A question for the pros out there. As I get more into the business aspect of composing, with building a personal bio, an official YouTube channel, website et al, are there any suggestions as to “naming” your business? For example, my SoundCloud page goes by the pseudonym, “Parnassus Musique.” I’ve been thinking of using this name as my publishing name under ASCAP as well.
I understand that as a freelance composer, it’s probably best to use your real name for the purpose of name recognition so people know who is actually the real composer behind the music, rather than some generic studio name. I have an idea for a professionally designed logo and an animated logo splash to play before each of my YouTube videos, just like the beginning of a movie trailer with the studio’s name.
But, I stuck on whether to use my publishing name and logo, or if I should just use my real name and design a logo to match that? Any suggestions? What do you guys do?
I used to believe a business name and logo was the best route, but I changed my channel name etc. to my real name. The reason is that I have come to believe that personal branding always beats business branding.
I could see one benefit of using a business name, and that is that when taking new projects (custom music), negotiating as a business may have some higher “respect” and reduce the risk of them trying to take advantage of you with “exposure payment” haha. But this is just a hunch, no real data.
Haha! Yeah, I could see that. Trying to swindle and noob composer versus dealing with an actual “publisher” or “studio” I just can’t decide which to do, since I have the whole “Parnassus Musique” name and logo I designed, but I now want to start using my real name, but then the whole cool logo splash idea I’ve been looking into starts to seem, “meh.” It’s like what, do I just use my initials or design some unrelated image, like an eagle or something, and just put my name underneath? So many paths to choose!
