The Iced Coffee Hour - An Unfiltered Conversation with BBNo$ | Being Broke, Cashing Out, & Getting Screwed
Episode Date: November 24, 2024NetSuite: Take advantage of NetSuite’s Flexible Financing Program: https://www.netsuite.com/ICED ShipStation: Go to https://ShipStation.com/ich for a FREE 60-day trial Oracle: Free test drive of OC...I at https://oracle.com/iced Follow @bbnomoney Here - Enjoy! Add us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlsselby https://www.instagram.com/gpstephan Official Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeBQ24VfikOriqSdKtomh0w For sponsorships or business inquiries reach out to: tmatsradio@gmail.com For Podcast Inquiries, please DM @icedcoffeehour on Instagram! Timestamps : 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:05 - Why BBNO$ has no money 00:04:25 - What do you spend money on? 00:06:23 - BBNO$ is homeless 00:07:58 - Income from 10M Spotify listeners 00:10:50 - Sponsor - Netsuite 00:17:55 - How musicians make money 00:23:12 - What is a sync? 00:24:12 - Pressure to constantly improve 00:25:10 - “Lalala” and knowing it would blow up 00:27:02 - Record company scams 00:29:32 - How record deals work 00:35:01 - Sponsor - Shipstation 00:36:19 - Can you game the music industry? 00:37:39 - Big artists don’t write their own music? 00:39:00 - Formula for a hit song 00:40:08 - AI in music industry 00:41:46 - Bad follow-up albums 00:45:42 - Musicians ahead of trends 00:49:00 - What do you get for free? 00:51:49 - Day in the life of a musician 00:54:31 - Why concert ticket sales have been bad 00:56:05 - Is your Google net worth accurate? 00:59:06 - How to start a career in music? 01:00:48 - Strategic marketing decisions 01:02:49 - On fame in China 01:06:53 - Sponsor - Oracle 01:08:04 - Getting famous overnight 01:09:44 - How much music do you scrap? 01:12:38 - After “Lalala” went viral 01:14:23 - Lowest career moment 01:15:15 - Dating as a famous musician 01:18:25 - Cultivating the perfect hairline 01:20:18 - Earnings for private gigs? 01:24:31 - Where do you invest your money? *Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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and you said, I am the one who has no money.
Well, it's baby, no money.
Tell us, how do you have no money?
I am the purest form cheapest human being ever.
I can turn around and be like, here's $40,000 for a music video.
Let's go blow it.
Go make art.
I don't think I spend $40,000 in myself in the past four years.
So what do the finances look like today,
like getting 10 million streams on Spotify?
The revenue that was making from stream,
streaming royalties and online like plays.
What?
So Garfield took one of my songs and used it as their trailer.
And I was like out in Japan, like, and I check my phone, I was like, boom, $300,000.
Just like that.
Are you kidding me.
Garfield.
I'm aiming to do this like 33 stop tour in Europe.
And it will net me negative $127,000.
So why do it?
You give your fans an experience and their fans run.
You DMs us and you said, I am the one who has no money.
Yeah.
Well, it's baby no money.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
So you're the baby that has no money.
Yeah.
Tell us, how do you have no money?
So basically, I grew up in a family that my dad is an immigrant parent and the financial
concept of what we grew up in in like the complex is like you put a house over your head and you feed your family.
That's it.
It's money is there to like be a protection.
measure. And I think it just really distilled into me. I don't know. I remember in high school,
when all my friends would go out, they'd be like, hey, we're going to bring some money and
like go like party and then eat at McDonald's. I would bring nuts because I knew that they were high
in fats, so I wouldn't have to have as bad of a hangover. I wouldn't drink Chase because it was
too expensive. Like I am the purest form cheapest human being ever. Like I bought, I bought like a $200
pair of jeans and all my friends were like, dude, what the fuck?
is wrong with you?
And I'm like, I don't know.
I still fight econ.
Like, I just can't spend money.
I have like a weird psychological, like affix or suffix.
I don't even know of like just the inability to spend money.
I'm the exact same way.
It doesn't seem like that.
But everything I buy is designed around making money.
Everything.
So if I can't make money from it or get it a good enough deal.
Like I was talking to Jack about there's a car.
I don't really want the car.
But I'm like, hey, if I get this car, this person,
price, I can't say no to it. Then I have to do it because it's worth so much more and I'm not
going to lose money. I see every purchase like that. Everything. I don't know what it is. I don't know
if the, you know, sometimes I'm like, I should just fly first class because it's literally going to
kill my body and time is the most valuable asset. So, you know, you got to weigh out the options.
But it's like, sometimes I just don't know why I have this block. And I see my brother, for instance,
and he lives in Copenhagen and every, I feel like perspective, like a living perspective in
Europe is like you work to live, whereas in America you live to work. And he's always
pressed me on it. He's like, dude, you got to go buy me beers. And I'm like, dude, I don't know.
