 Alright. Alright, looks like we're working. Okay, y'all, can you hear me and see me? Technology, it's horrible. Great, okay. Thank you guys. You know, the funny thing is, is I run a live stream studio all day, and yet I've never done this before for myself, and yet I use everyone else's software, and then I can do it fine. Anyway, so what am I going to be doing here today? I want to start every week talking about the music business and getting into some things where we discuss, I guess, like, what's the way to say it? I want to start talking about how we view the music business through the eyes of musicians who are aspiring and getting exploited. So I want to start talking about issues and then talking about how we change the music business so it's more friendly to artists, and I also think there's some knowledge of power that a lot of the questions I get asked are oftentimes not very informed about how things actually work, so I want to start correcting that. So, I thought it would be fun to first talk about this. Now, I think the big news of the week, obviously if you watch some of my videos, was that Spotify put out a lot of data. That is, let's say this, not looking so bad for musicians the way that they often talk about it. So, here's what I mean by that. One of the things I saw the most when I look through my comments is that musicians see that 60,000 songs uploaded to Spotify, a day number, and they're like, oh, what the hell, I'm never going to have a shot. So now we see that number is 23,000. Then we see with this article I have here on the screen right now that that number is much, much lower because really 80% of the songs are not getting very many streams. So, I wanted to talk about the implications of that because I think one of the things that makes me depressed is about for musicians is that in all honesty, I think we're in the best time we've ever been for the music business. I think that in all reality, people hate when I say this, but it's never been easier to be a musician now and people hate that because of social media. But what I think about because I'm old as dirt is that, you know, fliering, putting mailing list stickers on mailing lists, there's all these things you don't have to waste time on and what I'm convinced even more than if we just go five years ago is there's less things you have to think about and most of them are more creative than ever. Now, I know when I say this, people get very, very, very mad at me about this oftentimes, but truly, like these Spotify numbers were an emboldening to me because 23,000 songs uploaded a day to Spotify across the whole world in all the genres of music that are made. It's really not that bad and if there's a thing I'm convinced of is that we all look at things and we see a mountain when there's usually a molehill. A lot of the time, like when I tell people they have to start on TikTok, whether it's the barista at my favorite coffee shop to the people I consult with, they're really freaked out about how much work it's going to be and in all reality, like it is work it is studying and there's more work at the top of it. I talk a lot about the pain point that before things start going well, you have to do so much stuff and it feels painful, but then when things are going well, you're getting emboldened because the people are liking it and it's going well. What I also really believe is people look at these numbers and they think that it's just statistically impossible, but really, I do believe that, like, I spent 25 years now around artists who've done well for themselves and the common things are is they see what the game for what it is, they learn the rules of the game and then they play by them and then it works out if they're making music people like. So when I saw these Spotify numbers, which really are like crazy, like, you know, particularly the ones I really picked out on TikTok were some 38.69 million tracks on Spotify have been played more than 500 times to date. So to me, across all genres in the whole world, that seems pretty damn great and I don't think that this is like the worst thing. You know, I really think one of the things musicians get in their heads about so much is like they look at numbers, they get a thought in their head and then they fixate on that thought, on this data and then they tell themselves things are going to be bad when really what you have to tell yourself and like, I live this with my YouTube channel every week is that all you can do is make sure you're doing things and doing the work that you think is good. You have to first make yourself happy, make yourself believe in it and then after that, what you have to do is then just do all the things you're supposed to do and put it out there because no one can determine whether the world's going to respond well to it at all but you have to just do the work and know that you understand the work that is to be done and not think about external forces. Obviously, you should observe external forces for when they're changing and when things are going bad but at the same time, what you have to do is you have to keep your eyes on I'm doing the right work. I'm making music I want to hear, music that I think is as emotionally powerful as I can make it. And then two, like after that, how do I promote it? What is the best way to promote it? Am I doing justice to my music and doing it? So all that is to say, I kind of think now that we have some numbers, we have some clarity, it's go forth, be free and work, my friends. I want to read what some of you all are saying for a second. Yeah, I like a lot of what's been saying, being said in here. Okay, so let's get into the next thing that I wanted to talk about. So this really, really great article in Billboard this week. If you don't pay for Billboard Pro, well, you can't read it but I wanted to read a bit from this. It's called, should today's artist managers get more than 20%? Now, since I know some of you are a little green in the business, I want you to understand