Professional musical development reflects the complex and dynamic path of life, in which an artist is faced with having to learn, find a personal creative path and work on their brand. It only seems that a career as a music artist is all about big stages, parties and crowds of fans; nevertheless, to achieve fame, an artist must put in a tremendous amount of effort and work. In the part I, I explore the possibilities of professional musical development for myself as an aspiring musician and suggest planning for that development.
Performing in the Streets
One of the first ways a musician can develop as a musician is to perform their songs in public places where they can be appreciated by many people. The purpose of such a performance is usually to get money, but through this method, more people can learn about the aspiring musician. Artists gain valuable public speaking experience and effectively spread the word about themselves (Eley, 2020). Traditionally, venues with high footfall, such as subways, underground, parks, and shopping centres, are chosen for performances.
Use of Social Media
An essential feature of today’s world is digitalisation, which offers additional significant advantages for the self-development of the musician. Social media aims to create, promote, and maintain an artist’s brand and create an additional channel of communication between the musician and the audience. The musicians publish their music, information about future performances and information about themselves, filling their social presence. In addition, if an artist’s music goes viral, a social media profile — for example, such as TikTok — becomes an integral part of making as many people as possible aware of the artist’s songs.
Collaborating with Producers
One of the fastest ways to develop professionally is to sign contracts with labels that promote the artist as a brand. Producers already have global networks of influence, so promoting a particular artist is not a severe organisational problem. Although the musician gains popularity and gigs faster, with this strategy, they give part of their income to the label and is not free to dispose of their music and even stage name (McDonald, 2019). Consequently, collaboration with labels is not straightforward and can ultimately devastate an artist’s identity.
Creating Video Content
Today’s audiences tend to consume content in an audio-visual format, hence, creating video is a smart strategy to develop a musician. Specific videos can include music videos, backstages, performance recordings and interviews. Regular publishing of videos keeps the profile up to date and helps the artist spread their music through video formats.
Creating Playlists
An unobvious way to develop is to take on the role of a music curator. The curator creates playlists with the music of interest on streaming platforms — Spotify or Apple Music — and shares the link with others (Rosenborg, 2020). Widespread dissemination of such links helps to strengthen the artist’s name among the audience and increase visibility. Indeed, it is unlikely to help spread the artist’s auteur music; nevertheless, increasing the curator’s visibility is a step towards achieving social popularity.
Training
The role of curatorship can also be realised in terms of academic musical development. If a performer has sufficient, demonstrable musical skills, they can teach others. In addition to passing on their experience and knowledge, the performer-teacher practices themselves and develops musical curatorial skills (MU, 2021). Such a performer can be said to become a producer for their students, which also increases the artist’s chances of self-promotion.
Spreading Through Friends
When a little-known artist creates music, distribution issues are paramount for promotion. A performer can ask their friends, family members and acquaintances to distribute their music through reposts; promoting music through social media will snowball.
Performing in Bars
Unlike a street performance, a bar or restaurant gig is not spontaneous and has to be agreed with the venue management. Performing live music for guests can be effective, as in this case, the performer on stage demonstrates their musical talent, which the audience can appreciate on the spot. Such a performance does not involve a donation, so the main aim is to invest in increased visibility.
Performing at Concerts
If an artist is not yet well known enough to put on their concerts, they can perform to prepare audiences. Typically, music concerts do not start on time, and an organisational delay at the start and warming up the audience can be done with the help of a budding musician (McDonald, 2019). This will help the artist make their presence known quickly and gain a new audience.
Radio Stations
Small radio stations are usually happy to accept songs from new artists to update their rotation lists. This provides a free opportunity for the artist to promote their music on a powerful platform (MI, 2021). Indeed, not all radio stations are willing to allow new artists on their airwaves, but it is already a great result even if just one station agrees.
Planning
In terms of personal musical development, I use a synthesis of three promotion strategies at once. Firstly, I am already a live musician, performing on electric guitar in the metal and hard rock genres. Through song writing and covers, I can perform in both public venues and bars, as the rock genre usually blends well with the bar environment; the example of Nirvana proves this perfectly (MoreNirvana, 2018). I also have a bachelor’s degree in film studies and experience producing short auteur and commercial videos. I can use this skill for my personal musical development by editing the music videos for my songs. Finally, I already do volunteer work teaching young musicians, contributing to my professional musical development. I am not stopping at volunteering and have applied for a Bmus(HONS) POPULAR MUSIC DEGREE — this will allow me to purposefully develop my professional music teaching skills, which will improve my curatorial experience and my knowledge of the art of music.
Key Skills
For professional musical development, the modern artist must be multi-skilled. A unique synthesis of skills and competencies will help an artist succeed in self-promotion, improve social representation and take advantage of more development opportunities. Among the core skills, in addition to talent, a rising artist should have marketing skills, excellent communication skills for creating valuable connections, and confidence in public speaking. Clearly, far fewer people will notice a shy, dim performer than a charismatic and confident performer (AGCAS, 2020). Not all singers perform solo; they often need the ability to work as part of a team — the inability to communicate, find common ground and resolve conflict is detrimental to group collaboration. Excellent skill for the modern performer is openness to new knowledge. New software is becoming available, and many of it can be used to optimise sound performance. A reluctance to embrace new technology and knowledge shows a general conservatism on the performer’s part, which can reduce the loyalty of young audiences. However, a musician should not rely on technology and synthetic sound alone. Committing to extremes means losing out in the long run, so it is always important to experiment and be ready for something new. It is worth remembering that the debut album by the famous pop singer Billie Eilish was recorded in her bedroom (Waxman, 2020). This fact confirms the thesis of the willingness to experiment and shows that it is not only the innovation of the recording equipment that is valuable. I can highlight initiative and a willingness to change in terms of listening skills. I often look for opportunities to perform openly and have performed several times with well#known bands, including the Japanese heavy metal band Necronomidol. I also already have a bachelor’s degree in cinematography, so I can edit my videos and clips. If we talk about the skills I still need to work on, marketing competence should be highlighted.
Today, I do not have the ability to hire an experienced marketer to manage my social media accounts, so I will have to learn this skill myself. Among the most prominent strategies for learning, I will name taking an online course on social media marketing or reading books and blogs.
Short- And Long-Term Plans
As a rising musician, I have a clear desire to develop professionally and eventually become a well-known solo artist. This is a highly ambitious long-term goal for me, the achievement of which will require a significant effort. Hence, to achieve it, I see the need to break this goal down into several short-term objectives, which may take several years to achieve. These micro-tasks include learning social media marketing competencies, making new and valuable contacts in the music show industry, performing in at least ten different public places, releasing a new single and possibly an album, and participating in charity festivals as an artist.
I expect that adherence to these goals will allow me to optimize my creative development path and come closer to achieving my cherished dream. By the end of 2023, I do not expect to be a very popular artist yet, but I will already have enough of an audience to stage my first solo concerts. A critical understanding of my weaknesses and a willingness to work on solving them, I believe, are my key strengths. This will allow me to move forward in a smart and calculated way, overcoming any barriers to fame.
Reference List
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McDonald, H. (2019) The record label’s role in the music industry.
MI (2021) How to promote music in 2021.
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MU (2021) What employers are looking for. Web.
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