Don’t sign with a major label.

Unless you make broad-based pop or mainstream hip-hop (country is a world unto itself, with its own rules). That’s all they’re interested in. They’re equivalent to NASA. They plot endlessly for rare moonshots, they’re not interested in suborbital journeys, they want to bet it all, play for keeps.

And isn’t it interesting that rocketry has been taken over by outsiders like SpaceX. Amazing what one man with a vision and a checkbook can achieve (got to give Elon props here).

If you don’t make music in the designated genres, the majors probably don’t want you anyway. But if they do…what exactly are they going to do for you?

The majors are about money and business relationships, and those mean less than ever before.

The majors’ relationships are with gatekeepers: radio, TV, DSPs. They curry favor. But everybody knows that other than SNL and CBS “Sunday Morning,” TV doesn’t move the needle at all. It’s the modern equivalent of seeing your name in the paper. Cool, but meaningless.

As for terrestrial radio… The active demo, which skews young, doesn’t listen. They grew up in an on demand world, they don’t want to be told what to consume, never mind wait for it.

And then there’s press… If you think youngsters are getting their info from traditional outlets, you’re wrong. They don’t trust them. The writers have no credibility in their world, they only listen to their friends.

BINGO!

Did you read the story about Angie Nixon’s victory in Florida?

Leave the politics out, that’s not the point…

Other than the fact that what she was selling, a progressive viewpoint, was not served by the mainstream. This is anathema to insiders, they want to exert control over the process, but the bottom line is the public is alienated, doesn’t feel it’s being listened to.

And it’s the same case with music.

We’re in a Lou Pearlman moment. You remember Lou, right? Who had an idea which ultimately turned into a juggernaut. He formed Backstreet Boys and NSYNC when boy bands were seen as a novelty/joke, took them to Europe to break and hooked them up with Max Martin, a hungry Swede, to make these two acts the biggest in the world. And he did this right under the majors’ noses. The people who worked at the major labels were too hip for the room, they not only weren’t interested, they didn’t want their images tarred by association. However, by signing both of these artists, Clive Calder ended up with a multi-billion dollar buyout, the largest of its kind, ever. The money always comes from thinking outside the box.

Now let’s be clear, Nixon was not a nincompoop with no history. She had experience, a record, she was seen as a legitimate candidate, by the people, if not the establishment. But rather than listen to the words of the high-priced consultants, Nixon employed word of mouth, direct contact with the public to ensure success. More than ever, everyone is an individual these days. They want to be seen as such, not taken for granted, not spoken down to, and if you close them…THEY’LL SPREAD THE WORD TO EVERYBODY!

You’re selling passion. And no one is more passionate than a fan of an act on the way up, they feel that they own them, as long as the act hasn’t been forced down their throat.

Nixon’s opponent Alex Vindman raised $16.3 million dollars.

Nixon raised $975,000. Nixon couldn’t even afford one television ad. But she won by twelve percentage points.

Now let me be clear, not everybody can win. Not everybody has the talent. Dunning someone to pay attention when the music is not worth it will never work. But instead of banging your head against the major labels’ door, bang on the door of your ultimate customers. They are the definitive test. If they don’t want to spread the word, change what you’re doing or make peace with your obscurity.

You need to start off the radar screen. You need no PR.

And you must superserve your audience.

Fans want more. They don’t care if it’s covers on YouTube…forget official releases. Everyone in social media knows that sans frequency, you’ve got nothing. You’ve got to release clips, you’ve got to make people feel that you care about them…not some radio programmer or some other gatekeeper. It’s one on one.

That’s how you build it. Via direct connection, one by one.

And if you’re thinking about that big break, that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, stop before you start. The process is incredibly slow. You may be on the verge of giving up multiple times. But if you stick with it…

Once again, it’s 10,000 hours of HARD WORK! That’s the science, left out of Malcolm Gladwell’s book but in the definitive work “The Talent Code.” If you’re not challenging yourself constantly, it doesn’t matter how many hours you put in. It’s not about writing three songs and then spamming them across the internet. It’s about writing hundreds of songs, so it becomes reflex. Learning how to play the guitar or piano at a professional level. You pay your dues so when the spotlight is upon you, it’s natural.

And speaking of natural, that’s what sells. Humanity. Honesty. People may go to see the dancing fools in arenas, performing to hard drive, there is a business in that, but not as much as someone who connects directly.

The majors could employ this strategy, but then they’d be in the artist development business, which they left behind decades ago. The majors are just hoping they can sign you if you’re successful. But the truth is there’s a good chance your music might never stream in prodigious numbers. So what exactly can the label do for you?

As for signing with an indie… If you’re not willing to do the work yourself, don’t even start. There’s no black box, no magic, and no shortcuts. It’s you that have to be dedicated, you that have to work to make the connection, which all starts ONLINE! If you’re not willing to live online, you’re living in the last century and have almost no chance of success.

Young people know all this.

But not all young people are infatuated with music. They are looking for something different, something honest, and when they find it, they tell everybody they know about it. Look at Noah Kahan. He had one hit, “Stick Season,” which was a cult favorite, spread by word of mouth, before it broke bigger. Sure, Kahan is signed to a major, but you can’t point to another act in his genre having the same success on a major.

If you break it, people will be beating down your door to get in business with you. It’s these axioms no one wants to hear, because it might be a reflection on the quality and marketability of their work. The truth is Hollywood, the media-industrial complex, is peopled by sharks looking for prey 24/7, and there’s very little stuff worth biting.

But if you create it…