If you’re looking for tips on how to sell music these days, the whole trick is mixing and matching different musical genres. Want three secrets for successfully mixing different music genres? Here you go:

• Find people in musical history who share common ideals with you, but expressed them in an interesting way.
• Take their music and then re-do it your way.
• Be respectful and pay homage as much as possible, looking to build bridges between then and now.

But since this is a blog post and not a Facebook update, let’s dig in a little more. Those are big and nice-sounding ideals, but what are some practical ways you can bring them about in real life?

Here’s three more useful tips for how to sell music in today’s industry!

How to Sell Music Today: Embrace The Culture of Music

I. Carry Those Common Ideals Across Musical Eras

Work forwards through time when building your pieces. I’m reminded of an old sociology book I read in college, which talked about how as a near universal-principle, old things can be mixed in with the new, but not vice-versa. For example, in décor: a Victorian recliner can work in modern 21^st century lofts, but trying to put a modern couch into an otherwise 19^th century parlor would look terrible.

So, let’s say you wanted to take your sound and blend it with some 60s psychedelia. You’d want a little connective tissue going between then and now. So, you might look to insert a bit of a 70s funk or disco vibe, and a touch of 80s synths. Make the elements blend so that the common ideals you’ve found tell a story through the evolution of the sound you’re exploring.

II. Make Music Your Inspiration Would Enjoy

You can’t simply take a piece of music and make it yours without acknowledging the debt. Sure, maybe some know how to sell wannabe tracks to suckers that way, but real music respects its roots. It was someone else’s before you came along, and you should show some respect for the legacy – the same respect that you likely hope to see some day.

This is another reason using material across the ages works good to connect you to the works you’re inspired by. You can also carry the same themes and messages across time as well, by picking other musical pieces that have those same themes in them. Understand their culture, see where they were coming from.

III. Find Inspiration And Pay Homage Through Culture

There’s another great reason to learn about the culture surrounding the music you’re inspired by: you’ll gain even more inspiration. Things as simple as the food they ate or the clothes they wore can give you all new insights on how people decades passed were expressing the same old ideals about human life.

I’m reminded of an interview I saw with a DJ awhile back, who talked about working on a project with some old jazz. While doing research in New Orleans, he got a bowl of gumbo…. and that was all it took. The gumbo, the idea of the mixture of totally different elements that make a new whole, is the motivation that led him to his new project and make it happen.

Standing out and selling music today takes more than simply being yourself. It means showing how you connect to the past, and how music continues to live and thrive today in a billion different expressions.