Stay on Beat Article Series (No.3): The Artist Revolution

Over the past couple of years, the music industry has witnessed a major artist revolution in which power and resources are slowly shifting away from major corporations and towards individual artists. With the emergence of affordable recording equipment and social media, any artist can record and share their music independently, which means artists can publish music without the support of a record label. While this may seem like a threat to record companies, the artist revolution can greatly benefit labels, as there's a greater chance the acts they sign have an existing platform, alleviating the risk of dropping artists and losing out on their investments (see my second installation of the article series for more on this).

Anyone with a song and some recording equipment can create and make their music available to the world; this was unheard of just a few decades ago. Moreover, tools like social media and streaming have made the music community even more connected, making it easier for fans to find new artists and listen to what they’re making. To say the least, it’s a very exciting time to be a musician. 

When I was in middle school, I wrote my first song and called it “Blue Daisy.” It was a simple concept—progressing through four chords with a poppy melody—and I was thrilled when my dad’s long-time friend and music producer, Dave, heard it and was willing to let me record it in his studio. We spent hours in the studio recording the tune and then played around with different concepts and ideas. By the end of the night, we had a decent-sounding demo, and Dave encouraged me to share the song with people in the music industry looking for original songs.

Over the next few months, Dave helped me send the demo to different agents and projects, a process that required both scouting out people with a vision that was fitting for my song and getting the song to the right people. After a few months, every response included some positive feedback, but ultimately resulted in rejection. When it became clear that “Blue Daisy” wasn’t going to be my breakthrough song, we tabled the project, but I was encouraged to continue writing songs and mature my craft. After this experience, I was left wondering what it would take to break into the music industry the historically traditional way—catching the attention of a major record label and working my way into the industry by signing a contract. And the answer still hasn’t been clear eight years later.

I am not alone in this quest. While receiving rejection is hard, the process has fueled me to write better songs and to look deeper into the inner-workings of the music industry (hence how Stay on Beat came to be). A lot of people call it luck when a “nobody” becomes a “somebody” in music, and luck certainly plays a role. But we are currently in a moment where musicians with big dreams have all the tools they need at their fingertips, and with those tools, they can overcome luck (or lack thereof) and make their big break themselves.

When I sat in on an interview with Mario Armstrong, an Emmy-award-winning radio and talk-show host, he retold a conversation he had with his son, an aspiring musician:

“Today, I’m talking to my son. [I said,] ‘Christopher, you know your Instagram channel is your resume, right? Like it’s not just for you to come up with a different avatar [and] horse around with your friends…You better be showing that you’re a composer, that you write. There’s no excuse now to create.’”

With so many tools at artists’ fingertips, their biggest priority is to create. Once an artist self-produces a song, they can publish it online instantly, reaching people across the world through the myriad of platforms available to them. The ease of distributing music allows artists to focus on the music they’re making, opening an opportunity for sounds and concepts we’ve never heard before. Additionally, the artist community is more interconnected than ever, and artists are learning from each other’s experiences. From coffee shops to livestreams, there are a myriad of spaces for musicians to gather and connect, expanding their networks as artists and also developing their fanbases.

As a kid, I would beg my parents to drop me off at a local coffee shop on Friday nights where there were weekly “song circles.” Local musicians in the area would stop by, pull up a chair, and play songs together. I always loved these gatherings because, as a learning guitar player, the older and more experienced players were always showing me new riffs and tricks and introduced me to different styles and genres of music.

On top of that, attending these song circles allowed me to meet different musicians who had connections at different venues and studios in the Chicago area. After a playing session, I got to chat with the other musicians and often walked away with a list of different open mics to attend or people to reach out to. I even connected with people who just came to listen and who asked me to keep in touch for the next time I was playing a gig.

While this type of networking has and continues to happen on a local level, the emergence of social media has allowed this to happen at a much larger scale, offering the opportunity for small artists to reach large audiences and important people in the music industry. Justin Bieber is one of the greatest examples of how social media and technology can jumpstart an artist’s career by connecting them with the right people. At just thirteen years old, Bieber was noticed by Scooter Braun, a manager and talent scout for major record labels, after posting videos of himself singing on YouTube. After being invited to record in Atlanta, Bieber had a spontaneous run-in with Usher, and was invited to informally audition with him. By 2008, Usher, impressed by Bieber’s vocal abilities, helped him sign with a major label. Braun, who still manages Bieber’s career, has opened doors for other major acts as well, launching artists’ careers by introducing them to important people in the industry.

The music industry, at its core, is a business, and like any other business, networking is key to getting a foot in the door and climbing the ladder to get where you want to be. In a world that is so connected and operates on who you know and what you have to offer, connecting with people in the music industry on a personal level is key. While an artist may benefit from casting a wide net by utilizing platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and SoundCloud, doing research and targeting specific people within the industry is what will take new musicians to the top. When Justin Bieber posted his videos on YouTube, he probably didn’t expect to wind up at an impromptu audition with Usher, and his connection with Scooter Braun is what got him there. The path to breaking into the industry isn’t straight, but each relationship an artist makes with people already in the industry is often a small step (or for Justin Bieber, perhaps a huge leap) towards getting to the top.

The big shots in the industry are paying attention. As social media becomes increasingly popular, record labels are present on those platforms scouting out “the next big thing.” When artists reach out to labels and publishers, it's important to make it clear that you're serious about your craft and can prove that with a solid following, because agents are looking for that kind of ownership and accountability. Demonstrating that you have fans helps prove yourself as an artist and shows how you have some skin in the game in addition to your talent.

Perhaps this is the future of the music industry. Artists who have already put in the time to build a solid following will be chased down by labels, and labels will have a better sense of where their artists will go prior to signing a contract. This is exciting for any new artist because it opens opportunities for them to get noticed all while taking charge of their creative vision from the start. But this also means artists need to be committed to creating a social media platform. While it’s tempting to believe that we can be the next Justin Biebers of the world and aimlessly post videos hoping to get noticed by someone important, the internet is extremely saturated with the same types of people, and the biggest advances in one’s career happen when they make authentic connections by targeting specific people who can help them.

You can get a copy of 'Stay on Beat: Aligning Yourself with Winning Trends in the Music Industry' for $0.99 on Amazon here. For more information, go to kaitlynfox.com or sign up for my newsletter here.