In this advisory monologue, Wendy Day stresses that the sole prerequisite for success in the oversaturated music industry is producing truly great music—tracks that rate 9 or 10 on a quality scale. She argues that a song must match the production standards of major artists (Kanye, Drake, Beyoncé, etc.) in terms of beat composition, mixing, and mastering. Great music alone isn’t enough; artists must also allocate budget wisely between high‑quality production and effective marketing, and they need a release plan that includes multiple original songs or mixtapes rather than a single track. Day warns against using borrowed beats without permission, labeling it unprofessional and legally risky for emerging artists, and she advocates for original, fully‑produced beats. She illustrates her points with an anecdote about an artist who sent an unfinished‑sounding demo, emphasizing the importance of feedback from DJs and fans to ensure a track sounds finished before spending on promotion. The overall message is a call for artists to prioritize excellence in every aspect of their music to stand out and avoid costly missteps.
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You know, shame on me for forgetting to mention the most important thing about music in the music industry. And really, this should have been my first video. It should have been my first topic, um, the music. You have got to have great music. Not good music, not mediocre music, but great music. And when I say great, on a scale of 1 to 10, it has to be 9s and 10s, 9s and 10s, 9s and 10s. There— this industry is so overcrowded, and there are so many artists out here that in order for you to stand out and stand above everybody else, you're going to have to have better music than everybody else. You're gonna have to outwork everybody else, and you're gonna have to have a budget so that you can market and promote yourself. And this should have been my first video. You gotta have great music. Once you have great music, it's got to be, it's gotta be tight, meaning that your song has to sound just as great as Kanye, Drake, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, the quality of your beat, the quality of your mix, and the quality of your mastering has to be top-notch. You can't have shitty product in this industry and excel. You just can't. You've got to have really great product. It's got to be on the par of the superstars so that if you're at radio and your song is playing between two rappers signed to major labels and you're not signed or you're independent, then your song has to sound just as good, if not better, than theirs. So quality is so, so, so important. You can't— you can't— just like you can't spend all of your money on marketing and promotion and not put anything into the product, you can't put all your money into the product either and have nothing left for marketing and promotion. But you can't sell something that isn't amazing. It's just, it's not gonna happen. So make sure that your music is really, really tight, that it sounds just as great as everybody else's music out there, and you're good to go. I would also suggest you put together a plan for the music, and you can't just have one song, right? You've gotta have, you've gotta have a bunch of songs to release. There's so much free music in the marketplace right now that for my clients, we're putting out 3 to 4 mixtapes a year. And by mixtapes, I mean original music, um, that no one else is using, not beats that were jacked from somebody else. You know, like, um, Drake puts out a song, he's got a great beat, so somebody jacks that beat and raps over it. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about street albums, releases, mixtapes that are created from original beats that we have gone to the producer and negotiated a deal, either paid them some money up front or worked out some sort of a deal on the back end where they'll get paid for the beats that we use, um, and certainly the beats that we sell. But you've got to have original music, and it's got to be top-notch. It's got to sound as good as what the major labels are putting out, what the superstars are putting out. Um, I was reminded of this because I just listened to a song that an artist had sent to me, and I don't really listen to music, so don't send me any. Um, but I don't really have time, and I really don't have the ears. You really need the feedback of DJs and fans who are the folks that are on the front lines of folks who will purchase your music. But I was just listening to the song and it was a great song. And I listened to unmixed and unmastered music all the time, so that doesn't bother me. I know, you know, if the person doesn't know who to have mix it or who to have master it, I know exactly who to send them to, you know, to get it professionally done. And, and it costs a little bit of money to do that, but the, the quality is so important, the sound is so important. But my point was that in terms of, um, in terms of the music that, that I was just listening to, the song that I was just listening to, like, the beat sounded really empty. Like maybe there were only 2 instruments in the beat. It sounded like somebody's demo. It just wasn't a full production. Um, and I don't know what other words to use. I'm not a producer, so I don't quite know how to explain what I'm saying. But I think you all kind of get the gist of it when I say that it was like listening to a demo. It was not— it didn't sound like a finished product, and that has nothing to do with the mixing or mastering. Like I said, I listen to unmixed and unmastered music all the time. It just didn't sound finished. It didn't sound professional. And it was a— it made me a little sad because the hook was banging, the subject matter of the song was banging, the verses were incredible. There were 3 verses, which, you know, a lot of people don't do that anymore. There were 3 full verses, and the verses were just like— like, the first one was, was, was great, the second one was great, and then the third one was just excellent. Like, it's very rare that I get to listen to a song all the way through to the end, and I stayed there all the way till the end because this song was so great. But the, the beat was just— no, just no, just, just no. Just no. So, um, and I was honest. I was honest with him and told him that, you know, he had said that, that it wasn't quite finished, but the fact that, you know, he sent it out the way that it was tells me that he did think it was finished, and, and it just embarrassed him a little bit when I said that. But better he find out now than when he spends a lot of money to market and promote this and he finds out that The beat just, you know, wasn't it. It just— it was not— it was not banging, and it needed to be. You know, it was a good beat, it just wasn't great. Actually, no, it wasn't even good. It was a decent beat. It needed to be great. Not good, but great. It needed to be great, and it wasn't. Um, and that leads me to my very last point. If you are an artist and you jack beats from other artists, established artists, and you rap over them and you put them out there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I personally like it, but you're going to look like an amateur if you're trying to make money in this business. Unless you are Drake, or, or you are of a level where when you rap over somebody's beat it's paying homage to them, it makes sense to me. But if you're new and upcoming, really what it says was that you couldn't find a producer or you couldn't afford a producer, or you don't know what a producer is. It's just extremely amateur. So if you're coming at this in as a way to make money, don't rap over other people's beats unless you're live on stage or you're doing a freestyle or there's a reason for it. Um, and certainly don't put it up online because you can't— you can't use somebody's beat without their permission. And there's no record label in the world that has paid millions of dollars in marketing and promotion for a song that's going to be excited about a new and upcoming artist rapping over their artist beat. It's just, it's just a great way to get sued. I know everybody does it, I know it happens all the time, but be a little more professional and get your own beats. Rap over your own beats. It just, it'll, it'll set you apart. And make great music. Great, great music. Not good. Not mediocre, great. Every song needs to be great. There's no fillers anymore. Have great music. Peace, y'all.
