the artist (funkrock) and similar artists (Jamiroquai) so it was all about letting our imagination ow. Part where we had to formalize it, we all discussed the topics through, suggested similar artists to each other to listen while writing and individually wrote the bits and pieces down. It was all loose, but still everyone was conscientious. It was relevant because we talked a lot about branding and social networking as part of the marketing an artist and then we had a chance to use our knowledge in real-life scenario.

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Outcome

Due to this course I have started to see the importance of being multi-dimensional, versatile and with a clear different angle looking from the marketing perspective. This course has given me a lot of condence to talk to people and therefore benet my selfgrowth. As I gained a lot of useful information about A&R I got a lot wiser how the things really work in the industry. Useful facts about contracts, legal advice, branding and social networking have maintained my interest in artist development. I nd it all very philosophical and the different processes make me think out of the box a lot. I have started to think about thinking and I have found that it is a lot easier to make people unconsciously follow when you know how to pull the right strings. The preferences people have due to their social back-round, ethnicity, ideologies and spending budgets are very clearly distinguishable. Successful artists make more sense now and I see a lot clearer why (Beyonce, Emeli Sande, Eminem or Azealia Banks) - they all communicate with a lot of people due to their backround, ethnicity and attitude.

I really hit the button with 212 and it speaks to a lot of people but Ive got songs like Runnin that speak to people that 212 doesnt speak to I got the Slow Hands cover and other Rn'B tracks because I dont want to just become this one dimensional thing. (Pop Justice, 2012) For me, if I try to take all under one umbrella, I would say that the most important and relevant thing I have learned is this course is that an artist must be multi-dimensional. It is not about having the best voice in the world or looking beautiful - its all about connecting. As in everyday life, people are naturally driven towards people they have something in common with, in music business, it is all about nding the links between the artist and the listener. If the artist gets it right, the listeners will share and support. This year opened a whole new world for me and subjects that seemed difcult or too informative in the took me to next level as a person and as a future music industry specialist.

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Reference List Pop Justice (2012) Azealia Banks says that we shouldnt expect her album to all be like 212. Pop Justice[online]. 28 February. Available from: http://www.popjustice.com/ thenews/azealia-banks-says-dont-expect-her-album-to-all-be-like-212/ [Accessed 9 May 2012]. P&C DIGITAL SOUNDBOY RECORDINGS CO (2011) BREAKAGE FEAT. JESS MILLS FIGHTING FIRE. 16 January. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=oQcBYboY8G4 [Accessed 9 May 2012]. LanaDelReyVevo (2011) Lana Del Rey - Video Games. 16 October. Available from: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6wxDqdOV0 [Accessed 9 May 2012]. POPNOIRErecords (2012) Savages LIVE - Pop Noire night @ The Shacklewell Arms, London - City's Full [HD]. 7 February. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xUqDckQuqcg [Accessed 9 May 2012]. Harrison, A. (2008). Music the business: the essential guide to the law and deals. 4th ed. London: Virgin Publishing. p 32.

Bibliography List MMF (2001) Guide to professional music management. London: Sanctuary.

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Introduction to Artist Development!