Following the trends

6) You Don’t Have to Follow Musical Trends to Make it

Don’t make music you think people want to hear. Make music that is meaningful to you. You can find your audience. Or rather, the audience will find you if you market it properly.

You don’t have to be a pop musician if you don’t want to. Yes, if you want to be a pop musician, then it’s a lot easier to follow musical trends. But chances are, by the time you’ve put out your record that trend will have shifted and you’ll be behind or simply a “me too” act which will be tired and boring. Make the music that moves you and makes sense to you BUT make sure you know where to find that audience. You don’t need 100 million people to listen to your music. You only really need a thousand or so true fans to support you for life. Go to them. Find them. Nurture that relationship. Respect them. Build your community.

The red part is from an article in Digital music news, here is a link to the whole article.

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/07/27/millennial-musicians/

This one is true. The problem is that the industry is always trying to figure out what people want to hear. I got several rejections from Spotify because right then they only wanted mid tempo dance music. Then the track hit on the radio so there you go, people wanted to hear it. Also, Spotify got alot of critique from blogger telling them that their playlists sucked and were too generic.

Still, Spotify relied on what people actually listened to. The problem is that people really don't know what they like or not like. They think they know. Also, people are complex and like the different stuff at different times. But of course it is the wet dream for the industry to know before you know what you want to hear, still, it will never happen.

That is why you should do music you like. Also, don't take off music that you liked before just because it's old, someone that has the same feeling can come along and grab it.