Ayo! Welcome to the thread!
I looked around and couldn't find many serious threads about starting off in the music industry. So I decided might as well document my journey!
Also, shout out @Andy Black he also said this would be a good Idea!
I start off with a bit of story, then some CENTs justification and my plan!
Writing this bit after I've written a lot of story, its loooooong! You may want to start at the CENTs portion for the good stuff
I was always a kid who was interested in creating things, at 14 I started learning game development, and 16 I was all about art.
Over this summer I decided to learn how to create music because I had been writing lyrics and when I was younger I enjoyed making up songs to the little tunes that my brother's toy piano would play!
IT... WAS... AMAZING!
I proceeded to create 7 singles and a 5 track ep over the summertime
I start this journey by doing a Kanye!
I dropped out of university only difference is I'm not a semi-successful producer like he was when he dropped out.
It was a perfect crap storm. I stopped going to events and talking to people. My grades were tanking. I was spending too much time trying to escape by playing video games late into the night. C-virus was sweeping its way across the world. Gary Vee was telling me school was for chumps unless you're a doctor!
The pressures I was putting on myself were too much, and the lack of responsibility towards my mental health, physical health, and course load was weighing heavily on my soul!
School ended, and I went home and told everyone I was taking a gap year...
Who knew a gap could grow so large... Where has the time gone?
Kidding, I believed I didn't have the brain power for university. I didn't like myself at this point and would have been happy if a small asteroid obliterated my bedroom while I slept. But only my bedroom, so an absolute improbability, at least I believe so.
those years were cycles of me getting a bit better than failing to do anything positive, and repeat!
Oh, one thing that I'm glad stayed a constant is that I always tried to be productive outside of the crappy jobs that I worked.
I continued to work on my game projects, I continued to make music.
I feel like I've spent too much time talking about the past... LET'S KEEP GOING! (Skip to the cents portion if you don't want more back story)
I kept listening to self-help YouTubers and nothing really changed much. (Now I can look back and be glad I was taking in positive info)
I was 3 months into working at BestBuy in the geek squad department. I didn't hate the work for once! I love computers and had been learning quite a bit about them since I was 11 or 12.
It freed up my mind from feeling as stressed as I was the previous years and also it paid $17 per hour which felt nice, even though I inflated my lifestyle with stuff I didn't need.
I started seeing videos about the magical silly-side-bin aka mushie-boys aka I don't wanna say the exact name but if you know then you know!
I ignored them at first but then curiosity did kill the cat(in this case it kinda helped the cat). Found out about supposed permanent mind alteration, so I thought "Hey I don't hate myself but I'm not a big fan of myself so maybe I should look into this".
Skip like 3 weeks! I take the so-called substances. I was a dumb child who could have messed up his brain but at the time I didn't care. If you
read this please follow your government's laws! Please don't ban me Amazing Staff and MJ!
The trip started well then turned bad. I came out of it with new appreciation for life, I looked in the mirror and actually kinda felt connected to the beautiful bastard I saw on the other side. I Got Lucky
I made the extra effort to put more time into music as that felt like the main thing I had going for me.
Fast forward to January I was watching a crazy amount of gym fitness videos. February I make my way to the gym
May I get the c-virus and miss going to the gym, 2 weeks later felt a new drive and bumped up my gym days from 3 to 5 days
I learned about the power of fasting to help me lose and manage weight from Dr. Jason Fung. I jump in by doing full-day fasts and did a 3-day fast as well, rubber banded back but this time I didn't fall into a sad slump, I eased on the gas and at 2 meals a day lunch and dinner only. I'll give you the current results in a Lil bit. Stay Tuned!
Damn, I didn't know I liked talking about myself this much, I haven't even talked about music business stuff at all yet... LET'S KEEP GOING!
Summer comes, Andrew Tate festival on my youtube shorts feed! I didn't like the guy at first, then I loved what he was saying, then I joined HU for 2 months.
I left because I was moving to a place where I wasn't sure I would get a job, mom got offered a better job, I didn't want to stay where we had been living so I tagged along. Dads in the picture, he's studying to be a pastor.
