The Importance Of In-House Artist Development

One key area for a label or record company is their artist development. More specifically, they must decide whether or not to promote and market a band immediately, or give them time to develop. The latter option is very important – here's why.

Many artists come into labels as raw and unrefined, like raw goods essentially. They have plenty of promise but there maybe some doubt about their musical quality or sound. With artist development, an artist has the time to craft and develop their musical repertoire over a few or even possibly several years. They can learn new compositional and production knowledge, adapt to the business practice of the industry and build a solid network of contacts. This turns a promising musician into a well-rounded, confident one.

One artist from the past who took this route was David Bowie. Despite having an early hit in his youth, it was after five years of artist development that he became a pop mega star with Ziggy Stardust. He was given time to develop and craft his arty and innovative style, and became largely a huge success throughout the seventies because of years of artist development.

There are issues with this strategy. It is very time-poor and can be very costly to a label or record company, who want to have a ready-made product to sell. It makes more financial sense for them to approach an artist who already has an established fan base and tailored to a specific market or genre. There's also the problem that developing an artist won't pay off in the long run simply because of bad development or just plain impatience.

So, artist development can be highly effective, but the key to it's success is giving an artist the right amount of time and taking them into the right direction.