Your musician brand is the foundation of your artistry. Yet, artists commit brand atrocities all the time.  Here are the worst ones so you can be aware of them and avoid making these musician branding mistakes.

1. Not Having A Brand P-L-A-N! – AKA A Strategy

A brand doesn’t happen by accident!  You need to understand what a brand strategy is and create one. A brand is not only about your look and feel – that is part of it but a true brand starts with your WHY.  What is your purpose, why do you create music, to begin with? It is to change the world?  to inspire and touch people?  to have a great party every time you are on stage and make people dance? You make music for a reason and defining that is key. Your GOALS come next and they need to be built into the strategy.

2. No Memorable Look and Feel to your musician brand

As Bobby Owsinski says, a brand has at its foundation: “At the very least, a consistent name, color, and font on all online and offline presences, as well as some killer professionally-created photos.”  Your music is, of course, the backbone of all of it.  When you are making a plan ask: What would my music look like if visualized – logo and album and single artwork. also, tie into this. And don’t forget your onstage look and all of your photos (including behind the scenes). While the message in the text of your socials is important, don’t forget to integrate eye-catching photos, graphics and videos.

3. You Have No Recognizable Themes 

If you are all over the place on your socials you will be unrecognizable. One way to remedy this is to select no more than 5 themes and stick to them. Here we look at 7 Instagram Rockstars and break down the 5 themes of each and show you exactly what they are doing right. Watch others who nail it and learn! One of your themes will be your music and everything that surrounds it.  This gives you 4 more to play with.  Go back through all of your posts and see what has been working well with your audience to get some inspiration.

4. You Have No Distinguishable Voice in your musician brand

YOU have a voice – you sing for godsakes!  Why don’t you have a voice online? This ‘voice’ must be rooted in a strong artist bio aka a signature story and include your own unique approach. Are you funny, stoned, dry, sarcastic, silly, crazy,  intellectual, low-brow, etc. you must consider how you develop your voice and what feels right to you. Once you do fully realize this voice, your focus and ability to create consistent compelling content it all falls into place. Download our 12 Questions above to begin to walk through what your story is and see how you can build your voice to it.

5. Your Brand Only Goes One Way AKA You Overly Self- Promote & You Don’t Care About Your Fans

The worst way to give zero Fs is to shout into the void and not respond on socials.  This is a two-way street. You need to understand who they are so you can effectively speak to them!  Once you know them, you need to care more about engaging your fans than anyone else. Once you establish yourself with the trustworthy reputation that any ideas, comments, and responses will be heard, validated and appreciated, that your fans will start to match your commitment to engagement. Unfortunately, most artists are too busy with self-promotion to put the correct amount of time and effort into varying their content away from self-promotion.A good general rule to use is that only 1 in every 10 posts should be self-promotional, with the rest focusing on mixed media content that ties in your interests and passions.