 So the other day I was scrolling on instagram looking at one of those music accounts It was either our generation music or say cheese one of them one of those popular rap accounts and I saw the infamous comment And you know what comment I'm talking about Hey guys, I'm a 15 year old rapper from Idaho My dog has leukemia and it would really help me out if you guys could check out my soundcloud That that really exaggerated self promo comment That's in every single comment on every single music page And I would like to preface this by saying I hate those spam comments. I'm not gonna lie to you I think they suck. I hate it so much. But it got me thinking What would I do if I was a 15 year old rapper? Like if I could go back in time and turn back into 15 year old corey and 15 year old corey wanting to be a rapper What would he do? Like what would he do to get himself and his music popping? So that's what today's video is going to be about what I would do if I was a 15 year old rapper What's going on, my name is corey I am a music marketer co-founder country brand and I'm here to give you some tips tricks hacks and everything in between That you can use to get your music popping and finally get you some fans Now today's episode is about what I would do if I was a 15 year old rapper And once again, this video was inspired by Comment sections everywhere. We've all seen it. We've all seen the spam posts of a 13 year old rapper A 15 year old rapper or whatever whatever your old rapper from wherever Trying to get that music popping by spamming in the comments and why I personally think that is the absolute worst method you can do Understand it. I get it. You just don't know any better. You don't know what to do So today's video is going to be about what I would do if I was a 15 year old rapper Trying to get my music heard and trying to get to a point So I'm actually kind of lit and I have fans and all that stuff going on And I guess that the tips in this video Don't really just apply to only 15 year old rappers like a 17 year old rapper could do it A 30 year old rapper who just started today could learn from these same tips Anyone could really benefit from this video But this is for all of you 13 to 17 year old rappers out there who post those comments every single day Don't ever say I do nothing for you But before we get into all that come and follow me on instagram and tiktok link will be in the description below Come talk to me come engage with me come give me some video ideas All that good stuff. You know what they've been said? Let's go ahead and get into it So before we get into the tips in the walkthrough Let's set the rules of this universe because there has to be rules for this make believe world Well, I'm suddenly 15 years old again, and I want to be a rapper. So first rule of the universe is I'm not rich I'm going to assume that I am your everyday Random meal broke teenager. You know, I'm not a trust fund, baby. I'm not like this rich youtuber I'm just your everyday youtuber trying to figure out how to get bread. You know what I'm saying Second rule of the universe is I am not well connected in this scenario So my dad isn't a label owner. My best friend isn't a rapper My mom isn't an influencer. Nothing crazy like that. That would give me an edge Once again, we're going to assume that I'm your everyday random the wheel None connected none paid teenager the next rule of this universe is that I somehow know everything that I know today You know, it has to be that way. I'm sorry. I know it doesn't make sense But we're going to assume that 15 year old kory knows what 28 year old kory knows today cool cool And the last rule of this universe is that I have somehow figured out how to make music And I say this because every time I see those comments, the people are always like, yo, go check out my sound cloud Go check out my sound cloud. So I'm going to assume they figure out how to make music somehow So me in this scenario has also figured out how to make music. Maybe I have a big brother that wraps Maybe my friend of the street makes music. Maybe I have like a teacher in high school who believes in me It gives me access to the studio. I don't know, you know what I'm saying But we're going to assume that in this scenario, I have figured out how to make music And now I'm now moving into the fact is what I'm just trying to figure out how to get people to hear that music And get that music lit. Are we cool with that? Are we clear on the rules of the universe? All right, bet. Let's get into it So the first thing that I would do in this scenario is I will make a sound cloud account a youtube account And the audio map account the reason I will make accounts for these three platforms is because they're free You don't have to spend money putting your music on any of these platforms And it's a great way to start being able to get used to dsp's and Uploading music through dsp's and going through that process of getting a cover are uploaded making sure things meet certain requirements Having the right files to upload all that cool stuff that you're going to need When you're moving down the line and jumping into the big boy leads of Spotify and Apple music Um, but these platforms still give you practice and they still give you a way to get your music heard Without having to spend any of their precious money that you probably don't have and if you know of other free platforms that you like I know band camp is a pretty popular option. I'm sure there's others out that I may not know of You know, the big thing that you're looking for in this stage Is creating a place for you to be able to host your music And then once again just getting familiar with the process of uploading your music to a dsp or to a platform in general The next thing that I would do is I will find communities and groups that I can use to post my music in and get real time feedback I'm talking about reddit threads. I'm talking about facebook groups I'm talking about discord groups and any other community or thread thing that you can think of In between now the goal of this stage is to one get you comfortable with presenting your music to people One thing I've noticed with a lot of artists and really young artists But I'll say artists in general is that sometimes you hold yourself back because you're scared to show your