JOURNEYING INTO PRODUCT & ARTIST MANAGEMENT:
Allow me to introduce you to my “Product and Artist Management” journey through the past one month. It all started with dreams which included becoming better at managing artists and products. I set out to achieve two (2) primary goals that included; creating the right products for the market and generating an understanding of how a musician like me would make money from my own talent. The course did not only fulfill the two above mentioned set goals, but it also opened up my mind to better understand many other areas of this show business.
The term “SHOWBIZ” refers to “the Business of the show.” For any business to grow and succeed, both money and a profit have to be made. The course introduced me to multiple ways of generating income digitally from music and from concert ticket sales as well as merchandise sales. I also learned that artists no longer really make money from CDs because the trends have changed from that to digital in the past ten (10) years.
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram are some is a great platform for artists and product managers. We, therefore, must constantly figure out how best to use these platforms to arrive at our desired business destinations. We may post/share pictures or videos through social media, to cause interest and promote the products. If we do it right, we would attract a clientele, which audience we will keep if we treat them right and keep feeding them with what they want.
I learned about managing independent (indie) artists as well as mainstream or signed artists. The course has equipped me with the necessary skills that will help me make the right decisions before ever signing any similar contracts. I ought to understand the implications of any deals because “not everything that glitters, is gold!” Some deals are simply too good to be true. So, as an independent artist, I must be very careful when trading any similar grounds as a careless mistake made once might ruin my entire career.
It is important for every artist to determine if they want to stay “indie” or if they want to go mainstream. As artists and product managers, we must understand that there is not only one way to make money. We can not claim that the only successful artists are those that have gone main streams or have received record deals. There are lots of indie artists that are making “decent” amounts of money and are happily living on that.
Market-Research and branding have been key areas learned during the past month. For any product to be successful, we must carefully do a market research to determine our audience and what those consumers want. Customers are our driving force in any business, so, we must always give them what they want if we expect to receive anything from them. We must tailor our products to meet their demands and at the same time, we mustn’t keep them waiting forever but keep them interested. Otherwise, they will soon find a replacement for us. Market Research allows us to sample the market, which helps us to determine if the consumers are ready to receive a created product or not.
Product planning, Branding, and Packaging do work somewhat together. When we plan a product, we must correctly interpret our market-research data to design the right product & price it appropriately i.e. not too high (unless we have deliberately selected a specific privileged audience) and not too cheaply, because, the connotation that comes with the term “cheap” is “POOR-Product/Service.” Very often, consumers will attach a higher value to products/services priced higher. So, we must take “advantage of that advantage” by understanding that the prices carry value and that is very important for our targeted audiences.
The negotiation skills attained over the past weeks will help me make the right decisions in this business. I am now able to watch out for contract terms and clauses such as how much of my rights I would I retain, the term of the contract, how much net profit I would generate after footing all my other bills (Net Profit) among others. Such skills are important because, without that knowledge, indie artists like me would most likely not be able to succeed in the Showbiz.
In conclusion, anything that generates an income may be referred to as a product/service. This by default makes an artist a product. The underlying interest in any business is to make money and a profit. As a businessman, I must acknowledge that there will always be multiple added and unforeseen costs in the business. Therefore, we must always remember that in this business, “we will often need three (3) times more than the money we think we need” (C. Winn, April 2016). In other words, if I think my concert tour would cost 10,000USD, I ought to prepare at least 30,000USD lest we stand high chances of being surprised and caught off-guard. NB: Make sure you have a good entertainment attorney because lawyers often understand the contracts and the law better than most regular people do.