Introduction
My experience shows that only few young composers understand the necessity of marketing and positioning at the beginning of their professional life. There are many objective reasons for that. While at a conservatory or a university, they are fully occupied with music theory, music history, composing and other subjects. With a study course limited by three, four or sometimes five years, they nevertheless have little time to think about anything else but their subjects and good grades. The concept of marketing becomes more and more tangible as the graduation ceremony approaches and comes to the fore at the beginning of their independent career.
So why is it important for a young composer to think about marketing? Isn’t it enough to be talented, write wonderful music and wait for the recognition? Is it really necessary to position oneself at a contemporary music market and to act as a practically minded businessman instead of a muse-inspired musician?
The answers are not that obvious and depend on many factors.
If you can afford living without being engaged in commercial projects and simply write music, you are welcome to follow this way. The luxury of being free from deadlines and contracts may lead to writing wonderful music indeed. For some people unlimited freedom and inspiration go together, and, who knows, maybe the world would have never enjoyed these compositions otherwise.
Still, for most of young composers the necessity to earn money is crucial. Whether you would like to avoid being a burden on your parents, or you have already started your separate life and would like more financial freedom, you would certainly prefer to earn money with your newly acquired profession than with working in a bar or a cafe. It is here where you have to think as a businessman and to plan your future steps, taking marketing as your foremost instrument on your way to success and prosperity. If you approach it naturally, it will not distract you from your mission of writing music, nor will it take much of your time, but will equip you with knowledge and strategy which, in many cases, will give you advantage over your peers, all else being equal.
Before going into marketing in detail, it is a good idea to consider the following option: why not save time and hire a manager or an agent? Many professional composers use managers to promote themselves and help collect money obtained from performing the composer’s works and publishing their music. The problem with managers is that they usually look for accomplished artists. They will be hardly interested in a beginning musician who does not have a very prominent portfolio. More than that, you have to provide a series of contracts first, and it’s only then that you can expect a manager or a company to notice you and to negotiate about helping you with your career. In most cases, it’s not personal, it’s strictly business, and is stipulated by the business laws of the contemporary society.
With this in mind, it is time to consider another option for a young composer: to use marketing in order to promote oneself on a highly competitive music market.
Marketing
For a young composer, marketing is nothing else but a strategy of promoting his or her music with the final result of delivering the product which satisfies the consumer. It involves a number of consistent steps which help analyse the market and consumer’s needs, develop your own product, promote it and finally sell it at a reasonable price. With this general scheme working for most types of businesses, it is not easy to apply it for the composer’s needs. For me, the main problem here is that many composers do not want to satisfy the needs of customers/listeners directly. Many of them prefer to study new fields of music knowledge and to pioneer in music forms, genres and harmony. In many cases the result is completely different from satisfying the customer’s needs and shifts to the area of shaping it. Still, regarding it as a product which may be nevertheless consumed, it is worth trying to apply the same methods of promoting this kind of music, regardless of how new and groundbreaking it may be.
You may consider the following marketing steps while promoting your music:
· Develop your product (which is a piece of music in your case)
· Promote it so that your customers know about it
· Do some research about similar products on the market in order to set a reasonable price
· Add the package to further motivate your customers
· Think about after sales service if needed
· Define the sales places and start selling
As it was mentioned above, marketing is not sharpened at selling goods but rather at determining customers’ needs. Nevertheless, in order to live independently, you have to earn enough money from selling your music (or selling your arrangement skills). So, let’s combine marketing with selling strategies for the purposes of this article.
Whenever you think about writing a new composition, it is worth thinking about the market on which you will try to sell it later. No matter how cynical the idea of selling your talent may sound, you will certainly like your music to be delivered to as many people as possible. Since you invested your time, your efforts and your talent in the process of composing, it will only be fair to exchange it for money (let us regard money as a form of energy which people exchange with each other on a regular basis).
