How To Succeed In Your Music Career (and why it sucks)

[@PeteSpaker]

every kid in high school interested in ANYTHING should have to watch this

[@AmateurBlonde]

I stopped making my own music and just collaborated with others in 2014 - 2021, after streaming obliterated my entire game plan. I suspect I wasn't alone in this. I was ultimately idealistic and unwilling to do the shit work. Then, my song was placed in Walking Dead (S10xE21). That 2012 song (which of course i loved and was proud of) sat dormant for nearly 10 years. It went from 0 listens for a full 2 years to full explosion. I tried to make the most of it's success by firing back up my business attempts, but ultimately, I went in the wrong direction. I just didn't know what I was doing. I kept songwriting through these dormant period, as songwriting is totally easy and joyous for me (I suspect this is the same for you too?). I'm now in the process of a total rebrand. I went into the studio (for drums) and got 22 songs started. I'm doing almost everythign myself and I am an INDIE now. I'm happy I found the indepreneur pro plan, and I'm hoping that I can get to the point (sooner rather than later) where I can make my re-brand a reality. I'm in the middle of my training. I don't know why I'm writing here. Perhaps because I just felt amongst friends here - in this quest - to carve my notch in stone that I offered something worthwhile to this planet; that my life has meaning beyond my personal satisfaction; and hopefully connect with others on a deeper level.

[@ekayaniperforms]

Welcome to the salt mines bro!

[@PatrickJamesClark]

A hard truth but an important one. Everyone is full of motivation when they're in that "uniformed optimism" stage, but you can spend a long time in the valley of despair if you're not willing to put the work in! Love this content, keep it coming

[@busyworksbeats]

I love how you took the mundane and made it entertaining! Shoutout to the editor! 🔥

[@invectrum]

I haven't put out any music for a year, I just haven't had any motivation for a long time. However I recently started listening to the audiobook "The War of Art" by Stephen Pressfield. In his book he talks about what he refers to as the "Resistance", a force inside you that makes you put off doing the things you want to do creatively. It was really making me look at everything a different way. Then this video popped up in my notifications and it couldnt have been better timing. Synchronicity even. Thanks for this video.

[@musicmarketing]

War of Art is such a great book. Conquer the resistance - do the things that suck!

[@invectrum]

@@musicmarketing Between this video and just the first chapter of the War of Art, I feel like finally see things from a different perspective. I already paid for the Fan Finder course a couple years ago but I never implemented what I learned. I have been writing and making beats for 20 years and I have something like 50 fully written songs ready to record (not to mention 70+ half written ones) i feel like I can actually get somewhere if I strategically plan out the releases.

[@coreytherockstarduh]

There's a lot of things that bring me down as an artist, but the fact that this video only has 6.6k views at the time of viewing this brings me down a ton also. It's so well done, and so much effort went into it....what the hell do I have to offer thee world, ya know?

[@LauraLamn]

Needed to hear this today. You rock!

[@musicmarketing]

YOU DO! Thanks for letting me know it was useful

[@MaxiZee]

what a great great man! we appreciate your time as always 🙏🏾💯

[@aliceottermusic]

🌻shining a light on this life of mine. being obsessive and a workaholic helps.

[@rigo-chi]

Thanks for this video! Going through the suck, really sucks but if you can believe in the process, you won't regret it. This video is a reminder that the things that suck are what make what you really want truly valuable. 🏆

[@naturespeakmusic]

I needed this thank you for the call out.

[@thesuncollective1475]

Expectations managed . Thank you. Btw you are easily the most honest of the bunch..and I appreciate it.

[@musicmarketing]

We really appreciate it man! I'm glad the video helped in any way

[@thelostboymusic]

Quite relevant for me - thank you 🎸🤘🎧

[@KaraConnolly]

This is very real. Thanks Circa!

[@wormsali]

Boredom good, fun bad. Got it 👍🏾

[@musicmarketing]

- ded

[@Mariami]

This video and the principles in it will forever stay in my brain when I face resistance in my career or feel unwilling to perform exceptionally high. It takes a certain work ethic to excel in this industry and this video breaks down exactly why. Love it guys you rock!

[@eejebee]

🔥Dope content. Thanks for talking so candidly and simple - wishing you all the best and everyone who reads this!

