Nathan Navarro

HOT TAKE - I might piss some people off with this but... I don't understand why more people pursuing careers in music don't spend more time trying to understand how to play the game to find success. If you are an artist, manager, marketer or anyone in the music industry trying to find success building an audience and developing a career, you are point-blank at the mercy of social media and streaming algorithms. I am at the mercy of social media and streaming algorithms. We are all at the mercy of social media and streaming algorithms. If our ability to build the career we want is based on how music and content travels and is consumed on these platforms, wouldn't it be in our best interest to understand as much as possible about how artists find success on them? -For the artists finding success at streaming, how are they finding success? -How often are they releasing? -How often are they collaborating with others? -How long are their songs? -How long are they promoting their music for? -How many pieces of content are they creating per song? -What is the quality of their music like? How much could we guess they are spending on creating vs marketing? If you look at enough artists, rollouts, and campaigns, you'll start to develop pattern recognition - common patterns and themes across artists that contribute to success. The game works in certain ways and unfortunately, no one is immune to it (not even myself). Those who play the game have a higher likelihood to reap the rewards and those who don't decrease their chances. Some of the biggest artists in the world (legit superstars) are having trouble retaining their audience and getting their music to stick. While it is certainly a tough time to build an audience in music (it can be frustrating and downright sad sometimes), I genuinely don't think enough people are taking the time to truly understand what, when, or why these platforms work. The artists that are finding success are rarely doing it by accident - they have a methodical gameplan that they stick to. All I'm trying to say is...to the best of your ability, KNOW THE GAME YOU ARE PLAYING. Take the time to try and understand what works, what doesn't, and why. While there are no obvious answers, if you look close enough you'll see patterns and common throughlines throughout the campaigns that are finding some success. Yes some of it is random but some of it is calculated. Understanding those strategies is empowering. So many people (and I've been guilty of this to) just chuck music and content out there and hope it works. Dropping one album per year without any features or exposure to a wider audience is rarely enough to find success on streaming anymore, especially for emerging artists. Yes, it is sad. Yes, it is unfair. Yes, I too long for the days when all that mattered was making great music. But I don't make the rules! All we can do is try and become educated on how the game works and play it in a way that is authentic and on brand for us.

MUSIC INDUSTRY PRO TIP – The industry is smaller than you think. Like...really really small lol. Everyone knows each other and the intern today might be a power player tomorrow. I've watched it happen multiple times. How you treat people on the way up is how they’ll remember you when they’re up.