To promote your music, you have to know how to talk about it. Let us help you find the best way to define your sound.
Every artist wants to tell you about their music, but how many can tell you what they sound like? Comparisons to their heroes and influences aside, most musicians stumble when trying to describe their art.
That phenomenon is nothing new, but it is a problem. For most recorded music history, there were only five or six genres. Artists were either rock, pop, country, hip-hop, folk, or jazz. Other genres existed, of course, but most artists were categorized in one of those groups.
Now we live in the digital age. Data is the name of the game. Every person in every platform categorizes virtually everything into little boxes that help them understand what they’re consuming. There are no more rock artists or pop artists. These days, musicians belong to far more specific niche communities. There are glitch pop bands and Japanese hair metal groups. If you spend enough time online, you’ll likely find country metal bands and vocalists who only sing lounge covers of Hungarian rap songs.
Knowing how to talk about your music has never been more important. Whether discussing algorithmic recommendations or developing marketing campaigns for a new release, it all starts with understanding your sound. If you don’t know how to tell others what you’re doing or creating, how can you expect anyone else to do it? You are the base of knowledge for all things related to your music, so you best know how to sell yourself to the uninformed.
In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explains the importance of classification in the modern music industry. He discusses how the way we organize music impacts our relationship with it and even offers advice for those unaware of how to define their sound. The key thing to remember is that your art is ever-changing. Your sound will change as you develop, and you need to be aware of those changes to adjust your marketing, branding, etc., to match your artistic evolution.
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