[@Daniel_Freshboi]

Thanks for this🤍

[@RichChambers]

This video rocks!! The message in this video comprises one of the best lessons any indie artist could hear and subscribe to. This is as "real" as it gets! Well done Kyle!! 👍👍

[@KJSawkaOfficial]

Super good video! It truly is made to inspire not demotivate. Well done man! I’ll be sharing this video with my students

[@Penfriendrocks]

I can't watch this video right now cos I'm elbow deep in doing my music biz accounts - I hope this scintillating task is covered here, Circa!! I'll be back...my spreadsheet is calling...

[@musicmarketing]

you are the living embodiment of this videos message, Laura!

[@flavoursonly]

That last hyper rapid edit made me feel sick. 😂 been paying for membership for about 3 years but haven’t logged in precisely because of this. Tapping back in now. Recommend this group as a good psychology narcissism test. Because when you really realise what it takes to be successful at music (big big success) it is f****** awful. Keep going guys 🎉😂 great video

[@officialkngfst]

me and my bro always say were gonna b ahead because we do the little tedious sht that no one else is willing to do. It pays in the long run 💯💯💯

[@kdgdeuce]

I’m on year one and I had some small goals I’m ready to go bigger

[@Penfriendrocks]

Atreyu!!!!! (I came back to watch) Yes yes yes to all this, I'm the only musician I've ever met who is willing to do all this stuff, and now I feel like less of an idiot for spending all those hours doing weird boring tasks. Hooray! Thank you :) ps been catching up with the podcast during my gym sessions lately - another useful activity that sucks!! - and the episodes are GOLD. Thanks for those too.

[@MattLeFaitMusic]

Great video editing!

[@musicmarketing]

shoutout to our editor Michael Kessler the man is absolutely insane

[@AndrewColyerMusic]

LOVE IT!! I actually really want to share this video with some of my musician colleague friends in the hopes that they will truly get the message that you are presenting here. But I know that they are already unwilling to do the things that stuck now, so watching this video will likely not change their mind set. I love you guys you are super awesome keep going and stay Indie! 😀🎹🎵🤟🎊

[@TristanPalmer]

Great vid, thanks guys 🎉🎉🎉

[@AJCrew]

13:04 - 13:28 is a perfect encapsulation of the inner turmoil of today's musicians. 😂😂😂......😭😭

[@johnfarnhamexperience]

Yep you're 100% correct... integrity... and pretty much all famous musicians don't have it after they signed that contract... i knocked back a contract years ago because what I had to do to get the fame and money... I'm outta here... and while I'm not rich and famous, I do have my own pride and integrity intact... but that's me, some people aren't happy or content being just small game... but at the end of the day, even the simplest thing in life come with a price, it's just how much a price we are willing to pay... I've been a pro muso for 30 years... and to this day most of us gigging artists are still waiting up to a month to 6 weeks to get paid for that gig we did... I can obviously only speak for my country of Australia... but that's pretty much how it works here in Oz if you get a gig... it's a 4 to 6 week period to get that payment after you did the gig... any other normal job here in Australia is usually a week or 2 to get paid, but the music game is totally different, and if you kick up a storm about it, then you get a bad rep... so you put up with it, to get those paid gigs... like I said, everything comes with a price... and the higher the bar you set, the higher the price and your integrity... it is what it is...

[@NikiWonoto26]

thanks a lot for this comment - an 'ordinary' musician from Indonesia -

[@maxboostandthepowerups]

Nah, I don’t wanna, I think I’ll just make music that’s so good it’ll “speak for itself”😅 lol great video!

[@tummur]

But how do you think that people have a chance to hear your music in this day and age? At least what I’ve understood about marketing is that ”marketing means making something known”

[@maxboostandthepowerups]

@@tummur ha, yeah I was being sarcastic. Even with a lot of hustle and a lot of content it’s difficult to break through the noise, it’s true today and in some sense probably always has been. So many people have time and technology today to make both music and video content to market it, so unless you have something go viral (which even that probably took time and effort) you gotta be patient and consistently do the hard boring stuff and make sure you are actually getting better at everything over time

[@mikec6733]

I still believe in this. Lol

[@sonicbutter]

Ah yes, exactly what I want to hear and don't want to hear at the same time. Thanks for this, Circa.

[@growingoaks]

Lowkey you're spitting marketing game and I'm here for it lol I'm def gonna revisit this in the near future!

