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Why do people still think "making it" in the music industry is a thing?
Once in a while I see posts on social media saying, "Keep it up - you'll make it someday" kind of thing. Don't people realize this is a myth?
Making a good living from content production is not possible without:
- independently wealthy
- industry connections
- a wealthy family with the above two
Sorry to be a downer, but I think it's better to be a realist then living in some sort of fantasy. Keep creating, but don't think you'll 'be discovered' someday. There are countless truly exceptional creators out there -- they are not 'making it.'
Keep creating for the love of muse - for the love of creativity. We don't need to monetize everything.
Last year - 9.7 million artists were tracked. "99.9% of the artists added to Chartmetric in 2023 ended the year in the Undiscovered and Developing categories"
"158.6 million tracks on streaming services received 1,000 or fewer plays, comprising a massive 86.2% of the 184 million tracks monitored by Luminate."
Comments
Why do people still think “making it” in life is a thing?
Define "making it"? If you have dreams of instant riches from performing your material, that's probably unrealistic. But then, anyone being successful in music is unrealistic, but it still happens. Best advice is probably to ignore distractions and do whatever you want.
I think it's a bit like understanding anything you don't know about. Like seeing someone tinkering with cars and saying, keep that up, you'll be a mechanic one day. I have people say things to me a lot, like, why don't you do something with your music, or you should put that on the internet, like it will achieve something significant. It's just a lack of understanding about how that industry works.
Now, you tell me that all of those occult rituals will not pay off? And after all of this time?
Uh…thanks.
Perhaps this is off topic, but, in the art industry (music is a branch there) you never know when the success come, some are late bloomers, and some are prodigies, and the big majority is everything between…
I lately ran into history of 12 years old Andres Valencia from San Diego, and that little boy was already a dollar millionaire aged 10 on his art - breathtaking!
So, late or early bloomer, or something in between, as long it’s fun and joyful, lets go…
Being an independent artist is far more enjoyable than the idea of working for a record label to be honest. As far as I'm aware, working for a record label is where they pay you up front, and you're expected to pay it all back through sales and streams. Also the label will own the rights to the music you make, so you can't distribute it the way you want, when you want, how you want, etc. You'll be on THEIR time schedule, not yours. Then once you're done being the "hot talk of the town" and your 15 minutes of fame are up, the label will move onto the "next big thing". And all those so-called "friends in the industry" you've made will most likely ghost you.
(Of course I'm unsure if the majority of labels work this way, or just some of the big name ones, so grain of salt please.)
I think if you enjoy what you do and others do too (even if just your family and friends and ABF mates), you've "made it". Although scoring the occasional side gig on Fiverr doesn't hurt either. Most of us will still have to work a 9 to 5 job, and that's legit. I'm lucky where I'm head musician at and have residency at a nice upscale restaurant, with a wonderful clientele that loves what I play on the piano (mostly covers), and my bosses (husband and wife) are super nice. It's something I don't take for granted.
If I'm rambling at the moment, it's because I had a couple pints too many tonight and am snockered, so hopefully I'm making a modicum of sense here. 😂
I love his art! A Picasso of the new generation.
To bring it back on topic - it is important to note that there are so many artists who are producing art on the same level, but will remain relatively unknown.
"Andres’ dad, who represented the renowned artist Retna, provided invaluable guidance and support in his son’s artistic journey from the very beginning. Hence, Andres had access to much painting and learning with a father immersed in art."
https://amy-movie.com/blog/nurturing-a-prodigy-andres-valencia-his-supportive-parents/#:~:text=Andres%20Valencia%20was%20born%20in,are%20based%20in%20San%20Diego.
Ramble on - I fully agree. The industry is rigged to not let you get ahead financially. And the only way you'd get one of those horrible label contracts is if you already have a strong following.
Exactly, on f-cking TikTok these days lol.
The music industry is a lot more than just 'I make tracks. How can I make money making tracks?' But yah, it seems labels now are more interested in leveraging back catalogues and collecting fractions of pennies from a variety of sources rather than nurturing specific new talent. The game has changed a lot but people still make it in different ways. It just doesn't look much like it used to.
