Building a music career is simple (it's just not easy)

[@gigimonrose3992]

I appreciate your advice and it’s true. Make good music, tell people about it, develop that craft, run paid ads and keep the cycle going. However there’s a big problem. Having the funds to sustain this process is SOUL SUCKING because the ROI is eventual. Those who aren’t financially stable already suffer the most because the business is expensive. Paying for equipment, instruments, studio, ads, merch. You don’t make money from music. If you get good at the business you make money from your “brand”. Thing is it takes many years, trial + error and financial injection to make it work. And sadly, the industry is exploitative and doesn’t pay artists fairly AT ALL. So when you make all these financial commitments where’s your payback? You end up thinking, why am I injecting so much money and time into a craft that’s paying me a crumbs for my efforts? Through the years I’ve denied myself the simple luxury of a coffee so I could run ads, make music and live out my “dream”. Was it worth it? Seriously, I’m not sure. But atleast learning ads means I can take this knowledge and apply it elsewhere or in a different way. From what I’ve seen being an independent artist who just makes and releases their own music, UNLESS you have other avenues connected to your artistry- (I.e: Session work/ gigs/ teaching), isn’t a stable form of income. It’s a constant and never ending hustling game. And we can all only play that game for so long.

[@AJHirsch]

Man, you’re one of the only channels I trust these days with advise with this stuff. I’ve watched so many videos and have gotten so overwhelmed with information overload but your stuff feels so much more authentic, so thank you so much for that! I’m in a very niche genre (instrumental rock like Joe Satriani, Vai, etc) so I’ve been trying to find a good plan and your stuff has been super super helpful! 😎🎸

[@tomdupreeiii]

What an amazing comment. Thank you for this. I'm so happy to hear my videos have been helpful for you. Keep it simple and keep going!

[@thesuncollective1475]

TBH as a producer I just do what I feel. What makes me happy. I get on many blogs cause my music is dope and that's enough.

[@tomdupreeiii]

And THIS is how you get your music on blogs! Make great music and let the bloggers do their job.

[@Sonanaut]

Great stuff Tom as always. Thank you!

[@tomdupreeiii]

My pleasure!

[@MiKEY_SANZ]

Yeah, facts

[@soulofwaves]

Hey Tom. I can see your point, but I think that for small independent artists its not even close to be simple. Maybe it's simple for bigger artists than can hire others or people with money that can do that. But an independent artist that has very little money to invest, they have to be the songwriter, producer, mix & master engineer, graphic designer, video editor, social media manager, digital markenting & online ads manager, project manager, and so many other things... how can that be simple?! A "normal" person goes crazy... normal people are not "super heros" like we small independent artists have to be... as you say, you can get easily burnt out or frustrated in the process. So, again, how can it be simple? PS: I have been following you since quite a long time and in one of your videos you classified yourself as a small artist, that made me wonder in what category would I fall... so I came up to being a microbe artist xD

[@tomdupreeiii]

Hey, thank you for the comment! I understand where you're coming from, but it seems like your definition of "simple" is getting interchanged with my definition "easy". It is simple. Make music. Make content. Showing up every day to do it though, that's not easy. Learning all the skills you mentioned, that's not easy either. We don't have to figure out how to do every single thing at once though. Doing this stuff every day causes all of it to naturally improve over time. Systems emerge. Eventually, you're not custom color grading and editing every video-you have templates that make the process super fast. Eventually, you're not building your mastering channel strip by hand for every song-you have templates that make the process super fast. The point is to take it one day at a time, do the best you can with what you have, and keep showing up and improving 1% every day. That is simple. Now actually showing up and putting in the work, that's the part that's difficult, which is why most avoid doing it and opt for the "get-rich-quick" schemes of playlisting, reposting, etc. to try to circumvent the process it takes to succeed. But just as with every other business in the world, there are no shortcuts. We have to keep showing up every day and putting in the work for an extended period of time. Honestly, it kind of takes a bit of a crazy person with an almost irrational sense of self-belief to pull it off, which, again, is why most don't win the long game. And I love the term "microbe artist" by the way. Incredible! Thank you for following along for so long and thank you again for the thoughtful comment. I hope this reply helped a little.

[@soulofwaves]

@@tomdupreeiii appreciate your detailed reply. I still think that it's not simple. Having to do so many roles at the same time, which are specialist roles by themselves (and even university or college careers), makes it extremely complicated. I agree the fundamentals may be simple, the macro objectives if you wish, but to achieve them you have to do so many micro objectives that it gets crazy if you are on yourself. And there is this extra difficulty that I forgot to mention before: we have to do all of these things in our free time after our main jobs... Sometimes I think about where I put myself on. But anyway, it's something that I enjoy and that keeps me going. As you say, the first battle is with ourselves and our own expectations. The rest is to persevere and get better every day, and to be patient. It's the hell difficult sometimes but it is what it is.

[@xaviarmusic]

Ads all the way💯💯💯

[@tomdupreeiii]

Yes sir! 💯💯💯

[@micahcarter5944]

@tomdupreeiii is there any1 who you can name who is making minimum wage off of FB ads alone?? I appreciate what you do brotha. I've been watching you for a few years now. I'm just curious if it has actually worked yet....