Long time Minnesota music manager/mogul Varmah Morris outlines 20 things you need to know in order to break into the music industry.
For anybody tryna break into the music industry, I outlined a list of 20 things you should know. Things I personally went through and mistakes I have made, or mistakes I’ve seen other people make.
(Disclaimer, THIS IS A LONG AND INFORMATIVE POST SO SKIP IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ‼️)
Stop hiring your friends and family to be a manager or CEO and run the business. I understand you want to hold them down but the majority has no idea wtf they doing and the personal relationship makes people too comfortable. Find someone who knows what they doing. Keep family, friends and business seperate. This includes hiring family members to work for you in any capacity. At some point you will regret it
Put out as much music as you can until something sticks. Stop putting out dates of when your new album or song or mixtape is dropping. Nobody gives a f*ck because you haven’t built a big enough audience who is waiting for it. All your doing is dropping songs to your friends and family. 🤷🏽♂️
Paying for views on YouTube is working against you. Not only that, but it’s obvious you paid. Your views don’t match your comments. lol if your video has 2 thousand views today and tomorrow it has 250k views and 22 comments, you’re still in the same position
There are no short cuts. You cannot skip steps. You have to go through it. you have to struggle in order to learn how to have the hunger you need to get where you need to go. You will end up falling a thousand times before you can stand.
Talent is 10% of the battle. Your determination and how bad you want it is 50% and the other 40% is relationships. You can be as talented as Drake, Jay-Z, Eminem and Chris brown but if you don’t have the same hunger they had, then you a dub. That means taking advantage of every opportunity, sacrificing everything and staying focused. That means saying no to “fun nights out with your peoples” and staying in the studio instead. That means valuing relationships and understanding how to leave good impressions on everyone. You never know who can change your life. If you mix all that with the talent then you will win.
NOBODY HAS TO DO SH*T FOR YOU!! please don’t get caught up in the Mind set that people have to support you. I see a lot of people say sh*t like “nobody wants to support until it’s too late”… lol f*ck support. You’re supposed to create the support based off the talent. If nobody supports you then work harder. Period. You can’t cry because you don’t have fans. People will support when they believe. If they don’t support then you haven’t earned it. Make better music 🤷🏽♂️
Stop following trends and what’s “in” right now. Be you. You will never get anywhere if you trying to be the newest version of the newest artist. Create your own wave and be you. trends change every day. Don’t become a trend. Be timeless.
Stop spending so much money on studio time and invest in a laptop, protools, a microphone and some speakers. Teach yourself how to engineer. Learn to do more than just one thing besides just record. Teach yourself how to make beats. Stop spending so much money on music videos and invest in a camera. Teach yourself how to shoot your own videos. The less you can depend on other people the more you can do yourself and you save money. You buy your own shit then you can practice as much as you want until you master it. The more well rounded you become, the more valuable you become and the more money you make. 💯
The 💰 plays a major part in the success of you. So you will need a investor at some point. That could be a label or just one person. The 💰 goes to marketing, discretionary budget for flights, hotels, and rentals when traveling to perform. Music videos, studio time, Photo shoots, production, etc. you will be surprised at how fast the money goes. Sometimes artists even pay for publicists to help with visibility and that includes blogs and etc. Other things help as well such as FEATURES and tour support. If you don’t have relationships with the artists then the features cost money. Sometimes hundreds of thousands. 🤷🏽♂️ that’s just what it is. Tour support is going on tour with a bigger artist and that helps get your name out. The 💰 is also going to help you stay afloat when your creating because you can’t have a 9-5 and do this at the same time. It just won’t work
There is no right way or wrong way to make it. There is no blueprint. What worked for some dont mean it will work for you. What worked for Soulja boy didn’t work for Joyner Lucas and what worked for Joyner Lucas ain’t work for Da baby and what worked for Da Baby ain’t gonna work for you. Soulja boy broke on YouTube, Joyner broke on Facebook and Da Baby broke on IG.
Learn the contracts. Understand the laws and understand how to read sh*t. Don’t just be signing sh*t because you’re excited. Them contracts are binding and can have consequences that will leave you as*ed out.
Not every opportunity comes in the form of money. You know how many opportunities I took advantage of even tho it wasn’t always fair? I might not of made money then and there but I understood the long term benefits.. please realize that some opportunities isn’t always a cash grab but may = to a long term financial opportunity if you play your cards right.
