How To Stop Getting Involved With Leeches In The Indie Music Industry

This is what I'm talking about when I say it's important to market yourself PROFESSIONALLY. Most of us see this offer and see gold. But with an objective analysis what do we really have?


Let's break it down

Here are the package choices to enter a contest that was shown on my Facebook timeline.

1. You're being charged to enter a CONTEST
- High quality contests don't charge the contestants.


This usually means: The host is smart enough to know that in order to make a profit they need to charge. It also means the host is in it for ONE thing. To make profit and could careless about actually furthering someone's career.


2. When a car company, major music group or any place has a contest they never charge you to enter the contest.
-Contests are used as a means to expand BRAND AWARENESS and to potentially gain new fans through the brand awareness


This usually means: The company hosting the contest has an audience that is primarily NOT an actual fan of their organization but simply interested in their contest. This is why they charge to enter. Their fan base isn't really a fan base but a base of people who need specific things to make them indulge whereas a true fan is always looking forward to indulge. But since most of their patrons aren't actual fans the contest host survives from these deceptive "pay to play" tactics.


3. Let's give an example of a non amateur contest. Let's say a company hosted a contest with big name indie artists like Logic, Currensy, Mac Miller and Childish Gambino and the contest was based on whoever could bring the hottest bars during a cypher would win an all expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world. Do you think the host would tell artists as big as them they had to pay to enter the contest??? No!


This usually means: The host knows they are marketing to a primarily amateur audience.


4. What you are essentially and REALLY doing by paying to enter a contest
You are paying for THEIR (the contest host) expenses.


This usually means: They aren't actually giving away anything! They're making money from each contest entry and paying for the few that win through the many that lost pockets. In short, the contest hosts are leeches!


5. Your odds of winning are extremely low but your odds of getting literally nothing back from your investment are extremely HIGH.

This usually means: You should NOT enter the "contest" and can almost definitely invest the same money you would have in the contest into something much more beneficial.


6. You are a BUSINESS OWNER and your business is music. You need to understand and act on this fact. Let me elaborate.
An experienced business owner understands that EVERY investment should have some type of at least somewhat substantial return. So imagine a business owner paying for a "contest" to gain massive exposure for their business and losing. Chances are that business owner is still trying to survive and make their business one that'll last so losing isn't going to fair well for them because who knows when they'll get more money to invest in their business again.

As a business owner you have to analyze things like this.


Always ask:

How will this benefit my business?
How will it hurt it?
Will it hurt more than it'll help if it goes south? Meaning if you fail is this still an overall good business choice.
What will my demise be if this fails?
What will I do if I succeed?
Is there something more beneficial I can do with this investment?
Does this make me look like a professional? (This is one of the most important questions because maintaining a high quality brand is extremely important)


When I worked for an organic skin product business I got my own business cards. They had their own uniform cards they used and although mine looked good the company standard card was clearly better looking. They cared so much about their branding they told me I NEEDED to get the standard card so we all look uniform professionally. Mind you, the owner was a millionaire so he knew what he was talking about.
Run your music like a millionaire would run their business and you'll see more success