Dec. 8, 2025

AI Artists… Can unsigned Artists Succeed?

AI Artists… Can unsigned Artists Succeed?
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AI Artists… Can unsigned Artists Succeed?

In today’s episode of the Music Business Newsletter with Matthew Rix, I’m responding to an overwhelmed independent artist who asked one of the biggest questions I hear right now:
“How are indie artists supposed to compete?”
He’s watching major-label artists perform for 20,000 people, drop massive marketing budgets, release perfect visuals, and hire entire teams to manage their careers while he’s doing everything alone after work.
But now there’s a new layer to the pressure:
He’s not just competing with big artists.
He’s competing with AI artists who can release unlimited songs, never get tired, and cost nothing to create.
He’s wondering:
• How do independent artists get fans without big money behind them?
• How do you stand out when you don’t have massive shows or huge exposure?
• How do you survive when AI can release 50 songs in the time it takes you to make one?
• Is the music industry still winnable for real, human artists?
In this episode, I break down:
-Why independent artists actually do have advantages
-What fans still want that AI can’t deliver
-Why budgets matter less than strategy
-How to stand out even with zero money
-And why the industry isn’t hopeless it’s just shifting
If you’ve ever felt small compared to major artists or threatened by AI, this episode is going to give you clarity and direction.
Got your own question on the Music Industry
Go to https://MatthewRix.com and include as many details as possible for the best advice.
#musicindustry #musicbusiness #aimusic #musicindustrysecrets #matthewrix #music #marketing #musicbiz #recordlabel


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WEBVTT

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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks, and today on the Music

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Business newsletter, we got an email from an indie artist

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who wants to know how do they compete with the

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major artist and AI artist. But before we dive into that,

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if you do not subscribe to this channel, there's like

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sixty eight percent of you who watch these videos who

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are subscribe.

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Go ahead and subscribe. We do fun music business stuff here,

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all right.

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And if you have a comment on this video you'd

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like for me to say, or if you agree or disagree,

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just leave it below. And if you have a question

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on the music industry that you'd like for me to answer,

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just go to Matthewicks dot com click submit your question,

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give me as many details as possible, and we will

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answer it here on the channel. Now for the email,

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he says, Hey, Matthew, I am honestly writing this because

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I don't know who else to ask, and I figured

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i'd come to you.

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Well, thank you for that. Always come first to me.

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Always what I tell everybody, he says, I'm an independent

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artist trying to build something real over here. But the

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more I look around, the more I feel like the

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entire play field is stacked against people like me.

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Who are people like you? Are you a band camp bro? Okay?

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Do you do? You hate Spotify? And you just have

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thousands of your music on vinyl laying around your bedroom?

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We'll find out, He says. I don't have a record label,

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I don't have a team. I don't have a budget

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that stretches beyond whatever I can say from my day job.

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So you sound like an artist? Do you sound like

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an up and coming artist?

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He says.

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Meanwhile, I'm supposed to compete with artists who have million

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dollar marketing budgets, teams posting content for them every day,

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full production crews making their videos, massive platforms where even

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their worst posts gets more views than my entire account,

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and the ability to perform in front of tens to

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thirty thousand people every night. One arena show gives a

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major artist more exposure in a single evening that I

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can get an entire year of grinding online. Where do

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we begin with this one? What a way to start

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a Monday. You don't have a label, you don't have

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a team, you don't have a budget that stretches beyond

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whatever I can say for my day job. I mean,

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you're you're an artist? Okay, everybody, even most, unless they're

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an industry plant. Most of the artists that you're trying

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to compare yourself to started exactly here and they built

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something from the ground up.

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And they went from there.

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Okay, million dollar marketing budgets, I'm gonna be honest with you.

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Unless you're like t Swift, not a lot of.

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Artists have million dollar marketing budgets anymore. There's not enough

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revenue coming in from streaming. But I understand what you're saying.

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They have more of a marketing budget than what you

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can donate to your music from your day job.

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I get that. Teams posting content for them every day.

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Yes, there are management companies who they basically handle all

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the social media. The good artists are the ones who

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live their lives on social media and you can see

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kind of a sneak peek of them driving in the car,

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hanging out their kids in the studio.

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Whatever. That doesn't require a.

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Team, he says, full production crews making their videos massive

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platforms where even their worst posts gets more views than

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my entire account. But how do they get to the

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massive platform? They had every Instagram account, every single one,

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I don't care who it is, started with zero.

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And then it went from there.

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Now, some of them announced they were on Instagram and

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three million people flocked to it in an hour.

