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Introduces the idea that the strongest artist brands work through psychology, not just visuals or content. The speaker frames five psychological elements as the playbook for building a powerful music brand.
Speaker A
So why is it that some artist brands attract millions of obsessed fans and make it look almost effortless, while other artists are beating their head against the wall just trying to get to the next level?A lot of artists think building a powerful brand comes down to having great visuals, posting consistently, or just making better content.And while all that's part of the game, the strongest artist brands are doing something much deeper psychologically.If you want to build a valuable audience that's truly obsessed with everything that you make, there's five psychological tricks that create the infinity gauntlet of branding.And in this video, I'm going to go through each one in detail.
Now, it often seems like there's no manual for all this, but there's actually a pre existing playbook on how to build an artist project that goes beyond casual streams and followers.And with this playbook, your music reaches millions of new people, you're selling out shows all around the world, and you have real financial and creative freedom.But in order to run that playbook, it's going to be extremely important that you understand these psychological levers.And, and if you don't know me yet, I'm Chris Alba, and I've spent the last 20 years building brands for the music industry.I own a creative agency called the Cult Creatives, and over the last 13 years, we've done tens of millions of dollars in business and have been blessed to work with some of the biggest artists, festivals, record labels, and management teams in the world.
And what we've seen countless times over the years as we've been alongside these artists, is that once you start to institute these principles, the speed of growth often changes almost overnight.Artists start to grow their audiences at exponential rates.And, and with these psychological elements, if you can get even one right, it will drastically change how people feel about your brand.But if you get all five, that's infinity gauntlet status.If you can collect all five stones these psychological elements, your brand will fully have the ability to rule the universe.
But in terms of elements, which one is the most important to start implementing first?
Explains how fans should instantly recognize an artist through repeated visual, stylistic, and creative principles. Uses fashion designers as examples of how consistent signals compound into strong brand recognition.
Speaker A
So the first element is recognition.And the question here is simple.What does a fan recognize?And immediately think, I know who this is.This is one of those things that sounds incredibly simple, but ask any artist and they'll tell you that it's one of the hardest things to do because you definitely don't want every piece of your creative output to look exactly the same, and you definitely don't want every song to sound exactly the same.
You want to evolve, you want to experiment and you want to have different eras, but within that variety, there should be certain things that you always do.Let me say that again.You can do all kinds of different things, but within those things, there are things that you always do.There should be a defined set of principles for your brand that are yours.Now, this could be a particular visual style.Maybe it's a color.Maybe it's the photography style and the composition.Maybe it's your styling.Maybe it's the kind of spaces that you perform in.Maybe it's your comedy or sense of humor.It could be the way that you speak or even the way that you title your songs.It's a combination of different constant things inside of your brand.Inside.If you're consistent with your principles and the stuff that you're making is resonating with people, over time, you'll begin to be recognized.
There's a Japanese clothing designer who I love named Yohi Yamamoto, who mostly works in black fabrics.He's made thousands of garments and designs, and 90% of them are black.As one of his artistic design principles, he mostly works in black because he feels it keeps him honest as a designer.He allows the shape, cut, and texture of the garment to take the center stage instead of a giant logo pattern or loud color.Because for many years, I've been following his work, or say, the work of Rick Owens, I can see a piece and immediately know it's one of theirs.And the reason that I know that it's theirs is because of their principles, and that's recognition.
And that kind of recognition compounds over time.The more consistently people encounter those signals, the stronger the association becomes in their mind.Eventually, if done correctly, you don't have to tell people who you are.They already know, and that's incredibly valuable.But recognition is only the first layer, because simply recognizing an artist, it doesn't necessarily mean I want to be associated with them.
It doesn't fully make me a fan.But this brings us to our second element.
Shows how liking an artist becomes a statement about who the listener is. The section connects music fandom to identity, style, and self-expression, leading into the need for shared fan experiences.
Speaker A
So the question here is this.What does liking this artist say about me?This is where music branding gets really interesting, because people don't always listen to music solely because they just like the sound.For centuries, music has been one of the ways that we can communicate who we are.It helps us tell the world about our identity by signaling what we like.
So the way that music artists might want to think about this is that often the soundtrack is the music to the larger movie that is the brand.Your brand is a movie or an ongoing show that the audience is watching, and your music is the soundtrack.And when someone identifies with or relates to your brand's movie, that's a whole different level than a casual listener.Think about the difference in the framing of these two statements.On one side, you have, yeah, I've listened to that artist before versus saying, I'm the kind of person who listens to an artist like that.Now, a lot of people don't walk around saying either of these sentences, but a lot of times it's subconscious.It's like saying, I go to the gym sometimes versus identifying as a gym person, as a gym person.Working out is part of who I am.
