 Artists thrive off of attention. Their entire careers depend on it. Whether it's getting the attention of fans, whether it's getting attention so you can have a manager, a label, distributor, booking agent, PR, people don't talk about that side enough. So we're gonna talk about not the how do you build your fan base, but how do you build your industry fan base, right? So you can have that support system. And to kick this conversation off, the Atlantic Records president of A&R revealed how to get noticed by major labels. That's gonna kick it off. I don't think you'll like his answer, but we'll see. But we're gonna use this to spark off a conversation on the things that you can do specifically and why you should move specifically in a way that's gonna give you the super team that you want. Let's get into another episode of No Labors Necessary. Check this clip out. I think I've always said this and I think it's still true. The best way to get a record deal is to not try to get a record deal. Focus that energy on making amazing music. And now more than ever, there is an opportunity for you to have your music heard by more people than ever in the modern era of making music. Like you were saying, T-Bone was saying. With so much music out there, people are going to respond to things that are great. And if you really hone your craft and you really work on making sure that your music is great and that you're out there wherever you are, connecting with an audience on a local level, chances are that it can then boomerang with some help from labels like Atlantic to be able to take what you're doing on a micro level and push it on a macro level. With when we first signed 21 pilots. All right, we're gonna cut off the rest of it because he starts using some examples that are very old and my lujo, right? They just don't necessarily apply today. But the reality is, try not to get signed is this pretty solid strategy. Or more importantly, not trying to get signed, right? So not actively saying I don't wanna get signed but just actually not spending your energy on not trying to get signed. Now why is this? We'll get into a few things, right? But ultimately it starts here. You are a business, whether you like it or not. And they are investing in a business, right? Now you can be as lean as a business as you want to. You can have as much going on and have as much complexity as you want to, right? You can be a small business, you can try to be a large business, whatever that looks like, right? Taylor Swift is responsible for like $5 billion in GDP this year, right? So you can aim to be something like that, all right? And have that impact on countries and states and cities when you visit. Either way it goes, if you're starting out, right? You're starting small. If you're not trying to get signed, that means hopefully you're paying attention to building your business. And if you build your business, if a label comes, cool. If a label doesn't come, cool. Either way it goes, you're good. That's what I love about the not trying to get signed strategy. That's why we saw no labels necessary, necessary. Cool. If a label is there, great. If they give you the right deal, it's the right terms that make sense for you and your life. But if it doesn't, keep on pushing, you weren't relying on them anywhere. Stop what you're doing. We gotta interrupt you to let you know you can win $20,000 by submitting your music to tulost.com slash collab for the crown. We're looking for the best songs and we're partnering with Tulost. So if you think you got some great music, if you think you got the goods, go to that site, tulost.com slash collab for the crown, check out the instructions for the contest, win up to $20,000 and make sure you put in no label when you create your profile on Tulost so you can make sure you get three months completely free. That's tulost.com slash collab for the crown. And again, when you sign up, put in the code, no label, all one word, and you will get three months completely free. Go win that $20,000 because you know you got the goods, you got the talent, you just gotta make sure you submit. Peace. Because it sounds like what he's trying to say is the best way to get our attention is to go do all the other things you need to do anyway. And if you are doing that right and it's resonating with people, we will come along. And when I think about scenarios where I knew an artist pre being signed, that honestly was nine times out of 10 exactly how it went. They weren't necessarily looking to get signed or at least they never brought up to me that was a goal. They were just kind of like doing their thing, progressing in different areas of their career. And then one day something sparked and then they got 10 different labels knocking on the door. Like nine out of 10 situations I can think of went exactly like that. And I get it man, artists what they have to think about is artists can be relentless for good and bad sometimes. And so the artists that I have met that obsess over being signed by a label almost do it to their own detriment. No, they do it to their own detriment for sure. You're hurting yourself. You're trying to look pretty for this dude. You know what I mean? They don't care about you, not his type anyway. You know what I mean? The artists I've ran into are like, I don't know like label showcases or just random industry events. You know, you'll be like that. You're like that. How you getting here? You know what I'm saying? You'll think about it. You'll be like, why are you here? Like shouldn't you be working on some stuff? You know, and I'm not talking about artists that maybe have things to show have momentum or success. I'm talking about like real deal, like six monthly listeners, two songs out in last three years, motherfuckers working the room. You know what I'm saying? Talking to every A and R or industry person in there. And you know, I'm sure they feel like they're working. Yeah. You know, the energy is being spent. They're gonna be tired when they get home. Like they worked. But the reality is that they're working in an unproductive manner because you don't have what they're looking for. And you're not spending that time working on the things that they're looking for. You're spending that time trying to bypass that, thinking that the relationship aspect might allow you to skip all that. And that's what I don't like about the artists that are label sign driven. Is they look at it as like, oh, this is going to allow me to skip all those steps. And it won't. They feel like us keep telling me I gotta do. Bro, let's keep it real here, bro. Like, cause he said something great that I feel like every artist should love to hear. One, he said, focus on the music. All right, create great music. It'll stand out in this saturated space. Beautiful statement. Artist, I know y'all should love to hear that, right? We'll be gonna put that to the side for the moment. All right, I'm gonna get to that. You're an artist with six monthly listeners, as you said. Hard six. And let's say you have a nice little month. You get to 500 monthly listeners. I want to give benefit of that. I want to show some growth. Okay, all right. Now you meet these people, most of these people, I'm gonna keep it real with you. Not only are you not what they're looking for at the moment, the reality is they can't do anything for you right now in multiple ways. And I want to break this down. Wow, what's up? It's Brand Man Sean. And if you liked this clip, you can listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you stream your podcast. But if you want to keep watching, we've placed a video that will be so useful for you conveniently above. Go ahead and click that link.