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This is Matthew Ricks and for over twenty five years,
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I've been in the music industry, worked in an R,
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done management, done marketing work for a few different record labels.
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And today's email that came in there's a good one.
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It's gonna talk about the entitlement of some artists. If
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you have a question on the music industry that you
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want answered, you don't need to register or join my Patreon,
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or join my book club or buy a book. All
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you got to do is go to Matthewicks dot com
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and click submit your question, give me as many details
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as possible, and we'll answer it on this channel. So
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I want to just dive into this email because I
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think for some people you're gonna go, oh, we're be introlled.
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But the truth of the matter is there's a lot
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of artists. There's a lot of artists mindset. And this
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is what happens with these artists is they come out
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and then they flame out within six months and they
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become bitter, they become jaded. I tried everything, you know,
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they tried like two things. I've tried a million things.
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You tried a million things. Okay, I tried three things.
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But let's dive into this email because it's a good one,
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it says. And let's not roast too bad this person.
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He says, Hey, Matthew, I discovered your channel just recently
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with these newsletters, he says, And I have a question.
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I've got to be honest. I feel like the music
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industry has it backwards. The music industry does have a
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lot of things backwards. Award shows one of them. Award
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shows in the music industry, and movies are like this
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as well. We are an industry in decline. We are
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losing money day after day, and yet we love to
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throw award shows for ourselves to pat ourselves on the back,
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to say good job for losing money. But anyways, he's
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not talking about that type of backwards. He says. I've
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been making music now for almost six months. As of
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the time of writing this email, I've got three hundred
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and twelve followers on Instagram, and one of my TikTok's
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got over all eleven hundred views, and he put eleven hundred.
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He put over eleven hundred views, Bolt. I feel like
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that kind of traction should mean something. By now, I
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have already reached out to a few record labels and
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None of them have responded to me, not one, which
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honestly blows my mind because I'm confident I have what
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it takes to blow up once I get the right push.
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I don't understand why I'm supposed to do all the
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work to prove myselves when labels have all the money
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and resources. So that's the first paragraph. So let's let's
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back up. Three hundred and twelve followers on Instagram and
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a TikTok over eleven hundred views. I'm not gonna dog that.
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I mean, that's it. That's a good start for six months,
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and I don't see doesn't say how many, how much
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music he's got out, or what his Spotify numbers are.
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He says, I feel like that kind of traction should
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mean something. By now it does? It does? Like getting
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a TikTok video over eleven hundred views, that's awesome, Like
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you should be proud of the bricks you're lane to
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build that, to build that monument green and twelve followers
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on Instagram. Yeah, I mean, I know people who have
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been around for four or five years and they might
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have like seventy, So yeah, you it is something that
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you should be proud of, is it? Something that's going
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to make a record label pause. No, it's not. Eleven
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interviews on a TikTok video is great, but in industry standards,
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it's not like your viral or anything at this moment.
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He also said, I reached out to a few record
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labels and none of them have responded. Did you email
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like info at Warner Brothers dot com? How did you?
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You don't really say how you reached out. Did you
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send them a DM on Instagram? You're not record labels,
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reputable managers. Stuff like that make it incredibly difficult for
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artists with three hundred and twelve followers to be able
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to contact them, because that would be if an anar
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director put his email address up there. I made the
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mistake back in the day we were doing events. We
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were doing live events, traveled all around the world, and
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I gave one night for some reason, I gave everybody
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in the audience my phone number. I have no clue
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what I was thinking. I got so many text messages.
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I had to change my number because they shared it,
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and then this person shared it and I'm nothing, You know,
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like I'm nothing. If if you're reaching out to a
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record label by like sliding in their DMS, emailing the
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help account on their website, calling getting the getting the
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person that answers the phones and just routes the calls
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to wherever You're not gonna hear from anybody. And at
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eleven hundred views on a on a TikTok video, nobody,
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you're not even scratching the surface of being on the
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radar yet. But keep going. But it honestly, but he say,
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which honestly blows my mind, because I'm confident I have
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what it takes to blow up once I get the
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right push. The confidence is great. Who's that use the
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small number members you already have to keep growing? Now
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go for a video to get two thousand views, try
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to double your Instagram followers. Once again, you do not
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say what your music is doing, like what are you
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doing on Spotify or or on Apple? But I would
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assume you're probably in the hundreds of range, which hasn't
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been bad. I don't understand why I'm supposed to do
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all the work to prove myself when labels have all
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the money and resources. Well, the reason why they have
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all the money and resources is because they don't invest
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in artists with three hundred and twelve followers or eleven
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hundred views, because if you're okay, if three hundred and
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twelve views is like the launch point for a record
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label to sign you, then that means everybody above you
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gets a record deal as well. So they're going to
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run out of money, they're going to run out of resources.
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His email goes on to say, here's my question, why
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don't record labels ever pay artists upfront to sign them?
