Wendy DayCEO/Coach, PowerPlays Coaching, LLC · Helping rappers make money with their music. Building millionaires in the urban music industry since 1992.

One of the most important things to consider when branding yourself as an artist... @BrandMannetwork

18 Oct 2024 · 1 min

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In this YouTube monologue, Wendy Day explains that effective artist branding hinges on first identifying the specific "lane" or niche you occupy, then deliberately positioning yourself to stand out within that lane. She illustrates the concept with visual cues—such as wearing a hoodie among suited Wall Street professionals—to show how contrast can create distinction. Day warns that merely adopting generic trends (e.g., tattoos, colorful hair) that are common among peers in the same niche fails to differentiate an artist; it only makes them stand out to outsiders, not to their target audience. The speaker emphasizes the need to understand why you are different and to use subtle signals that convey belonging while highlighting uniqueness, urging artists to think beyond surface aesthetics and align their branding with the expectations and culture of their chosen lane.

Chapters

And once you understand that lane per se, now you got to figure out how do I stand out within that lane. I want to communicate to that lane and stand out to that lane because branding, right, is all about your placement and positioning. If I'm— I got on a hoodie right now. If I'm standing next to 50 guys in hoodies, then I'm not really standing out. But I go to Wall Street and all these guys are suited and booted and I'm in there with a hoodie, I'm standing out. Standing out. Right. A lot of artists made this mistake in the SoundCloud era, thinking, I'm just gonna give myself a bunch of tattoos and have colorful hair. Well, if all the other artists your fans are listening to have tattoos and colorful hair and doing wild stuff, you're not standing out. You're standing out to the girl at the grocery store and everybody else there, but in your world, you're just another one of those people in that world, right? So you have to think beyond that. You might use some of those cues to show them, I belong here, but you also have to understand, why am I different