How Do You Categorize Yourself?
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 11:34AM Today I put a song up on a site called Jango. They offered to do free promotion for a month. I’m sure it’s a loss leader type of thing whereby if anything starts to happen (according to their reports) then they are going to suggest that I upgrade to their paid service to take advantage of my good fortune cyber attention that their service created.
But be that as it may, while I was filling out the various boxes, one asked me for my i-tunes store ID. It took me ten minutes to find myself on their maze. I had to wonder how long a prospective fan would endure their “refine your search” prompt.
I looked under Singer-Songwriter, Contemporary Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Rock, Pop, and finally found it by doing the same thing I did at the beginning. Type in my name. It seems that your name only shows up once you are in the proper category.
I know that the whole idea of categorizing your art is repugnant, but if you want to survive economically you have to acknowledge it and work it to your advantage.
This got me to thinking about how I categorize myself; which has been for decades, as faux jazz. This is a little bon mot I created from the idea of starting in folk music and falling in love with jazz and that my music is where the two meet. Folk /Jazz or Fo’jazz finally becoming faux (or false) jazz.
As cute as that wordplay is, there is no category for that, so I’m always choosing the closest thing I can find from the choices that they offer.
Today I want to suggest that you look very carefully at what you do. How do you categorize yourself? But more importantly, how do others categorize your music? Because they are the ones that are going to search the net for you and if you are not in the category that they believe you to be, you might be missed in their search on the may services that actually do list you.
For a while I thought that I should put myself in a category that didn’t have very many people in it, so that I would be noticed, but that’s a one way street in the wrong direction.
Do you actually notice the names of the people you aren’t looking for while you search for the name you are trying to find?
Secondly, how many people go to that category?
Take an honest look at yourself. Who are you competing with musically? Whose music influences you the most? What category are they in? Is your music like theirs? If it is, then that’s your category.
If not, then who do you go and listen to? Who do you perform with? Where do you perform? These things all help you to define who you are musically. And while your musical identity will evolve, grow and change, you can always re-categorize yourself to reflect that transmogrification.
The last thing I want to say on this topic is to ascertain that you are consistent. List yourself in the same category on every site. What? you say. I can reach more people with the shotgun approach. Yes but they will not coalesce. If all your fans/supporters/patrons are in the same genre, then you have a name. If your fans are spread across the gamut, then you have no real impact in any of the genre’s. Trust me, I know this to be true from personal experience.
Think about this. You sell five thousand CD’s worldwide. Six billion people on the earth. You do the math. Not one person in a million knows who you are.
You sell five thousand CD’s in your hometown, you are on the front page of the paper. And you draw big crowds when you play because you are an event there.
Choose your arena and then go for it, dammit.
Reader Comments (3)
You know I read this whole article and it left me pensive...But what really hit me was the last line:
"Choose your arena and then go for it, dammit."
Especially the last part of the last line:
"GO FOR IT DAMMIT."
That there musing put a real fire in my belly...again
This is really motivating! i love the way you write and put things into perspective. -Sarah-
Yeah! i agree with Bobby, that line is talking to me! great article!