One side is competing on volume. Make more. Post more. Follow what is already getting attention. Find faster ways to create enough content that the algorithm might reward some of it.
I don’t think independent musicians are going to win that race.
Machines are already much better at producing more.
But there’s another direction available to us, and I think it becomes more valuable precisely because everything else is becoming easier to manufacture.
Becoming more recognizably human.
I’ve been calling this the Human Connection Premium.
When there’s an endless supply of polished content, the things that actually came from a specific human life start to stand out more.
That might be the story behind a lyric nobody else could have written. It could be the strange combination of faith, family history, former careers and musical influences that shaped the way you see the world. Maybe it’s a belief you’re willing to talk about, or some odd little thing about you that makes the right listener think, “Oh my gosh, me too.”
Those things are difficult to mass-produce because they belong to you.
One of the ideas that stood out to me in the book I’m reading this week was the distinction between what should scale and what shouldn’t.
Technology is wonderful at distribution. Your email platform can deliver one message to a thousand people. Social media can help someone who has never heard your name stumble across a song. AI can even help you organize thoughts or polish a sentence.
But the source still needs to be human.
That’s where I think artists can go wrong when they become so focused on keeping up with the content machine that the actual person behind the music slowly disappears.
And it’s why I don’t think the most interesting question for the next few years is simply:
How do I get more people to find my music?
We also need to ask:
Once they find me, what am I giving them to hold onto?
A person can hear a song, follow you and disappear two days later. That’s very different from someone who begins to recognize your perspective, understands why you make the music you make, notices the things you have in common and starts feeling invested in where your story goes next.
That’s the beginning of fan stickiness.
And I think it’s going to matter even more in a music world where discovering another song is almost effortless and the noise created by mounds of AI-Generated songs is deafening.
This is a big part of why I’m creating Fan Connection Studio - if this peaks your interest, Get on the Waitlist Here.
I want to help musicians build a Fan Connection Rhythm that gives listeners more reasons to know you, remember you, care about the music you create and stick around.
And because I know how easily a good intention can disappear under everything else we have to do, I'll nudge you with a little bit of accountability. It can help turn something we mean to do into an actual rhythm.
Fan Connection Studio opens next Tuesday, October 6, and the waitlist will get first access.
I don’t think the best opportunity for independent musicians is to become more efficient at looking like everybody else - it’s to become more unmistakably themselves.
Click the button below to Get On The Waitlist for Fan Connection Studio.
Always in your corner,
<3 Bree
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