In September I start making basic reaction shorts videos, in 2 months I grow my channel from 106 subscribers to over 3000, felt good but also felt bad since I wasn't really making anything valuable. I switch to funny moments gameplay, a slow start but I had enough experience to know what thumbnails I needed to get a decent clickthrough rate. Bad retention though.
I don't remember how I came upon it but in September I most likely watched a YT short where someone recommended and explained a bit about Fastlane millionaire. I read it then do nothing with the info.
A month and a half later I read it again and join the Fastlane forum. I find a thread where a member was talking about getting his first client. He recommends $100 mill Offers! AMAZING BOOK
I start watching Alex Harmozi's content on you, he talked about instead of trying to achieve this elusive feeling of total happiness, to just accept the anger or sadness.
View: https://youtu.be/NDDFezF7OTA
He also talks about waking up at 5 am so I decided to try it out. Wowie it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would!
I started watching a youtube named Hamza, I built my daily schedule because of his recommendation
It's day 3 of the schedule now and even though I haven't followed it perfectly I've done a lot more good for my health and work ethic than I ever had before!
- let's take a break to go back to my fasting journey
I don't remember exactly when I started but around this time I felt the drive to up my fasting regimen and decided to only eat once every other day. the only time I eat in a row is Friday and Saturday. Worked out well, I haven't broken this plan. And What is my weight today... (Drum roll)
I went from 348 to 305 and still dropping!
-
I settled on music because I was able to mostly Justify it
Cents - Control
The moment an artist signs to a label they lose control, they gain resources but at a loss of thousands to millions depending on how much value they can generate and the audience they can build.
Russ is a good example of an artist who follows the commandment of Control
He stayed independent and was able to make hundreds of thousands just from streams, which a lot of artists complain about because they don't get much money since they gave up control.
cEnts - Entry
It's very easy to make music but it's not easy to make very good music.
A lot of the entry points to becoming a successful music artist in regard to streaming are social media marketing based. Many artists are on TikTok and some have grown full careers thanks to the platform.
This was the commandment I felt iffy about.
My advantage is the years of music-making skills I've built up in combination with the 3d animation skills I built.
With these skills, I've started creating mini TikTok music videos that use a lot of flashy camera movement, text, contrast, and colors to hold people's attention!
Literally, no one else is doing what I'm doing because of the years needed to be able to create these, and that is why I believe I have an Entry advantage over other artists!
Here's a link to one of those videos if you want to see what I'm talking about: bit.ly/3HkKJpT
ceNts - Need
My understanding in regards to music is that someone will pick up and drop artists constantly so there's always a need, not really a deep hunger but based on the narrative around an artist and the music they create. The need can be cultivated as a person hears them over and over again and eventually want to learn about them and share their music.
Not very straightforward forward but I like to think of it this way, no one needed Beethoven until he proved it to them no one needed Kanye until he proved it to them.
cenTs - Time
Right now it's all about building awareness and cultivating a community through posting with authenticity in mind.
When I've built the following that streams my music, then it's about having a deep catalog of quality music for the community. Stream dollars come in from a deep catalog.
When that catalog exists can slow down my music production travels, and post as I like.
centS - Scale
I'll continue making music adding to what I have and can earn. I also plan on creating products after I've grown as an artist, at that point I will be the marketing team.
- music
- moving visuals
- attention-grabbing text
So I'll be testing that out next week.
I also read a thread talking about how shorts, TikToks, and reals are a coin flip. A Fastlaner uses this knowledge to their advantage and flips more coins.
I'm uploading 21 videos over the course of 7 days, 3 videos a day. I'll be uploading on 5 youtube channels, 5 tiktoks, and 5 facebook/Instagram channels.
315 coin flips!
I'll update yall sometime in the next week or 2!
Until then, Happy Fastlaning!
Your pal, Nvikelo (Va-Kay-Low)!
I looked around and couldn't find many serious threads about starting off in the music industry. So I decided might as well document my journey!
Also, shout out @Andy Black he also said this would be a good Idea!
I start off with a bit of story, then some CENTs justification and my plan!
