Music Industry Myths: Artists Are Paid To Perform

On today's episode of Music As A Day Job, Sean is breaking down the last 4 of 10 music industry myths and why they aren't always true.

So you'll hear the top 10 heading down to these last four, the top 10 were:

10. The music industry has the most talent in the world. The, the best, the most talented artists in the world.

9. I need over a month to do a show.

8. All I gotta do is make a hit song.

7. I can only do shows with artists that sound like me.

6. I need the best sound and lighting to perform.

5. I should only perform when I drop new music.

Now we're gonna get into number four.

4. I Have To Leave My State To Be Successful

I hate when I see this online like man, I gotta get on my state. Hey, it's the same people everywhere.

What you're telling me is that the music listeners are different in another state. I hear rappers say "they show love in another state more than they show love here." That's all I got for that. That's all I got for that. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. Like the same songs can pop in almost every same state, like the majority of people.

That's why it's called pop music because it's popular with the majority of people. So if, if they ain't liking you at all, now, if you have a problem with a lot of people and they don't like you because they don't like you as a person and they live near you then go to the next city where they don't know you and those are people that will get a clean slate of listening to your music.

Now, some people try to say that genres stick better in others in other places that could be possibly true based on culture. So you could say, but then every, almost every state, most states. Well, I wouldn't say most state, I'd say the states you're probably going to travel to, should probably have a little bit of diversity within them unless you make music for a majority.

But if you're making, for instance, a rap song it's not that many more places you can go because rap is a very popular genre. It's the number one genre for Spotify listeners. So it's like a lot of people listen to rap. If you rap, there should be someone near you that's going to like you, you should be able to go in your state and has always tell people with all my stuff that I say you should tour in your state.

You probably have 5 to 10 places where you can find venues. And that's what we're, of course doing with the Qoncert app and we're expanding in these cities. So then you can go from city to city to build your fanbase and to be successful.

Touring this way can cut expenses and that's where you become successful because you're able to make enough money within those amounts of cities.

So never believe when people tell you that it's not possible to live off music because they believe you're trying to get into the music industry. You're saying I wanna take my shot at the music industry which means I either have enough money or I have enough connects or I have something that's just gonna turn heads so crazy that they're going to put money behind me.

So now if you're saying that I need to go to another state to get into the music industry, then yes, you need to be in a state with music labels ties. However, if your idea is to live off music or to be successful with music, it's further from the truth because those places that have all those artists that are already popping. Those are the oversaturated markets as far as finding consumers.

3. Everyone Should Get Paid To Perform

So I don't want to really like to elaborate on this even though I'm going to a little bit because I know someone's going to have only seen this video and be like, yeah, everyone should get paid to perform no, they should not.

I'm an artist myself and I'm going to tell you the truth is because when everyone gets paid to perform, what you do is you make it seem like the person who actually works their butt off to get fans, you make them seem the same as you and that makes it so they can't get famous.

Now these venues are only gonna book all these people at the same rate and not care to help this kid that wants to work every day and wants to grind the most get to the next level. And what that ha what happens with that is it becomes a participation award and participation awards do not make champions.

So the person who worked every day to find fans and worked on their music and their craft gets compared to the artist that sits in their room, makes one or two songs, makes these couple of songs and has an entitlement.

And that is the worst thing to ever happen. That artists feel this and there is no resume to say that they deserve to get paid. What deserves to get paid is a product that people want to see point blank period. Every product in this world only gets the platform if people want to come see it.

Now, I'm giving the option that someone can have zero fans and I'm trying to help them get to 30 to 50 to 100 because I think there are those people that actually just don't know and they're starting at zero fans but they want to work and they want to figure out how to get to 30.

They want to figure out how to get to 50. But then you have artists that are just so entitled. They think everyone should just listen to them. Yo. That's crazy.

2. Streams Equal Fans

One of the biggest music industry myths is that streams equals fans. Now this is why I watch more people tell me, hey, man, if you know where all your streams are, that's where you should go. Do you know any of the people that streamed? It? Does any site actually currently give you this info?

