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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 artist twenty
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seven years old. He actually signs the email as very confused,
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and he creates two separate types of genres of music,
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and he wants to know what to do. He's kind
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of split. He doesn't know if he should go in
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this direction or that direction. I'm gonna go ahead and
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ask you to go ahead and click that subscribe button
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if you haven't already. 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 Matthewricks dot com click submit your question,
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give me as many details as possible, and we'll answer
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it here on the channel. I don't need you to
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become a member or pay or book me as a
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private coach or any of that nonsense. Just go to
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Matthew Rigs dot com click submit your question, give me
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as many details as possible. Now for the email, he says, Hey, Matthew,
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I'm hoping you can help me sort something out because
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I feel like I'm standing in the middle of two
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different roads and I honestly don't know which one to take.
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He says, I'm twenty seven For context, I've been making
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music seriously for about five years now. I produce, write,
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and record everything myself from home. Twenty seven years old.
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Have been making music seriously for five years. So you
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don't really say if you started doing this earlier, if
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you were in high school playing in bands, and now
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you're just doing it all in house, but producing, writing,
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and recording everything yourself from home. I love it keeps
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your overhead low, you don't you know? We answered an
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email from a girl the other day who they want
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five thousand dollars for one single. You get to work
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on it whenever you want and save thousands of dollars.
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Let's continue with the email, he says. Over time, I've
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built up two completely different sounds without really meaning to.
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I don't know if this is a bad thing, but
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let's continue the email. He says. One is more moody,
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alternative R and B, the kind of stuff that does
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well on Spotify playlist and sounds current. The other is
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more personal and raw, almost folks singer songwriter leaning, which
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is honestly where my heart is. Uh So, one we've
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got alternative R and B, the kind of stuff that
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does well on Spotify playlists. And sounds current. The problem
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when you chase and this drove me nuts when I
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was an an R and I work with labels today,
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and their big problem is is that if we sign
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this hot artist or this current, current sounding artist right now,
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by the time we get something out into the marketplace
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that could that sound could be over at that moment.
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And so the problem is if you bank on that
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sound because it does well on Spotify playlist and it
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sounds current, when that job. I think of the ska
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bands in the nineties, okay, and a lot of my
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friends playing SKA bands. I love all of you guys.
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I love the sound. I love the genre of music
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still to this day. But in the late nineties we
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had the second wave of ska happened. You could have
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turned on the radio, you couldn't turn on MTV without
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hearing Cherry popping Daddy's Mighty Mighty Boss tones. Rancid was
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diving into the ska thing because they do the two
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tone thing. And what happened for a lot of those bands,
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not Rancid, but with a lot of those bands, they
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never were able to get out of that SKA bubble
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because it was hot. Labels were picking everybody up throwing
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their music out there. I mean I even had a
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zoot suit. Okay. I went to prom one year and
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I had a zoot suit, okay, because it was what
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everybody was wearing. But when that dried up, it had
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dried up quick, and all those bands had their niche
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and a lot of them are still you know, a
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lot of those SKA bands are still out there doing
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their thing, but they never rose to the top like
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they did during that era with SKA music. So whenever
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I hear somebody who's going chasing after a current sound
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or this is what's hot right now, so I'm going
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to do that, you run into the you could run
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into the sky wall, you could run into the boy
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band thing where when you're hot, you're hot. But when
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that bubble burst, you have your niche fans and you
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never get back up on that radar again. Now, for
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some people, like a lot of my SKO friends, they
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are more than content with where they're at in the
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world of music. They are more than content where they're
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at on Spotify, and they're grateful for those moments of
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exposure because they want to be where they're at today.
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Had you know, had they not had that song pop
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almost thirty years ago. So to chase something because it's
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hot right now on Spotify or it's current is a
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dangerous slippery slope. If it works, you get a lot
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of coverage, you can make a lot of money, and
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then you have to you have to pivot quickly when
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that genre changes. I'm not really a fan of that
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because it just doesn't feel organic to me. It doesn't.
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It feels like you're chasing money and you're not chasing
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a vision. You're not chasing a love for the music
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you write. But on the other hand, personal and raw
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almost folks singer songwriting and leaning, so it doesn't just
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depend on what's going on in your life. You're like, Okay,
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I'm having a good day. My significant others not messing
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with me. I got love in my life, I got
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money in the bank account. Let's make an alternative R
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and B song. But you don't tell me where you're
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from in the world. But if you wake up and
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it's overcast and raining and the girl or the boy
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is messing with you and you're fighting, you're like, I'm
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gonna write some singer songwriter, folky stuff. I don't really
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know how it goes. But here's the thing you put here.
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The other way is more personal and raw, almost folks
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singer songwriter leaning, which is honestly where my heart is. Bruh.
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You gotta follow your heart, man, you gotta follow your heart.
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I'm like a rom com movie right now. I'm telling
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you you gotta follow your heart. If you're more passionate
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about writing folk singer songwriter stuff, wearing your emotions on
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your sleeves, that's where you gotta go. Screw what's current,
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Screw what plays hot on Spotify. People care more about
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passion than they do current trends. But let's continue with
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his email, shall we. He said, here's the problem. The
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R and B stuff has gotten way more traction than
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anything else. I've had a few songs hit forty to
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sixty thousand streams, and I have thousands of monthly listeners,
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mostly off of the R and B stuff. Meanwhile, the acoustic,
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more emotional songs barely hit a couple of thousand streams,
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even though they are the ones I actually feel proud of.
