If music is your career, it’s perfectly normal to want the masses to hear and love your music. The more accessible your music is to everyone, the better the chances that you will make more money and win more fans, right? Not really. The situation in which music is created with the only desire to please absolutely everyone often turns into the opposite. Our job as artists is to create something special for the people who listen to our music. But if you are driven solely by the desire to win as many people as possible, then get ready to fail, or even be disappointed in music.
THE ROLE THAT MUSIC PLAYS IN THE LIVES OF YOUR LISTENERS
Your 74-year-old grandmother, 20-year-old pizza peddler, 40-year-old financial analyst, your mother living in the countryside. What connects these people is their completely unique relationship with music. It is safe to assume that the young guy attends more concerts and listens to louder music than his grandmother and mother living outside the city. When we strive to create music that everyone will love, we often forget to think about who exactly falls under this absurdly broad definition. Even the most accessible and harmless music cannot reach every listener, and there is nothing wrong with that.
If you want to understand why a certain type of music resonates with a certain type of listener, you need to learn to understand the complex role of music in human life. The release of songs about a broken heart, or the joy of a new relationship, or loss instantly cuts off a huge portion of potential listeners, because not everyone wants to listen to songs on these topics. You will never be able to give the same pleasure to a sullen teenager who is experiencing a break with the love of his life, and a 40-year-old woman who is looking for music to enjoy preparing dinner. For some listeners, music is an emotional lifeline. For others, this is nothing more than pleasant background noise. Reaching both audiences is not only impossible, it is a waste of creative energy.
FIND YOUR UNIQUE VOICE
Rather than making music in the hope of attracting as many listeners as possible, it’s much better if you focus on doing the best and most honest work you can. As you experiment and delve into your creative process, you will go through a difficult but absolutely necessary period. Your music is not meant for everyone, but this does not mean at all that it should be inaccessible and deliberately incomprehensible. Finding your own unique voice means creating honestly and with curiosity. You will only be able to find listeners who will truly touch your music after spending a lot of time searching for your unique artistic identity.
Making music that sounds original and authentic can lead to your work attracting millions of fans. Or, you may end up building a small but dedicated audience. But regardless of whether you reach out to the general public with your music, remember that listeners are much smarter than you might think. Listeners feel the intent is insincere. To this day, the main consumers of new music are young people who, while listening to a new track, want to feel understood. To reach this audience, you need to understand yourself as a performer. If you sincerely want it, be curious and try to shake off your fear of failure.
The problem is that in today’s frenzied competition, even the most honest and authentic performer is not guaranteed an audience. But if, instead of chasing your listener, you continue to do what you truly love, your chances of success will increase significantly.