will.i.am on How to Make Money with Music 

"People forgot that the music industry is really technology." "Publishing was the first music industry." He makes some excellent points in this clip.

This is best four minutes of business education I have ever had!

He makes sense. A lot of people out here promoting big corporate brands like Spotify, Amazon, Google, bandcamp, Cdbaby, Distrokid, Tunecore, soundcloud but those companies aren't giving nearly enough back in terms of the royalties they're grabbing from you. Highway robbery.

Its so true when you actually think about what he's saying. I'm a music producer and I make money from my music being in games at the moment. People aren't buying the game for the music, the music is just an asset of the game to make it better.

Now that's a music history lesson. That's the most realistic thing I've heard so far my whole life within the new music industry, Thank you will.I.am.

Hes really telling it how it is. This is the only interview I've heard of someone spitting BLUNT facts on the industry that I can sit here and watch happen myself. Ya feel me?

What makes the recorded music industry so hard for many understand is there was a brief "golden period" in the 1980s and 1990s when a few high profile artists with relatively lucrative contracts (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Madonna, etc.) actually did make millions purely from record sales. But they were golden, polka-dotted unicorns (too rare to mention). It was never like that for most.

This dude is so intelligent; he put out great information for aspiring artists.

Wow he knows his history.

Yes in the modern music industry it is so. But music from the origin was use to tell stories, educate, worship and as therapy, a tool for healing. LETS NOT FORGET THESE PURPOSE ALSO.

Finally a big artist who tells it how it is, smart man, I just don't understand how models like Google Play or iTunes even keep up, EVERYBODY just listens to music for free in RU-vid or Spotify

I go everywhere for music! RU-vid, Shoutcast, Soundcloud, Beatport, Spotify, and still buy cds! There are some if us out here who go more on than just youtube.

Its a reality as a musician. There is nothing better then getting paid to create man

i watched this 5 years ago when it came out. having learned a lot more about the industry and grown as an artist and creator I actually understand everything he is saying now

Thank you, Will.i.am! This makes me think of music making in a whole new way.

He is a bright young man.

it's all about branding yourself as an artist nowadays, an album is no more than a supplementary commercial to promote yourself, you have to brach out to other supportive industries to survive

I hope this reaches Will I Am you just changed my life.

Man what he said is so true There are sellouts out there and then there are the people in music who love the passion so much to hear and love the fans who listen to their music Share music never keep it to yourself

huge facts and another testament to how you can't just go in with blind passion as an artist. understanding and knowledge are your best friend in any industry. learn the rules so you can calibrate yourself accordingly

At first im like "this guy dont know" And then he started talking about depends and pianos and venues....he is SPOT. ON. Really hits hard.

I think I might know a thing or 2..then I listen to this man reply to question and I am flattened!

The most intelligent breakdown Ive heard

it’s very rare to find bands that write and perform their own songs. Everything has largely been decoupled - songwriters write songs, producers produce / make the song, singers sing the songs, session musicians play the songs etc. Everything is in a silo.

you have always the live show, you are payed for performing and there you can sell your cd, t-shirts, etc. downloads come second. if you sell good, noted for live show. BTW... Always look to make hits, every day. never stop. this us your job. No good music? go and have a regular job, before you are 50 and become homeless... good luck to all my brothers and sisters out there. ( look for inspiration, create) BTW...it's only necessary to be right with one song. if ut goes on radios, top ten.. the writer gets around 2 to 3 millions. I hope this motivates you... :-D

Wow! This was real Music Education 101. They don't this in school. Smh

THIS IS WHY ARTISTS NEED TO KNOW MORE THAN THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC, AN HALF OF'EM DONT KNOW THAT!! YOU NEED TO KNOW THE HISTORY OF MUSIC, SO LEARN YOUR CRAFT AN YOU WILL KNOW HOW TO MAINTAIN LONGEVITY IN THIS INDUSTRY!! NICE VIDEO POSTED BY THE WALL STREET JOURNAL!!

Good point. Music sells everything but itself.

Some great info in this video if you listen closely & know your music.

I love watching these kind of interviews. My nosy ass is curious about what's going on behind the scenes. I feel bad for artists. They ain't makin' no money.

Though I'm not a big fan of his stuff but dude makes good points here! Well said!

This guy is authentic and really brilliant. He has a sense of History, technology and the future.

I love you man

Thx dude, respect. People *need* to hear this

This clip runs through my mind daily.

all musicians need to become BUSINESS MUSICIANS. sharing this on ProfessorSavings: Daily Money Buzz

What?! Wow, glad to know! Feels good to gain a deeper understanding to something I'm investing in so much. Thanks!

That is a very enlightening bit of information. Thanks

Word! been down with Will since "weekend".

Such gold thank you 🙏

He hit the nail on the head with that one.

At first I didn't think this aged well, but this advice and perspective is pretty timeless

Ingenious truth. Totally great perspective !

BRILLIANT WORDS OF WISDOM. AND HE'S RIGHT

WOW! I don't how to thank this man Thank you bro

Timeless info and a great history lesson. :)

Wise shit from a man i respect!

Wow!! Very enlightening!