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But they all started at zero.

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And the reason why these artists get, you know, more

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views on their worst posts than your entire account is

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because they have more followers, more people know who they are.

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I can post a video and mister Beast can post

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a video and he's going to do ten percent of

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what I'm going to do.

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Why he's got a bigger platform, It's just the way

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it is, Like, is it fair? Sure?

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Because everybody started at zero. Everybody started with zero subscribers

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on YouTube. Everybody started at the bare bottom in this

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industry and they rose to the top. Unless they're an

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industry plan or an EPO baby or whatever, we've all

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started at the exact same spot. The ability to perform

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in front of ten to thirty thousand people every night.

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I mean, look, you know how many openers over the

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years have had the opening spot on an arena tour

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and nobody knows who they are. That's the go get

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your beverage artist, that's the go stand in the merch

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line artist, that's the you know a lot of times

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with these bigger arena shows. If you're an artist that

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you know, everyone's like, all, I have no clue who

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it is. They don't even turn the house lights off

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for it, or if they do, they the lights don't move.

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They just you know, they're just positioned right there.

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And a lot of those artists they got bought on

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a tour and nothing ever happened. He says, one arena

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show gives a major artists more exposure in a single

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evening than I can get in an entire year of

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grinding online. But they're major artist. They you know, most

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of these artists had to grind it out in the beginning.

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At some point in their life, they had to grind

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it up.

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He says, it honestly feels insane when I try to

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compare what I'm doing to what the industry giants are doing.

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Why are you comparing yourself to an industry giant. If

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you are three hundred and fifty pounds and you're like,

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I'm going to go to the gym, you can't sit

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there and compare your workout to what you know, the

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rock does. I see this all the time with people

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coming into the music industry, Like you'll have people who

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are like, well, you know when you were eighteen, you

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are doing this, and it's like, don't compare.

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We can't.

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We have two different stories, we have two different backstories,

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we have two different families. You can't compare yourself to it.

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Don't compete with major artists. Compete with what your very

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best can be.

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He continues.

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But now there's another thing making all this even harder.

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I'm not just competing with big artists anymore. I'm competing

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with AI artists too, And that's the part that's really

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starting to eat at me. You know, artists since the

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beginning of time, since they've been creating music and putting

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it on the radio and putting it on vinyl, love

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to find the new boogeyman, Spotify, AI, major record labels.

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It's just what it is like, there's always a new boogeyman.

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There's always a new villain hanging around the corner, waiting

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to destroy you. AI is not your competition. AI is

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not because here's why AI can't beat you. Can it

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create better sounding music than you, yes, Can they turn

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it out faster, yes, But they can't beat you. And

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here's why they can't beat you. Fans will never have

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a personal emotional connection with a robot. But if you

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do your job right and you bring people in and

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you build a story with thee however many followers you

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have on Instagram and you build that personal emotional connection

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with them, AI can't do that. If you write a

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song based on your struggles, your fears, your loss, your lack,

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whatever it is, AI can't compete with telling that same

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story because it's not real to AI, but it is

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real to you, he says, at least with human artists,

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I can accept the advantages you just started off the email.

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Tell me all the reasons why you can't accept the advantages.

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Massive budgets, video production. They're playing in front of thirty

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thousand people a night. Now you're saying you can't accept it.

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Which one is it?

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My guy?

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He says, I can accept the advantages money, teams, connections.

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I get that. I don't like it, but I understand it.

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But how am I supposed to compete with something that

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never gets tired, never needs a budget, can drop unlimited

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songs without burnout, doesn't need studio time, doesn't need visuals,

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doesn't need photo shoots, doesn't need years of practice, and

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can be replicated endlessly, that is a lot of bullet points.

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It's like, you want me to come on here and

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just be like, you know what, give it up, go

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work at Chipotle. Shout out to Chipotle. I love you

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a lot, But that's what I think you want me

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to do. How can you compete with something that never

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gets tired, that never needs a budget? Do you still

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need a budget to market AI songs? There's tons of

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AI songs out there that have less than a thousand

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plays on Spotify, like they need a budget? Still can

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drop on limited songs without burnout? Talk to a rapper

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those guys can. An indie rap artist can release a

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song every single day. It is amazing how much inspiration.

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A lot of those artists have.

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But who cares they all of this stuff, studio time,

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unlimited songs, budget visuals. Here's a practice that can be

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replicated easily. All of this stuff doesn't matter if you,

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as an artist, do the one thing AI and a

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major label artist can't compete with, and that is your

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personal connection. I'm gonna say the entire time in this video.

