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[MUSIC]

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Hey everybody, welcome back.

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[MUSIC]

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This is fans of Power Music.

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My name is Taylor Williams.

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[MUSIC]

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I'm the host of the podcast as well as the writer for our blog that reviews independent

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and unsigned artists from around the world.

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And we're getting deeper and deeper into the podcast space and I thought it would be a

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good idea for me to introduce myself a little bit and talk a little bit about my background,

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but also give you an idea as to what I believe to be true about the industry,

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some things that you cannot control, some things that you can control,

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and then talk about the future with respect to Web3 value for value, lightning.

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All that fun stuff that's going on with websites like the podcast index and wave lake and things of that nature.

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So briefly, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

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So I've been playing in bands professionally for about 40 years now.

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Sounds crazy, but it's good.

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Lucky enough to study piano composition in college,

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lucky enough to study jazz piano, jazz guitar,

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lucky enough to spend about four years on the road, literally four years out of a suitcase,

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a couple thousand gigs, probably 20 major studio albums.

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Really lucky to work at some great recording studios at an L.A.

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Capitol Ocean Way Hollywood sound.

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And then I was in Los Angeles from the transition from tape to Pro Tools,

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so that was fascinating to see how that changed the whole industry.

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I was never able to sign a major deal myself, but I definitely signed distribution deals,

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licensing agreements, things of that nature for my compositions.

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And even when I stepped away from the industry, I continued to play in bands around town just for fun

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and all over the country.

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And I've been really lucky to live in a bunch of different parts of the country.

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If you read the blog, hopefully you are a regular reader to the blog,

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you can tell, okay, this guy's got some pretty good knowledge with respect to music theory.

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And I'm very passionate about songwriting.

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And more importantly, I had so many people that helped me when I was coming up through the industry,

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people that supported the bands that I was in, people that put us up when we were on the road,

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that I really feel a responsibility to kind of mentor younger musicians today and help them out.

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And I have found myself in a lot of situations giving advice to younger musicians,

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things you can and can't control.

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People to look out for best practices, methods, albums to listen to, all that kind of fun stuff, right?

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And it's given me a lot of joy because again, I had so many people helping me out when I was young

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that I really feel responsible to give back in that regard.

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So as I get deeper and deeper into the podcast world, I wanted to jot down some thoughts and

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share them with you so that you know who I am as the host and hopefully you'll like it.

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Hopefully you'll kind of appreciate my take and want to keep subscribing and take it from there.

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So having said that, I'm going to read off nine things to you.

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Six of these, you have no control over.

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And I really hope that younger artists, artists that are in their 20s will kind of pick up on some

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of this stuff and I think a lot of the veterans out there will will identify it with this.

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The number one reason why the industry is so hard is there's no barrier to entry to this.

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Yet you and I have no control over this. There's no test of skill, there's no license, there's really

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no experience necessary to start releasing music and to start playing gigs.

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This doesn't exist in the professional world, right?

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Like I can't just go out and call myself a structural engineer because I think steel buildings are cool.

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I can't call myself a chef just because I make a kick ass chicken keev.

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I don't call myself a master plumber because I swapped out the disposal.

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All right, there's no barrier to entry into this.

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And the rise of technology and cheap recording and free software enables anyone to call

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themselves an artist and release music, whether it's good or it's not. Now don't get me wrong, there's been

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some fantastic successes in this realm, right? Billy Eilish, Bailey Zimmerman, Lil Nas, I think

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Post Malone and some respects that, you know, a lot of hip hoppers have come up on SoundCloud and

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Bandcamp and I'm not knocking that, but what I am knocking is it's so easy that too many people

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are doing it. And quite frankly, the majority of the music that's being put out is crap.

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It's poor quality. And I'm not, don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to bag on the artist.

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What I'm saying is the quality of the songwriting is not there. The quality of the recording is not there.

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And you guys that are bust in your ass to put out good music, you see this all the time.

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You'll go around town, you'll see a band and they're like, how the hell they get that kick man?

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Like they're not tight, they're not paying attention, they're drunk on stage, whatever it is.

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Like, or you listen to stuff on Spotify, that's just garbage. Spotify doesn't care, right?

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For the 200 blogs that I've written on Musso Soup, I literally, I probably went three,

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three or four thousand songs on Musso to find 200 that I liked, right? Like there's so much garbage out

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there. So, you know, and as a result, there's millions of songs out there and thousands of artists

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who believe that they are good enough to do this just because they figured out garage band and

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K-Clock and they've, and they've got a couple of SM57s, right? So, and we have no control over that.