Writing this bit after I've written a lot of story, its loooooong! You may want to start at the CENTs portion for the good stuff
Fun Little Summer Project - 2018
I had just come home from my first year of university, I thought it would be better than high school and that I would somehow create discipline within myself. Little did I know that those things are built from the ground up.I was always a kid who was interested in creating things, at 14 I started learning game development, and 16 I was all about art.
Over this summer I decided to learn how to create music because I had been writing lyrics and when I was younger I enjoyed making up songs to the little tunes that my brother's toy piano would play!
IT... WAS... AMAZING!
I proceeded to create 7 singles and a 5 track ep over the summertime
College Dropout - 2019
I start this journey by doing a Kanye!
I dropped out of university only difference is I'm not a semi-successful producer like he was when he dropped out.
It was a perfect crap storm. I stopped going to events and talking to people. My grades were tanking. I was spending too much time trying to escape by playing video games late into the night. C-virus was sweeping its way across the world. Gary Vee was telling me school was for chumps unless you're a doctor!
The pressures I was putting on myself were too much, and the lack of responsibility towards my mental health, physical health, and course load was weighing heavily on my soul!
School ended, and I went home and told everyone I was taking a gap year...
Who knew a gap could grow so large... Where has the time gone?
Kidding, I believed I didn't have the brain power for university. I didn't like myself at this point and would have been happy if a small asteroid obliterated my bedroom while I slept. But only my bedroom, so an absolute improbability, at least I believe so.
those years were cycles of me getting a bit better than failing to do anything positive, and repeat!
Oh, one thing that I'm glad stayed a constant is that I always tried to be productive outside of the crappy jobs that I worked.
I continued to work on my game projects, I continued to make music.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Mid-October 2021
I feel like I've spent too much time talking about the past... LET'S KEEP GOING! (Skip to the cents portion if you don't want more back story)
I kept listening to self-help YouTubers and nothing really changed much. (Now I can look back and be glad I was taking in positive info)
I was 3 months into working at BestBuy in the geek squad department. I didn't hate the work for once! I love computers and had been learning quite a bit about them since I was 11 or 12.
It freed up my mind from feeling as stressed as I was the previous years and also it paid $17 per hour which felt nice, even though I inflated my lifestyle with stuff I didn't need.
I started seeing videos about the magical silly-side-bin aka mushie-boys aka I don't wanna say the exact name but if you know then you know!
I ignored them at first but then curiosity did kill the cat(in this case it kinda helped the cat). Found out about supposed permanent mind alteration, so I thought "Hey I don't hate myself but I'm not a big fan of myself so maybe I should look into this".
Skip like 3 weeks! I take the so-called substances. I was a dumb child who could have messed up his brain but at the time I didn't care. If you
read this please follow your government's laws! Please don't ban me Amazing Staff and MJ!
The trip started well then turned bad. I came out of it with new appreciation for life, I looked in the mirror and actually kinda felt connected to the beautiful bastard I saw on the other side. I Got Lucky
I made the extra effort to put more time into music as that felt like the main thing I had going for me.
Fast forward to January I was watching a crazy amount of gym fitness videos. February I make my way to the gym
May I get the c-virus and miss going to the gym, 2 weeks later felt a new drive and bumped up my gym days from 3 to 5 days
I learned about the power of fasting to help me lose and manage weight from Dr. Jason Fung. I jump in by doing full-day fasts and did a 3-day fast as well, rubber banded back but this time I didn't fall into a sad slump, I eased on the gas and at 2 meals a day lunch and dinner only. I'll give you the current results in a Lil bit. Stay Tuned!
Damn, I didn't know I liked talking about myself this much, I haven't even talked about music business stuff at all yet... LET'S KEEP GOING!
Summer comes, Andrew Tate festival on my youtube shorts feed! I didn't like the guy at first, then I loved what he was saying, then I joined HU for 2 months.
I left because I was moving to a place where I wasn't sure I would get a job, mom got offered a better job, I didn't want to stay where we had been living so I tagged along. Dads in the picture, he's studying to be a pastor.
