Salutations #TeamKingIce:
In addition to your merchandise, jewels & online exposure it was only right that we not only compliment who you are as an artist but further assist in your musical endeavor as well. With that being said I will be providing everyone sponsored with a monthly newsletter targeting a particular subject that artists in general could find useful and beneficial for getting their brand and artistry to the next level.
Now, who am I to be giving you this guidance? My name is Zachary "Troy A." Peterson and I'm an artist manager responsible for KING ICE sponsored talent Twan Beat Maker, Bezz Believe, Suspect & D.O.N Flusso. I also manage, represent, promote numerous other clients such as the CEO & FOUNDER of GRIND TIME NOW (the world's largest rap battle league) Madd Illz. In addition to artist management I also run a company known as IV Parallels, LLC. Which is clothing & talent promotions, I'm a journalist for Eye Shyne Magazine, director of marketing for Studio 18 and am an event coordinator & one of the most successful Hip Hop Showcase promoters in Orlando, Florida. Last but not least I'm a columnist for IndieHelp.net a website devoted to providing guidance to up n comers in the Hip Hop industry.
Back to the subject at hand, the knowledge. This month I will be discussing foundations. In today's age it's imperative every artist is not only an artist in the sense of making music, but being a person who understands the art of small business. After all you are a small business & need to carry yourself as such.
Treating every step you take, as an artist should never be impulsive, but rather a thought out business move that can only benefit you in the long run. This is a foundation for you to potentially make a career from the music industry. Nurture it, practice it, love it and project that passion through the music you're creating.
The biggest thing for a start up artist is the beats, rhymes, delivery & charisma, which is entirely your ground to cover. When picking beats do your best to find exclusive beats that you can own the rights to! A lot of artists use mainstream beats or beats they find on the Internet and claim them as their own. This is a huge turn off to a majority of people who work in the industry because it makes you look amateur and ignorant. If you're pouring your heart on a beat and it's not yours you can't sell it, you don't have the right to perform using it and if you're lyrics and delivery are dope enough to intrigue someone who may be in a position to help you chances are they know they can rip you off because by rapping on an industry beat or a beat you have no rights to shows them you understand nothing about business and makes you out to be an easy target. Step one is to get your own beats and the biggest argument is people don't have the money for it, but if you're not developing a budget for yourself to operate as an artist you're hopping on a track and running nowhere fast. Step two is subject matter and that's not to say write about anything generic but don't spend half the song shouting out everyone in your circle and/or trash talking because you're not DJ Drama, and your friends are more than likely unknown to the ears of the masses and it makes your music that much more harder to relate to. There's a million artists and 95% of them make these mistakes, so if you're making them too how do you expect to be seen as different, unique, dope, or worthwhile for fans or labels? Now (hypothetically speaking) you've got ownership of your beats, you're dropping fire sixteen's with no BS saturating your song it's time for step 2.5 the hooks, bridges & choruses. There's no formula for how to go about making a hit song however there is a formula for how to make a song that's chances of being a hit greater then others. You've got to ensure your chorus is complimenting the song as a whole and along with hooks and bridges is catchy & clever. You want to project "you" the best way possible but don't let that turn off potential consumers & employers. Beats handled, Songs wrote & recorded; now it's time for the step three, the technical aspect. Get your music professionally mixed & mastered. Now I know the money is a majority of yall's hold ups and that's fine. You're not racing against the clock (well, you shouldn't be) all your doing is creating the craft. Start looking for local studio's and or local engineers and determine what's the most financially beneficial avenue you can take that doesn't sacrifice the quality of your music and develop a means to pay for the service, in the long run this is what's considered to be an ROI (return on investment) you drop this money now and you'll make it back later. Now that the single is done, repeat the steps with other songs until you have yourself a project. Put the songs in the best order that compliments the ears and encourages people not to skip tracks. Once that's all said and done focus on the artwork. Get customized thumbnails for every track, good art for the cover and the back (track listing) and figure out a means of distribution. Weather it's getting the physical or sticking with digital or both. If you don't have a local buzz and hardly any budget it wouldn't kill you to give this project away for free if you're devoted to promoting it and getting it out there. This sponsorship is a good initial step for your viral marketing and promotional campaign. The final step is getting yourself some shows weather they're showcases, opening for big names coming to your city, trying to hop on local city events and trying to get yourself a place to perform and promote and now you're in the grind of repetition folks. Continue making the music, taking the right steps to cultivate the sounds of each song and the project as a whole, and grind as hard on the streets as you do online. Make sure you get accounts on all social, business, and music networking platforms and ensure your URLs are all the same (as you'll see mine are at the bottom of this letter) because that'll assist in search engine optimization and when people find you on one platform they can find you on the rest.
The above has just been a general guideline I encourage all artists to follow. Consider this to be a blueprint of an indie artist, all of you are at different stages in your career and I wanted to keep it vague so you can further utilize this article and custom tailor a plan from this that'll be benefit to whatever it is you personally have going on. I wish you all the best, and along with my IndieHelp.net articles I'll be writing these monthly newsletters just for you guys. Please feel free to contact me with your questions, comments, concerns and I'll be more than happy to personally assist you with what I'm able to do and if I get a lot of the same questions I'll make it the following newsletter to further benefit everybody sponsored by KING ICE. Take care of yourselves and much love.
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