too that most managers do not get 20% and that is the highest end figure you usually ever hear. So that I should always start these things by saying, I write headlines for a living to get clicks. You got to do things like this that misrepresent the truth a little, sometimes to get people to jump the curiosity gap. But let's also remember, 20% is not what most people should be taking it. If a manager is asking you for 20%, unless they're representing some of the most top-tier town in the world and they're scooping you up while you have 10-monthly listeners, you should not be saying yes to that. All right, so let's talk about this article. I'm going to read a little bit from it. So the article kind of starts off talking about this guy, Ryan Chisholm, growing up watching his father, Kevin, manage Carlos Santana, who consistently toured six months out of the year. My dad was constantly on the phone with their agent, routing things and dealing with promoters. His job was less about dealing with record labels, marketing and music videos. Yet again, going back to my previous point and the other one, I think there's less to be done today than ever. But interestingly, this article will take a different turn on that. Chisholm followed in his father's footsteps entering the music industry as a manager in 2006. He currently works with Mike Posner, known for the club hit I Took a Pill and Ibiza, as well as Ty Verdes. If you don't know what Ty Verdes is, he's a great story on my favorite podcast, Switched on Pop, where they talk about how he made his music popular on TikTok, which if you haven't listened to that episode, I highly encourage you to listen to that. Anyway, today we're asking artists to do all the stuff outside of creating music. We're asking them to be influencers, content creators and models, says Chisholm. Never have we had to ask artists to do so much and be so engaged on a daily basis. Now, I have a little bit of bone to pick with this part of it. Never have we had to ask artists to do so much. Don't quite agree. I think most artists on the rise in even 10 years ago had to do more than you do today. But what I also will say is and be so engaged on a daily basis. Now that's the truth, which is that I think man, having time off being an artist these days in the content world, that is a really hard thing to balance because you lose engagement so fast when you take a break, and that I feel a lot for musicians. Anyway, so he says managers are basically being pushed to become content companies. Now, this is 100% true and one of the things I have to explain to people a lot about the music business is they're like, I want a record deal and it's like, that's not going to answer all the problems you think it's going to answer because in all reality, what I see of anybody I work with is that the management and the artist are really driving it and then the record label is pouring a little extra gas on it. What I really, really think happens a lot of the time is that people think that like, the record label is going to help with your Instagram posts and yes, they'll pay for your music video a lot of the time but really there may suggest a director or two, but they're not going to be in a brainstorming session a lot of the time trying to think of what's the best music video for you and it's true that managers are the people who have to do this stuff. So let me read from this again. His experience is hardly unique over a dozen of his peers echoed the sentiment that managers are doing more than ever to support their acts even as the management role has expanded into new areas like TikTok marketing and the metaverse, most managers are still paid according to the traditional commission based compensation model which typically grants them 15 or 20% cut of their RS earnings but leaves them with little long term security. So this is also to say we should explain this. Often with a manager, if you think of it this way, is like if you break up with the manager there's this thing called a sunset clause where they get paid for 6, 12, 18 months afterwards since so much of what you're doing as a manager is often setting up the success for the future. So that's been one of the most common things. So this is a little bit of this article is a little bit of an approach to how we change that. It's not sustainable says one manager who requested anonymity to avoid upsetting his clients smart person. We're at a real turning point with how present that is. They are the ones that take the most risk in the beginning and they're often the first team member. It says Alina Aubery who manages Keelokish and Empress of. Keelokish I might say too. Those of you looking how to do really good visualizers and lyric videos, her last record that just came out like a month maybe or so ago is a master class in great content on YouTube. But the same time since the profession is so high touch she says the ability of managers to expand their business is limited often requiring them to put all their eggs in a few baskets. So then the other thing is that managers are the easiest person to fire according to Monet Perry, a veteran at Rock Nation and RCA. Management contracts are notoriously easy to get off. Now this is so much so that a lot of people don't even bother signing management contracts. They basically give the artists a like what's called a deal memo but I know so many of my friends in huge bands where it is basically a handshake deal because management contracts are literally like I don't want to work with you anymore and that's that. And you know enforcing getting that sunset clause I mean I'll be honest like not going to name any names but I've been owed thousands upon thousands of dollars from some of my sunset clauses and I didn't really fight it because it's too much of a headache to get the money and I don't want to sue the bands that were my friends. So it says we could be building the house with the artists and they could say get the fuck out of my house. All totally true. So to get to the