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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks and today on the Music
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Business newsletter, we got an email from an indie rock
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artist who wants to know how many social media accounts
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should he be running and have. But before we dive
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into this email, I ask you to go ahead and
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click subscribe to this channel. Leave me a comment if
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you agree or disagree, make sure to share with your
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friends who are in the music industry. And if you
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have a question on the music industry that you'd like
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for me to answer, just go to Matthewicks dot com
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click submit your question, give me as many details as possible,
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and we'll answer it here on the channel. So let's
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dive into this email. He says, Hey, Matthew, my name
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is Bob. I got a question that I've been honestly
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been wrestling with for over a year, now here in
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the water for a year. Well, you came to the
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right place. Let's see if we can help you, he says.
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I'm hoping you can help me sort it out. I
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will try my best, he says. I am twenty five
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years old. I make indie pop alternative music, and I've
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been releasing songs since twenty twenty. So you start around
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nineteen to twenty years old. Good for you, he says,
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nothing crazy has happened. But I've built up a small foundation.
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Small foundation. I've never heard an artist reference they're crowdsized
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fans by saying small foundation. You must not be from
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the States with that. It's too proper, he says. He says,
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I have around thirty five hundred monthly listeners, He says,
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a couple of songs in the ten to fifteen thousand
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range for streaming, and a few hundred people who consistently
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comment or dm me. It's small, but it feels real.
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So you have thirty five hundred monthly listeners, and you
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have a couple of songs getting ten to fifteen thousand
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streams Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon. Okay, those numbers
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don't really unless you're releasing a new song like every
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six weeks, those numbers really don't add up. I mean,
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I don't know how many songs you have either, you
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don't say, He says, it's small, but it feels real. Well,
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you know, every great fan base started small, he says.
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The problem is I feel like every week someone tells
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me I need to be on another platform if I
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want to grow. Yeah, that happens, he says, between TikTok,
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Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, long form, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitch, Discord, threads,
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Blue sky x True Social, Spotify clips. It feels like
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every time I catch up, there's another one popping up
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and I'm already behind again. Yeah, that's a that's a lot.
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So I think as an urt you need to be
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on TikTok. I think as an artist you need to
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be doing Instagram. As an artist, I think you should
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be doing YouTube shorts, long form. I don't really know
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unless you're making music videos or you're doing behind the
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scenes stuff on your videos, I don't really know what
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long form you'd be doing on YouTube. Pinterest. That's an
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interesting one. Now. I don't know a lot of artists
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that are on Pinterest, but I kind of dig it,
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to be honest with you, Like, if you're getting traction
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on Pinterest, that could be like a new avenue there. Facebook.
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I'm not a big Facebook guy, like I don't. I
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don't think Facebook is efficient for artists. I think that
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had Facebook try to be in like MySpace and make
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it like super fan engagement and the music and you
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can play the music and all that. They they're doing
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that now with profiles. I just think it's a little late.
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And I just think that unless you're like a boomer,
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I don't really think that you think of connecting with
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your artist or your favorite artist on Facebook. I don't
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have Facebook. I think Facebook is a complete waste of
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time and it's a wasteland to try to market or
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any of that stuff. Twitch and Discord. I don't really
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know why as an artist you are on Twitch or
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Discord if you have a few hundred loyal people, unless
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you're live streaming. But you can do that on YouTube,
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or you could do that on Instagram. Threads, Yeah, threads
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is I need I actually here, I'm here. I'm gonna
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humble myself. I need to do better on threads. Blue Sky.
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I like how you're on Blue Sky, which is liberal,
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and then you're on X and True Social, which are conservative.
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So I mean, here's thing I got to give you.
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If you are on True's Social and Blue Sky and Pinterest,
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you really are tapping into kind of untouched markets for
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an artist. Now, the problem is not not for Pinterest.
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I think Pinterest might actually be a brilliant idea. I might,
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I might, I might see you on Pinterest. I might
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be posting on Pinterest. The problem is I would get
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rid of Twitch and discord. You don't need it now
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with a couple of hundred followers, and I don't know,
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you don't tell us. I don't think you tell us
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what kind of content you post. The problem with being
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on Blue Sky and True Social X, I think is
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a waistline. I just think I think the podcast audio
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stuff goes on X, but I think that's automated with
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there's there's no lights are on in Nobody's home on
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on my X account, mainly because I just don't like
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the content that I get greeted with when I log
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on X. It's very spammy, it's very AI. It's just
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none of my friends are on X anymore. But the
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problem with you being on Blue Sky and Truth is,
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let's say you pop off on Truth and you're not
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even a Republican, but you just go there because there's
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a fan base there. I don't know if True Social
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is the best place for an indie pop alternative artist.
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It doesn't really truth Maga. People don't really strike me
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as like the indie rock crowd. I could be wrong.
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They just don't strike me as that but the problem
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is that, let's say you blow up on True Social.
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Now you're brain it as like a right wing artist,
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which is okay if you are a right wing artist,
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but then your efforts on Blue Sky are just a
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waste of time. Same thing happens. If you blow up
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on Blue Sky, You're gonna probably get destroyed on True
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Social because you're braided as a liberal artist. So I
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personally would get rid of Truth and Blue because I
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just feel like you're gonna get branded one way or another.
