5 Ways Easy Money Will Stop You From Growing As A New Music Artist

When we say easy money we don’t mean drug or prostitution money. And in all honesty, although society has decided the two sides of the same coin are easy nonetheless, in our not-so-humble opinion, they’re not. In this article, however, easy money implies a new artist who is more fortunate than the rest and has either parents backing them or a record label ready to foot the production and marketing bills. And while we’re well aware that having the right funds is the number one issue for most indie artists, there’s a fine line between enough money to keep a good team on board to help you grow and too much money when you essentially assign everything to other people and you’re dumbing yourself down in just about all aspects of your life and career. Without further ado, let’s discover the 5 ways having money too early on in your career will hurt you more than do you good.

5. You don’t learn the true value of a dollar earned in the music business.

When mom and dad or an older boyfriend, sponsor your music aspirations, the main issue is that you won’t acknowledge the fact that it takes a whole 136 plays to earn a full dollar from Apple Music, 147 plays from YouTube Music, 229 from Spotify, 249 streams from Amazon, and over 700 plays to get those same 100 cents from Pandora. These are ridiculous numbers for independent artists and especially for those that are brand new in the industry and have less than 1000 real fans. Because the struggling artist has to work their head and ass off to get to these numbers, they end up being extremely mathematical about future investments and promotional budgets. On the other hand, an artist who has the funds to pay off the bat for a major marketing campaign, doesn’t care if they get a dollar or a thousand. The latter never takes being a musician too seriously for they already have a major source of income thus eliminating the need to convert their talent into a money-producing system.

4. You don’t become resourceful.

Because you’re already with resources. There’s beauty, creativity, and drive in a talented-but-financially-lacking artist. When you have only $500 to spend on a professional music video, you will be extremely careful who you work with, the gear they use, the timeframe they will require to hand back the product, the potential unforeseen production-related costs, and you will get extremely creative about using what you already have and ask for your friends’ help to pull off good-looking visuals. Subsequently, having a $10,000 budget will more likely than not – make you a lazy artist. Why should I bother with the creative process when I am paying a videographer to do that and I only have to start and stop moving when told? Why should I double check on the rental fees and dancer payments when I have an assistant to take care of all that? And do you know the funniest thing? This is very much the reason why artists start having poor songs and uninspired music videos once they do make it. They don’t have the need to put their best foot forward anymore and let the money buy the talent they require.

3. You mistake clout chasers for fans.

The reality of life is that well-off individuals attract people who see them as means to an end. We’ve lost track of how many untalented and tone-deaf artists get sucked into paying tens of thousands of dollars to developing agencies because “they’re the next big thing.” Once people know you have money, especially those in the music industry, they’ll find a way to get to that money be it via expensive recording sessions, pompous music video sets, unnecessary collaborations, unvetted branding packages, or very useless and untraceable promotional campaigns. And all this time you thought you were the sh*t! No. If you’ve been paying someone else copious amounts of money and you neither improved as an artist nor gained real engagement on your social media profiles, you’re being conned for your resources.

2. You’re missing out on much-needed skills.

Because you can afford to pay someone else to do your copywriting, photo editing, blog pitching, networking, marketing. Rookie artists with money, and sometimes even the legends, are much inferior in skill asset compared to the guy who learned to use a $20 keyboard to create complex Hip Hop beats and lay down harmonies; or the chick who knows to do a mean makeup face thanks to YouTube tutorials and very few products available to her. Scarcity compels creativity. Abundance compels relaxation and IDGAF-ation. Be attentive what category you’re falling in and do your best to learn all the ropes from scratch. You don’t need to know how to do everything excellently yourself but you do need to know the basics of all needed skills for a successful music career.

1. You don’t lay the groundwork.

Why should I reply to meh-looking Jenny from Ohio who I’ve never met when my social media manager can automate responses and fake a connection with the fans? Oh boy, or oh girl, or oh ma’am. Have your pick. The top lethal mistake that will halt even the top talented artists. The relationships you forge from the beginning with your fans will last you the entire duration of your career. These are the people that will defend you on social media when you’ll get into scandals. These are the people that will pay premium prices to see you on tour because they’re so proud of you. These are the people that will learn all the lyrics to all of your songs by heart and make fan videos. These people are your second family. We can not put into words the vital need of actually TALKING and actually CONNECTING with your first fans. Artists with money hire social media managers to do the heavy lifting then they don’t even know their top fans by name. Guess what? Their musician title has an expiry date if that is the case.

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