It's All About the Song

This book examines how major record labels brand their artists for the purpose of selling popular music. The book uses earlier research in brand and image management and in culture studies to explain artist brands. The empirical material consists of interviews with seven record company professionals, who have had a central role in developing the brands of some of Finland's most successful artists. The study results indicate that artists cannot be branded in the same way as products. An artist brand emerges as a result of the artist's consequent behaviour and of the record label's consequent marketing communications. Depending on the artist's competences, artists can be branded in two ways. In branding-from-the-inside, the brand develops on its own along as the artist matures as an entertainer. This method is most often used with rock and schlager music artists and with singer-songwriters. In branding-from-the-outside, the record label takes a more active role in advising pop and phenomenon artists and artists who have been found from reality television shows. The book is a revised version of a master's thesis and it includes research findings that have not been published before.