I feel weird doing that. Like, if I'm not getting something out of it, like, it should be 50-50
or something like that. You know what I mean? I don't know what it is. I've been like talking to
my therapist about this shit too. And it's been like an interesting,
dynamic that I've had to find with like every single person that I like work with like you know
I hired a basically a bunch of my friends because why not just hire your friends and be closer
with people that you love and it's like weird because then you have like this power dynamic with
financials and then it's like I'm just like I usually just call my friends I'm like all right how
how much money do you want just tell me and I'll just give it to you I don't really care and it but it's
it's weird because when it comes to a financial perspective with with my job I
can turn around and be like, here's $40,000 for a music video, let's go blow it. Like, go make art.
And then $40,000, I don't think I spend $40,000 of myself in the past four years.
Like, I just, I don't know what it is. Is there anything that you've started to splurge on?
Because I think it's pretty safe to say that you have money now. I mean, with 10 million Spotify
monthly listeners, I don't know what you're doing on Apple or YouTube or all of that stuff.
You have to have money now. Is there anything that you're finally allowing yourself to splurge on?
Nice food. That's it.
It's like, what is nice food to you?
Oh, like, I'll go for like triple Michelin and double Michelin.
Oh, that's actually nice.
Okay, Graham's not there yet.
Really nice food.
Wow.
There's something that, you know, like sharing like really, really nice sushi with people
when you know all the experience is the exact same flavor profiling in your mouth all at once.
There's something to it.
I don't know what it is.
And it's like sitting down with like 80 your friends and being like, all right, we just spent like $500, $600 a person.
Holy crap.
And we're just like looking at like this small little cracker on a plate.
And you get like 30 or 40 different place and you're just like, well, I get zero enjoyment from that.
Really?
Very little.
Because he gets anxious about the price.
Yeah.
He can't enjoy himself if he knows he's spending a lot of money.
Yeah, exactly.
See, I get that.
I definitely get that.
But food, I don't know.
It broke through.
I don't know.
Maybe I've done too many hallucinations.
We gotta take you down a notch and show you.
We gotta go back to Nando.
All you could eat sushi here in Vegas.
$30.
All you could eat sushi.
Or there's a pokey spot that's really, really, really good.
They're like $17 that to me is like better than that really expensive meals that I've eaten.
See, it's not like, don't get me wrong.
If there's like a $1 taco, call me crazy.
Like it's probably going to be better than like a $50, $60 burger or someplace or somewhere else.
You know what you mean?
Like I totally think that there's that.
But I don't know.
For some weird reason, like just going out with a bunch of friends and really splurging on some like a meal is like, I earned this.
And that's the feeling I get at least.
but I will totally appreciate
I still love McDonald's.
Like, you know, when you go to McDonald's,
you get him a gang bang?
I don't know if you do McAid.
Chicken and McDouble.
Yeah, dude, put him together.
So, but I grew up on that.
So it's like, when I go back
and I'm like, oh, you know what, guys?
Let's feel terrible for the rest of the day.
And you put him a gangband together
and you're just like, wow, this is disgusting.
We should go get one.
I'd be doubt.
But you were mentioning, too,
that was surprising that, like,
technically you're kind of homeless.
Like, you don't have a place anymore.
Yeah, I'm like a no man.
mad it kind of sucks i don't know i don't really have like another perspective like basically i live
with my parents in vancouver if i were to be home one it's because uh whenever i was home anyway
i own this apartment downtown vancouver and i was just like i could i could stay here or i could
just be with my parents for like four days the only time that i'm in vancouver so i just decided to sell
it because i was like there's no point of owning this and sold it actually made i made 25 000
on it after after years after like this is after everything like paying for a new roof like all like the
fees and everything so I ended up making some money on it was just sick okay I was like dude before you know
before I was 30 I already sold the appointment that's great um you know great accomplishment so basically
I live with my parents and I rent kind of in L.A but I don't really like stay anywhere it kind of sucks
I don't really know else to say other than it's just uncomfortable sometimes because I'm like I would love to
have the longest I've ever stayed in a place in the past four years was like two months.
So I don't really have any like regularity or like a schedule for instance.
So it's like hotels all the time?
Hotels, Airbnbs, like other people's couches.
Just like just living.
It's weird.
But it's also like everyone's always like, how do you only travel with like a carry on?
I'm like, well, I don't, I spend a lot of time in airports.
I don't want to spend an hour like waiting for a bag or potentially.
being way longer than an hour.
So it's like, you know, time,
there's money, right?
So what do the finances look like today,
like getting 10 million streams on Spotify?
Like, could you break us down?
Like, we know nothing about it
in this sort of industry.
We can also guess.
Okay, guess, guess, guys, okay.
Like how much 10 million monthly listeners?
So your Spotify check only.
I'm going to say, what do you think,
Graham?
I'm going to say per month with 10 million monthly listeners,
$175,000 bucks a month.
No, dude, I'm going to guess like $500 a month from Spotify.
What?
Okay.
10 million streams.
There's so many very...
