Music marketing virus

Recently, many content creators in the music industry have been spreading the idea that to be successful, an artist must prioritise marketing over their music. However, I believe this is simply not true for a variety of reasons, which I will explain below.

I break down several reasons why focusing on music as an artist is more important than music marketing. Each header links to a LinkedIn post where I discuss the topic. Collectively, they illustrate the issues with the “marketing over music” argument, which is a short-term narrative pushed by those who benefit from it (not artists).

Back catalogues are evergreen

Once you have a catalogue of quality music, it never truly “dies” as long as you know how to work it. This dispels the notion that a release can truly be a flop, or that it is futile to focus solely on creating music without understanding how to market it effectively.

I do respect the arguments that some of my peers come back with:

• The music market is heavily saturated and you need to know how to market your music to cut through to listeners
• Labels are asking that artists already have high stream counts and followers before they’ll take notice
• The media in general says that if you don’t have media presence then nobody will know who you are, or will forget

These points all view a release as a final solution, which is not accurate.

Once you have a great song, it’s yours for life. It’s an asset that will last beyond any social media or marketing trends – unlike graphics, which are much more transient.

In recent years, there has been a gold rush of 8 or 9 figure music catalogue sales. Additionally, record labels, publishers, and production libraries acquire smaller catalogues on a daily basis.

To ensure that your assets are valuable, you must create high-quality songs. This is why focusing on the music is more important than considering marketing.

There’s no rush for a release to succeed immediately anymore

The future of music is about eternal shelf-life. Most of the implied rush to get music out there starts from:

• Digital streaming platforms (DSPs) like Spotify need your music to keep their subscribers, yet they pay less than pennies for it, while earning billions of dollars in return.
• Digital distributors require the small royalties they receive from the 60,000+ tracks uploaded to their platforms daily – a sum which adds up to a substantial amount.
• Major record labels can offer a tempting advance, assign a marketing, DSP, and sync team, and largely act as investors rather than partners. However, independent artists growing their own fanbase takes away much of the work for a label. As an artist, you don’t have to play that game – it’s an illusion. But that’s another topic.
• Music marketers‘ job is to help your releases reach more people, which is beneficial. However, their job depends on you believing that your release needs to be promoted for them to make a living, so they will emphasise the need for marketing.

The truth is that releases can be pulled and re-released, if necessary, to reach wider markets and be included in different release packages. Digital technology has enabled this for a long time.

I would only recommend taking the “one-time only” approach seriously for albums, after you’ve spent time ensuring every song, recording, and production are perfect. Single releases, however, are a great opportunity to experiment, make mistakes, and learn for the next time.

Taking time to create emotion-jerking music that comes from something real, rather than “content music” will be far more valuable long-term

The music marketing gang want you to be content creators. They want you to be high-turnover, unperfected, TikTok video skilled, e-thot-photogenic machines.

Artistry is not just about skillful execution, but also self-exploration and honest expression. It takes time and should not be rushed; a soul is intertwined with this process.

Maybe you’re just a Pop artist and that’s totally cool – I love good Pop. But understand, it takes a lot of simplicity and catchiness to get it right, and that usually requires a team of people and a lot of time.

Good music has no shelf life; it can live on forever in countless ways.

If you feel something is off about your music, don’t just release it because of the saying “don’t be a perfectionist”. Learn to recognise what your intuition is telling you.

As artists, we usually know we’re a level behind our education in skill.

If you listen to your intuition that something isn’t quite right and identify what needs to be improved, then take the time to learn how to do it. This may delay the progress of the current project, but it will strengthen your skills which will benefit you in all future work.

That’s what people are depriving you of when they advise against being a perfectionist as an artist: they’re taking away your ability to reach your full potential.

The discussion of “music won’t spread without marketing” is overrated

Good songs will always rise to the top naturally. I’m not saying they’ll reach the absolute top – you’ll need to be creative to overcome obstacles, and you’ll need to work hard to get the song in the right hands. But eventually, it will gain more traction and spread through word of mouth faster than mediocre or average songs. If a song has something special, it won’t be too difficult to “sell”.

In the Wu Tang American Saga series, Rza was struggling to get his record distributed. Many people liked it, but when they found out he was an independent artist, they said, “We only work with signed artists.”

They pitched their record to labels but weren’t getting the terms they wanted. Eventually, they generated enough attention to get in a label race and chose the smallest label, who gave them the most control. Being signed, the record label was then able to break down the barriers Wu Tang had been trying to conquer alone.

