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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks, and today on the Music
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Business newsletter, we have an email from an artist who's
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been burned by a lot of people in the industry.
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But before we dive into that email, I'm gonna go
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ahead and ask you to click like and subscribe to
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this channel. If you have a comment, good or bad,
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please drop 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 I will
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answer it here Now for the email, I just also
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want a caution. This is a this might this could
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be a trigger warning for some of you who've been
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in the industry for a while, he says, Matthew, I'll
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be straight with you from the start. I'm a skeptic.
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I'm not even convinced you can help me, and honestly,
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I'm not expecting you to. I'm writing this more because
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I need to vent somewhere that isn't my notes app
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or my steering wheel. We've all been there about everything
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in life. Safe place here invent, and I think, I think,
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I think, if if anybody would be honest with themselves.
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I think everybody would say, whatever the whatever the situation
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is in your life, that yeah, you vented into your
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app and in your car. The the problems I have
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solved talking it out just by myself in the car.
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Sometimes I let I tell people that I think you
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should probably work it out alone before you get on
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the phone or you send that email. But let's continue
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with this email, he says. I'm a guy in my
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third he's been doing music for a long time, and
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the only thing I've gotten consistently from people in this
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industry is disappointment. He says. I've been betrayed by people
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who are supposed to be closest to me. Bandmates I
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trusted walked out of me right before shows, or behind
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my back started making plans to replace me. I can
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relate to all of this now. Out in business, you're
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going to have people who they're going to line up
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your replacement before because they can't have that gap, so
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they're going to maybe start interviewing behind you, behind your back.
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I'm not technically a fan of that. I don't like
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monkey branching, but it does happen. Being betrayed by people
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who were supposedly closest to you. Yeah, check bandmates I
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trusted walked out of me right before shows. I actually
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had that happen in twenty fourteen. Matric's minute had taken off.
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We were getting ready to do a bunch of events
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around the country and then the world, and I think
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a week before my right hand guy, I had my
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partner that I was doing business with, but then my
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right hand guy, the guy who at this time in
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my life he could look at me and know if
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I was having a good day or if he needed
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to bring something up whatever, he quit, just up and quit.
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He I think he, honestly, I think he found a girl,
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and I think of that, if I remember correctly, he
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found a girl and he just didn't want to do
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this anymore. And I'm still I'm still close with them
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because I also understand that, like everybody's got to do
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their thing, I can't hold you in my circle. And
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then behind my back started making plans to replace me.
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So in two thousand and three, I won't mention the
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name of the band. I was out on tour with
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the band doing merchandise and I started in a van
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with them. Then their single took off and everybody was
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sweating them, and they just kept getting bigger and bigger
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and bigger. And we were opening but on an arena
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tour and the band started like we were bros two
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months prior, and this one weekend they were just they
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were kind of squirrely with me. And I will always
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remember we were in Indiana. It was like February snowing
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out and we're in the bus because we went from
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a van to like a crappy bus to a good
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bus to like a really good bus, like all within
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a year. And I was like, what is going on?
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And they're like, no, nothing, everything's cool. We'll talk tomorrow
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because we were going home the next day and I
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was like, no, we're going to talk now. Well lo
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and behold. I had ticked off their manager and because
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he was doing something I just didn't agree with and
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they needed to get through this weekend run and then
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they were going to fire me when we got back
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to Nashville, and I found out that they were that
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whole week because we went out on the weekend and
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then we came home for a couple of days and
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we went back out on the weekend. They were interviewing
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people behind my back, and the guy that they wanted
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couldn't have started that weekend. He was on another two
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were and so they just they strung me along that weekend.
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It was kind of a betrayal because I had turned down,
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you know, I was doing merch at this time. I
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had turned down other gigs to stay with those guys
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because they were like family, and nobody had my back,
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you know, nobody said, well, this is how mad is
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or like they just they just rolled over for their manager.
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Long story short on that one band went on to
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do amazing things. I actually ran into them a couple
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of years later when I was working for a label
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and everything was cool. It's it is the nature of
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the business. I do not do business this way. I
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don't go behind people's backs and start replacing people. But
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a lot of people do because they they don't want to.
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They don't want to fire you. I mean now, granted,
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basically on Saturday night, I found out that tomorrow night
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you're getting fired when you get back to Nashville. So
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the next twenty four to thirty hours was a little awkward,
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but we survived. But a lot of people don't want
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to have that gap, you know, So if the guy
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they wanted couldn't start for a month. They would have
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stretched it out for a month with me, he continues.
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Friends promised they'd help with gigs, promotions, connections, and then
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vanish the second it required effort. Don't rely on friends.
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I don't think you should rely on family either. I
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just unless you're like seventeen eighteen years old and you're
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you know, your parents are helping you kind of filter
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things out. But I don't think you rely on your family.
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I don't think your family. You know, I grew up
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in a music industry family. There was a there was
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one point that everybody in my family was in the
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music industry. And sometimes it you know, you know, your
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sibling doesn't like this artist, but you're working with this artist.
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There's times that you might have to do something that's
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going to tick off somebody in your family. But you
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got to kind of do what's right for you, even
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though you know, and I'm like this, I'm guilty. It's like, well,
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you know I don't work with them. You shouldn't either.
