Applying the Concept of Product-Market Fit to Your Musical Output

par Jeremy Young
Applying the Concept of Product-Market Fit to Your Musical Output

We might not want to admit this to ourselves as musicians, but artists often fall into the same traps that startups and tech companies fall into. You can spend all this time building the perfect product — or in the case of music, writing great songs, becoming a virtuosic instrumentalist, studying influential performers and emulating their abilities, etc. — but then bringing it to market and satisfying a consumer base falls flat.

In the dynamic world of the music industry, achieving success goes beyond creating great music. Just as in the business realm, musicians need to understand and apply fundamental concepts to ensure their work resonates with their audience. One such concept that transcends industries is the idea of “Product-Market Fit.”

What Is Product-Market Fit? Originally coined in the startup ecosystem, this concept revolves around aligning a product with the needs and preferences of its target market. According to Hubspot, “when you think about product-market fit, you want to think of your product as being so perfect for your customers that they become your salespeople. You want it to be made just for them.”

To figure this out, businesses and artists alike need to ask some tough questions, such as: 

  • Is there a market for the music product I’m creating?
  • Is that market growing or shrinking?
  • What competition or threats exist in this sector or genre?
  • Are there stakeholders, tastemakers, or journalists working to expand this sector?
  • What unique value can I bring to this market?

Phew! That’s a lot all at once. Let’s break it down. In this article, we will explore how you as a musician can leverage the Product-Market Fit framework to make sure there is an audience for your creative output, and how to serve that audience what they crave!

1. Defining Your Musical Identity

First thing’s first. Before you can begin to understand how to serve an audience, you need to understand yourself!

Contrary to popular belief, your “product” as an artist isn’t really your song, album, or t-shirt, it’s YOU. People support people, right? When a fan downloads your song, purchases your album, or comes to see a live show, they’re essentially saying “I support you as an artist.” The song is a byproduct of that. 

Hence, the first step in applying the Product-Market Fit concept to a music career is to clearly define your musical identity. Understand what sets you apart from other artists, what genre(s) you belong in, and what themes or messages you want to convey through your music. Without a clear understanding of your musical identity, it becomes challenging to tailor your music to a specific audience effectively.

2. Knowing Your Audience

Now that you’ve taken time to better understand yourself and your “product,” it’s time to think like a business and identify your “target market.”

According to Investopedia, a target market is “a group of people that have been identified as the most likely potential customers for a product because of their shared characteristics, such as age, income, and lifestyle.” While that may seem overly specific, it is important for artists to think about demographics when pitching songs to playlists, designing album artwork or tour posters, and building a following on social media platforms.

Analyzing streaming platforms, social media insights, and concert attendance data can provide valuable insights into your audience’s preferences, allowing you to align your musical offerings more precisely. If a business can do it, you can do it!

3. Engaging With Your Fanbase

Speaking of understanding an audience, effective communication is at the core of the Product-Market Fit concept. Musicians need to engage with their fanbase regularly — and ideally across multiple platforms where the full spectrum of a fanbase exists — to understand their preferences, gather feedback, and cultivate a sense of community.

Social media platforms provide an excellent avenue for direct interaction. Respond to comments, conduct polls, and ask for opinions on upcoming projects. By involving your audience in the creative process, you not only make them feel valued but also increase the likelihood of delivering music that resonates with their tastes.

And an important piece of advice here: while metrics (ie: streaming numbers, monthly listeners, and social media followers) are important indicators, true Product-Market Fit goes beyond quantitative measures. Be sure to make meaningful interactions with fans, and pay attention to the qualitative feedback you receive, as well as emotional connections and impact your music has on an audience.

| Read also: A closer look at JVKE’s Viral Social Media Strategy

4. Creating Consistency and Refining Your Sound

Alright, you’ve done the work to identify your unique sound, you’ve started to understand your audience more intimately, now you need to start serving creative content that reaches both your core audience and new fans along the way.

From a Product-Market Fit standpoint, the best way to go about doing this is lock into a cohesive, consistent sound and “brand voice” so that people start associating your work with quality and a certain identity

From album artwork to promotional materials, ensure that your visual identity aligns with the emotions and themes conveyed in your music. Defined by Sprout Social as “the distinct personality a business curates to communicate with its target audience across mediums,” a brand voice takes into account tone, style, and messaging to foster recognition and helps fans identify with your work more easily.

But consistency and becoming stale are two different things, and you really need to watch out for the latter. Musicians must be willing to evolve and refine their sound based on audience feedback and market trends. This doesn’t mean compromising artistic integrity but rather adapting and incorporating elements that resonate with the audience.

| Read also: How to mix music genres?

5. Staying Agile and Open to Evolution

The music industry is ever-changing, and maintaining a strong Product-Market Fit requires agility and openness to evolution, just like how startups need to respond to shifting market advancements and adaptations. Be attuned to shifts in trends, technological advancements, and emerging subcultures, and don’t be afraid to change your approach and sound to stay relevant while remaining true to your core musical identity.

| Read also: Striking a balance between musical identity and music industry trends for musicians

A willingness to embrace change positions you to thrive in the ways a music industry audience itself adapts to change. 

On this note, make sure you’re periodically evaluating the effectiveness of various marketing channels you’re using to reach your audiences. Are some not quite working like they used to? Are you seeing faster growth on one social media platform than another? This might involve tweaking social media campaigns, adjusting release schedules, or experimenting with different content types. 

The goal is to continually align your promotional efforts with the evolving preferences and behaviors of your audience.

Conclusion

By embracing the Product-Market Fit framework, musicians can better understand the impact and relevance their music has on their audience, and elevate their careers to new heights. 

Yet while this concept can absolutely help match your musical output to an accepting target market, be sure to take into account that this isn’t everything. Art is a fickle beast, keep creating, expanding, brainstorming, and trying new things; and never get too wrapped up in the marketing of your art or else it’ll zap all the best aspects out of your creative vision!

Want to promote your music? Send it on Groover 👇

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