It is unrealistic to think you’re going to market your music to everyone in the world regardless of age, race, or social background. This would be a waste of marketing time and resources, as the majority of people most likely wouldn’t be interested in what you’re trying to show them. This isn’t saying anything about your talent, it’s just everyone has different tastes and likes different types of music. If you spend all your time marketing your R&B music to people that only like rock, you will have clearly wasted a lot of time and effort, and your music won’t end up going very far. What it would be better to do is find a few target markets that are more likely to buy or support your music.
You’ll have to do your own market research. Some things you may want to look at include generally what sort of person listens to the type of music you make, what sort of person buys the type of music you make, and how can these people be reached. If you then target the type of person you’ve identified (E.G. Children and teenage girls in westernised counties if you’re making pop music, or 13-25 year old males that live in urban areas if you’re doing grime / hip hop music) you’ll have a bigger success rate when it comes to selling your product and gaining new fans.
So how can you decide who to target? Well, think about what you want to achieve. If there’s a musician out there already that has gone down the same route you want to maybe you can use the same sort of blueprint they use. Market to the same people they do, see what geographic target they’ve chosen and why, and if it suits your needs then target the same area. If you do the same type of music and are talented in your own right, why wouldn’t the people who like this musician also like you?
Once you’ve identified who would be interested in your music, the next step is to figure out how these people can help you…