How to find a team in your music career?
Updated: Nov 18, 2021
Finding a team Unfortunately this may take time, but you want to make the right choices when you do get there. Not attracting team members over time can be frustrating. For the most part you can't force someone to join your team. It's not that easy. But there are things you can control so you are putting your best foot forward to be enticing to a team member and attracting the right ones. What can you control Although some aspects are not within our control like certain playlist opportunities (if unsigned), deeper industry connections & business (if access to great manager), have shows at your disposal (experienced booking agent). SO! What can you control - your consistency in social media posts, how your brand looks, educating yourself to how the industry functions, create social currency in what you are doing, book your own shows I'll explain these in further detail... Consistency in social media posts Something you can most definitely control is your posting schedule. Set yourself up with a planner so you know when to post and stay accountable for communicating to your fans. There is a science and discipline to reaching a larger engaged audience. How your brand looks Simple one - you can do yourself. What makes you, you. What do you want to show your audience? A camera phone is just as good as anything for photography for general posting. I'd look into booking your press shots with a pro though! All artists are different, embrace yourself and show that to your audience. Play to Hype Are all your songs hitting the mark? is the industry talking about you? do you have multiple offers? Understanding how the industry functions How does the industry really work? What are the gatekeepers looking for? Can I do a lot of that work myself and at what time do I need a team?
Social currency First off... What is social currency? Social currency is the value of your following or social media presence and the opportunities you can thus yield from them. For example an artist with 1M followers (a proven track record and a large following) would have a higher value than an artist who uploaded to instagram one week ago with 100 followers. That's not to say the artist with 100 followers can't reach 1M fans one day, but the opportunities based on their following would dictate the opportunities that would come their way. This could include better festival slots, as you can guarantee you will sell large portions of tickets, negotiating better record deals because you have the currency or engagement to back it up, brand deals with larger brands who collaborate to reach your audience. There is a myriad of different reasons why. At the end of the day. It's providing a value. What kind of value does the following/engagement or social currency attain. A team member like a label makes an assessment based on how your branding looks, if the music is good, your social currency, your live touring ability, connection to radio and other team members. Now what we are seeing is that social currency is the starting point for privy managers and major labels. Whether they had a large following on a social media platform prior in other forms (dancer, entertainer, influencer) and turning that value into a music career. I've seen this within the pop scene in Australia from previous Tiktok fame and also a famed comedian receiving a major label deal who made a meme song based on their string following. When there's value there is hands! It is a business after all. If you are making money or have the potential to make money, people will be offering you something. To influence social currency we use our different services to get out artists to a point, where team members come to you. Thats our big goal!
Let them come to you, or not? This is debatable. If you would love to work with a certain team member in the industry, shoot them a message. It won't hurt! I'd recommend you be nice and keep the introductions short in an email. But build a relationship! Don't be demanding or be a diva if you get no reply!! Or alternatively the age old saying "Let them come to you", has it's pros also! The reason why is if they offer you something you at least can negotiate easier as they are approaching you. Also shows they are interested. As always do your research in what they have done prior to their interest in you. If they can offer a bigger slice of pie than they are taking away, that is what you are ultimately looking for.
If you would like to know more about social media planning, social currency, artist hype, booking shows - you can book our workshop zoom call package (1hr 30 min) and we'd be happy to chat in regards to what your goals are in your music career and come up with a strategy specialised for you! Built by Musicians for Musicians.