music with other people And once again, I see this very common in artists that just really started putting their music out They're not used to people like prying on them and looking at them and themselves being the center of attention And sometimes just with music being such a personal thing, you know, it's art Some people don't like to share that and they're not comfortable with sharing that But if you're going to be an artist full-time you want to be an artist as a job That's one of the first things you have to get over Like you have to become perfectly fine with presenting your music to the world Having people judge you having people judge your art your emotions your thoughts all that stuff You got to be okay with it or you won't be able to survive So this is a very risk-free way to do that because a lot of these communities a lot of these reddit groups and threads And forums and things there are people in there who will listen to your music There are people in there who would give you very honest feedback Best case scenario is your music is dope and you get a real fan out of it worst case scenario Somebody doesn't like it and they give you some feedback. Yo, it sucks. It'd be cool if you fix this about your mic Boom, they know what you gotta get fixed. Yo, this is cool But I think it'll have been a lot better if you did this here Now you have something to think about in terms of being flexible with your production style In the way you do things, you know, um and the great thing about these communities is they're usually free like most big Uh Most platforms have some type of group on it. Once again, facebook has facebook groups reddit has their own threads Their own forums And I've learned that a lot of big creators and a lot of big platforms seem to have a discord group and you know A lot of times they have rooms in there where people can post their music So this is what I would do, right? I figured out how to make music I've now put this music on these free platforms youtube soundcloud audio mac And now i'm sharing my music to these threads and to these forums Getting real time feedback while also getting myself over the fear of putting my music out and getting judged by people for it The next thing that I would start doing is Researching how to build a brand now you can do this while you're doing the other stuff Perfecting your sound perfecting your craft getting that feedback from the groups all that stuff Something I've noticed uh that seems to be hard for a lot of artists is the whole process of brand building Now in this stage, I don't think you necessarily need to start building a brand because you're still working on the technical aspects Of your craft you're still figuring some things out But in this stage you should at least start to think ahead to what your brand could possibly be Now I also want to preface this by saying that a brand is ever changing It's always evolving and who you want to be at 15 could be completely different than who you want to be when you turn 21 25 30 and so on But if you're thinking about it and you at least start to look into things like what constitutes a brand How are artists putting their brands out? How are artists defining their brands? How can I start to define my brand and figure out what I want that to be? If you can at least start to think about those things and start to jot that down put it on paper and get the gears turning Then whenever you're at a point where you are ready to start brand building and you're ready to take that seriously You will already have a leg up because you at least have an idea of how you want to move on it And you probably restart some examples and ways to get it done by the time you're at that point So once again once you're at this stage where you're sharing your music You don't have to actively be building a brand yet You haven't fully jumped into the race yet, but at least think about it think about it No, think about how you want to build your brand. Look at artists whose brands you like And see what things you can emulate and kind of build around yourself Do research literally google or youtube how to build a brand Look at all the information that's around brand building whether it be for artists individuals Influences of businesses that all counts it all asked to the ask to the information bank Either way, I at least want you thinking about it once you hit this stage Or at least I will be thinking about it once 15 year old Corey hits this stage So the next thing I would do right. I figure out how to make music. I put my music online I'm getting over that fear of sharing my music and having people judge it. I'm posting in these groups I'm starting to form an idea of how will my brand to be and how I want to look What's the next thing that 15 year old Corey is going to do right the next thing that he's going to do Is figure out how to make money now This is the hard part. This is the part where I can't 100% give you an answer But the truth of the matter is that things in the music industry do cost money Um, so I'm assuming that once you've made it to this stage You're at a point where maybe you do like the quality of your music And you're ready to put it on dsp's like Spotify like apple Like title and really get in the game where it costs money to put stuff on those platforms You need money to use a distributor like a tune court or a distro kid And you need money for other things like paying for beats and paying for cover arts and Just doing other little things around your artistry that requires a few bucks to be spent, you know, I'm saying Now like I said, I can't 100% Tell you what to do in this situation. I've seen artists make money all types of ways I've seen young artists make all types of ways some ways. I can't talk about on this platform They did what they had to do, you know, I'm saying so wherever you are in your space Whatever resources you have available, you have to cut some neighbor's yards You have to if you have to sell lemonade if you gotta learn how to flip cryptocurrency Whatever you have to do Around this stage is when I would at least start trying to figure out how I can make a couple of bucks And I know it's not easy for a 15 year old everywhere to get a job But at least start trying to figure out you know what can you do to make some money and put a little bit