A lot of young people want to pursue a career as recording artists, and it seems like often not much thought goes into the downside of being a rapper or singer. Here are my thoughts about pursuing a rap career and the reasons why I’m happy because I don’t have to deal with them or at least not all of them.

1. You’ll Face an Insane Amount of Competition

There are hundred thousand, if not millions of new artists that want to do this as a job and be successful within the music industry and being good at what you do isn’t nearly enough to make a living as an artist.

You need a unique selling point to stick out and become a business which you dedicate most of your time to and sacrifice a lot of your social life for it.

If I look at myself I not only have to make music, over the past ten years I’ve learned web development, SEO, video, social media, as well as content and email marketing and I need to find a healthy balance between all of them to achieve my goals.

You probably have to do the same, that’s just a requirement these days to be successful and it often takes years to master all of them.

The point is, there are hundred thousand of new artists every year with an insane amount of drive that makes it harder for you to stick out.

2. There’s no Balance in This Industry

The music industry is fake and there’s no balance; a lot of successful artists and producers are successful because they met the right people at the right time, not because their music is better than yours.

Get the thought out of your head that you’ll be successful because your music sounds nice, of course, that’s the foundation of your career, but there are many other factors which dictate your success and reach within the industry.

You’ll see famous rappers and singers that have all the clout while others struggle to get a little bit appreciation for their art.

3. Nearly no one Sells Records Anymore

The average independent recording artist makes less than $500 per month from music, something you should consider when you think about pursuing a career within the music industry.

Records aren’t selling anymore with streaming services these days, and the artist relies on playing live shows and selling merchandise.

4. It is a Full-Time Job

You can’t make a living from music if you treat this as a hobby, you need time and an insane amount of drive every day to work on your career to be successful.

I have a few talented friends that always wanted to make a living off of music, and the reason why I didn’t work out was either not enough drive or the inability to adjust and track down the issue if something didn’t work out as planned.

You will face many obstacles on your way to success, and you need as much time as possible to work, adjust and change.

5. You Have to Open up to Others

This is something I don’t have to deal with at this point, but if you pursue a career as a recording artist you need to open up to your fans, viewers, and supporters, you need to put yourself out there as much as possible, be it on your live shows, your YouTube channel or on social media.

You are a brand, and you need to market yourself to the people efficiently with all your strengths and weaknesses which means you’ll be judged, liked, adored, disliked and fought.

Everyone has to deal with this to a certain degree, it’s just part of our lives, but for artists, it’s much more pronounced.

6. You’ll be Criticized Whether You Ask for Criticism or Not

Another fact you should be aware of is that people will judge and critcize you and your music whenever they have the chance to.

Some people won’t support your efforts don’t matter how good you are, just because they don’t like you as a person, other people like you as a person but don’t support your music, these are often people you are close to, it is up to you how to deal with such people.

If you achieve some success with your music, you will also get judged and criticized by people you don’t know, and as we know, everyone is an expert these days (especially on the internet) and people love to throw out opinions and downplay the efforts of artists and producers whenever possible, so they can feel better about themselves.

7. Playing Live Must be Your Passion

Yes, playing live and connecting with your fans is a massive part of being an artist, rapper or singer. You need to be an attention whore to some degree. I’m sure most of you are aware of this but it’s worth mentioning that being a rapper and disliking public performances do not work well together.

Conclusion

These are my top 7 reasons why it’s tough being a public person, rap artist or singer and in my opinion, you can’t have one without the other.

What is your opinion? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

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