meat of this article everyone knows the management is so disposable. Give the manager some security a steadier place in the business overall. Everyone is so scared of getting canned that they don't speak up about this. Some of the more progressive artists if they really want to grow their business they're furthering their relationship beyond the traditional commission. Some artists have partnered with managers on certain revenue streams including investing in clothing lines and liquor companies. So now this is the thing as success happens a lot is that the manager is like yeah if we're doing a clothing company outside of this I got to get cut into that business. If we're going to be making your hot sauce and that's going to be a big part of this we got to do that. That's a very common thing and you know does then also get you buying because usually if you're filing the LLC then the managers can be a part of that and it's going to be much harder to break up. Anyway all this is to say and I want to get to this part of it which is that really what they're talking about here is that for those of you who are less business minded there's this term equity. So equity if you're in a startup is the idea that you now have this much of the company and a lot of the time what will happen is over the years you will get an increase in that over time or there's like these stock-vesting concepts where like after you're at Facebook for four years let's say you get a certain amount of shares of the company so that that way you're one incentivized to stay at the company and not just bounce from job to job because tech has high turnover. So a lot of people are saying that give the manager a little bit of equity for the rest of the RS life. So I you know try to see things from two sides. One if I'm being honest I think a lot of managers I know are worthless, they're bad they're lazy, they're terrible but two you know I've managed successful groups that have screwed me over I do see this as a thing. I think the equity thing is very interesting because it would protect managers and make them one want to not you know if you think this way a lot of managers have to think about that when they're getting that 15% let's say they're having to take five of that and save it for when they get can't. So my like thing would be is that equity would give that but maybe the equity should sunset at certain points. The thing about equity is that's in the LLC or whatever you form your business and it's not disputable you have to pay that by law or you get sued. These sunset contracts they're pretty easily disputed and trust me like courts are not filled with people fighting over management contracts is so rare when you hear about that so you get it with some of the larger artists who like when they first break and they really get a hit on a major label they'll like part with that manager and maybe that manager will sue because they're bitter but really compared to how many artists have managers and how many break up the ratio of how many lawsuits they're there it's not really a thing. So all this to say I think one of the things and this also gets into the NFT thing that while I'm pretty skeptical about where we're at with some of the NFTs right now I really really do think like one of the best things about NFTs is you're able to sell somebody something that's going to keep worth if the artist keeps growing and that's the best thing about NFTs like let's say you're selling in your contract you say this is my logo for 2022 as an artist and I'm only selling one copy of this and it's to you the person who invests $10,000 in me well they have a way to have something of worth I had the 2022 NFT of this artist when I think that they're at their peak and they're starting to die I could sell that to somebody for however much they grew and make it end the artist if they have it in their contract gets a cut of that so that is the nice thing that I think is going to be really good is the NFTs are a way more solid way to give investors and people who put time into an artist a thing of value that really can be sold again I mean as long as you know you don't lose the Instagram account like Board Ape and you know lose millions upon millions of dollars of income but that's a whole different story to comment on alright I'm going to sip some water and then I'm going to move to the next subject okay let me get this nice in the view alright there is the cursed article we will be discussing so T-Bone Burnett so if you're not familiar with T-Bone Burnett he is who did the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack he does lots of blue grassy Americana things you know you hear I am a man of Constance Sotaro boys whatever you know we can thank this man but so here's my thing he has come out with the pinnacle of recorded sound that him and Bob Dylan did some development on and so basically what it is is a new analog audio format that basically seems to improve on existing formats like vinyl it's called an iconic original and he says not only is an Ionic original the equivalent of a painting it is a painting is lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc with a spiral etched into it by music this painting however has the additional quality of containing that music which can be heard by putting a stylus into the spiral and spinning it now I'm of two minds with what I just heard here Derek we are roasting for sure what do you call it my first mind here is that one when you're the inventor CEO or the spokesperson for a product you really got to talk a big game I've told you all this about your music that like you must really learn to sell it you got to really learn what's great about you and how to sell it I think I said it in one of my videos that like my friend Ben Weinman from Dillinger Escape Plan once told me that the main job of a manager is being a person who can sell and convert people to get on to the team and be like yes I should give this person an opportunity and when he said that I