The ever morphing field we live in…..do we ever make it? I think we’re always making it one moment at a time. If you’re writing it and playing it that can be defined as you’re making it. You’ll probably never find the end of it so when have you actually made it?
it’s very difficult and likely requires heavy artistic compromise as well as serious skills in sales and marketing. The days of record labels investing in and developing bands is over. One has got to do the hustle on their own.
Unless you’re a nepo baby. Then the doors are wide open. But nepotism is a problem in just about every occupation a parent might want for their kid, unfortunately.
Yes, in today's music industry, if you're just in it for the music, you're probably never going to 'make it', unless you come from money. The days of just plugging along til you got great and were discovered are gone. Now, on top of musical ability, you ideally need:
Business and networking skills
Production skills
Good branding and marketing skills
Personal skills like adaptability resilience and time management.
And you still need a lot of luck. Kinda sucks!
This really doesn’t sound much different to how the music biz has always been. All those skills you list have always been required. Punk was doing it in the 70s. Folk music back in the 60s. Indie bands have been doing it this way forever. The main difference as I see it is now with the latest iteration of technology there is more noise from more people and the base level is now more accessible to more people so it potentially takes a bit more to get people interested.
That last point is definitely true! I still think there is more need for the average musician to have the skills I listed today than there was back in the 50s or 60s, when you could focus more on building musical skills and get good paid work doing live gigs, session work etc, or be part of a band where the manager and record company dealt with most of the business and production sides. Sure those options for people with 'just' musical skills are still there, but less than previously.
Thanks for that link and info!
And yeah, such a talent he is!
The music industry has completely changed. There used to be gatekeepers that firstly decided which artists would be signed, then established what music would be played on radio and TV and the only way to hear any new music that wasn't on the radio was to go to a gig or take a punt and buy the record without hearing it.
It was a small group of powerful people in the music industry that made those choices for us.
Certain things would always creep through the gaps, hence the proliferation of novelty songs in the 80s for example but generally, the record companies and TV and radio execs pretty much decided who'd be popular.
These days it's obviously far less important who gets played on TV or the radio. It's still a big deal in the UK at least to get onto the Radio 1 playlist, but most artists won't make any money from their songs being played unless they have a 'classic' back catalogue or had hits in the 80s/90s etc.
However today we can write, record and release an album from our own sofas. We can use similar tools that were previously only available to the elite -- A Fairlight used to cost as much as a house. Today you can write, record and release an album all on your phone.
I'm certainly glad that I'm able to make and release music. It's kind of a vanity project as nobody will ever listen to what I 'release', but it's a really nice feeling to be able to say "I made this!" and I get to upload my album to the same platforms that all the 'real' musicians are on.
My music will never earn me a penny, but I never expected anything more. It's the ultimate way of underlining a project as finished and moving on...
Music has been massively democratised. It was never easy to make it big. If anything it's slightly easier today as it's easier for people to actually make music. Given the right orientation of the stars there's always a chance for somebody to catch a wave and have their five minutes of fame. But as it's easier, there are far more people fighting to get heard.
BUT it's also far easier to get heard as you can share your music on multiple platforms and be heard by people the world over. Sharing a song here for example will get you more pairs of ears than would ever have been possible 30 years ago.
It's always been hard to make it big. It's just different harder today but it's far easier to have an audience today than it has ever been, especially for niche music where there's a very small but very dedicated following of certain genres of music.
But ultimately unless you're fantastic at promoting yourself, you're going to get lost amongst the other 100,000 songs released that day. As there are no longer any gatekeepers, most of those 100,000 songs would never have been allowed to be released 30/40 years ago. Nobody checked my album to see if it was 'worthy' of release!
In the previous century getting a recording contract was the aim of everyone and if you were signed to a label then you’ve made it
In actual fact most of those recording contracts were highly unfavourable to most recording artists, even big names – look at how Blondie were essentially ripped off by their management sitting between them and their record label with a contract that left the band almost penniless toward the end
A label (via management) usually did the exploitation phase of the product (paying for promotion, recording, distribution, appearances etc) which is what is missing today – as the artist with freedom to release whatever shit you like, you now have to do your own promotion, etc, which is akin to how word processors made every office manager their own typist instead of having typists to do all that drudge
Personally I continue to be extremely pissed off that nobody has listened to my songs despite putting absolutely no effort whatsoever into promoting it, because there’s other people who have put no effort into their promotion but unfairly somehow have more people listening to their shit than mine – that is not correct, I should have more people listening to mine than they get
Maybe what ‘they’ mean is Make IT, reflecting how the industry is becoming a PC game,
which is how I approach it.
