A growing layer of music-industry advisors, consultants, and content creators, sometimes called a Music Industrial Advice Complex, now earns income by selling career guidance to musicians, a dynamic that can leave artists paying for strategies before they see any revenue.
The pattern echoes a warning President Dwight Eisenhower issued in his January 1961 farewell address about institutions accumulating “unwarranted influence” and “misplaced power.”
Who gets paid first
Eisenhower was not arguing that the military should not exist. His concern was that an institution necessary for one purpose could gain influence beyond that purpose. In music, a similar dynamic can appear among advice providers.
Many people offering guidance to songwriters and musicians are well-meaning, and some industry veterans and successful artists genuinely want to help new talent. But the business model for selling advice is often more predictable than the business model for making music.
A musician may or may not earn money from a career. Teaching musicians how to pursue a career can generate income immediately. If an artist invests $10,000 in a new album, the people offering help are paid, while the artist is out $10,000.
Contradictory guidance and influence
Musicians have never had more information about how to succeed, and perhaps never had more people trying to sell them that information. The volume of advice can create a psychology in which the marketing plan matters more than the music.
There is no magic formula for success. Some would-be experts present books, seminars, or consulting as a formula, but many musicians come to believe that the right promotion or marketing at the right time could produce a breakthrough.
Much of the advice is contradictory:
- Post constantly; don’t post too much.
- Tour; don’t tour unless you have an audience.
- Release singles; release albums.
- Chase playlists; don’t chase playlists.
- Build your brand; be authentic.
- Learn TikTok; don’t depend on TikTok.
Some strategies are better than others, but the chance that a music industry guru will deliver that outcome is almost nil.
How advice shapes identity and work
Eisenhower said the military-industrial combination affected economic, political, and even “spiritual” life. The Music Industrial Advice Complex does not only sell tactics such as getting on Spotify playlists. It can influence how musicians think about themselves.
The impulse to “do the work” of taking a music career seriously and paying attention to marketing and networking is admirable. Every D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) artist and band has had to become a small business.
But when musicians let an ecosystem of consultants, conferences, courses, podcasts, newsletters, social-media gurus, playlist experts, branding experts, managers, and coaches define what a music career should look like, the advice can put the cart before the horse. None of this advice has to be inherently bad to negatively influence what musicians think their career is supposed to be.
Information as procrastination
Eisenhower’s concern was that institutional machinery could overwhelm the larger purpose it was supposed to serve. Musicians can spend endless hours learning about promotion and marketing. At some point, they spend more time learning how to promote music than making music.
Many musicians have caught themselves sending emails, making calls, and compiling spreadsheets for days before asking, “Hey, when’s the last time I picked up a guitar?” Information can become procrastination. Another webinar about music marketing can be less valuable than sending ten emails, finishing a song, playing a gig, following up with a producer, or making a record.
Becoming better consumers of advice
Eisenhower’s solution was not to abolish the military-industrial complex. It was for citizens to be knowledgeable enough to recognize and control its influence. Musicians do not need to stop listening to advice; they need to become better consumers of advice.
Some advice offerings are also irrelevant to where an artist currently is in a music career.
