Stop promoting “music,” start promoting “moments.

[vurt]

"Music that will make you question your life choices"

every day of my life i make that

[Constructed Identity]

No! You’re doing it wrong! You have to specialize- and get REALLY specific: ‘ music for your next bowel movement’; ‘music for your next traffic ticket’ etc etc etc

Otherwise you’re just another of the 14 billion songs uploaded every half second.

[Gamma-UT]

"Music to listen to during a prostrate exam"

I believe Butthole Surfers' Creep in the Cellar cornered the market on that one

"Music that will make you question your life choices"

"Music that will likely get you fired and possibly imprisoned and tortured"

The Surfers cover so many situations.

[Bunny_boy]

"Music to listen to during a prostrate exam"

"Music that will make you question your life choices"

"Music that will likely get you fired and possibly imprisoned and tortured"

[Bunny_boy]

No! You’re doing it wrong! You have to specialize- and get REALLY specific: ‘ music for your next bowel movement’;

There's a Yeastie Girls track that fits that bill

[Constructed Identity]

No! You’re doing it wrong! You have to specialize- and get REALLY specific: ‘ music for your next bowel movement’;

There's a Yeastie Girls track that fits that bill

Of course there is! I have an album by a Shit Robot- never seen a robot shit before? That’s the level of specificity I’m talking about.

So unless your making a song about digging in your nose for that one green booger, don’t even

[vurt]

No! You’re doing it wrong! You have to specialize- and get REALLY specific: ‘ music for your next bowel movement’;

There's a Yeastie Girls track that fits that bill

eddie shit, did a whole(theres a joke there) albums worth!

[Bunny_boy]

GG Allin would be appropriate as well!

[ghettosynth]

No! You’re doing it wrong! You have to specialize- and get REALLY specific: ‘ music for your next bowel movement’;

There's a Yeastie Girls track that fits that bill

eddie shit, did a whole(theres a joke there) albums worth!

Yeah, but it's shit.

[seafire]

Curious, do you guys already frame your music like this? Or do you still mostly post the classic “link drop” promo?

On the rare occasions I post something on a forum, it's a basic "new noise link"

The rest of the time I leave the promotion guff to other people. I've already been paid, so don't care.

[ghettosynth]

One thing I’ve learned (the hard way ) is that people don’t really connect with “new track out now.” They connect with what the music does for them.

Think about it:

Nobody wakes up saying “I need a new deep house track.”

But they do say “I need something to get me through this gym session” or “I need something to calm my head before sleep.”

That’s the difference between promoting music vs. promoting moments.

Instead of saying:
“New track out now on Spotify.”

Try something like:
“Music to help you wind down after a long day.”
“A track to get your energy back when you’re stuck in the studio.”
“Sounds that feel like you’re standing by the ocean.”

The music hasn’t changed but the way people see it has. You’re giving them a reason to care, a moment they want to step into.

Curious, do you guys already frame your music like this? Or do you still mostly post the classic “link drop” promo?

Well, I don't promote, at all, but I think that there's some denial in this thread. Almost (more later) all music is meant to be listened to, that's definitional, what you're really talking about is consumption of music, in some sense. Either you want to sell your music, or, you want to sell "you" to potential new listeners, or existing listeners. You're still attempting to expose others to your music, to get others to listen to your music.

So your idea is that you are selling the listener on the expected context. Whether that's pure focused listening or some other purpose, which suggests that the other purposes aren't already obvious from the context. I don't go to beatport to buy music that isn't intended to be danced to, as an example.

The question here is really for you. Have you been doing this for a while and do you find that it nets greater consumption of your music?

The video below is, tangentially, related and I was looking for a place to post this, this thread seems as good as any to foster conversation. I do release music, but I do that as a self discipline to finish tracks. You won't find it, even if you went looking. If you do find something, it was intended to be found and, in essence, not listened to. It should make you roll your eyes and dismiss it, laugh at it maybe, perhaps react to it, but I doubt that you'll listen to the entire thing.

So, then I think that is the only kind of music that isn't really intended to be listened to, music that intentionally tries to disengage the listener. I hesitate to call it art, but others might call what they do art.

[ghettosynth]

I find the notion of 'moments' as evinced on social media to be a dumbed-down, nose-led 'here's what to think' soundbyte curated for a Gen-Z-esque minimal-attention span of 20 seconds of inattention on Tiktok; music is something I'd want people to actually dedicate time to listening to.

I upvoted this, but, that's because I think that the idea of a "moment" is just repackaged promotion. That said, if you are getting 20 seconds of a stranger's time to listen to your music and you aren't established yourself, then that's actually pretty generous.

[Touch The Universe]

Stop promoting - just play