Using Google as your career ally
Looking at Google searches is like looking into people’s desires.
They’ll write down what they want to learn or what they want to have. And by grouping these searches into categories (like music in this case), we can match their needs with our interests so that we end up helping them with what we love doing.
If you learn what people need, you’ll know which skills to develop to help them.
When you do the things you like, you’ll tend to excel (or at least give it all you got) which will reflect on the kind of service/product you give to others. Your clients will probably have a better customer experience thanks to you if you love doing your work.
A win-win situation.
So if music is your passion, then let’s look at what potential customers will most probably want from you by looking at Google’s top music keywords.
# 1 Programming Language Proficiency
“How to download music”, the most searched question in the music category.
It has 90,500 global monthly searches.
But that’s not the total amount of searches for this topic.
If you add the related keywords from the top 9 most frequently searched phrases, you get 231,700 searches on how to download music.
That’s a lot of traffic that might end up on your webpage if you can find a clever way to create a free and legal download tool on your site.
What if the end-users download any song they want for free, but ads on your site pay the necessary royalties to the music rights owner?
On this site, you could allow downloads from any platform (Youtube, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc.) and distribute the earnings between all the players with the ad money.
Or if you want to be a revolutionary, you can always create a Sci-Hub type of platform and be praised by users for it (and hated by publishing companies).
If you could just redirect the royalties to the composers that would be great!
In any case, you would need to learn or improve your programming skills to be able to create a useful platform for all these music users.
The creator of Sci-Hub was only 23 years old when she created the site and today more than 400,000 daily searches are carried out on this platform.
It’s never too early or too late to get into the world of programming.
#2 Reading Music
The 5th most searched question in this category is “How to read music” with 18,100 global searches per month.
If you add the related keywords from the top 40 most searched questions, you get 37,800 searches per month.
Not bad.
People are eager to learn this skill and you can be the one teaching them.
The online education market is huge. Last year the global educational market reached an astounding US$187.877 billion.
Yes, that’s a “b,” billion!
Many are using social platforms to reach their audience for this purpose. Even the traditionalist Uffizi Museum has started using TikTok to engage with younger generations.
It’s never too late!
You should also learn how to create high-quality videos on this subject to increase your odds of getting people engaged with your content.
There’s a niche for any topic and video form teaching is very appealing to younger generations.
But first, learn how to read music, especially for piano (8,700 searches per month) and guitar (2,400 searches per month).
# 3 Writing Music
Photo by Dayne Topkin from UnsplashIn this category, you can either teach others how to write music or offer your services as a composer.
“How to write music” is ranked in the 15th position with 8,100 searches per month. Nonetheless, if you add all writing-related keywords, you get 15,300 searches per month from the top 50 most searched questions in music.
On the one hand, people are trying to learn how to compose music. It doesn’t have to be sheet written music necessarily. However, if you’re already learning how to read music, you might as well apply it to writing music.
Thanks to DAWs (digital audio workstation), you can compose music without knowing any music notes. You just need an electric piano, and the DAW will transfer those midi files into musical notation automatically.
This software has attracted many people to music composition since now they don’t really need to write their music on paper (or use music notation).
And thus, there are many more customers at your disposal!
On the other hand, people need music for their various artistic and business endeavors. Just think about the thousands of projects created daily that need background music. Yours can be in there.
You can learn to write music that will be used in concert halls, TV shows, movies, theater plays, advertisements, audiobooks, theme parks, videogames, escape rooms, and many other instances in need of music.
Based on the most searched genres (top 50 searches), you might want to learn how to compose music in the following musical styles:
- Trap (18,100 searches/month)
- Indie (5,400 searches/month)
- EDM (4,400 searches/month)
- Electronic (3,600 searches/month)
- Pop music (3,600 searches/month)
Also, try cross-referencing these searches with other tools. For instance, you could look at this visual map that groups music into the most loved categories by country. That way, you’ll know what people from a certain nation are listening to more often compared to other countries.
You now have a better idea of where to focus your efforts.
# 4 Producing Music
People want to know “how to produce music” (2,900 searches/month) and “how to become a music producer” (2,900 searches/month).
These questions are part of the top 60 most frequent searches, so it’s not as prominent as the last three skills, but maybe you can get a narrower niche of customers and more hyped about it.
So what does a music producer do?
Think of a movie director. He/she has to coordinate different departments (costume, sound, light, actors, locations, scenery, and so on) to get the best out of them and follow his/her vision.
The music producer tries to make the best song and album by finding the right musicians, selecting the appropriate songs for the target audience in mind, and arranging these songs. He/she oversees all things related to the creation of a song or an album.
So apart from having a creative spark and knowing about different aspects of music (music notation, DAW’s, instrument capabilities, arrangement, etc.), the music producer has to be able to communicate his/her vision and manage the logistics and budget for the album.
As a point of reference, here are 5 great music producers behind some of the most iconic music groups out there:
- George Martin for The Beatles
- David Richards for Queen, David Bowie, and others.
- Max Martin for numerous pop artists (Britney Spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Kate Perry, and so on)
- Dr Dre for Snoop Dog, Eminem, 50 Cent, 2Pac, and many other rappers.
- Rick Rubin for Beastie Boys, Getto Boys, and many other hip hop bands.
Music producers are one of the best-paid jobs in the music industry. And if you’re able to co-sign the songs with the mainstream artists, you’ll make millions.
# 5 Marketing the Music
Last but not least, we’ve got the search question “how to promote your music” (2,900 searches/month) in the top 60 most frequent searches.
Many musicians fail to market themselves successfully and they usually resort to someone to get them noticed, sign deals, do collaborations with other artists, organize video clips, and all other activities that will help promote the artist/band to a large audience.
The music promoter can be the band’s manager, the record label (managing the artist’s work), or both.
The manager is someone who knows how to negotiate and network to position the band or artist on the right music venues. This person has to be well connected so that it can find the right places for the band to get noticed. He/she is basically the connection of the band with the outside world.
When it comes to record labels, there are the so-called Big Four that control 66,2% of the market share, and then you’ve got the independent labels. These labels will have a bunch of people taking care of marketing the band, managing their press releases, placing their music on ads, TV shows, films, and all the artist’s promotional activities.
So you can either contact bands and try to promote them or teach them how to increase their chances of getting noticed. Or do both and increase your chances of success.
Takeaway
A long road lies ahead but it’s an exciting one!
If you can combine your passion with people’s needs in that domain, you’ll always be able to help them and excel at what you do.
You’ll know their struggles, and you’ll be prepared to solve their problems.
Googling the most frequent searches on music can help you focus on the skills that your customers will most likely ask of you:
- Programing language proficiency: people trying to find how to download music from different platforms (Youtube, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc.) will need an online tool to deliver it. Yours could be the one they reach to.
- Music reading: many are struggling to figure out how to read music notation, and you can teach them how.
- Music writing: people want to express themselves through music, so you can help them achieve their dream. Or you might want to write music yourself and create sound universes for others to explore.
- Music production: artists and bands love to create music, but many times they’ll need guidance to polish their songs and write music their audience will like. Your vision can help them navigate these troubled waters.
- Music marketing: artists work on their craft, but they don’t usually know (or have the time) to promote their music. They need someone who knows how to negotiate and network so their music can be heard by large audiences.
Now it’s time to chose what you like the most and become the best at it.
Good luck!
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If you were interested in this article, I recommend you follow this link: Music Industry