In this guide shares her best tips on creating your release content and developing your artist brand.
Before you can start preparing your release content, you first need to go back to who you are as an artist. The central question here is: What is your Artist Branding? What do you want to be known for?
Artist Branding is what you, as an artist, want to be known for. You can figure this out by closely examining yourself as an artist and what you create. What is your story about? What are you communicating through your music?
Artist Branding often has to do with associations. What associations do you want people to have with you as an artist and with your music? A good metaphor for this is IKEA. When you think of IKEA, all sorts of things come to mind. Think about it: meatballs, Sweden, the colors blue and yellow, DIY, etc. You’re able to make these associations because IKEA chose to be known for these things and expresses them in the right way. That’s exactly what you want to do for your Artist Branding!
Your Artist Branding usually comes from your music. The bigger picture—the themes of your music—often shape your Artist Branding. You can see it this way: your Artist Branding is the book and your songs are the chapters. All the chapters together make the book. And with each release, you focus on one specific chapter. That’s why it’s so important to also think about that bigger picture.
Want more insight into your Artist Branding as an artist? Start by analyzing your songs. What are they about? What are the songs’ themes? What stories are you telling?
Disclaimer: Your Artist Branding doesn’t always come directly from your lyrics. Think of Charlie Puth, for example—his Artist Branding is mostly about how he makes music. Your branding may also focus on a certain mood, genre, experience, etc.
Now that we’ve zoomed in on your Artist Branding, it’s time to get more specific. You’ll soon be releasing a song, and you want to develop a social media strategy that allows you to tell your story in your own unique way. So it’s important to know what you’re releasing: a song, an EP, or an album.
For a song, focus on what the specific track is about and what its story or message is. With an EP or album, the story is often bigger—you’re usually working from a concept or vision. It’s important to understand what that is so you can translate it into your content.
When preparing your Release Content, the first step is to think about what you want to highlight. This can be many things—for example, the storyline of the song, a collaboration, how the song was created, the visual experience, or where it was written. It’s important to determine where your focus lies for this release so you can translate it properly online.
Once you know this, you can move on to brainstorming.
Once you know what your release can focus on, it’s time to brainstorm. Sit down and let your mind wander. What can you create and post to express this story?
Below are a few examples of artists and their unique release content.
In her song ‘Where Is My Husband!’ Raye is looking for her future husband. Raye’s identity is chatty, humorous, and sarcastic, and she incorporated this beautifully into the release content for this single: she created all kinds of videos in which she humorously takes her followers along on this search. For example: a video on a treadmill saying she’s preparing to fit into her wedding dress, a video of her getting ready to go out and look for him, and videos at funny locations to see if he might be there.
With his album ‘Chromokopia’, Tyler, The Creator shares a personal story, but—as always with Tyler—the visual identity of the story was a huge focus. The color green and these chrome-style photos played an important role in the album rollout. The color was so central that fans even showed up to his tour dressed in green.
Anne-Marie writes a lot about ex-boyfriends and breakups. During the release of ‘I DONT LIKE YOUR BOYFRIEND’ and ‘THAT WHAT YOU GET’, she asked her followers questions about how they dealt with breakups. She then made videos reading their answers and reacting to them. A low-effort but super effective way of making unique content that fits her releases perfectly.
As I mentioned earlier, Charlie Puth’s Branding Focus is on how he makes his music, not necessarily on what the songs are about. His songs often revolve around relationships, dating, and breakups, but in interviews he mainly talks about how the song was created. His focus lies in the creative process. And you see this in his release content as well—he makes videos explaining how he made the music, and that is what he becomes known for.
Aminé’s album ‘13 months of sunshine’ refers to the unique Ethiopian calendar and used to be a tourism slogan. The album is a deep dive into his roots and identity. Aminé’s visual identity has always been very colorful, but during this album it came through even more. In his content, merch, tour posters—everywhere. The colors and symbols of Ethiopia appear throughout his content, for example in his tour videos.
Great! Those were a few super interesting examples of how artists translate their unique release branding into content. I hope this video taught you how to start doing this yourself and that you’ll rock your next release! Ask yourself critical questions, develop creative ideas, don’t make it too hard for yourself, and go for it. You got this!
I hope I was able to inform, inspire, and—most importantly—motivate you to start developing your own unique release content. Do you have questions or are you stuck? Feel free to send me a message on Instagram @xMelanieEsther. Thank you and good luck!!
- Melanie Esther
The music distribution and promotion platform for independent artists releasing good music.