How To Succeed In Your Music Career (and why it sucks) 

I stopped making my own music and just collaborated with others in 2014 - 2021, after streaming obliterated my entire game plan. I suspect I wasn't alone in this. I was ultimately idealistic and unwilling to do the shit work. Then, my song was placed in Walking Dead (S10xE21). That 2012 song (which of course i loved and was proud of) sat dormant for nearly 10 years. It went from 0 listens for a full 2 years to full explosion. I tried to make the most of it's success by firing back up my business attempts, but ultimately, I went in the wrong direction. I just didn't know what I was doing. I kept songwriting through these dormant period, as songwriting is totally easy and joyous for me (I suspect this is the same for you too?). I'm now in the process of a total rebrand. I went into the studio (for drums) and got 22 songs started. I'm doing almost everythign myself and I am an INDIE now. I'm happy I found the indepreneur pro plan, and I'm hoping that I can get to the point (sooner rather than later) where I can make my re-brand a reality. I'm in the middle of my training. I don't know why I'm writing here. Perhaps because I just felt amongst friends here - in this quest - to carve my notch in stone that I offered something worthwhile to this planet; that my life has meaning beyond my personal satisfaction; and hopefully connect with others on a deeper level.

every kid in high school interested in ANYTHING should have to watch this

A hard truth but an important one. Everyone is full of motivation when they're in that "uniformed optimism" stage, but you can spend a long time in the valley of despair if you're not willing to put the work in! Love this content, keep it coming

I haven't put out any music for a year, I just haven't had any motivation for a long time. However I recently started listening to the audiobook "The War of Art" by Stephen Pressfield. In his book he talks about what he refers to as the "Resistance", a force inside you that makes you put off doing the things you want to do creatively. It was really making me look at everything a different way. Then this video popped up in my notifications and it couldnt have been better timing. Synchronicity even. Thanks for this video.

LOVE IT!! I actually really want to share this video with some of my musician colleague friends in the hopes that they will truly get the message that you are presenting here. But I know that they are already unwilling to do the things that stuck now, so watching this video will likely not change their mind set. I love you guys you are super awesome keep going and stay Indie! 😀🎹🎵🤟🎊

There's a lot of things that bring me down as an artist, but the fact that this video only has 6.6k views at the time of viewing this brings me down a ton also. It's so well done, and so much effort went into it....what the hell do I have to offer thee world, ya know?

That last hyper rapid edit made me feel sick. 😂 been paying for membership for about 3 years but haven’t logged in precisely because of this. Tapping back in now. Recommend this group as a good psychology narcissism test. Because when you really realise what it takes to be successful at music (big big success) it is f****** awful. Keep going guys 🎉😂 great video

Thanks for this video! Going through the suck, really sucks but if you can believe in the process, you won't regret it. This video is a reminder that the things that suck are what make what you really want truly valuable. 🏆

You’re the best Kyle! I’ve learned so much from you over the years❤️‍🔥 And I badly needed this one. According to James Clear I am currently at The Valley of Disappointment in my yield curve. Gotta keep moving forward!

This video rocks!! The message in this video comprises one of the best lessons any indie artist could hear and subscribe to. This is as "real" as it gets! Well done Kyle!! 👍👍

Nah, I don’t wanna, I think I’ll just make music that’s so good it’ll “speak for itself”😅 lol great video!

Boredom good, fun bad. Got it 👍🏾

Expectations managed . Thank you. Btw you are easily the most honest of the bunch..and I appreciate it.

Man, this video is excatly what I needed.

what a great great man! we appreciate your time as always 🙏🏾💯

I needed this thank you for the call out.

Mate you are DAMNED good at doing things that suck! Pleasure to watch. And yes it IS inspiring!

Lowkey you're spitting marketing game and I'm here for it lol I'm def gonna revisit this in the near future!

I’m on year one and I had some small goals I’m ready to go bigger

This video should be required viewing for all artists. There are several truths in this video. Well done.

