your single went gold, but would you buy 500,000 copies of
what many independents do by purchasing Followers, views,
posts, cosigns, etc. They waste real resources to bolster vanity
metrics.
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teed outcomes. Many make the mistake of believing they’re
paying for results and not services. Worldstar doesn’t sell
views, they sell visibility. Publicists don’t get paid for media
placements, they get paid for attempting to secure them. Be-
many get disappointed due to their own assumptions. Even
if a company has done great things for others, that doesn’t
mean they can do the same for you. Past performance is not
an indicator of future outcomes.
As much as people claim to want honesty, this isn’t the type
of practical information most artists are willing to pay for. They
want a magic bullet. They want to be told how spending mon-
-
lems. They have no desire to hear that a particular service only
hear that, they’re taking their business elsewhere. Through
these spending habits, independents have conditioned people
to sell them dreams... because that’s the only thing they’re
willing to buy.
In order to earn business, too many industry professionals sell
possibility as probability. They routinely overstate potential
gains and understate associated risks in order to win clients.
This growing trend of legitimate businesses overselling them-
-
ized the “Super Major Rock Star Promo Package”, the scam-
proposals of well established industry veterans. The only difference
is, the scammer will be able to invest more time and
their money, since they won’t actually be doing any work.
Whether it’s spending money on views for validation... spending
money with businesses based solely on what they’ve
done for others, or getting fooled by these Instagram industry
gurus, attempting to buy results never ends well. For all of the
promises made, these hail mary attempts rarely, if ever, bare
the fruits of success.
So what’s the solution?
only way to truly solve the problem. You can give up and stop
doing music, or you give up and keep doing music. People
who weren’t really passionate about the art will stop, that’s a
up on success. They’ll stop investing money, time, and any
no further than it is, but they’ll be able to do what they love
and have somewhere to channel their frustration. This is the
path that many take. You’ll see them online tearing down successful
people, screaming Coast 2 Coast is a scam, Worldstar
doesn’t work, and breaking down how the illuminati or
industry plants are subverting “real” music. Blaming everyone
else helps them rationalize and cope with their own lack of
success
If you don’t want to go down that road, there’s another less
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er people’s idea of it. Simply put, run your own damn race. If
you just want to do music as a hobby, there’s nothing wrong
There are plenty of people who paint, play piano, and do photography
because they love to do it. Only in urban music do
we belittle a person’s creativity if it’s not fueled by a desire to
make millions of dollars. Even if you do wish to make money,
set your own benchmarks. Success is simply meeting the
goals you set. If you never actually released a record, doing
that is success. If you’ve never performed in front of a crowd
of strangers, whether or not you suck… simply DOING that
is success. Acknowledge every victory, no matter how small,
For clarity, I’m not saying don’t dream big. Mediocrity is never
the goal. But if you’re going to shoot for stardom, I ask you to
When the starting pistol sounds, you don’t attempt to leap all
you put one foot in front of the other and start running. Each
step you take presents an opportunity to trip, stumble, and
fall. So each stride is actually it’s own small victory, positioning
you slightly closer to your ultimate goal. After successful
-
-
er the race you’re running is a sprint or a marathon, the only
way to run it is one step at a time.
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