April 23, 2026

Music Business Questions | Behind The Curtain

Show Notes
Transcript

this episode of the Music Business Newsletter with Matthew Rix, I read an email from a female independent artist who’s starting to notice something most artists eventually run into:
There’s the public version of the music industry…
And then there’s what actually happens behind the scenes.
She’s been doing the right things:
* releasing music
* building an audience
* growing locally
But now she’s being approached with “opportunities” in management conversations, label interest, and industry connections, and none of it feels clearly defined.
It’s all vague language.
No specifics.
No clear structure.
So she’s asking a deeper question:
How does the music industry actually work behind the curtain?
In this episode, we break down:
* How opportunities really happen (and who controls them)
* The role of relationships vs data
* What “connections” actually mean in practice
* Why perception and timing matter more than most artists realize
* The gap between public advice and private decision-making
* And how artists can protect themselves without becoming cynical
This isn’t about exposing secrets.
It’s about understanding the system so you can move through it intelligently.
If you’ve ever felt like there’s a side of the industry no one explains this episode will give you clarity.
Have a question about the music industry or something you’re navigating right now?
Send it to https://MatthewRix.com, include as many details as possible so your story can help others too.
#musicbusiness #musicindustry #musicindustrysecrets #musicindustrytips

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Hey, this is Matthew Rix and today on the Music

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Business newsletter, we got an email from a female artist,

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want to be music industry executive who's been listening to

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The Matrics Minute for a few years. And before she

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dives in, she wants me to help clarify some things

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about the music industry. But before we dive into that email,

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if you have a question on the music industry that

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you'd like for me to answer, just simply go to

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Matthewicks dot com click submit your question, give me as

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many details as possible, and I will answer it here

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on the channel. Now for the email, she says, Hey, Matthew,

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I've been following The Matrics Minute for a couple of years. Now, well,

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thank you for listening to the Matrics Minute. We've got

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a brand new bunch of them coming out here, some

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personal stories that i want to share with you, some

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industry stuff. I'm really excited about what's coming probably by

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the time this newsletter gets out to you, she says,

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And I just want to say I really respect how

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you talk about the music business and who you are

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as a person. Well, thank you. I'd make no apologies

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for who I am, and I appreciate you tuning in,

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she says, make it sound easy and you don't overseell things,

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which honestly is rare in an industry where people are

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always trying to charge a monthly fee to give you information.

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I mean, you know, I've said this for years. The

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thing with the music industry is that people always try

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to act like if I give you my stories, then

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I'm going to be out of work. If I give

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you advice, then no one's gonna want me. You know.

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I had a situation happened a couple of weeks ago

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where an artist came to town and I hooked up

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with a producer friend of mine. They did a songwriting session.

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Song's great, She's gonna cut it. And she even asked,

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She's like, what do you get out of this? And

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I was like, I want you to thank me when

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you win a Grammy. That's all. I always say. It's

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nice to be important, but sometimes it's more important to

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be nice. And I just love helping people out. That's

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why I do this. That's why you know we're not

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doing a subscription service or a paid wall, or you know,

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join my Patreon or buy some book. I haven't written

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a book. I don't plan on writing a book, but

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I appreciate I appreciate your honest tick. She says, A

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lot of what you've said has helped me slow down

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and think more clearly about decisions I was about to

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make too quick. I'm a twenty five year old artist,

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independent artist based in Dubuque, Iowa. I've been to Dubuque

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before it was cold man, she says. I write record

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mould music. I do alternative music. I'm currently looking for

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a band, and over the past couple of years, I've

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been taking things more seriously. She says. I've released a

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handful of singles, have a small, engaged following, and is

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starting to get a little bit of attention here in Dubuque. Well,

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there you go. Slow and steady wins the race every

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single time, is what I say. She says. From the outside,

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it probably looks like things are moving in the right direction.

