Is a cheap way for poor people to get rich.

Skill helps, but is not necessary. Art is all about inspiration, which usually arrives like a lightning bolt. To be inspired, you must be stimulated. Talk to any real artist, they’ll tell you when they’re stuck they take a break. Your best ideas come when you’re doing something else.

Is not a competition, and therefore they come up with ways to quantify it that don’t really square with the truth. There are concert grosses, sales/streaming charts, Grammy/awards… It’s always nice to be recognized, then again they usually miss you the first time around, they recognize you after the fact.

Does not pay as well as you think it does. Manufacturing went overseas and riches went to the techies and financiers. Only a thin layer of musicians make millions. If you don’t, you’re just a journeyperson, welcome to the club.

Shortcuts shorten careers.

Identity is everything. If you’re just a vessel, no one can believe in you. Your identity/feelings must come across in your music as well as the penumbra…social media, interviews, etc.

Does not have the power that it did in the pre-internet era. The internet opened up many more avenues for the public’s interest. To be top of mind, you must be different and great and stand for something…unfortunately this is very few.

Just because your mother likes your music, that does not mean anybody else will.

The easier it is to do, the more competition there is and the lower your odds of success. Anybody can rap. Well? I’ll leave that for you to decide. But not everybody can play the violin well enough to be a studio musician, never mind play in the philharmonic.

You know it when you hear it, but people are swayed by repetition and peer pressure.

Everybody wants to hear something new and different, but this is anathema to record labels and radio and…they want the tried and true, they’re not built for the new and different, that’s too heavy a lift, that went out the window when the internet came in.

Just because you know how to play, that does not mean you’re worth listening to.

People resonate with the visceral, the sentimental…edgy and emotional wins.

Everybody says their music is great, but very little is. Conversely, if you don’t say your music is great people will ignore you, because they don’t have time to check out that which is not great.

Your genre is dormant just waiting to be invigorated. George Benson had huge success during the height of rock and rock could triumph in today’s world if…it had the elements of yesterday’s rock…then again, today they call that country, and it’s burgeoning.

The system doesn’t want you to succeed. Because the system is invested in its own priorities and doesn’t want the apple cart to be upset.

Live by the hit, die by the hit… But today you don’t need many to sustain a career. If you have a few, you can tour forever, more than ever before.

You need help. But you will only get it when you build it yourself.

Dumb is easy, smart is hard. Truly dumb can succeed, but smart always has an audience…this is the essence of Steely Dan.