Is There Something Wrong?

Today I was surfing through YouTube looking at other artists videos and seeing if I can come up with any inspiration as I always do. And, I came across this one video that I noticed had over 500,000 views. I watched it. Good video. Well shot. It was a quality video. The music, on the other hand, was horrendous! I couldn't understand how they got so many views on this video and so many positive comments. So, the next step was to go to the artists You Tube channel and see what they're really doing. When I did I noticed that there were major company ads on his videos, so I know he's getting paid.

He has over 140,000 subscribers and almost 2 million channel views. I figured he was signed so I read further and discovered that he's not. He clearly states that he is unsigned and shooting all the videos himself, as well as making his own music. Now, I'm not one to hate on anybody for coming up quick, but I have to admit, that little strand of jealousy creeps in for a while until I can get a handle on it. Because, if you're like me, you want to know how this dude got out there so fast and so big. So before any of you get the wrong idea let's just set the record straight...I'm not hating on this guy. Now that we've got that out of the way, I just wanted to project a couple of questions I had in my head at the time I was viewing this guys channel.

1) How is he doing all this?

2) How is he doing all this?

Yeah...I asked myself that question twice, because I didn't get it. I mean the videos were really good. I'll give him that. Very well done. I just don't get the music. It doesn't sound like anything you haven't heard before, which isn't that big a deal considering most artists do what's been done before only with their own twist on it. It's only a matter of 'how well are you doing the same old thing'? That was something I couldn't wrap my head around. And, before any of you start thinking of what that could be I couldn't help but send a message to the guy asking him how he does it all.

Now, I didn't say anything like, "Man, how are you doing this with such horrible, average music?" or, "How did you get so many subscribers being so corny?" I simply asked him if he was willing to share what he did and how he did it as an independent artist. Because anybody knows that this is the hardest industry around to make a decent living from. Especially as an independent artist. I've been doing it for over 20 years and, to be honest, the industry hasn't treated me all that well. So, when I see kids like this coming out of nowhere, and are getting all kinds of publicity that don't have a whole lot of musical talent, there has to be another factor behind it. Possibly a good business plan, which is what I'm all about. So, if I see that there's a good business plan behind the madness I want to get to know those people. Because, I am always thinking, "where did I go wrong? What could I have done to get that many subscribers or views? Do I really have to sell out to get ahead?" That's not the case at all, because there are many artists who are not selling out that are very successful at what they do.

So, I know that's not the answer. Although, as an artist, it does cross your mind every now and then. So, what is it then? I know that most of you reading this would probably say something like, "Just hang in there!" or, "You'll get there someday!" Those comments are all fine, but it doesn't get me the 1 million plus YouTube views that I need. I guess my question should be, how do I open up more access the world then what I have now? How do I get more of the world's attention? Because time isn't slowing down for me and I'm not getting any younger. So, I need to do this yesterday. I just don't want this venture in life to have "woulda" and "coulda" tagged on the end of it. It's a struggle to make it in this industry. And anybody who's in it knows, it's frustrating at times. But, I couldn't see myself doing anything else. It's all for the love.

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