Is Your Song Good Enough? Why "Fine" Songs Go Nowhere

Most songs that go nowhere have one thing in common. They're just... fine.

I've reviewed more than 50,000 song submissions for my playlists, and I've had to decline most of them. The usual reason was that they didn't stand out.

That's the trap a lot of musicians fall into. You think your song is above average because your friends liked it.

There's a name for it: the above-average effect. We all tend to believe we're better than we are (me too, of course).

But here's the hard truth. Your song competes with the top 1% of everything else out there, and your friends can't tell you where it stands next to that.

Put your money behind your best songs

When you judge the potential of your music honestly, you can decide whether a song is worth pushing, or if your time and money are better spent somewhere else.

That's how smart artists grow:

• Invest more into the songs that get great feedback.
• Let those stronger songs bring people to your weaker ones later on.
• Skip the promotion if a song isn't hitting.

How do you know if your song is above average?

• Be brutally honest about your weaknesses. If your gut says "this could be better", trust it.
• Ask people who owe you nothing. Your friends saying "it's nice" doesn't help you. You want honest feedback, and if nobody gets excited, the song isn't ready.
• Don't DIY everything. If your production, mixing or visuals aren't great, hire someone better. You'll grow faster and avoid burning out trying to learn it all. Fiverr and SoundBetter are good places to start.

This is also why I review songs one by one. When you send me a song through my Song Submission, I listen to it and tell you honestly what works and what doesn't. And if it fits one of my playlists, I add it.

What I learned from my first songs

When I released my first few songs, I thought they were amazing. I spent weeks on them. I posted everywhere and ran ads.

And nothing happened. Nobody cared.

Looking back, the songs were okay, and okay wasn't enough.

I didn't get honest feedback. I didn't ask the hard questions. I just assumed that if I loved it, other people would too.

Things changed when I started asking for honest feedback and stopped promoting everything. One good song got traction, and that one song boosted the others. That's when things started to click.

So are you going to settle for average, or work hard to stand out?

If you have a song coming out soon, I also wrote about how to test a song with feedback before you release it.

A content idea to try: a gig is a gig

You're scrolling through reels and a musician looks straight into the camera and says, "This is how I make money as a professional musician."

You expect a tour or a studio session, right? At least that's what I expected.

Instead, it cuts to him doing food deliveries. And honestly, that's what "full-time musician" means for a lot of us.

How to make one:

• Start with a confident hook like "How I make music full time" or "How I stay independent and still make music". The more confident you sound, the harder it hits.
• Hard cut to your side job, whether it's deliveries, a café shift or babysitting.
• If you want, add a funny caption about your day job, like "Funding the dream one order at a time".

Why it works so well:

• The serious opening sets high expectations, so people lean in and think they're about to learn a marketing secret.
• The contrast between expectation and reality makes it funny, and a lot of musicians will see themselves in it.
• It breaks the Instagram illusion where every artist looks like they've made it. And it makes people tag or send it to their musician friends, because we've all been there.