In this IGTV-style monologue, Wendy Day urges aspiring music professionals to deeply understand the music industry rather than rely on surface‑level assumptions. She critiques generic advice that often lacks real‑world experience, emphasizing that her guidance stems from 28 years of building artists. Day outlines a self‑education roadmap, listing essential books (e.g., Donald Passman) and online resources such as Songtrust, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SoundExchange, CD Baby, ReverbNation, SonicBids, TuneCore, and DistroKid. She stresses the rapid evolution of technology, fan tastes, and marketing tactics, warning that strategies become outdated within months. Listeners are encouraged to define their own version of success—financial, artistic, or personal—and recognize multiple viable paths (independent versus label deals). Trial‑and‑error, learning from peers, and continual research (including business structures like LLCs vs. S‑corps) are presented as essential practices. Day also highlights the importance of stepping out of comfort zones, embracing outsider status, and being willing to experiment even if ideas fail. The series, originally planned for January 2020, will continue through February, responding to audience questions and sharing only tactics she has personally executed.
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Hi guys, so I finally brushed my teeth, I brushed my hair, um, I changed my glasses. I did not put on makeup, deal with it. Um, I'm teaching you shit for free, I don't have to look like Kim Kardashian, cut me some slack. Today I want to talk about, um, learning the music industry. It's really important to learn how everything works, because it's not the way that it seems. I know you think you know how it works, but you don't. Unless you're in this industry, it's really hard to see how it works. You're gonna have to make a little effort, and if I can do it, you can do it. Like, it's not, it's not impossible, right? So the way that I would do it if I were you guys coming into this in 2020, I I would go to all of the people like me that are out there that are on the internet that are teaching. Um, I have to forewarn you though, one of the reasons I started to do this was because I was watching what folks were saying about how to build a career, and I found some of the information they were giving wasn't exactly accurate. Not that they were lying to you, I don't think that they were lying. I think that a lot of people haven't built stars, so they don't really know how to do it. So they kind of teach what they think they know or what they've heard from other people. I'm teaching you from experience. I've done this many, many times. I've been doing it for 28 years, um, and I'm building stars as I'm recording this. So I'm doing it today, I did it yesterday, I did it a year ago, I did it 20 years ago, I did it 28 years ago. So it's kind of an ongoing process for me. So I'm just sharing like of the shit that has worked for me. Not everything that I do is going to work for you, and not everything that you do is going to work for my clients, right? Everybody is different, but I'm just sharing some of the shit that we do, and I'm giving you the basics, um, in these early videos so that you've got a foundation and a point of reference so that when the success comes, all of your shit doesn't come crumbling down. So learn the music business. There's some great books out there. Donald Passman has a great book on the music industry. There's a company called Songtrust. They're at songtrust.com. They've got a great free ebook on publishing that's pretty thorough. You can go to ASCAP site, you can go to BMI site, you can go to SESAC site, you should go to SoundExchange's site. CD Baby has some great articles on their website. Um, ReverbNation has some great articles. SonicBids has some great articles. TuneCore, DistroKid— the, the information exists. It's out there. You just have to really find it. Um, shit, I've got a website out there and a blog and a YouTube channel. Um, and of course this series on Instagram, 2020 Vision, which I then post to YouTube. So the information's there. Understand that this industry changes because of the speed of technology and the speed of the internet and how quickly music changes. The music seems to change every couple of years, like the sound of the music, because the fans change. And the fans change every 3 to 5 years. But the way that we market and promote changes every 6 months to every 18 months. So meaning that this is January of 2020 that I'm, that I'm making this series. So round about August, July, August, September, this shit's gonna be old. Like, we're gonna market and promote in different ways than you're gonna see here. So I'm probably gonna have to make a new series. But nonetheless, you need to do the research and Google and research everything. Like, don't just believe what I'm telling you. Go and do the research. Like, I have videos talking about how to incorporate. Did you guys go and Google the difference between an LLC and a Subchapter S corporation, you need to do that. You need to do the research so that you can determine what's best for you and what's going to make you win. Because in this industry, there are many paths to success. And I know a lot of you are still talking about getting record deals. A lot of you are talking about staying independent. That's all well and good, but those are just two different paths to being successful. Define what success means to you. Figure out, is that financial? Is that making great music? Is that finding somebody that you love who loves you? Is it achieving your goals? You know, is hitting a million dollars success to you? Is hitting a billion dollars success to you? Whatever your definition of success is, that's the goal, and you want to get there. And there's many paths to getting there, but you've got to learn how to get there. And the best way for me to learn how to get places, um, is through trial and error, but also from talking to people that came before me and that are successful. And I learn from the other artists out there that are doing it. I'm learning from them what works, and then I tweak it for my clients to make it work for them. And that's what you should be doing for yourself. If I can do this, you can do this. It's really not difficult. It's just a lot of work. It takes money. This is not a free industry. This industry isn't anywhere near free. And it takes the ability to engage with people and market and promote yourself. It's so much more than just making music and stepping on stage and performing. It's so much more. That's such a small part of it. I'm going to get into all of that as we go forward in this series. Um, it's probably going to go through February. My plan was just to do this for January, but I'm seeing so many comments from you guys and so many questions that I really want to cover all of the topics that I feel I can cover. I want to talk about only shit that I can do. I don't want to talk about stuff I haven't done because I don't want to mislead you into thinking that something is easier, that you can do something that I haven't done, right? So I want you to learn from my experience, not from am I guessing? All that to say, learn as much as you can. Do the research. When somebody tells you something, accept it, but then go and do the research to make sure that what they're telling you is accurate. Um, get out of your comfort zone. Everything you want is on the other side of fear. You're going to have to go through discomfort in order to succeed at anything you do. If you keep doing things the way you're doing them today, you're not going to progress. You're not gonna— you're not gonna go forward. So get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I realize how crazy that sounds, but one of the secrets to my success is that I learned very early on to be comfortable being the only one. You know, being the only white person in a room full of people of color, being the only female that loved rap the way that I love rap, being the only person that was 30 years old in a room full of people that were 17 to 21. I became very comfortable being the outsider. And when you can get comfortable by doing things differently and breaking through your barriers and coming out of the box that you think is how things should be, and you can try things that are new and try things that are different, even if they don't work, the fact that you're trying something new is the win. Something is going to propel you forward in this music business. I have a certain way that I do things. It works for me, it works for my clients. It may not work for you. What I do doesn't work for everybody. There are many paths, but just know that if you do the research, you can figure out which path to take to get to your goals. And then more importantly, you learn how to change that path if you're along that path and it's not working for you. You learn the difference between giving up too soon and making adjustments that, that will work better faster for you. Okay guys, I'm posting these IGTV rants on my YouTube page, on my channel, my YouTube channel, which is This Is Wendy Day. So you can go and check out any that you may have missed. I'm posting one a day. Okay y'all, take care, bye!
