The Team You Need And How To Find Them
Written by Michael Eastwood Founder & CEO of Mastermind Promotion
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The Team
It’s vitally important that you arrange and organise a team of colleagues with the correct skills necessary for the development of your career as an artist. It is important to bear in mind that there is no definitive rule stating that each role needs to be filled by a separate person - some artists just starting out juggle different roles themselves, a difficult and time consuming task. PR companies, including Mastermind Promotion can fulfil many of these roles whilst you concentrate on the quality of your music.
Musicians:
Whether you’re a solo artist or a member of a band, the likelihood is that you’ll be working with other musicians to develop or produce your music. It is important to find reliable and hardworking colleagues that can understand and work with your ideas. It’s extremely important for the musicians involved to keep their heads up, take on their roles and keep projects moving forwards with enthusiasm so that other members of the team are motivated too.
Mastermind Artist Through Infinity Performing Live
Manager:
Whenever you get an opportunity, no matter where it comes from, it’s your manager’s job to maximise its potential. Your manager is the hub that connects your team together, the go-to person ensuring that everyone is on the same page, keeping the strategy coordinated. Your manager is one of the most important members of the team aside from those responsible for the music. That said, good managers can be hard to find.
Booking Agent:
One of the hardest team members to find is a good, competent booking agent. Many musicians are forced to act as their own booking agents as a result. Your booking agent will book tours, take care of guarantees and apply to perform on tours with other acts. Booking agents can be difficult to find independently, but taking this job seriously is crucial for musicians and bands whose fanbase is built through live shows. Mastermind Promotion with its connections forged through years of professional experience can act as a booking agent, securing gigs and tours for you.
Lawyer:
Once you’re making money and getting new opportunities, you’ll need a lawyer to take care of any contracts that come your way. In general, you’re going to want to deal with a single lawyer for all your matters. Often, a band will sign a contract with a lawyer where the lawyer receives a fee on all earnings that the band makes through the lawyer’s help. A lawyer will also assess record deals and licensing.
Distribution:
If you don’t sign to a label, you need to get a distributor for your music. Distributors get your music out for sale in physical and digital outlets. Many distributors will work to get good placements for musicians who show promise and constantly promote their music. Developing this relationship can be very beneficial for aspiring musicians. Music PR companies such as Mastermind Promotion can ensure that your music is distributed properly using our years of professional experience in the industry.
Publicity:
Publicity is a time-consuming job that takes a lot of marketing know-how and relationship building. Writing countless emails and searching out places that will talk about you is a never-ending job. Having someone good at it, with relationships that open doors, is an amazingly valuable asset. Mastermind Promotion already have established relationships with leading publicists, sparing you many hours of administrative toil, enabling you to focus on the quality of your music.
Radio Promotion:
Promoting to radio is very important if you want to break your music into the mainstream. Doing this alone can, again, be difficult and time consuming if you don’t seek outside help unless you just want to focus on smaller radio outlets and online radio, but this will limit your capacity to break into the mainstream. Mastermind Promotion has established relationships with leading radio platforms in the UK to ensure that you get the exposure you need and that your music is heard by the right audiences.
Video Promotion:
Getting your videos promoted can be a huge step in gaining more exposure. While promoting to traditional TV outlets is nearly impossible to yourself, PR companies such as Mastermind Promotion can help through their long standing professional connections with the outlets. Mastermind Promotion also offers articles and video tutorials on how best to utilize social media to maximise online video promotion independently.
Graphic Design:
Musicians will need to have websites, advertisements, stickers, merch, logos and album artwork designed for them unless they have extraordinary talent and an unusual amount of spare time. Ensuring that your artwork is consistent in both quality and with the rest of your brand is imperative to your success - Mastermind Promotion has a devoted team of designers to ensure that all your graphic design needs are up to scratch.
Web Development:
No matter what, you’re going to need someone to handle the more complex web coding duties that arise. At Mastermind Promotion this responsibility is handled with care by our team of designers, ensuring that the layout of your website is both professional and in accordance with the rest of your brand.
Recording Engineer/Producer:
While many musicians will rotate this from record to record, having a constant colleague who can help you record different versions of songs providing valuable help and advice on the quality of your sound is ideal. You can seek the advice of producers and sound engineers at Mastermind Promotion, who have over 160 years of collective professional experience in the industry.
Record Label:
Signing with a record label can be a long, arduous process. In this day and age, it is not a necessity to be signed for a successful career in music. Most labels will usually provide you with a publicist, distribution, some marketing money and possibly radio and video promotion. Whilst they can provide valuable assistance, today they are a piece of the puzzle rather than the whole thing. Mastermind Promotion offers an alternative approach, helping the progress of your career through strategy, marketing campaigns including offline and online press, radio promotion, video promotion social media management and even professional production advice.
