Stats
I’ve found myself getting a little discouraged by the numbers lately. That feeling then gets multiplied by the fact that I can’t stop looking at them.
Consider this: If Beautiful Idiots LLC releases 50 songs this year across all four of artists at an average of 20,000 streams per song, we could do one million streams in our first year, which is a nice big number right? Those one million streams would earn us about $7,000. That wouldn’t even cover mix and master costs. On top of that, while the reality is that Understanding and myself are in all four acts and we essentially did the 1,000,000 streams, it’s unlikely that that number makes us relevant enough to a larger label or an investor, so negotiating any kind of advance or seed fund will be tough due to our lack of leverage. If our growth continues at this pace, sure it’ll be consistent, but it may indicate a necessity to stay in this phase longer - potentially all of 2024. Who knows?
I try not to get bogged down by this possibility and remain open to the idea that something could change any day. Or maybe that’s exactly what happens and that’s fine too - as long as our hearts are still in it we can keep pushing forward. The thing that annoys me the most is just the fact that I obsess over this scenario. I can’t stop looking at the numbers. I check our Spotify for Artists page every ten minutes some days. My screen time has quadrupled in the last two months. I check our views on socials, leave the app, and immediately open it again and check our views. You know, like a psycho. I’ve lost a bit of my balance and it’s tainted my perspective on the work we’ve done over the last few weeks and I’m not particularly proud of that.
I would like to say thank you though, to the people who’ve listened to me rant and worry about hypothetical failure. Mostly Understanding, Bryana, and my mom and dad. Their patience is greatly appreciated. The other thing I’ll say is take care not to let the numbers rule the world. They can be informative, and helpful when creating plans and decided how to allocate resources, but remember that the most important thing is executing your vision, regardless of the results. The reward is in the process. External validation is a cherry on top. Also, remember Field of Dreams. “If you build it, they will come.” So go ahead and build it. I will try to do the same.
-J.P.