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Spotify clips, yeah, I mean, if you're releasing new music,
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you gotta have a clip up there. So that's what
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I would do. You have a lot going on. I
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freaking love the pinterest idea. I really do long form
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I just but I here's the thing. I don't know
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what you're posting on YouTube for long form content. But
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I'd get rid of Facebook as well. So I would
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narrow it down to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube shorts, Pinterests, threads,
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and Spotify clips. I would get rid of X, True Social,
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Blue Sky, and Twitch Discord. Yeah, I would cut half
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of those out. Yeah, he says, I'm not lazy, I'm overwhelmed. Well, yeah,
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because you just listed like fifteen social media accounts and
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you might be getting minimal traction on all of them,
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which does make it hard to stay motivated. He says,
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I spend more time trying to figure out what to
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post and where to post it than making music. Well yeah,
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I mean, if you're trying to, you know, in one
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post appease the Maga crowd, and then the next post
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you're trying to appease on Blue Sky, the anti Maga crowd.
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Then you're trying to like discord and twitch it up,
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and then you got to do something That's a lot
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of work. Man, that is a lot of work, And
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I would focus on the three four and just rock
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out there. He says. I spend more time trying to
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figure out what to post and where to post them
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making music. Well, right, you're you're sacrificing your art to
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be an influencer and a content creator. I suck at
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social media, Like, I absolutely suck at it. I just
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do like, I don't spend a lot of time. I
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edit videos, like I'll make reels and I'll edit those
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because I'll just compile a bunch of But that's really
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because I just make like I'll take a video of
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something that's twelve seconds long, and I'm like, well, it's
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not long enough to post, so I just compile it
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and then I move it around. I do enjoy that,
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sometimes it does. I mean I did one video from Vegas.
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It had twenty two thousand views on it, like in
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a weekend. Then I posted another one from Vegas and
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it had like three hundred views. So but I suck
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at I suck at social media. I really do. I
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need to get better at it, He goes. I spend
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more time trying to figure out what to post and
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where to post them making music, and then I end
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up posting nothing because I'm exhausted before I even start. Well,
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when you're mapping out your daily content schedule and you
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got to do fifteen different things to send the same message, yes,
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that would be very exhausting. You're spreading yourself out way
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too thin here, and it is getting in the way
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of your music. He says. It makes me feel like
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I'm failing at something that shouldn't even be the main
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part of the job. Well, you build a brand. You
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getting people excited and aware of your music is your job.
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I just don't know if it's on Twitch and Discord
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and truth Social and X and long form YouTube and
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Blue Sky, and yeah, that's where your problem is. He goes,
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So my questions that are keeping me up at night.
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Do I actually need to be everywhere to grow? Absolutely not?
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Or is that just something people say. I think it's
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something people say when they have a team who's doing it.
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I think it's guys on YouTube who want to sell
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you a package and they spend zero time on their
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content because they have a gang of team members who
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do it. I think you need to focus on the
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ones that are there. Let's be real here. As an artist,
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probably not a lot of people on Blue Sky, Probably
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not a lot of people on True Social. I don't
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know who's on X anymore besides models who want to
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sell you a monthly service and political people and robots.
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So I get rid of that. If you're getting traction
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on Pinterest. If you are getting traction on Pinterest, I
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continue doing Pinterest because I think it's an untapped market
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and it's not political. You know, True Social and Blue
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Sky are very political, and you don't want to get
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branded because then you're gonna make the other side hate you.
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And as an artist, your job is to let everybody
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discover and fall in love with your music, not just
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one half of the country or the other. He says,
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If I can only pick one or two platforms, how
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do I choose? Well, I don't think you do one
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or two. I think you do Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts,
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and then when you put a new song out, throw
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it up on Spotify clips. Once again, if pinterest is
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getting attraction, do pinterest, he says. If, he says it
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is consistency really more important than quality, Yes, absolutely, the
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algorithm wants to know you're consistent. We're actually seeing now
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with these newsletters, which, by the way, thank you to
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everybody who's been watching. The watch time is crazy. The
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views are up. When we first started doing this a
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few weeks ago, plays weren't great. But the more that
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we're consistent, the algorithm learns us. The algorithm is now
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putting us out to more people. So what actually happens
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is now we don't have to pay for advertising to
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submit your question in or blast it out to the
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people on the email list, because people are now watching
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the emails and they're sending it in questions. And that
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only happens because of consistently posting. Now, I need to
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get better consistently posting on TikTok and Instagram. But we're
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all on a journey together, aren't we. He says, How
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do artists avoid burning out from being content from being
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content creators instead of musicians? Well, they're not on seventeen
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different things. And also, I wonder if you're you did
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say that you're creating something. You got to create all
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this different stuff, right, So are you making separate videos
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for Instagram versus TikTok? And yeah, don't do that. That's
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a waste of time. Make one video, put it out
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there because you're gonna hopefully be hitting different algorithms and
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different people because you have you know, you have people
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who are loyal on YouTube shorts, you have people who
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are loyal to Instagram, people who are loyal to TikTok.
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They might not find you because of the algorithm on Instagram,
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but they will find you on TikTok or they will
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find you on YouTube shorts. He says, is it possible
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to build a career if I just can't keep up
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with the algorithm stuff? It's I mean, anything's possible. It
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just becomes a lot more difficult. But you're spending your
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time on Twitch and discord, Like, that's just dumb. Just
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stop that. He says, sometimes I feel like the pressure
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to be online is sucking the joy out of making music. Well,
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when you're stretched that, then yes, it would be. It
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absolutely would be. I don't post consistently because I don't
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think about it, like I just like, oh, you know,
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it's one of those like when you take the dog
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out in the morning, you're like, ah, crap, I forgot
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to post for the last four days, and then I'll post.
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You know, you'll notice if you go to my Matthew Rick's,
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like my main Instagram account, I'll post and then I'll
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disappear for a couple of days and then I'll post again.