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There's no barrier to entry to this. That's number one, you can't control that. There's no barrier to

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entry. Number two, your aunt Karen is an idiot and you can't control it. The general public with

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respect to music, there it is. Yet, you can't control it. And I don't, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying

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to be mean. Here's what I mean by that. False praise feeds the beast.

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And Karen, who is lovely, is, is tone deaf and your aunt Karen can't tell the difference between

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your crappy cousin, Kelly and Taylor Swift. Don't confuse activity with results. And remember that

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the general public knows nothing about the difference between mediocrity and mastery when it comes

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to music. Just like you and I don't know the difference between mediocrity and greatness when

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it comes to those professions that have a high barrier to entry, right? Like there's a lot of four

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core, I call them four-cord trust girls here in Nashville that cannot play a barcord to save their

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life. They know four chords, they move the capo up and down the neck. They can't write a song by

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themselves and they rely too much on trust money, on their looks or whatever. Somebody else is

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going to write the song for them. The general public doesn't know the difference between people who

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have incredible talent and are bust in their ass and somebody who is really mediocre because the

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general public doesn't have the ear for it. And I'm not, please don't misunderstand me, I'm stating a

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fact. I'm not trying to bash the people who are tone deaf and who don't know the difference.

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I'm giving you a straight fact that there's a lot of mediocre bands out there that aren't blazing

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any trails that are just regurgitating old tropes in the public life, laps it up, right? It's a fact

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and we can't control it. But there's so many mediocre bands out there and it's so, and artists

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and it's so easy to record stuff that there's more garbage than there are gems, right? I firmly

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believe, I firmly believe, there's another band out here in the state somewhere or in London or in

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Europe or in Australia. Somebody else has recorded another white album, another dark side of the moon.

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And we'll never hear it. We'll never hear it just because there's so much noise out there and we

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really can't control it. Number three, here's another one that you can't control. Record companies

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make burritos. They don't make art. Record companies make burritos. They are not interested in how good

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the burrito tastes. They're only interested in how many more they can sell with the fewest and cheapest

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ingredients. You as an artist, you are a commodity to them. You're not a treasure and you can't control

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it. It is what it is. It's a fact, right? Now, here's part of it that you can control that's also

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ugly and that is number four, art is a business and it's the ugly truth. Like as much as we all want to

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be touchy-failee, lovy-dovey, or art and it's all about community and moving the ball forward for

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all of humanity, you know, that's the ugly side of it is that it's a business, right? And it contradicts

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the art, the artist in you, but you do have to be aggressive on the business side and try to find

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something that people will relate to and you can do both. You can be good on the business side

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and still be an artist. Actually, understanding business is the easier equation than it is to

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understanding how to be a great artist and trying to be a great artist. The business side is easy.

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There's a lot of aspects that you can't control but you can certainly understand it a hell of a lot

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easier than you can understand why in the hell have I not written a good song? Why was this

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band off tonight, right? Like there are so many mystical and mythical things that go along with being

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an artist, but you have to be good at business because you've got Aunt Karen who's tone deaf,

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who thinks cousin Kelly is amazing, but we all know that cousin Kelly sucks and there's a lot of

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crappy cousin Kelly's out there. So you've got to be good at business to succeed at this and art

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is a business. We wish it wasn't, but it is. There it is, right? And you can't control it. Here's one

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that you can control and this one's gonna, this is like the hard truth of being an artist is that

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for the most part, most artists out there that are trying to make it, they're not digging deep enough

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and they haven't found the message that resonates yet and many respects they're lazy, right?

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You know, whenever you have a song that's done, a song you've written, a song you've tracked in the studio,

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you really need to ask yourself honestly if it's good enough to release. If any part of it should be

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redone, if the time is right to put it out, if it fits in with the message or whatever your

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mantra is, or frankly, you know, if you should throw it away and all of those things should happen

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well after you have tortured yourself through the writing process to make it as absolutely good as can be.

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And you do have control over this part of it. Like, are you, are you being lazy? Or are you digging deep

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enough hard enough to be the best artist that you can possibly be? Are you reading books and ideas

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that you don't agree with to expand your thought process and maybe get some ideas? Are you practicing

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your instrument, learning new scales and chords and extensions and dissecting songs and what not

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to be a better player? Are you writing songs in different genres for other artists, artists, solely

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for the enjoyment of writing and in the process getting better? As a little sidebar, I thought,

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Megan Trainor, I thought I heard something more her dad as she was coming up, her dad's a musician

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and her dad used to say, all right, this week you're going to write a Motown song or this week you're

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going to write a country song this week, you're going to write a blue song. This is that and the other

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thing like this, you know, don't just stay in your lane of what you're comfortable with. Yeah, if

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you're going to be an artist study all aspects of the art, right? So that's my fifth point

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and that and that one you do have some control over. So let's go back over the top five real quick.

