"Original" is the Easiest Way to Get Ignored

These boys are at least 98% identical, right? That 2% makes all the difference.

TBH, we have no time to hear about your original idea. The one you think no one has seen before that will blow everyone's mind? Yeah, pass.

The people you serve will have difficulty processing the work you give them if you don't present it in a box. What is it?

Start by putting it in a genre. Let people know what they should expect from it. Does it rhyme with any songs they liked in the past? Does it look like any of the other pieces we ♥ before?

Here's the risk - shipping a "totally original" work might not make sense to your audience.

Put yourself in the box, in a genre, and start to bend the rules within - that's when original ideas start to spread. Say, "hey, I created this thing that's at least 90% similar to what we all like, but it's different because I bent the rules a little bit, so it's different in a good way."