Here is a story Phil Lord told The Hollywood Reporter that every artist should hear.
Years ago, a studio working on an animated film was nervous about how to make it a commercial hit. So the studio paid a firm to study successful animated movies and find what they had in common. According to Lord, “after $1 million, the answer that came back was all the successful animated movies had one thing in common. They were original.”
He laughed telling it. But he also said it was a critical lesson, and added that among his filmmaker friends, “their biggest success was their most specific and idiosyncratic one.”
Specific. Idiosyncratic. Not the safest version. The most them version.
What audiences are really buying
At the 2023 Spider-Verse press conference, Lord put it even more directly: “The computer does not intrinsically add value to a project, and when an audience goes to the movies to see a movie like ours or a movie like ‘Oppenheimer’ or ‘Barbie,’ they’re going to see the singular point of view of that film and that collection of filmmakers.”
He continued: “they value the artistry, they value the handmade quality of something.”
Swap “movie” for “song” and that holds up. A fan who follows you is not following a genre. They can get a genre anywhere. They are following your take on it. Your voice, your stories, your particular way of seeing things.
That is the product. Not the file. Not the stream. You.
Why this makes artist identity practical, not fluffy
“Find your identity” can sound like advice from a poster. But it has very practical consequences. If your point of view is what people connect with, then knowing your point of view clearly helps with almost every decision you make:
- Which songs to release first. The ones that sound most like you, not the ones that sound most like what is popular this month.
- How to present yourself. Cover art, bios, and press kits that tell the same story your music does.
- Who your audience actually is. Not “everyone who likes indie pop,” but the people who respond to the specific thing you do.
This is why we think so much about artist profiles at PLAIGROUND. A clear profile is not a marketing gimmick. It is a way of writing down what makes you you, so every choice downstream can line up with it.
Figuring out what your fans want from you
There is a trap here worth naming. When you start paying attention to what audiences want, it is tempting to chase the average again. What is trending? What are other artists doing? What would the algorithm like?
But the better question is narrower: what do people want from you specifically?
Look at which of your songs people come back to. Notice which lyrics they quote back to you. Pay attention to the moments in a live set where the room leans in. Those are signals about your point of view landing. They tell you which parts of you resonate, so you can go deeper rather than wider.
Lord’s advice for people starting out fits here too: “If you chase the prominence or you chase the win, you often fail. If you chase quality, that wins out over time.”
Human, assisted, or AI: say so honestly
One more thing about identity: honesty is part of it. At PLAIGROUND, artists declare how a release was made, whether human, assisted, or fully AI, and we do not retag a human release. We work with all of those artists. What matters to us is that the label is true and the artist is the one making the calls.
A point of view people trust is one they can see clearly.
Your move: if you want help putting your identity into words, from cover art to an EPK that sounds like you, explore what Plai offers at wannaplai.com.