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Number one, there's no barrier to entry and you can't control it. Number two,

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Aunt Karen's an idiot. We love her, but she's an idiot. She's tone deaf and she's part of the general

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public and you can't control it. Number three, record companies make burritos. They don't make art.

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You can't control that. Number four, art is a business. You can control the fact that you understand

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business, but art as a business, it is what it is, right? And then number five, are you digging deep

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enough to be the best artist you can be? All right, here's another one that stands out to me with

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respect to the state of the music industry today. YouTube and your church band are absolutely awful.

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They are poor collaborators and they are teaching you the wrong way. It kind of relates to the

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previous idea, but I see a lot of musicians on YouTube and in church who are great in that setting,

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but when the red light is on, when they're in the studio, when they're on, when they're doing a club

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gig or even when they're on tour, they suck just because you can riff like Metallica or a McQuay

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tiner on YouTube does not mean at all that you can play with a band. A band is going to live in

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breathe. Even if that band is playing to a click, to a click, it's going to, the tempo is going to move

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a little bit. The band is going to move a little bit. You got to be able to think on your feet.

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If you're just sitting there playing with YouTube, shredding, yeah, good luck. I have absolutely no

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interest in playing in a band with you. If you can't play in a band, you shouldn't be doing this.

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Number two, and I'm not knocking religion, churches are terrible places to learn how to play in a band

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for two reasons. Number one, it's a safe space. It's not about whether or not the band is any good.

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It's about God in community, right? So you can suck and still be accepted as a great musician,

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which relates to that false praise narrative that I was talking about earlier with respect to

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Aunt Karen. By the way, has Aunt Karen told you about this amazing singer at her church? Well,

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trust me, that singer sucks. But that singer is in a safe space as well as she should be in the church.

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That's what it's about, right? But it gives a sense of false praise. And number two, church music

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directors, nine times out of ten, they're going to beat down dynamics. I should know. I was in a

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Catholic church band for years, right? And you have to shed a lot of those bad habits coming out

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because live bands, live music, it has to breathe. And you can control all of that, right?

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Don't put people in your band that have only played on YouTube. You want to hire church musicians?

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Okay, just know what you're going to get and work with them to become a better artist out in the

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live space. I cannot tell you how many young musicians I've run across who can shred, but they have

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no sense of timing, no sense of community, no sense of playing in a band. And that's because they've

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spent their entire "career" in YouTube or in church. There's no substitute for playing with a band.

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None. Just like there's no substitute for playing on a team if you're in basketball or baseball or

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football, you know? Just because you're great at throwing the football around the neighborhood does

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not mean the Titans are going to, you know, draft you, right? So that's one that you can control.

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That's that you can control. That's number six. Number seven. And I don't think you have a lot of

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control on this, but timing has a lot to do with it. Whether or not you're going to be successful,

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timing has a lot to do with it, all right? The Beatles were in the right place at the right time.

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Were they amazing writers? Absolutely, but they busted their ass over in Hamburg for a long time,

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right? And right place at the right time. Would another band have popped up out of England at the time?

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Yeah, possibly. But they put in the work said that they were in the right place at the right time.

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Metallica in many respects is the same thing, right? Right place at the right time. Like they

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busted their ass, they created their sound. You know, LA was all about the hair metal band and here comes

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four guys down from San Francisco, like band who knew that there was an audience for this. Like we

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were just doing this because we loved it ourselves. And we had some Bay Area people that loved this,

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but you know, and they had to fight for their fan base, but it was a hell of a lot easier than most

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because right place at right time and talent, right? Beatles talented Metallica talent, Taylor Swift

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talented, right place at right time, you know, in the 2008, 2009 when the industry when my space

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had really propped up and the industry was looking for a young female artist, right place at right time.

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Now you can say what you want about her background and what her dad's position has been with respect

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to helping out a career. Absolutely, but the song stand for themselves right place at the right time.

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If she didn't have the talent, she wouldn't be where she is today, right? Don't mistake what I was saying

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about her about her place in the industry. And I don't and but but there's so much of that that you

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can't control because there's more artists that are like, you know, let's go back through some of

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these things I was just talking about. Like I fully believe there's another dark side of the moon out

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there that will never hear because that band was just wrong place, wrong time.

