Success as a musician and a music brand or professional requires careful, calculated branding, both to enter the arena and to stay in the game. Top musicians, music executives, icons and high-profile athletes have long tapped into the branding model to create and build a personal brand. Now, savvy people in every field are using personal branding to be more successful.
Like building a winning brand in the commercial world, business success is based on perceptions — other people’s perceptions about you. As a Celebrity Broker, Brands and Communications Expert and an Artist Manager, l have pen down what l call the #NWPrinciples of becoming a successful musician. As an Up and Coming Musician, these principles will help you build strong perceptions about the most important product you’ll ever market, Brand You which is in a long run your music.
Principle no 1: No Short Cuts to Heaven
Let me say that again; there are no Short Cuts to Heaven. My experience in the music industry can confirm this. As an Up and Coming Artiste, it is natural many sought for the short ways of becoming successful in the music industry. Many believe they can make it through the shortest possible means. Let me say this, there is no musician who started and immediately became successful. As humans as we are, there’s a part of you that knows its true, but there’s another part of you that thinks ‘but I’ll be different, I’ll find a quicker way. You won’t, and it’ll take you just as long as anybody else according to your own pace. There is no doubt some musicians have gotten a "hit" on their first commercial release. Truth is, these musicians didn't get the hit on their first song. They have gone through hard work and push to be able to get the hit you hear. The fact that it is was the first time you heard of them doesn't mean they started yesterday.
On the other hand, in very few cases, some people get known on their first commercial song but most of them don't survive the test of time due to the simple fact of unpreparedness and lack of skills and experienced for the industry. You must be prepared for the career so you are not taken by surprise. Embark on a journey not "a u-turn".
So as an up and coming artist, the first thing you need to do is to forget about short cuts. Then all that wasted energy can then be focused towards actually improving, slowly and surely.
Principle no 2: Why music?
Have you ever sat down to ask yourself why you want to do music? Or you only want to do music because you love music or you want to be like someone? If the answer is to impress people with your skill or to become famous, then you’ll never be a great musician. The reason great musicians are great is because they speak to us. They have something to say other than ‘look at me’. So many musicians think that becoming great is just about acquiring technique. Skill is important, but it’s what you do with it that’s important. Technique is the vessel through which you say something. Most musicians sing words or play notes but don’t say anything with them. They’re afraid that if they do, people will reject their message. If you want to be great you must get over being timid and throw your personality into your music. Again, you can not pursue a music career is you don't have the passion and the burning desire for it. If not, when the days of challenges come, you will easily give up or destroy your career. As an Up and Coming Artiste, like l always tell my clients, "Music is not a hobby, it is a career and a serious business. It is either you in fully or you step aside. Once you start, you simply can't stop".
Principle no 3: "Great" doesn’t mean lnstant success
As an Artist Manager both in the movie and music world, l have come into contact with many Up and Coming ones who will venture this trade based on what friends, family and to some extent some successful musicians have told them.
"You can really sing", "You can be a musician", "Music is your thing so go for it" are some of the remarks passed on to Up and Coming musicians. It is good to be encouraged to pursue something but it is not a guarantee to success. Talent you have natural but you need to acquire the skills to be successful. I have seen many Up and Coming musicians who believe so much in their talent and will rely on that to make them successful.
As the former Artiste Manager for Highlife sensation Bisa Kdei, from the days of "Boys-In-Serious-Action" (BISA) as a group to BISA Kdei going solo, everyone knew BISA Kdei had super talent and voice. He has the skills to write, sing, arrange and producer songs but that wasn't enough for him to be successful. We didn't wait for someone to discover and invest in his "great" talent to be successful, we worked for it. Many may not know this but Bisa Kdei has being denied on many platforms. Again, in building the brand BISA Kdei, he played shows for event organisers for one full year with any pay. These are some of things the brand had to go through to become the BISA Kdei we all see. Becoming a great musician doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to lie back and wait to be discovered. That just doesn’t happen anymore. You’ll have to work, work, work, work, work and on being great and work on promoting yourself. Are you prepared to wait and work for your success?
Principle no 4: Enjoy your Music
Most Up and Coming musicians and even successful musicians think that to be a "proper" musician you must be serious, and that means squeezing all the joy out of it. Yes, every one of your music must be your best it can ever be but it shouldn't take the magic of enjoyment from it. American super music superstar, Beyonce in an interview said and l quote,"if any song l do doesn't make me happy then it is not ready yet. If l am not happy then everyone else is not happy".  Music should lift you, even on those difficult days. If it doesn’t do that you need to be asking yourself; why not? Being a musician can be a struggle but what keeps a musician going is playing and enjoying your music. All the rubbish, rejections, disappointments and success is just a means to an end to keep on playing as much as possible.
Principle no 5: Your uniqueness is Your Key
Most of the Up and Coming Musicians would embark on a music career with the focus of being a "photocopy" of another A-list artiste. This is very unfortunate. I have listened to demos of many wannabe rappers and most of them sound like some successful artistes l know. Get this straight, it is better you be yourself and find your uniqueness because everyone else is taken.
