What makes you stick out?

I was wonderin' the other day, what can musicians sell/ promote that you can basically get for free?

This is a slight problem as so far there is nothing really :)

The people that are selling something, having great downloads are people that do this, my fave:



Julian Beever is a street artist who uses a pavement and chalk to draw in 3D. The pictures are so good people walk around them. He has made these pictures so fantastically cool that he has been commissioned to make more, he has a site but people have only really found it by searching for hime or his art- he is kicking up a buzz.

If you look him up on Google then you will find him on BBC, SKY, YouTube...everywhere important.

When you do something that is either extraordinary, or when you do something that people enjoy then you create a buzz and people want more.

This is especially so in the music industry. You have to do something different to get noticed, or do what people like you do do.

Now if Guns and Roses did pop music, it would be very surreal, but they probably would lose out on their audience, would lose credibility and thus loose future sales on records. So in their case doing something different/ radical would be bad.

Radicalisation of music is the stay of one hit wonders. They are those because for the time it was good, but you can not continue to create and keep with momentum.

Guns and Roses fantastic album Appetitie for Destruction was rock but it also was slightly different to what was going on at the time. This was good. If they kept on churning out that type of music then they would have lasted, slightly tweaking their music to fit in with modern styles.

The guru to this is Madonna, same type of songs, but changed slightly to represent the modern times. You could say that she has strayed from her original pop roots and churns out the style of the day, but ultimatley it is not that radical. Beat and hooks...same old Madonna.

So if you are going to make it, think different, don't churn out constant crap especially if you haven't got an audience.

If you have an audience keep with that music.

But to see what works and doesn't, try this: When you give away free music you can put slight tweaks in to the different pieces that you offer. The higer downloaded ones are the ones that they enjoy and you can move your music in that direction. If you have a community then you can ask them, two way conversations to your audience is vital.

There are many artists around, and many street artists who draw. Julian Beever just tweaked an idea and was good at it.