It’s not an easy question to answer, which therefor means, it’s not a stupid question to ask.

It used to be that the first sort of deal you’d get from a major label would be a development deal.  You get signed for a few singles, or demos with label having the option to move you onto a proper recording contract.  At which point you’d be sent out gigging for 6 months or a year to hone your performance skills.  If they signed 20 artists to this type of deal, the one who broke through would pay for all the others… But this doesn’t seem to be the same anymore with recorded music revenue not being what it once was during the CD boom years.  Most labels worth their salt are looking for artists to have done this early development groundwork, the grass roots level stuff, themselves.  Artists need to show labels that 1) they’re committed and 2) they’re is something there that the label can take to the next level.

To me, artist development is about taking stock of every part of a musicians career, making an assessment on where each element is at, setting targets, and prioritising, planning, performing and tracking the development of each part.

A hugely important part in artist development is planning.  This can be as simple as having an idea of where you want to be in 12 months time or it can take the form of an elaborate written plan which clearly outlines goals, strategies, performance, impact tracking procedures, and much more.  It’s really all about getting from A to B, or from A to Z if that’s where you’d rather end up.  What’s important about good artist development is knowing where you are now, and where you want to be, so that a plan can be created and followed and results can be tracked.

Development without good impact and performance tracking is lacking in it’s potential.  If you don’t know the impact of what your doing, and what effect it’s having on moving towards your goals, you’re effectively driving blind and could find out, after hours/days/months/years of effort, that you’ve been spending your energies on the wrong things.  It’s easy to do but it’s also really simple to avoid with good impact tracking.

Of course, development can sometimes happen with no planning at all, but more often than not, an element of luck will be involved in these instances and I believe that you’re far better off putting in the time and effort to plan goals and strategies in the first place to assist you in getting lucky.  Essentially creating your luck.

At some point in an artists career, development focus can shift from the creative aspects to the business elements.  The development of income streams for example.  Unless an artist is simply producing music for the love of it, there will come a time when career development is as essential as artistic development.

So… Artist development can mean a lot of things but essentially it boils down to the pursuit of progress and is relevent throughout all of an artists career, although to a seasoned veteran, it may take on the name ‘artist management’.

Rich Hearn

Ardua Music :: Beats & Pieces :: Per Ardua Surgo