Should You Be Concerned If You Don’t Have Haters?

Haters gonna hate.

But do they hate you?

Only famous and successful people have haters, right?

So if people don’t hate you and your music, should you be worried?

I want to dive into what haters are and what to do if you don’t have any.

What Are Haters?

For the sake of this post, let’s define haters as someone who can’t be happy for someone else’s success. And instead of just quietly harboring that hate in their hearts, they get loud.

They get publicly vocal and usually stick to social media and blog posts.

A hater looks for and points out the apparent flaws of someone. They don’t necessarily want what the other person has, they just want the other person to feel miserable about it.

It’s like they want to make the person they’re hating seem less significant to make themselves feel better.

As a writer, people have left nasty, name-calling comments before. As a musician, I haven’t had haters that match the above description, but people have emailed me with “feedback” about what they think I should or shouldn’t have done with my music.

But to get true haters, you typically have to be well known. So if you don’t have haters, does that mean you’re doing something wrong?

Not necessarily (more on that below).

Why You Might Want Haters

You spend hours writing and recording a song you’ve poured your heart into. You’re a little nervous about releasing it, but you know it’s ready.

Why would you want anyone to hate it? Well, you can learn from your haters.

I’m not saying you should instigate hate. But if you have some people saying nasty things about you or your music, it’s an opportunity to grow as a musician.

Haters are flaw detectors. Sometimes their right, sometimes they’re wrong, sometimes they’re a little of both.

So if you listen to what your haters are actually saying, you can learn how to make better music or better connect with your fans.

You just have to check your ego and listen to what they’re saying.

If You Don’t Have Haters…

Many of us don’t have haters, or we don’t think we do. If you don’t have haters, there are two probable reasons why…

Your music is too middle-of-the-road

One of the main reasons people hate certain artists and their music is that they either love it or hate it.

Think Nickelback, Kanye West, and Taylor Swift. They make music that a lot of people love, and a lot of other people hate.

There’s something unique about artists whom people hate.

Their music is not palatable to everyone. But it’s so different that if you like it, you actually love it.

So what’s your music like? Is it middle-of-the-road, or is it pushing boundaries? Would it make your mom uncomfortable? Does it surprise you?

If you don’t have haters, your music may be too agreeable.

They haven’t been vocal enough

You probably have haters. We all probably have them. But you may not be “big enough” for them to bother.

That doesn’t mean your music isn’t great. It just means you may not have enough social media followers or notoriety to warrant — in the hater’s mind — a roast.