Dōjin music isn't a musical genre in itself but is indicative of a particular publishing way, like the term "indie" would be.

Dōjin music consists very often of video game music fan arrangements. Much original music is also created, be it music for dōjin games or simply mainstream music such as pop, rock, techno or trance.

By nature, dōjin music is often synthetic digital productions which allow for self-production at low costs, as opposed to studio mastering live instruments require. It is pretty common to have one live instrument such as a guitar backed up by synthetic orchestrations, though, and full instrumentation is becoming more and more common in dōjin music, such as orchestral works or dōjin jazz.