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If someone follows you, you should be going to their profile,

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looking at it, sending them a DM, not.

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A DM with your links.

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Not a DM trying to sell them to take us

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to your show, but a DM is like, hey, thanks

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for following me. I went to your page and I

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saw that you love coke zero. I love Coke zero too.

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Isn't it better than pepsi zero?

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A I can't do that.

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The major artist who's playing in front of thirty thousand

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people a night isn't going to do that. That's your advantage,

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but it takes time and it takes drive, because, let

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me tell you, the more that you start interacting with people,

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the more they're.

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Gonna interact with your post, the more the algorithm's gonna

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kick you up. He says.

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It feels like I'm running a marathon barefoot while the

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major artists are on bikes and the AI artist are

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in rocket ships. You're just like, what, okay, do you

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want me to tell you the game is rigged against

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indie artist? I'm not I'm not going to because this

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time in music, more than ever before, and sorry to

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the band cam Bros. Spotify has helped artists. Streaming services

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have helped artists. Twenty five years ago, you were an

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independent artist. You had a CD and you had to

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sell it. Good luck, anybody over the world was able

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to hear your music. Good luck, it wasn't going to happen.

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You know. We just got the Spotify rap.

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And thank you to everybody who listened to the Matrics minute.

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There's one hundred and sixty six countries that listen to

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the Magic's Minute in twenty twenty.

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Five, one hundred and sixty six.

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If I was on CDs, if the Internet wasn't at

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my disposal, that would be a number of maybe two

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US and Canada or Australia.

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The Australians love me and I love you too. Australia.

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You're not running a marathon barefoot while the artist is

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on bikes and rocket ships like I mean, if you

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spend this much time connecting and building with people that

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follow you, you would start to see your numbers go up. Now,

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if you just throw music on Spotify, if you just

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throw music on band camp and you don't really interact

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with people, you just wait for the likes to come

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in and that's it. You don't really do any reaching out.

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You're gonna lose. You're gonna lose. It's just the way

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it is.

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But let's continue, he says in Look, I'm not asking

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for shortcuts. Yes you are. I'm not trying to whine.

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Yes you are. I'm not pretending I'm owed anything. Yes

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you are.

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I'm just trying to figure out if this whole thing

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is still realistic for someone like me. Well, if you're

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gonna sit on your butt and complain about the robots

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and complain about the major artists who are doing thirty

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thousand people a night and you're running barefoot and you

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ain't got a big marketing budget to make music videos

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or whatever, then yeah, it's not gonna be realistic for you.

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This is why it is. I hate to tell you

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the truth, Bud. You know, but if you want to

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put the time, if you want to put the effort

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into building emotional connections, to have people actually know who

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you are, feel your soul, feel the music, feel why

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you do what you do, AI can't compete with that,

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And those people will be able to message you, those

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people will be able to leave comments and you'll reply.

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No artists playing thirty thousand people at night, it's going

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to do that very rarely. That's your advantage right there.

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He goes say, here's what I need to know. How

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do independent artists actually come for fans when we don't

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have massive budgets. You build personal emotional connections with your fans.

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If somebody follows you, you send them an original direct message,

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no links, no selling, original direct message about something that's

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on their profile.

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I don't do it on my accounts anymore.

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And the reason why I don't do it is because

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it actually backfired on me when you're talking artists, because

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you're like, hey, yo, what's up.

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I see you like baseball? Like I'm a huge White

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Sox fan. I got the White Sox tattoo.

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And they're like, oh, that's cool, here's my link, check

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it out. And I don't, and then they get mad

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and they get butt hurt, you know, and then they

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just keep blowing me up. But a regular music fan

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would love to hear from you, if they're following you

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as an artist, would love to He says, how do

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we stand out when we can't play huge shows or

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by exposure? Everybody in the classroom say it with me.

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Build a personal emotional connection with people. It out Trump's

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arena shows every single day every day. He says, how

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do we survive in a world where AI artists can

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pump out music NonStop? Build a personal emotional connection with

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everybody that.

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You come in contact with.

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Everybody in contact who listens to your music should be

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able to walk away. If they followed you on Instagram,

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they filed you on TikTok, they followed you on Facebook,

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god forbid, if you're on X or any of those

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other ones, and they should be able to be like, well,

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that was pretty cool.

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I got a message from him that that.

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Guy passed his life to send me a message because

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here's the thing.

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I'm going to share some with you.

