Quora Question: What should every aspiring musician know about the music industry?

This is a hard truth about the music industry today:

You are not unique or exceptional, and the music isn’t the product you’re selling.

See, music used to be the product, and talent was rare. That was in the days when it cost a lot of money to find, develop, record, distribute, and market a musician. Today, we find that there are remarkably talented musicians everywhere, and everyone has the ability and resources to record as much as they like. It’s a buyer’s market, meaning fans can get music in any genre for free at the click of a button.

Because there is no barrier to entry, there’s no commodity value in the music itself anymore. Take a look at American Idol this year: among the top 5, only one artist had never sung in public or recorded before. They all released singles as part of the competition(‘s money-making marketing machine). All of those singles charted to #1. Fritz’ self-produced and self-released EP charted to #1 on the iTunes pop charts. Why? Because he was on TV (it’s also really good, but so is the album “Nuclear Home” by Hollowsage and the Three Mile Islanders, but you’ve never heard of them. You should buy their album though:

• https://www.hollowsage.com/

If you need to, try it here:

• https://open.spotify.com/artist/2rMTv8odFvg1hgA4gJCWtg

…but please buy it).

Last year’s winner, Chase Beckham, reached #1 on the country charts with a single he wrote and released during the competition. But also released to massive success this year were singles by Grace Kinsler and Casey Bishop. Why were these so successful?

Social media. They got big followings because they were on TV. A friend of mine; Ambre McLean; is a life-long recording artist, singer, and songwriter. We have a history that goes back almost 30 years, and she’s a better musician than any of these.

Here’s her collection on Bandcamp. Again, please buy stuff…it’s important:

• https://ambremclean.bandcamp.com/

But, she wasn’t on an international TV program in front of millions, earning huge followers on Instagram and dropping singles. The music is out there for anyone to enjoy, and it’s easy for you to create it. But you will not make it to the top of the charts on your talent alone.

So, what is the commodity?

The audience. The audience is what’s for sale. Music is cheap to produce and even cheaper to buy, so it has very little market value on its own — and everyone in the entertainment industry has worked hard to make it so (music used to be expensive to license if you wanted to use it in a YouTube video or car commercial). Instead, music’s value in the industry today is to generate audiences.

How else, if not by controversy alone, did a song like WAP end up winning Song of the Year for 2021? That same song in 1990 would have been a joke track on a 2Live Crew release. Instead, it gained millions of spins and won a bunch of awards, because people flocked to the meme. Once it became a meme, the audience was available to sell to. Not sell the song to — they already had it, for free, on all streaming platforms. No, they could be sold clothing, jewelry, posters. They could be sold on the humor and “empowering messages of sexual empowerment” stuff. They could be asked to create TikTok video duets and dances, keeping the song front of mind for as long as possible and making it MORE of a meme. People complaining about the song on their podcasts and radio shows talked about it incessantly, and PLAYED IT so it earned even more spins, even more publicity. And the audience could grow and be sold even more stuff. They could dress like the artists. They could style like the artists. They could be sold anything they were told to buy, as long as there were millions of eyes on the content.

Even 10 years ago, I can recall, Rihanna had something like 14 million Twitter followers.

14 MILLION.

Do you think she had millions coming in from the sale of free songs? Songs she (mostly) didn’t even write herself?

No. She drew fans with her music and performances.

Ever sign up for a mailing list because you wanted some free info on how to (lose weigh/sleep better/build a home business/build bigger muscles, whatever)? You got the free info, and they kept sending you offers for other stuff? That’s called a freemium, and it’s a way to get you into a mailing list because you’re interested in a certain type of information, which relates to certain types of products.

Well, music is that freemium, and in the case of Rihanna — as our example — it means 14 million people interested in what lipstick she’s wearing on the back of a magazine.

Yup. She sold the audience to her makeup sponsors.

• Pop singers sell clothes and makeup.
• Country singers sell boats and trucks.
• Metal musicians sell guitars and pedals.

The audience is the commodity that’s for sale to brands who need a lot of eyes on their products, and need the influencers who can put those eyes there.

Keep working. Make great music. Make sure everybody knows about it. But understand that it isn’t the music that’s going to pay your bills. It’s what you can DO with that music to draw in the right audience that you can market to other brands. What you need is an audience.