🔥Dope content. Thanks for talking so candidly and simple - wishing you all the best and everyone who reads this!

Needed to hear this today. You rock!

Ah yes, exactly what I want to hear and don't want to hear at the same time. Thanks for this, Circa.

So true. I've been doing all the business since 1996, and have resisting it until very recently

This is one of the best motivational videos out there not just for musicians but anyone who has big dreams

Thanks for this bad ass content!!

I really needed to hear this. I was confused why i was not enjoying music task but I see they’re not meant to be enjoyable. Its supposed to suck 🤯💡 Gotta get back to doing stuff that sucks. Thanks Circa!

Yep you're 100% correct... integrity... and pretty much all famous musicians don't have it after they signed that contract... i knocked back a contract years ago because what I had to do to get the fame and money... I'm outta here... and while I'm not rich and famous, I do have my own pride and integrity intact... but that's me, some people aren't happy or content being just small game... but at the end of the day, even the simplest thing in life come with a price, it's just how much a price we are willing to pay... I've been a pro muso for 30 years... and to this day most of us gigging artists are still waiting up to a month to 6 weeks to get paid for that gig we did... I can obviously only speak for my country of Australia... but that's pretty much how it works here in Oz if you get a gig... it's a 4 to 6 week period to get that payment after you did the gig... any other normal job here in Australia is usually a week or 2 to get paid, but the music game is totally different, and if you kick up a storm about it, then you get a bad rep... so you put up with it, to get those paid gigs... like I said, everything comes with a price... and the higher the bar you set, the higher the price and your integrity... it is what it is...

One of the best “artist tips” videos I’ve ever seen.

I just made a little video with basically the same idea, *except* you offered a solution. I will try to keep this in mind.

This video and the principles in it will forever stay in my brain when I face resistance in my career or feel unwilling to perform exceptionally high. It takes a certain work ethic to excel in this industry and this video breaks down exactly why. Love it guys you rock!

Thanks for this video I'll be remembering it when I'm filing out long PRO/Admin registrations spreadsheets and other monotonous tasks for my little label. Much harder than making music.

Atreyu!!!!! (I came back to watch) Yes yes yes to all this, I'm the only musician I've ever met who is willing to do all this stuff, and now I feel like less of an idiot for spending all those hours doing weird boring tasks. Hooray! Thank you :) ps been catching up with the podcast during my gym sessions lately - another useful activity that sucks!! - and the episodes are GOLD. Thanks for those too.

Circa. You are fuckin spot on man. This should be required watching for every musician. Loving this honest input on the industry.

Software developers mouths watering over your 7-8 hour process. If it's a recurring thing, I'm curious what hurdles would keep a dev from automating out your clicks and keystrokes. I know you just used that as an example and it's kind of beside the point.

That was amazing! Editing was great and hilarious. Perfect dose of motivation and shock with reality. Thank you!

Love thisssss, thank you.

Quite relevant for me - thank you 🎸🤘🎧

Great post, great message & timing w/this video🙌🏾. I really needed to hear this TODAY!

Thank you for the awesome knowledge!

🌻shining a light on this life of mine. being obsessive and a workaholic helps.

me and my bro always say were gonna b ahead because we do the little tedious sht that no one else is willing to do. It pays in the long run 💯💯💯

You guys are so very useful for all emerging artists. Dropping actual educated knowledge

Have you ever tried scripting this stuff with something easy to learn, like python or something? The time you learn to utilize scripting and automating these tasks (if you do data entry often), it would create some significant operational efficiency. Just a thought. Cheers

I needed to be reminded of this today. Thank you!

Great video Circa!!!

This was a great reminder that I'm the one doing most of the tedious suck stuff, as my husband is the one who creates and performs the music. 😅

The one thing I know I need to get better at is social media - that's 'the suck' for me. Looking for better ways to batch produce content so I can be more efficient with my time.

I can't watch this video right now cos I'm elbow deep in doing my music biz accounts - I hope this scintillating task is covered here, Circa!! I'll be back...my spreadsheet is calling...