[@bruhandreas1020]

This is one of the best motivational videos out there not just for musicians but anyone who has big dreams

[@DrummerGallop]

Very truthful! Thanks for the advice

[@FreeSpirit-FreeMusic-FreeLife]

Mate you are DAMNED good at doing things that suck! Pleasure to watch. And yes it IS inspiring!

[@Aprelknight]

Thanks for this bad ass content!!

[@ipedrosamp]

You’re the best Kyle! I’ve learned so much from you over the years❤️‍🔥 And I badly needed this one. According to James Clear I am currently at The Valley of Disappointment in my yield curve. Gotta keep moving forward!

[@musicmarketing]

You got this!

[@woodlyfeent306]

Thank you for the awesome knowledge!

[@ryanluchuck8445]

One of the best “artist tips” videos I’ve ever seen.

[@vandellarmusic]

Man, this video is excatly what I needed.

[@iamchinma]

Ay bro, you are hilarious. I love all of your videos. Even a 4th grader can understand

[@KenTeel]

This video should be required viewing for all artists. There are several truths in this video. Well done.

[@AlienGoat]

That was amazing! Editing was great and hilarious. Perfect dose of motivation and shock with reality. Thank you!

[@alexmurphynj]

Thanks for this video I'll be remembering it when I'm filing out long PRO/Admin registrations spreadsheets and other monotonous tasks for my little label. Much harder than making music.

[@officialhardnox]

Great video Circa!!!

[@edyforey]

You guys are so very useful for all emerging artists. Dropping actual educated knowledge

[@Allthatwethink]

I really needed to hear this. I was confused why i was not enjoying music task but I see they’re not meant to be enjoyable. Its supposed to suck 🤯💡 Gotta get back to doing stuff that sucks. Thanks Circa!

[@image30p]

I just made a little video with basically the same idea, *except* you offered a solution. I will try to keep this in mind.

[@TangentMoon]

The one thing I know I need to get better at is social media - that's 'the suck' for me. Looking for better ways to batch produce content so I can be more efficient with my time.

[@nquitagent]

So true. I've been doing all the business since 1996, and have resisting it until very recently

[@apdrake13]

Do the work!!

[@wekkij]

Software developers mouths watering over your 7-8 hour process. If it's a recurring thing, I'm curious what hurdles would keep a dev from automating out your clicks and keystrokes. I know you just used that as an example and it's kind of beside the point.

[@ImTheFatboy]

Not gonna lie. Even the sucky stuff is cool. Like sending the emails, filling out paperwork, passing out flyers etc. It sucks, but also it's exciting when something catches. Like someone hits you up from a flyer or you get booked for an interview from an email or a royalty payment comes in cuz you registered your shows last year. It's totally worth the suckiness when you do it right

[@KevinOShaughnessyGuitar]

I needed to be reminded of this today. Thank you!

[@musicmarketing]

Thank YOU! Glad it was the right fit for where you're at today =)

[@NBLENTERTAINMENT]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Go Hard! - NBL

[@iknikblackstone9082]

Awesome advice! Thanks Kyle !

[@musicmarketing]

You are so welcome! I'm glad it helped =)

[@DeepSongBuilders]

Great post, great message & timing w/this video🙌🏾. I really needed to hear this TODAY!

[@musicmarketing]

I never would have expected this vid to be exactly what so many needed to hear - I'm super glad it reached you at the right time!

[@Melinaviolino]

Love thisssss, thank you.

[@eweesplace]

Have you ever tried scripting this stuff with something easy to learn, like python or something? The time you learn to utilize scripting and automating these tasks (if you do data entry often), it would create some significant operational efficiency. Just a thought. Cheers

[@geoffhead111]

yup, youre giving me the straight dope, i shall continue to be interested in what you say. i guess ive made a point of picking only jobs that i enjoy as my boredom threshold is too low to pick straight stuff. so it is my proud boast to say that i enjoy every damn thing about being a bass player. except string damping; stupid tax you have to pay for permission to sound a note. anyway, thank you for possessing integrity and good luck as you appear to be a hard working man with smarts

[@qanishque]

Thank you so much for this video, I have a question. I have decided that I'll make video essays (& tutorials) about topics of interest to me along with releasing music so that I can funnel more people from those videos to my music. I also need to strategize and understand the art of short form content. This will require me to become a competent video editor, writer & musician while being a magnificent accountant and manager at the same time. But I worry. I keep worrying all the time. What if it doesn't work? And then the imposter syndrome comes in.

