I JUST WANNA BE FAMOUS!

Over the last three decades, the way the world looks at music has changed tremendously. This includes both the artist and the business of music.

There are two kinds of artists. There are artist, people who started long before thinking anyone might pay for what they love to do. Obsessively in the bedroom night after night, skipping school, honing their own version of music. They need it.

Then you have industry artists. They think of music as a series of career moves. They are in it for the fame, the travel, the money, the glory, the fans, and the adulation. They started by looking at stars on TV and in magazines and saying “I want some of that”.

It’s those industry artists that major labels are there for. Majors are not art institutions. It’s all about the bottom line. It doesn’t matter if they love what you do or hate what you do. If you sell, you’re in, if you don’t sell, you’re out. If you sign to a major and expect to be cherished, protected, nurtured and developed, you’re lost or you have very bad people around you advising you. If you go to the right indie guy, you will be loved and cherished and you will be promoted.

I have come to realize two things:

1. Most artists do not want to do it themselves, maybe they just aren’t wired that way, may they’re lazy, maybe they think they need big money to make it really happen or maybe they’re just getting bad advice.

2. They don’t care about making a bad deal. They just want to be famous. They want fame so badly they will sign anything, and I do mean anything. They don’t believe guys like you and me when we tell them it’s stupid. They want to be famous!