How much of success is really due to the music itself, and how much is simply marketing?

Submitted by Jake_Mr t3_yfsem0 in Music

I've noticed that many people seem to think the reason big artists are so successful is because the they (and their producers) simply have a "talent" to write music that a large percentage of the population likes ("like" meaning they're willing to listen to it again, add it to their playlist, share it etc.)

Isn't this more of a mathematical problem? I'm listening to a lot of smaller artists and I don't think their music is proportionally "worse" or liked by less people (relatively speaking) than the music of established artists. They have the same potential listenership as the mainstream artists do, if there were only more people that would be "forced" to listen to their music. In other words - if the exact same track was released by one of the "big" artists, it would be way more successful, simply because it will be displayed to a larger audience that, in absolute numbers, contains more people who happen to like the track. It's exponential growth after all: if you have 100k monthly listeners, drop a new track and 5% of those who listen to it like it, you already start with 5k people who like your track right after it's published. If these people then share it with others, it makes it much more likely for this song to go viral than if you start with only 1 or 2 fans, even if your song has a higher rate of potential people who will like it - 15%, let's say.

So wouldn't it be smarter to reach a production quality where you can say there's a good enough percentage of people who will like your music (since you won't write music that EVERYBODY likes anyway) - and then spending your efforts on making it heard by the right people, instead of trying to work write "better" music that a larger share of people like? If I write a song that 10% and 100 people hear it, I still end up with less (potential) fans than a track that only 1% like but is shown to 5000 people.

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SiberiaState t1_iu51v9o wrote

I think best strategy for artist is to release music in albums where 70 percent of tracks are intended for mainstream listeners and the rest is just being kind of music the author really love to produce. This way artist will survive and in same time create new styles, trends in popular music.

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Adept-Elephant1948 t1_iu53dn4 wrote

You're right in that exposure is the key to success. If you write the world's best song and have no way of getting it to the right people (I.e. people/fans of the sound/genre your in) then it'll die a death next to an average/passable song that people get to hear.

The second element which you overlook is timing. Catching the zeitgeist of the moment is the difference between riding a wave and getting to the beach when the tide is out. If you have a great song but the mainstream audience is tired of that sound/genre then chances are they won't give it the time of day/or lack enthusiasm or will get passed up in favour of a new song with a new sound. Nirvana pretty much did that to glam metal.

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mubydram t1_iu5iqmf wrote

Sure, but it's also on the listener to seek the music they want to listen to. For instance, if all you listen to broadcast radio then you either enjoy the format of someone picking the music for you and listening to ads (the absolute worst) or you simply don't care enough to choose. I think a lot of people don't care and are content with what music is available to them. A lot of people probably do care, but perhaps are unaware that they have options beyond the scope of broadcast media and top 40 music. https://daily.bandcamp.com is a great resource for finding new and interesting music.

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Squire513 t1_iu6s17f wrote

Much of this is due to cultural listening habits for example America vs UK.

If you look at the top albums in the US on Billboard over the last forty years there is little variation and most are in the pop/R&B genre with albums holding on for weeks at the top.

Whereas in the UK the top albums change weekly across multiple genres. The BBC radio played a massive part in exposing a country to multiple genres and styles of music. The UK still often breaks alternative American artists and new genres (house/techno).

In the US, listener habits have always been segregated on radio, so while marketing does play a part American audiences are very specific when listening to music.

There aren’t enough Americans that have listening habits across multiple genres to grow songs from the underground to mainstream. Overall quite conservative.

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