This is the third installation of HypeMonger, a series of articles about building an image for your band or company, making it stronger, and getting it in front of the right pairs of eyes. With an open mind, passion to move on, and a bit of ambition, you can move mountains with your brand.

HypeMonger Episode 03 - Get Serious!



I want to set the records straight for a second. If you're in a band, you're an entrepreneur. You are providing a service, generating revenue and dealing with paying customers. As artists, it's easy to forget the seriousness of the industries that we're involved in. It's easy to get wrapped up in the fun of the game and forget that our life's work is tied up in the commercial venture of performance. Musicians who understand their charge as small business owners know the size of the shoes they have to fill. Those who don't are vulnerable to financial ruin, slippery contracts and worst of all, bored fans.

The inability to take life too seriously is a common misconception by the public about musicians and artists. The reason? For every serious artist trying to make a lifestyle out of their work, there's a swarm of amateurs and dabbling pretenders. Other creative professionals often they wonder how I manage the lack of professionalism that musicians seem to portray. My answer is always that I deal with musicians who take their life's work seriously enough to respect their project as a business and treat it as such.

I'm not saying to do it for the money. Anyone can make money, and everybody does. Without passion for your talents and interest in making an imprint on society, you'll probably never have fans who want to listen to you anyway. What I am saying is: if you treat your music project as an investment in the future, you're more likely to get there. Going to night school for a week to pick up the basics of accounting is more likely to help you succeed in the long run than flyering at the bar as an excuse to get tanked.

If you aren't interested in the more typical aspects of owning a business, find someone who is. You may not have the foggiest idea how to do a tax write-off for the new mixer you just bought. Chances are, you don't want to mess with it so you hire someone who can. The same goes for advertising. It's dangerous to screw it up. If someone finds out that you hi-jacked their artwork for a show poster, you could easily get sued for copyright infringement. If you're dumping a bunch of money into making prints without focusing on design first, you're wasting your time and damaging your image. It boils down to how you communicate. By stealing a piece of art from Google image search and using it for promotion, you're communicating that you're a fraud to anyone who catches on. By leaving 1,000 poorly designed flyers all over town, you're communicating to 1,000 people that you don't care.

A lot of people think that it's okay to have amateur promotional materials, as long as the music is solid. I beg to differ, and not just because I'm a designer. My response to poor design is lack of interest. People buy generic goods because they don't mind the lack of quality, especially due to the price difference. If you're charging the same price as every other band for your album or your shirts, what is the incentive for a customer to give you their money?

Designing on a tight budget is tough. It's hard to find a designer who is willing to accomplish the great ideas you have boiling over in your head for a reasonable amount of money. Many advertising agencies are comfortable charging $100/hour, and it takes a lot of CD sales to get a design project banged out for thousands of dollars. If you want to look good, and I mean really look good, you've got to be ready to spend a little hard-earned money. You get what you pay for, but it shouldn't make you go bankrupt. Know your budget, know your needs, and find someone of talent to bring a balance between the two.

If you have any questions about the direction of your brand image or want honest advice about how you can improve upon it, send me an email. I know how to help you get to their ears through their eyes.



Thanks for tuning in,


Andrew Schepers
Creative Director
Brand Nucleus
www.brandnucleus.net