The Genre Hierarchy is SongScore's complete three-level genre classification system — the structured output that describes a track's genre identity from broadest category to most specific stylistic descriptor. It consists of: Primary Genre (the broad category from a 40+ genre taxonomy), Subgenre (the specific variation within the primary genre), and Free Genre Tags (cross-boundary stylistic descriptors that capture the track's unique character).
The Genre Hierarchy serves two commercial functions. First, it determines which editorial and algorithmic playlist categories the track is eligible for. Playlist curators use all three levels: a curator building a "Bedroom Pop" playlist filters by subgenre; a curator building a "Cinematic Indie" playlist combines primary genre with free genre tags. Second, it determines which other tracks are the track's acoustic neighbours — tracks with similar genre hierarchy profiles are the ones the algorithm will compare and recommend alongside.
Genre Hierarchy accuracy is the foundation of all SongScore's playlist matching and platform strategy features. SongScore reports confidence scores at each level of the hierarchy. A track with confident primary genre but low-confidence subgenre may be genuinely genre-fluid — the free genre tags become the most useful output for pitching and playlist targeting.