Build a world around your work 

Your music isn’t about you—it’s about your community. 

Let me explain. 

Think about the last time you discovered a new band, artist, or song and shared it with a friend. 

Do you remember that moment? 

Can you recall the enthusiasm you felt, introducing something new to someone important to you? 

And if they responded positively—”You’re right, this is great!”—I’ll bet it felt pretty good, right? 

This is the power of music. 

It brings us together. 

In small moments like this, in life’s extraordinary moments like weddings and graduations, in the thousands of moments in between—music is a cornerstone of our relationships. 

In short: our songs can make the world a better place. 

So how do we do that? 

Focus on your listener 

I have long viewed music not just as art but as an opportunity to solve a problem. 

We can use our songs to pour into specific aspects of our listeners’ lives. 

Think about it. 

Ambient music for sleep. 

Lofi music for studying. 

Deep house for lounging by the pool. 

You get the idea. 

Instrumental music, vocal music, pop, hip-hop, metal—every artist, genre, and song speaks to someone in a different and unique way. 

So how is your music speaking to your audience? 

What are they doing while they listen? 

How do your songs make them feel? 

Do yourself a favor and don’t sleep on this. 

If you can figure out precisely how your music is serving your listeners—what problem it is solving for them—you can take that information, tap into their needs, and double down on delivering something of value for years to come. 

And once you do that, you can use your music to connect. 

Building relationships 

The easy way to think about a community surrounding your music is to try to get your audience to engage with you online. 

Comments, DMS—all the things. 

But the reality is that we really want our listeners to engage with each other. 

This is where the magic happens. 

When our audience engages horizontally (with one another) rather than vertically (with us), they begin to form a shared identity that they associate with our work. 

They begin to create a world. 

Once that happens, they become advocates for our music (and our businesses). 

This is what’s known as a positive-sum game. 

You win because more traffic is coming to your music. 

They win because they’re engaged in a community they love, full of likeminded people, and that community keeps getting stronger as word spreads. 

Everybody wins. 

Positive-sum games are how long-term value is created at scale. 

And if we’re trying to quit the 9-5 and go full-time with music, scale is what we’re after. 

Where to start 

As you can imagine, building a community is difficult to do on streaming platforms alone. 

The tools just aren’t there yet. 

So where do we begin? 

The most obvious place is social media. 

Get people connecting in the comments, create a subreddit, or start a discord server. 

Engage with your listeners and encourage them to engage with one another. 

Create opportunities for connection. 

All of these options are completely free and have the power to foster deep, lasting relationships that are centered around your music and the value you’re putting out into the world. 

And in a world that often feels full of seemingly endless noise and negativity, what could be more powerful than that?