Writing about your own music is often harder than making it.
When artists struggle to describe their music, the reasons are usually predictable. The language becomes vague, inflated, or disconnected from how people actually talk about sound.
The goal when describing your music is not persuasion. It is clarity.
What describing your music is actually for
Describing your music is about providing context.
It helps writers, listeners, and curators understand what the work is, where it sits, and why it might be relevant to them. It is not an advert, and it does not need to convince anyone that the music is important.
Most people encountering this kind of text are scanning. They are looking for orientation, not rhetoric.
This applies whether the text appears in a press release, an EPK, a submission form, or a release page.
Having a clear press kit or EPK available makes outreach much easier and reduces back-and-forth. See our Elements of a Good Press Kit article for help writing an EPK (Electronic Press Kit.
Clear context also makes promotion more effective, because it reduces friction between the music and its audience. See: what music promotion can and cannot do for you
Start with the work, not the artist
A common mistake is beginning with biography or intent.
Clear descriptions usually start with the music itself. What does it sound like. How does it behave. What kind of listening does it invite.
This does not require technical language or metaphor. Plain descriptions are often more effective, particularly for electronic music.
Avoid borrowed language
Descriptions often fail because they rely on recycled phrases.
Words like immersive, cinematic, genre defying, and boundary pushing appear frequently because they sound authoritative. In practice, they communicate very little.
If a phrase could describe almost any release, it probably should not be used.
Keep it short and specific
A few sentences is often enough.
One paragraph that explains what the music is and how it fits into your wider work is more useful than several paragraphs that repeat the same ideas.
Specific details anchor understanding. Instruments, processes, or constraints can be useful when they directly relate to the sound.
This also makes outreach more effective, because people can quickly understand what they are being sent. See: using blogs playlists and radio without spamming
Write like a listener, not a marketer
It can help to imagine describing the music to someone who already listens to similar work.
This shifts the tone away from persuasion and towards shared understanding. It also helps avoid exaggeration, because listeners tend to value accuracy over spectacle.
Electronic music audiences, in particular, tend to notice when language does not match sound.
Separate description from interpretation
You do not need to explain everything.
Leaving space for interpretation respects the listener. Overexplaining concepts or themes can flatten the experience rather than deepen it.
If the music carries meaning, it will do so without being instructed.
Editing matters more than writing
The first version of any description is rarely the best one.
Clarity emerges through editing. Removing unnecessary adjectives, tightening sentences, and checking that the language reflects the music itself makes a significant difference.
Reading the text aloud often reveals where it sounds unnatural.
Using assistance without losing voice
Tools can help refine how you describe your music, but they should not replace listening and judgement.
They work best when used to tighten language rather than generate it wholesale.
Where this fits in the wider process
Clear descriptions reduce friction across the release process.
They make press outreach easier. They reduce follow-up questions. They give listeners something to hold onto when encountering the music for the first time.
They are also one of the simplest assets to prepare early when planning a release. See: planning a music release backwards. This text often forms part of a press kit or EPK, where clarity is more useful than persuasion. See our EPK Guide.
If you want a simple structure for this
If writing about your music has felt difficult or inconsistent, I’ve put together a short guide that outlines how to plan releases, prepare assets, and communicate your work clearly.
It covers writing, promotion, and how to structure your releases without overcomplicating the process.
You can get the guide below.
Where this leads next
In a future article, I’ll look at artist images and visuals, and why many releases struggle visually despite strong music.
Describing your music should explain the work, not perform around it.
