The Importance of Finding Your Unique Place as an Independent Artist

We are living in a time of incredible paradox. 

On one hand, constantly evolving technology has seemingly put us all in contact with one-another, expanding and uniting our once-isolated bubbles into one global community. On the other hand, this constant access to an overwhelming ocean of options can actually make it more difficult for us to find connection in what and who is near to us. 

As artists, we can release our music to a worldwide audience, and yet, if we do not seek within the masses a more particular and welcoming community, our music may fall on deaf ears. 

Take, for example, this incredible story shared by Brian Weber, Director of Talent Acquisition at AHEAD, and paraphrased by yours truly: 

One day, for 45 minutes, a violinist played in a New York subway station. 

Now, if you live in New York City, or have seen its subway stations represented in film or TV, you know that in 45 minutes, thousands of people could potentially hear the violinist play. Similarly, in a global music streaming economy, billions of people could potentially stream your music. However, of the thousands of people moving through the station, and the billions of people moving through life, how many are willing and able to pause and truly listen?

By the end of the 45 minutes, the violinist raised $30, and received genuine listenership from a very small percentage of the passersby. 

And here’s the thing: that musician who most of the subway passengers overlooked was Joshua Bell, a world-famous violinist who, two days earlier, sold out a theater where tickets averaged $100. 

Not only that - while in the subway, he artfully played one of the most intricate pieces ever written for violin on an instrument worth 3.5 million dollars. 

This story is not meant to discourage you. 

In fact, it is quite the opposite. If you have already been releasing music and your listenership is smaller and less engaged than you had hoped, the problem is very likely not that your music isn’t worth hearing. It’s simply that the people it has reached, so far, are too distracted to receive the gift that you’ve sent them. 

And the solution to this problem? Send your music to someone else, and do it with intention, direction, and consistency. 

This can be achieved only once you understand who you are as an artist, what your values are, and what messages you are sending through song. When you have a solid (but gentle) grasp on your creative self, you can begin to find your complimentary audience. 

Online, you can begin to sift through the global audience by using demographic data that shows you a bit of what your audience “looks like” (i.e. age, gender, city), and then targeting a similar audience through social media ads, hashtags, locations, etc. 

Or perhaps finding your place and your audience means that, along with releasing your music online, you also seek community in person. Playing live shows at venues that value and support creativity, is a great way to find, engage, and stay connected to your true fans. And maybe you play somewhere other than a New York subway station…

Research shows that having too many options can make people feel unable to choose and commit to any one thing, and option overload can now be found everywhere. 

This is true of today’s global music listenership. Not only are you sending your music to an unfathomably massive potential audience - each audience member is constantly receiving a massive amount of new music to pick through. Think again about the people in the subway station. While some chose to stop and listen to the violinist, the majority had too many other things to attend to, whether it be their schedules, their thoughts, the people around them, or whatever music or podcast they had playing through their air pods.

This is why it is absolutely critical that you do the work of finding your unique place as an artist, the place where real people can come together - in person or remotely - and commit to sharing a musical experience. 

The great news is that you are an artist, so at least one major choice in your life has already been made - you’ve chosen to commit yourself to creating music that no one else can make, and sharing with people who will listen. Good luck on your journey to finding them.