And this is why people buy artist merch, why they put a poster on their wall, why they tell someone at a party that they're obsessed with a new particular artist, that they're not just communicating what music they consume, they're subconsciously communicating something much deeper about themselves.And for me, and maybe I'm dating myself here, but I grew up in a time where how you dressed often signaled to the world what kind of music you liked.Whether it was punk rock with combat boots, spar belts and mohawks, or hip hop with ultra baggy clothes, team hats, and Timberland boots.Or there were the indie band type people with the skinny jeans, jean jackets, cigarettes, and Chelsea boots, or the rave kids with their Genco jeans, Oakley glasses, candy bracelets, and ringer tees.These weren't just outfits.They were identity.And once you move into identity, the relationship completely changes.
You're no longer just providing music they enjoy.You're giving them something they can use to define who they are.And while identity is one of the strongest psychological elements there is in music, in order to fully bond someone to the community, you need to give them shared things to do together.And for that, you need the third element.
Describes how communities form through rituals, participation, and shared experiences around music. Examples like K-pop collecting, themed nights, and scavenger hunts show how artists can turn fans into active participants.
Speaker A
Okay, so now the question for this one is, what do your fans actually do?What do they do by themselves around your music?And then what do they do together?All of this is extremely important because communities aren't just built on consuming content alone.Communities are built through participation, interaction, and shared experience.
So the way that you forge the bond is through consistent rituals.Think about what happens around a great show or a great concert.First, there's confirming that you're actually going to the show.And then there's the anticipation leading up to that.Then there's the getting ready for the show.Then there's traveling to the show.There's also all the essential songs everyone eagerly anticipates hearing.Depending on what kind of show it is, there's likely moments where the crowd all sings together, There might be a specific chant, there could be audience interaction moments, and there may be key elements to the show where the audience collectively unites to make the show itself a bigger experience.And this is just scratching the surface, but all those things that I just mentioned, they're primed for rituals.Rituals being ongoing, consistent things that you're doing with the audience.
For example, there's a huge ritualistic collection culture within K Pop.K Pop fans will collect and trade photocards that come randomly packaged within the albums.And what this does is it turns something as simple as buying a record into becoming an ongoing collecting practice and also a social activity.And as another example, Chaperone has developed a different kind of ritual with her.She's created these theme nights.Fans will have pre show get togethers and turn what they wear into part of the experience.And as another example, twenty one Pilots has used puzzles and scavenger hunts to turn fans into detectives.What they did is they had clues around different pieces of content and then they challenged fans to work together to find the codes and solve the puzzles.So this is where I think some artists are approaching their community building backwards.They're constantly asking, what are we going to post around this release?
How are we going to let people know about the song?But a better question might be, what can I get my fans to do that's fun?And also on brand, is there anything that I can do with them or are there things that they can do together in terms of community building?These are better questions to ask than what are we going to post for the new single?And once you do things like this and people become active in the community, even if it's a small group, something really interesting starts to happen.
The community begins to recognize each other.They start relating to each other.They start having experiences together through your brand, your music and your community.Because people want to belong to things.It's part of our baked in primal human DNA.
We're wired to find groups of like minded people, which leads us to our next element.And if you can unlock this one, it will likely change your brand forever.
Explains how a brand becomes a 'we' instead of an 'I' when fans feel part of a tribe. The speaker highlights culture, inside language, and shared symbols as the forces that transform an audience into a true community.
Speaker A
So this is where a brand stops being I and me and starts becoming we and us.Every strong community has some understanding of who gets it and who doesn't, who's in and who's out.There are people that are fully invested in what the tribe's all about and then there are other people that are out and they just don't get it.And with strong community identities, that dividing line is usually pretty clear.Now, I'm not saying that your artist brand needs to intentionally be super exclusive unless you want it to be.But it's about having something specific that you represent.There's only one community around this artist project that you've created, and it's unique.And once you hit the status of we inside of the subconscious mind of the fan, it becomes incredibly powerful.Because now they're subconsciously thinking, these are my people, this is my tribe.
And this is when you move from a casual fan type audience into a culture.And if you have the right kind of culture, it can become an insane force.It'll have its own language, its own references, its own symbols, its own behaviors, its own inside jokes.It fully becomes its own culture within your music brand.A classic example of this is the Grateful Dead and their Deadheads.Within the Deadhead community, they develop their own language, their own symbols, their own rituals, their own fashion, and even an unspoken, shared way of seeing the world.
The band almost stopped feeling like a group that people just listened to and started feeling like a full fledged community that people belong to.For the Grateful Dead, the band, they weren't saying, this is who we are.They were.They were saying, this is who all of us are.And that's the distinction.They created a sense of belonging inside of their culture.Another good example here is Subtronics.His community has its own sense of humor.They have their own language.There's usually a style of merch that they like.
