According to VoTT, starting a business is like composing a song

R&B singer and songwriter VoTT is a rising star in the music industry and is letting people know he is here to stay with his latest EP Heartbreakerin which he talks about his life experiences from 2020 to 2024. VoTT has found his inner self during this time and brought a new sense of confidence and boldness to his music.

VoTT spoke with Roll out about the music industry and the similarities between running a business and composing a song.

How did you get into the business side of music?

When I graduated from Harvard, we had a little graduation dinner the night before graduation. I gave a talk to my class, and on the way there we drove through the Boston University campus. I thought, “I really want to improve my financial skills.” So I just applied and got accepted on the spot. If you had asked me if I would be at Boston University now, I would have said, “I won’t be there.” I got accepted, and it was a great experience because I wanted to hone my business skills. I run a business and I want to run more businesses. I want to be the guy who knows all the skills you need in any business, even my own record label. I handle how we work with bigger labels, but as far as our day-to-day operations and market strategy, I’ve done that, and so far it’s going very well.

How is running a business like composing a song?

The whole launch is a matter of operations. Your music is your product. You need to make sure the product is compliant. So think about writing your lyrics, making sure your splits are in order, making sure the whole financial part and financing of the project is in order. If you take care of the copyright, you also cover the legal aspects. When you look at the actual sales part, for a good sales strategy you need to have a marketing (partnership). So how are you going to market this record?

A lot of people don’t realize that the marketing budget probably has to be ten times what it was to actually make the product. So a lot of people fail when they make music because they completely forget about marketing. They spend so much on the product that then they don’t have any money left for the music. That’s where a lot of people fail today because it’s not about the talent, it’s about the analysis. Although I’m still part of the creative process, a lot of people don’t realize that making a record is no different in the music business. Of course, the question is, financially speaking: what return are you going to get? How are you going to recoup that money? Go-to-market strategy is key. It’s not that a lot of people overlook it, they’re just not aware of it.