So you’ve learned to produce great music and mastered your DJing, but now you are facing that incredibly daunting task of trying to break through and get noticed. Here is the first in a series of marketing tips that will hopefully inspire you and help take your branding to the next level. We all know the most important thing is perfecting your music but having some marketing/PR know-how could help change the odds in your favor.
Electronic dance music is over saturated, so you need to be clever when you are attempting to reach your potential fans, media outlets, labels and managers to pay attention to you. The odds are against you, to say the least, so you need to be patient and intelligent if you are going to succeed.
The first thing you need to consider before going out to the press, labels, etc. with your new tunes is to create your brand identity. This means a logo, colors, fonts, press photos and an overall vision for your vibe.
There is really one critical thing when considering all this…
Be different, REALLY different. This sounds easy, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. What’s happened in the EDM gold rush is an epidemic of copycatting. From music to logos, everyone is biting each other, and it’s becoming a sea of sameness. So the best thing to do is put your “creative director” hat on and dig into some points of inspiration that are a little off the beaten path.
Go grab some old photography, architecture or art books and just start scanning them, you will begin to narrow down things pretty quickly as you dig. Really get out of your comfort zone, because this is where you will find things that will be different. All it takes is a kernel of inspiration to get you going. You need to be thinking about everything you are doing: from your performance to your logo, to your press images. How can you integrate the creative direction into every facet of your “brand.” This is ultimately what you are creating as an artist, and getting it right early is key and can help get you noticed faster. If you look busted, people will think you are busted.
I can’t tell you how many great records I’ve accidentally passed up because the artwork was crappy, and I’m not the only one that uses aesthetics as a quality gauge, it’s quite common.
Excellent branding examples: Tiga, Richie Hawtin, Warp Records, Amon Tobin, Porter Robinson, Pretty Lights, etc.
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David Ireland is a professional strategist, creative, and marketer. He began his career in 1995 as creator and publisher of BPM Magazine. In August 2000, BPM Magazine merged with djmixed.com LLC, an online media company based in Los Angeles, which later evolved into the Overamerica Media Group [OMG] in 2003. In 2009, Ireland left Overamerica Media Group to serve as the VP of Marketing at Diesel. In 2011, he returned to his roots in media and cofounded the online electronic music publication Magnetic Magazine and created The Magnetic Agency Group. In June 2018, Ireland joined Winter Music Conference (now owned by Ultra Music Festival) as the Director to lead the reboot for 2019 and usher in a new era for the iconic brand. He served as Chief Marketing Officer at Victrola for three years, guiding product innovation and brand growth. He currently serves on the advisory board of Audiopool, a new music tech startup focused on AI-generated music licensing and artist revenue models.
