Issue #13: The Reality Of Being An Indie Artist

Hi, how is everyone? My name is Cadence Wishes, I'm a singer-songwriter, or I try to be at least, and there are a lot of struggles I face as an indie artist.

Being a non-signed musician is tough, but I would say it's worth it. Writing your own music, producing it yourself or saving money to produce it, posting it using independent platforms... it's all so frustrating! But at the end of the day, when someone, just someone, listens to your music... it all makes sense.

Why am I writing this entry now? Well, because I think artists who aren't famous deserve love too. Those artists who have less than 300 followers on Spotify, those who stay up until 3 am to finish a song, those who cry because they don't know if they're gonna make it.

Are we gonna make it? I don't know. But one thing is sure: we can't fight our passion.

Let's start with something pretty obvious: 

Financial struggles

Indie musicians tend to be broke. As fuck. Most of us are young adults in college, or just starting our first jobs. Those who aren't, have second jobs to support their music, and that's tough; since there are so many costs a song has, that people don't see, like:

• The production: mixing, mastering, etc. Of course, you can do this yourself. But even investing in a good DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and instruments cost you.
• Promotion: sometimes, artists will want to promote their songs so they reach a better audience. Whether it be on instagram, youtube, tiktok; you have to pay real money for that.
• Balancing art with real life: the truth is that art is difficult to have as a main job, so musicians need to work a second job to support their careers.

Another struggle people don't often talk about is:

Visibility 

• Difficulty being seen in a saturated market: this world is full, and I mean full, of singers and bands. Popular, non popular, known, not very well known. It's hard to compete with other indie artists alone; imagine competing with famous ones. And no, it shouldn't be a competition, but you have to convince people that you're unique and you have something original to offer.
• Dependence on social media algorithms and platforms: we often rely on apps like Instagram and Tiktok to promote our music. However, visibility isn’t based purely on talent or effort. Algorithms prioritize certain behaviors: frequent posting, trends, engagement speed, short-form content, and sometimes paid promotion. 
• Pressure to create content instead of art: that's why, a lot of musicians feel like they should be creating content 24/7. Like short videos in tiktok format, slideshows, etc. Even if it doesn't seem like it, that takes time and it takes time away from our art.

Emotional & mental struggles

• Self-doubt and comparison: in this industry, it's so easy to compare yourself to others. Whether you think they're more talented or whether they're doing better than you, it makes you doubt yourself.
• Burnout from doing everything alone: when you’re responsible for every task, exhaustion can come quickly. We’re human, and sometimes we need help!
• Feeling invalidated when numbers don’t reflect effort: the amount of streams, listeners or subscribers are often low. Even if your music is good, even if you put a lot of effort into it... most of the time the numbers will let you down.
• Loving art but feeling exhausted by the industry: the music industry is mean, very. It isn't all about the talent; it's also about how good looking you are, how charismatic you are and how good at social media you are. 

If there are so many cons to being an indie artist... why do we keep going?

Because! We love music, we adore what we do, and we get addicted to the small wins: that little community we build, even if it takes years, that one fan who listens to every song and even knows the name of your pets. We feel the need to create, even when it's hard, since that's what we were born to do. To make.

What do you think about us? Do you support us, even when we’re still small? Do you respect the work we put in before anyone is watching? Or do you prefer bigger artists?
Any response is valid, but it’s worth asking yourself why.

Thank you so much for reading this. You can find me as "Cadence Wishes" on every streaming platform, and I hope you take the time to listen to my songs as you took the time to read this entry! Bye bye!