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Go Hard! - NBL

Very truthful! Thanks for the advice

Not gonna lie. Even the sucky stuff is cool. Like sending the emails, filling out paperwork, passing out flyers etc. It sucks, but also it's exciting when something catches. Like someone hits you up from a flyer or you get booked for an interview from an email or a royalty payment comes in cuz you registered your shows last year. It's totally worth the suckiness when you do it right

Thank you so much for this video, I have a question. I have decided that I'll make video essays (& tutorials) about topics of interest to me along with releasing music so that I can funnel more people from those videos to my music. I also need to strategize and understand the art of short form content. This will require me to become a competent video editor, writer & musician while being a magnificent accountant and manager at the same time. But I worry. I keep worrying all the time. What if it doesn't work? And then the imposter syndrome comes in.

Do the work!!

Awesome advice! Thanks Kyle !

Sometimes we just need a little kick in the pants. Thanks for the pep talk Kyle!

Good reminder man ! Gotta embrace the suck

Great vid, thanks guys 🎉🎉🎉

Great video editing!

So good 🙌

It's going to be hard yes, but if we knew it would work, would we do it?! If it's possible, then the hard work is exciting. It'll be boring yes-- but you'll remember that what you do now is working on the future you want!

Ay bro, you are hilarious. I love all of your videos. Even a 4th grader can understand

This reminds me of mark manson’s shit sandwich analogy. In life, you choose your shit sandwich - the good stuff and the bad, you can never just choose one. You choose what you want to endure

Good video you really motivated me when i thought this video does the opposite, because i thought to myself: isnt that with every job? That you have to do things that suck every gahdamn day in and out even if you start to hate them after some time? So why not do it with something you love and is beautiful (music) ? I imagine that to be much more exciting than a 9-5 job :D Also if most people quit cause they are too lazy to do the things that suck then isnt that automatically making it easier for us ?

Good point but i would argue that you could automate this task with some Python and SQL code, depending on what you have set up. But yes, no free lunch here, you either have the programming skills or brute force it. I absolutely agree with the general thesis. I'm a musician (

Wow this video helped me

Smart and hilarious.

I could write a script to automate that scraping pretty quickly for you.

13:04 - 13:28 is a perfect encapsulation of the inner turmoil of today's musicians. 😂😂😂......😭😭

As a developer former business analyst / data entry hog, if you’re doing that much typing to get what you need from unique ids then you don’t have the right tools/processes in place.

Best video you've done... and I'm a customer 😅

Circa and the Nuggets of Truth.

guys, next time ask me. i'll automate it for you.

🖤✨

I hope this Comment isn't considered faux pas or in bad taste, but is there anyone (or, any organization) that gets paid to do "the suck"? Are there any successful "Indepreneurs" that would consider doing this professionally? Please reply.

This video basically serves as the gateway drug to Python.

Click the button!

it might as well be a sigmoid curve not exponential no growth -> fast growth -> saturation

*1,027 indie pro members

hey whats the background instrumental called 6:00-7:41 ?

yup... It's mostly the boring work that does the job.

hold up so where is my code lol

This is great! Totally sucks!

learn how to make macros in xl

Can’t u just make a bot for it tho😅

I often wonder about this for artists. I know I wouldn't have the talent level to make it worth the extra grunt work. Interesting points because there are tons of talented people out there with even meaningful lyrics - yet so much CRAP on the freaking radio and streaming. And stop torturing that poor hamster for your feed.

you're lying or ignorant of generating coupons it is an unbelievably simple and routine task to generate a unique chunk of data per user are you coding your own platform? if you have a software engineer, this is dead simple. teenagers can do it unless your problem is your mailing list info isn't easily accessible?

Dude, you need to learn python scripting...

This video is pure snit. Dumb and obvious. Duh.

This is very real. Thanks Circa!

Thanks for this🤍

I can write you a script and slap it in a web page to do that email nonsense that you are spending 8 hours on.