I don't have a logo. I don't even have my own brand. But in this age, the Kardashian era, I'm supposed to. I mean it's pretty clear to me what my business is. I'm a guitar teacher who sometimes plays weddings and such. I do a little advertising for weddings but not much else. For a variety of reasons, my inbox often has articles about marketing my musical self, offers from companies who want to market my musical self for money, etc. Mostly I just delete them and move on. I guess that's why I'm not famous.
I do subscribe to a music industry blog though. I find it to be truthful, insightful, and cynical. But the one recurring theme is that the ground is always shifting. What is popular today is gone tomorrow. Not just the songs, the artists, or even the style, but the very way business is conducted. The things that were important last week go unnoticed this week.
So musical artists brand themselves, stick that logo on everything they can, and sell the daylights out of it. It's pretty smart business. But I'm not a businessman, I'm a musician. I spend more time and money on business stuff than I want as it is and I hate it. Whenever I practice guitar I feel like I'm avoiding doing the important stuff. So I need to remind myself occasionally that guitar is the important stuff for me. It's how I pay my bills.
I try to imagine what items I would brand. Perhaps a clothing line for senior men that would include black socks that can be comfortably worn with sandals, or plaid shorts with suspenders, or a nice roll-up hat?
I tried to create a logo once. I just used my last name but the H was shaped like my favorite chair. It wasn't a very effective logo but still seemed somehow appropriate.
Last week I took a peek at my iTunes and Spotify analytics. I didn't even know what that was, I just saw a button titled "analytics" and thought "What's this?" *click* I discovered that nearly two thirds of my listeners are women over the age of sixty. I'm not sure how they determine this, but it actually sounds reasonable.
When I was a teen, part my attraction to professional music was to impress the ladies. It's taken over a half century, but it looks like I'm starting to make progress. And I'm doing it without branding, a logo, or marketing plan.