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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks and today on the Music
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Business newsletter. It's a good one. It's from an artist
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out in Indianapolis who just kind of feels like he's
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tried everything and nothing is really sticking. So we're gonna
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dive into the email and hopefully be able to help him.
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And I think that everybody in this journey in the
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music industry probably has felt like him, fought like him,
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probably maybe even done some of the things he has done,
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hoping that that was gonna fast track you, and it doesn't.
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So we're gonna we're gonna dive into that email. But
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before we do, if you have a question or a
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comment on the music industry and you would like me
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to answer it, all you got to do is go
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to Matthewicks dot com, click submit your question, give an
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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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join a Patreon or subscribe or become a member, or
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buy a book or join my book club. Just go
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to Matthew Ricks dot com and click submit question. And
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is that easy. So let's dive into today's email. This
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is a long one, so just be prepared but we
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want to thoroughly be able to help him, and I
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do believe that you will be able to find some
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of yourself in this email as well. My mom also
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told me to stop slouching in chairs, So I'm going
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to be the good, god fearing boy that she created
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and not slouch anymore. Don't look like a hooligan, is
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what she said. So anyways, here's the email. It says, so,
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I've been watching your videos for like a week now,
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and man, I gotta say, you really be talking about
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the stuff nobody else wants to talk about. I don't
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really know if what I'm saying nobody wants to talk about.
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But also I don't have an agenda. And just like
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when I started The Magic's Men in twenty fourteen, my
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agenda was never to get into like being your life
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coach or having you pay for a membership. It was
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always just helping you the art artists. And there was
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actually a point, I think in twenty fifteen we were
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approached by a record label that wanted the matrics Minute,
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but they one of the things they wanted to do
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was make it more of like a Goose chase, you know,
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kind of just leave Easter eggs laying around, so you
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always had to keep coming in because they're like, you
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help these people, you solve the problem, and then they vanish,
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and we want to consolidate that and just keep growing
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the audience. So you kind of have to do more
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of just kind of dangling stuff to keep them tuned in.
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And I was like, I'm not doing that that that's
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a waste of their time in my time. So I
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don't really feel like I'm talking about stuff that nobody
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else wants to talk about. I just don't have an agenda. No,
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there are other people out there who lay it all
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on the table for you as well. Bob lef Sets
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is one of them. That Goat's been writing music business
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newsletters for twenty some odd years and there's nothing you know.
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He doesn't charge you for anything, but I do appreciate
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the sentiment, and I hope that you can find other
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people online who aren't trying to sell you anything, but
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they do just want to help all of you guys,
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Because one day I want you to win a Grammy
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and I want you to thank me. That goes for
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all of y'all, Okay, or invite me as your date
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to the Grammys. But anyways, the email continues, I don't
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even usually write people like this, but I'm kind of
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stuck and don't know what to do next. Well, I
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guess you came to the right place. I will do
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my best to help you out here, The email continues.
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I am a rapper from Indianapolis, Indiana. Been doing music
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since high school. I'm twenty six now, and I feel
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like I'm better than ever. Well, that's good. You're constantly growing,
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you're constantly evolving. You don't want to peek in music
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eight years ago? How many artists? How many artists do
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you know that their best album was twenty years ago,
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and no matter how hard they tried, they just cannot
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get any better. So that's good that you feel like
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you're getting better, he says. I feel like I'm better
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than ever, but nothing's really happening. I got a small
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fan base, like two thousand people on Instagram. That's not
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really a fan base. Followers is not a fan base.
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I have I think, like fifty seven hundred people on Instagram,
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and it varies from post to post if they're going
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to engage in it, it varies if the algorithm's even
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gonna kick it to them. Because it's based on why
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they followed me. I've had Instagram now, I think for
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about eleven years, twelve years, and so I have people
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who followed me because they came to the live events
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in twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen and twenty seventeen. I
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have people who followed me because they like my Goldendoodle.
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I have people who follow me because I'm a softball dad,
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people who follow me because I'm a follower of christ
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I have people who follow me about the music industry.
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So if I post an interview clip with you know,
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the great punk band Grade two, well the algorithm's probably
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not going to serve to the Golden Doodle people or
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the Softball people, or the Christian people, or they do
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and they just don't care and they just move on.
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So I don't really think you have a fan base
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at two thousand people. I think you have two thousand followers,
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which isn't bad. But the email continues, but half of
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them don't even like or comment on my stuff anymore. Well,
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the one thing I would ask you with that is
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how long have you had your account? Have you had
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it for when you started music at eighteen, so eight
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years ago? Because eight years in social media is a lifetime.
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I mean, I ran I have that problem. I got
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people who, you know, they gave up on their account,
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they got locked out of their account, their account got hacked,
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they are no longer on this earth. They you know,
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got married and created a new account, or they just
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don't care anymore and they just won't bring themselves too
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unfollow So that's pretty typical. Now with two thousand followers,
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you're saying half don't engage, so that means the other
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half does. So you're getting a thousand likes and comments
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and engagement. I mean, that's if that is the case,
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that's that's pretty good. D email continues. I drop songs
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every few months, and I promote it like crazy for
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a week and then it dies off. So are you
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promoting like crazy for a week You're just like twenty
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posts a day about your new song, and then after
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a week you get bored and you stop promoting? Or
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after a week does everybody just check out because are
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you are you doing something different or is it just
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constantly the same thing over and over again and people
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are just kind of tuning you out. It's just white
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noise now. But promote it like it's crazy for a
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week and then it dies out, dies off. I mean
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that could be numerous things. It could be the way
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you're promoting it, could be it's not a good song.