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So with this, your problem is you're probably running. So
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if the R and B stuff is getting forty to
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sixty thousand streams, you have thousands of monthly listeners. You're
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saying most of it came from that sound. Probably what's
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happened is is that the algorithm on Spotify, the algorithm
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on Apple Music, you're marketing, if you're promoting your songs
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on Instagram or whatever, the algorithm is kicking out the
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R and B songs to people. So then you're getting
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your followers, you're getting your streams, and then what happens
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is is kind of like an identity crisis because if
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somebody finds that song, they like it, maybe they go
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to play the next song and now you know, we're
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playing rainy day music and they click out of it.
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So what do you do in that situation. Well, let's
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continue to the email and then we'll talk about it,
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he says. You know, my more emotional songs barely hit
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a couple of thousand streams, even though they're the ones
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I'm actually I feel proud of. There was if you remember,
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probably thirteen years ago, the Notorious movie came out. The
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bio pic on Notorious Big and the guy, you know,
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the character for p Diddy, had a moment where he
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wasn't you know, being a scumbag. But in the movie
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he tells Notorious he said he told him to chase
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the dream, not the green, and I'll change that for
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myself and say to chase the vision not the money.
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You know, when I've done conferences before and when I've spoken,
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and I even get emails from people or direct messages,
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and they'll say, what's you know, what's the genre of
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music I could do that's popular or what could I
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get into the music industry that's going to bring me money?
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And my response has always been, and I wish I
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could claim that this was mine, but it's actually from
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the late Tony Shea is. What is one thing you
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would do for the next ten years that you're so
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passionate about and you love so much, and you would
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wake up early and stay up late doing if you
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knew for the next ten years you weren't going to
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get paid for it, which what what would you do?
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What is that? Because that's what you need to be
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doing so right now, if you're getting forty to sixty
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thousand streams on an R and B song, but you
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kind of throw up in your mouth, and yet you
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got these acoustic songs that you're proud of, but they're
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not doing as well. Well, which one can you look
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at yourself in the mirror the next day after you
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release something, Which one can you go and show your
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friends and family and be proud to hold an Instagram
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live talking about chase the vision, not the money. Let's
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continue with the email, He says, I've reached this point
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where I feel like I'm living a double life as
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an artist. The music that performs well feels like a
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brand and I accidentally created it, and the music that
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feels honest gets ignored. So now I'm stuck. I don't
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think you're stuck. I think that if you feel inspired
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to write an alternative R and B song, write an
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alternative R and B song, If you feel inspired to
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write emo melodies on your acoustic guitar, then write it.
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Stop having artists fall into this trap. Record labels fall
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into this trap. I have fallen into this trap with
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releasing the matrics minutes is well, this one did well,
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So let me go and do something kind of in
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the same vein. You gotta be honest with yourself. You
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got to be honest about what you're passionate about. You
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got to be honest about what you're excited about. You
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got to be honest about where you're at in your life.
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And if you're if you feel ashamed or you feel
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like you're selling out, then you will be one of
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those artists too. Let's say you do hit sixty million
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streams and you're selling out tours. Is it worth you
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hating your life? Is it worth you hating what you create?
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Because what will happen is that, and I've seen it
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happen before. You will start resenting yourself. You will start
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resenting your fans because they're so stupid. And I'm so stupid,
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but you'll resent your fans. They're so stupid. And the
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reason why you feel that way is because they go
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for the cheap crap when they should really appreciate this
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stuff where it's more depth and it's more emotional and
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it's more honest. But you clowns only like this microwave
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brand crap. I see it happen all the time. I
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have seen it happen. And I've worked with artists before
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that had an album twelve songs, thirteen songs, whatever, and
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they have you know, you throw a couple of radio
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friendly songs on it, We'll say it that way, and
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those songs take off the band's not passionate about that stuff.
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They're more passionate about the album filler songs. So the
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songs blow up. People want to hear those. They try
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to cram their real songs down everybody's throat. Doesn't work.
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Next album comes, they want to get more experimental, you know,
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they want to be honest or write the music they've
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always wanted album bombs. Well, now the pressure comes from
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the fans, The pressure comes from the label, the pressure
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comes from management, The pressure comes from yourself that you
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got to reclaim what you did. So then you go
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back to the pop factory and you just kick out
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more crap that you're not passionate about. And then what happens, Well,
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now you're not passionate about it, the fans can smell it.
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Fans can every second of the day, can sniff when
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you're not passionate about something. You're collecting a paycheck. Fans
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can sniff out authenticity without a doubt. The email continues,
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he goes, so now I'm stuck. Do I lean into
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what's working even though it doesn't feel like me, Or
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do I restart everything and try to build an audience
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around the more vulnerable stuff even though it might take
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my numbers. I think you're honest, and you release what
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is honest. So, if you really record an alternative R
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and B song and you're proud of it and you're
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not thinking about the numbers, and you're not thinking about
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the streams, and you're not thinking about the money, but
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you love the song and you're proud of it, release it.
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But if you're like, I'm just doing this because I
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know it's gonna get me sixty thousand streams, don't release it.
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You're not gonna be proud of it. And you've got
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to be proud of who you are. You gotta be
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proud of the work you do. Years ago, we did
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the Matrics Minute, and I fell into this troupe. I