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But the more I step into this world of the

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music industry, the more I realize there's a whole side

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of the industry that no one really explains the inner

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workings of how things actually move behind the scenes. I

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don't know if I agree with that. There is you know,

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Reddit sometimes can be helpful. Bob Lentz, he puts out

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a music business newsletter. He sounds like seven a day.

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I think, I think Bob all he does just send

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out emails and some of the stuff is really good.

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On the inner I try to give you as much

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information as possible without breaking confidentiality or I try to

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always protect the names because it's just you know, if

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you start talking, you will lose work and friends very quickly.

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And that's just a good lesson in life. It's not

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your place to gospel about people. It's not your place.

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If if somebody goes and has lunch with you, it's

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not your place to go and brag about it. They

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want to let them, but it's not your place. She says. Lately,

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I've had a few situations come up that made me

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start questioning things. I've had people reach out offering opportunities,

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management conversations, small label interest, even someone mentioning they could

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help open doors if I was willing to invest in

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certain campaigns. This is the second email now that we've

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received from artists who their reach is just starting to

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go up. They have little to minimal impact in the industry,

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but they're starting to get some people coming in indie labels,

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people talking about management deals, and there's always money that

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needs to be paid. There's always a monthly retainer that

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they want, and they believe in you so much. Red

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Flag run, She says. None of it has been outright shady,

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but none of it has been clearly defined either. It's

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a lot of vague language, a lot of we believe

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in you, and not a lot of specifics. Okay, well right,

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there should be your warning side and the run if

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somebody says they want to work with you and they're

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just gaslighting you and they're just blowing a bunch of

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smoke up your skirt, but they're not gonna tell you

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actually what they do, and they don't have timelines, they

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don't have anything, but they just want you know, they

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want you to send them Bitcoin or PayPal or send

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them money. And those people are gonna burn you, and

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a lot of times they'll take your music as well,

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or they'll get your Spotify page shut down and you

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won't be able to release music on Spotify as being

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an artist. It happens all the time. She says, I'm

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realizing I don't fully understand how decisions actually get made

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in this industry. For example, how do artists get chosen

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for opportunities like tours, opening slots, or playlists? Yes, okay,

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well those are three different things. How do you get

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opportunities for tours? It really breaks down into just a

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few separate lines. One you can buy onto a tour

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as an opening spot. Those typically, I mean, unless you're

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opening for Metallica and you got the money and you're

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gonna have seventy thousand people watching you. I have never

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been a fan of an artist buying onto a tour

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as introducing artists, because you get usually ten minutes, fifteen minutes.

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It's usually the merch line, the bare line, the food line. Artists.

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People are getting situated, they're going to the bathroom, and

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artists a lot of times pay good money that they

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have to recoup from their record label, so to get

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on tours like that usually not great. I've been to

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a ton of concerts with the introducing artists and I

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could care less, cause typically the sound is horrible, there's

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no show, nobody's really caring, and you're just hoping for

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like thirty seconds of a great moment. Opening slots for

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shows that happens by you contacting local promoters who are

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bringing a show in they have to find a spot,

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you know, they have to find an opener for that

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show that's happening in that town. Typically, the way that

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works is they want you to sell fifty tickets, hunter tickets, whatever.

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You don't get a cut of it. Maybe sometimes you

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get a dollar or something, but you buy those tickets

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ahead of time and then you sell them or give

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them away to your friends for playlist. It really is

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an algorithm game. There is, once again, there is no

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such thing as a company who's going to be able

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to quote unquote pitch your music to Spotify or Apple

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Music to get you on one of their playlists. There

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are people who will put you on a playlist and

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they'll have two hundred thousand followers and they're all bot

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accounts from Nigeria, and then that account will get shut down.

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Your algorithm is gonna get completely messed up forever. So

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playlist it's a it is a gamble. The best way

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to get playlist placement with Spotify Apple Music direct all

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your fans to Spotify to listen to your music. The

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algorithm will pick that up. They'll notice a trend and

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they'll start putting you on smaller release rate, they'll start

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putting you on smaller playlists if there's enough organic, real

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human being traffic that goes to it. She says, our

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relationships truly driving force or is it data and numbers?