In September I start making basic reaction shorts videos, in 2 months I grow my channel from 106 subscribers to over 3000, felt good but also felt bad since I wasn't really making anything valuable. I switch to funny moments gameplay, a slow start but I had enough experience to know what thumbnails I needed to get a decent clickthrough rate. Bad retention though.
I don't remember how I came upon it but in September I most likely watched a YT short where someone recommended and explained a bit about Fastlane millionaire. I read it then do nothing with the info.
A month and a half later I read it again and join the Fastlane forum. I find a thread where a member was talking about getting his first client. He recommends $100 mill Offers! AMAZING BOOK
I start watching Alex Harmozi's content on you, he talked about instead of trying to achieve this elusive feeling of total happiness, to just accept the anger or sadness.
He also talks about waking up at 5 am so I decided to try it out. Wowie it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would!
I started watching a youtube named Hamza, I built my daily schedule because of his recommendation
It's day 3 of the schedule now and even though I haven't followed it perfectly I've done a lot more good for my health and work ethic than I ever had before!
- let's take a break to go back to my fasting journey
I don't remember exactly when I started but around this time I felt the drive to up my fasting regimen and decided to only eat once every other day. the only time I eat in a row is Friday and Saturday. Worked out well, I haven't broken this plan. And What is my weight today... (Drum roll)
I went from 348 to 305 and still dropping!
-
Let's Get To The Music - Does CENTs work for music?
I started thinking about the things I knew how to do and whether it would be enough to start a business.I settled on music because I was able to mostly Justify it
Cents - Control
The moment an artist signs to a label they lose control, they gain resources but at a loss of thousands to millions depending on how much value they can generate and the audience they can build.
Russ is a good example of an artist who follows the commandment of Control
He stayed independent and was able to make hundreds of thousands just from streams, which a lot of artists complain about because they don't get much money since they gave up control.
cEnts - Entry
It's very easy to make music but it's not easy to make very good music.
A lot of the entry points to becoming a successful music artist in regard to streaming are social media marketing based. Many artists are on TikTok and some have grown full careers thanks to the platform.
This was the commandment I felt iffy about.
My advantage is the years of music-making skills I've built up in combination with the 3d animation skills I built.
With these skills, I've started creating mini TikTok music videos that use a lot of flashy camera movement, text, contrast, and colors to hold people's attention!
Literally, no one else is doing what I'm doing because of the years needed to be able to create these, and that is why I believe I have an Entry advantage over other artists!
Here's a link to one of those videos if you want to see what I'm talking about: bit.ly/3HkKJpT
ceNts - Need
My understanding in regards to music is that someone will pick up and drop artists constantly so there's always a need, not really a deep hunger but based on the narrative around an artist and the music they create. The need can be cultivated as a person hears them over and over again and eventually want to learn about them and share their music.
Not very straightforward forward but I like to think of it this way, no one needed Beethoven until he proved it to them no one needed Kanye until he proved it to them.
cenTs - Time
Right now it's all about building awareness and cultivating a community through posting with authenticity in mind.
When I've built the following that streams my music, then it's about having a deep catalog of quality music for the community. Stream dollars come in from a deep catalog.
When that catalog exists can slow down my music production travels, and post as I like.
centS - Scale
I'll continue making music adding to what I have and can earn. I also plan on creating products after I've grown as an artist, at that point I will be the marketing team.
What Am I Doing Now
I watched a video by Dameon Keys showing how to grow an artist's account in seven days only by posting 15 or so clips about an artist using the formula- music
- moving visuals
- attention-grabbing text
So I'll be testing that out next week.
I also read a thread talking about how shorts, TikToks, and reals are a coin flip. A Fastlaner uses this knowledge to their advantage and flips more coins.
I'm uploading 21 videos over the course of 7 days, 3 videos a day. I'll be uploading on 5 youtube channels, 5 tiktoks, and 5 facebook/Instagram channels.
315 coin flips!
I'll update yall sometime in the next week or 2!
Until then, Happy Fastlaning!
Your pal, Nvikelo (Va-Kay-Low)!
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