There are lots of markets today where you can sell your music. Digital technologies let you publish it on streaming services and collect royalties. You can write music for local bands, chamber groups and orchestras. You can search for a commission or take part in composers’ competitions (for instance, at www.composerssite.com) or look for a collaboration with an ensemble or a music group. You can contact your local radio station and offer your music there. In each case you should keep in mind the target audience. The diversity in tastes and preferences will make you write music which will respond to the listeners’ expectations or will even broaden their musical views. Even if you prefer to write music in your unique style only, it will be a good practise for you to use all your knowledge and adjust your composing techniques to the chosen target audience.
It is promoting your music where a good manager would certainly help. If you do not have one due to the reasons mentioned above, you may consider taking the following steps yourself:
· Social networking
· Using online audio distribution platforms
· Building your own website
· Taking part in composers’ competitions
· Starting a blog and/or a YouTube channel
There may be other opportunities to promote your music depending on your life story and experience.
If statistical information were collected about successful means of marketing for composers (please let me know if there is any), social networking would take the first place. It is never enough to make connections and network in the world of music. Whether it is a workshop, or an annual meeting of a composers’ union, you will certainly find it useful to attend. Being in the heart of a composers’ society and taking part in discussions with your colleagues may help you feel modern music trends and make necessary connections.
Social media deliver your messages directly to your friends and followers. You may find it extremely useful when announcing your new concert or a future commission.
Today most composers have an account in an online audio distribution platform. The thing to keep in mind is that, for instance, on Soundcloud, it is said to be about four million tracks now that have not been listened to even a single time. It can be pretty hard to promote oneself mainly through these platforms. You would rather use them as your shop-window where people could find your music and download it having learned about it through other sources.
A website of your own gives you much more freedom in organising and presenting your work than that of a managing company where you will be presented as one of many other composers and performers. Come up with a structure, define sections, write the texts, think out design and animation, choose a provider, select hosting, study WordPress and HTML, learn how to work with FTP and finally launch a website. In fact, it may be a good idea to save your time and ask for help instead. You can learn everything about web design later, but just for a start go to a friend or a web design company and ask for assistance. The things you should control by yourself are admin logins, passwords and payments. Everything else will be delivered by people who may know little about music but do well in the realm of the World Wide Web. Not only will your website be effective, but you will also look more professional when presenting it to others.
If you took up a course at a conservatory or a university, you probably had a chance to take part in a student composers’ competition. Usually the winner of such a competition gets chances to be known within the educational institution and very often far beyond. However, what if you did not take the first prize? Apart from other factors which may have influenced the jury’s decision in that case, you should also consider the influence of marketing. Did you write music specifically for the ensemble or the orchestra which performed it later? Did you consider their level and experience of playing music of that kind? What was the target audience? Did you expect your music to be valued by the audience in case they also voted for the final decision? Was the score and all parts packed and delivered properly and on time? Did you supplement your work with links to your website and other promoting sources, if that was allowed by the rules of the competition?
In many cases the reason for not taking the first prize is not because your music is bad. Most probably it was not adjusted enough for the moment. Also taking part in composers’ competitions is not only about winning. It gives you an opportunity to check how well you are prepared for your professional life. From developing ideas to orchestration, from deadlines to printouts, all this prepares you for your future career (in case you are serious about it). Besides, it adds a new piece to your portfolio and it makes your name known by more people worldwide.
The last point for this section is about how your blog or YouTube channel may help promote your music. Most likely, it will not do so in a direct way. It is your name which is promoted by a blog or a vlog. Think of what is really important to you and what you would like to share with other people. Even if you do not always write or speak about music, it may be interesting for your potential followers to learn more about your personal views and your experience. For me a blog helps structure some ideas and knowledge that I have acquired during my lifetime and present them in a tangible way.
The thing you should keep in mind is that both a blog and a vlog are time-consuming. Decide what is more important for you at this stage: writing music or writing texts and making videos? What type of promotion do you consider uppermost for you? Which place will a blog/vlog occupy in your list of priorities? The answers to these questions will form your way of life for the nearest future. Even if you feel you are ready to take it up, time management and a comprehensive analysis of your needs should be considered well before entering the world of web-communication.