This is probably going to be a recurring theme in my daily reflections, but I just watched an episode by one of my soon to be favourite music journalist YouTubers of all time; DJ Marky Marks. It was an episode about the music industry beginning to struggle to break their own artists due to the market they themselves have saturated beyond the point of no return.
I literally have ZERO issues with this essay because he’s right: artists get payed a pittance and their labels support them only to capitalise on their returns. In addition to that the streaming era makes it tough for artists to fund their creativity, and the quasi get fame quick allure of TikTok makes it very tempting to sacrifice authenticity for the sale of a catchy jingle bell.
At the same time however Marky Marks’ essay did remind me of the principles I’m beginning to cement into the foundations of my growth as an artist. It’s a set of principles that massively contrast in comparison to some but not all of the attitudes expressed by the emerging artists of this new era, and the short and sweet of it is…so what?
Now don’t get me wrong, the music industry is messy and nobody is about to clean it up anytime soon, but when I started investing my time into this journey I remember the reasons why I began in the first place. Majority of my late teens and early twenties were pretty much gifted to retail.
I spent a lot of time working alongside my colleagues pretty much learning what it meant to be an ant on the shop floor of a big business. I learned about the shared attitudes the managers and CEO’s held not through their own independent views, but by their willingness to play along the systems that were in place to keep the company running. They simply never gave a damn.
People’s entire pensions would go missing, workers that have dedicated years of their life would get sacked quicker than Thanos could trigger his gauntlet and racism would run rampant alongside a plethora of sexual harassment.
I realised that this was one of the reasons why I became hungry for working for myself. The issue is however, that like a baby that’s been in a womb for nine months, there’s a lot to get used to the minute that baby is born. One of those things is learning how to breathe by and for yourself.
The point that I’m trying to make is in this industry if you’re lucky you'll stumble into people that will happily invest in you for nothing in return. It’s up to you to recognise when this happens because you’ll be an idiot for taking them for granted. For the most part NOBODY will give you something for nothing, and anybody that is making an offer will always be thinking about how they can benefit from you.
This game is not going to change because no amount of bass, bars or essence in your record is going to sway the mentality of a century old business. At least not in one night anyway.
When I decided I was going to take my music career seriously I was leaving the comfort of my monthly paying job, and plunging myself into the unknown with the promise that I was always going to have my own back. Perhaps what I’m trying to say is that its better to shift our own minds and think about how we can pay ourselves, rather than trying to sway the minds of hungry executives whom like pigs are just trying to get their hands on the next meal.
My bosses rarely took my issues as an employee seriously so what hope in hell do I have trying to convince a starving music exec to see me as anything more than just a potential bag in their pocket? It’s always going to be up to me to make sure I remain stern upon my journey to my own personal success, and that I above everyone else take my music seriously.
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