10 million monthly listeners.
So monthly listeners, it's interesting because it's a very deceiving statistic or analytic
because it actually doesn't matter.
Like it literally doesn't mean anything.
Right.
Because it's like, for instance, the weekend.
Biggest artist in the world off streaming revenue, off this, off that, you know, he's the
most streamed artist.
So a monthly listener is someone who comes back and listens to a
song twice within a month.
So basically...
I have no idea.
So basically what that means is you can have a lot of monthly listeners, but not a bunch of
daily streams.
Whereas like this collective or these two dudes called SOU Boys, they have about, I think
14, 15 million monthly listeners, but they have like 10 million streams a day.
I have 10 million monthly listeners in about 1.8 to 2 million streams a day.
So it really only matters with the amount of actual consumption.
rather than the fan listening more than...
So their fans are listening like five times, six times,
whereas my fans are listening like once.
And how can you figure out that statistic?
Or is that only like in the dashboard?
It's in the dashboard.
Okay.
So basically like every million streams is about $3,3,800.
So if I was streaming about 40,
I think I stream about 48 to 49 million streams a month on average.
So it's like about 50.
So, so 100, it would be about 150,000, but I don't, I don't own all the royalties.
Some songs that are doing really well, for instance, one of my songs, the one of my biggest songs ever at La La La, La, I sold that song when it was like taking off and I only own 25% of it from a label.
Also, labels, there's so many smoking screens, like, there's so many extra hidden fees, like, it's some for sure.
Like, every distribution is like, they're scraping.
And every single company will do this.
Typically, I would say on an average song,
I end up having about, on average, like 60%
from my whole catalog of the royalties on the master's side.
So I would be making about like $2,700 out of these $3,800 per million.
So I make about like 5 to 6K kind of flat a day approximately.
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I make about like 5 to 6K kind of flat a day approximately.
All right, you're closer.
I'm way off.
$500 a month?
That is an abysmal, guys.
That is, that is $500.
I was like, damn.
You're way off, bro.
bit of money.
Yeah, clearly.
I had it in my notes here.
A million streams is $33.
That's crazy.
Well, a million streams on YouTube on like, on like streaming of a song.
Maybe that's it.
Way, way, way lower.
The CPM on YouTube is like kaput.
It's garbage.
And it really also depends on where it's being streamed.
So, for instance, like India, a Spotify subscription is.
Oh, true.
It's like cheap.
30 cents in India.
So every stream from India would be way less worth.
Whereas like an America, it's like,
$15 a month or some...
I don't know.
I don't even listen to music, really.
I don't...
I don't even have a Spotify account.
Sorry, so...
Are you kidding me?
Yeah, I don't.
I, like, legit have yet to use it.
How do you listen to music?
I don't really listen to music.
What do you listen to?
I actually don't really listen to music.
Just full song.
What about, like, a podcast or like...
I just kind of, like, chilling.
Because my life is always music.
It's always thinking about, like,
whenever I listen to songs, I, like...
It's kind of like finance.
It's like, when someone talks about...
finance it's like that's on your mind and when when I hear songs I'm like why is this song big I need to
like analyze the song whereas like I can't even listen to it anymore obviously some songs I'll
come on I'm like whoa this is really good this is super catchy I like this this like the synthetic
sound here is really nice like it's so well mixed but I don't really like consume it as I used to
and I think that's just like a product of my environment sounds like a job kind of when you're listening
to music yeah but I mean it's also it also distills feeling for sure
but it's definitely less than it used to.
Where was I?
So going back to the money thing.
So on YouTube, a million typically equates to about $700.
So let's say you do a million on every single platform.
You're going to be looking at like, what's a million on like all the other ancillaries,
probably another like $2,000.
So you have like $3,800, $2,800.
And then if you do a million on all of these streaming platforms,
so like let's say you have like five million total streams,
on the publishing side,
this is where it gets really complicated.
Publishing has mechanical royalties.
And mechanical royalties, what that is,
is like it's a royalty that I'm also not the most educated on this.
Like people literally have their whole lives
collecting mechanical royalties for like publishing companies.
It's ridiculous.
But basically it's like on these streaming platforms,
they have these performance royalties that go out to all these publishing companies of songwriters.
So if there is three people in the room and we write this song, it's called Nashville.
Basically what it is is you split it three ways.
So we compose the song together.
So 33, 33, and I will just typically take 34 because it's just easier to split it up that way, obviously.
So that 800 would be split 33 33 33 and that's just a mechanical and then you have like sync royalties.
You have like if someone use it in the movie, you have like extra royalties coming in.
There is like so many unspoken nuances and like small little revenue generators in music that is like, it would blow your mind.
It just depends on where it's played.
Played in a TV show pays this.
Paid in a movie it pays this.
and they all have different splits.
So Garfield took one of my songs and used it as their trailer.
And I was like out in Japan, like sitting in a beautiful forest.
I was like, man, I love Japan.
And I checked my phone.
I was like, boom, $300,000.