STOP SPAMMING YOUR LINKS TO YOUR MUSIC ON EVERYONES PAGE AND COMMENTS. It’s 2022. That sh*t don’t work no more. People just gonna block you. Figure out another way to get your music heard. The spam thing ain’t it. 🤷🏽♂️ truth hurts but it is what it is
If you’re trying to get signed, please understand that the labels pay attention to your social media. This isn’t the 90s where you gon wait to rap to someone and they gon put you on. Labels wanna know that you can create your own buzz before they put up a dime. They wanna know you have fans already. Rapping in a celebrity’s ear or giving them your demo ain’t going to get you signed nomore.
Stop surrounding yourself around “yes men”. You need people to be honest with you. Not everything you do is 🔥. Not every song you make is lit. Some of you are delusional and I blame it on your friends. You need some friend haters. These are the people who gonna tell you when your sh*t sucks. They are gonna be responsible for the reason you don’t put out trash. If you can impress a friend hater then you can impress anyone. I keep a few friend haters in my circle and they hear everything before it comes out. Get you some friends haters asap and don’t get mad at the truth. 🤷🏽♂️
You’re not going to make money right away. AFTER hundreds and thousands was spent, It took me 6-7 years before I actually started making money. In that time I was building a core fan base. I never stopped believing that I was going to get where I needed to go. My belief and hard work is the reason my investor never stopped spending. The moment I ever started slacking off and f*cking up then my investor would’ve stopped spending. For that reason, I never put myself in situations that’s was going to ruin my opportunity. If you find someone who puts up the bag for you 💰, don’t f*ck it up.
STAY THE F*CK OUT THE STREETS AND STAY IN THE STUDIO. None of these people who be in the streets in they music videos be really in the streets in real life. Almost all of these people got security and after the director yells CUT❗️ they all go back to they mansions in Beverly hills. The people who really living that street sh*t is facing charges right now or dead. You dumb people follow suit because you think it’s cool and f*ck sh*t up for yourselves before you get a chance to get on. Stay in the studio and stop trying to impress other men. Either that or get you a female and surround yourself with women. If not then you jus a crash dummy. 🤷🏽♂️ no investor tryna invest in a artist who be in the streets because at that point you just a liability. Why would anybody wanna put bread behind a artist who on his way to end up in prison? That’s a horrible investment. Stay out the streets and focus
IF YOU DONT HAVE A KID ALREADY, I would suggest you don’t have one now. A kid can slow you down. Children are beautiful but you need all the time and focus to be on making it out. A lot of talented artists never got on because they had kids in the process and had 9 months to make it happen or it was back to the 9 to 5… For the people who don’t wanna work a 9 to 5 then now you have created pressure for you to provide in which you choose to sell drugs so you can still have time to do music and then you get caught up. Now you’re in jail. 🤷🏽♂️ classic story. Keep that in mind. Save all the baby making for when you’re in a comfortable position and you’re eating. If the goal is to create a better life for your children and your family then this works out best. 💯
F*CK ALL DISTRACTIONS. This could mean relationships, friends, drugs, alcohol, parties, clubs, school, etc. anything distracting you from getting to where you need to go. If it doesn’t line up with the end goal then you need to have self discipline. Being rich is a mindset. It’s more than about the NOW. It’s about the future. It’s about being more on point than everyone else. With money comes power. With power comes responsibly. You can’t be responsible if your making choices that can f*ck up your money. This means your going to have to let a lot of sh*t go. Which leads to number 20
Last but not least…. Be prepared lose family and friends. Lots of them. Success brings out the worst in people. You will see colors you never seen before. You will see a different side of life you never knew existed. Be prepared to see those closest to you fall. One by one. None of these things can be avoided unless you never make it out. Fame and success is bitter sweet. It sucks I know. But it comes with it. Some will stay down. You will easily be able to distinguish the real from the fake. Some will take more time than others to spot. These will be the closest people to you. Best advice I can give you is to let it happen. If you are anything like me, sooner or later you will be numb to it. It’s the price of fame, riches and success. More money more problems. Well worth it because then at least you know who’s who. 🤷🏽♂️ All this will make you stronger.
I created TULLY because I know how hard it is to break into the industry and I wanted to help with the visibility of you. More features on the way and more cash opportunities. 💯 I’m not saying TULLY will make you famous, rich or successful, but the opportunities can help. 🤷🏽♂️
Watch Varmah’s Live On Lake Street Interview here - https://youtu.be/t-hjiiM-kUk
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