Standing Out as a Musician in Today’s Online Landscape – Lessons From Marketing

I am not a new musician, but I have been drawing on my background in marketing to rethink how I present my work. The online space is crowded and algorithms change constantly, so standing out requires more than talent. It requires strategy and authenticity in equal measure.

One approach I have taken is to show the creative process openly. When I sit at my Korg X2 and work through a new chord sequence, I run a Yamaha CF3 Concert Grand through Ableton with Sforzando soundfonts and capture everything. I keep the WAV and MIDI files, and sometimes I publish early drafts of my scores, like Plein d’espoir et désespéré en la mineur. This is not polished marketing material. It is raw, but that is the point. From a marketing perspective, audiences respond to honesty. They want to feel invited into the studio rather than only seeing a perfect end product.

Consistency is also important. In marketing, repetition builds recognition, so I share across multiple platforms—Instagram, TikTok, and my own website—always with a sense of narrative. I talk about why I use certain sounds, how I shape progressions, and what inspires me. Technical details matter because they show care and credibility.

The biggest obstacle is time. Marketing can feel like a full‑time job layered on top of composing. The trick is to weave the two together. Recording a session is content. Sharing a score is content. You do not need to wait until something is “final.”

Having worked in marketing, I know that standing out is not about shouting the loudest. It is about being recognisable and genuine. Share your tools, share your rough takes, and you create not just music but a story people want to follow.