My Brand

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I've been thinking about my brand lately. A colleague of mine who works in marketing is always talking about how important it is to know your "brand". If you don't have a good understanding of your brand then it's very difficult to create a way to market yourself. So what is my brand?

During my 20 plus years as a musician and composer I've written and played all kinds of different genres. Rock, Space Rock, Industrial Electronic, Ambient Electronic, Rockabilly, and Orchestral for all kinds of situations. Bands and stage productions; small independent films, and major TV shows. During all that time I never gave a thought to branding. I just wrote what ever style I thought was necessary. However since 2010, I've been fortunate to be represented by one of the best production music companies around, Jingle Punks. Since then I've been able get some great placements. Now I have data to look on and determine which styles have been getting the most work. So again I ask myself what is my brand?

One of my most popular pieces has been "Creeping Doom" It's appeared in several of those true crime reality shows, as well as an independent zombie/comedy film. Looking at the rest of the pieces that get used a lot in TV shows I find elements that are common to "Creeping Doom". All of the most used pieces are orchestral in nature. OK so now I know that my pieces that are orchestral, get used more. What about "feel"? Most of the pieces that have been used all were written with the Night of the Living Dead in mind. I wrote them as part of a project where I was writing pieces for Gary Streiner during the first Night of Living Dead Festival. When I would sit down to compose that music my approach was as if I was scoring a horror film. Spooky waltz's, entrance processionals for demon kings, cloaked skeletons riding horses with sparks flying off the hooves as they hunted unsuspecting humans and unknown monsters stalking survivors of an experiment gone bad. All of the above were the scenes I saw in my head as I composed those pieces; and many of those pieces have now had a life on TV as underscore. 

I now think I'm closing in on my brand; orchestral, spooky, and haunting. Now, how do I market that? Well that's where I'm at now. 

OK, off to the studio. I've got some nightmares to score! 

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