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People say they want new artists, new sounds, new stars, but honestly, they don't. Fans cling to what they know, the industry recites with the same superstars and if you're an artist trying to break in like me, you probably felt it firsthand. So why does this happen? Why do people ignore new music and more importantly, how do you make them care?
The brain doesn't like new, it likes familiar, when we hear a song for the first time, our brain doesn't register it as exciting, it registers as unfamiliar, which makes it harder to process.
That's why most people don't love new songs in the first listen, it feels off because it doesn't match their internal playlist of known sounds.
Let's talk about the mere exposure effect, the more we hear something, the more we like
it. Your brain forms attachments and things it's repeatedly exposed to, that's why you recognize
locals instantly, hung commercial jangles and feel nostalgic for certain sounds from your childhood, repetition creates comfort, comfort creates trust and trust makes people embrace
something new.
We always hear about people complaining, they play the same songs in the radio, right? You want to know why radio repeat these songs? Repetition forces familiarity, making people
like a song over time, that's why radios play the same songs over and over and over again. The first time you hear a song is just random noise, but a tenth time is stuck in your head. Labels pay for radio play because they know familiarity, breathes popularity.
So actually, why do streaming platforms favor big artists? They push what's already familiar, keeping listeners in the loop of the same artists.
Algorithms don't make mistakes, they promote what's already working. Music artists dominate playlists because platforms trust familiarity over discovery, and new artists get buried quick unless they create a viral moment or hack familiarity through ads, social media, and repetition. And this is why new artists struggle.
You might have the best song in the world, but if it's the first time someone hears that their brain is wired to resist it, it's not good versus bad, it's familiar versus unfamiliar. This is also why the industry doesn't take risks on new artists, they're not in the business of discovering talent, they're in the business of betting on what's already working.
To get how to game structure, festivals book the same headline as every year. Playlists rotate the same artists, awards shows highlight the same names. It's also why even new artists that blow up usually have some kind of co-sign, a viral
moment, or years of groundwork before they even acknowledge it. The industry needs proof before they invest in you, and that proof, it comes from one thing, familiarity.
So if people don't like new music at first and the industry won't take chance on new artists, how do you break through? You force people to see and hear you until they can't ignore you, show up for them content domination, clips of your song everywhere, running them ads up, focus on the same audience, grand consistency, had the same style and the same message, repetition equals recognition. The more they hear you, the more they trust you, by the tenth time they'll see that you're important.
And this is why most artists fail, they'll drop a song post about it once and then disappear.
Meanwhile, the artists who break through, they stay in place until you start caring, because
here's the reality, no one cares until they care. If you're waiting for someone to just discover you, you've already lost. People don't hate your music, they just don't trust you enough to listen.
Your job isn't to be the best artists, your job is to be undeniable.
Until people feel like they've heard your name 100 times, you're invisible. So stop waiting and start forcing familiarity, because in this game, no one listens to artists they don't recognize.