Free Genre Tags are descriptive terms that capture the stylistic character of a track beyond its formal genre classification. Unlike primary genre and subgenre — which exist within a fixed taxonomy — free genre tags can describe any stylistic quality, production influence, or cross-genre fusion present in the audio.
Examples of free genre tags include: "cinematic," "ethereal," "groove-driven," "lo-fi," "atmospheric," "acoustic-electronica," "neo-soul," "folk-tronica," "dark pop," "orchestral hip-hop," "dream pop," "industrial," and "tropical." These tags capture the specific fusion of influences that makes a track sound distinctive — the things that genre taxonomy cannot express because they cross boundaries.
Free Genre Tags are particularly valuable for independent artists whose music defies simple genre categorisation. A track that fuses folk songwriting with electronic production might have a primary genre of Indie, a subgenre of Folktronica, and free genre tags like "organic-electronic fusion," "intimate," and "textural." These tags make the track findable in search, matchable to playlist categories, and describable in pitching copy. SongScore generates up to eight free genre tags per analysis.