4 PIECES OF ADVICE FOR MUSIC ARTISTS
When greed comes into the equation mixed with the hunger of power you will destroy the foundation of what made the equation work. This is what happened to music.
The music industry is bullshit. It does not exist for you to benefit. The pandemic proved how bullshit the music industry is and exposed the facade. Here is some advice for music artists out there.
YOU DON’T NEED THE LABELS
You have the internet. That is all. Get you some laptops and your team and that’s all you need. When I was growing up labels actually scouted acts and did artist development and turned regular talented people into stars. That format does not exist anymore because as time progressed the little people they did have that cared for music left the industry and were replaced by businessmen. What labels do today is look for people who have a fan base already in place and a movement in place and then figure out a way to own all of your music. What’s the most can the label do for you? Send you on a press tour on all the talk shows, radio shows, and podcasts and hire a bunch of employees that you have to pay? Labels are just bandwagon jumpers with a lot of money. Just look at the media outlets they own. It’s all people who can’t discover anybody and wait for the masses to say what’s cool. They have zero sauce. You have the sauce cause you actually in the trenches and can see what’s going on and feel what’s going on.
All these labels do is look for viral stars or try to mold or find stars through reality tv. Cardi B is the only one that worked and they’ve been trying to duplicate that ever since. Let me give an example of what they do with viral stars. .
Somebody can go viral off of flipping over a table at a restaurant and saying a memorable quote in the viral video like “Sauce me up” and that becomes a hashtag. They’re now known as the “sauce me up” guy. Now they’re going to do 1 of 2 things. Either rap or do comedy. Comedy is hard to break into. The grind is long in comedy. Rarely do you get overnight stars especially if they make viral videos and try stand up comedy. So a lot of viral personalities go the music route because it’s an easy payout. You can’t bomb every night in comedy and get booked. You have to try in comedy. You can get away with a lot of unorganized shit in rap. The label sees this, they you have a following, they will reach out and sign you. They’ll put some auto tune on your voice, pay for the hottest producers, and focus on getting your streams up or focus on you getting a challenge blown up on Tik-Tok. They don’t care about talent because they don’t know what talent is.
You don’t need em.
THE MUSIC > TOURING
When the pandemic was in full swing and venues closed you saw artists of all genres express how their income was effected because of not being able to go on tour. The myth that has been told to artists and fans is that touring is where the real money is for the artist.
That’s a lie.
The money is in THE MUSIC. The reason why it seems that touring is where the real money is at is because the artist is being screwed on the music side. There’s too many hands on the financial side of the music. On tour the merch table and the meet and greets are where the artist makes the biggest slice of the pie but if that artist has a 360 deal then the tour money has been compromised also and the label gets a piece of that money too. Now the artist is really fucked.
You ever wonder why labels really didn’t care about tours before the 360 deal? It’s because tours cost money. It’s hard to profit off a tour unless you’re Beyonce or Taylor Swift. You’ll never see a record exec at a tour. You’ll never see a record exec on the road. Tours are like a sweatshop for label execs. It’s beneath them. The artistic side of tour is great because you get to meet your fans, see what songs they respond to, and performing is fun but that’s the only good thing about tour. A label sinks a lot of money into a tour and if you’re an independent artist you’re definitely fighting to break even or profit on tour.
The myth that touring is where the real money is was created to take your attention off what makes you the real money and that’s your actual music. Album sales, single sales, placements, owning your catalog.
Touring doesn’t produce money that what Nipsey Hussle called “mailbox money.” When a tour is done it’s done. You can still make money off music created 50 years ago. Music is where the money is at that’s why labels fight so hard to own your music and don’t care if you skip out on tour but they care when you want to own your masters. Don’t be an artist seeing your music played everywhere and you don’t see a dime off it.
STREAMS NOT PAYING SHIT
The only benefit of streaming is that it makes you visible. Every person has one of the major digital streaming platforms on their phones. The access to your music is as easy as ever. There’s one problem. THE PAYOUT ISN’T SHIT. Even if you’re independent it’s still not a lot of money in streaming. Unless you’re doing consistent millions in streams as an independent artist. If you’re an artist on a label you might get lower than 6% on the streaming money. You’d get around 6-10% if you produce your own music in addition to writing it. The other 90% is for the label, the streaming platforms, and any other miscellaneous parties involved. As the label artist you’re not getting shit unless you’re close to 500 million streams. They have tricked the artist in thinking that streaming is worth everything. The artist gets a fraction of a penny per stream and somehow it’s been flipped into thinking that’s okay.
A stream on a major platform pays .005 per stream. Now multiply .005 by 500 million streams. That’s 2.5 million. That 2.5 million you’re seeing 250,000 at best. The rest goes to the label and the streaming platform. Now if you’re independent doing those numbers that’s great but how many independent artists doing those type of streaming numbers?
My advice to artists is sell your music on your own website and bandcamp. Sell physical copies. I’m not saying don’t do streams. I’m just saying don’t count on streams completely. Look at streams as the land of getting future fans introduced to you outside of YouTube or any other content creating. Roc Marciano does something with his music that I like. He spent years of building a following underground. He charges $30 to $40 for his albums and maybe 2 weeks later he finally makes the album available on streaming platforms. He said in an interview that he wants his fans to support him directly and doesn’t want anybody deciding when he gets paid. He has a loyal fan base and they purchase digitally and physically from him.
You got artists doing all these streams but complaining about their money being effected by the pandemic and unsafely doing shows because they don’t have any other sources of income. They’re living check to check because their main source of income they’re sharing with so many people and getting the lowest percentage.
Why do you think they’re trying to shift your focus away from pure sales? They’re trying to make the stream seem as if it’s important. All those plaques don’t mean shit. They’re useless. 1 million copies being sold is better than 200 million streams. Fans can actually let a song replay over and over with the volume turned down and that counts as streams. That is not authentic at all. It’s a joke. That’s why these artists have all these streams and plaques but nobody actually buying their music or buying concert tickets. It’s all smoke and mirrors. What good is a song being on billboard when actual people aren’t spending any money with you? They want you to focus on how you look and focus on Instagram followers instead of the truth and the truth is they make more money off you when you think short term. When you think long term you see the finesse and understand how foul the music industry is.
FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS
Make sure your fans are real. Your following is real. Your streams are real. Remember a lot of artist are faking the funk. The followers are boosted. The streams are bought. Placements are bought. The label paying streaming services to put them on the streaming service top playlists. It’s all fake. They’re slaves acting like Kings and Queens. They own nothing and owe everything. The cars aren’t theirs. The house isn’t theirs. They spent the last of their advance on high fashion space boots. They’re in debt trying to live a life they can’t afford. The money they flash in the pictures is all they have. They have no accounts. There may be something in a safe somewhere maybe but that’s it. Focus on learning the business. Focus on your craft. Take your craft seriously. Rehearse all your songs, rehearse movements. Learn your voice. Take all your performances seriously regardless if it’s on live stream or in person. Actually get nice on all fronts. Take your time with your music. You don’t have to rush your shit. Only if you not nice you gotta rush. When you dope you can release your music at any pace you want. A real fan wont forget about you because you haven’t dropped music in 6-8 months. The people who come and go are just bandwagoners. Focus on authentic support. Focus on you because in the end the industry wont do it.
Peace
