For an artist, sharing their music and sound is an extremely personal moment. The ways in which an artist can separate their identity from their brand can be challenging at times, especially in today’s digital age. This year, I attended Music Biz 2019 in Nashville, meeting two extremely talented artists by the names of Shelita and Pagentri. I remember walking by the Jammber music booth and formally being introduced to Rachel Tripp.
Jammber is a music technology company that creates workflow tools and mobile apps that help creatives receive accurate credit and payment for their music. Little did I know that Tripp had an entirely different alias and a sound that would very quickly resonate with me whereby I would begin playing her music at my pool and events down in Ohio.
Why You Should Have A Music Alias
PagentriThere’s no question that the music industry has been heavily impacted by the prevalence of social media and digital marketing.
It’s no longer about being discovered by the traditional paper and pen method—rather, it’s how visible are you in the public light.
Tripp’s alias, Pagentri, is a spectacle of mystique that we wanted more of. Grit Daily sat down with Pagentri to learn more about how she balances her dual life as an entrepreneur and musician.
“Social media has changed the game for all brands, not just music,” Pagentri explained.
“For music, it’s made it a lot easier to connect and communicate with people you wouldn’t necessarily be able to. I have found a lot of fans through social media and it’s cool to see them find you and come to your shows and really engage with you. It’s definitely a great outlet for me as an artist.”
Grit Daily: How does branding play into your alias?
Pagentri: On the brand side, it’s still a learning process. My artist alias is fairly new, so trying to maintain that brand and keep it separate from my natural identity as Rachel Tripp, is always a challenge. It’s nice to have that alias because I have my job and the professional obligations I’m involved with. But when I perform, I can transform into the spectacle and be someone I’m not always every day of the week. You take on this new role, just like I’d do when I did theater.
GD: Do you fear transformation?
Pagentri: Being an artist, we are all weird. I’m the first one to admit I’m weird—so it’s cooli to totally transform and show that artistry through an alias and be comfortable in your own skin. It really resonates with people when you’re authentic through art. Doing the musical theatre, covers, and transforming into a character almost makes it fun and has kept me so attracted to art and the creative outlet of music in that way. We are constantly learning, changing, evolving, and doing something different, which allows you to uncover a talent or passion you may have not realized you had. I plan on evolving as an artist.
Utilizing Social Media to Maintain Authenticity
For Pagentri, her social media platform of choice is definitely Instagram. For many artists, managing social media accounts can be quite burdensome.
Pagentri agreed. “Instagram is the way to go—knowing how difficult it is as an artist to manage accounts across platforms. But, if you have one you can keep active and strong, communicating with fans, that’s the most successful approach. You can’t be equally active on all platforms, so pick one and run with it.”
GD: Why Instagram?
Pagentri: Facebook, in my opinion, has become noisy and things get lost. As Instagram has continued to grow, it has become my favorite platform due to the ever-growing options you can utilize and implement to help engage with fans and followers.
GD: How do you use your Instagram to engage with followers?
Pagentri: I’ve been able to connect with people more and really show more of who I am as a person and artist visually with that content. For example, I can now add teasers with back-end music I can insert with Instagram Stories and other short-story videos. I plan to do a lot more of this with my upcoming single release.
What You Should Be Doing to Improve Your Artist Brand
By day, Tripp is an entrepreneur, working at Jammber—by night, she transforms into Pagentri. We wanted to know her advice on how other up-and-coming artists can balance the dual life of entrepreneur-musician.
“Currently, I’m reading a book right now by Jen Sincero, called ‘You Are A Badass,’ and it’s one of those books I read slowly in chunks and pick it back up later,” Tripp shared.
#1 –If You Haven’t Read The Book, Read It!
Whether you are an artist, entrepreneur, or just need to self-reflect on life you need to read this book. Reading and learning is extremely important, especially in today’s music industry where everything is changing so quickly. Nobody can take knowledge away from you. So be smart at your craft.
#2— Pursue Dreams for the Right Reasons
The most important piece of advice I can give to you is making sure that you are pursuing whatever career, dream, passion, or hobby for the right reasons. If it’s because you want to touch people’s lives in some manner, like I want, then your job is done. For me, my vision is to be able to communicate my music to at least one person and have them feel, relate, or understand what I am sharing. If I can do that, then my job is done.
Don’t do it for the fame and money, because it takes a long time for that to happen, if it happens.
#3—Be Conscious of Time and Energy
In addition to working with Jammber, I also am an instructor at Pure Barre as well as maintaining my Pagentri alias. With that, I am very conscious of my time. You can do anything you set your mind to and being an indie artist sometimes you don’t have a team around you.
#4—It’s Okay If People Don’t Like You
It’s a part of life. I’ve accepted that it’s okay to be a bitch sometimes, especially when it comes to saying “no.” You must know and understand your boundaries.
Not everyone’s going to like you or agree with you. And that’s okay. Do you.
Pagentri’s upcoming song, “Own Me” will be available on all streaming platforms on October 18th.
