Digital acceleration and the challenges of a rapid culture consumption economy demand forward thinking, creative strategies. We want to help you figure out some vital necessities when working in the current digital music ecosystem.
These are areas any digital product manager should deal with, and therefore also every D.I.Y. Musician working on the development of his/her music catalogue and brand.
To push you into the right direction, we collected 7 strategies that you should start thinking about and can maybe even implement within your digital management. Let’s start with raw content:
Expanding content archive
The earlier you start expanding your content archive, the easier you’ll have it along the way. This means a collection of material that you don’t need this instance, but can use in the future.
Having an extensive content archive to choose from helps you in all peripheral areas like social media and traditional marketing.
Format flexibility
Be aware that formats vary, and create your content accordingly.
This means – do some research on the ideal content-sizes, lengths and specs for each platform you want to engage.
Start thinking about this when creating content, like shooting videos or promo-shots.
Distributed release leverage
With new content creators popping up every day, you’ll have to think about leveraging your releases, increasing the frequency of your output.
Without sounding too disillusional, a strategy many producers go by nowadays is „throwing some spaghetti against the wall while seeing what sticks“.
Without degrading music to the level of a commodity, you definitely have to think about how much time you invest in the planning and plug of one release. Things can happen fast, if something works. Chances are high, though, that you’ll need a couple of runs to get the motor going. So – try creating a release plan that spreads out across a broad range of time, without laying too much leverage on one single release.
Accumulation of input
Closely connected to the expansion of your content archive, you should also dive into a mindset that promotes a steady accumulation of input.
This means being aware of the situations happening in and around your creative process, places you’ll be at that might generate great content etc.
Producing content can turn into a forced endeavor, if it is compressed and has to be gathered within a strict time period. Try to keep the need for compelling material in the back of your head, you’ll be surprised how easy and how much great stuff you can and will collect.
Identify & adapt realities of consumption
Deciding on the output format, be it digital or physical, the shape of a given release, f.e. track length or edit, should definitely be in tune with the realities of music consumption.
Having a grand vision, where every track lasts 8 minutes because it’s part of the concept is definitely a noble approach. Still, try to think about the way your audience consumes music. You’ll find a middle course between your ideas and the status quo of listeners out there.
Spearheaded targeting
Spending some ressources on solid online targeting can save you a lot of unmeasurable point-and-shoot workload.
Especially streaming campaigning can be optimized incredibly well by engaging in smart and delicate targeting of just the right audiences.
Clear brand development
Clear brand development means killing your darlings. If you look at most acts breaking trough, most of them achieve a definite clarity when building their brand. This means going for a distinctive element or feature, even if it means shedding less light on others.
This goes hand in hand with consistency and the formation of an accesible musical identity.
Conveying one, clear idea almost always beats spreading out a carpet of undistinctive information.
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