“Talk to everybody, all the time, wherever you are.”
Katherine Forbes, Gayle Davidson, Elisabeth Beckwitt, and DJ Pepper
Artist coach Gayle Davidson had the pleasure of sitting down with Katherine Forbes of Designing the Row, DJ Pepper with Lightning 100, and independent artist Elisabeth Beckwitt at AGD Entertainment’s Marketing & Social Networking Panel
The common thread throughout the panel discussion was consistency and genuinity. Katherine Forbes and Elisabeth Beckwitt spoke to how each individual in the music industry has their own vision. Only you can fulfill your dream, because it’s yours. Don’t try to copy what someone else is doing, because their end game is different than yours and you have something that only you can bring to the table. In light of this, an artist or industry professional should find their dream, pursue it to the fullest, and with consistency you’ll get that following that will push you toward your dream.
Why be consistent?
Continually reaching your fans through live performances, social media, content, and new music provides them ways to engage and get involved in your journey. The key to being consistent is planning and big-picture thinking.
There is always purpose behind each post, because it all points to that ultimate vision, whether that be the project you are working on or your brand as a musician. Through the Zero to 60 program, as Elisabeth Beckwitt mentioned in the panel, the artists are encouraged to look at editorial content as if you are creating a magazine. Throughout the magazine there is variety between ads, articles, and photos, all pulling you to subscribe to the common thread that represents the magazine’s vision. Think about how there isn’t ad after ad. When orchestrating editorial content, you give soft pitches, hard pitches, and non-pitches that keep the fan engaged and they become subscribed to your ultimate vision.
“See what works, adapt, and move on.”
Throughout the discussion, Katherine, Elisabeth, and DJ Pepper all spoke to how they personally plan ahead to create time for themselves. The name of the game is work smarter, not harder. To secure a smooth, effective, and strategic roll out, all content must be finalized and planned out. So, before any music is ever released, all of the music is mastered, the research is done, the editorial content is created, merch is ordered, artwork is ready, and so on. Planning ahead, gives you more opportunity to engage with the release of your music through live performances, press interviews, and the like. What artist doesn’t want a well-executed album release?
Elisabeth Beckwitt takes that consistency and planning through every facet of her career. At the panel, she shared about how she plugged her raw reaction to the first time she heard herself on the radio into her editorial. Her genuine reaction to the radio host’s reaction, lead her to be their artist of the week. Being genuine gets you places.
WHY BE GENUINE?
“When you are thinking about what you want to say online … what would you say to your best friend.”
When ideas and music are advertising and expressed in a genuine way, it is natural for it to spread by word of mouth. Many great feats started and spread by word of mouth. If it is authentic and good and if it’s worth it, then it’ll spread. That is how Katherine Forbes explain much of her success with Music Biz Besties and Designing the Row. With Music Biz Besties, she provides a productive environment for female musicians and industry professionals to market, and communicate with other industry females. This has added so much value to not just locally in Nashville, but globally too. Gayle Davidson herself got a job lead from Music Biz Besties that lead her be an Artist Coach at AGD Entertainment.
“Free marketing is simply adding value to other people.”
To promote genuine artist image and content, it is sometimes best to just create for the sake of creating. DJ Pepper, being a musician as well as a radio personality, spoke to how an artist’s creativity is their career, but it also needs to be exercised and experimented with to grow and develop into something greater. Creating music solely for money can leak into ingenuousness and cold passion, but challenging yourself to create outside of your comfort zone will benefit in the long run. DJ Pepper and Elisabeth Beckwitt talked about how marketing yourself effectively and genuinely relies on a proper attitude as well. It’s less about pushing out pressured, perfect content, and more about just sharing what you’re already doing and how they can be a part of it.
“Make it about serving others, not yourself.”
This reflects Nashville’s music industry that is more relational versus that of New York or Los Angeles. Zero to 60 by AGD Entertainment utilizes that relational environment and gives free strategy sessions. General advice from these sessions are to start that consistency and think big picture. As mentioned before, other people are getting where they want to go and you need to get where you want to go. So get a vision, and run with it!
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