The Artist’s Corner: Three Steps to Making it on Your Own

The truth is, in this present day: there is no difference between an independent artist and a major artist.

With social media, and hell, the entire internet at our fingertips, you can do your very own A&R and marketing right here, right now. I’ve noticed that a lot of kids looking to make it on their own, don’t realize how much power they truly have in the NOW. What I look to communicate to others as someone who has seen the good, bad and ugly in the industry, is that anyone can win on their own.

And yes, I didn’t say artists, I said anyone.

The keys to the castle are the keys to the kingdom. It’s all the same thing at the end of the day. Whether you’re selling your own music or selling your custom handmade soaps, you are still selling something that comes from YOU. When you’re looking to get eyes on something that comes from you, you have to know how to leverage the influence you already have (that you might not even be aware of) for it to be seen.

I can tell you that a lot of “successful” artists in the industry have no f*cking idea what they are doing. If a label signs a hundred artists a year, they only expect five to work. What I’m about to tell you is what the other 97% didn’t do. Here are three steps they didn’t take, but YOU can:

1) Know your story and know how to tell it

Let’s say you’re a merchant setting up shop. Before you sell anything, you have to define what you are selling, or else no one is going to know what the hell you’re even doing running a shop in the first place.

Knowing your story is knowing your product, and knowing your voice is knowing how to sell it.

If you think your story about being lost or heartbroken isn’t original, it probably isn’t and that’s a good thing. It’s figuring out the distinct way you TELL this story where you find your voice, your sound and the right community of people to sing to. Getting real with yourself about what you are experiencing and who you are at this moment in time is how you write your scripts and find your subjects.

2) Focus on the feeling

Figure out how to make the subject matter you talk about broad enough that everyone can understand. Top hits are top hits because anyone can relate to them, whether they are conscious of it or not. This is why words matter so much. For example, take 2pac’s “Dear Mama.” He could have easily said: “Dear Afeni”, but then that's only for his mom. But, when he says: “Dear Mama,” it hits so much harder when I'm singing it to my own mama, and when everyone else is singing it to their mamas too.

If you're not making music for people to sing along to, you already have eliminated about 70% of the world.

3) Craft your persona and play your role

I know a famous rapper who would walk into rooms full of white people who never killed anybody or have never been shot a day in their life and go, “Who I gotta kill around here to get a check?” Everybody in that room would crack up, going “Yup! There’s the Persona.” He knows that there’s a cultural difference and he plays with it by borrowing from his past. That's his Persona. Developing what that looks like for you is how you break the ice as an artist, so it’s important to remember that you are playing a character. Your persona should be as close to you and who you are as possible, because it’s an extension of you. Think of it as the face of your brand or the narrator of your story.

There’s a lot that goes into making it on your own and leveraging your own influence, but these three steps are the ones you should take, before you start running. The key here is, before you run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to do everything all at once, take a second to get real about who you are. Like any good product, person, or place, you want to drive traffic back to the source which is you.

“So, before running out and trying to get people to listen, find out what you have to say.” - Ray Daniels

About the Author: Ray Daniels is a music industry power player and host of The GAUDS Show. He made his name and earned his stripes as a highly respected VP of A&R at Warner Music Group, and was instrumental in delivering chart-toppers for the likes of Lizzo, Ciara, Usher, Saweetie, Latto and Future. Daniels is also the founder of LYI Agency (Leverage Your Influence) — a multi-media company — and RAYDAR LLC — a music industry powerhouse encompassing music publishing, label services, consulting and artist management.