Just like that.
Are you kidding me?
And I was like, ah, Garfield, I f***ed you.
Did they know that was coming?
No, no, no, no.
So it's just like, it's just like basically they reach out and they're like, we want to pay for this.
But the thing is, I own 21% of that song.
on both sides. So 21% of 300,000 is, what is that, like 67,000. So $67,000, but I didn't do
really anything. I just made the song. And luckily the song became a hit. But you see how, like,
all these extra streams and revenue just keep on coming in. Too hot to handle has used my
songs all the time. And like, love is blind. Use my songs. And then they pay royalties. They pay
out like a licensing fee. So you get like $5,000 just like that.
randomly, boom. And do you have agents that just negotiate this completely detached from you? You don't
even know they're doing that. And just randomly on a day, you'll just get like a check from...
Typically, Mondays and Tuesdays, I'm like, come on, come on, come on, look at the route. And then I'll just
get an email or like a text from, from like my publisher, like A&R guy, and he's like, hey, we got a big one.
And I'm like, movie, let's go for dinner, boys. And that's kind of it. It's sick. And that's just
like one constant. That's like one small little avenue. And it's interesting and really, really cool
too because people make careers just out of that where they're like I'm a sync writer. So I will make
songs. There will be like a sync pitch and be like, hey, we have like an action movie with Dwayne
the Rock Johnson and we need Bing Bang, Boom, Boom type music. So people will be like a composer
will be there, all right, let's try it. So it goes in the studio and makes like a song that sounds like
what they want. And then you might get it and you might not. And they'll do it a full buyout
of like $100,000 and like people have full lives like that.
And it's like such a small little factor of what music is.
And it's like you can compose this, compose that for ads.
And it's actually really cool.
Once you like see how the the backside of the music industry is,
it's like really, really enjoyable.
There's so many, so many avenues that you can create revenue from.
So why does it seem like a lot of musicians say it's a horrible industry to be in?
And it seems like just like the top 0.1% is really,
reaping like almost all the revenue.
Well, I mean, okay, so on a touring perspective, it's a nightmare.
So the AAA artists, they clean up.
Like that's, you know, like Beyonce's out here doing like $100 million in a tour of revenue.
Like Olivia Rodriguez was the highest grossing artists of our decade.
More than Taylor Swift.
Well, a new artist.
Oh.
Like a new generation artist.
It was $190 million on her last tour.
And basically, I was just telling you about this subtronics guy.
Basically, like, if you don't get to 5,000 capacity shows, which I'm going to be honest, I've been grinding my ass off for the eight, eight, nine years, it's hard.
Like, you need a ton of hits, like a string of hits or like crazy controversy, like crazy this, crazy that.
And you just got to be on the ball 24-7 and like really cultivate that fan base.
If you don't do that and you tour at like a 2000 to 3,000 capacity like tour and you want to bring production and try to make.
make it a cool experience for your fans, you are always in the red.
I'm aiming to do this like 33 stop tour in Europe, and it will net me negative $127,000.
So why do it?
Because you give your fans an experience and they're fans forever.
And that's it.
And like the only reason why I'm able to do this, anyway, is because of them.
it's really just a pat in the back.
And like, sometimes I'm like,
volunteering. It's exhausting.
And you're like,
volunteering.
And I've done it for so long.
Like I,
this,
just this year,
like I'm selling,
I'm on track.
I just listed a tour recently like a,
like a week ago and we sold out Toronto,
probably the fastest I've ever sold out a show ever.
And I felt like,
I was like,
whoa,
this is,
things are on the up.
This is great.
And I'm on track to,
make like probably $40,000, $50,000 on a tour that's going to gross like a million,
but there's just so many expenses.
So it's just like a really, really interesting dynamic when you see the back end, you're like...
Yeah, my understanding is that they'll pay you like a big amount for one night,
but then it's up to you to then pay out like lighting and security and like, you know,
all the miscellaneous stuff with that.
So there's something called the guarantee.
Typically that's like how most people take it.
You can do like dollar one deals at the door where it's like you basically rent.
rent the venue and you just take all the risk.
Whereas a guarantee is like, I guarantee you $25,000 in your pocket and then you budget
the tour off of that.
So you can have like a bus.
So it's a little healthier for you.
You can go to bed.
And then you bring lighting, lasers.
You try to make an experience or as cool as an experience as possible.
My main goal is try to make like a musical out of my music for the next tour.
So my fans are just going to make, holy shh, you really tried.
because the bar is really low in rap music, to be real.
But I don't know.
Like, sometimes I get frustrated because I'm like,
I don't really want a tour and not make any money anymore.
Like, I've been doing it for like eight years, basically.
So I'm just, yeah, I'm kind of tired of that.
But at the same time, it's also like,
who the fuck gets these experiences?
And it's like, it really is as cliche and corny as it may sound
when I'm on stage and I see that many people just smiling.
and like giggling. I'm like, wow, that's crazy. Like, I can actually distill happiness in people.
