We Collectively Need To Stop Listening to the Music-Industry Gurus
There are a couple of content creators out there in the live music space who have made online careers out of telling musicians "you're doing it wrong", and even worse, presenting alternative solutions that are either outdated or outright wrong.
To be honest, the existence of these creators never really bothered me, until about five years ago, when I noticed two things:
- Other musicians started getting burned out of music, trapped in the endless cycle of content churn and algorithm chasing. People who were simply trying their best to get their music heard, to sound better live and get booked more often, and had unfortunately stumbled upon these charlatans in their online search for answers.
- Myself and a couple of musician friends had a growing backlog of fully recorded, mixed and mastered songs, just ready to go out, but we were all holding off for when the time would be right. When we finally got our shit together and made that marketing plan that these creators love.
Here's the thing, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I have all the answers, I promise you I don't. But I will tell you this: You, as a musician and/or content creator, are not doing anything wrong. You are executing at the level and bandwidth that you have available. Anyone who doesn't acknowledge that is either trying to sell you something, or is soothing themselves.
Be weary of musicians who say things like "you're doing it wrong". Because if music followed hard rules as they claim, we'd all be rich and famous by now.
The Perfection Trap
These creators act like if you don't have a fully-fleshed out 90-day content calendar with two weeks of content ready to go, three radio stations excited to play your music, and 12 fully recorded, mixed and mastered songs locked and loaded to release one a month, then you'd might as well pack it up. They embody the concept of perfectionism paralysis, a trap Seth Godin famously identified as fear disguised as high standards, and make no mistake, this is by design, they want to overwhelm you, because then they can sell you their two-page PDF courses.
Doing something like content creation and getting better gradually is much better than doing nothing because it wouldn't be perfect.
What They Do To Local Scenes All Over the World
Here is exactly where the heart of my beef with these creators comes from. I've seen musicians time and time again quit the industry because they are not executing to the levels these people say, they don't have the bandwidth to create complex marketing campaigns in advance of their album releases, and they feel bad about it and abandon it.
I myself have been a victim of this mentality, and I still struggle with it. I have a couple of songs that are ready to be published everywhere, and I haven't because I haven't put in the time to make a marketing campaign around it. Why? Thinking about it... It's so stupid.
Don't you think that if we didn't have these silly ideas of what it takes to release music, there would be more music and people wanting to play their own music? And more flourishing music scenes all over the world?
The internet, and these content creators have erased the line between being a beginner, and being behind, and they're taking advantage of how that makes you feel.
It's Time to De-influence
Musicians are expected to shell out so much time, energy and money that just thinking about an album release burns us out! That's before you consider our jobs, families and other responsibilities.
So you know what? Let's do something together:
If you have a song that's ready to go, release it! Post it on Friday, figure out how to market it later, or don't. And I will do the same!
If you do want to market it properly, embrace the fact that you're a beginner, and not behind, find creators who don't rely on causing anxiety attacks to hook potential customers and make sure to always make choices.
Release your song on Friday, and I will do the same!