They're all fans of his specific corner of the bass music scene.And they all have a very clear sense of who's in and who gets it.And again, once you have culture, that's when you transform from a music maker into a tribe leader.Now, all four of the psychological elements discussed so far are extremely powerful.This last one sends it over the top.
Covers how the story other people tell about an artist can be more powerful than the artist's own message. Through biopics and artist origin stories, the speaker shows how myth gives music context, creates emotional investment, and reinforces the five branding elements.
Speaker A
So the story that you try and tell about yourself matters, but the story other people tell about you matters significantly more.What's the story that other people relay about your brand?A myth is a story that other people tell about a thing.And when a story becomes interesting enough and starts pulling people in, it can change the context of the things around it.Meaning.Sometimes an artist story is so powerful, it changes the context of the music.People actually start hearing the music differently.And as an example of this, think about artist biopics.Some of the highest grossing movies and best selling books of all time have been artist biographies.Now, why is that the case?
Well, because people care deeply about the stories behind the art that they love.Artists like Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson all have their own biopics.And think about what a biopic is actually doing.It's taking someone whose primary creative output is music, but then turning their life into a story.And it can work in movie form or it can work in book form.
Artists like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, and Dave Grohl all have books about their life.Fans of these artists are interested in the relationships, the struggles, the choices, and the failures.They're interested in knowing more about what was going on in their lives and the different things that happened around making the songs.Now, here's what's super interesting.Some people will watch a biopic knowing very little about the artist, but then come out of it wanting to hear their entire catalog.
This actually just happened in my world.My wife recently read Tina Turner's book.Before reading the book, she was a casual fan.But now, after reading the book, she's a huge Tina Turner fan.For the last few months, all she's been doing is buying Tina Turner vinyl.
But why does something like this happen?What's the psychological lever?She had heard Tina's music before.Why wasn't she a superfan ahead of reading the book?Because knowing Tina's story, it changed the way that she understood her music.
Now the songs have context.When my wife listens to a song now, she knows some of the story behind it.And now because of that storytelling, she has a different bond to the Tina Turner brand.And this is what story and proper storytelling can do for your brand.And the specific story doesn't matter as much as the fact that there is a story.
As another example, look at an artist like Adela.Before a lot of these new people even knew her music, they were somewhat familiar with her story.She trained for Cat's Eye, got eliminated pretty quickly, and then was essentially told.She was more of a solo artist because of that elimination.It created an underdog narrative for her brand.
The story around her after getting cut is that she wasn't good enough to be in that premier group.But then all the people watching who also identify with being underdogs, started to root for her, because when they root for her, they're rooting for themselves.So you're not just watching an artist release songs.You're watching a story about a person who got cut.But now they have something to prove.
And actually, in the world of storytelling, there's more conflict and tension, and it's a better story than if she made it.So as a last example, let's look at an artist like Nick D. His story, which he's been super open about, is about how he built his career by himself a little later in life.He'd been into music when he was younger, but then he put it on hold.Built a family, a photography business.But then he came back to it years later and started recording songs and making content.
He recorded his initial songs in his minivan while his family slept.He released dozens and dozens of songs before anything really broke.As he was writing music, he was also studying short form content obsessively.And through trial and error and a lot of effort, he built a billion stream career without a traditional label manager or industry machine behind him.And because he's been so open about his story, other people relate to him.
So when people talk about Nick D, they're not just talking about the music.They're talking about a guy who figured out how to build a career on his own terms.Now, Nick D's music may not even be for you, but if you relate to his story, you root for someone like Nick to win.Okay, so that's it on myth.But let's review the five elements.
Recognition.I know who this is.Identity.I like what this represents and that says something about me.Rituals.
I participate in this world.Tribe.These are my people.And finally, Myth.I'm deeply curious about this story.
So if you have all of these elements working together, no matter the size of your audience, right now you're already operating a top tier brand.And these are the kind of discussions and the kind of elements that we work on with our clients at the Kohl Creatives.Day in and day out.We focus on how to strengthen each of these levers while growing the audience.And if you want to work with me and Colt directly, you know where to find us.All things The Kolt Creatives TheCoolTcreatives.com we also have a weekly newsletter that features topics just like this, news, tips and tricks and tactics for your music brand.If you're interested in that, you can [email protected] also a good video to follow this one if you haven't seen it yet.It's about creating a brand belief system.You define what your brand truly stands for and what your brand truly stands against.
It's if you haven't seen that yet, you can check it out here.But I hope all this was helpful.Good luck in everything that you're building and I'll see you on the next one.Peace.