didn't believe him but then as my years went on in the music business I realized Ben's a very smart guy and knows what he's talking about so anyway here is really selling some bullshit so it's one I mean I'll get into some of the bullshit but like come on my dude this is a painting like let's look at this fucking thing I'm not hanging in that in my fucking house anytime soon like come on guy like album artwork vinyl sure I mean I got a gold record in back of me it's beautiful I got a poster of break-ins over there I got a 25 poster right here I'm going to put art up but that my guy come on not a thing but let's move on because there is more interesting things in here when describing the quality that raises analog sound above digital sound the word warmth is often used that's an understatement analog sound has more depth more harmonic complexity more resonance better imaging analog has more feel more character more touch digital sound is frozen analog sound is alive oh man alright alright T-bone first off we got to get it with it analog sound is more depth so here's the problem if you're using analog as a medium unless he's done something new and no analog medium that did right now has technically more depth than a 24-bit piece of audio vinyl does not have the resolution to do that more harmonic complexity now harmonic complexity is an interesting word here because really what harmonic complexity means is distortion and so for that you'd be right but here's the problem when you're talking about a sound format you want it to not distort more than the original creator chose it this is really one of the things that we're all trying to get to translate I can remember mixing for radio back in the day and we'd have to think about like well radio is going to put a little bit more distortion on it and you'd sometimes get a whole different mix and master just for how much distortion radio adds because you don't want to have that and like so now you're already telling us that this greatest invention you've ever made well it has some distortion more resonance now this is one of these words we can use it a lot resonance can mean how much you feel the music or it can actually mean like you hear surface noise on a vinyl like you put it down you hear that classic sound before it plays that's technically resonance better imaging sure imaging is a very interesting thing that like you can argue that there's these oral things that happen because with bits and hertz and digital audio you're getting things put in a box and then there's not in between the boxes but with the level of resolution we're at when we're at 96 or 192 in 24 bit is it beyond human perception a lot of juries out there I'll grant them that but analog has more feel more character more touch well yeah that's obvious because you can touch it whereas digital you can't but digital sound is frozen analog sound is alive my brother chef's kiss for this level of bullshit um okay but a press release notes that one of Burnett and that's aims is to reset the valuation of recorded music he formed a new company to do so called Neo Fidelity Inc. which plans to record and distribute future ionic originals so now this is the interesting thing is that all these people when they do and they sell these to the investors and I would love if we got a higher end format truly I listen to title loss list on my insanely expensive $800 headphones that I have two different things of through an insanely expensive converter also I can hear music as good as I can hear it I love it I'm a nerd for laying on my nice couch and listen to music but there's this little tell that always happens with these companies which is that they then want to distribute own all the kind of the way Apple tried to with uh having the iTunes store anyway what I would think of when I think of this is that they're always trying to make like their own marketplace this gives me the tell that it's like this is not for the good of the audio community this is for the good of their pockets so then we get to the next sentence which is really the cringe apocalypse of all this so it's kind of like a digital NFT but make an IRL my dog you cannot like the whole thing with NFTs it's a digital thing an IRL it is not like the whole thing that distinguishes painting from digital art is literally the difference in medium you cannot have it both this is some serious great a bullshit my guy uh but he also says it's a collector's item Pono except that it's the disc now if you don't know what Pono is you'd be forgiven because it just means you weren't extremely online for a extremely cursed few bunch of years where Neil Young basically made this player in fact I made a tab to uh there we go so this is what a Pono player goes for this is what it looked like fun fact I pre-ordered one um tried it out for one minute saw how much they were going for on eBay when they first came out because the people who pre-ordered it and uh I sold it immediately for a triple profit and uh I don't regret that decision for one moment in my life if I'm being honest um anyway the Pono was this cursed thing Neil Young did that would have better conversion the hilarious thing is by the time he put this out it had worse conversion in it because it took him so long to develop it did so many other things that were out on the market like laughably bad at the time I was just literally listening through my digital design 192 which was not known as the pinnacle of uh high quality conversion even though those things sound great uh the 192 immediately sounded better to than it so uh unfortunately like when these old codgers get in the tech game uh but they you know it's just like it's I'm sorry like I'm a middle-aged guy it's a young person's game and like you're missing the boat here chief like this is this is not not the thing we need to be doing but with that said uh I will reserve some judgment I'm not judging the format because I need to hear it but what I am judging is the bullshit packaging it I'm judging very