And I have the ability to, I always wanted to be a doctor. I went to school for kinesiology
before I did music. And I just wanted to help people. And the ability that I have to reach people
and, like, actually emotionally touch them in a way where my music is, I can say pee-be-poopoo-boop on stage,
and people are like, yeah. And, you know, I think they just get me in a deeper level and they just want to be
there to have fun and, you know, have an experience and kind of like forget what is now for them
and be in the moment. Dude, it's a blessing. So if I have the ability to do that, lose some money at the same
time, but like harness and be able to like nurture my fan base, like that's, that's the main goal here.
So I think that's super, super nice of you and also like aware of you to be able to take the hit
to be able to provide for the people that provide for you. Yeah, totally. And on top of that,
I just got to say, like, I wasn't expecting you to be so upfront about all the numbers and everything.
And to be honest, like, as YouTubers were very familiar with, like, how much YouTubers make or how much streamers make or that whole sphere.
Yeah.
But we have no idea how much, like, musicians make.
Because it's not talked about.
And so I appreciate your transparency when it comes to, like, musicians' numbers.
Because a lot of people, I'm sure, like, basically all the viewers right now have no idea are completely surprised you get a check just from, you know, from Garfield like that on a random Monday morning.
Well, that, I mean, like, yeah, that.
So Etamame was one of my songs.
I liked that song.
Yeah, that's not going to balls hanging low.
Yeah.
Really good.
So that song was like the number three or fourth biggest sync song like in 2022,
2022, 2023.
So that means basically I was like waking up every other week with like a sink.
It wasn't as.
What's the sync?
So synchronization.
So basically you, you, it's like Garfield is like, oh, we need a trailer audio.
Boom.
Sync etymamee.
Bing, ding.
And he's just like driving.
or something, I don't know.
If it makes sense, he'll sync the sound team on Garfield or Pixar, wherever it is,
we'll be like, this is the budget we have and hit up Sony ATV, like Sony, my publishing company,
and be like, we want this song in this trailer.
That's it.
So I would just wake up some days with people using my music.
Or like one time we got a sync with CarMax for one of my songs called Bad to the Bone.
and it was like a llama, just like head out the window, just looking at the camera,
and it was like, yeah, I'm bad to the bone, basically.
And they just used that portion of the song.
And I was like, all right, cool.
And CarMax paid me.
And Taco Bells paid me, like, Mountain Dews paid me.
It's, like, kind of sick, yeah.
It's really dope.
Do you ever find it intimidating that, like, you have to keep topping yourself?
Like, you have a good song, and now it's like, what's, okay, how can I make something better
than what I just made?
So I was really struggling with that in the beginning of COVID.
I had La La La and that song was
Stratistheric
Obviously did not expect that song to get that big
You know that was like right in the beginning of TikTok
And it's almost at a billion streams now
And just one of those experiences where I was like
Oh this really happened
Like I remember I was sitting in my bedroom
I just like started crying
I was like dude
My phone is blowing the fuck up right now
Like this is crazy like this is real
And my mom like walks in with some apples
and is like, you good?
I'm like, yeah, I'm good.
This is right after I graduated university.
Like, I crossed the stage, went to the hotel.
My sister was like, yo, why are you not coming at lunch with us?
Like, you just graduated.
Like, celebrate with the family.
And I was like, no, I got to drop the song.
I was going to change my life.
And then, like, two days later, it exploded.
How did you know that song is going to be so big?
Is it feeling?
Yeah, I don't know.
I played it live for a couple times.
And, like, people could recite the hook, like, immediately.
it just banged like everything like the mix sounded perfect i don't know i remember also i hooked up
with a girl the same night i made it and i showed it to her i was like yo i made this hit is a hit
like i made a hit like i did it and she's like it's cool and i was like whatever and then she called me
like after it blew up she was like you told me this song was a hit how did you know i was like i don't
i actually have no idea i just told everyone and it just spoke into existence and it just
happen. How much do you think that song grossed just in everything? Because I imagine, like you said,
every other week you were getting sinks. And on top of that, the billion downloads that it's done.
Do you get a plaque or anything for a billion? I think Spotify will actually send me a billion
plaque. That's cool. I think there's only like, I think there's only like 1,200 songs at a billion
or something like, I don't know. Maybe not even that many. So, so Edamame was the one that synced.
Weirdly, La La La La La La was way bigger of a song, like culturally.
than Ereame was, but it didn't sink at all.
It's because I feel like this, this, the, etamame, the song is so driving.
And it's like, when you want to buy something, you just want to be, like, sucked in.
And Eamame, I feel has that punchiness, like, really, like, upbeat, fun happiness.
Whereas, like, La La La La is just, like, more of, like, a weird meshed pop song that no one really has heard before.
So La La La La La, I don't know how much that song is fully made, to be honest.
So when you sign it to a record label, you never really know how much they spend on it.
I'm honestly like, I think I'm going to audit Columbia because...
