Beyonce — the perfect example of an artist becoming her own brand
Beyonce Knowles aka Queen Bey — beautiful, mesmerizing, talented, hard-working, and…a massive risk-taker.
From the time she started out with all-girl musical group Destiny’s Child, Beyonce has without a doubt become more dominant as a solo artist. However, it is not only her musical talent and exhilarating performances that have garnered her lifelong fans, and worldwide fame. In addition, and more importantly, becoming a pioneer in the digital age of music is what’s led her to become more respected — as an artist, entertainer, and businesswoman.
For her 2013 album, Beyonce had a goal in mind — to bring back music’s immersive experience. In particular, she had made some clear points, “Now people only listen to a few seconds of a song on their iPods. They don’t really invest in a whole album. It’s all about the single and the hype. It’s so much that gets between the music and the artist and the fans” (Elberse 1). She gave fans what they were looking for, but something better — a music video for every song…all released at the same time.
Surely, Beyonce took a huge risk — but it was an incredibly smart move. In particular, nobody buys compact discs a.k.a CDs anymore. “Globally, recorded music alone was a $20 billion market, with physical revenues also being in danger of being overtaken by digital revenues” (Elberse 2). If you think about it, music is all digital now — iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube…you name it. However, the end result is to not hurt album sales — for example, after Apple’s iTunes launched, rather than full albums, individual songs were mainly what were downloaded or streamed. Eventually, and unfortunately, that actually hurt album sales.
Before Beyonce’s 2013 album release, most popular singles were leaked online before they were initially released to the public. However, the albums in which the singles were a part of were not getting the same recognition and amount of sales as the albums were. Beyonce heavily noticed this, and realized that that needed to really change.
In 2013, according to the New Yorker, Beyonce was described as “the most important and compelling popular musician of the twenty-first century” (Elberse 3). At age seven, Beyonce started performing at local singing and dancing competitions. In 1996, Beyonce formed an all-girl musical group called Destiny’s Child. At that time, the group had already signed with Columbia Records — and Beyonce was only fifteen-years-old. Between 1998 and 1999, Destiny’s Child generated major chart-topping hits. In turn, Destiny’s Child became the best-selling female group of all time. However, “in 2001, Beyonce and her fellow group members decided to pursue solo careers” (Elberse 3). For Beyonce, that did her the most favor.
Between 2003 and 2011, Beyonce released four studio albums — all had topped the Billboard charts. “In addition to releasing recorded music, Beyonce toured frequently” (Elberse 4). At the end of the day, Beyonce widely regards herself as a performer — an incredibly talented and well-rehearsed performer, because that’s exactly what she is.
2013 was definitely one of Beyonce’s biggest years — “living up to her nickname “Queen Bey,” Beyonce was one of the most accomplished and recognized entertainers globally” (Elberse 5). In that year alone, she probably had given the most exciting and unforgettable Super Bowl performance ever watched. And, her latest album that year was probably the most listened to.
Beyonce had garnered more recognition by becoming the president and chief executive officer of her own company, Parkwood Entertainment (est. 2008; named after the street she grew up on in Houston, Texas). By 2011, the company “had become a fully-staffed entertainment company with management, production, digital, marketing, and publicity departments” (Elberse 5). That, in turn, contributed to Beyonce turning into her own brand — which, I must say, has become a very clever move. Eventually, Parkwood Entertainment established a joint venture with Columbia Records, Beyonce’s long-time label. In 2013, Parkwood Entertainment’s brand grew stronger than ever — and, with it, came unique commercial opportunities. This also probably explains why Beyonce’s star power also grew stronger than ever.
In the summer of 2012, Beyonce began the process of recording her fifth album. At the time, she had also been nursing her baby daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. The fact she did that proves how incredibly committed she was to furthering her career to higher grounds. Meanwhile, media speculation was going wild — the fans were dying to hear her new songs. However, Beyonce had a different mindset of her own — she wasn’t going to leak any of her songs to the public.
Beyonce’s fifth album release involved plenty of strategic thinking — “In August 2013, when the album was nearing completion, Beyonce set three criteria for the release: launch all songs at once as a full album, avoid any leaks, and make it a visual album in which every song is accompanied by a video” (Elberse 8). In short, Beyonce was going to turn her album into a complete body of work — because that is what she wanted, and believed she needed to do. That was the surprise she was going to give to her fans — and she was very well aware they were not going to be disappointed. During the process of finalization (of both the songs and the videos), the completed album was titled “Beyonce.” The album’s title made perfect sense, because it was (and is) the biggest reflection of who she is. She really made a statement by expressing every aspect of her life and experiences.
Although the album’s unveiling was coming to a close, there were still a few concerns — fears of possible technical glitches, the impossibility of doing a full-blown advertising campaign for the album, how other retailers would respond (to the pact Parkwood and Apple made in releasing Beyonce’s album), and what the release would mean for international markets. The team, at Parkwood Entertainment, was told to keep the release strictly confidential — they couldn’t talk or even tweet about it…remember, it was supposed to be a huge surprise. In regards to technical glitches, it was all such a new experience — no one would know what to expect from the fans. At this point, placing advertisements for the album was a difficult task — because then the secret would be out, and that was not what Parkwood Entertainment wanted to happen. In addition, Parkwood knew physical retailers, such as Target, were going to be upset — because physical retail sales were very much likely not going to be as high as digital sales. In terms of international markets, Beyonce is a massive global artist — however, printing physical albums in overseas markets tends to be problematic (i.e. Japan). The good news is selling units abroad can be as successful (as the USA), because that’s how huge of an artist — and brand — Beyonce is.
In conclusion, Beyonce’s gamble paid off incredibly well. Her fifth album, Beyonce: The Visual Album, became one of the top-selling albums of all time. In addition to her songs, her videos became some of the most-watched. At the end of the day, Beyonce gave fans what they were looking for. More importantly, she still continues to do so — because Queen Bey never fails to disappoint.
