 What in the hell? Every time I go on YouTube, it's another video of some kid who's never been involved in the music business, or for that matter, has barely left their hometown. They now have a video with tens of thousands of views like, top 10 industry plants. Revealed, Akshnanivis is an industry plant, or... I dug through Grime's trash and found her baby's diaper. He did a DNA test with it, and turns out her baby has DNA that matches Elon Musk. She's clearly an industry plant! And while I'm somewhat exaggerating, this thing really has gotten out of hand. As I now see the Twitter fever is ready to try to cancel artists over this. So this video, I'm gonna make you realize this whole industry plant thing is actually what needs to be canceled, and that everyone who talks about this is making a fool of themselves. Hi, I'm Jesse Cannon, a music marketing nerd who's teaching musicians how to grow their fan base from zero to 10,000 fans, and this is Muse Formation. So for those of you who've only heard the term industry plant, but don't fully get what this conspiracy theory is, allow me to turn to the internet's leading conspiracy theorist, Adam Johns, to explain. Listen here, folks! The globalists don't want you to know this, but there's a music industry cabal connecting people in the music business. Let's just say like, an artist's father goes out to drink with his neighbor, and he gets his daughter on record deal. Maybe they worked in the business, or met someone from a major label, and they plotted to take over the world and make everyone know this artist, folks. It's a goddamn conspiracy! The rich and connected parents make their goddamn kids famous! I tell you, they're raking havoc on our ears. Folks, they're gonna pretend this was some organic assent to fame, but really, the parents of this artist have paid off everyone, everyone, folks, who listened to them. Where's my check, folks? I'm tired of hacking these survival kits and boner pills. Look what it's doing to me. Keep your eyes out, folks, because the next thing you know, they're going to turn to Sasquatch's guy! Okay, let's get that guy out of here. But really, what you need to know is the internet is paranoid and nutty, thinking that somehow rich parents, along with record executives, are able to team with major labels to make their failed children famous. And hiding their origin story in some DIY mythos, when they're really being financially backed by their parents' money or major label funding. I mean, it's really hard to track what these people are talking about, because most of these theories are so dumb, it's just unfathomable that anyone buys this shit. This really is QAnon for teens and college kids who are too damn online. Yet everywhere that people of that age group gather online to discuss music, it's spreading like wildfire. And they're discussing it as if they have empirical evidence, even though they've never once been part of what really goes on when it comes to signing and breaking artists. They're now spending hours a day combing through family trees, like they have a genealogy degree and are an ancestry.com expert trying to prove every artist they wanna cancel is somehow connected to someone rich enough to pull those puppet strings and make them famous. And this week, I literally saw people pouring over high school yearbooks to prove origin stories are bullshit. But you know who never discusses this? People who actually work in the music business and have big labels and indies, because we can see firsthand why this whole discussion is so fucking dumb. So what is actually happening here then? To believe that an industry plant is a thing that matters, you have to believe that a major label has the power to push the artist they're planting into the mainstream. And that even if these artists lack talent, they will be inserted into the mainstream and receive success. And to understand how dumb this is, I want you to go into any major labels website and browse through their roster by clicking the artist tab. I mean, clearly you all fancy yourselves, internet slews, so it shouldn't be so hard for you to catalog this a bit. So if you do this for let's say a year, you will see how many artists they try to make into popular artists you've heard of, and it goes absolutely nowhere. This is because you can't make a large audience actually like an artist's music unless they really genuinely like it. My estimation is at least one third of the artists the major labels push fail and get dropped. And I think that's conservative. And if you put the same effort you do to the famous artists who you're going around and tracking their backgrounds and go exploring the ones that fail, you'll see some of the same connections you hear about in these industry plants. Hmm, funny. It's almost like connections don't equal fame. I mean, yes, major labels definitely have platforms that can get people way more heard and influences what gets popular. And they have more advantages than anyone else to break an arse. But the fact is, unless people are enjoying someone's music, there's nothing these labels or any billionaire can do to make it popular. And don't get it twisted. I'm not trying to pretend that the major label system is without manipulation and connections don't get you platforms. Just last week, Vox published an article where I called out the lies Spotify tells when they say they don't discriminate between signed artists and DIY artists. I show clearly the signed artists advantages and influence it on playlist and how ridiculous it is that even Spotify tries to say this when the preferences they give are