Naming your music tracks, organizing, and making your promotion clear to others

[Edwin Glimmer]

Hi there.

How do you usually name your tracks, organize and promote them to other people? I have this sense that the name on your track is very important, in order to be clear what the track's content is about. Or is it more intriguing when it's a bit mysterious? Depending of course what kind of an artist you are and what music you make, and what's the message.

I ask these, because currently I'm building a of portfolio and website. I make music and other art in so many styles, so I want to make sure my possible clients and listeners can scroll through my work with ease, finding what they might be looking for or interested in.

Here is an example how the music list could be:

Track 1: Horror 1

Track 2: Adventure 1

Track 3: Adventure 2

Track 4: Horror 2

In this list the track titles have a strong prefix about the content, but lack personality or the story behind it.

 

Now, what if those tracks were actually named with something not so generic, in the same order:

Track 1: Dark Corridors

Track 2: Flight Through the Sky

Track 3: Dream Chaser

Track 4: Haunted Valley

In this list they are more personal and have some sort of prefix, but maybe a bit vague about the content. However, they might convey the story better.

 

Of course you could combine these methods and do something like this:

Track 1: Dark Corridors (Horror Music)

Track 2: Flight Through the Sky (Adventure Music)

Track 3: Dream Chaser (Adventure Music)

Track 4: Haunted Valley (Horror Music)

But is it too much or messy?

 

Overall, my main struggle is that I compose a lot of music without actually knowing, what kind of music it is. It just comes from my heart and I'm a bit confused sometimes when the naming phase comes in.

Any thoughts on this matter and everything related about promoting, organizing, naming conventions, creativity etc., I'm all ears. Thanks for taking your time to read this.

- Edwin Glimmer

 

 

[Meteo Xavier]

Definitely placing importance on the track title is the right way to go. Somewhere in the nebulous study of what gets people to listen to what music and make it a hit the song title makes a difference, but not much can be said on that beyond "It needs to be kinda unique and rolls off the tongue well."

Me personally, I go way the fuck out of my way to make song titles as original and "interesting" as I can with various levels of restraint. I can't stand the idea of any song I title being something cliche, trite or not having had the creative effort put in. Some are absolutely ridiculous, like my Sonic 4 remix, some are intentionally pretentious and designed to give a feel of "I don't know what I'm going to hear, but it will probably be substantial somehow", like my ESPERS album, and some have specific thematic patterns, like my Saturn Icarus soundtrack where all the tracks except the first and last track have extensive wordplay on things to make it bring to mind an 80's cyberpunk sci-fi environment along with additional verbage in parenthesis to give the listener a broad outline of a story concept that they can imagine while listening to the tracks. Titling your songs interestingly shows a sense of mindfulness for your art project and demonstrates further levels of artistic credibility for the project itself. This is good for long-term artistic credibility, though, predictably, a lot of will be lost on the chaff that is intrinsic to the population on Earth. I specifically have a policy of naming my videogame tracks something fitting but non-indicative so that it doesn't spoil anything in the game.

Artists that are consistently awesome with song titles include the following:

• Peter Gabriel
• Motor Sakuraba
• Paul Simon
• King Crimson
• Modest Mouse
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• System of a Down

And many others that I can't be bothered trying to remember.

Point I'm getting at is this: BUY MY MUSIC YOU MUTANT HOBODICK

[Edwin Glimmer]

On 5/22/2022 at 2:03 AM, Meteo Xavier said:

Definitely placing importance on the track title is the right way to go. Somewhere in the nebulous study of what gets people to listen to what music and make it a hit the song title makes a difference, but not much can be said on that beyond "It needs to be kinda unique and rolls off the tongue well."

Me personally, I go way the fuck out of my way to make song titles as original and "interesting" as I can with various levels of restraint. I can't stand the idea of any song I title being something cliche, trite or not having had the creative effort put in. Some are absolutely ridiculous, like my Sonic 4 remix, some are intentionally pretentious and designed to give a feel of "I don't know what I'm going to hear, but it will probably be substantial somehow", like my ESPERS album, and some have specific thematic patterns, like my Saturn Icarus soundtrack where all the tracks except the first and last track have extensive wordplay on things to make it bring to mind an 80's cyberpunk sci-fi environment along with additional verbage in parenthesis to give the listener a broad outline of a story concept that they can imagine while listening to the tracks. Titling your songs interestingly shows a sense of mindfulness for your art project and demonstrates further levels of artistic credibility for the project itself. This is good for long-term artistic credibility, though, predictably, a lot of will be lost on the chaff that is intrinsic to the population on Earth. I specifically have a policy of naming my videogame tracks something fitting but non-indicative so that it doesn't spoil anything in the game.

Artists that are consistently awesome with song titles include the following:

• Peter Gabriel
• Motor Sakuraba
• Paul Simon
• King Crimson
• Modest Mouse
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• System of a Down

And many others that I can't be bothered trying to remember.

Point I'm getting at is this: BUY MY MUSIC YOU MUTANT HOBODICK

Interesting points! Thanks for sharing your thoughts