I can’t speak for myself, but a friend (well, a friend I haven’t seen in at least 10 years) works for a major label as a songwriter. Essentially he signs over all his rights to a song for a one-time payment then moves on. The label then adds the song to a pool of songs they offer to artists and it might not ever get recorded or even listened to.
In some ways I do envy him as he needs to sell 3 or 4 songs to them every year to make a good living, and he spends the rest of his time on other projects. However, he did say more than once that it’s really disheartening at times that his songs just become sellable commodities.
Yes - excellent points. The market is saturated, now that the original gatekeepers to production are essentially gone. And as a consumer, I'm noticing that I also flip through lots of great music -- scrolling on by at a much quicker pace than I would have a few decades ago. There seems to be less time to chew and digest thoughtful content. I will focus only on the specific genre that I'm feeling like at that particular time (sometimes it's ambient, other times it's dub reggae, etc) -- even though the other content is created so nicely. There's just way too much at my fingertips -- and my day is so much busier.
But it is a bit cringey to see people ask questions online like, "How do I make it big as a producer?" They want to give up their day job to have a lucrative career in the music industry - like it's still the 80s and 90s.
Who wants to tell them?
That sounds rather different to the impressions I got from various "horror stories". 3-4 songs per year to make a good living? I could do that easily. Yeah it would kinda suck for a song to become a sellable commodity, but honestly? I'd be set for life.
Basically piano part and vocal melody plus lyrics is what he sells, and some years his songs never see the light of day again.
To be honest as I haven’t seen him in so long that might not be how things are for him anymore, but he’s very well-connected now, so I’d imagine he isn’t wanting for work.
The tip off in the term 'music industry' is the word 'industry'. Same thing happens in the 'games industry'. The way to make it work is to eke out our own individual, likely unconventional,relationship with it that has an acceptable level of personal reward/compromise.
I could certainly see scenarios where I could monetize (ugh) music (likely more as work for hire service) but the price creatively and personally to do so would suck the joy out of it. Not everyone wants to put their kids on stage or in pageants and commercials etc but some people do. My personal music is typically private because it is personal to me. I post it every now and then but it does not stay up long. I'd never post family photos either.
Anyway, In the games industry doing graphics though I simply had to suck it up and accept the shit parts, focus mainly on tools, craft and the challenge of hitting external targets (ie. no deep self expression), but lo and behold 25 years in I found a way to make it fun for me. Hopefully I can squeeze a few more years of enjoyment out of it before retirement but the creative industry machines give zero fucks about people and what they want. Have to be very stubborn and constantly scanning the environment to even not give up on the idea of creative fulfillment in an industry being possible.
It does suck indeed. Not anything to do with me, but I feel it sucks for the fans. The skill set required for the current day “made it” artist sounds like it would make for a pretty boring artist. Gone are the highly skilled musicians with bad excecutive functioning skills. The odd reclusive such as MJ or Prince. Terrible PR stunts such as biting a bat’s head off. Drugs and debauchery as coping mechanisms for the hard life on the road.
Crashing into cop cars, masterbating in public. Unchecked mental illness, think Theories Monk and his peculiarities. That got him, same as Pastorius.
But I suppose it’s a good thing too. That is too much for a person to endure alone.
Not healthy. They died young. Except for Keith somehow.
Absolutely, on both points. But yes, in regard to the first, it seems obvious that having to do so much of the practical stuff will a) eliminate from the start so many great, creative musicians b) mean that even the great, creative musicians who do actually have all those other skills will have a lot less time to spend on the music side, and, when they do have time, may not have the energy left to really be creative. On balance, I think the old way was better.
My understanding is the only way the vast majority of pro musicians make money is by playing live, unless they're employed doing commercial stuff (and no shade to that).
Recordings always were a poor way to make money for most artists, other than as a tool for getting live gigs.
A handful of artists make real money on their recordings. Mariah Carey's garbage Christmas song makes her millions every year. That's nice if you can get it. But if you can get that, you're not reading this thread.
☝️ Nothing else to add
Making a living from live gigs is viable if you can snowball your local following and announce your future gigs to a growing list of local supporters.