hard t-bone and uh I really really don't feel good about the way you're selling this but I will tell you the second I can get my hands on this uh I will do it uh the pono yeah I'd never want to see that thing again I feel bad for any of you who didn't know what it was and I just introduced it to okay let's talk about Fortet I'm gonna first drink Derek quite I was recording here is right that uh he's like I can't wait to skim 20% off the top with this digital NFT but IRL and that is correct uh okay uh so let's talk about Fortet you probably don't know who Fortet is um Fortet is this really challenging electronic music artist always made like really cool boundary pushing stuff uh all the way back to the 2000s I'd say um I was kind of always aware of never one of my favorite artists but so they were on domino records now if you're not a indie rock snob type uh let's actually do this who's on domino records I'm kind of bad with this stuff these days but I want to say it's like clinic, figure rose who else we got here artists let's go back to that tab so I don't have to navigate hot ship yeah classic group superorganism I think they're one of the more interesting groups he says Alex G every guy who doesn't shower and wears hats that look like mine's favorite artist uh that's the uh the uh what do you call it guy uh the Franz Ferdinand guy uh who else we got here uh oh animal collective one of my favorite artists I've worked with uh Arctic monkeys I mean yeah okay I mean six pages of artists they got it all and all this to say is this is important to the story cat power uh dirty projectors I mean you know Grammy nominated you know Franz Ferdinand had a top 40 hit you know uh so needless to say formidable what we could actually say is one of the largest in rock record labels in the world for sure so to get back into Fortet uh so let's uh we'll get into this in a series of emotional tweets on Sunday November 21st Kieran Hebden revealed that his former label Domino had pulled three of his albums from streaming services this is heartbreaking to me the revered artist Fortet wrote Hebden noted that the removal of Fortet's first three Domino issued albums 2001 pause 2003s rounds you know okay whatever uh I'm truly shocked to come to this Hebden isn't another yeah okay we don't need that uh so what they're saying here is that right now he's in a legal battle with the label and uh basically what happened is he signed with uh what do you call it uh he signed with Domino in uh 2001 so as we know we were just on the brink of digital technology at that point um so basically what his claim is is that uh they locked him in so contracts I had been signing some groups around this era and all of the contracts back then including now all say like there will be new formats and we will reserve the right to give you the same royalty rate um so with that uh what happened was is back then you know in 18 percent royalty rate when you were selling mostly CDs a little vinyl maybe a cassette here or there uh that was pretty commonplace at that point um you know some record labels at the time that were really charitable I think of like fat records or epitaph were doing 50 percent contracts but pretty unheard of uh for artists to do that but uh he had 18 percent and most labels shifted to especially for when an artist would become a legacy that it would be a 50 percent uh royalty rate but uh the point being they did not do that so let me read to arrive at the 50 percent figure four tets lawyer seized on contract provisions regarding international flat fee use of heptons music the deal reportedly says that domino excuse me is obligated to pay out 50 percent of all royalties and fees received from licenses for music consumed outside the united kingdom as well as 50 percent of net proceeds generated by license recordings for a flat fee rather than a per record royalty heptons lawyer contended that these licenses should have applied to most of his streaming and download income so basically what he's saying is they've been unduly paying him and he's looking for it so they've gotten into the squabble where now they've pulled this music down because they don't want to be locked into uh any consumption with this and but here's like the real thing that kind of sucks in this and I am I always will I promise you on these games and any video I will always say when I'm making some assumptions I think it's very important in like for those of you don't know like you know I work for journalistic outfits as my day job um it's very important to label when you're saying facts a lot when you're now make going on assumptions domino is all these huge artists those huge artists are able to re negotiate contracts and resign obviously some of these resign with them uh and you have a lot of power when you resign to get standards what normally happens when you do those things is you say well I'm not resigning unless you update the contract to what you're normally doing particularly since contracts get more competitive and more modernized each year so let's say domino is trying to sign a group three years ago they're going to offer that 50% rate for the digital post recoup to them because other labels are going to offer the same thing they're not going to be able to sign the artist if they don't offer that so then when an artist like Fortet hears about their archaic contract what do you call it uh then you're very very mad that this person is getting this great contract now you don't just the same way in your workplace if the new hire got hired at a rate higher than you when you're more experienced so obviously he wants the modernized deal the problem being is that like domino probably just doesn't care they and the other thing is too is like when you're a smaller artist compared to all these things the worst thing that can happen to you oftentimes is you then have to have this relationship with the label like I have I think I've said this before but I handle some artists who are not together anymore's catalog