“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Which one are you? If your music is up on iTunes and you have no marketing strategy then you are the latter; an already defeated warrior going to war first and hoping to win.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
These are my personal favourite bits of a great blog post by Music Clout (Link below)
The writers have a point! You have to Ship It and get it out there. I wrote a blog series on this series on being a successful creative. The more you understand about your ideal audience, where they go and where they consume art the better. If you are a budding post ironic transgender cabaret artiste then maybe the Daily Mail is not the place to start your PR campaign (or maybe it is!).
So many important elements come into play. The show image has to be powerful and tell a story, like my photo above for my Cooking & Cabaret show with Liz Seeley. Liz baked food during the show and indeed live on radio as I sang as we did promotions. We had teatowels that I choreographed a dance with, and we sold at the show (there are a few left if you are interested!!).
I know when I have done Festivals: I book my venue, I have to come up with a show title, fifty words for the brochure and a great image (normally off the back of a photoshoot). All of this happens months in advance of actually turning up to do the show, and often months before I have started to write said show. The Edinburgh brochure deadline is always Easter and the festival of course runs the month of August, so you have those 3 intervening months to write and hone your show, try it out in front of live audiences and of course promote yourself like crazy. Long term marketing such as having a website and blog, keeping your contacts warm (not necessarily in the literal sense!) are all important.
The Music Clout post also highlights this need to keep fighting forward, we cannot just make our art and expect it to be seen, sell and we get to then lie on a chaise longue being fed grapes by a gorgeous being. Sad I know but true.
“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
― Sun Tzu
I did some great interviews with Ryan James Lock on knowing your ideal audience so if you want a strategy to find these elusive beings and get your mindset in the right place then have a look at the following posts, they both in podcast and written form.
Podcast 7 on How to get the right mindset on press reviews
Why you must get comfortable being uncomfortable – Coaching podcast session 4
Podcast Coaching Session 001 How to start promoting yourself and stop holding yourself back
Before you get all stressed out about how much there is to do, I can however help and bring a moment of calm. Just decide calmly what is the next physical action you can take to move a project forward. For more details on that Read ‘Ask ‘What Next’
Let me know how it goes!!
Music Clout – How to Avoid Artistically Starving to Death.
Tags: Audience theory, Becoming successful, Blog, branding, Cabaret, cooking and cabaret, creative techniques, dream and take action, Easter, Existential quantification, It's 'Show Business' not 'Show Art', Liz Seeley, marketing, Marysia, Public relations, Ryan James Lock., showing your work, Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Universal quantification, Writers
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