It’s been a minute since I’ve really been active in here, and I feel like I owe y’all an explanation. The last time I was consistently active in Skool was right before I started working at Def Jam. Once I got there I got BUSY busy lol. Between label stuff, consulting, running campaigns and everything else, I barely had time to make content anymore, let alone give this community the attention it deserved. Then I left Def Jam, Sean left the platform, and there was a period where the team and I had to really figure out what No Labels Necessary was going to be moving forward. If we even wanted to keep doing it, and if we did, what did we actually want it to look like? I think somewhere in that process I realized I had kinda started going against my own philosophy. I spent all these years talking about how artists shouldn’t be so obsessed with getting “in the industry”...then I finally got in the industry and got so caught up in it that I neglected the biggest advantage we had over the industry in the first place. Y’all. lol The platform. The community. Being able to actually talk to artists every day and see what y’all are dealing with in real time. And after being on both sides, I can confidently say being “in the industry” is not all it’s cracked up to be 😂 I have way more fun watching somebody from our audience take something we taught them, apply it, and win. So we’re getting back to that. The weekly live calls are coming back. The team and I are going to be active in here again. We’re bringing back regular lessons and conversations. And behind the scenes we’ve been rebuilding what we actually want No Labels Necessary to be. One thing we decided pretty early though: If you’re already in here, you’re grandfathered in. Y’all are officially the last free members of NLN 😂 You’ll still have access to the community and the weekly calls, and you’ll still be able to unlock the old courses just by participating and leveling up. We are building a new paid side with all the new programs, tools and resources we’ve been working on. If you want that stuff, you’ll be able to upgrade.

I was talking to one of my artist homies about his ads recently and we got into a conversation about how to actually tell if an ad is working. He was looking at his CPC, CTR, all the normal ad metrics. And I was basically like... That's only half the story. What are people doing AFTER they click? Because you can have a 10 cent CPC and still be running a bad campaign. The way I usually look at it is by comparing your CPC on the ad with your CTR on your smart link. Those two numbers together can tell you a lot. Low CPC + High Smart Link CTR = Good content, good song The content got their attention cheaply AND once they got to the smart link, they still wanted to hear the song. That's what we're looking for. High CPC + Low Smart Link CTR = Bad content, bad song It's expensive to get people interested enough to click, and the people who do aren't continuing to a DSP. There can obviously be other factors, but usually we're going back to the drawing board here lol. High CPC + High Smart Link CTR = Bad content, good song This is actually an interesting one. The content isn't doing a great job getting people's attention, but the people who DO make it to the smart link are interested in hearing more. I might not need a different song. I might just need better content around it. Low CPC + Low Smart Link CTR = Good content, bad song And THIS is the one I think fools artists the most. Because you open Ads Manager and see cheap ass clicks and think you're cooking 😂 But then nobody is clicking through to actually listen. Maybe the video is funny. Maybe there's an attractive person in it. Maybe something about the content is interesting enough to make people curious. But whatever got them to click isn't translating into interest in the actual song. That's why I don't judge campaigns off CPC alone. For smart link CTR, I'm generally looking at: 20% = Okay 30% = Ideal 40% = Great 50%+ = Amazing And even if those numbers look good, I'm still not done.

I know that probably sounds crazy right now lol. Most artists I talk to are trying to get bigger. More streams. More followers. Bigger shows. More people paying attention. And obviously that's the goal. But there's something you have right now that gets harder to hold onto the bigger you get: Access to the people who care about you. If 100 people genuinely love your music right now, you could probably know most of them by name. You can reply to every comment. You can answer every DM. You can send somebody a voice note because you recognize their name and know they've been supporting you for the last year. You can sit in a Discord with them and just talk. You can remember who bought the first shirt. Who came to the show when there were 30 people there. Who reposted every song before anybody else cared. That's actually really special. I had a client years ago who built a Discord to around 1,000 people. He was in there basically every day. He'd stream for them 4-5 times a week. They knew him and he knew them. Then he went viral. The community grew to thousands of people and eventually it became too much to manage the same way. There were just too many people. And I think about that sometimes when I see smaller artists ignore the 20, 50, 100 people who are already showing up for them because they're focused on the 10,000 who aren't there yet. You're waiting for a fanbase while overlooking the beginning of one. And some of y'all are already moving like you're famous 😂 Not replying to comments. Leaving supporters on read. Barely interacting with the people who consistently show up. Meanwhile, those are potentially the people who are going to buy your first merch. Come to your first shows. Tell their friends about you. Spend money with you. And be able to say “I've been here since nobody knew who they were.” Those people matter. Of course you should be trying to grow. But don't be so focused on getting your next 10,000 fans that you forget to take care of your first 100.

@Jacorey Barkley what up fam! I’ve heard a lot about the 1,000 true fans theory. However for me, getting people to stick around long enough for me to monetize has been a challenge. At one point I managed to get around 300,000 total Spotify streams but that was because I used major artist features that were licensed non-exclusively to me. However on my solo songs I’m lucky to get 20 total streams. What can I do to monetize my talent? I’ve been told by many people I have what it takes but I can’t seem to crack the code. This is my Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/0cH7B0OUQy3CZorLsqocJR?si=6XC5-O4WTQO9cNGD8tK2yQ&utm_source=copy-link

Alright y'all, we had some issues with our video hosting over the last few days that caused some of the course videos to stop working. Everything should officially be back up and running now 🙌🏾 So while I have you here...this is also your reminder to actually use this shit 😂 If you're in the community, remember that you can unlock more of our free courses just by engaging. Ask questions. Make posts about what you're working on. Give feedback to other artists. Join conversations. The more you participate, the more you unlock. And if you have access to the Artist Blow Up Blueprint, GO WATCH THAT MF Don't let it turn into another course you bought and forgot about. The Blueprint gives you an actual 30-day campaign to follow across content, ads and seeding. Pick a release, go through it, and start putting it into practice. And if you get stuck while you're executing, post your questions in here. That's literally what we're here for 🤝🏾 Videos are back. Class is back in session 😂