Avoid the cleeshay, find your neesh ‘aye! (Typo’s deliberate!)

Avoid the cleeshay, find your neesh ‘aye! (Typo’s deliberate!)

As one of London’s leading artist consultancies, we’re often asked our opinion about what makes for a good single release.  Managers and artists bring us their music and usually make statements like:

“This track has that commercial feel to it”, or “this track’s what’s hot at the moment” or “this track has that breakthrough appeal”,  and it’s at this point that you might see one of our eyes glaze over with boredom as the artist/manager normally plays us a generic soulless copy-cat sounding pop song, that is usually the worst track in their collection!

Generic sounding pop-songs are NOT what are going to get you noticed by venues, promoters, DJ’s, Record Labels, booking agents, and the likes!  Generic sounding pop songs are what the major labels will force you to produce once you’ve already signed a contract!  What makes DJ’s and the music industry take notice is originality!  Think about all of the stand out UK acts that have broken through in the past 10 years (such Corinne Bailey Rae and Dizzee Rascal [pictured]).  Who do they sound like?

Avoid the Cliche’ pop approach and find your niche!  What is it that makes your track, your production, your delivery and your music unique?  Do you have a sound that sounds like a less polished version of what’s already available, or do you have a sound that will make a listeners ear’s perk up and say ‘oooh, that’s different!’.

Let me tell you a little secret about DJ’s and bloggers, they all want to be credited with ‘finding’ the next big talent, so when they hear something that stands out, they’re normally all the more eager to give it publicitiy so they can say ‘yeah, I found that track’.  Give them something to make their ears prick up and take notice that you’re not just a copycat pop artist, make them say ‘I haven’t heard anything like this before’ and you’ll have a much higher chance of getting noticed!