What's the Deal? The truth is you want the money!
I get it you need money for that hot fire album you just made in your bedroom studio. You think you’re going to blow up fast and the local kingpin has a hot $50k to invest in you. The problem is you want to be successful with your music before you really have to consider working that full-time job. Now you feel like you need to rush and take the quickest money offered. This puts you in a situation that you don't want to be in but you don't know it yet.
I can testify!
Why do I even have to tell you I’ve already been here? Closely associating with the wrong people I’ve seen this first hand. This is how I can make a video like this. Let’s get into it, let me save you from yourself and a bad decision so you don't end up selling dope to make this guy's money back.
Can you do it yourself? Can you invest in yourself?
If you can and you believe in your own abilities then invest in yourself first. I don’t care how small the money may be everything starts small. Bet on yourself then you’ll work a lot harder for it. If it works out you own the whole thing.
If you can create the music yourself, you can create the business around the music yourself. All money ain't good money! You’re not going to be Jay-z or Beyonce tomorrow!
Secondly, nobody will care about you when you're just starting out and you’ll end up wasting the investor's money if all of it is invested in a short amount of time in the beginning. This is especially true when you have no leverage. No leverage means everything costs more!
Do you want to grow your career or do you want an investor to bail you out of a current problem?
If you want an investor to bail you out of a current problem, i.e. you have no money, you gotta know you’re probably ripping off an investor. If this is the neighborhood kingpin, this will not end well for you. This makes a bad reputation for you not only in the music game but in the streets as well.
The investment better plug a hole in your boat cause if not that investor will want their money back. And if they are shrewd enough they will make you make their money back. This causes you to lose your independence.
If you are an investor you want to figure out if they want you to bail them out or really grow their fanbase and increase their revenue. Watch my video: Investing in music artists? Ask 3 critical questions first!
Side note: in order to have a hole in your boat you need a boat first. This means you need to have a few projects out already that show you are worth investing in before you take investment money.
Does the investor bring anything else to the table besides money?
The perfect investor will bring more than the money, they will bring customers for merchandise sales and streams. This perfect investor is someone who can put in money but has abilities to reach into your demographics to pull out hot new fans. You’re looking for somebody that can help you grow your fanbase and revenue not just give you money.
Someone who can just give you money looks like this:
The neighborhood kingpin
The regional kingpin
The new hedge fund owner
A young stock investor
A rich dad’s Kid
A Sugardaddy
Or a middle-aged man that held a good job for quite some time.
These types of investors will almost always take your career nowhere because they don’t know how the music industry works.
But wait…! What about…?
How will I get the money? The same way you had the creativity to get the equipment! However cheap or expensive it was you made it work and you can make your growth work as well.
They have more than I can personally invest? They don’t know how to invest the money and neither do you yet. So you might as well keep it trucking until the investment makes cents.
When should I take on a private investor? When you know every reason in detail on how you will use the money and provide a return to the investor is when you take private investment. Plus this money should put you into public consciousness enough so standard record labels come knocking.
You've got work to do!
Build your DIY label with the 60 Day record label book the executive edition you’ll need this structure anyway when the time for investment comes.
Invest incremental amounts in yourself to gain momentum.
Develop a plan for private investment as you start to grow.
If you need help with this book a call down below.
What the end of the tunnel looks like
You will retain your independence longer which will allow you to have better autonomy over the direction you chose to go with your artistry. Saving the private investor for later down the line when you have experience will give you explosive growth getting you to 3rd base instead 1st base.
If you take the money you’ll kill your reputation, You’ll probably quit if the money doesn’t do what it's supposed to because really all you wanted to do was cash in on an idea, you didn’t really want to succeed as an artist. You just wanted the check.
You got this!
I know you felt like you need the money but at least I just saved a whole lot of headaches trust me I’ve seen this 3-4 times already.
If you make music you should make money
Music Money Makers I'll see you next time!
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