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They do, well, they did. They kind of depending on
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how bad they want you and how much in demand
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you are, you might get it. You'll get a signing
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bonus if if they know that there's another record label
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out there, that is you know that they've got to
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get into a bidding war. Yes, but a lot of
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times the good A and R directors you find people
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that not on anybody's radar because you can sign them
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for a lot cheaper you can get, you get a
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better you don't. You don't have to give them a
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signing bonus, or you give them ten thousand dollars, you
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don't have to give them a million, which there's not
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really a lot of artists that are getting a million
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dollar deals anymore. There's just not as much money coming
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in to do that. So I don't record labels ever
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pay artists up front to sign them. They do, but
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he says, like a salary or a stipend, it's called
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the signing bonus. You're not an employee of the record
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label when you sign, you're a contract labor so they're
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not going to pay you a salary, but a lot
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of times they'll give you. You know, more reputable labels will
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give you money while you're in the studio. I'm ready to,
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he says, I'm ready to quit my job and go
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all in, but I can't do that without income. Well,
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don't quit your job until you absolutely don't quit your job.
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This is for anybody. Don't quit your job to do
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music until you have money coming in. Don't move away
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from home and move to Los Angeles or New York
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or Nashville when there's no demand for you to be
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in these cities. So definitely, do not quit your job
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so you can do music full time. Because once again,
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I don't know how much music you've put out, but
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with three hundred and twelve followers and eleven hundred views,
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you can probably hit your demand of people who want
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to talk to you. Your job's smoke break? Shouldn't labels
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be investing in artists like me before expecting us to
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already have millions of streams? Once again, if they invest
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in you with three hundred and twelve followers, then everybody
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ahead of you with three hundred and thirteen followers and
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five hundred and fifteen followers and one thousand followers and
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fifty thousand followers, they all get money too. They how
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many how many an R? How many? How many artists
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should an A and R director have? If we're starting
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with artists at three hundred and twelve? I shouldn't labels
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be investing in artists like me before expecting us to
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already have millions of streams? No? Why when I was
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in an R, I was not going to lose my income.
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I was not gonna get fired because I liked you
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as a person. Oh, this artist isn't gonna sell. I'm
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gonna we're gonna get buried financially here. But I like them.
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I'm gonna sign them. Like, No, I'm not risking my
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livelihood for you. I want to see even now, like
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managing artists and stuff like, I want to see you
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do something that makes it worth my time that makes
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it worth my investment, and if you don't, I'm not
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gonna waste my time. There's millions of artists out there
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who will sacrifice, who will work their butt off, who
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will cancel their day nights, you know, who will take
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that money to invest in merchandise. Who will who will
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make the phone calls? You know, they'll take the money,
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cancel their Netflix account to make merchandise. They'll they'll sacrifice
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their vacations, They'll sacrifice their Friday nights hanging out with
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friends for their careers. They're not sitting around just going hey,
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why doesn't a record label give me money that I
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can develop for them? You want money without even proving
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that you can do anything. That's like going to the
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bank to get a mortgage and telling them I don't
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have a job. You just have to trust me. I
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can make this three thousand dollars a month mortgage payment.
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Why would they do that expecting you to have already
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have millions of strains. Yeah, because the artists ahead of
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you do. So. If I'm in an r today and
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there's an artist that comes to me and they have
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thirty thousand legitimate followers on Instagram and they're getting momentum
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and their Spotify numbers are great versus an artist with
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three hundred and twelve followers who wants to get paid.
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I'm picking the artists with the thirty thousand followers because
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they've somewhat proven that they're deserving of my time and
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my resources and my money. Record labels sink the exact
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same way, he says. I'd love to hear your thoughts
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and then, PS, if you know any anrs looking for
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the next big thing, feel free to pass my info along.
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I don't have much music out yet, but my potential
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speaks for itself. Signed. Your potential speaks for itself. What potential?
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The potential you see in yourself. That's great, You've got
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to have healthy self confidence in what you do. But
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what what potential? Eleven hundred views. Artists do this all
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the time. Artists will come up to me and be like, hey,
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well you pass my music onto you worked for Sony?
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Can you pass my music onto Sony? Like? No, I won't,
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And the reason being is because I value my relationships
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in this industry and if I just start throwing everybody
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their way just because you asked, are you flirted or
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you tried to bribe me. Those relationships are going to
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drive pretty quickly. And if I was to go to
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any of my buddies who work at labels still and
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say I have an artist who doesn't have much music out.
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He's got three hundred and twelve followers on Instagram, but
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he's got a ton of potential. It's happened. Yeah, it's
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absolutely happened. But usually that artist is like, WHOA, I
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can't believe you're rolling the dice on me, Like I
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got nothing, this guy sitting here going And a lot
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of artists are like this. That's why I picked this email.
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A lot of artists are like this, look, look how
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great I am. Give me money. Why aren't you paying
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me so I can develop my potential? Tell me if
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this wasn't the music industry and you were going to
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be a scientist or a real estate agent or a banker,
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tell me in any other industry in the world where
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you could sit there and say, I have no knowledge,
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I got nothing to show, but just give me tons
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of money to do this job that I'm not even
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sure I'm able to do yet. It doesn't work that way.
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This was a good email because I think that this
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is the mindset of a lot of artists out on
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the show, but I deserve all the money. And if
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you have a question on the music industry that you
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want answered, just go to Matthewicks dot com click submit
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your question. We will post a reply. Not only will
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you be able to get the answers for yourself, but
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you'll probably be helping an artist all around the world.
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And until next time, I will talk to you later.
