The Music Industry Is Turning Musicians Into Content Creators

When did music artists become so cringe? And we're on. Wow. I just had this revelation this past couple of days, singing about music, how much music means to me as an individual, me being a musician myself. And what am I about to talk about? I somewhat experienced. And lo and behold, I think a lot of people see it. What is the biggest hoax in history is the thing we call the music business. And at this point, I think it's humanly impossible for any type of artist to make any kind of living off of what they do. Now, hear me out. There's going to be people, oh, that's not true. I did this. Yes. Look, I won Grammys with artists. I won lots of Dove Awards with Christian Grammys, their version of the Grammys. But let me tell you something. At the end of the day, it is the biggest hoax on the face of the planet. Now, I'm not hating altogether because I came from that industry and I actually made a living in that industry. But the industry is so much different now. It's so much more compressed. It's so much more fine-tuned for everybody to make money except for the creator itself, the artist. So just hear me out before you cut me off and turn me off. This is the Jeff Adams Show. I am a creative. I'm a musician. I've done it all for many, many years. Broadcasting, podcasting, you name it, I've done it. So when I'm saying this, I just saw this and I just, my stomach turned. My stomach turned. I don't know how many times you got on Instagram and you see artists throwing these reels up giving their all, giving their soul for you just to connect with 15 seconds or to a minute of their next single. It's the biggest scam I've ever seen. And most artists hate doing it in the first place. But now labels have based everything on like, hey, if you're not breaking on TikTok, you're not breaking on Instagram, we don't want anything to do with you. It's crazy. It's bullcrap. It's bullcrap. Did I say it's bullcrap? It's literally bull crap at its finest. You know, I stopped doing music a long time ago. And this past year, I decided to release two singles. And I did it. And I saw what the output you had to do to be independent artists, to get people's attention, to have a great song out there, to try to get people's attention. It's ridiculous. And then the end game as well. You got to love to be doing this stuff. If not, you're going to be highly disappointed. If you're looking like, I'm going to make so much money doing this. You're not. I think there's a certain elite of people that actually do now that actually can make a good living at doing this. But I think it's probably 10% out of 90% because everything is set up against us as musicians. Everything is set up against us as musicians. I said it double time. And I'm saying this with passion because I see people putting their heart and soul in things. And heck, I did it this past year. I thought I wrote Two incredible great songs, but what you have to do to get people's attention and all these different platforms, the algorithms, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube shorts, YouTube in general, there's so much to the equation. And I think pretty much now the music industry is a young man's game. It always has been. People say, well, it's never too late to go get your dreams. I even said that. Yes, I get it. But I think social media and these reels, these TikToks work great for young people that have some clout, that have the ability to make some noise. Like they could be at college and they have a huge platform where people at college go to their shows. They follow them on social media. It's a young man's game still. It really is. And I hate to say that coming out of my mouth, but that's the truth. It's God's honest truth. You know, when I released these songs, I was 53 years old. I just turned 54 years old. And I didn't think I wanted to be a rock star. It's just something I wanted to do to get out. But now millions and billions of songs are being uploaded to the internet 24-7 now more than ever before because of AI. And people think that they're an artist now because they can prompt a song. It's just garbage to me. What happened to the great artist? And why do artists have to put themselves out there into a place and be something that they're not to get people's attention to listen to music? I just think the whole industry sucks. It sucks so bad. And I feel bad for all the talented artists out there that have to do all these stupid things just to get people's attention. It's ridiculous. Yes, it's marketing. It's the new era that we live in. That's the currency that we live in. But it's vanity metrics. It's vanity metrics. Not unless you go sign a $ 1. 5 million deal that you'll never see any money off because you have to recoup for the rest of your life with Atlantic Records or whoever that is. Outside of that, it's vanity metrics. People are like, oh, you make your money on touring. Yes, you can make your money on touring. But I'm going to tell you straight up, I don't think I've ever worked with one artist. I worked in management. I was an artist. I had a record label. And I think the only time the touring thing worked when a label put X amount of marketing dollars into that artist. And I never had a really strong indie that was tearing it up without a label. I worked with somebody last year that had a good Instagram following. And they tore it up. They were staying booked on the weekends. They were doing extremely well. But the end result, they were putting X amount of dollars in per month, probably 8,000, 10,000 of their own capital to maintain that leverage of being relevant online. It's crazy. It's the biggest sham ever on the face of the planet. We thought the music industry of the old was a sham. with recoupments and physical goods. I'm telling you right now, this era artist, and I'm not telling you to give up and pack it up, pack it in, let me begin. I'm telling you that be wise. And if you're going to do music, do it for the love. Do it for the love of music. Don't do it because you think you're going to get to this point of like, I'm going to make so much money. I'm On the face of the planet. It is just such a lie. And I love music. I still love music. I'm not coming against it. We need upcoming artists to come up from under the underbellies. And maybe there just needs to be something that crashes with this whole thing. But right now with streaming, you just can't make any money. You have to put money down. And Spotify is the biggest sham on the face of the planet. It's the biggest sham. I hate it. I get aggravated with it. I talk to artists that are putting 3K a month in the advertising for Spotify just to get 10,000 listeners a month. Are you kidding me? And then the end result, what do they pay you out? It's nothing. Nothing. Pennies. Pennies. Where is this all going to go? Where is creative art going to go collectively? Yeah, I'm really centered on music right now, but where is creative arts going it's horrible from film music to even being a youtuber at this point it's a horrible place to be heck youtube gives you the only sure shot to make any kind of revenue but you got to have that perfect video perfect thumbnail and perfect storm to get any of that and to maintain that it's a lot It takes a lot of you. I've worked with successful YouTubers with millions and millions and millions and billions of views. It's a lot. I think my end result is like, hey, if you're creative, you're a musician, you're a content creator, you're a filmmaker, whatever, don't give up. But if you're looking that it's going to be your end result of everything's going to be fixed financially for you, You might need to rethink your strategy. Continue to be smart, creative, and wise. But more than ever before, have these other revenue streams that can help keep you afloat. Because, I mean, you look at the bigger artists now, they get signed a record label and their deals are not even that big. They go back now. They have to go sign tequila or whiskey to make any kind of money with brand sponsorships. But you need that fame to do that. Sitting there in the corner doing 25 reels or TikToks and get a million views. Think about that. I got a million views on one video. Great. Well, that was yesterday. You got to do it again tomorrow. the next day, the next day, the next day. Only if you know the algorithms, all the algorithms favor you. So what I'm saying is like, if you're a creative, do it for the love. Just continue to keep doing it. Not because you think the end game is like, I'm going to be rich and famous. because those days are over for my friends. They are over so bad. Not to say you can't make money in these industries if you're smart, because you can. I'm not saying that overall, but it's just a small fraction of people that actually get there. So with that, Pedro, take us out of here. When Jeff is buying, the prime rib's frying.