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No relationships are everything. The quality of your life depends

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on the quality of your relationships. If you don't have

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any relationships in the music industry, that's fine. But if

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you have a song goes viral, you'll start having real relationships,

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You'll start having people, and then you have to decipher. See,

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everybody wants to go viral, but if you don't have

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any support, you don't have any backing, you don't have

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any traction. Then if you don't have a team, then

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you're gonna have all these people coming in and in

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that moment while you're going viral and everything's happening, you're

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gonna have to break down and decipher who you can

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trust in who you can't. It's better to get a

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team now while you're young, who can work with you,

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that you trust, that you're there, not charging you a

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monthly retainer. They're not doing any of this shady stuff.

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They actually have a plan. It's not an overnight plan.

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It's a it's a long drawn out plan. And then

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if you do pop and you do go viral, you're

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gonna have some gatekeepers in place to protect you from

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the people who are going to come in and try

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to steal everything, and they'll try to screw you over

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happens all the time. What happens after you have the

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relationships is, yeah, they want to see your numbers, they

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want to see the data. You know, you could be

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a great person, and we all, I mean everybody in

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the industry knows somebody like this is they're a great person.

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You try to help them out. It just doesn't click.

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It's just what it is. Usually those people go on

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to do other amazing things in the industry. They might

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become a manager, they might become a songwriter, producer, whatever.

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I know a lot of producers in town. They had bands,

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they were signed to deals and it didn't work out.

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But then they became producers and they've ten x their

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entire lives by being producers, and they use that town.

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They use they what they learned as being an artist

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who didn't succeed, getting dropped, having bad tours, and they

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kind of helped the artists they're producing so it begins

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with relationships and then it goes into data in numbers.

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She says, when someone says they have connections, what does

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that ad actually mean in practical terms? That they don't.

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When someone tells you I have connections, they don't. This

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is the way it is, like, I've never I've never

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bragged about my connections. I don't even take pictures with

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my friends who are in the industry. The only time

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I will is if it's something that's completely outrageous and

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funny and I kind of make myself seem like the

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pro wrestling heel. But when I'm hanging out with my

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friends who are in the industry, when I'm hanging out

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with artists, I never take pictures with them, and I

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never post them. If they want to, that's great, but

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I do not want. I'm one. I ain't trying to

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pimp my friendships to grow the Matrics Minute, or grow

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my consulting business, or grow the YouTube channel. I'll never

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do it. And I never talk about the work I do.

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I never talk about the artists I'm working with. I

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never talk about the songs I'm doing. I don't even

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do that in the industry. Anybody be going well, don't

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you have to sell yourself. No, because if you do

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a good enough job and you treat people right, it's

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a word of mouth industry, and so they'll talk about

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you and they'll be like, oh, well, here call ricks.

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I mean, I don't even have a resume. I never

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have because I let other people talk for me. So

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anybody who goes around saying they have connections, they don't

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have connections. They might know like you know, the cousin

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of somebody, who's the assistant of somebody, because you do

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realize that most of your quote unquote connections are just

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real friendships actually, and you don't want to exploit your friendship.

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You don't want to be that person in the industry

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who's known as your leech, like you only come around

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when you want something. My closest friends in the music industry,

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people that I rely on, people who I trust, and

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they know all the mess. They know the good stuff,

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they know the bad stuff, they know the personal stuff.

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I'll never take a picture with them, I will never

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talk about them publicly because I'm not exploiting that friendship

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that I believe God gave me and I've grown from it,

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and I hope they've grown from it to get likes

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or to get business or whatever. So to answer your question,

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if someone says they have connections, they don't. They don't

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brag about it. She says, how much of this industry

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runs on real strategy versus perception and timing. It's a

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mixture of all three. You gotta have a strategy. You

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gotta have a strategy for anything. If you're a parent,

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you gotta have a strategy how you're gonna parent. If

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you want to lose weight, you gotta have a strategy

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for how you're gonna lose weight. So if you're working

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with an artist in the industry, you better have a strategy.