Walk us through that, like when you sign a record deal, because you hear so many people saying they got ripped off by their record company.
Even Limp Biscuit, I think, is suing whoever their publisher or record company was because they said, like, they made no money from certain songs or like from certain albums.
I'm still independent.
So I own all of my masters.
So basically whenever I'm like
Wife and Kids checking out
I'm gonna be like all right guys I'm out
I'll sell my whole catalog for millions of dollars
Ideally I'm like a Bruce Springsteen
In a couple of years you know the vice
He just sold his catalog for like 250 million
Everyone's doing that
How much did Michael Jackson?
Beaver sold his?
Yes oh yeah it's fucked up
Like hundreds of millions
Hundreds of million
It's insanity
The Jackson sell us
I think Michael Jackson
I think the Beatles bought Michael Jackson
Or no Michael Jackson bought the Beatles
Yes I think
That's cool
They're all like raising
bought the other and they were really upset about that deal.
Yeah.
I don't know.
We're going to put a list of some people that have sold their catalog.
The numbers are ridiculous.
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
But, I mean, it's evergreen.
I think the consumption just keeps on going on.
I mean, obviously, like the OG, OG, OG hits, like will always be hits, you know.
That would be cool to be able to buy a song like that.
That would be the ultimate flex.
I'll sell you guys a song.
I own that song.
Sure.
I mean, I have a bunch of songs that don't make any money because they're just, but my music.
career started basically from just like gamers using my music on YouTube. So I never clicked the content
ID like copyright thing because I was like I want people to use my music. Like I want people,
I want to encourage people to use my music. And that was like kind of like a grounding point for
the basis of building my career. And yeah, I still to this day, I just wanted to TwitchCon
recently and had a really good time there. And I met so many people that I've never fully met before that
have used my music in their like intros or
outroes with their gaming videos and be like, I love
you and I'm like, I love you man.
It's so appreciated because I'll tell from my
perspective that there have been times where I've
used a little clip of just like 10 seconds, like a
little background clip they claim the whole
video. Yeah, it's so stupid. And I have to go back through
and like edit that out and it
kind of ruins it a little bit.
Or videos where I've included like a
reaction to something in context and they
claim the whole video. Yeah. Well, so
I don't own all of my music.
La La La La, I still have a
year license with Columbia.
A lot of my music with my friend
Young Gravy is all on Republic.
So I don't really have full
jurisdiction over what happens there, and I can't
really get those claimed because I ended up
selling the rights of those songs.
But at the same time, like,
all the music that I have on
my Spotify that is not capitalized,
so it's like all
lowercase, that is my music.
So how does a record deal work?
The misconception is record labels are bad.
I don't think they're bad.
They just can't.
can't work that doesn't have a flame.
It's like if you have a financial advisor and he's like, hey, so we're going to need some
money to like make some money.
And he's like, and the people are like, nah, go make me money with no money.
How does that work?
It doesn't work.
So if you're working an artist that just isn't working and you just stuff and sign the wrong
guy because you thought he could have been the next pop star, then you're going to get dropped.
and then the artist is probably going to get super pressed
because we're like,
I sign this deal and nobody's helped me out.
Like, fuck, brother.
I don't know why I brought the UK accent out there.
But you see what I mean?
They're basically just a bank.
But when a song is ripping
and they just want to roll their keyboard down
with $600,000 to market a song,
I'm all hands off.
I don't care.
Because when La La La La La Blu up really hard,
It was doing like 4.8 million streams a day.
So that was making like $20,000 a day, just default.
I don't know what the fuck they did.
When I sold it to them, it was doing a million streams a day.
But I don't know what they did.
They spent $650,000.
I don't, we don't literally just as marketing expense, $650,000.
And I'm like, whatever.
It helped my career so much that like I will take the deficit of making money there for a very
long time because I can make money in other avenues.
So I used to view music as, which made me way more anti-label.
I used to view my music as the only revenue generating principle because in university I was
releasing songs.
I was like making $4 a day, $8 a day, $16 a day.
And I was like, oh, this is like where I'm going to make all my money.
So the revenue that was making from streaming royalties and online like plays was the only
money that I was making.
And that was like basically the only money I made for a very long time because as I was
saying like touring you don't really make money until like the past year and a half i've been
profiting on touring not nearly as much as some other people may but uh it's kind of like leveling out to
50 50 now so basically now i use the i use my music as an avenue and a tool and a marketing tool
to get people to my shows and to get people to care more about my my business basically the issue
i had with record labels is i was so afraid of giving up 85 to 90 percent
of all the royalties that I was making,
in the offshoot chance that they know actually what to do
and how to market your songs.
But because the music industry is becoming so democratic
because social media and labels are basically being like,
Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa,
whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one.
For Jeff, try,
any salsa is like playing
Russian roulette with a
flamethrower.
Luckily, Jeff saved with
Amazon and stocked up on antacids
ginger tea and milk.
Habaniero? More like
habanier, yes. Save
the everyday with Amazon.