Bread in your pocket so you can move forward to the next things that are going to help you Take your music career to the next level and make people look at you seriously It's also around this time that I would start doing research into things like publishing Things like distribution things like royalties and how certain stuff gets paid out Now the process of educating yourself about the music business is another ongoing process It takes a lot. There's a lot of intricacies that you have to learn about Very small pieces of the industry and all of that Shit will have a major impact on you if you don't learn it, you know Um And I don't say it to scare you because I do understand that you're not going to learn everything about the music industry in a year You're not going to learn everything about the music industry in five years You know I'm saying just to be real with you But I think that one of the first things that artists should start learning about Is how publishing works and distribution works and royalties and all those things work because that directly affects how you make money You are now learning what it means to be a professional music artist And what are the ways that music artists make money in general, you know, so I'm not the guy to teach you that I have an interview with my guy david I'll link it in the description below We talk about publishing stuff and I'll probably bring another person on the platform at some point to talk about it But definitely at this phase That's what 15 year old car will be doing I would start researching publishing and all the little ways that artists make money And all the little intricacies of how artists need to set those things up so they can make sure they're protected And they're in the right and they're getting paid so the way when you're ready to move into the big spaces You will get all of your monies Because who doesn't want all of their money So once you've got that figured out right you're doing your research in the publishing you've researched your distributors You probably picked the distributor that you want to use and you've now figured out how to make some money The next step I would do would be to put my music out on our platform spotify apple music YouTube music every single platform. Um by this point You should have been getting a good amount of feedback from those forums You've been posting in and you should have a good handful of songs that you think are worth being put on the platforms I'm ready for you to get into the big leagues if you're not Staying those steps that I talked about before until you're ready to move into this step But that is the next step because having your music on a major dsp A major dsp in general is how you get into the game for real when your music is only on soundcloud And youtube and audio mac. That's cool for a time being that's cool When you're in the mode of when you got to do what you got to do But I can tell you as a music industry professional I do not trust any artist that only has a soundcloud link in their bio I nearly don't take you seriously because I'm like, yo If you were not willing to pay the x amount of dollars to put your music on spotify apple And all these things that you need to be on as a music artist I just already don't take you seriously. I already don't think you take it seriously So if you are an artist who is trying to be taken seriously Who wants to be looked at as a professional who is looking to make it as a professional music artist You're gonna have to put your music on major dsp People judge you about that you know what i'm saying So that will literally be my next step here will be to sign up for distributor Whether that be tunecore this show kid a wall whatever you have connections to united masters all that stuff And then start to put my music out and figure out how I can put music out consistently On these dsp's and start building up a catalog. This is what russ always talks about This is what any artist who is really trying to help you would tell you all about you know Building up catalog releasing music consistently and stacking your content on these dsp's that will be 15 year old cori's next step once he makes it to here Now once i'm good in that direction right music made over the fear of putting music out I got my music on platforms. It's on apple. It's on spotify. It's on youtube music It's on deezer. You know what i'm saying? I don't figure out how to make a bag I'm cutting the grass four times a week. You know what i'm saying? I don't know in my neighborhood making a cool little little amount of change So I can afford to put my music out. I'm in a good space. I'm here. I'm with it. I'm happy things are moving What should you do next or what would 15 year old cori do next right? This is the part where I think that if you are serious about trying to grow as a music artist This is where things kind of get serious and things kind of get real The next step that I would do is I would start to figure out my content strategy and how i'm trying to grow Because at this point i'm going to assume that you know what i'm saying? You still you may have figured out how to get money to put your music on the dsp's But you're probably not balling you're not ready to be spending money on the publicist and a marketing agency And all these other things that you will need at some point, but you're not there yet You know, but you still want to grow and you still want to get fans You still want people to listen to all this music that you pay to put out So what I would do is I would figure out my content marketing strategy I would go out and do my research on all of the social media platforms twitter instagram tiktok youtube twitch Triller all of them do your research and then determine What two or three platforms do you think you would like to grow your fan base on and grow your platform on? And once you have decided what those two or three platforms are going to be I want you to do as much research into those platforms as you can Determine what type of content does well on those platforms? How is content being found organically are people using hashtags that are using certain keywords? Like how are people finding content organically and then figure out how you can create content consistently on those platforms and stay active And the reason I want you to start