[@jamiewymanband]

Sometimes we just need a little kick in the pants. Thanks for the pep talk Kyle!

[@kimweinglass]

This was a great reminder that I'm the one doing most of the tedious suck stuff, as my husband is the one who creates and performs the music. 😅

[@sergioramos3437]

Good reminder man ! Gotta embrace the suck

[@MemphisFitz]

Good video you really motivated me when i thought this video does the opposite, because i thought to myself: isnt that with every job? That you have to do things that suck every gahdamn day in and out even if you start to hate them after some time? So why not do it with something you love and is beautiful (music) ? I imagine that to be much more exciting than a 9-5 job :D Also if most people quit cause they are too lazy to do the things that suck then isnt that automatically making it easier for us ?

[@fumarfuego]

Best video you've done... and I'm a customer 😅

[@aj_introduction]

Wow this video helped me

[@Al3xAndrovA]

So good 🙌

[@jgonsalk]

Good point but i would argue that you could automate this task with some Python and SQL code, depending on what you have set up. But yes, no free lunch here, you either have the programming skills or brute force it. I absolutely agree with the general thesis. I'm a musician (

[@averyintelligence]

hey whats the background instrumental called 6:00-7:41 ?

[@kytoon]

Otis McDonald - Church of 8 Wheels

[@eu4iceuforic82]

It's going to be hard yes, but if we knew it would work, would we do it?! If it's possible, then the hard work is exciting. It'll be boring yes-- but you'll remember that what you do now is working on the future you want!

[@chrishantis]

As a developer former business analyst / data entry hog, if you’re doing that much typing to get what you need from unique ids then you don’t have the right tools/processes in place.

[@musicmarketing]

I've said this a few times in this comments section - the app I was inputting to does not have coupon creation as an API call. Literally will never have to do this again so it wouldn't make sense to develop something with user entry automation like AHK.

[@chrishantis]

@@musicmarketing gotcha!

[@laurenjingles99]

This reminds me of mark manson’s shit sandwich analogy. In life, you choose your shit sandwich - the good stuff and the bad, you can never just choose one. You choose what you want to endure

[@marcmoglenoriginals]

Smart and hilarious.

[@SHA-3qua]

This video basically serves as the gateway drug to Python.

[@musicmarketing]

Again, Python is great; but it can't instantiate new functions to proprietary APIs that do not exist

[@niltomega2978]

I did band gigging for 12 years. I've had my fill. Keeping my chops up for so little reward....not worth it, though it was for a few years. Its nice to have that "special" ability most do not have, but guess what... most people don't even care. So whats left after that? The money?..lol! Ok. Just the LOVE of playing music? Meh. Very very few just do it for the love of music. Since there is no money, most do it for the adulation, which in America, is in short supply. I was in Germany in 2010. Wow they love live music...but I don't live there. Whats crazy is I played in a band that did all the local clubs, my town fair and even the County fair year after year. 5 years after quitting is like no-one ever heard of us. Local bands have the shelf life of lettuce. The first 5 years though WAS a lot of fun, and yea we made like 100 bucks each per night. I should have did it for 5 years and then quit looking back.

[@drdemi]

guys, next time ask me. i'll automate it for you.

[@toxicthecat457]

Circa and the Nuggets of Truth.

[@musicmarketing]

Circ & The Hard-To-Swallow Pills

[@SSPSoundz]

Sounds like a dope band name.

[@user-jr3he8ys4r]

I hope this Comment isn't considered faux pas or in bad taste, but is there anyone (or, any organization) that gets paid to do "the suck"? Are there any successful "Indepreneurs" that would consider doing this professionally? Please reply.

[@musicmarketing]

There are tons of music marketing "agencies" out there who will do the "suck" for you, but consider this... If an agency claims to be willing to take responsibility for your growth when you're starting from near zero, how much do you think they care about their reputation or your experience as a customer? We have a music marketing agency, but we turn down over 99% of those who apply. Why? Because we take ownership of the success of our clients - financially and otherwise. Even if they have the money, if they're just starting out, they are overwhelmingly likely to lose money by hiring us - they wont make enough to pay our agency fee. We don't want our agency to be an organization that has the net effect of being financially detrimental to our clients. Music marketing agencies who will take your $250-$500 to run an "Ad campaign" or a "playlist run" without knowing anything about you as an artist and without any minimum acceptance criteria are probably unscrupulous. Because they don't know anything about you as an artist, they have no idea how successful they can be in helping you. In this case, they are far less likely to provide a service that has any short term or, even more likely, long term value for you. If you don't already have a large fan base, you should learn to fish - you shouldn't pay for fish.