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You know. I was with a woman for a pretty
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good amount of time who worked at a record label,
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and one of our top artists was a group that
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I wouldn't even walk across the room to say hi
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to and they want to do the same for me,
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And it just kind of can get a little bit interesting.
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But when it comes to friends, friends will tell you
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what yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, because they think it's
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gonna be easy. But then also you have friends who
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will be jealous, or you have friends who think you're
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wasting your time, and it's just kind of a kind
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of a terrible situation to rely on friends for stuff
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like that. I also don't believe you do business with
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friends because you're gonna do You're gonna approach things differently.
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Same thing with family. I don't think you do business
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with family. But I don't think you do business with
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friends because you guys are gonna you guys might want
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to get to the same place, but you're gonna take
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it different ways, right, And then the friendship gets fractured,
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and then the business might not happen, or the venture
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might have and might not happen, and you've lost a
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friendship as well. I think your friends just need to
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be your friends, you know, they need to be the
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people that you kind of unplugged from. They're kind of
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the people who keep you centered and humbled, if you will,
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but let's continue with email. He says, the friends you know,
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promised to help with gigs, promotions, connections, and vanished the
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seconds required effort. Producers told me they believed in me,
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then ghosted me. Managers hyped me up and said they
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take me to the next level, then never return a call.
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And once I signed something that was supposed to be
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a partnership, managers hyped me up and said they take
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me to the next level, then never returned a call.
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Once I signed something that was supposed to be a partnership.
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The other night, I was out at a showcase and
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there's a couple of artists planned, like six to seven artists,
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and there was one guy who was absolutely phenomenal that
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wasn't even the artist that we were out there looking at.
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And my my buddy, who's a producer, was like, I'm
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gonna go up to them and you know, tell them
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like you're the next big thing. I was like, yeah,
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you should, because the songs were great. That's producers told
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you that they believed in you, and then they ghosted you.
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Managers hyped you up and said they take you to
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the next level, then never return a call. Once you
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signed something that was supposed to be a partnership, So
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producers telling you that they believed in you and then
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ghosted you. That's producer talk, you know though. I mean
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producers and our guys label heads. Dude, They'll tell you
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whatever they need to just to get out of your face,
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just to get you to like leave them alone. I
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know stories of artists like going up to like producers
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and and our directors while they're at dinner with their family,
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you know, pitching their music or hey I e mailgie,
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never got back. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I believe in you.
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The manager is hyping you up and said they take
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you to the next level, then never returned to call.
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Once you sign something, that one is that the uh?
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I mean? So you don't say, so you sign a contract,
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then you get ghosted? What what that do? You just
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like move on and side another contract and get ghosted again.
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And I'm wondering, you say, producers and managers like is
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this one or is this like constantly producers are like,
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oh yeah, we love you, and then they never talk
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to you. And managers you keep signing with and then
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it goes bust. He continues, People in this industry swear
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they'll introduce me to the right people, and it all
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leads to months of waiting around for something that never happens. Yeah,
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I mean this, dude, Honestly, this sounds like a lot
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of people are just a lot of It sounds like
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a lot of people in this industry. I don't you
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don't say where you live, but dude, you're probably like
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in people's faces and they're just telling you whatever, whatever
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the whatever you want to hear, just to just to
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get out of their face. I have never told people
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like I'll introduce you. I got best friends, They've traveled
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with me and will still be out to dinner. We'll
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still be in the airport together. And someone will come
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up in the industry and they're like, you know that guy.
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I'm like, yeah, like you never like told the's like,
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I don't bribe about that stuff. I will never promise like, oh,
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introduce you to X, Y and Z like I actually, honestly,
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like a lot of times with people, I'll be like, hey,
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this guy's probably gonna approach you. Run let's use of
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what I do. But he continues every time someone tells
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me they're going to help. It's like the kiss of death,
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nothing ever comes from it. Well, here's the thing. Are
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they volunteering to help or are you asking them to help?
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Like our producers, like, dude, I heard your music, you're awesome.
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I want to work with you, like what happened at
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the showcase? Or are you going up to the producer
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and he's like, yeah, you should work with me and
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he's like, yeah, yeah, you know, it would be the
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next big thing. I don't every time someone tells me
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they're going to help, it's like the kiss of death.
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Nothing ever comes from it. I'm wondering. I don't want
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to beat you up here, but I'm wondering if there's
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a little bit of like you're hounding these people. They
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tell you whatever you want to hear, so you leave
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or hang up the phone or get out of their face,
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and then you walk away and they're just relieved that
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you left, Like are you coming on way too strong?
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Like a thirsty guy on a dating app. At this point,
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the empty promises sting more than the outright rejection. At
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least rejection is honest. Yeah, I don't. That's a big
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thing in the industry because then let's say you do
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do something amazing in six or twelve months, they can
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come back around and just ah, it's really busy. You know,
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dog dog had to go to the groomerfe wife got pregnant.
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You know, you know, like they can because they they'll
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blow you off without hurt, without blowing up the bridge,
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so that they can always come back. And you just
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kind of hang out there. You're just you're just kicking it.
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I don't. I don't. I don't do that because I've
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had it happen to me. You made meetings I've had,