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I don't know how you're promoting it. We I think
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you get into that here in a bit. I would
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love to know what your Spotify plays are as well.
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You don't mention that, but let's continue. In the email,
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he says, the problem is I feel like I'm doing
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everything they say you're supposed to do. Who's everybody I post?
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He says, I post clips, I do freestyles, I tag
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other artists, I use hashtags, I go live sometimes. I
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even tried pain one of those promo pages one hundred
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dollars to post my song, and I got like twelve
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followers from it. All right, let's break this down here,
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he says, you're I'm supposed to do. I'm doing everything
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they say you're supposed to do. Once again, who are they?
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I post clips of my music? But okay, so let's
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take that one right here. You post clips of your music?
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Is that because like, what's the clip of? Is it
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you and your kitchen? But that's every clip? Are you
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in your car? And every clip, Is it the album cover?
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Is it you in the studio? I don't know what
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the clips are because if they're low quality or low effort,
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people aren't going to engage in that. You do freestyles,
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I don't know if you're doing freestyle battles on Instagram,
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which is kind of weak. Are you doing them in person?
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You tag other artists? I don't know why you would
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tag other artists if they have nothing to do with
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your song. I mean, are you as a rapper? Are you?
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Are you tagging Kendrick hoping that he's gonna notice it
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and then share to his millions because it doesn't work
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that way. I use hashtags. I would love to know
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what your hashtag game is. Is it the same hashtags
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every time? Is the hashtags relevant to the post? Because
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that actually does make a big difference, because what will
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happen is is, let's say you post a clip of
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you freestyling, which is the other thing. Are you posting
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clips of you freestyling? Are you posting clips of your music?
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Are you posting clips of you playing shows? I don't
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know what the clips are, but anyways, the hashtag thing.
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If you hashtag golden doodles, that's going to get service
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to people who have golden doodles. If it's got nothing
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to do with golden doodles, there's gonna be no engagement.
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The algorithm is not going to keep kicking it out
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to you or kicking it out to them. It's just
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gonna kind of leave it. It just dies on the shelf.
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You go live sometimes, what do you do when you
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go live? Are you like, are you freestyling? Are you
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beefing with people? Are you answering questions? I don't know
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what you're doing when you go live, but that's good.
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The big red flag here is if I had a
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red flag, I would be waving it right now. Is
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you tried to pay one of those promo pages one
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hundred dollars to post your song and it got twelve legs.
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Internet companies who want to promote your song and pay
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and all of this stuff. Here's the thing. Their audience
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is other broke artists, is other starving artists. There's not
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a huge plethora of music fans who want to get
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spammed and harassed multiple times a day with artists They
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have no clue who it is. The fact that you
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got twelve followers from that, considering I know what kind
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of scam those internet promo companies are running. That's pretty good. Now,
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are those twelve real people? Are those twelve bots? Are
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those twelve you know, you know bots from Russia? We
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don't know. Never pay, never pay any of those Internet
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companies to promo your song. I don't care who you are,
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and I don't care how good you think your song is.
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It's it's it's just it's a scam. It's that's what
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it is. It's a scam and one hundred dollars for
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them to promo it. And the way that this scam
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works is for one hundred dollars, they will blast your
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song to their followers. Now their followers could be fake
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as well, by the way, they could have bought followers
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or whatever. But yeah, that wasn't that. That was not
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a smart play right there. Because also, here's the thing is,
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if you start, if you start getting a ton of
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bots following you, or you're following a ton of bots,
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like if you paid for fake accounts, those twelve accounts off,
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those twelve accounts are fake. Let's say, you know, like
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I've seen I've seen people by thousands of followers many
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you post something Instagram, YouTube, wherever you bought these fake
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followers from. It blasted out to your followers first before
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it does the general audience. If you have no followers,
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if your followers are all dead accounts, fake accounts, whatever,
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the algorithm doesn't know that it's gonna blast it out
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to the people who are following you. They notice that
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your followers are not engaging in it, so then they
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the algorithm deems this is a bad post, it's a
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low interest post, and they won't service it beyond. That's
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why you never ever like hire any of these companies
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to do any of the stuff for you. So the
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email continues, I don't know if I'm just wasting money
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or if I just need to keep going. Well, you're
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wasting your money by giving it to promo accounts. You
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absolutely are wasting your money, The email continues. I record
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everything myself in my basement studio good. I mix my
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own stuff too, because I can't really afford to pay
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for a real mix right now. If you have a
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good air for mixing, that's not a problem. Shout out
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to uh my man out in New Hampshire. Jay Whitehead
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guy mixes his own stuff. His beats are fire his
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songs are outstanding, and you will you just remember I
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said Jay White ay, because you don't know about him
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in the months and years to come. But he mixes
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his own stuff and it's great if you have an
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air for it. If you don't have an air for it,
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then you you need to become friends with somebody who does,
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or stop releasing music so much and just pay for
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one person. Just pay for one song to be mixed
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and have would be a really good song. People tell
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me my songs are the email continues, people tell me
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my song sound good for being homemade. But that kind
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of feels like a backhanded compliment. Yeah it is. You
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have every right to feel that way. Songs are good
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for being homemade. I don't like that, okay. So that
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that that line right there, that is from somebody who
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doesn't understand music at all. Because all music is homemade
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unless you're like, you know, Taylor Sweats or whatever, and