[@user-jr3he8ys4r]

Point well taken. But, if we put this in different context, perhaps it may offer an alternate perspective... If I've saved enough hard-earned pennies for a vacation to Hawaii, then there's really no reason to ALSO have to learn to fly the airplane to get there. There are pilots & companies who offer this service for a fee for their expertise. In an attempt to be brief & remain productive, I understand the suggestion, "you should learn to fish - you shouldn't pay for fish". But, that logic can sometimes actually be extremely counterproductive, as you may perish in the interim while "LEARNING to fish"... Aren't there any Indiepreneur Graduates or another legitimate service(s) that can help get the ball rolling through the entry-level "suck"? @@musicmarketing

[@downnorthmusic]

hold up so where is my code lol

[@subbiuniyal9921]

🖤✨

[@sociallybrenden12]

Mune Cat made it on YT and hardly ever posts, same as Mechee X and many others. Quality will always trump quantity.

[@musicmarketing]

@@sociallybrenden12 the debunker?

[@Itsdrewsmall]

*1,027 indie pro members

[@musicmarketing]

Hey man! I just sent you a personal welcome video haha then I logged into KZbin and saw this =)

[@Itsdrewsmall]

You're the GOAT, looking forward to learning from you!

[@АлексейЛазарев-з4ь]

it might as well be a sigmoid curve not exponential no growth -> fast growth -> saturation

[@AustinSkysLive]

Click the button!

[@emuzicar]

yup... It's mostly the boring work that does the job.

[@supermethod_x]

you're lying or ignorant of generating coupons it is an unbelievably simple and routine task to generate a unique chunk of data per user are you coding your own platform? if you have a software engineer, this is dead simple. teenagers can do it unless your problem is your mailing list info isn't easily accessible?

[@musicmarketing]

generating unique keys isn't the problem. did you watch the video?

[@conietokieradboy]

12:02 this Justin Bieber analogy has aged so horribly now 💀

[@musicmarketing]

@@conietokieradboy oh god

[@tylerhuston7297]

This is great! Totally sucks!

[@sownpeace]

I often wonder about this for artists. I know I wouldn't have the talent level to make it worth the extra grunt work. Interesting points because there are tons of talented people out there with even meaningful lyrics - yet so much CRAP on the freaking radio and streaming. And stop torturing that poor hamster for your feed.

[@randommusic1067]

learn how to make macros in xl

[@musicmarketing]

@randommusic1067 macros in excel? you think an excel macro solves what I described?

[@randommusic1067]

@@musicmarketing sure. grab some info from the spreadsheet generate a code and create a certificate? record the action in word or excel and edit in visual basic. might take some time initially but youll save time in the long run like if you gotta do it again.

[@musicmarketing]

@randommusic1067 oh I thought you meant auto addition of the codes into the cart software. No, I did use a Google Sheet for what you described

[@phatsochubby5116]

Can’t u just make a bot for it tho😅

[@coastercook]

I can write you a script and slap it in a web page to do that email nonsense that you are spending 8 hours on.

[@TheEndless560]

Dude, you need to learn python scripting...

[@musicmarketing]

How much do you know about the API involved that would give you the confidence to say that Python scripting was the quicker solution here?

[@TheEndless560]

@@musicmarketing I take your point, but I can't imagine it would be that difficult tbh... an API is just an API is just an API...

[@musicmarketing]

@@TheEndless560 different APIs have different available functions and function parameters

[@TheEndless560]

@@musicmarketing yeh I know.. Im a software engineer.. out of curiousity what are the different systems?

[@musicmarketing]

@@TheEndless560 main problem is that ThriveCart API doesn't have a "create coupon" call

[@alicerizing280]

This video is pure snit. Dumb and obvious. Duh.

[@musicmarketing]

clean it up alice, the whole neighborhood can hear u rite now

[@illsmoketothat]

Circa. You are fuckin spot on man. This should be required watching for every musician. Loving this honest input on the industry.