TL;DR at the end!
It’s the start of a new year and it seems the world rollercoaster
is
not
stopping.
2020 was a slap in the face for the current state of things, and since then, the paradigm has started to change.
As we stop grieving for how our life used to be, and adapt to all that comes up, or should I say as we adapt to adapting constantly, there are a few trends that are showing up and will impact the music industry.
The pandemic turmoil has brought to the table the importance of artists, creators, entretainers, and all creative minds while everyone stuck inside craving for some escape to the chaos of real life.
Wheather it might be with books, social media, movies or music, I don’t think anyone of us would have survived quarentine without any of those.
I can bet that, like me, you also spent all that time alone creating and making beats. Your computer now has a pile of gold inside. If you’re not doing it already, you could be making a living out of your music.
For this coming year I want you to absolutely crush it, so here are a few trends that you need to keep in mind if you want to leave every other producer behind.
First, let’s go over the general vibe of the genres that will rise throughout the year.
Genres
Personally I think that for a while it has been hard to talk about music genres as artists become more creative and experimental. The limits between one and another become more and more diffuse, causing an explosion of micro-subgenres that might be hard to describe, but here are some tips on what's going to play on top playlists for this year:
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Amapiano has been showing up since late 2021 as a big sound troughout playlists. Amapiano is a subgenre of South African house music and can be classified as a hybrid of deep house and lounge music with a jazzy sound. As well as the sound of the genre, part of the appeal of the Amapiano movement is the wider Black creative culture that surrounds it – from the fashion, the dancing and the communities it brings together.
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Pop Punk vibes and guitars are also having a surge with long-time-legends like Travis Barker showing up on charts again, with interesting collaborations with Machine Gun Kelly has dropped rap and made a few songs with Barker and Yungblud and even next-gen pop punkers like Lil Huddy and JXDN. Sure, pop-punk never completely died out. But it’s coming back full swing influencing the rest of the charts.
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Cultural diversity keeps influencing the music scene and our guess is that trend will continue to grow – in music and in content overall. Over the recent years, bilingual tracks like ‘Despacito,’ ‘Tusa,’ and ‘Hawái’ have topped the charts. Simultaneously, Spotify’s recent global ranking of the ten most played tracks includes Farruko’s Spanish-language hit ‘Pepas’ as well as Nigerian singer CKay’s ‘love nwantiti (ah ah ah).’
I’m sure we’ll continue to listen to uncommon instruments and languages in songs in 2022.
Communication
The first step to building your music career is getting people to listen to what you make. Currently, the best places to get your stuff out there are social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
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TikTok saw massive growth between 2020 and 2021 when it hit the massive market. In September 2021, it reported 1 BILLION (yes, with a B) active users. It’s advanced algorithm makes it probable that you’ll reach the right people, and by now you know that all the viral songs later dominate the billboard charts.
Even this one:
The most important thing that TikTok brought to the table is a specific way of consuming content that other platforms are trying desperately to capture and replicate. The short form, casual videos synced to the beat of songs will be the predominant style of communication for everyone, even the big brands.
Goodbye static, overpolished photos.
From now on, try to showcase your work in this format, and don’t worry, you don’t need to learn the trendy dances, there’s plenty of people who don’t do that and are still successful. The opportunity for virality and social media explosion on TikTok is huge for artists as around 80% of listeners discover new music on the app.
Technologies
People have been predicting a new metaverse of music for years, but the technology is starting to catch up to the promise.
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Virtual concerts like Ariana Grande and Travis Scott’s performances on Fortnite and Billie Eillish’s in SpatialWeb, and Justin Bieber's on Wave planned for this November. With travel and crowd restrictions still rampant, these new ways of being a part of liver perfomances open the door to a whole new world of entertainment. Yes, it’s still new and akward, but the opportunity to attend any concert in the world no matter where you live is very exciting both as an attendant and as a performer.
For now, it’s only a livestream on a screen, but as tech gear catches up these experiences will be more and more immersive and interesting. The developement of mixed and virtual reality headsets both from Meta and Apple make the metaverse a self fulfilling prophecy. Even when restrictions subside, this door will not close as the potential for profit is multiplied infinetly.
Speaking of profits.
Have you heard of NFTs? NFT stands for Non Fungible Token, and, simply put, it represents a piece of data that is embedded in a digital file, like a tag that says “this file is the original piece”. A huge change for how we consume digital content since it first began. And I’m not talking about the hype of some poorly drawn jpegs.
- NFTs are a big deal because they mean people can now invest in songs, videos, and digital art in the same way they would invest in physical art, and even more. It opens a whole new world for artists because now they can OWN their pieces. Imagine making a song and gettin paid for each stream, but not the pennies they get through big platforms that keep the majority of the revenue, but directly by fans who listen to their music. NFTs cut the middle man with no label, distributor, streaming platform, or social media platform involved.
Platforms like Catalog and NFTOne and many others are already building the space to make this happen, a marketplace dedicated specially for audio files.
Since NFTs are still a relatively new concept, it’s understandable that many people might be a little hesitant to pay a significant amount of money for ownership of an intangible asset.
That’s why many artists create NFTs that include their digital product, plus an exclusive perk or experience that buyers can redeem in real life.
If your brain is already turning into mush after what I just wrote, you’re not alone.
I highly suggest a crash course on cryptocurrencies, blockchain and NFTs so you can understand these technologies while they are still in such an early stage of developement and adoption, as predictions say that in the coming years every transaction of anything with value will be supported on the blockchain and smart contracts.
We’ll talk more about NFT’s in the future.
So, that’s it. What are your thoughts about the trends for 2022? Are you excited? Nervous? Things are changing and there’s no doubt of that. Put this tips to use and get ahead of everyone else.
TL;DR
This coming year I want you to absolutely crush it, so here are a few trends that you need to keep in mind if you want to leave every other producer behind.
- Amapiano has been showing up since late 2021. It's a subgenre of South African house music and can be classified as a hybrid of deep house and lounge music with a jazzy sound.
- Emo/Scene/Punk vibes are also having a surge with long-time-legends collaborating with new names.
- Diverse cultural influences are popping everywhere, with interesting instruments and vocals in other languages.
- TikTok is king and video format is king. Learn this skill ASAP.
- Virtual experiences will continue to rise as the door for reaching an audience that is not location dependant cannot be closed.
- NFT's will continue to evolve and change the music industry forever. Learn as much as you can about them while it's still so early.