Unique experience – something interesting to talk about

One of the most connecting elements between artists and their audience is the experience. Let’s put it in another way – most people that listen to music do that because they’re searching for some kind of experience, which helps them to escape their life routine for a length of a song, album or a show. Some are listening to music while commuting, on the train or in their car, some are listening to music at home, while doing other stuff, or preferably while sitting down and focusing on the music experience, or better yet – attending a live show.

The experience listeners have when being exposed to music depends on many small elements that make the big picture: On the level of songwriting – the lyrics and music, how they interact together, have a huge impact on the experience that the listener will have. On the level of performance – The way the band plays, the way the artist sings, and the overall performance value has a lot to do with the experience. On the level of production and engineering – The instrumentation, arrangements, sounds and sonic signature are also contributing to the experience.

Now, that’s not all. How the band or artist looks, how good their show is, how they talk on TV, how they behave on social networks and so on… It never ends.

For a moment, let’s consider today’s “indie” environment: How many artists and bands out there are fighting each other for listeners’ attention? Millions. The sad thing is that the majority of them are writing similar lyrics, melodies and harmonies that were written decades ago by their favorite artists and bands, they all sound the same, play the same, look the same, using the same marketing tricks on Facebook.. You got my point.

So yes, there are listeners and music fans that look for the same experience every time. They mostly find it on Pop music stations and dance clubs everywhere. Again – if you’re looking to do the next radio hit or club banger – this blog can’t help you.

A lot of music fans are looking for a unique experience that in turn will make them feel unique. Then, that same experience might lead them to connect with other fans that look for the same thing. That’s where the unique experience come into play. This unique experience must be clear and defined, and projected in every element I presented earlier (which I will discuss in depth later). This unique experience is crucial in building the artist’s brand, and the one that can’t describe it or just don’t have it is just not interesting enough.

Try to find something unique in your presence, look, talk, writing, playing or show. Enhance it and project it through the other elements as well. Be the first to give the audience such an experience. Anyone who comes to your show will only remember you and talk about you if you give them a unique experience that they never had before with other artists. You actually give them ways to describe you to someone who never heard about you – think along the lines of “Their sound was so unique because they…, their singer is so unique because he is…, then in the middle of the show they suddenly did…, they went on stage doing something I’ve never seen before…, they made everybody in the crowd feel…”. If you “look like… sound like… play like… sound like… and have songs like…”, well, there is nothing extraordinary to talk about, and your show or the song you posted on You Tube might be forgotten after two days.

Can you describe some unique experiences you’ve had while listening to one of your favorite artists, while attending a certain show or while listening to a certain album for the first time?

Which unique experience do you claim to give your audience as an artist? In your songwriting? Performance? Sound? Look? Show? Are you the only one who does that? Are you the first?

Please comment below.