Feet held to the fire a little bit.
Yeah, and labels are like cleaning
up their whole roster, like just firing
like firing everyone because
they don't have the power anymore.
It's not monopolized. Like you can't
You can't tell the world that this new song coming out on TikTok is going to be the next big hit.
It just doesn't work.
Like you need people.
The people make the decision.
And the people make all of the right decisions when it comes to the songs.
And like when you hear songs and it's like a small little snippet and the rest of the song sucks or the rest of the song rocks, it's cool because it's like, that's what the people want.
That's what the people want.
And it's not, yeah, it's not monopolize anymore.
And it's actually, it is beautiful, but it also makes it really fucking annoying for an independent
artist because you're like, okay, do I want to try to market the song or do I just want to put it out
and see if anything happens and wait? And if it doesn't move on to the next one, I don't know.
That's interesting. I wonder then how many artists are trying to curate their music to be
just that song that's used for like a 10 second clip. I heard you mention in another podcast,
the song Million Dollar Baby, and how that song, I mean, you couldn't,
go like three reels on Instagram without hearing it.
And that probably completely changed this guy's life.
Insane like monthly listeners.
Like my favorite artist Rex Orange County never,
and he's been making music for such a long time.
He's fire.
Has not hit that amount of monthly listeners.
And this guy did it with,
I mean, I don't want to say one song,
but effectively,
to my knowledge, it was like one song.
So, so yeah, that's the thing is monthly listeners is very deceiving
because it doesn't actually mean anything.
You can have, you can have the biggest song of the world like cranking,
doing like 15 million streams a day and nobody will come to your show because nobody cares they
just want the song they don't care about the artist so that is like that's that's where like the
turning point is like getting the the the subconscious of of society to be like oh I fuck with that person
and it's like how do you develop a story and how do you develop a personality that people can
attach to that draws them and draws them in enough to come to the show or like buy the merch
or, you know, like, do all the other business perspectives that are not just songs.
But, like, I do totally think that HomeSlice is really talented.
Yeah.
So he's going to be here for a really long time.
And I'm happy to have heard his song.
I like it a lot.
Although really quick, before we go into that, you might have noticed that the iced coffee hour has grown a ton over the last year.
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again, that shipstation.com slash ICH with a link down below in the description. Thank you again to ShipStation
for sponsoring this episode. And now let's get back to the podcast. Is there an algorithm to game the
system for music or like a formula that you could follow? I heard there was a clip that I saw. It was like
a DJ that was talking about it. And he said that there's essentially a lever that can be pulled.
If you pay enough money, a lever that can be pulled to make a song go viral. But I'm guessing you
would say that's not true. It's not true. No matter how much money.
you throw at it. Like, okay. I mean, if I was a trillionaire, okay. And my, like, let's say I was a
trillioner. I had a, I had a son. He was like, I want to be a rapper dad. And I was like, I got
you. Then yeah, like I'll throw a billion dollars at a fucking song. It's going to go ape shit.
You know what I mean? I'll just pay every single, literally every single YouTuber to use it.
And it's going to go up. Or even if it's, pay the producers like an obscene amount of money,
like the best producers. No, producer. That makes no difference. Really? Yeah, because you can make a song.
We can make a song right now.
That could be the biggest sign of the world.
We should do it at the end.
I mean, maybe.
I just, like, it won't be the biggest song of the world
because I'm not that great fundamentally.
Like, I'm fine.
I just kind of figured out a loophole.
I just figured out what people kind of like
and what I'm good at.
And I just double down on it constantly.
And I'm just like, all right,
I know exactly the type of music
that I would listen to if I were to make it again.
And I'll just double down.
And I'll double down.
What I found really interesting
is that a lot of the biggest
artists don't even write their own songs.
Like they're written by like a Benny Blanco.
Like someone like that where they could, you know,
maybe collaborate or just buy a song.
What was the guy that,
Abiza?
Oh,
Mike Posner?
Mike Posner.
He was talking about making a song for Bieber and like that was his song and he
shows himself playing it.
Oh, it was Love Yourself.
I think it was love yourself.
He made a song and then Justin, I think, plucked it.
The super, super sad.
If I was your boyfriend.
Oh, was it that?
Yeah, it was that song.
Oh, okay, that makes sense.
Yeah.
Songwriting is also another avenue to become successful.
I've been hit up to write songs for people, for sure.
I just like don't care.
Because I don't like doing things on spec,
which is like, hey, if you do this, you might get this.
And I'm like, I would rather just make a song for myself.
Who cares?
Like, yes, I'm not the best songwriter in the world.
I've met some songwriters and some artists that I'm like,
what the fuck am I doing here?
You know what I mean?
Like, when you're like, I try pretty hard to make music for sure.
You know, I'm like racking my brain
And I've seen like
Doja Cat make a song
Or just jokingly make a song
And I'm like, dude, this is more fire than my whole
catalog
And she just like sits there and
And it's like sick
So it's like there are some people that are just objectively
Like super super talented
And our hit makers
Is that something that could be learned
Or do you think you're born with the ability
To be able to hear your songs?