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There's amazing singers around Nashville around Seattle around New York,

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wrong place, wrong time. You can't really control it in many respects. It it goes to my next point,

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which is and this is something that you can't control and that is life is not fair. The world

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owes you nothing. You know, I mean terrible accidents killed beautiful people.

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Plains crash, kids die of cancer. It's awful. It's not fair. It's life.

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You can't control that in many respects. You can't control the time of where you're at in your

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career and where you're at geographically. You just can't, you know. And by the way, I will say that

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if you're depressed because you're not quote unquote famous, then you should really check yourself as

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to whether or not you should be doing this because you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

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The last one and you can't really control this one either and this is more of kind of like a smart-ass

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comment from me is that the final stinger in all of this is that a lot of people will look down

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you for taking this path of trying to be an artist and the world needs artists, the world needs you,

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by the way. Keep fighting. But a lot of people are going to look down you and dissuade you from doing it

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and then they're going to kiss your ass if you get successful. Just know that that's going to happen,

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right? All the people you've been begging to come to your shows that don't show up and then

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and then you pop and they're the ones who come out of the woodwork, you know. Yeah, you know where

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that's going. I've seen it time and again with my friends who have had some friends who are very

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active in the industry and they've been very successful and that's one of the things that just

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absolutely pisses them off and I don't blame them, right? So those are nine points about the industry.

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And six of those you don't have any control over three of them you do.

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Right? Who you hang out with? That relates to the one I was talking about with YouTube and the

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church band. You have control over that. How hard you work, you absolutely have control over that.

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How much you understand about the business, you absolutely have control over that. The rest of

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it, you don't. There's no barrier to entry. The general public doesn't know the difference between

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mediocrity and greatness. Record companies make burritos. They don't make art. Life's not there.

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Timing sucks. Right? Okay, so but I still love the industry and I still

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want to see people succeed. So here's where I was going with all of this.

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There are some amazing things happening for artists on the internet right now, specifically in Web

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3. And if you don't know what Web 3 is, it's the latest version of the internet. Like think about Web

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one is like way back when when it was just very simple, you could go online and you could see

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something but you really couldn't have any sort of interaction to it. Web 2, which is what we're

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coming to the end of right now, that is, you know, that includes Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, where

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there's more interaction. Of course, there's a lot of high-guard and walls. There's a lot of video

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content, things of that nature. Web 3 is just the next version of all of it. You want to consider it

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to include AI, chat, GPT, IoT, all of those things. Yes, absolutely. Another huge factor of this,

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frankly, is what is going on with cryptocurrencies. And there is a monetary model

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called value for value and you should look up value for value.info so that you can understand what I'm

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talking about here. It is a monetization model. It's a content format and in many respects,

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it's a way of life and I'm reading verbatim off of this website. It is about freedom and openness

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and connection and free speech, sound money and censorship resistant. The largest success to date

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of applied V4V is podcasting 2.0 and what that is is the content creator can receive money

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directly from the listener. You've already seen this on the reviews that I've posted on

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fountain with our podcasts. You've seen other people start to do it as well. You've seen it on the

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top 10 show. Hey, here's this song from Amber Swini or Joe Martin and I really like it. I'm going

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to send them some money right away. And let's be honest, it's Bitcoin. We can have a whole other

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podcast about Bitcoin. We'll get to that later. But this whole thought process of value for value and

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the consumer sending money directly to the artist is going to up in the industry. There's always

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going to be a couple little transaction fees, right? Like you might have a host take 1% of this or

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2% of that. But at the end of the day, the artist is getting like 90 to 95% of the income.

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And if the song is awful, do you think that that artist is going to get

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sats is going to get money? And by the way, sats are like pennies of Bitcoin, right? Just think

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of it that way. That's not a great explanation of it. But if you're new to cryptocurrencies,

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just think of Satoshi's or sats as the pennies of Bitcoin. If Bitcoin is a dollar, sats are pennies.

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And I'll just leave it at that. But the value for value model allows for the listener

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to pay the creator directly. Now, if you're a songwriter and you get 90 cents on the dollar,

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that's a hell of a lot better than the typical 12% that you would get if you signed a

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major label deal. And for those of you who have your music on Spotify, you know that you would not

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getting 12% of a dollar every time a dollar is generated on Spotify, which hasn't turned to profit,

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by the way. So let that sink in with respect to how this will change artists' life.

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And how this could change and end artistic poverty.

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And let that sink in with respect to what is it going to do to the middleman in the industry?

