How Grammy Nominee Brent Faiyaz Built His Music Career Off Streaming

“It was never about the money, it was always about the terms.”

Ain’t this a change from the forties and fifties, even sixties, when you were paid off in Cadillacs and there was little transparency, never mind having a bottom of the barrel royalty rate.

Ain’t this a change from the eighties and nineties, wherein superstars demanded big advances, not trusting the label to ever account accurately to them.

Those are ancient paradigms the major label system is still stuck on. If it weren’t for their catalogs, they’d have been eclipsed. But after taking more of the artist’s pie with their 360 deals the tide has turned, credit streaming, credit accurate data, the artists are demanding MORE!

Vice News is incredible, but it’s behind a paywall on HBO and the branded channel has gotten little traction. This is another paradigm change, Netflix has a multiple of the number of subscribers of HBO and it’s built on an on demand model, whereas HBO is positively ancient, you’re supposed to tune in at a specific time, what are we living in the twentieth century?

No, the twenty first, deep into the second decade, in an era where information is too plentiful and it’s hard to get your message heard. Despite all the e-mail lists of articles to read, none of them hipped me to this video, I got it from a reader, proving once again it’s all personal, it’s who you know, what they tell you, are you trusted.

So, what you’ve got here is genius, and almost nobody knows about it.

You’ve got an act inspired by Chance, the Curt Flood of the music business, to do it his way, to pass up the easy money and do the hard work for the rewards.

And the astounding thing is…THE MUSIC IS GOOD!

I always cross-reference the data. I immediately went to Spotify and checked the play counts. And the ten most popular cuts were all over a million, in some cases significantly, so I played them.

It was R&B. Brent Faiyaz used to be a rapper, now he’s a singer, and the world is his oyster, if he can make people aware of himself. This is the kind of music you can play at a dinner party, when you’re making love, when you’re lazing on a Sunday afternoon.

Now would it be bigger if it were on a major?

I’M NOT SURE!

The active audience is all hip-hop, as are the radio stations, this kind of music takes longer to percolate, take hold, but with acts like Sade it lasts longer. But Sade was the beneficiary of MTV.

But Brent Faiyaz is the beneficiary of STREAMING!

Your eyes will bug out when you read how his manager utilizes the FREE tools/data from Spotify to target both touring and ads. The business has become more sophisticated, the old shotgun approach doesn’t work, it certainly isn’t cost-effective.

Videos like this get one excited about the future of the music business.

Assuming you see them.

Brent Faiyaz – Spotify playlist