How To Start A Quartet in 2025
Here is all the game.
Yo, it’s Drew.
If you’re looking for a guide to build a string quartet in 2025, look no further.
This week and next, I will tell you everything. My playbook is open.
This is exactly what I did in Year 1 of wholesoul:
Decided my niche
Created an avatar for my ideal audience
Created an offer that solved a painful problem for my chosen avatar
Published marketing that clearly showcased my ability to solve that painful problem
Booked my first few gigs
Gathered testimonials and content from those gigs
Repeat Step 4
If that sounds good, keep reading.
Why Niche?
Because if you do the same thing everyone else is doing, you will starve and die.
I learned this from nature.
Ecosystems in nature are layered and diverse. Organisms in ecosystems compete to “eat the sun” in order to survive. Their methods vary wildly.
Plants and microbes eat the sun directly (photosynthesis).
Small animals eat the plants to get the sun’s energy. Bigger animals eat the smaller animals, and so on—all the way up.
But, there are animals that eat dead, decaying matter of plants and animals (yuck). There are even microbes that eat chemicals and heat from deep sea vents.
There are a billion ways to eat the sun. There are a billion niches. Evolution saw to that.
Businesses interact with each other in similar ways to organisms in nature. Big businesses eat small businesses.
Small businesses that do not differentiate, die. Every quartet is a small business. Every quartet is subject to these natural forces.
So, once you have achieved the miracle of gathering 4 musicians who can tolerate each other, ask yourself these questions:
How will our quartet “eat the sun?”
Can we “eat the sun” differently than our competitors?
Does “the sun” shine in places where others aren’t looking?
You must be distinct.
It is simple to be distinct, but it is not easy. There’s only one YOU. That is what makes it simple. Being your authentic self is not easy.
With that said, here is how I would advise a video game music string quartet to further niche down in their scope.
Focus on a specific video game with a large core audience. At least 1 million monthly concurrent players (Marvel Rivals, Fortnite, Minecraft). Make content specifically for these audiences. Not just covers of the music, but
Community-specific memes
Commentary on patch notes
Lore discussion
Even if HALF of Fortnite’s players fell off since 2023, this metric is CRAZY.
So. What. If your quartet can play anything and serve anyone?
Most quartets can play anything for anyone.
To be special, you have to specialize your business.
Choose to be hyper-specific. This will instantly set you apart from 80% of your competition.
wholesoul “eats the sun” by composing and performing hip-hop and R&B/Soul music as a string quartet.
Our playing bleeds hip-hop. It is elevated, luxurious…with an attitude. The music is so warm and familiar, but the sound is different.
No other quartet “eats” hip-hop the way we do.
In order to stay powerful, wholesoul operates with a narrow focus.
Do not go wide, go narrow.
What’s An Avatar?
You have to understand your target audience to sell to them.
Study your audience. Listen to how they speak, adopt their language, and generate solutions for their most painful problems.
Once you build an understanding of your target audience, you can take the next step:
Create an avatar for your audience.
An avatar is an imaginary person. Imagine your avatar in your mind’s eye, and make a personality and demographic profile for them.
Use your understanding of your audience—the way they speak, their demographics, their hobbies, their work history, what their average Sunday looks like, if they have kids or not, their fears, their desires, and their dreams. Use it all.
Then, create a profile for your avatar. This is fun! Lemme show you an example.
wholesoul has an avatar for each offer in our business. Our luxury and corporate events avatar is a woman named Cultured Courtenay (CC). Here’s a bit about CC:
CC is a high-earning, trendy woman in her mid 30s to early 50s. She works for, or is the founder of, businesses that generate millions of dollars per year. Because she operates at an elite level, she values professionalism, efficiency, and world-class skill.
She is a taste-maker. CC is that one friend in the friend group that is always going to interesting, off-the-wall shows for emerging artists. She is the friend that always knows about bands and artist before they blow up. She watches them grow up, and she’s a loyal fan throughout the journey.
CC often hosts boutique events and parties to get members of her community together. Not only does this increase deal-flow in her business, but it also gives her a chance to showcase her deep connections and value to her industry.
There’s just one problem though—CC needs classy, fresh entertainment for her social events.
In her eyes, quartets that can perform Mozart and the Beethoven are fungible commodities—BORING. CC wants musical entertainment that brings a Bridgerton vibe—but with a bit more attitude. Something like…Not Like Us, but it’s a String Quartet!!!
So, that’s what I did with wholesoul.
I focused on my niche, learned enough about my audience to develop an avatar, and then engineered an offer to solve a painful problem for her.
Offer
Recession or not, Cultured Courtenay will have painful problems. wholesoul can solve them.
Offer a solution to CC’s problems. That solution can be a product or a service.
Think deeply about your solution. What new problems will pop up once you have solve her old problem? Can you create a solution for this new problem?
Keep stacking solutions. Create an offer so killer, your clients feel stupid to say “no.”
Once you have your killer offer, charge as much as you possibly can. Use my previous Value Equation Newsletter for some extra help around pricing.
The problem is, Cultured Courtney doesn’t know wholesoul exists…yet.
In my next newsletter, I’ll walk you through wholesoul’s processes for:
Publishing content to attract business from my avatar
Booking our events
How we generate marketing assets from the work we perform
Thanks for reading as always!! I hope some of this information is useful and actionable.
Talk to you later this week.
Drew
Fuck yes