as clear as day. I mean, is Spotify really trying to tell me that they offer these big platform playlist curations to artists on CD baby? Trust me, I'm not here to carry water for the system since the system is bullshit. But major labels don't have a special tool to make someone famous because of throwing money at the problem. Each of the major labels are all competing against each other to blow up their artists. And there's only so much space for each of those artists. So the artists with great songs win just like everybody loves to comment that the best marketing tool is a great song. And the ones with the financial backing are often not who wins. Let's always remember, Paris Hilton is the daughter of one of the richest men in America. And that couldn't make her not be a one hit wonder. And an example that's happening right now and a little more current is Kat Von D who obviously has a massive infrastructure and connections and money behind her and access to everything possible to promote her music. And she's trying to make a music career now all of a sudden. And if you look anywhere in New York City there's an ad for her, we pasted everywhere and they're pushing her as hard as they can. And well, if you look at these numbers on Spotify they're showing the people don't like what they're hearing. But the hilarity that rich kids get this platform with no musical merit or talent is even more disproved. Here's an easy way to see proof of this. When I was working at Atlantic Electro Records one of the things I would regularly observe was guests taking selfies at the labels lobby in front of those artist hero images. You know, the blow up pictures of the artists near the lobby to show the labels triumphs of all the artists they've made famous. So these rich kids who've gotten a meeting take a selfie in front of one and are always sure to location tag it to show everyone they are really at a major label and big things to come except they're not. If you look at these location tags you'll notice they never come back because major labels are filled with these favor meetings. But we have to remember that's not who gets signed. These days, unless an analytic software, a viral hit or an A&R really believe in you they aren't gonna waste their time. Since there's so little budget for these A&R to work with why on earth would they do it and spend their time working on some rich kid instead of someone with actual artistic merit? When there's so many artists who've now proven themselves are gone viral that they could see that they could easily make something out of. Now I know most people who are discussing industry plans have never had a job on a corporate structure where you report to a boss. But for those of you who've had to answer to a boss with results, just imagine at your quarterly check-in telling your boss you signed a rich kid instead of one of the hundreds of viral sensations who are posting numbers and actually getting streams and people like their music and generating income. Your job's not gonna be long for this world if you tell your boss that you did that. And listen, it's really hard to make songs that resonate with a large number of people and never mind a personality people follow around. That does not come because someone bought it. It's sometimes it's fun to think that if someone just gave you the money you could have all that fame and somebody could just coach you into it. But that's just not the case. And everyone who's worked in the music business for a while knows it. There's so many artists who've gotten more connections and opportunities and fucked them up so bad. There's so much that goes into building an artist that's good decisions and great songs and all sorts of other external factors. Success in this business has so many different factors and anyone in it will tell you having parents who fund you may give you the time to practice instead of work a day job, which really does help. But for fuck's sake, it does not determine much of anything once you're signed. I mean, I keep hearing out Claro is an industry plant since her dad's an ad executive. So like what happened here, you're telling me is her dad spent a million dollars to make videos this low quality and low-fi songs that sound like they were recorded on a laptop and barely mixed. Wow, y'all are sipping some strong Kool-Aid. But you may say, What in the hell, Jesse? Tons of rich kids and children of actors and musicians get these platforms. Yeah, well, there's a reason for that. And let's start with the more innocent of them. When your parent is an established entity in a creative field, they probably know a good about creative process. They value it and encourage creativity in the child and invite over their friends who can help the child learn what actually is important to learn in creativity. Whereas when you don't have that, you have to learn those lessons all on your own over the years. The nurture of creativity really gives a distinct advantage. But second, those people make connections and no one's career hits mass exposure without making connections and getting doors opened. But truly, there's more artists who get record deals because they happen to be in the right bar or date someone who passes on a record to their friend than almost any of this family bullshit that everybody's searching the internet for. And there's just as many artists who came from the middle of nowhere and had no connections and now their music's a big deal because they connected with people through the internet and algorithms that push out artists today. But if your problem is with the rich kids and the