Things You Shouldn’t Pay For As A Musician
There are a lot of things you’ll need to invest in while growing your music career, however there are certain things you should never pay for and I’m here to clear that up for you.
It all started with a wonderful tweet by my girl nora rahimian:
I decided to write this because damnit, I’m tired of seeing artists get preyed on and scammed out here because you’re so hungry for exposure! The madness ain’t gonna stop until artists stop falling for it.
Let me break this down for y’all:
Interviews — I don’t do PR anymore unless it’s for my artists however when I did, I NEVER had to pay for a blog write up or an interview (and I’ve gotten artists on some of the biggest outlets). I OVERstand paying for people’s time however paying for a write up is just cringe to me. If you love the music then you’ll share it, period. If not, then that is considered an Advertisement which should be stated up front. Paying for a reputable publicist, different story. Paying for 1 outlet? Nah fam. Argue with ya momma on that one.
Performance slots — that’s a no no. While there may be very few instances where this has worked in the past, it’s still an ugly practice that has to stop. I’ve thrown a ton of events/showcases including official festival stages and never not once have I charged anyone to perform. I didn’t always have the money to pay, but I never charged an artist to perform. Instead of paying for a slot on a showcase I would much rather you get with a few of your artist homies and book the venue yourself and pack it out. You’ll get more bang for ya buck and you’ll learn how to put on your own event in the process.
Paying an “A&R” — please don’t pay for someone to listen to your music! Because WHY? What are you looking to get out of it? You are not gonna get a record deal just by having a meeting with an A&R, you get a record deal by building traction. If you’re simply looking for feedback on your music, that’s not something you need to pay for. I understand that listening to music and giving REAL feedback takes time, so this isn’t a slight to those who are doing it with a real purpose and who are genuinely trying to help, however there are just so many other things that are more worth your investment. As an artist, you should be more intuitive and see how people are REACTING to your music. You’ll be able to tell if it’s good or not just by how people react to it when you share it. The rest of the feedback should happen behind the scenes before the music is even out. If you’re focused on your craft and you surround yourself with others who really do this, you should be able to get the feedback you need without paying a stranger online to listen to it.
Lists of emails/names — this isn’t the worst thing on this list buuut I don’t think it’s necessary. You can find contacts on your own and it’s really about building genuine relationships anyway so even if you have the contact, without the relationship you’re basically at square one anyway.
Placements — I’m not totally clear on what Nora meant by this, but if she’s referring to placements on a mixtape (like that major scam that was happening over the last few years where mainstream artists were soliciting mixtape slots for payments of $500+) then I’m gonna have to say, don’t do it! The outcome is just never worth it.
Being in a writing session — I didn’t realize people charged for this (lol)but if it’s a real writing session you’re either getting paid to be there or you’re getting paid on the back end (or both). Now it’s different if it’s a songwriting workshop where you’re getting help writing songs or if it’s a big retreat where you’re paying for a hotel, cool. But a regular writing camp? Eh. Issa no for me.
Another one that I’ll add is playlists. If someone is asking you to pay to be on their playlist, kindly decline. In my opinion, the only playlists worth getting on are the ones that are curated by real music lovers who genuinely want to discover new music and share it with the world as those people tend to have real trusted followings and their playlists actually get listened to. Now on the other hand, I’m not against paying for someone to help you get on a bunch of playlists by submitting your music to a ton of curators. You definitely have to be careful with this as there are a lot of scams out there, but if you find a legit company (or person) who is willing to put the time in to sending your music out to playlist curators, I don’t see anything wrong with it. In that case, you’re paying for the time and effort the person is putting in, vs paying to be on a single playlist. It’s just like with what I mentioned earlier about paying for a blog post vs paying a reputable publicist.
The last one I’ll add is paying for features (meaning paying for a bigger artist to be on your song). But hear me out on this one, because I don’t want you to think that paying for a feature is always a bad thing. It isn’t. However, many artists do this way too soon and they don’t handle their business behind it so they end up either not being able to release the record (because the artist’s label doesn’t clear it) or they release it but get absolutely no support from the featured artist (which defeats the purpose of paying for the feature in the first place!). So tread lightly with this one, as it could definitely be beneficial if done right, buuut you definitely don’t want to do it too soon and you always want the support of the artist if you do pay for a feature (ex: you want the artist to share it on their socials, be an official artist on Spotify, and maybe even shoot a music video with you for the song). You should actually have paperwork that states those things too. So as an indie artist, I would focus on growing your audience first, so that you have more leverage and in the meantime collab with other artists who are more on your level (network sideways!).
By this point, you might be wondering, “well what the hell should I pay for then?” but this article is already long enough so subscribe and stay tuned for the next one as I’ll be breaking that down soon too!
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk lol Overall, use your discretion, do your research when looking for opportunities. Please don’t fall for the BS. I want you to win!
Love, Breezy
