WHY TODAY’S ARTISTS FAIL!
A couple years back, I ended up sitting
she was at the time but decided to pick
her brain for an article I was working
on. Ironically, the article was about
the possibility of streaming services
replacing major labels. As we discussed
the huge door that streaming services
opened for independents, she made a
statement that I totally agreed with but
still found completely unnerving.
dealing with talent, she pointed out how
platforms like Instagram and YouTube
now made it possible for anyone to build
a personal brand around whatever they
with major companies based on playing
video games or doing makeup tutorials.
As she passionately proclaimed,
“Everyone can become a millionaire!”
I nodded my head in total agreement
before feeling the hair on the back of my
neck stand up. My inner economist had
awoken.
While I totally agreed with her sentiment,
a small syntactical error nagged
me. EVERYONE cannot become a
millionaire. It’s simply impossible due
everyone was a millionaire, then a million
dollars would no longer be worth a
million dollars. Setting all that nerdiness
aside, I nodded in agreement because
ANYONE can become a millionaire.
That’s a very small change in wording
possibility and probability. If you buy a
lottery ticket, you could possibly win a
million dollars… but you probably won’t.
surrounded by thousands of aspiring
artists and industry professionals, I
couldn’t help but think about how such a
small change in wording could produce
such an enormous change in meaning,
could lead to a lifetime of frustration and
misery.
Just like ‘everyone’ and ‘anyone’, the
words ‘stardom’ and ‘success’ are not
interchangeable, but are often used that
way in the music industry. The terms
have become so synonymous that many
nothing short of stardom, even though
nothing could be further from the truth.
“Success” is not “Stardom”
If you achieve ANY level of stardom you’ve also achieved success,
but you can reach great levels of success and never
cases of success, we falsely make it the ruler by which many
artists measure themselves. Imagine measuring the size of a
it’s considerably larger).
Success is not Objective...
seems like a big success until you discover it took $250 Million
to make. Sadly few artists consider the costs of success
when measuring themselves against others. They measure
outputs (views, plays, followers) without considering the in-
investments made don’t get advertised like the returns, many
independents assume those investments didn’t happen.
Consider this… ARTIST A will make it a point to promote his
video reached one million views while concealing the fact he
spent $45,000 to accomplish this. Meanwhile ARTIST B having
generated only 10,000 views with $150 Facebook ad will
views. However, that insecurity is completely unwarranted
because Artist B is comparing returns instead of Return on
Investment (ROI). If we compare the CPM for the two videos
-
-
damental business knowledge like this keeps many aspiring
artists blind to their own successes.
CPM CALCULATION
ARTIST A: $45,000 Budget / 1,000,000 views = $45 per 1,000 views
ARTIST B: $150 Budget / 10,000 views = $15 per 1,000 views
This inability to see their own progress is often the root of great
Too often I come across talented individuals who are making
great strides given their circumstances, but because they haven’t
attained this objective measure of success (Stardom),
they feel they’ve accomplished nothing at all. If a successful
video release is measured in millions of views, what kind of
pride can one take in having a video with .01 Million views
to buy success in order to mask their self perceived failings.
You Can’t Buy Real Results
You can buy a Million Youtube views for around $3,000, but
what is that really worth when those views aren’t attached
to real people with an interest in your music? If I write you a
check for $2 million but only have 48¢ in my account, what is
the value of that check? Independents become so obsessed
with the appearance of success that they spend the majority
of their money, time and energy trying to LOOK successful
instead of BEING successful. It’s impressive to say that
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