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But most times, when you run into these guys when

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you're small and they're just throwing around buzzwords, they don't

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have a strategy. They're just gaslighting you and they're just

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trying to give you a bunch of nice words so

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you get excited. I mean, I know an artist right

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now who's working with a company. She's under an NDA.

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She can't even tell people who she's working with. And

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she told me this, and I was like, that is insanity.

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She'sa liked. Yeah, they like to be private and I'm

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just like yo, and I said, how long is the

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NDA and it's like indefinitely, And I'm like, this is

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they're gonna screw you over. And I told us they're

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gonna screw you over and then you're not gonna be

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able to talk. I've never heard of anything like that.

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So you do want somebody who has a real strategy.

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If you're talking to a manager, if you're talking to

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a record label, they should be able to give you

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a blue Now, they're not gonna give you everything in

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the beginning, but there should also be a track record.

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There should also be a track record of like, you

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can contact these people and they can tell you what

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we do. It's not just a bunch of filler words

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or things to get you hyped up or whatever. Then

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it becomes the perception in timing, Yeah, you better. You know,

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perception is reality. It doesn't matter how good you are.

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If people think you're a bum, if people think you're

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a junkie, if people think you're a lunatic, if that's

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what you portray online, perception is reality. That will be

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their reality. And then timing, yeah, I mean I've worked

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with artists before that. I mean, we were you know,

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when I was in A and R, we were three

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years behind. We were three years ahead of the curve

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and I live and there were bands that I worked

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with that the albums were phenomenal. And there was one

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I was working with a I signed, a metal core band.

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The album was brilliant. You know, we had the screamer,

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the singer, the whole thing, and it bombed. It just

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I mean it. I mean we're talking hundreds of CDs,

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so back in the day, hundreds. If we would have

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released it two years later, it would have been one

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of the biggest things because at that point the genre

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had shifted. So timing is incredibly important. She says, I

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think what I'm struggling with is the gap between what

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said publicly and what actually happens privately. I don't know

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why you'd be struggling with that. If you are, you know,

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you're twenty five, so okay, you've you've been in a relationship.

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Hopefully you're not one of these people who fights with

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your significant other and post it online. Not a good

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look for people. So yeah, there is stuff that happens

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publicly and then there's stuff that happens privately. Publicly, if

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you're talking to a new artist. I always here, here's

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another here's another tip for you. Publicly, if you see

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an artists like, oh, yeah, we're meeting with blah blah blah,

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or we're talking with this. And I've seen artists before

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who were trying to like, you know, play big shot,

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like yeah, we're meeting with Universal next week, and I'm like, no,

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you're not, No you're not because before you meet with them,

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you're signing an NDA that you're not going to talk

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about this because we don't want anybodybody else in the

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industry knowing who we're meeting with. And it's like, sign

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this NDA, and your lawyer is going to tell you

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don't tell anybody. You don't even tell your mama who

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you're meeting with because you don't wanted to get out

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because I've seen deals blow up before because artists ran

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their mouths. So publicly, you go, yeah, we're meeting with

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some people. Privately, you're meeting with Warner, Sony whatever. So

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in the industry cond you know, in the industry side,

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you're working with an artist like yeah, this artist is great,

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we love them, and privately you're like, we're going to

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drop this lunatic like they're crazy and I'm crazy, and

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our two types of crazy do not mesch well together.

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So there is a lot of stuff that does happen publicly.

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Publicly is a lot of smoke and Marriores, it's a

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lot of hype. Privately is when you're getting called into

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the office because you know, you posted this and we

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had to take it down instantly because you almost ruined

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your course. He says. Publicly, everything sounds structured, build your audience, release, consistency,

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grow your numbers. But behind the scenes, it feels like

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there's another layer that isn't talked about as openly well publicly.