here is because a strong content strategy Will get you further than the people who are just throwing money into everything And unless they spend like a couple hundred thousands and really really big bucks Um the strong content strategy will always be money And the thing about being an artist is that you're never not going to need a strong content strategy Like being a music artist and wanting to do it professionally is you deciding that you want to be a professional content creator So if you get a start on that now By the time you start to get to a point to where you are pretty serious You are starting to gain a really solid fan base You'll already be over that hurdle. You'll be comfortable making content. You'll have ideas You'll have a process you'll start thinking of stuff You'll see the world a little bit differently than most artists would see it and that will give you a leg up and an advantage And if the content is actually good and you've done your research And you've learned how to push this content out the right way on these individual platforms You will start to gain fans now At least fans of your content right and then as these people are coming in That will give you the ability to practice building community They will give you the ability to practice talking to your fans and learning how to engage with them and how to How to speak to them in their language And then they will also give you the ability to practice pushing people over from one social platform over to your music and to your dsp So that's why I always always always recommend every artist start here pick two or three platforms Learn everything you need to know about those platforms how those platforms work What type of content circulates what do people like to see and then start creating content get active with your content creation And use that as an opportunity once again to build community and learn how to push people over to your music Because if you figure it out and you get to a point to where you're doing it Well, you will get a lot of free traffic and if everything is good You will start to be building fans around yourself in your music and be doing it for completely free And the last thing that 15 year old car would do at least at this point, right? You made music gotten over your fear putting the music out you have it on some platforms start making some money Music is on all dsp. You look legit. You got a brand. You're thinking about your brand Maybe at this point you're acting on the brand because now you're putting out content. What would you do last? Well, you have all the pieces set up to really be in the game So now what I would suggest you start doing is One learning about other parts of the music industry that you don't feel well versed in seeking out Mentors and people who can help you learn these things that you don't feel like you're strong in And then also this is where you should start to learn about music marketing Things like facebook advertising things about influencer marketing things like I don't know Gorilla style marketing things that you can use to help push your content to another level Push your music to another level and bring in more fans, right? Because the game that you're going to be playing the game that you're now playing is a game of Not only maintaining the fan base that you have built but also figuring out how to bring new people into the mix And the reason I put this step last is because If you try to market before you cross a lot of these steps, you're going to waste a lot of money And you're going to be sad and depressed and butthurt That's just the truth. That's just how it is. But if you have music out You've gotten a little bit of a feedback, you know saying to improve some quality things You know, you have a brand that you're thinking on that you're building and you're executing on You have a content strategy that you've been working on before you had money Now when you throw marketing into the mix you go pay a marketing agency or you run your own facebook ads Your own run youtube or youtube ads or you get influences to shout you out All that stuff is just going to work a hundred times better because now you have a system set in place And you have stuff for those people to actually go through now You will be ahead of 99% of music artists and definitely those music artists who are in the comments saying Yo, i'm a 13 year old rapper. My dog has leukemia. I'm from Idaho Can you check my music out? And when you're ready to learn marketing come back here come watch some videos Check us out. Check out all the other dope youtube creators who talk about music marketing read some books Look at look at some podcasts, you know saying everything like you should be doing Any and everything to learn as much about marketing as you can because if you have the ability to create good music You have the ability to create good content You understand fan engagement and you know how to market or have someone around you that knows how to market You will grow as a music artist You will gain fans and at that point it's just a matter of patience and hopefully through all of this No, this whole process of doing all this you have built up some type of patience because Let's be real. You're not doing all this in a day. You're not doing all this in a week This is gonna take you a couple months at least like minimum You know saying and that depends on so many other things So there it is guys That is what I would do if I was a 15 year old rapper who was trying to get my music lit Now once again, I know this advice doesn't just apply to only 13 year olds 15 year olds Whatever this really could apply to anyone who is looking to start a music career and doesn't know where they need to get started So do these things Walk through this list like I talked about and you will be good, you know, like you'll be straight Once again, if the music is good the content is good. The hustle is there It's just a matter of patience. Keep me ahead up You know saying and moving forward figuring out how to stay smart get smarter and work harder than everybody else Now with that being said if you feel like you learned anything today, please like and share this video Hit those post notifications as well as I wouldn't want you guys to miss anything. Once again, my name is kory and I'll see y'all next time