And there is a real question. I want anybody who actually knows this because I just haven't seen it. Is there a site that you can see your streams by person and where exactly they are? Like, you can see like their name or anything like that? Is there any site that actually exists that does this because what I'm thinking is you can see like the areas they're in for example, a fan in Arkansas that listens to me the most or I can even get in touch with them?

If 10,000 or more people listen to you in that city, let's say you can see that 10,000 people, then that makes sense for you to go and try to figure out how to perform there.

Anything less than 10,000, you're throwing yourself in a space that you don't know how close these people are. And if they'll even hear that the promotion will be enough to mass promote to people to know you're coming.

So when you do streaming and you're looking at the statistics, the only thing you can really learn from that is possibly where cultures may be more acceptable or more likely to listen to your music because I know people that have millions of millions of streams and can't sell out a show nowhere.

And that's because these streams are spread out until you know how concentrated and see the only way. And this is why I build Qoncert because the only way to know how concentrated your fans are, is to perform and see how many people can come out and then how many people you can keep stepping your game up with. Can I get to this many people? Can I get 100 can I get 200? That's the only way to actually see a concentrated amount of people that will constantly come see you and be a fan.

Because as I always say, a fan is someone that will spend money on you and will spend money on Merch. They'll spend money on a show or whatever it is to support you.

See, because streams are kind of free. No one has to pay per stream when you had to pay per CD. That's why people knew because then you knew where your fans were because these people were spending money. Someone who listens just listens, I could listen to it just because you're on a playlist that I like the other people on or you may be one of the people.

Like if you like this sound, you might like this sound and I'll check you out. I might actually even listen to your song a lot. That doesn't mean I'll pay to come see you though. So it's a lot of pieces to this did have the line up for you to say a stream will equal. The fan takes a lot.

1. Promoters Are Supposed To Bring The Fans

This is like the worst, this is the worst one. This is the worst myth that I don't know who came up with this.

I have asked people in other states if this a same concept there because I know in a couple of states that I tour in it has been the same concept. OK, let's break down this. The promoter will bring all the fans.

What's a promoter? That's the first thing we ask, what's a promoter? A promoter is someone that buys the show or purchase an event to set up an event and then they promote it because they think the product that they're putting out there will bring fans.

That's why a lot of promoters only deal with nationals because they wanna bring Drake because they know that Drake brings this much, this many fans.

So if I charge $30, $50, $100, 1000 dollars, I can make this much back with this many people in the venue that I paid for. That's what a promoter logic comes in. That people started saying that the promoter brings the fans I don't know where that connected because I think people would go to shows and they'd be on shows with nationals or be in shows where the fan base was already there.

So then they go, like the promoter is supposed to bring them, I'm just supposed to come perform for the people. Now, this is bad on the artist side and the promoters side because for the artist, if you have to perform for someone else's fans all the time, and they're actually there for this promoter.

And just logically, if fans are there for the promoter, then they're not your fan. So then this dude controls your entire career because unless he books you or she, unless they book you, you never get to perform in front of people, you have to control your own fan base. The interest has to be you. Now, on the opposite side, if I'm the promoter, why would I ever book someone that can't bring 100 people? Can you see the logic in that?

Because I'm going to look for the artist that always brings the people. So that's why the most bookers and promoters, they only book people that fit the venues that go and that's why the same people rotate.

Now, I know you're probably sitting there saying well, isn't Qoncert a promoter? No Qoncert is not a promoter. Qoncert is the artist accelerator.

So I'm leveraging my brand to help artists get to that point. Then once the artists that I know are at the level that they need to be, I can move them to better spots in different size venues. That then makes sense because there's always artists that'll be a headliner and there will always be an artist that's an opener that rotate upwards.

So I just have to put my money where my mouth is and help the artist get to these destinations. But for a promoter, the idea is to have the best event every night when they throw the event.

If I'm just a promoter, I'm only going to get the best artist every time. So then if you lived in Colorado for the last 10 years, you noticed there were only maybe three or four artists that would be on the big shows, the summer jams.The idea is as a promoter is I have to get the artist that the majority of people enjoy.

So when someone says out of the blue, the promoter will bring the fans. That's because they don't have any and they want to rely on that. And this is the excuse not to do other shows and this is the excuse not to work.

So it's a myth because the promoter is not supposed to bring the people. The artist is.