The Trap Of Self-Promotion
The last month I’ve been wrestling with the concept of marketing ourselves. Previous blog posts, such as To Sell Like An Artist focussed on the sales aspect of being a self-employed artist. This blog post explores more deeply how artists can do self-promotion with more integrity. An approach to promotion that combines your personality (values, worldview, strengths), your artistry and puts the needs of the audience you’re trying to serve first.
A Misguiding Concept
At the root of promotion for individual artists lies a big trap: self-promotion. The extreme emphasis self-promotion puts on the self has misguided generations of artists. Do you hear anybody say Wayne Shorter is such a self-promoter? No, because he doesn’t. He promotes his art. He shines a light on his ideas and philosophy on life with the benefit of others in mind. He doesn’t shout about how amazing he is. His art either touches you or it doesn’t. His books on jazz & spirituality either inspire you or they don’t. He simply shares what’s he’s doing in a way that reflects his identity and matches the values and worldview of people like him. To illustrate this, today I visited his Facebook Page and at 14h00 he posted this:
This post is not about himself. It’s about other artists celebrating the birthday of pianist & harpist Alice Coltrane with whom Wayne played together on the album ‘Extensions’ (1970). This is Wayne’s way of keeping her memory alive and simultaneously sharing inspirational music. This act embodies his spirit: generous, humble, and creative.
Being ‘Needy’ versus Serving Others
As you know as a jazz artist, being self-centered and at the same time ‘being in flow’ is impossible on stage. Being needy in your marketing with your own interests at heart is a similar no-no. People feel it when it’s not for/about them. Stop self-promoting. Stop putting your own needs before those of whom you’re trying to serve. Let your work breathe in its own right. Simply share, inspire, and give people a way in to find work that might matter to them. Put the fan first. Ask yourself, what’s in it for them? What do they need?
Do they need a deeper connection? A feeling of belonging? A ray of Hope in dark times? A feeling of recognization about our shared humanity? To be inspired? Made to laugh? A feeling of melancholy? What do your fans need? How can you with your art, life lessons learned, strengths harnassed and creativity provide them this? What does that mean for your marketing?
A More Fulfilling Way
If you are like me, you will find this approach to be simultaneously more fulfilling and stress-relieving. Firstly, all that ego builds a wall between you and your fans which is counterproductive. And, an unintended and even harmful side-effect, ego-infused marketing puts your self-esteem on the line. Your post received a few likes? “I must be worthless.” Your Instagram post got massive traction? “I am amazing!”.
Do you see how self-promotion can take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotional highs and lows? All that wasted energy, wouldn’t you have preferred to invest that into creating more great art? Then, just like in your music, why don’t you get your Ego out of your marketing?
The Old-Model Of Self-Promotion Is Dead
The old model measures the success of promotion on with it does for you. More streams, more likes, more followers, more sales, … The new model does the opposite. It is intention-based. Focussed on having an impact on others. Let’s illustrate this new model with an example.
Question: if Radiohead would have thought the old way, would they have self-released ‘In Rainbows’ in 2007 as a pay-what-you-want digital download?
Of course not. Instead, they started with different intentions and goals. They started with their own values and with a focus on the relationship with their fans. ‘How can we strengthen this relationship?’ they must have asked themselves. They wanted their album to be about accessibility (free), honesty (pay what you can), and community (download directly from their website). The strategy and distribution model were personal. There was no corporate entity between the artist and the fan buying/downloading their album. The release strategy was value-driven, authentic, and rebellious. It was a relationship built on trust. It loudly proclaimed what Radiohead was about and went against everything business consultants or Major Labels would advise you to do.
Promotion Infused With Personal Values
How did they translate their values of honesty, accessibility, and community to their album promotion? They started with publishing mysterious symbols on their website and blogs. By building anticipation and rumor. It was an insider approach aimed at their truest fans. They published a code with a hidden message their fans were desperate to decipher. These mysterious actions lit a fire under fans and press alike. What was coming? What were they trying to tell their fans? Then, a month later, guitarist Jonny Greenwood simply published a 25-word blog post announcing the release:
“Hello everyone,
Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in ten days;
We’ve called it In Rainbows.
Love from us all.
Jonny.“
That is a personal way of doing it. Again, integrating their values and personality into their PR strategy and being true to who they are. No anonymous record label press release with drums beating how amazing the new record is. No, simply a written message from the band to their fans. 25 words. There is, even today in 2020, a lot to be inspired about by this release strategy by Radiohead. But foremost, they did it their own way and my main point is, so can you!
Pieter Schoonderwoerd
Your Jazz Career
A great resource on personal and purposeful marketing is the book “This Is Marketing” by Seth Godin. I full-heartedly recommend reading it.
Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.
I’ve been coaching and educating jazz artists for years to achieve their creative and professional ambitions. If you are a high-performing artist and interested in transformative career coaching, you can read more about it here.
Be More Of You. Be Creative!