merchandise licensing I'm basically just the business man when rare things come up and that they trust they'll just make sure that all their stuff is modernized all of it's up to date I keep it going so I deal a lot with this in my like business and like the big thing always with this stuff is is that like once you're not one of the top cash cows at the label all these labels are understaffed and they're like uh they get mad uh when you're asking for things they don't want to do it and this is like one of the worst things about signing to a label is that in due time you probably become that if you become one of the biggest catalog acts in their label and they have a catalog department well you could get lucky enough to be dealing with that person who actually cares about doing right by you so all that's to say is um this is pretty uh it's pretty sad that I think it even came to this um but there's gonna be a lot more disputes for that I mean I think one of the most interesting things not discussed in the music business today is this tab I put here which is Sony is wiping out the old debts of catalog artists major label hopes artists forward program will prioritize transparency with creators in all aspects of their development so what this is is that so many major label acts are never made the money back because let's say that record they got dropped from was such a disaster that it put them in the red and then they are it gets no royalties because they've never outspent how much money they spent on the next release because what's always remember the next release you always spend more than the last one because if you did well and they keep working with you they're gonna keep putting more money into you and then the problem is if you tank then you're left with all that debt so Sony's done the right thing and wiped this away a lot of indie labels are moving to when uh record turns 20 or 30 25 to giving the artist it back there's actually a law in congress that there's now a window where you have to uh give it back because they basically say that all these long-term contracts of 30 years come out to like indentured servitude and they actually like passed a law about this um I can get into that some other time but anyway uh all this is to say is I think we're getting some modernization I really hope that this uh issue sparks a debate and gets justice for a lot of these artists because a lot of these artists will have made our favorite records and then they're getting screwed as technology goes on and that you know it'd be nice to reward them with a fair do so that they keep making a living from their music okay with that said I know I got a lag in this chat a bit but uh I'd love to hear from y'all uh some questions so uh if you put questions in I'm gonna sip water and then uh hopefully I can answer them for the last few minutes before I run out at 6 30 to go see one of my favorite bands drawbreaker is playing New York City tonight and I'm really psyched to go because um the one thing about seeing bands that were out when you were in high school is uh you see all your old friends that you haven't seen before and it's like a high school reunion of people you actually used to like uh let's see what can I fill this space with talking about while I wait for some questions to come in is there anything else that was interesting this week oh well I did find my favorite record in forever which is delete Zeke DLT ZK if you're into the like really out there hyper-pop modern punk folky thing I have not heard a record that is more creative and interesting than this um in forever okay questions great what is the new book edition coming out uh Steve M my brother uh I'm having a real hard time getting that one done I wish I could say was it I made a ton of progress when I was in Washington DC the other week uh but I'm just not happy I really want to modernize that book in some ways and like everything I do it comes down to me being a psychotic perfectionist who dem excuse me demands high quality of myself and I'm not happy with it yet I don't know uh anything new in marketing that stands out that more artists should try it okay here's my newest marketing thought that I'm probably not gonna make a video on after I made that video on discover weekly and release radar uh I have become convinced that the first three weeks of your release are the greatest marathon of trying to drive up familiar ears people who are most likely to like your music and keep out of any containment anybody hearing your music that probably is not gonna like it hence yet again why I hate facebook ads uh real shocker on the stream sure we're never gonna hear that again uh but with that said blasting out emails blasting out social media getting similar artists that your friends with to blast you out that sound similar to you all of that stuff is more and more important because you need to drive up that popularity store and score and get yourself into the algorithm that's the thing I keep thinking about over and over again is that after I made that video on discover weekly and release radar that became more impressed in my brain than ever uh what else we got ok Kenny Beset asks uh should we spend time looking for indie labels I think you should spend time making relationships with people in the business making sure you're on the radar making sure you've made them aware you exist and are looking for things sending introduction emails is always a good thing meeting people at shows and introducing yourself always a good thing because then you're on that person's radar they remember you and you can grow a relationship from there update them as you go uh the next question is what do I think about tune core from Laura kingdom uh I think tune core is not as good as distro kid but I get that some artists need to use distro kid in order to uh what do you call it can't use distro kid because they have heavy sample based music or they have music that gets called generic because they're using too many stock tones in it and