Many people had already shown their support for the music, to the point that they could even get into the room with the labels.

I mean that it won’t reach a global distribution deal, but it will reach a point where it gives you the leverage to make connections that can convince the guarded DSP editor.

Your job is to make great music. Then, find someone you can trust to help you reach a higher level of success – you can’t do it alone.

More average music only makes more saturation in the market

The problems with the music is content narrative are that:

• Music is devalued by the idea that it can be quickly and easily created, with new music being expected to be released regularly. This encourages listeners to seek out the next dopamine rush instead of taking the time to appreciate the artistic value and depth of the music.
• More music is being squeezed into limited consumption channels, creating competition between artists. This creates an artificial and engineered “shop window” that is valuable to the platforms, but damaging to the music industry.
• The platforms could do more to promote undiscovered music organically or through algorithms, but they choose not to because of the valuable “shop window” they offer.
• Keeping artists in competition to produce a high volume of music makes their platforms appear more valuable, as they can report on hosting this quantity of music at a low monthly cost – this is the value gap.
• Listeners will stick to trusted sources of music recommendations, as venturing “off the track” is like entering the Wild West; full of average music that is difficult to navigate.

Music marketers contradict themselves and often say the music needs to be really good before it will work in marketing anyway

This expands to the debate of what “good music” actually means.

There is always the argument that, as an art form, the quality of music is subjective. This is valid when discussing the music itself (lyrics and composition), but it is less relevant when considering production quality. All artists should ensure their recordings and productions are of professional quality.

The issue is, DIY music distribution results in a lot of lower quality music being released without professional feedback. This saturation of the market reduces the overall value of music in the eyes of consumers.

Marketable music relies heavily on the brand surrounding it, rather than the music itself. However, the quality of the music is essential for a successful marketing campaign and to ensure the music continues to generate attention and revenue.

Hits are usually made by multiple people that know different aspects of a song that will make it a hit

If significant time isn’t put into considering all aspects of a song is right, it’s unlikely to be a hit.

Numerous labels and collectives have existed throughout the history of Pop music, such as Motown, CCP Records, and Cheiron. These have taken a “hit machine team” approach, demonstrating that there are formulas for successful Pop music.

Songs written and produced for mass appeal still dominate the charts today. Most hits are the result of heavily marketed, purpose-written-and-produced music – usually easy to digest and catchy.

That’s not to say there isn’t more thoughtful, off-the-beaten-path music that breaks into the charts – which is my favorite – but it’s always exceptionally good music and produced to a professional studio standard.

Exclusivity is valuable

Keeping your music to yourself can often pay off if there’s somebody who will benefit from “breaking” it for you.

In this self-distributed, digital, “re-release” world, there’s no need to give everyone everything everywhere all at once. We can control the pace of how music is released and have control over who has access to it and when. This is valuable from a strategic perspective when considering managing excitement around a release. It also gives us control over the value of the music. If music is in high demand but not easily accessible, this doesn’t have to be seen as an issue that will make potential listeners abandon the sales funnel. It is also an opportunity to price access to the music higher and generate fandom and collector customers. This, combined with a strategic marketing campaign that ensures the music is accessible in some way at the beginning of the sales funnel, can drive sales.

It’s content platforms that are the underlying reason this narrative is being pushed

They need your music as content to keep people attentive, and they undervalue it massively.

I’ve noticed a healthier narrative lately about streaming and social platforms. They shouldn’t be something you obsess over in terms of performance. Instead, they should be used to direct your listeners to the end goal: paying you for your artistry and, if applicable, your products.

The ultimate goal for any business is to control the supply chain. Platforms can make you dependent on external factors you have no control over. As artists, you should be creative and find ways to own your own platform and attract listeners there.

That doesn’t mean ignoring Spotify, TikTok or whatever, or not using them. It means seeing them for what they are: marketing tools. And if your marketing tools aren’t driving leads to sales, you work with them to optimise their performance or you fire them and get a new one.

The Attention Industry is not the Music Industry

It’s not the music industry that has established the idea that marketing and social success is more important than good music, or that good music won’t gain an audience without modern marketing techniques.

It’s hijacked the zeitgeist of talks around music industry.

The traditional music industry, which is based on musical works and their exploitation, is still operating as it always has and generating billions of dollars in revenue from its back catalogue.

The content industry, “audience” and attention economy are a sales channel for music, not the music industry itself.

And writers/artists need to realise this is the game.

The music will always come first, then be sold second.