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And we did a ton of research on this back

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in the day when I was working with one of

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the majors. Fans don't really care about numbers. Artists care

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about numbers, right, That's why you don't see a lot

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of fans. Even with the Spotify rap, you don't see

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a lot of fans like resharing that their favorite artist

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had two hundred million streams.

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They don't care. But a fan.

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I've seen this working with artists, and you have the

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artists who goes and does an autograph line after a

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show and actually like will meet all the fans, everybody

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in line sign whatever they want.

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Those fans walk away just like, oh my gosh, versus

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the artist.

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Who does like a controlled meet and greet where they

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usher people through the super Fans love it, but a

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lot of fans walk away being like whatever. They should

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be impressed because they get to go backstage and their

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security and all this stuff, but they're more enthralled with

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the artists that they got to spend ten twenty seconds

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with talking or getting their shirt signed or getting their

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shoes signed. The personal emotional connection Kim Trump anything anything,

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just the way it is. I go to places every

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single day that I walk in they know me by

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my name. And it's not because I'm in the music industry.

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It's not because I was an A and R. It's

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because they've seen me enough that it's like, how are

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you doing? How are the kids? How's softball? How's the

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you know, how's the car?

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That's all? You got a new car? You go? Man?

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They care.

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People are drowning in accounts, they're drowning in people constantly

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posting on Instagram. They're dying for a personal connection. They're

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dying to know that that follow matters, says, It's.

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Just that simple. He says, is there still a lane

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where being human? Actually?

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Is there still a lane where being human actually human matters.

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I have a feeling that one day you're gonna pull

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your grandkids around the fireplace. You're gonna tell them the

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story about how you.

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Could have made it, but the big bed AI got

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in the way, the big bad A. I couldn't kids.

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I could have had it. It was it was so close.

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But you know what, I decided to whine and complain

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about AI and artists doing thirty thousand people at night,

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and I didn't build a personal commotional connect with my fans,

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and I sent emails, which I appreciate the email, But

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I sent emails complaining about this stuff when I could

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have taken that time to build a personal emotional connection

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with the people who followed me on social media and

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really started to see my numbers take off.

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But I wanted to blame AI instead, he.

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Says, because right now it feels like I'm showing up

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with a toolbox while the rest of the industry is

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building with cranes and automation. Look, you can't use another

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analogy because you were already running barefoot in a marathon

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against bikes and rocket ships.

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I bet you got to I bet you like.

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I bet you got a journal where you're just like right,

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And then you go on dates and you want you

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want the person you're on a date with to read

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your journal.

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He says, I don't want to give up.

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Sounds like you do. It sounds like you do. He says,

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I just want to know what game I'm actually playing

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and if it's still winnable. If you sit on your button,

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you blame AI and you blame major artists, and you

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sit and wind and complain that everything's not fair and

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life happens to me, not for me, and whate was

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me and you e or then yeah, you're not gonna win.

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You're not going anything. You'd be lucky if you've got

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a thousand monthly listeners on Spotify with this attitude, he.

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Says, thanks for taking the time to read this email, Bob, Well,

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stop blaming AI.

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AI ain't going anywhere, you know.

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It's these band camp bros who blame Spotify, Like Spotify

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ain't going anywhere, no matter how much you want to

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click your heels and hope and oh everybody, go to

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band camp Friday and buy my single that you won't

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be able to play anywhere because you got an iPhone.

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No matter what you trying to do, Spotify ain't going anywhere.

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AI is not going anywhere. AI music isn't going anywhere.

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Now, what I do think the music industry should do

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is recognize that AI should have a different chart, whether

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it be on Spotify, iTunes, Billboard, whatever. Let AI music

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have a different chart. Don't have them compete with human artists. Okay,

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that is not fair. But for an artist to sit

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here and throw their hands up in the air, because

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at the end of the day, I can't compete against

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a robot. It's just an excuse for you not to

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do the bare minimum, which is tedious, which does take time,

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but the rewards are huge. It's just an excuse for you.

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So if you want to sit and blame the big

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corporate media, or you want to sit and blame AI,

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you're gonna lose. But if you want to take that time,

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take that energy, build personal emotional connections with people, you'll win,

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and you will change people's lives, and you will have

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people sitting here being like, what a great dude that is.

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But thank you for the email. Let me know how

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the battle against the robots go. But if you have

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a question on the music industry that you'd like for

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me to answer. Just go to Matthew Rigs dot com

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00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:49.079
click submit your question, give me as many details as possible,

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00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:51.200
and we will answer it here on the channel. I

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am Matthew Rigs and until next time, I will talk

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to you later