To Niche or not to Niche? That is the question.

James is a great singer / songwriter, I know him for seeing him playing around town, from following him on FB, etc. I was always surprised though by the sound / aesthetic of his releases, and saddened that they never met an audience, never  went above the dreaded <1k threshold on Spotify.

He told me how it hurt him, that he went through depression, was considering stopping music altogether. I felt for him. Felt the pain.

Before producing, I’ve been a very active live musician. Playing to a non-existent, non-responsive audience is painful. Having a release with no listeners is the same feeling multiplied by the number of days in the year!

As an artist putting my releases out there, I know the joy of seeing  Spotify stats going up, not for the fame or the money, only to know your music is being heard and appreciated by thousands of people, that your music career is at a healthy place, that the ball is rolling. MOMENTUM!

It’s not luck, nor talent. It’s preparation, it’s having on board the right team of people working with and for you. James ’s mistake was that he thought that he had to ‘mainstreamed’ his music to be successful. His releases didn’t sound Indie, didn’t sound quite Electronic, didn’t sound like Folk. It could have been a good thing. It wasn’t. If I’d be curating Spotify playlists, I wouldn’t know where to put him. 

Have a plan, study and understand musical aesthetics so you’ll fit somewhere.

Better fit perfectly in a niche genre close to your style than float in the ‘wanna be mainstream’ undefined stratosphere! 

It works. It just does: it brings you listeners, it keeps you happy and motivated to push forward!