Paying Attention = FREE Marketing

Your creative ability to use trends as a tool and not a crutch, IS going to rapidly become one of your best FREE marketing tools.   Audiences have been made to ‘expect’ similarities in songs in order to accept them and spread them amongst their friends.  This is not a new concept, BUT it is becoming way more obvious now. You can use the trends as an advantage to:

• Position yourself (on the same level/quality of a similar band or artist)
• Brand yourself (as a powerful new artist)
• Cross genres & cross-marketing (mixing R&B with rock, or mixing Rock with Rap)
• Compete for attention
• Build buzz
• Grow your fan base

The reward is that you will ultimately grow listeners and increase the ability to sell more records.

If you’ve downloaded Song Sharpener, you know that it has a section (EarTrends) which lists the songs, the keys, the tempos, and small notes about the top 50 songs on the Billboard Charts.  Except that is a bit outdated, so I will have to take a few days to update that list and insert the new data.

That is an interesting process because I actually listen to each song, double check the KEY of the song, double check the TEMPO of the song, and listen to the primary characteristics that make the song sell.  Maybe it’s the lyrics, maybe its the use of a certain instrument, maybe its the falsetto, maybe its the background vocals.  But there are some recent changes I’ve been noticing.

Things are really going dreamy and pop at the same time.  Of course, we’re still in this 80s movement but I think OneRepublik has really made people change the way they go about their music.  That was a whole year ago that “APOLOGIZE” went mass crazy, but it’s still widely popular and gaining momentum.  Everything about that group is incredible.

I am also seeing a lot of stuff about Paramore.  I love Paramore because they do interesting things musically that I wouldn’t normally expect.

What I provide in eartrends is very useful and critical information you need in order to keep up with what’s current in the music industry – but you still have to pay attention to everything around your genre and your market.  If I had more time I would go into detail about specific sounds and the kind of “looks” that artists are using and how they are branding themselves with photography, videos, etc.

But right now its important to just pay attention to the musical trends.  Save some money – do the basics – and watch the success. You can be an original trailblazer and still follow the rules.  You just have to find out how to do both at the same time