connected getting indoors, we could talk about that too. So let's get to everyone's favorite accusation of an industry plan, Billie Eilish. People love to pretend her parents are some LA movers and shakers who could pull off some secret music business coup to get her to be the biggest artist of the past few years. If you believe Billie Eilish's parents in that tiny house and their two minor IMDb listings was enough to get her signed, I would like to sell you a lot of things since you are clearly a mark for lots of stupid ideas. I mean, it's Los Angeles. There's someone with her parents' level of connections with a fucking kid who's an aspiring singer on every goddamn block. And when I say that, I actually kind of mean it. Since after watching the doc, I realized my friend with a kid who can't get a record deal lives mere blocks away from them. And that person's friends with one of the biggest record producers I know of, which brings me to another often accused industry plant, the 1975, who people love to call industry plants. Since singer Matt Healey's parents are famous actors and his mom hosts the equivalent of The View in England. But this theory lacks much rigor since the band had been together for a whole decade before their debut album was signed to a major label and they started to become a big deal. They were trying and putting out some of the worst songs I've ever heard. And with all the connections they had, they still couldn't get their kid a record deal. And you know why? Because their music sucked. I've heard those early demos and I love that band. They're my favorite band. But my God, did they suck? But when they finally got good after starting their own label, the music started connecting with people and they became the creative force that they are today. And listen, it can feel shitty watching Clara or Billie Eilish excel at such a young age. It feels crazy that they could be this good and why can't you be offered that? It hurts, but unfortunately life doesn't afford us all the same opportunities. And I do think we should work to a world where that happens more. But seriously, if we're going to be running around trying to solve the internet's greatest mysteries, can we figure out what's up with Avril Lavigne's body double? Where the singer of the Manic Street preachers has disappeared to? Or why every band that tries to sound like Crystal Castles is so bad at it? Now I get if you're a kid living in a rural area and you don't live where I live in the music business flooded Brooklyn where every time I go somewhere I meet someone new in the music business because they hear me having a conversation and they wanna butt in and talk about it. This can all seem like extremely unfair advantages since why do people get the privilege of where they were born? And honestly, fair point again. But this is also why you see so many people moved in New York, LA, Nashville, and Philly since that's where you get connections and it's way easier for people to hear you if you're talented and for you to build up connections that get you heard. Part of the problem is right now with the 60,000 songs being uploaded to Spotify every day, you need to get to the right ears and being in proximity to people who have platforms, well, that helps. And listen, I could see why some people would believe these conspiracy theories. After all, rich kids get tons of privileges and breaks in life, the rest of us don't. Like college admissions and quick ways into writers' rooms but popularity as one of the biggest music stars in the world doesn't come so easy and let me explain why. I'm not the only person who blabs about the music business who will tell you that the myths of manufactured virality are exactly that. A huge myth is not easy to achieve virality and boy do people swing and miss at it constantly that have huge budgets and trust me, if labels could do it all the time, they would. So the idea of industry plans hinges on that the labels can wander someone into the mainstream by making them viral. So why don't I explain this by showing you a little bit more of behind the curtain of the music business? Yes, top 40 radio is a construct of paola and favors, no doubt. But radio stations make most of their money by keeping people glued to their station since listeners have other choices of what to listen to. I mean, especially in New York City, there's three stations with basically the same playlist and you just tune to the other one if they're playing a trash song. So they need to really hone their playlist to get you to not switch the station. But let's say an established artist like Lorde comes out with a new song, radio stations of course have to play it. But if it gets a lot of station changes and people turn the dial elsewhere, guess what? That song's not gonna get played anymore. And that, my friends, is how you see artists who were huge and had a string of singles doing great have their career die. Yes, it can often die in the boardroom from lack of label support from the label, but many times, radio artists die on the premiere. And you can hear this as you hear a big artist's new song to spin for a week or two, and then like that, it disappears. So let's also remember this. When you're a major label artist, you get very little investment from the label at first. In fact, you'd kind of laugh at the budgets of many major label new signees and what they get for marketing and videos, since trust me, they are smaller than you'd imagine. But those big artists like I was just talking about with a string of radio hits can get money like a kid named Bryce from an affluent family with