American music mogul and rapper, Jay Z said in an interview that, he will not sign someone who is sounding or doing something that already exist. Jay Z says, when he hears people sounding like Nas and other rappers, he admires them but he knows they can not do better than Nas and Co.
He was right in saying so because what you are copying isn't you and trust me, no business person will like to invest in a "photocopy" when they can invest in the original.
Find the things you do differently and build on them. Great musicians have a unique way of doing things, that’s why people are attracted to them. All to often musicians try to please everyone (except themselves) and end up being boring players. Great music divides listeners because of its uncompromising vision. If one half of your audience hates you but the other half love you, you’re onto something. If everyone says it’s nice or ok, you need to think about what you’re trying to communicate, because you’re not hitting anyone at a deep level. Yet being unique isn’t about ‘just expressing yourself’, it’s about working hard on your music whilst developing a voice. Sarkodie worked damn hard to be so unique and today, many musicians fall into the trap that all they to do is ‘be genuine’ and not worry about practice or technique.
Principle no 6: Listen to learn from Other Genres and Simple things of Music
Many Up and Coming musicians from the word "go" put themselves in a box. They only see themselves as rappers or singers and don't see the need to listen and learn from other genre of music. When you have an open mind, you learn from different sources of music. The fact that you want to be a rapper doesn't prevent you from listening to some traditional music to pick some few ideas. In my years of experience, l am yet to see an Up and Coming musician who has paid attention to rock or classic music. Trust me, there is soo much to learn. Open up from your comfort zone, listen and learn from different source and it will help build something new with your style. Again, never make the mistake of saying there is nothing to learn because if beat makers are taking inspiration from other genres of music to produce the beat you will drop your lyrics or bars on, then you have no excuse to take inspiration from other genres.
Remember, there is nothing called Easy in music. Pay attention to things that look simple such as your timing, feel etc. Some Up and Coming musicians deceive themselves by thinking complex things will make them the best. That is a big lie. Simple things have lots of power and don't think you are beyond simple things.  If you think you are, you’ll never get far.
Principle 7: Don’t just tell one story
It’s natural to tell a story through anything you do, including music. But many musicians just run one story. One story musicians are walking clichés. As well as making you a boring musician, it also makes you narrow minded. You won’t listen to acoustic guitar because you only play electric, you won’t listen to punk because you’re a classical musician. Developing a unique sound requires you to cross pollinate. Creativity comes from the curiosity ‘what will happen if I take that and put it there?’. Try not to be limited by the stories you have about your music. For sure everybody has an image of what ‘kind’ of musician they are, but that need not be set in stone. A good thing to do is go to the music library via net or radio and find something ‘far away’ from where you are make it yours. Recently, an Indian musician has refix Sarkdie's Adonai and he is doing very well in the Indian modern day music industry. Though he was not innovative enough, his efforts of search far and wide is good. When you ‘stretch your musical wings’ you begin to have a lot more stories running and your music becomes a lot more creative.
Principle no 8: Never Stop When You Start
As an Artiste Manager and my involvement in music over the years, l see learning music as a spiritual challenge, and the better you get, the easier it is to touch something divine. As you embark on a music journey, remember there are massive ups and downs. Take all the setbacks lightly, don’t let any success go into your head, and always be glad for any good luck. It’s normal to get frustrated, but don’t let this become a default setting in your life and music. Remember it does not cause anything taking inspiration from other successful people in different sectors of life. After, Jay Z took inspiration from the streets.
Principle no 9: You Have No Competition than "You"
I still find difficult why an Up and Coming musician will see other musicians as competition. In the music world and in life in general, as Oprah Winfrey will say, "no one cares about you and until you let them know you care about you". In simple words, you are your own competition.
Considering someone as competition is a total waste of time. If you admire someone's work, you learn from them and improve yours. Learning from others is a difficult one, but once you give up trying to pretend you’re a genius, you can learn from all the great music that surrounds you. This prevents you from wasting your energy feeling you have to compete with something you can embrace and learn from it.
Another trap to fall into is that you end up trying to reason with yourself that better music is just different, when deep down you know it’s really better. Look for musicians around you who aren’t famous yet still brilliant you can learn something from as well.
Principle 10: Place An Embargo
As an Up and Coming musician, many are the thoughts that are thrown into your ring of operations. Most Up and Coming musicians end up thrown away themselves because they end up doing someone not them. There’s a time to listen to criticism or advice, and there’s a time to ignore it.
In the stage of building something up, you would want to avoid judgment, otherwise it’s in danger of being torn apart. Once you have created something and it's fully formed, you can invite judgment. At this stage, you know what you have done and why you can evaluate criticism, and judge if it’s relevant.
Credit and inspiration to and Chris Beckett. Really grateful.
My name is Ntiamoah Williams, your Celebrity Broker/Brands and Communications Expert / Artiste Manager.

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