I was just commenting on Will's stance on spotify/pandora/etc - no matter where you sell physical/download copies of your music, the new age of streaming services are nothing to dismiss, as he does at the start of the interview. For such a current & established artist, I'm baffled to hear his disregard to the new age of music distribution. For new, unknown artists, streaming services one of the few hopes of gaining enough notoriety to sell you hard copies through other channels. But maybe I misunderstood...

I’m so impressed with his mind. On the same level as Tariq Trotter (black thought), but a completely different vibe. Respect to the moon

Excellent interview! Thanks wiil.i.am

he is so smart.

Most informative 4 minutes I've had on youtube

Wow that was very insightful real talk and I'm just now starting to get use to how this RU-vid works an such to promo my music but I found this very informative for me and my field of work in music....

Straight to the point

So true.

WOW WOW WOW HE IS BRILLIANT; ***hits replay**

Thank you for your review.

Came to hate Agree with everything he says Left with a helping of humble pie

Thank you

Awesome insight!

Very good point. great info.

I think he means you don't need a specific 'streaming' service as YT is basically doing the same thing, I never need to use those other services such as spottily. Music is sadly just used to sell other products and market brands. The art of songwriting of any depth seems to be rare today, as is so much easier to make a beat in half an hour.

The only video that explains the truth among all the other videos on the topic !

Huh. Mind expanded! I'd never thought of it that way but it makes sense, Shot Will.i.am :)

This is amazing, i could learn a lot from him

Great advice...

He was so right, since in the last year Google Play Music became RU-vid music

Yo, this made so much sense!!!

this is an interesting view on the industry thanks

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM A RICH YOUNG MAN

(Subscribe)( if you want Latest new tunes first) hyperurl.co/Chezuan

It gets harder now.. Because there are a lot of independent artists discovered here on RU-vid... And the competition is chaos. Because the access or platform is free and fast. Unlike the old days, they promote album they go to stations.. They become a sensation with little competition.. Only those signed artists from a record label. But now, anything and anyone can be a hit. In a click. Instant fame.. Longevity is unpromised... But the beauty is music appreciation and culture is shared . Downfall for those who wanna earn money from it... Sometimes cover versions gets more attention than original.. Copyright..or producing own shows will make u a star.. Or reality shows..

Everything he says makes sense we may not like it but its true

Well that was a bit more informative than I thought it would be.

I love will I am.

Whoa, that was deeper than I first expected

This conversation change how I saw music

he makes some good points. music isn't only technology, it's also a business.

That's why you see celebrities, doing indorsments also, you get paid to advertise other companies.

Wow! Great insight.

Will i.am speaks the truth . The person who wrote the song is the one who gets paid every time it is played on the radio , TV, Movies etc. He also gets paid every time it is recorded by anyone . Prime example . David Porter, who lives in my city , (Memphis TN), wrote songs with the late Isaac Hayes. One of the songs they had written back in the 60 s , the blues brothers ( Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi) re-recorded again in the late 80s early 90s. There version sold over a million copies. Bottom line, Mr. Porter is a multi millionaire today because of songs he wrote back in the 60s. Now what year is this? lol

Advice Beyond Music!!!!!!

Interesting stuff, he seems smart

Great advice

Very insightful perspective!

whoa this is life changing

that's actually a really interesting way of seeing things

Love his view.

Great content

he speaks the truth!

Now this is a guy who understands

Interesting insight!

I love what he says here, but in 2018 things are kind of different. A paid subscription music service guarantees that money will come in every month from users, and a percentage of that money will go to the owners or providers of the recordings uploaded to that service (Usually labels or independent artists that upload the music themselves) so, there is a cash flow that’s real and you can actually monitor it if you are uploading music to these services, revenue is rapidly growing on streaming platforms, and recordings are becoming more valuable, so if you own your recordings and you upload them to a streaming service, these recordings will generate revenue for life (if people keep listening over time) what he says about diversifying your income is true, but let’s not forget how big streaming is getting, and the opportunity to make a lot of money by making a fair amount of streams (1M plays are worth around 4K USD on Spotify only) is bigger than ever, that’s why labels keep making a lot of money, cause they buy the recordings from the artist and upload them to streaming services, owning almost all of the revenue that comes from these platforms, that’s basically how record deals work today, and that’s why signed artists make more money from shows and brand endorsements (like beats by dre) than they do from record sales and streaming, but on the other side independent artists that own their recordings can make money much more easily than they did before, without having to print physical copies of their music and being accesible to anyone in the world, even RU-vid pays you for generating plays with your content, the difference is that RU-vid doesn’t pay you with subscription money from users, they pay you ad revenue (money from the announcements that they place on your video) so what he says about artists not making money out of the publicity you hear after a song on the radio, its actually the other way around with RU-vid, and yes, it is free to use, but the ads are there, and somebody’s paying for them, and you can make money out of that. I’d say is the best time to be an independent artist and use all of this platforms to get a direct income from the internet alone, there’s people making a lot of money being independent on streaming services, and it is really cheap to set up. Great video, but things are different than they were on 2013 :)

I always wondered about this .

Those are some sweet shades. Will I am.

Did not expect that answer

will I am is the master mind behind music

thanks

this is good education for me....Amazing