Fresh Produce

    How much money do you have and how much are you willing to spend? How much ache are you willing to endure within your ego to fulfill your goals? These are the two questions you should ask yourself if you are considering sharing your art with the world. At 16 years old I started saying words into a microphone, clicking buttons on Logic Pro, and releasing art to the world. The sound of that art was questionable, but it was my first step into this world. I believe creating art should be accessible to all and I think today's climate of pay walls, subscriptions, and overall pricing is drastically impacting the music we are exposed to.  

 

    Each song you create feels like the best high you can find. The sounds in your head manifest their way into the real world and for a moment it is just you and the endless loop of what you've created. The moment comes and you tell yourself "I have to share this!". You share the private link with your friends, they tell you it's your best work yet, you're feeling unstoppable. You take an aesthetically pleasing picture and post it on your instagram with the caption "new song coming soon tap in". Your mom, your uncle, a distant cousin, one guy from work, and your best bud Dave like the photo. Release day comes and you post your Spotify link. Next thing you know.....crickets. You check your Spotify for Artists stream count and you have a whopping 20 streams. You went from creating Micheal Jacksons "Thriller" album to feeling like you released a sandbox turd to the world. You ask yourself "is my music really that bad?"..."it must be my mix! I knew the mix didn't sound right!"...." Fuck, I should've had that cool guy from the city over shoot my cover art". While all these are very real possibilities, it's usually not the case.

 

   I have been making music for over 10 years now and I've created some true stinkers but so has every other artist on this planet. The reason your music is only getting listened to by your mom, your uncle, a distant cousin, one guy from work, and your best bud Dave...is not because you suck. Actually it's possible that you suck but even if you suck I guarentee there is someone out there who will listen. The real reason your art is sitting with only 20 streams isn't due to your muddy mix, bad cover art, or bedroom quality production. It's because we've been tricked into thinking making art is the poor mans game. Art is for the rich.  

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   The rich consume and invest. The lower and middle class create art waiting for the rich to consume and invest. The average Joe does not have the money to compete with an upper class artist. In order to compete today you need a marketing budget, a production budget, a mix budget, a master budget, cover art budget, etc. It is not impossible to do this all by yourself but when you are doing it all by yourself it becomes pretty obvious...you're doing it by yourself. I love the sound of indie production, rough mixes, and self shot cover art but that is not the point I'm trying to get across. What I'm trying to get across is to not flood yourself with self doubt because your art isn't being noticed. It's not being noticed because you haven't lined someone's pockets up yet unfortunately. 

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    When I moved to LA I noticed something very strange. No one has jobs but can afford the life of someone making 6-7 figures. At first I thought to myself "wow they must have really made it!" but then I realized they don't have a record deal or brand deals. I started scratching my head. What am I doing wrong with my finances? Do they just have a large line of credit? How the hell are they affording a $3,500 a month lease, $40-50 uber rides daily, eating out constantly, a manager that takes 20 % of their take home pay at gigs AND 20 % of their royalties, a mix engineer that cost $2,000 per song, and a producer that charges $1k-5k per song. Something is not adding up. Then as I met other people in their circle I started to realize...we are not cut from the same cloth. Not even close. They have a dad that has a hedge fund start up, a cousin that is a producer for UMG, a grand dad that passed away with a 30 million dollar trust, etc. It was actually crazy how common this is in the music industry. I do not fault these people for their positions. I find fault in how dishonest this industry is about money. 

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    Let's say you decide you want your next big single to compete with all the other noise out there. You will need to set aside $500 for an amateur mix engineer or $1-5k if you want a pro for the mix. You will need $50-300 for the master. We are assuming you already bought your gear. So a $300 mic (that's a cheap mic) , a $200 audio interface, a DAW license that's $200, and unless you are a god with stock sounds you probably spent $50-100 on some VST's. So now on the bottom end your new hot single is going to run you $1,300 and on the top end $6,100. That's assuming you self produced it and only asked for the help of a mix engineer and mastering engineer. So now you have the song done. How are you going to market this thing to the world? Well...you're going to have to pay an agency. We live in the world of Spotify, TikTok, and Instagram so preferably a digital marketing company. You will most likely pay an hourly consulting fee and a monthly service fee running from $1,000-5,000 a month. This does not include any ad spend packages. So now you've spent $1,300 on the sound and for just a month of some online exposure you'll need $1-5k. Remember, it is not guaranteed that the digital marketing campaign will even work but we are assuming your song is filled with crack and caffeine so I'm sure it'll work somewhat. 

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    Okay so now that you've spent $2.3k on your new single, you still have to pay rent, buy groceries, fill your tank with gas, keep your electricity on, make sure the water continues to run, and also somehow continue to save for your fruitful retirement. The average American makes around $65,000 a year, pays $1,650-$2,000 on rent, $130-$270 on groceries, and now with the current war in Iran gas is over $4 a gallon. We are assuming majority of up and coming artists either live in NYC or LA so it's safe to say they are probably paying a premium on top of those prices. Don't forget..Spotify pays $0.003-$0.005 per stream so you'll need 460k-767k streams to break even. 

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    In today's fast paced climate you need to feed the machine. It is like an endless rush of waves crashing over your head. You pop your head up for a minute to say "I'm here!" and get crushed by the next wave even faster. This isn't a problem if you have the money. You can put your art out whenever without sacrificing the approach and the quality. For those just trying to make ends meet it's going to be way harder and take a much bigger mental toll. You are not only putting yourself out there for everyone to see, hear, and judge. You are also on a financial tight rope praying to a god that your car survives, and your health maintains enough to stay away from a hospital bill. 

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   Why are up and coming artists looked down upon as the poor but expected to have the checking account of financier? If music is the poor mans game then why is the point of entry so costly? Grunge music was the last time we saw the middle class winning inside the music industry. It's time to ask ourselves what's next.