That’s the only way to really establish a career today.
The TikTok paradigm…that’s a long shot. And even the singles the majors push up the charts don’t draw an audience live. The key is to cement your bond with fans on stage. And that goes against everything we’ve been told for the last twenty years.
Don’t talk to me about streaming royalties. That’s missing the point. If there’s any money to be made in recordings today, it comes last. Of course there are unicorns, tracks that speed up the Spotify Top 50 and end up with a billion streams, but you’d be surprised how many of those acts can’t follow it up, never mind draw anybody to a show.
So…
Learn how to play.
I know, that sounds like anathema. You’ve been told for twenty years to hone your marketing chops. Participate online. Sell yourself. But now there’s just too much in the pipeline, and too much is phony. By demonstrating you can play your instrument, you instantly put yourself above the rest. (And an instrument can be a record, EDM/electronic music still draws many fans live, despite not dominating the hit parade.)
However, being able to play is not enough, you need to know how to write.
Yes, we’re back in the early sixties, the Beatles paradigm.
There was no Beatles before the Beatles. No world domination, no changing the culture around the world. And to establish themselves the Beatles played live, ad infinitum, and then wrote. First simply, and then more creatively.
Also, I don’t want to hear any 10,000 hours hogwash. If you’re busy adding up your hours, trying to quantify your experience, you’re missing the point. Yes, it is about paying dues, mostly when no one is paying attention, but if you study the science of the 10,000 hours paradigm, you’ll learn that it’s 10,000 hours of HARD PRACTICE! Which means sitting alone in your room with your guitar. Or playing gigs for no pay to nobody. Now, more than ever, if you’re not in it for the long haul, you’re not really in it at all.
Doesn’t matter how you look. Your age doesn’t even matter. It’s how good you give live. Do people pay attention, do they stop talking, do they dance? The goal is to infect people so they tell others, so your attendance goes up. This is where the rubber meets the road. If you’re doing the same damn thing over and over and you’re not building an audience, the problem is you. No one wants to hear that, everybody believes they deserve success. But either you’re not talented enough, not working hard enough, or barking up the wrong tree. If you’re in it forever and you’re not making it, you need to change. The type of music you’re making or… Or, you can not change at all and continue to be obscure, but you must own that and be happy with that.
So if you play live…
When you’re starting out no one wants to see you dance, no one wants to see production, they don’t expect it. The music is everything. Sure, Lou Pearlman broke the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC doing just the opposite, but that was twenty five years ago. And Pearlman put his boys with the best songwriters. If you’re nowhere, you’re not going to get to work with Max Martin. You’ve got to become Max Martin. Talk about paying your dues… This guy labored in obscurity in Sweden for years. But also Max has evolved with the times, ensuring his own longevity.
So, you’ve got to learn how to write.
Now it’s easier to be a rapper. But the problem is even if you have a hit, you probably don’t have a career, you can’t draw an audience continuously, if at all. Used to be different, the culture would support you. But now hip-hop culture has fractured and its market share is declining. Meaning, there is room for the absolute best rappers, but other than that…have fun, but don’t quit your day job.
So you’ve got to learn how to play. Go to the School of Rock. Hone your chops. And then write.
Writing is easy. Focus on the classic hits of yore. To the songs, not the records. A great song doesn’t need an arrangement, doesn’t need extra instruments, doesn’t even need a great voice, it stands on its own. Use the Beatles formula, with choruses and bridges… One chord pop hits don’t work live.
So you’ve got to form a band. Of course you can start solo, but live a band works better. But no one has been forming bands because there’s not enough money in it, everybody wants to be a solo artist, the days of vying for world domination a la U2 are long in the rearview mirror.
So you can’t be in it to live the private jet lifestyle, that’s nearly impossible. Not only must you play live, you must love to play live. You must love the long hours, the travel, the drink and the hang. That’s the essence of music today, people want to feel the grittiness, the humanity, and it’s your job to deliver it.
Forget Pink and the rest of those touring with big productions to large audiences. They broke in a different era. People saw the videos and they will pay to see the videos performed live. Then again, if your show is static, if it’s the same every night, the odds of people coming back are low. You’ve got to produce, you’ve got to shake it up, you’ve got to evolve.
In other words, everything you’ve been told for forty years, since the advent of MTV, is wrong. It’s been about aligning with money, the major label, for the push. But the dirty little secret is even the major labels can’t break a star these days. Furthermore, the audience is sensitive to the push, the hype. Once they think something is being foisted upon them, they’re out. They want honesty and credibility in a world that has little, that’s the job of a musician.
You don’t want to hear this. Nobody wants to hear this. Not only are the odds almost nil that you’ll make it, you have to pay your dues for years and you still might not break through.
In other words, you’re a musician, not a star. Get that straight. This is a calling, this is the alternative, this is the road less taken. And there are no shortcuts. It’s a slog.
But the upside is the public is hungry for honest, credible, soul-fulfilling and catchy music. Catchy means you hear it once and remember it, not that it needs to fit in the aforementioned Spotify Top 50. You are the antidote. To this incomprehensible world.
As for social media, etc…
If you’re boasting online, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re complaining online, you’re doing it wrong. You are the other. Sure, make yourself available, but even more establish a community. You want your fans to know each other, to feel like they belong. Superserve your addicts, those are the ones who will break you, not the machine.
