Welcome to Music Business Newsletter w/ Matthew Rix!
Dec. 30, 2025

New Year’s Message for 2026

New Year’s Message for 2026
New Year’s Message for 2026
Music Business Newsletter w/ Matthew Rix
New Year’s Message for 2026

Happy New Year from Matthew Rix. No music Business in this video, just a message of grateful and thankfulness with a softball story in the mix.

Listen to Mattrix Minute for daily Music Business insight without the music industry hype.
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Hey, this is Matthew Rix and this is the music

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business newsletter.

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Very different.

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We're not going to read an email, but I want

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to just kind of end the year for most of

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the world with telling you my story as we go

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into twenty twenty six.

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I gotta do a plug. I just have to.

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Starting the first Monday of twenty twenty six, every Monday,

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a new Matrics minute, longer tracks, We're going to go deeper.

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You can stream the Matrics Minute anywhere that you listen

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to music. But I have over the last few weeks

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done recorded different twenty twenty five recaps or how was

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I going to leave the year for you guys?

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This morning I woke up.

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And it was really about I think for a lot

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of us, twenty twenty five was not as great of

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a year as we thought it was going to be.

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And I think for me, twenty twenty five, just to

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be transparent with you, twenty twenty five was the year

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kind of looking back, where you go, I made it,

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not like I made my dreams come true.

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I survived, and I think a lot of people feel

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that way.

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I think if I was to sum up twenty twenty five,

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I would say that it's the year of unshakable faith,

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and my faith is in Jesus Christ. I think that

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for a lot of us, like for me, but for

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a lot of us, it was we got close and

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then we had a setback. And I think of, like,

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you know, I talk on this channel about my daughter.

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So in the spring of this year playing softball. It

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was like, she needs to be playing tournament, she needs

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being travel ball all that, and we're like, okay, so

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you go. And we went and did one tryout, which

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was our first mistake. We went and did one tryout

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with one team and they accepted her. We're like, oh

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my gosh, this is amazing. And for the next seventeen games,

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I think there was like five tournaments in that she

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sat on the bench. They just that was all she did.

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She might pinch hit or whatever. And we went down

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to Florida for a tournament, for a long, week long tournament.

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She's riding the bench the whole time. Team's getting blown out.

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They never want a game. Coach is screaming at everybody

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because our coach is a maniac. And I went in

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and said something to the coach. I'm like, hey, you know,

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we're losing by like seventeen runs every game, Like, why

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don't you try to mix it up. My daughter is

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a power hitter. She can bring runs in. And the

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coach looked and he said, she's.

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A power hitter.

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They didn't even know. They just it was a warm body.

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It was a check that cleared. That's all they cared about. Well,

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before we went to Florida for the tournament, we had

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already kind of decided that we were.

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Gonna we were gonna bounce from this.

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And so before we left, she went and tried out

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for a team here in Nashville, kind of an elite team.

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And while we were in Florida, they.

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Called for her to come back and do a second tryout,

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but we were in Panama City and so the game

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was over, she sat on the bench. We lost by

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fifteen runs, and I looked at my daughter and I said,

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and her mom was there, and I said, if we

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leave now, we can make it back to Nashville for

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your tryout tonight. There's a couple more games left in

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the tournament. And my daughter said, no, I made a

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commitment to this team. I'm going to stay, even though

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she knew she was going to ride the bench proves

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that my daughter is a better person than I am

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at twelve years old. Because I would have been I'd

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have been out of there. So tournament's over, we get

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back to Nashville. Her mom's like a maniac with like

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in a good way, like you know, finding different tryouts.

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My daughter and I went to thirteen different team tryouts,

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so she got called back for some she didn't, and

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we get on this one team. Shout out to the Explosions,

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and the first tryout, the coach was like, you come

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on this team. You're gonna be my first basement. You're

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gonna be my power hitter. I promise you. And she's

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like okay. So then we got offers coming in. She's like,

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I want to be with the Explosions. So we get

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on the Explosions. We're on a great team. Coach is great,

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parents are great, players are great, team's great. Everything is great.

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Three tournaments in in Alabama, my daughter slides in the

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second fractures her tibia, like getting carried off the field,

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the whole thing, and I had to stick around even

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though she left with her mom and I just stick

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around to the end of the tournament for other stuff

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that I do with the team and then I drove

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back to Nashville that night, and driving back to Nashville,

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I was saying, to God, this is not fair.

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Like we were on this garbage team.

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We get with the team who's got the right coach.

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You know, she's excelling, the people are great. Three games in,

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we're out now for at minimum five weeks. I was like, God,

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this is not fair. And I think that if you

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were to be honest with yourself, you probably have those

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situations that happened in twenty twenty five. Now, some of

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you guys, you crushed it in twenty twenty five. You're

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never looking back. Good for you. But a lot of

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people in twenty twenty five had that moment where they

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finally got the team that they wanted, they finally got

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the call that they wanted, and as they get there,

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it just comes to a stop. I get emails from

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artists too, they got the show they wanted, and then

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the show got canceled when they got there. You know,

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I work a festival every year in Grand Junction, Colorado,

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and all year you look forward to this. You bring

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out a great team, You get to see your friends

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from year after year, get to hang out with the

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artist and it's a two day festival in Grand Junction.

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And on Friday of the first night of the festival,

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there's five xs that play every night. The second artist

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I out of Nowhere. I went from one hundred degrees

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in sunny and hot to out of nowhere sky is

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dark and hale is flipping over like like circumcised tents.

