Founder/CEO FAN X FAN Founded: Girls Behind The Rock Show Management: Don’t Ever Call Me Doll Ent
This is going to be a very unpopular and controversial take with the current advice a lot of young people are getting going into the music industry but: I do not care about your personal brand. I need to be clear: I care about your work ethic, how you treat others, how you perceive the artistry of music and how you handle challenges. I care about how you show up. But I do not care about your online presence, who follows you on Instagram or what events you’re attending. It’s been difficult to place this conversation in my mind until recently. I’ve had a few experiences where professionals I work with who I entrust artists projects to be too busy attending networking events and conferences to give timely responses to their clients. After the third or fourth time, I just got upset. Your own reputation should never come before the art form your servicing. I’ve seen a lot of big industry influencers not owning up to losing clientele over this issue. Our job as industry leaders should never be about our own fame before artists. I fear this disconnect has a LOT to do with the severe obsession with nostalgia that younger generations have about music subcultures. They’re looking for community in art and instead constantly getting playbooks on how to make money off content and how to build personal brands by doing it. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to celebrate and promote your achievements as a professional, but if your professional career revolves around your brand and not the art you work with, we gotta start rethinking the approach. Music is art. Our artists should be the centerpiece of any brand we create.
Jerome Renard
1mo
That's fair! I really get where you're coming from. Obviously, your skills and being able to deliver the work you hired for is the crucial point that won't replace any personal brand - or you just get burnt on the first job. I don't think a personal brand is only represented by your social presence. I might be above the definition of it, but work ethic, how you treat others, artistry perception, how you show up in session or the workplace ... are in a way part of your "personal brand" - for me, that's the human side. Maybe I just approach it differently?
Jess Stadler
1mo
Thank you for posting this!!! Me and my bestie talk about this often. I don’t want to be a content creator or music influencer and I’m fighting the uphill battle on how to continue to grow my artist consulting business in a way to that doesn’t push me into having to make “music industry advice content” and building a big personal brand just to bring in new clients. It makes me sad because sometimes it feels like the only way…. But I will not cave into it. I don’t want to be an influencer and content creator. I want to be an artist manager, consultant, and industry professional that is respected and has a good reputation.
Thank you for sharing this, it's so reassuring to hear that there are still people in the music industry who have this mindset!! I don't know how many more times I can deal with hearing that building a digital personal brand is the most important thing today and you won't have a career if you haven't already built one. The value of networking and marketing via social media is undeniable, but I don't want to have to become an influencer or a massive content creator to be considered qualified. Unless it's specifically for a social media-based role, why should getting likes on TikTok be seen as more important than my experience, knowledge, and work ethic? I want my work to speak for itself. Sure it's fun to make content sometimes too, but I do what I do because I want to support artists, not just to make myself look important!
Maria Carmona
1mo
This is such a refreshing post--especially for those of us jumping from internship to internship every semester, the pressure seems to be always on to network and do more to secure your next offer. There's always another "thing" to be doing--LinkedIn posting, hosting events, going to webinars, cold emailing, etc. While those are important, I have found myself many times wondering if my quality of work and who I am stands to even speak for itself anymore if I'm not constantly networking or trying to sell myself to build this ~brand~. Thank you so much for sharing this nugget of advice today <3 Shelby Chargin
Lawrence Payne
1mo
Shelby, I wholeheartedly applaud your statement on music as art. I'm proud to be a musician, and I'm a constant musical thinker. However, the music industry is an "entertainment" industry. In the days of vinyl and CDs, success boiled down to the volume of units sold. In other words, record companies promoted and distributed plastic, using the content that plastic carried as the means to entice consumers. So, the more popular an act was, the "better" it was perceived to be. Musical artists could see through the guise, but consumers generally couldn't. Today's social landscape is different because it functions at lightspeed in comparison to the traditional one. We can forgive the young generation for its outright acceptance of the media as the product.
Noah Lifschey
1mo
Refreshing post, I'm happy to see this said out loud. Social Media has been both a boon and a weighted chain for art and (especially) music worldwide. We'll never go back to the way things used to be, but I'm hoping an immense wave comes through with younger artists going the other way, that champions what you've laid out here. We do know that things always change...HOW they change is of course something no one can really predict.
Dana English
1mo
Oh my GOODNESS, thank you for saying this out loud!!! TOO MUCH of this going on — across all areas of the industry. I’m having clients coming to me telling me they left their past managers/publicists because they seemed to be more focused on their own brand than doing what they’re being paid for and helping their clients. I’m having publications and agencies having to let go of their junior staff because they’re using the brand platform for personal benefit. It’s wild out there!!!
I think it depends on who you are talking to. If you are talking to artists, I think it is all about their brand. Those off stage- it gets a bit more nuanced. Rick Rubin is deffo (in my mind) also a brand. Same with some labels, some producers, even some managers. But it should all point at the Artist. Just my thoughts (that may change 😉)
David Lydiard
1mo
Far too many posers interested in getting themselves over rather than the artists they work with. But when said artist gets some traction they'll be all over it on their socials, posting photos of themselves standing next to the artist and bigging up how they helped them on their journey.
Composer/Music Producer | Creative Technologist | Actor
1moBuilding a personal brand demonstrates the skills you said you care about - showing up, work ethic, handling challenges, etc. One’s personal brand is also an effective gauge of how well someone can serve a community and to what scale. In todays’s world where degrees and resumés are worthless pieces of paper, showing the most minute glimpse into a persons’ accomplishments, a personal brand and online presence is the Portfolio of the 21st Century. Todays world is ripe with uncertainty and opportunities are endless with the internet. Everyone should be building a personal brand online, regardless of who it will serve or, in this case, shy away