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When they're telling you to build your audience, release, consistently,

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grow your numbers, they want to see what you're going

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to do. If a manager comes to you and tells you,

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I want to work with you, and during this time,

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while we're courting each other and we're vibe checking everything,

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I want to see you build your numbers up. I

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want to see you put some new music out there.

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I want to see these Spotify numbers grow. What they

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are doing in that moment is they want to see

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one if you take instruction well, they also want to

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see if you know maybe you got a song that

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has five hundred thousand streams on Spotify but everything else

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has eight hundred plays. They want to see why they

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got to five hundred thousand. They want to see if

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it was just kind of like a flash moment, or

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if there's consistency. They want to see if you're gonna work,

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because you don't know how many artists will talk a

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big game but they'll never do anything, or they're waiting

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for everybody else to do it for them. So yeah, publicly,

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we're gonna tell you to, you know, build your audience,

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grow your numbers, because we want to see what you do.

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And honestly, a lot of times you have a number

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in mind what you want to see them do, and

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you want to see them get to that number. I

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have worked with artists before where I'm like, I need

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you to get your tour dates up, I need you

340
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to get your numbers up. Well, what do you want

341
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to get to Don't worry about that, just do it

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because you want to see how much effort they're going

343
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to put into she says. But behind the scenes, it

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feels like there's another layer that isn't talked about as openly.

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Of course, why would I give you this? Why would

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I give you the blueprint? Why would I tell you

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what the number is? Because here's the thing. If I say, hey, look,

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I want you to get your song up to one

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hundred thousand streams, but you get it. But but then

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if I keep my mouth shut, you get to three

351
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hundred thousand streams, why would I tell you get to

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a hunred thousand, because then you're gonna stop. Because here's

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the other thing is if I give you a number

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that I want you to achieve, but then while you're

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doing that, I noticed something I don't like. I'm gonna

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pause and just see what you do, because I don't

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want to give you my word that. Oh, if you

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get to one hundred thousand, I'm gonna work with you.

359
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And then you get to ninety nine thousand, all of

360
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sudden I realize you're a lunatic. I don't want to

361
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be on the hook for that. She says, I don't

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want to be naive walking into situations I don't fully understand.

363
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That's good. Here's the thing. Anybody talks to you, they

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don't give you actual game plan, they don't give you dates.

365
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They just give you a bunch of buzzwords. Run, just run,

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she says. At the same time, I don't want to

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become overly cynical and assume everything is a scam or

368
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a game. Anybody's coming to you and wants to work

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with you, and they have this long history and they

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have connections, and they should be able to give you

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reputable people that they work with that they can vouch

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for them. You should be able to look at artists

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that they work with and see their track record. You

374
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should be able to contact those artists and ask them

375
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what's going on now. Just because somebody says they work

376
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with them doesn't mean they actually do. We see that's

377
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all the time was playlist placement that they go, well,

378
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we work with Drake. No, you just added Drake to

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a playlist that you created with a bunch of bots.

380
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Trust but verify is what Ronald Reagan always said. If

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somebody comes to you and they want to work with you,

382
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they should be able to give you references. You should

383
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be able to see numbers, You should be able to

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be able to talk to people. That is one way

385
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that you can protect yourself, and the more you protect yourself,

386
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you'll be able to spot the scams a lot quicker,

387
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and you won't become cynical because you'll be in the

388
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not she says. So, I guess my real question is

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how does the music industry actually function behind the curtain,

390
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and what should artists like me be paying attention to

391
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that No one is saying out loud. I say it

392
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out loud all the time. Look for people who got

393
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a plan. Look for people who they're not gonna charge

394
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you any money monthly. They're gonna take a percentage because

395
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they're gonna roll the dice on. We're gonna put our effort,

396
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