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And they had to cancel the rest of the festival

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that night. And that was just another one of those

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like you go like, Okay, we're here, like we've been

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waiting for this, and then nope, setback and I think that,

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you know, I mean, I've gotten the emails from from

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the guys I have friends in my life, you know

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who they They were very cautious on who they would date.

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They met the woman who checked all the boxes. Doesn't

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work out. It's like, well, I thought this was going

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to work out. Doesn't work out. The people go and

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they get the job that they want, like I can

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get this job. Money's going to come in and I

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can support my career, I can support my kids, or

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I can do this, and you get right to it,

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and then the company closes three weeks later, you know,

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in January of twenty twenty five, I flew out, went

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to go meet.

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With a client. They put the Big Dog and Pony

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act on.

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They were going to pay me more money to do

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their project than I've made in ten years. Okay, and

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I got other things, but I you know, I was

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going to add this project on. I get one month

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in the project, they ghost me. Ghost men, can't get

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anybody on the phone, nobody to pay. And I tell

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you all this to go jais Man. I tell you

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all this to say that looking back on this year

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from me, it was unshakeable faith because through all of this,

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with me driving back to Nashville in the middle of

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the night from Alabama after softball tournament and telling God,

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this is not fair, to getting to Colorado and what

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you're gonna think is an exciting time is us looking

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for people that are missing and we don't know if

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they're crushed under tents from.

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The hail to the guy who went to go get

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the job.

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And this this is a pay raise, and you're gonna

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be able to support your career and you're gonna be

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able to do.

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X, Y and Z.

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And then the company closes where they get bought out

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or downsizing happens to the people who you know in

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twenty twenty four you voted for a certain politician in

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your area or in the country, and you thought that

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life was gonna get better, and it seemed to get worse.

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That seems to be a lot of people.

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In twenty twenty five, and so I just want to

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say that I don't believe that anything grandiose happens because

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we flipped the calendar. I think it's more symbolic, but

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it's a big one.

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And so my chow than for.

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You today on this New Year's Eve is try to

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find the beauty and what did happen if everything went wrong?

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Did you still have your health? You know, if everything

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went wrong, did you still have healthy kids? Did you

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still have a loving marriage? Did you still were you

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able to create music and release it? And for those

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people who everything went great this year, man, I applaud you,

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and I think that you are kind of a model

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for what everybody wants to see because I think we

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all go through the peaks and valleys in life, but

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we all go through it.

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And this year, looking back, I'm very blessed.

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I mean, we have been talking, My team and I

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have been talking for years about doing the Music Business Newsletter,

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and I could never pull the trigger. I could just

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never do it. And here we are. Numbers are better

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than we thought. Retention numbers are better than we thought.

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Thank you so much. We got some awesome things coming

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in twenty twenty six. We're gonna do some live stuff

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on YouTube. We got some live in person events that

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will be announced soon that I'm booked for New Matrics Minutes.

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So thank you guys for all of that. But as

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we close the chapter on twenty twenty five, and we're

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never getting it back. We're never getting this time back.

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Time is very unforgiving, regardless of what your struggles were,

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regardless of what the setbacks were, regardless of what the

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close calls were. When we get emails every day, I

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feel like I read these emails every day. It's like

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we were so close and then something happened in the

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whole thing blew up. Whatever it is, be grateful for

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the winds that you did have. You know, as I'm

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driving back from Alabama and I talk about Gandlet and

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I talk about Jesus because I am a follower of Jesus.

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And if you're not, I tell you the best decision

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I ever made was the file that was to follow Jesus.

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It's not about I ain't a political party or giving

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money to a church or whatever. It's about having somebody

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have your back. But when I was driving back from Alabama,

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angry talking to gud, just like, why would you do.

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This to my daughter? This is not fair?

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And I mean, let's be wrel some of it was.

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It wasn't fair to me either, because I you know,

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I'm softball dad one on one.

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Baby.

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You look back and you go, yeah, what about those

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people who can never have a daughter or they lost

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their daughter. Be grateful that you had this moment. And now, hindsight,

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six weeks later, my daughter's back crushing it, getting ready

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to start the next season in the winter, and I

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think that if we just count our blessings. You know,

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there's a song by the band Cain and says I

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made it, and it talks about how the year was rough,

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but I still put one foot in front of the other.

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I still got breath in my lungs. I made it.

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And so as we go into twenty twenty six, don't

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you know, Oh, I'm going to start making my bed

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every morning, like you don't need to do that?

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Crop.

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But if you can live in a place where you

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are grateful to the creator, if you can be grateful

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for the small wins, if you can be grateful for

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you know what, I played seven shows in twenty twenty five,

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and but in twenty twenty four I only played six.

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That's movement.

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Be grateful for that, and then come into the new

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year knowing that it's just another day where the sun rises.

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And sets.

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But know that it's a gift. Know that your life

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is a gift. Know that your life is a story

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the world needs to hear. Know that there is a

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creator and a savior out there who loves you, but

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not only loves you, but likes you. It's one thing

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to love somebody, it's another thing to like them. And

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I just want to wish everybody a happy news year.

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Thank you so much for hanging out with me for

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the little part of twenty twenty five that we did.

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Can't wait to get.

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Your emails and to meet you and do all these

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amazing things in twenty twenty six. And so we need

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artists out there to kind of speak the voice, speak

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the truth, send a message, be a calming voice and uncertainty,

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be a steady hand when everything is is uncertain. So

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thank you guys so much for an awesome twenty twenty

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five despite the struggles. And I say this on the

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mat Trics minute, but we'll close this video out like

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this for twenty twenty six. May your dreams be bigger

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than your reality.

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God bless you, my friends.