Consistent vs. Varied Portfolio?

Hey John, your posts seem to be standing out a bit more than before.

Looks like this might be a question for the ages. Looks to me like the authors that stick to one thing sell more. I don’t know what I want to stick to yet.

jhunger said
While responding to mafloral’s thread regarding what songs customers are looking for, I remembered another question I wanted to ask other authors here, which is: Do you feel it’s better to have a portfolio that is stylistically consistent, or more varied?

For example, I’ve tried to keep my JHunger portfolio relatively consistent (with maybe a couple of deviations), so that I have kind of a brand as “that guy who writes the folk music.” On the one hand it helps to guarantee to a customer that if he or she likes the style of music I play they can find other tracks available that are similar in my portfolio. On the other hand, it is limiting in that I’m not catering to a wider audience.

Stay the course, or eclectic mix? What do you think?

—Joel

Hey, Joel

I think you just have to do whatever you want to do. If you feel you want and can make good music in different style – go for it. Who cares? You will attractive more buyers that look not just for the folk style. Make collections. I see that there is a feature for the buyers – they can now search within your portfolio or collections.

robGD said
Hey John, your posts seem to be standing out a bit more than before. Looks like this might be a question for the ages. Looks to me like the authors that stick to one thing sell more. I don’t know what I want to stick to yet.

LOL … And I’m in the same boat with what to stick to yet…

Made up my mind. Rock!

garethcoker said
If it’s good quality, who cares about the genre?

WORD

It makes too much fun to experiment with whatever comes to my mind. Not sure if this is good or bad for sales, but said many times before, im happy to sell as much as possible, but if i start to make music just for the sake of money….. i dunno, im better off for a Wordpress training then and sell for big money

@Slats – Thanks for the compliments, and back at you! You were one of the first authors I listened to before I joined, and your acoustic tunes helped inspire me to start posting my stuff up here (and I’m glad I did!).

@Soundroll – You’re probably right, and you have obviously had major success along that path. Thanks for the tip about the buyers searching within a portfolio/collection – I didn’t realize that. It does make sense that if a buyer hears that an author has a certain level of quality it might not matter so much that genres are not completely consistent.

@SonicCube – I totally agree, but I also make some distinction between what I post for sale and what I consider more personal or artistic works. Until late 2009 I had mostly written only songs with lyrics – pop, rock, blues, folk, whatever – but I don’t think I’ll be posting those anytime soon because I simply don’t think they’d be marketable for advertising music. I try to use elements of those works in the stock music, and I really enjoy creating the tracks I post here, but there is also an emphasis on marketability that’s unavoidable. Though I’d argue that even that is helpful for creativity – I end up writing stuff that I otherwise never would have thought of.

@unseenbattle – You get enough sleep? I can’t remember what that’s like . Regarding your point of maintaining more than one account, yes there is some overhead. Fortunately for me I have a collaborator, so the burden’s not all on me (though neither are the profits!). But we’re aiming to go eclectic for sure – it will be a good experiment.

@DirtyFlint and Leto – If you guys aren’t best sellers I don’t know who is!

Gotta say, this has been really interesting to hear what everybody is saying on this subject. Seems like half of us are in the consistent genre camp, and the other half is in the varied genre camp. Also a lot of good advice about managing different genres, e.g. using collections to your advantage.

—Joel

jhunger said
@Slats – Thanks for the compliments, and back at you! You were one of the first authors I listened to before I joined, and your acoustic tunes helped inspire me to start posting my stuff up here (and I’m glad I did!). —Joel

It’s a pleasure! Keep up the good work!

Andy.

jhunger said
@Slats – Thanks for the compliments, and back at you! You were one of the first authors I listened to before I joined, and your acoustic tunes helped inspire me to start posting my stuff up here (and I’m glad I did!).

@Soundroll – You’re probably right, and you have obviously had major success along that path. Thanks for the tip about the buyers searching within a portfolio/collection – I didn’t realize that. It does make sense that if a buyer hears that an author has a certain level of quality it might not matter so much that genres are not completely consistent.

@SonicCube – I totally agree, but I also make some distinction between what I post for sale and what I consider more personal or artistic works. Until late 2009 I had mostly written only songs with lyrics – pop, rock, blues, folk, whatever – but I don’t think I’ll be posting those anytime soon because I simply don’t think they’d be marketable for advertising music. I try to use elements of those works in the stock music, and I really enjoy creating the tracks I post here, but there is also an emphasis on marketability that’s unavoidable. Though I’d argue that even that is helpful for creativity – I end up writing stuff that I otherwise never would have thought of.

@unseenbattle – You get enough sleep? I can’t remember what that’s like . Regarding your point of maintaining more than one account, yes there is some overhead. Fortunately for me I have a collaborator, so the burden’s not all on me (though neither are the profits!). But we’re aiming to go eclectic for sure – it will be a good experiment.

@DirtyFlint and Leto – If you guys aren’t best sellers I don’t know who is!

Gotta say, this has been really interesting to hear what everybody is saying on this subject. Seems like half of us are in the consistent genre camp, and the other half is in the varied genre camp. Also a lot of good advice about managing different genres, e.g. using collections to your advantage.

—Joel

I would say a varied portfolio if thats how you write, think of your clients that are looking for all different types of styles,lengths,atmospheres and tempo speeds. However, i have noticed that plenty of authors write in a specific style and are very popular. At the end of the day, i would write how you want. I like to try out different styles( its fun, rewarding and a challange).