The Artist Rise #038
Welcome to your weekly resource for all things branding, release strategy, and overall artist development.
Every week I'll help you strengthen your artistry through sustainable strategies that will help you build your career rather than force you into burnout.
Let's get into it.
The Massive Industry
The music industry is huge.
Not only in saturation of music itself with the tens of thousands of songs that are being uploaded to DSPs every day, but in how vast it is.
There are so many corners and facets of the industry that you can pursue and still be within the "music industry".
Sync, A&R, distribution, you name it.
It's a massive landscape, and not just in depth but in width as well.
With that being said, the options are endless. There are so many avenues you can pursue.
Feels great to have options, right? But that makes it just as hard to lock down on one route to go.
And while it's empowering to follow through on multiple interests and keep your paths open, you can also fall into the trap of doing too many things and limit the room you have to grow in any direction.
The same thing applies to being an independent artist.
The Catch-22
As we all know it, there are so many things expected of an artist, especially one who's independent.
You write the songs, produce the songs, finish and release the songs, promote the songs, perform the songs, create content to support the songs, and have to do that all in a constant cycle to keep up with the algorithms and systems the industry has surrendered to.
Sound about right?
With so much you're expected to do, it starts to limit the quality of what you can output.
It becomes more about checking off the boxes than it does delivering a good result.
And the hardest part about it is that independent artists are sold this narrative that they have to do all of those things in order to have a chance at succeeding into the careers they want.
You get sold these success stories on all sides of how X method helped Y artist reach Z result, and suddenly it becomes the thing you think you should spend your time doing because it worked for someone else.
But here's the reality:
Any of those paths COULD be the one for you, but pursuing ALL of them hurts you more than it helps you.
Locking in
A big challenge for independent artists is locking in on what makes the most sense for them.
Everybody wants to do it all because you never know what you could be "missing out" on.
But the truth is, waivering between different approaches doesn't give any of them the chance to succeed.
This goes for marketing, creating content, anything.
The more you commit to something, the more you allow yourself to grow with in that sector.
And the best way to decide where you should put your energy is to go back to what got you here in the first place.
Back to the roots
Different artists want different things.
Some want to go on tour, some dream of collaborations with their favorite artists, some just want to turn music into their income in whatever way they can.
Everyone's priorities lie in different places.
So if the priorities vary, so should the methods to get there.
Different avenues are geared towards different results.
If you simply want your music to bring home income, maybe pursuing sync is for you.
If you dream of seeing your name in a headline, getting more press might make more sense.
When you only have so much bandwidth, it's important to narrow down and make sure you can give an A1 effort to what you pursue.
And if you focus on what falls in line with your goals, you help yourself stay grounded in what this has really been all about.
It helps you from waivering into something that might not be in your best interest in the long run, regardless of how enticing some case study artist's results might be.
All in all
At the end of the day, all that you should focus on is what's helping you towards your goals and what you can manage.
Going back to your 'why' is the best way to allow yourself to stay on track for what you ultimately want your music journey to be.
It's easy to get caught up in other opportunities or pathways, especially when you see the results other artists have gotten. But the bottom line is you have to choose what is best aligned with what you want.
And if you have extra bandwidth, don't hesitate to try something new and add something into your workflow, but make sure your priorities stay where they need to be.
Bottom line: if you know what you want, you can more clearly identify the path you should take to get there. Jumping from one method to another doesn't do you any favors or get you any results.
Remember why you're here, and work for that.
Work for your WHY.
Want to go further?
If you want more guidance in developing strategies and workflows that work for you, book a free intro session and see what a game-changing strategy can look like for you and your artistry.
Until next time,
-Ava
That's it for this week! Hopefully this helped you take the next step in developing yourself as an artist and a brand. Stay tuned for more next week.
If you have any topics you want to see more of or any questions you'd love for me to answer, simply reply to this email.
Keep learning and growing,
Ava Rose Lynch
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