Artist Essentials | Necessity of Entrepreneurship and Value Creation for the Artists (Part II) by Vivek Paul

03 Mar Artist Essentials | Necessity of Entrepreneurship and Value Creation for the Artists (Part II) by Vivek Paul

At GMI, we try to bring to you the best of the industry voices. Today, we have a piece by Vivek Paul, founder of Gatsvy Consulting. This is the second part of a three part series of blogs. 

Purpose of Artists’ life thrives within the framework of entrepreneurship. Creative Industry and Music Business are driven by entrepreneurs and the spirit of entrepreneurship. The very fact that the skill and creative works of an artist finds instant capital interest from investment bankers, advertisers, fans, distributors, promoters and governments proves its merit. The missing link is the outlook artists have towards building sustainable legal structures and approaching their aspirations into tangible and progressive business models. Globally more than 10% artists become successful entrepreneurs and the reason is threefold – mindset, company they retain and education. Artists who focus on the entrepreneurial approach right at the beginning of their career – create exponential wealth, make noise and have a long term impact. They are also able to monetise every aspect of their creative intellect and agility. Such a mindset automatically spells out their copyrights becoming highly valuable. 

There are many contributing factors on why the artists find it hard to become structured entrepreneurs. Looking closely enough in their lives, especially independents, we observe they operate like entrepreneurs and/or small medium enterprise businesses. What stops them is their mindset which is primarily designed around work for hire. Their knowledge & experience is dependent on third parties like labels, publishers, promoters or agents, which impacts self confidence besides being a skillful artist. Education for intellectual growth is another missing link. While there is a lot of information around the industry around music releases, artist perception, data analytics etc., the vacuum remains in an insightful problem solving knowledge pool. This is one of the biggest reasons progressive music markets like India are not a hotbed for startup culture in the music business. 

In the 21st century, being an artist is all about being an entrepreneur. For any kind of success and to harness the artistic purpose, few principles that need to collide are creative thinking, commercial and IPR awareness and development of business acumen. The value creation with purpose can only come to fruition if the respective artist understands the value metric first. There are radical changes in the market dynamics at this stage, to create value, the traditional mindset must migrate, which was primarily driven by royalty payouts and touring 50% of the time. Now the focus is shifting towards creation of products, unique service though intelligence and building innovative products engaging the internet. These are the most authentic ways of fan engagement and inclusiveness. 

The notion that digital and social ecosystems are a replacement of the traditional value systems in the music ecosystem is not true. In fact they enhance engagement and experiences, bringing unique innovations designed by the artists. Besides, in many cases, global outreach and low cost – high value creates profitable business models. Triggered by pandemic since 2020, the market opportunities are encouraging the artists to think beyond the gig economics.  The acceleration in digital consumption and the upcoming decentralised cryptographic world gives more meaning to long tailing the value of creativity, copyrights and the ideas. The business side is becoming bigger, diverse, dynamic and innovative. The only way the artists can see this value creation is to look from the lens of an entrepreneurial mind. The key factor is the length of the copyrights the musicians hold, going beyond the initial release hype cycle.  To reinvent them continually, is possible with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Californian band KOLAR adopted an entrepreneurial approach, being a DIY since inception. They approached their entire career pivoting from Gig Economy into Value Creation and exponentially grew in value and commerce. They were able to get insights through data analytics and market trends with the inclusiveness of their business partner. With the help of little financial capital, they built their business models from bottom up and used their income in self investment cycles instead of going to the label economics model. Soon, they realised that their pivot was right and the intersection of ‘Future of Money x Value Creation by Creativity’ was very real. In 2018, they could foresee that some day the whole world will be a transaction, bands and artists can own coins for loyalty with their fans, and will potentially become mini investment banks for artistic works. Cryptographic world and Web 3.0 is a reality in 2022. (kolarsband.com)

The core area musicians need to focus on is that being an entrepreneur does not disturb them from being a musician first and creating music that they believe in. Making music is a skill and Good Music is a commercially viable proposition. Independents restrict themselves to enter such frameworks where life skills and experience can be used. Stepping outside the comfort zone and de-risking their creativity from their own myopic viewpoints is very essential to understand. Typically, artists don’t have support systems, capital or experience in many parts of the whole 360 business. Hence, grooming the entrepreneurial mindset is the best approach for being relevant, scalable and accomplishing the purpose of being an artist. Artists who are serious and self invested always think about – how can their music reach maximum people with lowest investment? Since I am not an entrepreneur, how can I achieve this ? Precisely where the partnership module kicks in and by design this is being an ‘Artpreneur; an artist who is an entrepreneur’.

Entrepreneurship is the only way to create exponential value as it addresses: 

• How to make moves that are profitable and not to miss out on action ?
• How to optimize time and be more focused towards purpose ?
• How do you add value to the other people or opportunities engaging with you as an artist?
• Which are the skill-sets that the artist is deficient in and where will the help be needed? What would be those relationships or resources like – tactical or strategic?
• What are the safeguards from competition?
• Open or close minded? How does this impact creativity?
• Should money-making also be an ambition?
• Is it about being a niche, boutique artist or creating a new market?
• How do fans turn to super fans and then investors or subscribers?
• What is the USP as a Musician and a Music Entrepreneur?
• Is it good to hold aspirations of life just because one is an independent artist?

Danny Aridi – Home | Danny Aridi 

1 Share = 1 Tree. Simple. Danny’s track ‘Change Me’ in collaboration with SPNL in Lebanon reflects a great initiative by a musician demonstrating Purpose and Entrepreneurial spirit. With a goal to plant 1000 trees. The campaign #ChangeMeChallenge highlights how the artist interconnects their aspirations, purpose, think out of the box, innovate and create new associations with simple ideas. 

Track – Change Me  |  Promo – 1 Share x 1 Tree  |  Press Release – SPNL.orgStay tuned for part 3!

Vivek Paul is the Founder of Gatsvy Consulting and has studied at Stanford University, and Berklee College of Music. With over two decades in the entertainment industry, he has contributed towards product design, content innovations, M & A’s, nurturing early stage startups, and serving the board of not-for-profit ventures. His life is devoted to building innovative products for businesses rooted in ethics. His methods combine intellectual capital, creativity, and humanity.