Artist Development & Indie Artist Of The Week - Tyler Scott Owens

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022. 

Hey, it’s TJ Miller, you want some game? Let's Tip Unda The Hat!  

For the best indie music from indie artists, click, and follow Independent Artist Of The Week Unda The Hat. This week, Tyler Scott Owens. Be sure to hit the like button and follow this amazing group of indie artists. They will be major soon -

Artist Development, who needs it? Let’s go - 

Back when I first got in the record business 100 years ago, there was this thing called Artist Development sometimes called AD. Artist Development was the process many musicians went through to develop their craft, skills, persona, and etiquette needed to be in front or behind the camera. Basically a lot of the things that I speak about here in tipundathehat. This was done to help ensure an artist's success by the labels, actually entire departments. Some artists would be signed to an AD deal for as long as a few years before they ever released an album. They took voice lessons, songwriting structure, image consulting, branding, video performance, staging, and how to talk in interviews. This was the responsibility of the labels, additionally, some managers would do this before the artist was signed. The labels would find an up-and-coming artist by actually going to their shows, church, or where ever they may be performing and develop them in-house. In today’s new music business all of the development is left up to the artists. Labels now are looking for artists that are already developed, they want the artists to do the heavy lifting and bring a brand, persona, and an audience to the table, and they want a 360 deal to go along with that.  

Motown records perfected the art of artist development back in the 60s and the fact that their artists are still revered today shows cause and effect that it was needed and it worked. The way Maxine Powell who ran the artist development department explained it, she opened a school in 1964 and it’s sole purpose was to help Motown artists develop class and know what to do on and off the stage. Her mindset was to make sure they were ready to be invited to the White House or Buckingham Palace.  

Nowadays, most interviews are done over the phone, Podcast, Zoom, or some other app. The biggest platforms to hear music is streaming services like Spotify and Pandora which don’t do interviews or live sponsored shows. Artists today are not protecting or representing a franchise. You the DIY musician are tasked to build your own franchise and be the entrepreneur of your own brand. You have to build your website and be the label, have your merch, market your product and have the engagements from social media before you ever even talk to a label. The first question they ask now is “what are the social media number looking like?” Not, can they perform, how do they look on stage, can they play, the difference in mindset is huge. Artist development is still a thing, and it’s still needed, it now comes before the label and a few career milestones must be met before ever talking to a label. The best thing is to make sure you budget for a team. If you’re serious about this thing, you’re gonna need one. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!! BE SURE TO GIVE THANKS FOR ALL YOU ARE, AND YOUR GIFTS!! 

Johnnie Walker formally of DefJam now of NABFEME, Philanthropist Robert Johnson and myself are back and so is live Clubhouse tomorrow. We come back with a good one, Relationships, who needs em? You will learn a lot from this one because the music business is really the relationship business. “Untold Tales of the music industry.”  Click and save the link, and come join the conversation. 

This week's #IAOTW - Indie Artists Of The Week - Tyler Scott Owens - is an R&B/Soul singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and writer. Smooth as butter and grown and sexy is what they say about him. Click on his name, scroll down, and click the picture to learn more about this talented duo and the event. Be sure to like and share the Spotify playlist. 

For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next Tuesday.

Leave a comment