Hi all! I'm in a band and we're planning a new album release next year. I'm trying to prepare to promote it, but I'm finding that genre buzzwords would be really handy...and yet, I think that my band's sound is a bit tricky to pin down. We have used some tags in the past but I won't write them here so as not to bias opinion.

We're called Tape Runs Out and you can hear our existing material on http://open.spotify.com/artist/3stjEKYUNmQj7TkLFFtxXV?si=l4N33IlkQGS7wgtKm8r-uA" rel="nofollow - Spotify and on https://taperunsout.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - BandCamp .

Thanks so much!

[EDiT] I forgot to say, the one tag you absolutely should use on Bandcamp is “hammered dulcimer”. I wouldn’t worry too much about genre tags, unless you can find one that is unusual. Most people, including myself, who use Bandcamp tags don’t search by genre tags (unless as a secondary/additional tag, if a filter seems necessary).

Thanks so much! Really glad you like it!

Yes, that's me! Yes we play live, we just did the Cambridge Folk Festival with a reduced line-up (so that it sounded more plausibly folky) and we hope to get a few dates in next year when the album is planned to be released. Recommendations for promoters and venues would be really great if you know any as well

Just saw your edit - yes, we should, thanks  

The genres are more so that we can pitch the music to reviewers and those organising gigs to accurately describe it before they hear it. I don't really like that genre so important, but it has become clear to me that a lot of people want it. When my answer is "um, well, we're a mix of...." it often doesn't go down that well.

^Wait...I'll revise it just a little.

Neo Hypno Groovephonic (© JD2022)

btw - I had to look up what a hammered dulcimer was, I thought it was just a dulcimer that had been out on a Friday night.

I bet. 

Certainly the benefit from using the”hammered dulcimer” tag on Bandcamp should pay off simply because it is such an unusual instrument to come across these days,

I know Kate Arnold uses the tag, because following the tag from her Bandcamp, I “discovered” Botanist and Deluge Grander. (I say discovered, because I had heard of both bands, and vaguely knew about them, but had never listened to them - and perhaps still wouldn’t have - before following the “hammered dulcimer” tag.)

I suppose that these days, you have to see where you want to show your wardrobe, to try and help it stand out a bit more.

I have mixed opinions about this. 

1) If you have to limit your audience, you will likely prevent others from hearing it.

2) I look at history ... you really think that YES wasted its time wondering how/where to fit CTTE? Or TFTO?

3) When you look at that history, remember the beginnings, and HOW DIFFERENT things were from a lot of others. So, today, the only reason for anyone to be concerned with a location, would likely be that they don't want their 3.4 seconds of reggae sounding moment, that will make the PA folks think that the band is not very original! 

4) How could those folks be so different, and yet ... stand out?

Then I ask you .... where do you want to be?

I'm a writer, and though I differ in that I refuse to enter into the spirit of running the blahblahdash of sales, it doesn't matter to me where my words, or books endup ... if a dollar comes in, bless your heart ... if a couple of ounces of human waste comes in ... oh well, someone has lots of money to waste, no?

Look at many painters, and writers, and how they do their thing ... but one thing that you have to know AND UNDERSTAND ... is that you can NOT BE AFRAID of one inch or another, because your work is the thing that will suffer the most!

Best of luck ... these days, the idea of having to find a place for it, is the biggest hole-less hole in the ground there is!

Unfortunately I don't think I can look to how older bands "made it", because the industry has fundamentally changed - nowadays you have to "know your audience". Currently our audience is friends and family and maybe 3 people who saw us in a pub once and liked it  When Yes did CTTE they had a big record label and management backing them and they could offload the marketing tasks to others. We are too small an outfit to be doing that, we need to do everything ourselves, which is why I'm asking for help. How, in the digital age, do you find your audience? As far as I can tell, having the appropriate genre names to hand is useful when approaching reviewers, bloggers, gig promoters, etc.

Hi,

Not being in a band, I have to admit that it might be different for me as a writer, although I am published and listed in the National Library of Canada, I have to admit, that in many ways that was a side effect of the poetry and work I did.

I don't like to say that you have to know or limit your audience, the main reason why being that if you are so far and away an original that no one can copy or know how to do, none of those "groups" will exactly appreciate or understand your work, and your ability gets dropped into the tank even more.

popeyethecat wrote: ...  Currently our audience is friends and family and maybe 3 people who saw us in a pub once and liked it  When Yes did CTTE they had a big record label and management backing them and they could offload the marketing tasks to others.  ...

I am not convinced, or sure, that any band that was ever managed in those days by a label did not have something special, or peculiar to their ability, which is what got them there in the first place. Later in the late 70's, it became about the copy, and the next copy and the next copy, and everyone forgot what music was about in the first place, and the "hit" now replaced the love for the music itself ... today, even PA lives by its "Top 5" and listings, and in one thread a year ago or so, I complained ... at least 25 of the "top 100" were repeat listings with a different album, and that means that at least 24 other bands were totally ignored by many folks that supposedly "voted" for so much of this crap! Several folks amended their listings immediately, so they agreed with me, you could say ... it's about the music, not your favorites!!!

All it tells you is that you are convinced that putting things within a certain area is going to help you get more attention ... and maybe what you might want to do is just do what Steven Wilson did ... he ignored that label thing and sold cassettes of an imaginary band he created in his garage, by himself!!!! Guess what ... everyone bit all of a sudden and many hats and dressed folks showed up at his door in the next couple of years!

The marketing is an "illusion" that lasts for a while ... and the only truth worth listening to, is the one you create and live by ... that has the ability to help you get somewhere without being told what to do, or how to do it, so it can sell a bit more.

You have to believe in your work and its fruition ... and above all, yourself ... not an imaginary audience that "tomorrow" is going to tell you that they are not this or that anymore and lost their feeling!

You have to have some respect for the audience, but you have to let them go. As we say in theater, if you do 100 shows ... not one audience will be the same as any other! And if that does not teach you anything, you are in the wrong business!

I've given a quick listen to the first track. The first impression reminds me to the artists of the Irish label "Deserted Village" like "United Bible Studies" or the other projects involving David Colohan and Gavin Prior.

Here on PA they are classified as prog-folk, but it's quite stretched. 

Anyway, who cares about how a band is labeled? Your music is good and that's what matters

The title track for that album (the long cut) is fantastic ... I listened to it about 4 times to give you an idea!

Some nice and far out stuff ... lovely. 

Anywho, great sound. Will listen to the whole album when I have a moment.