distro kid was basically paid by Spotify to eliminate some of the songs being uploaded by saying like my guy you bought one of those beats this guy sold 300 copies of that beat to them we don't want any more of that beat on the platform I already put it up see you later so tune core to me is the second best one in my opinion uh spot boy says what do you think about Spotify ads like all ads they are trash and if anything I mean Facebook ads abhorrently bad but Spotify ads also I know let me say this I probably have 20 to 30 friends who've spent money on Spotify ads and never in all the genres all the different sizes of artists have ever heard somebody say you know what really was a good spend the Spotify ads they killed it man no one has ever said that to me uh skate Alex to us do you have any opinions on writing music I've been writing for years but often find that starting a new song and finding a new song idea can be the hardest part of everything well a really nice thing to tell you I wrote a whole book on this it is called processing creativity the tools happens in whatever something I can't remember the whole title anymore here's the thing though with it because I'm such a charitable person if you go to the noise creators podcast feed I put up the whole book for free you can just listen to it one chapter at a time as a podcast if you want or if you want to put money in my pocket you can buy it as a physical book kindle or an audio book on Amazon that book will take you four six hours to listen to and one thing everybody who I ever have talked to is read it as said they have a way better grasp on how to make the music they're happy with that makes fans like it more and in general what people really tell me is it really spares them of a lot of the writer's block and trouble they had writing so I know it's a plug for myself but also I have it out there for free like you can just google noise creators podcast stream it off soundcloud stream it off your favorite podcast app I don't really care I just want the ideas out there okay little witchy as a artist how do you deal with having a girlfriend that tells you your music sucks every time she sees you working on it I feel for you but what I will say is that's toxic relationship and anybody who does that is also probably partaking in really bad behaviors that they should do it should not be an event person that you invest yourself and I if they're doing that they're also doing other bad behaviors you haven't realized yet I don't care how bad somebody's hobby is I think that crosses the line in a relationship and trust me I'm a record producer and a guy who's been single a lot of his life and I may have dated a few musicians and let's just say both of them were not in very good bands OITU asks what do you think is the best way to collect emails right now very simply one koji link and bio I know they paid me to like a lot of videos but they paid me because I already used the product and truly also like just such a good good good product what do you call it I honestly ever the few people who I work with who put the email there I can't believe how many people just sign up for it without anything but the other best way to get emails is have an unreleased song get the people who are interested in you to get that and download it that you can put a link up to streaming you can put a download whatever it is incentivize the listen for your most passionate fans and really also to go back to what I was saying getting into the algorithm getting those emails emailing the moment the song comes out some of the best way to alert your most passionate fans to listen which will drive up your popularity score since they're the most likely people who are going to listen repeatedly very smart thing to do okay four minutes I'm going to try to really get a good one in here to download gates still work without absolutely not mix the atlas what are your thoughts on social cold DMs that really depends on what it is if you're introducing yourself to somebody that's relevant they're smaller great but DMing Alice and Haigendorf try to get on to a Spotify playlist um well there's other ways you could waste your time but that sure is a waste of time well witchy come on buddy club bad club and tide thank you very much that's very sweet uh I should make a video with Glenn from Spectre Sound Studios I mean the the amount of yelling and negativity that would come Glenn and I have met before I mean the it's a it's an explosion of yelling do we really want that in the world uh I don't think I see any more questions oh okay millennial animal ever going to listen to subscribers music on stream that'd be fun not for free of course I you know I am actually happy to do that at some point I don't love the thought of always doing that because I'm going to be honest with you I think I have some insight um but in all reality like if you listened to this song which is my favorite song I've heard in forever 9 out of 10 of you are going to think I'm a mentally old person I like really out there music than almost none of my friends like I don't know always the thing but I can hear things obviously I'm a mixering master engineer producing records and developing artists forever I can hear things I would probably be up for doing that at some point but for now I'm going to concentrate on this I want to thank you all for having come here I'm next time I will be on time since I now know how to work the software better uh but truly I want to do this every week I want to talk progress the conversation one of the things I really want to talk about is how we pressure Spotify to treat musicians better I want to talk about how we get musicians wages up things like that I want to talk about music promotion all sorts of things I'm going to be doing this every Wednesday I might move the time around as I learn from you guys which time is best but every Wednesday I'm going to be doing this I hope you join me again thank you so much these were great questions you guys rule