The Artist Rise #033
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 Viral Misconception
The 2020's started out giving independent artists a bad impression.
We walked into this decade seeing virality break new artists into big moments and suddenly that was the gold every artist was chasing.
Justifiably so, in our perception it was working for artists. You get your big moment, what more can you want, right?
But for most, that was the extent of it. It started and ended with that "big viral song".
And why did that happen? Because the virality wasn't predicted, and therefore it wasn't prepared for.
But we're not in an industry where you can wait and react.
It's about having the foundation in place to support whatever happens next.
"In the Queue"
When big moments happen, they're opportunities, and it's up to you to sustain it or direct the outcome.
For very situations like having a big social media moment, it's important to be able to build off of big upticks in attention.
If a song starts to gain some traction, you want to have something to follow so you can keep those fans engaged.
If you're not prepared with what's next, that momentum falls flat and those fans move onto the next.
Even if we take any sudden peak out of the equation, having something in the queue is how you keep fans engaged and gain momentum one release after another.
And then the question becomes, how do we build that momentum?
Building Foundations
People depend on consistency, so that's what you have to deliver.
And the easiest way to do that is to create systems and build foundations to make that happen.
Foundations for creating and writing, making and posting content, every piece of the release puzzle.
Early in your stages as an artist, there's a lot of guesswork to figuring out what really works for you, but over time you start to pick up on your writing process, what kind of content makes the most sense for you, what you go through to bring a song to life, those kinds of things.
Those are the things that really unlock that next level of consistency.
Because if you know how you operate best, you can continue to put yourself in those situations and it gets easier from start to finish.
The true foundations are things like Logic templates to build your songs in, content pillars you can work any song into, things you can use over and over again to take some of the thought out of it.
Leaving you even more room to create more (aka the best part of the whole process).
Once you know what you're working with, then you can figure out what consistency looks like.
Finding your Consistency Cadence
Part of these foundations is developing the pulse that works for you.
Does trying to shove out a new song every 2 weeks make sense for you, or are we more on a 2 month timeline?
Are you able to sustain posting 3x a day on socials, or does 5x a week feel more within your wheelhouse?
It's not about what you could make happen in a good week, it's about what you can sustain week after week.
If you know what you can handle, you know what routines you can build for yourself.
Thriving on Routines
You've got your general foundations, you know what cadence you can work within, now all that's missing is the routines and daily steps you can take that make it happen.
Little things every day move the needle more than any big moment.
Artists that make small moves every day go much further than those that take big swings now and then.
Even if all you do for the day is send a few pitch emails or practice an old song, something is better than nothing.
The best version of these daily efforts, of course, falls into an intentional routine.
When you have a release cycle that you're sticking to, you can break down the writing, content, production and miscellaneous pieces into steps you take over the course of the days in the cycle.
Then you start to roll through these releases with a bit more ease, and you give yourself more time to focus on what it's really about: the art.
What It's All For
Like I said in the beginning, the viral game has had its moments of working, but in almost every case it was simply a moment and nothing more.
But that's not what we're building this system for, that's not what foundations and routines are about.
What it's really all about is creating a path for you to follow as an artist that'll aid your journey to the career you want.
It's not "building in case the moment comes", it's "building regardless of what happens".
The fans are out there, there's no question about that. But how and when you find them is beyond your control in many ways.
So instead of waiting for a big moment to hit, we're taking the steps now to try and find those fans, and also have a world ready for them when they find their way.
It might not be the most attractive part of being an artist, and sure there's work to be done here that isn't glamorous, but that's what turns this whole thing from a passion project to a real sustainable artistry.
Want to go further?
If you want more guidance in developing foundations that work for you, book some time with me and we will not only get your strategy ready but I'll help you position yourself as an artist too.
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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