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Originally Posted by Bass Fanatic  It becomes a problem when you are trying to make a living playing music and you are at the mercy of the people your buying records and going to your shows. If people refuse to buy your records because you are lumped in a category that prevents you from doing what you do. So you must market yourself which is unfortunate but necessary. Many "straight ahead" guys will not buy "fusion" records. Many people will not buy anything with the word "jazz" unless its qualified but terms like "smooth", "new age" or a myriad of terms men in suits came up with to sell more records, because the term is dated and associated with recordings that are to this day amazing but also nearly a hundred years old. Being aware of this can make a huge difference in the amount of people who will hear your music. Whether they like or not is still up to them. |
If you're trying to make a living playing music and are lacking in basic marketing skills, again, that's your problem and no one else's. That applies both to sales of recordings and live performance.
If I'm trying to sell records (sounds funny when you think about it) I need to have a clue "who" my target audience might be. Then I need to reach out and grab their attention, in a world where thousands of others are trying to do the same. Personally I wouldn't base a decision to buy or not buy any music solely on a label. It's your job as an artist to catch my ear and with all of the ways available nowadays to do that, there's no excuse not to.
For example I doubt it's all that common for people to search for what they don't like on the web... so tailor your information to garner hits for something they do like.
I mainly play local gigs so I network (a form of marketing) and let people know what I do. As a result I get calls for a decent variety of gigs because I know a fairly large variety of music... and I stay as busy as I want to be. Somehow I doubt that me not providing a label for the types of music I'm versed in would help. It gives them a general idea and if they want specifics, they can get them.
