We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the Sweetheart Pub. We’re music industry veterans with over 30 years of combined experience in the music business, having worked in licensing, talent buying/booking, label management, tour management, and more. Once a week, we’ll publish a new edition of this newsletter, where we’ll share some philosophy and actionable advice on all facets of the music industry.
We’ve been putting together a playlist of seven songs — just enough to keep your attention — (almost) every week. Check out The Sweet Spot to hear what we’ve been listening to.
What we’re thinking about this week…
The music is not the product; YOU are the product
I don’t think I’ve ever come across a musician I found interesting who made music I didn’t like. I talk to my clients often about why it is more important for them to sell themselves than their music. When you go seek investment in a business, a common thing an investor will tell you is that they are investing in the person, not the idea. If they believe in the person, they’ll come along for the ride just to be a part of whatever they create.
This idea hit home for me HARD this week while watching a documentary on Netflix called Made You Look: A True Story of Fake Art. It’s a movie about forged paintings. Basically, an unknown woman walked into a world-renowned art gallery 30 years ago and told them she represented an anonymous collector that had a massive collection of previously unknown works, by Rothko, Pollock, Motherwell, Warhol, Franz Kline, Lee Krasner and Clyfford Still. If you don’t follow the art world — this is a HUGE deal and led to the gallery selling them over several decades for over 80 million dollars. One would sell for an ungodly amount of money and miraculously, the woman would come back with another previously unknown masterpiece by a famous painter.
The entire documentary is told by 20 or so people involved in the sells and experts in the art space. It was enthralling, hilarious, and infuriating.
Once it came out that the paintings were fake their value went from millions to exactly zero. Worthless.
What no one ever addressed in the documentary is the fact that the paintings did not change. They were the exact same paintings that were called amazing, beautiful, and sublime by the experts who authenticated them and the buyers who purchased them. But when it became known that the artist they thought painted them, in fact, did not, now they were not as interesting nor as valuable.
But it certainly makes the point that the paintings’ worth was determined by the artist and the purchaser's feelings about them much more than the actual art. Whether or not this is an absurd way of valuing art is a different argument. The fact that this is “the way it is” is simply a point of fact.
—Rachel
The Business Side of Music: #154 – Understanding Who You Are As a Personal Brand
NO TIME TO LISTEN?
Here’s the biggest takeaway:
I'm finding that the vast majority of artists are on this, although often their teams are running their social media, the vast majority of artists are trying to replicate a broadcast marketing experience which they would get if they were on a label, on a social media platform and its not connecting because the social media platforms are not designed to deliver a broadcast marketing experience. People don't get on there to be sold to or marketed to, they get on there to have what feels like a one-to-one connection and the artists.
The difficult thing for the artist right now is just understanding that you can't replicate what the traditional music industry model is doing on social media and in the same career trajectory, that an independent artist would take, you just can't. It’s a completely different model. I think that the most important thing that independent artists need to understand is online entrepreneurship.
— Lindsey Kirkendall
The Latest
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Inside the ‘Black Market’ Where Artists Can Pay for Millions of Streams
Spotify Has Paid Over $23B to Rights Holders, Launches Website on Artist Payouts
How Bandcamp Fridays Have Helped Artists Earn Over $44 Million During the Pandemic
S*** You Can Do Today
We got a lot of great feedback last week on our post A Quick Guide to Setting Effective Daily Goals. So in expanding that idea, we wanted to encourage you to start an old school To Do List. We found SO MANY To Do List Hack videos on Youtube - it really makes more sense for you to take the time to do some of your own research to see what method is most attractive to you - should you use pen & paper? Should you download an APP (the Task App on an Iphone is what Rachel uses), should you set up a Google calendar, or use the calendar on your phone? There are dozens of ways to do it — the trick is just to pick a concept and then try to add it on to something that you already do daily.
What makes more sense for you? Do you scroll social media at night before bed (we know you’re not supposed to do that - but let’s get real!)? Do you look at your phone first thing in the morning before you get up? Do you read a book on your commute or maybe at lunch? It doesn’t really matter - just add in the ritual of looking at and updating a To Do list to a time when you are already doing something else. The first step is just getting in the habit of thinking about and writing down the actions you need to take.
People make two big mistakes when using To-Do Lists:
They overcomplicate things.
They don’t plan ahead.
❌ No need to plan out the entire month.
❌ No need to enter every detail.
❌ No need to set a bazillion alarms.
Just start making a quick bullet list. This is going to be like exercising. Start small and build up. If you add too many things and don’t accomplish them — you’re going to give up. If you start small and follow through, you will build the “muscle” and it will get stronger with time. When you see this task helping you make progress with your goals, you’re going to be drawn to using it more without a lot of heavy lifting.
TikTok of the Week
The Lengths Musicians Go To Promote Their Music
Just for Fun
Music Rookie Podcast
Free Advice
Have a follow-up question for one of our guests? Got a tip? Did we (*gasp*) get something wrong? Our line is always open -- hit us up and if we use your question or response in a future newsletter, we’ll give you credit and link your socials.
Don’t Forget!
As we often receive requests to work with artists who don’t have the budget to afford a full campaign, we’re launching an “Office Hours”-style consulting service where you can book us for 30 or 60-minute blocks of one-on-one time.
You can learn more here (scroll down past campaign details)
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