Jaded, it's a word that is commonly used in the music industry to describe someone who is absolutely frustrated with dealing with people in the business. It has been caused a lot of grief between musicians, managers, agents, producers, and most importantly artists. Today I wanted to dive into how you can navigate through people who are, in fact, jaded.
Purists Hate the Music Industry
I have stated before on this blog that the number one thing you'll need is a solid brand. However a lot of the artist that you see in front of you today focus more on branding than spending time in the studio honing their skills. Because of this music purist feel that they are being shorted from the quality of music or they may be looking for because of this. Coming into this business feeling as though everyone spends most of the time in the studio trying to get better is a sure fire way to run into a brick wall of frustration. The best way to go about this is to keep in mind that you are in a business and you should manager yours. Do not be confused by the glitz and glam thinking that everyone spends time sitting in a studio getting better at their craft, putting money towards improving, and caring for the craft as much as you do. There are a lot of people who do this. However, it is not as common as you would like. Nothing against the people that don't, but it is better for you to keep that in mind as you build your network.
Everything is Monetized
Something that does not get talked about a lot is how most of the resources that you need in the music industry have been monetized. Anything from a re-post on TikTok or Instagram or even a retweet may mean you have to send funds to get this done. As a newbie in this industry if you are not aware of this it may cause even more frustration feeling as though the only way you can make progress is with money. Now having a bag ready to get these resources will help move things along but don't get caught up in the mindset that you can't do anything without it. You still have resources that are free online and you also have an access to social media platforms that will allow you to build your network. Just don't be surprised if you were asking for, practically anything, and that the person you are speaking to delivers you a price.
Hurt People, Hurt People
This is really the section of the blog post I really really wanted to get to today. Most of the people that you interact with that scam other artists or people in general have they themselves been scammed badly. Most of these people at some point accepted that in order for them to make money that meant they had to go scam someone else. It has become a vicious cycle in this business and has hurt a lot more people than it has helped. On clubhouse this was recently address between a well-known publicist and an artist. Even though the publicist did say that she would deliver services to help this artist build his brand the one thing that was not discussed was the goals and the key performance indicators. This would show that the campaign strategies she was using was helping to accomplish that goal and should be communicated back to the artist. That conversation did, in fact, turn a lot of new artists off and now you have people who are just getting into the business believing offering help may be looking to steal from them. This does not help the business at all in the long run. This can also hinder everyone’s growth as a producer, artist or anyone in this business. The best way to go about this is to move cautiously. Ask plenty of questions and use references so that way you know for certain if this person is worth working with.
I hope the information in this post definitely helps and may alleviate any pressure or concerns you may have in getting into the business. There are a lot more great people than there are bad but like most things the negativity gets promoted more than the positive.
Keep your head on a swivel.