a business degree from Wharton and he wants a loan from a bank for something called Firefest or something. But even with all that money and might and whole staffs of powerful connected people behind them in the major label, when the song doesn't slap, their career gets that slap as they get smacked down a peg. So let's put aside the idea that major labels can buy virality or song popularity and move on to other dumb thoughts that litter the internet like jewel cartridges litter my subway stop. So let's talk about something that I actually do believe in. Industry plans are releasing mixtapes on fake DIY labels when they are really signed to a major label. But this is also a bit dumb. Artists have been faking DIY indie cred since at least the 90s. For those uninitiated, allow me to get you up to speed. An artist will sign what's called an upstream deal and basically signed to some indie label as a front and the major label will pay for tons of promotion for that artist for the indie record. And the major label then hopes they blow up from that indie record and then has the next record all set up to go. And there's all this hype around them as if it was all organic growth. This right here is where I can actually see the anger of the internet being a bit more legitimate. Since these days, it even comes in more strange forms. Where the artist releases a DIY release and really they have the playlist power of the major label who's pitching it and promoting it and putting all their best people around it. And they're pretending that this artist is at the level of all the other DIY artists. I mean, look, if this is what we're gonna call industry plants, sure, this is worthy of being called out but I also think there's a bit of context needed about this. First of all, this fails constantly and no one discusses it when it fails. I mean, just recently we were all subjected to what I like to think of as the night of a thousand cringes when we discovered who trans stamps are or were. I mean, hopefully it's over. Since apparently canceled songwriting king Dr. Luke's prescription songs was trying to make that fetch happen and the internet thankfully said, we're good, keep that over there. See, that industry plant got no water or sunlight and then it died. This is what happens all the damn time. People release these DIY things and they float it as a test draft to see if this artist will do well when it has some major label might behind it and people just go, nah, this is trash. And I'll tell you, as a real behind the scenes music business type of guy, my friends in the business are constantly telling me and sending me links and they'll send me a link because it's got all the right people behind it. And you know, this label's cloaking it because they want it to either seem more DIY than it is or they want to float the artist because they don't want it to tarnish their brand if it doesn't work. And I'm told to give it a listen. And then what I notice is they go nowhere. But we have to remember, this is more evidence that the people decide who gets big, not these dumb origin stories that only the most bored people on the internet care about since most of us just listen to a song and decide if it stops or not. I mean, for years, all we wanted was for artists to get big from their merit and without gatekeepers. I think we're getting closer to that than ever. And here's why I have a lot of grace for the artists who have these upstream deals and do a little bit of faking it to make it. The real fact is, is if you're a student of nearly any of the major artists that have happened, they've all had a fake it to make it moment or some bluster where they've gotten a boost from an unseen hand. And it's great to talk about those unseen hands as we should understand them and put them in context. But the motion that this makes someone an industry plan and their career is invalid is just so fucking dumb. The padding of numbers and the business part of selling artists and trying to embellish their stories is part of the background in nearly every artist's growth. And if you wanna cancel people for that, we're gonna have to cancel all your faves. I mean, let's remember, our last president, you know, the former game show host, he literally paid extras to attend his campaign launch to bolster the numbers and then ended up the most powerful person in the free world. Okay, I think I've made my point. So we can try to be a little bit more thoughtful about the canceling and accusations hurled around the internet about this stupid industry plant thing. I know, probably not. I could see some of you reaching for the comments. And trust me, when you say I'm the plant, you're not witty. You're just being a contrarian and trying to save face since you've been engaging in a really stupid conversation with all of your time for the past year. And trust me, if I was a plant, this channel would be a lot more popular and I know how to work this camera and the teleprompter better. Thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, please. The only way us poor lowly YouTubers are rewarded on this platform is if you share it with your friends and talk to them about the conversation I just had with you. Obviously, please like, subscribe, and get notified for this channel. Also, on this channel, we mostly discuss how to grow your fan base from zero to 10,000 fans. So if you're trying to do that, please subscribe and click the playlist that's on the screen now on that subject. As well on the screen now, I have playlists on how to get your music noticed and how to blow up on Spotify. Thanks so much for watching.