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Oh my goodness gracious. It is going to change everything. The other thing you should think of if you're

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a songwriter or an artist, a visual artist too is that there is a mantra, a way of life, a thought

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process called 1000 True Fans. And you should look that up online as well if you go to KK.org

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or if you just Google 1000 True Fans, you're going to come across this site that looks like it was

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designed in Web 1, right? It's kind of an older looking site, but the idea is simple. If you had a

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1000 True Fans and every year those 1000 people gave you $100 for your art, that's $100,000 income.

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That's a great income. And for those of you who are out there struggling, I'm sure you would love

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to have that option compared to what you're dealing with right now with respect to playing gigs

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down on Broadway or playing gigs up in New York or Seattle and how hard you're fighting. So take

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the 1000 True Fans thought process, read about it, take the value for value, thought process,

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and think about it. And understand how the tide is changing for unsigned artists and understand

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why I'm so excited about all of this. Technically speaking with respect to value for value,

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what's going on is there's a lot of technology that that came about this summer, the summer of 2023,

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with specifically with respect to lightning enabled wallets in the Bitcoin world that allow

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micro payments to happen instantaneously. Somebody likes your song, hey man, here's 50 bucks or here's

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a hundred bucks or here's one dollar, whatever, but you're going to get that money right away.

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You're not going to have to wait three months for distro kid or Spotify or your agent or whomever

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to cut you a check. You get it right away. This is really exciting stuff that's going on.

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And it's part of the reason why we have jumped in so hard into the podcasting thing because

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I really didn't feel like I was helping artists out with just my blogs as much as I could,

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but now I really can. And now I'm passionate about trying to get as many artists as I can

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over into this world, getting their music hosted on Web3 sites that are podcast 2.0 enabled

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that allow this technology to happen. You know, the record industry, the entertainment industry is a

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$43 billion dollar juggernaut, right? And oh, by the way, last time I looked at Bitcoin,

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the total valuation was like 456 trillion. There's 44 million paying subscribers

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to Spotify in this country right now, which incidentally is roughly the same amount of people in

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America that are holding Bitcoin 44 million. Does that cause a couple of light bulbs to go off?

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What about somebody in Europe who's listening to your song? I'm like, oh, that's dope, man.

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Yeah, I doss a squit. And I'm going to send him some money right away. Or as an artist, you're

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typically a more empathetic person. You're typically a more philanthropic person.

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Getting involved in value for value in and this Bitcoin space will enable you to support other

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artists around the world, to support causes around the world, to support the people in the world who

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are unbanked, meaning they don't live in a country that has the resources where they can go out

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and get a bank account. And they're not tied to a specific currency because the currency in their

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country is just so awful. It's another reason to really study up on this stuff.

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Now, think about this as well. I'm going to list some companies for you and tell me what happened.

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Sears, Blockbuster, Kodak, what happened? They went under, right? That's not fair. People don't

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plan for the future. They get whacked. Do you think this is going to happen to Spotify? It could.

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Spotify has not turned a profit. What is going to happen to them when more and more people get

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involved in value for value and get involved in these lightning-enabled wallets and get involved in

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Bitcoin and start paying artists what they are worth. These DSPs and these labels, and when I say DSP,

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you know what I'm talking about? iTunes, just are good. Spotify, Deezer, right? Those companies are

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going to be in a world for hurt once this takes over. And it's going to take over because the only

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thing that is constant in life is change. So this is why we're so excited. Those nine things that I

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mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, you know, six, you can't change three, you got some hand in,

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but this is massive and it's going to change the industry. We are already seeing this happen.

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It is happening this summer. We've had artists on Wavelake, crossover, a million Satoshis.

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This summer with one song, we have artists that are making close to a thousand dollars a month

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in Bitcoin while they're getting robbed on iTunes and Spotify.

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Great stuff, man. There's a lot to complain about in this world, but there's always something great

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to look forward to as well. And this is one of those things that you should be looking forward to.

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This is why we're so excited. So I really hope you guys take the time to

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lean up on value for value and to read up on a thousand two things. I took, by frankly,

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read up a little bit on Bitcoin. It's not that hard to understand what's going on and it's

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certainly not that hard to get a wallet and jump into this. And I really hope you put your music

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up on a Web3 enabled site that supports lightning enabled payments. And if you like this podcast,

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I hope that you support it with a lightning enabled payment.

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You can follow us on fountain. You can follow us on phantompowermusic.com where all our blogs are,

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where our socials as well. And we hope you'll check it out. Thank you guys so much for listening.

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That is my first rant. There is going to be more. And yeah, that's it. See you later, smile for the

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mug shot.

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