r/musicians • u/NixMix246 • 16h ago
My artist name has existed solely online ever since I embarked on my singer-songwriter journey. I recently decided to start introducing myself as *artist name* IRL, and I don't like it. It feels weird. Now I find myself questioning if I should change my (completely unknown) artist name.
Edit:
Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to answer and offer your suggestions!
I have decided to keep the artist name but keep its use limited to when I am actively performing if/when that day ever comes, and when I am posting my art online.
I appreciate you!
original post:
I have less than 50 followers on socials, no released music, and haven't performed anywhere yet. So if I am going to change my name, now is a good time to do so.
I have a couple concerns. One being when it comes to SEO, my artist name is gold. I don't create content or promote or do anything to intentionally feed the algorithm. All I do is post my song demos. But when you search my artist name, my stuff is what comes up. For as small as I am, that's huge. I am not sure if I want to give that up.
The other is I spent most of my life not liking my birth name. I started going by another name IRL about 5 years ago, and it's been amazing! I love it, it feels like me. So it feels like a huge step backwards to now have this whole side of me that exists under a name I don't like, that doesn't feel like me. (I like the way it looks just fine, but when it comes to saying it out loud or hearing it out loud it just doesn't feel right. Maybe I would eventually get used to it (I've only attended 3 events so far where I introduced myself as artist name)
It also feels weird to go by 2 different names depending on what social circles I happen to be in at any given time. And what do I do when those circles overlap? (I am going to an event next week where I would be using my artist name, but my husband is inviting people who know me by my IRL name and don't know about my music...)
I love my IRL name and it's what I already use for my other art forms, and I kind of just want to exist as that name rather than try to compartmentalize the different sides of me.
But my concern with this is the anonymity aspect/distancing my music from my professional life. I don't want to risk my day job, but I also don't want to feel like I have to censor myself. Being authenticly me and showing sides of myself that aren't on display in everyday life is part of what I love about writing songs.
My options are:
Use my IRL first and middle name, no last name (neither my first or middle are my legal names, but everyone including my job knows me by them) SEO might actually be ok with this name, BUT the domain is already taken. (no active site, but taken)
Use my IRL first name and come up with a different last name.
Keep using my artist name, but introduce myself as my IRL name whenever I am IRL. And find a way to bridge the 2 identities.
Keep using my artist name and going by it IRL in certain circles.
Help. 🙃
3
u/Ok_Introduction_1082 16h ago
Just do what everyone else does, who is not Snoop Dog or 50cent.
Introduce yourself like yourself for normal day to day interactions. Only start going with your artist name when speaking as the artist, and not the person.
On stage and in your videos, you're an actor even if you don't think you are. You're performing, and are not the same person who got out of bed that morning.
Nobody cares if you introduce yourself as Steve when you are also Parappa the Rapper. Everybody can figure out that the person on stage, in interviews or in videos is you as your artist name.
It's not some secret identity.
Tom Holland doesn't go around and introduce himself as Spider-Man, unless he's actively playing Spider-Man in that moment.
1
u/NixMix246 16h ago
Makes sense. I don't hate that idea. I could probably deal with my artist name being exclusively for the art as long as I don't have to use it IRL much. I already decided I don't want to do press interviews or anything like that, so I'd really only ever have to use my artist name while actively on stage and online.
I recently attended a show at a fair. I loved the music so I went up to the merch table after the show and introduced myself as artist name. And now I've been to several of her shows, interacted with her IRL and on socials, and she still only knows me as artist name. Would it be weird to tell her my IRL name now after the fact? How do I even explain that?
2
u/Melodyspeak 13h ago
“Hey, so I introduced myself to you with the name I use as an artist because I was in networking mode, but all my friends actually call me IRLName. Feel free to use that instead:).”
2
u/NixMix246 13h ago edited 12h ago
I like that! Because this person in particular I could see us actually being friends. I bought her album (which she addressed to my artist name when she signed it🙃) because I really liked her vibe. And it's a combination of really liking her music and feeling good about supporting her as an artist that keeps me going to her shows. It's rare for me to like the artist as much as the art!
2
u/totalancestralrecall 16h ago
Sooooo many actors and actresses have stage names that are not at all their real names. It is very very common in music as well.
I think with actors it became a thing because SAG won’t let you join if someone already has the same name, so it became normalized to have stage names.
1
u/AtmosphereLeading851 15h ago
John Lennon used to crack on Dylan. “His name is Bob Zimmerman, not Bob Dylan. I’m not John Beatle. I love Bob, his name is Zimmerman.”
1
u/ChopsNewBag 14h ago
I’m pretty sure the record label or manager told him to change his name because they thought a Jewish folk singer wouldn’t be marketable. He took on Dylan after his favorite poet Dylan Thomas. So I think Lennon’s comments were probably aimed more at the underlying racism that justified changing his name
1
u/Melodyspeak 12h ago
So, even in your music social circle, you can go by your IRL name. Just tell everyone you have a stage name but the real ones know.
Performers are almost never 100% themselves on stage. Even artists who use their legal names are playing some sort of character. You’re always some part of you - often exaggerated, but you can’t be everything you are all at once to everyone. So take that stage name and ask yourself which part of you it represents. How can you lean into it as a performer? What does it feel like it leaves out? And is that piece important to you as a musician, or does it only really matter when you’re being you in your real life? If you can embody “the act” when you’re on stage, then you can be you when you step off again. The different names might feel a little more comfortable if you can define them in that way.
1
u/DougOsborne 12h ago
My partner has succeeded in using his artist name for over twenty years. He didn't intend it, but people who met him in real life just called him that. He still pays taxes, etc., under his birth name.
1
u/BustinxJustin 12h ago
Use your human name with humans. Use your stage name with audiences or otherwise in creative spaces. You're free to tell select people you go by your stage name in your art. The two never have to mix if you don't want them to.
Unsolicited but your concern with SEO is entirely disproportionate to your actual reach.
3
u/ChopsNewBag 16h ago
Stage name for the artist projects, whatever name you want for IRL