Smoke and Mirrors of the Music Industry part 1 by Breezy Says

[Breezy Says]

I’m writing this series out of sheer disgust at the things I see go on in the music industry. Artists are getting ripped off without knowing any better. Businesses that are working get grouped in with those that aren’t. There are people making and losing money due to plain ignorance of others, but guess what? Ignorance is not an excuse and you cannot win remaining ignorant. Within the last 3 years that I have focused my marketing efforts on the music industry, I have seen things that make me want to quit at least once per month. I am here to shed light on a few things that we refer to as “Smoke & Mirrors".I am not 100% sure yet how many parts this series of blogs will have, but today we discuss the effects of social media.

Since the start of social media, artists have allowed status updates, tweets, and most recently IG pictures to tell them who’s who in this business. That is mistake number 1 and I will tell you why. Most people that actively work in the music industry and are getting things done truly do not have the time to stay online posting. Most of them are on the road, in meetings, catching flights, and signing contracts. The ones who work a lot have certain times where they will go on and kill the newsfeed because that’s the only time they have to update you on what they have been doing. There are some that have a team that posts for them, hell even I have people posting for me from time to time and I’m not anywhere near a top executive. I have no shame in saying this, hell we all start somewhere. Artists please start to fact check people…google them, check references, ask them to provide client testimonials.

There are some people that have yet to build a resume, but have attended events and taken some rather lovely pictures. WAKE UP! A photo op is just that; they ask someone for a picture and the person smiles, then the post a pic with the caption that probably reads “I’m on my grind” or something to that extent. Many of these people taking pictures with folks don’t have direct access to them; they have to go through three or four people to get to that person. Do you know what that means? Most people in this industry base their prices off of their network; I know you’ve heard that “your network determines your net worth”. If I have direct access to top djs, publicists, websites and so forth, I’m going to charge you based on that. WHY? Well, if you were to email these guys, they’d more than likely mark it as spam. If I email them, they open it, so understand you’re not simply paying for a service, you’re paying for the use of my brand.Read More that here >> http://www.breezysays.com/2013/10/my-name-is-my-name-and-it-costs-v...

Here is an example of how it works; if you go to someone who knows me, but they don’t have access to my network, I’m going to charge them and then they are going to charge you. It’s important to try and eliminate as many people as you can to the one you really want to reach. So, remember this tip, a picture is worth a thousand words, but if you go simply off of a picture you may be spending thousands of dollars simply for those words and no real advancement in your career. There are some great publicists, djs, promoters, marketers, and other people really working in this industry, but some work so much that they don’t have a huge presence online. If you want to succeed look past the things you see these social networks because contrary to popular belief, everything isn’t available or true on these sites.

Stay tuned for next week where I will be discussing COSIGNS and why some don’t mean anything.

Connect w/ me

IG: DaQueenBreeze

Twitter: @IamBreezySays

www.BreezySaysNetwork.com

[DJ Phinesse]

Yeah and on top of that, the social media sites have algorithms the prohibit your posts from being seen and only a small percentage of your followers see what your saying or posting to them. Its all a game. Like you said, research is key.

Thanks for posting this great article.