A Living, Breathing Case Study of a DIY Artist: Part Seven – A Real Life, Current Example of Artist Positioning at Its Finest

Welcome to Part 7 of an ongoing, immediate experiment. For the last 4 weeks, and over the next 12, we’ll learn together as I (Secrets in Stereo) write, record, promote, and release my new album.

In Part 1, we got to know each other. I introduced myself and let you in on my motivation and goals for this project. In Part 2, I gave you 3 things that have allowed me to quit my day job. In Part 3, I gave you 5 things Music Supervisors want from you and your music.  In Part 4, I told you 5 things I wish someone would have told me before I signed that contract with the licensing company. In Part 5, the 5 rules to follow when trying to get your music to Music Supervisors. Last week, we discovered the first 3 questions of Sorted Noise’s practice of Artist Positioning. This week, we’re going to take a look at Artist Positioning in action and at its finest.

Like I said last week, Artist Positioning is discovering what separates you from your competition, then utilizing that identity to be memorable to a potential fan.  The “discovery” part is the hard part, and is different for every artist.  But, Sorted Noise has found that once the artist uncovers what makes them unique, they become empowered and are able to make decisions with ease.  The reason why?  Because every decision is made through the prism of… “Does this drive home my message?”  That’s the key.  Repeating what makes you unique over and over and over again.  The human mind gets cluttered with thousands of messages a day.  The more you repeat your’s, the more likely you’ll grab a position in a potential fan’s mind.

There is one artist out there right now that repeats her message and identity better than anyone…

Hello.  My name is Kesha, and my position is… Party Girl.

Kesha is huge right now.  She seemed to come out of no where late last year with her massive first single, “Tik Tok.”  But, put aside for a moment whether you like her or her music.  Let’s look at her strictly from a business/marketing perspective.

I think we all agree what we see is NOT little Kesha Rose Sebert from Nashville.  What we see is Ke$ha.  With a dollar sign.  And what we hear is the creation of super-producer, Dr. Luke (Britney, Katy Perry, etc).  But she isn’t the first artist to create a character around herself and her music.  So, what makes her so successful?  More than anyone before her (even Lady Gaga), she drives home her message (aka “the party girl”) with an obsessive persistence.

She always looks like the morning after a long night of partying.  She always sounds drunk when she talks.  She always redirects interviews to her agenda of partying and getting in trouble (See Annie’s article on how to do this).   When she pops up on gossip blogs, it’s always about her partying at a club (and usually getting kicked out of it).  Her choreography is intentionally sloppy.  Of the 14 tracks off of her debut album, Animal, 10 of them have a “party” theme.  Listen to some of the titles… “Hungover,” “Party at a Rich Dude’s House,” “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes.”  Even the ballads are based around dance floors and late nights.

Having said all of that, there is one big lesson we can all learn here.  And, it’s the same reason why she is successful… After about 10 minutes of listening to Kesha, you know exactly how to describe her to your friend.

It’s that simple…  She is easy to understand, and easy to communicate.

Are you?

Josh

www.secretsinstereo.com
www.twitter.com/SecretsinStereo
www.sortednoise.com
www.twitter.com/SortedNoise

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