It Used to be About "Music"

I'm always hunting through all the garbage on YouTube to find decent mixing and recording tips from people who actually know what they're talking about.  In doing so, I've run across a lot of "how to make money in music" videos and they all seem to have one thing in common:  they're not about music.

Whether it's Rick Beato, Mary Spender, Joe Gilder, etc., they all seem to talk about getting musicians heads around the modern day 'music business'.  A common thread is that they start out with the question most of us have which is "how do I get my music heard in today's f***ed up world?"  What I've gathered is that, well, no one knows the answer because they all end up making their money in doing online classes, YT videos talking about whatever topic, reviews, and so on.  And, then they all talk about it like "duh, here's the solution...you just need to embrace it."  Hmm.

Here's the problem...  All of that's fine and dandy in my opinion IF that's what you want to do...create videos for YT talking about the latest guitar pedal, how to record vocals, some new trick for thicker bass and drums, endless odd cover song variations, and so on.  But, guess what...you're music is still not heard; in fact, I'd argue you're taken less seriously as a musical artist by doing so.  I mean, does anyone own actual albums by Rick Beato?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  Instead, he's thought of as some guy that has a lot to say on other people's music and how to go about doing things but I don't think anyone actually cares about his actual musical work.  To add more injury to the situation, we celebrate the guy for doing so.  Again, hmm.

Now, don't get me wrong - I have nothing against Rick Beato or Mary Spender, etc.  My point is that if you want your music heard, what they're doing 100% does not accomplish that task...so rather than all of us rolling over like a bunch of dead dogs, saying in defeat, "...okay...you're right...I give...I'll do YT reviews...", instead we need to band together (pun intended) and come up with a way to make this work to our advantage.

I actually have ideas on how to try this but the problem is that it takes money, and I don't have any :)  We need someone who's got extra funds to invest, who cares about these things, and is willing to try something both new and old.  Let's face it...the old model, with all its flaws, worked better, no?  This new Spotify streaming model, pretty much everything since what I'd call the Napster fiasco (remember how promising people thought that was?  Well...), has been a pile of you know what and we've all been hurt by it, both musicians/creators and listeners.  We all suffer...so why not put our heads together and do something about it, and actually try something productive?

That's the thought I'll leave you with today.  I'm open to any and all ideas but I'm pretty sure no one wants to watch me do videos on how to play R.E.M.'s "Driver 8".  Geez.