How to Build a Brand as a Music Producer

"Every music producer is an artist and every artist is an entrepreneur. Your music is your art and your art is your business."

Most music producers find it difficult to sell their music, be it online or offline. What they don’t understand is that selling your music is just a by-product of building a rock-solid brand.

If you have a quality brand that people trust, they don’t mind buying your product, regardless of what you sell. They trust you, and so they trust your product.

For instance, Apple brand’s users admire and trust the brand. They don’t just trust a single product, but they trust the whole brand. Thus, they don’t mind paying extra for Apple’s other services, apps and accessories.

If you want to make a living as a music producer, building a brand that people can trust should be foremost in your plan.

In this article, you will learn How to Build a Brand as a Music Producer.

What Does A Brand Stand For?

For a music producer, a brand means two things, the consistency of sound and the value that you provide. The first one usually represents your product i.e. your music and the second one represents the quality of your services i.e. work ethic, reliability etc.

As a music producer, you are the face and the brand of your music. The quality of your work represents the quality of your brand. You can always recall an artist by the sound of his/her music.

The consistency of sound is usually what a music brand stands for. Regardless of what genre you play and experiment with, make sure the feel of the sound stays the same. To make a rock-solid brand, you will have to stay consistent and true to the sound of your music.

5 Easy Steps To Build Your Brand As A Music Producer

Here are 5 steps that will help you build your brand as a music producer: -

1. Choose A Brand Name
2. Create Your Online Presence
3. Build a Music Catalogue
4. Have A Release Strategy
5. Stay Consistent

Step 1: Choose a Brand Name

If you have not named your brand yet, start with choosing a brand name to brand yourself as a music producer. Make sure that the name you choose for your brand is one that you’re comfortable with, fits well with your personality and what you are offering.

It is always a good place to start with your name as an artist name. If that does not work for you, start brainstorming.

Choosing your brand name is quite a challenge because there are already many brands that exist with the names you may want to choose from. Give enough thought and time to your chosen brand name, ensuring that it is memorable. Your brand name is the first impression people have about your brand. You must be able to market it, own it and protect it. So, you must select your brand name only after you know the availability of the brand and the domain name.

You can check the availability of your brand name’s trademark here and domain name for the same here.

Learn in depth by reading the Complete Guide on Choosing A Brand Name As A Music Producer.

Step 2: Create Your Online Presence

Having an online presence is an essential part of any brand’s strategy to grow a fan base and to connect with your fans. Your brand’s online presence presents your brand’s quality. To get online, you will need content. Online presence is demanding but essential to success. Make sure you put across your USP and Why, when you come up with a content strategy.

There are many ways to create your brand’s online presence. Check this article to know different Types Of Online Presence For Music Producers. 

You can start with free social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Reverbnation, Soundcloud etc. Being present on YouTube and other monetizable platforms is always worth the effort. Make sure you consistently post unique content. This is the cheapest way to promote and market your music.

You can also create a website for your brand and publish your music catalogue there. Make sure you post regularly about your new work on your website and all social media platforms, so your fans know about your upcoming music and projects.

You can build your website with Bluehost here.

Step 3: Build a Music Catalogue

Your music catalogue is the complete collection of the music you own. As a music producer, your music catalogue is your product. Your product to sell, market and build a strong fan base for your brand.

A solid music catalogue, consisting of a mix of released and unreleased music, will keep you ready to build your brand and sell your music, online and offline.

You can showcase your music catalogue on your own websites, social media platforms and Music streaming websites like Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Reverbnation, YouTube and the likes.

Check this article to learn Why You Should Build A Music Catalogue.

Step 4: Have A Release Strategy 

Many inexperienced music producers rush into releasing their music without planning a proper release strategy. As a result, the bulk of their recordings fails to shine due to the lack of preparation.

Planning a release strategy is a must. It gives your music and your brand the attention it deserves. Market your content even before you release any music. Build anticipation and demand beforehand, and fulfil it with your consistent release schedule. Doing so will maximise your chances of success.

A release strategy will help you decide the right time to release your songs and the time interval in between each release. Building a release strategy includes planning to copyright your music before the release, music distribution, pre deciding the release dates and timings for each of your songs, pre-release strategy for your upcoming song to create the hype and a post-release strategy, touring, events and marketing of all sorts that your budget allows you to maintain the hype so your newly released songs can actually make it big.

The marketing of a new album/singles should start well before the release date. Doing so helps build momentum, increase awareness, and promote the album in various ways. It also helps retain the attention of the fans and draw more people towards your brand.

Also, consider planning the release of one song at a time and not the whole album altogether. Albums are obsolete in today's world. It is a singles game.

The more songs that are released, the more exposure they get. It helps you decide which ones to feature and make music videos. Releasing one song at a time also allows you to release more frequently, and it helps keep the fans and most social media platforms algorithm happy, happy, happy.

Step 5: Stay Consistent

Building a brand doesn't stop with choosing a brand name or a release strategy. It involves developing a consistent brand across all of your marketing platforms and websites.

Your brand will evolve as it reaches and connects with more people. It's important to remember that you will never have complete control over how your audience perceives your brand. You can't control the way people see your brand, so you have to work consistently to improve and make it stand out in the crowd.

You will be astonished to see how far your brand image can be evolved by following these simple steps. It can be confusing to a fan base if your brand’s core elements keep changing. So make sure you plan well, give your followers plenty of time to adapt and work consistently to keep each element in place for a long time.

The more you produce, the more you grow.

Hope this article helped you gain perspective and get started. If you have any feedback, do share it in the comments section.