No, it's definitely a muscle
I mean, I would say five years ago, every song I made was like a seven out of ten, six out of ten, let's say modestly or whatever.
Now, every time I make is at least an eight out of ten.
And that's because of just like what I know.
And it's like your taste keeps on evolving.
Whether or not like the song will explode, I think your taste keeps on evolving and you just get better.
because I can take every single aspect of a song of like one of my big songs, I can take an aspect of it and be like, what made this song popular?
Oh, this part.
And it wasn't because it blew up on TikTok.
It's just like the feeling it gives you during that moment when you listen to it, just grab it, put it on this song.
Another song that did well.
Grab that, put on the same song.
And just basically have a full set of songs or full set of a song of all the good parts.
of a song, all the good flows, all the good melodies,
just put all back on one song.
It'll do well.
Do you ever worry that AI is able to do that at some point in the future and, like,
create the best song and...
It kind of frightens me a little bit, but at the same time, like,
there's so many imperfections in my music that AI won't make.
So it makes it less real.
I also do think, I wholeheartedly believe that, like,
people will use AI for every other reason other than art,
and people will get bored of it.
People will get bored if it is just straight up AI art.
And there won't be like a revolt.
Like, we need no more AI art.
But people will just be like, oh, I'm not that down for this.
And I think that's just going to be like the general conscious of the society people, of people being like, you know what?
I think I'm done with that.
We don't need this.
Let's just like actually support a real artist.
But what if they couldn't tell?
Because I could see the movie industry, like at one point being like, hey, we want to hit song.
maybe. Unless there was
You can tell the movie industry right now is like
getting hit by Chad GPD scripts.
It's pretty bad.
Sometimes I watch movies.
I walked out of the Joker movie.
I heard it was like miserable.
It was abysmal.
Yeah.
And like, look, art direction, great.
Don't get me wrong.
Acting, incredible.
But like, for two and a half hours, nothing happened.
And it was just awkward.
I was like,
I think they just went to, the home slice went way too avant-garde on it and was like,
we need to do something even more different.
And it just went way left field and it did not resonate.
I don't think.
I don't know.
I see a lot of that like with musicians.
I feel like a musician, they make a few albums like when they're starting out.
Then they make two albums that just blow up.
And then they're like, I'm really artsy.
I'm going to try to come up with something that's like super unique and different.
And then it's hard for me to actually enjoy that.
Like, I've seen that.
I feel bad saying these names with like Kendrick Lamar, like Good Kid Mad City was incredible.
Oh, one of the greatest albums ever.
Even I hate saying, because I love, in fact, I met him randomly outside of the restaurant that I used to work at, Tyler the Creator.
Oh, he's great.
He's drawing a new album.
He what?
He's dropping a new album.
Oh, I know.
Yeah, yeah, chromocopia.
Yeah.
Which actually sounds really good.
It looks for really safe.
But like, Wolf is like, I think, a masterpiece.
It's like a 10 out of 10 album.
But I feel like after those blew up, they're like, I need to go a little bit more unique and different.
and, you know, get all artsy and poetic, which is great.
Like, I support trying new things, but it always seems like a little bit much.
Do you see that?
I mean, I kind of have it with my music.
I mean, like, everyone's always, I want the old baby no money.
I want the oldest, old Kanye, all this.
But you're developing new fans every single time.
And, you know, I just put a, I literally went from like a drum and bass record,
a drum and bass adjacent house record with, like, a top line bass that sounds like everything
from the UK to a heartbreak song.
Which was fire.
Yeah, and it's good.
It's a good song.
Like, I really like it.
It's really, like, raw and powerful and emotional.
But it's like, it doesn't fucking matter.
If you can make a song and you can make any type of song, a decent song, then do it.
Like, I totally agree, though, like, sometimes as people, like, try to go way too
heady with it.
Okay, for instance.
So the heartbreak song, there's a lot of aspects in that song that I would say, I would
basically do in a normal rap song anyway.
It's like some of the cadences are just like really upbeat rapping.
I get insecure when I am not, when I leave space on a song.
That is something that I just, a lot of producer friends that I work with, they're like,
stop rapping so much.
The song will do better.
And I'm like, nah, it just makes me insecure.
But it also sucks because I kind of set myself up for disaster when I'm performing live
because breath control is really difficult when I'm like rippity rapping, like on stage for
an hour and a half and I'm saying like poems and poems and poems and poems and lyrics and bars.
So that's that's something that I like struggle with is like leaving space in a song or like
trying to be more artistic in that regard. But something I will do across all my music is just
fill the song out with lyrics because I know I like it and I know my fans like me.
And if my fans like me, they'll like my songs. And that's that's it. I'm just putting my person
into my songs, then they can resonate with it.
Rather than just trying to do something
completely left field every time,
which is cool.
It's really, it's experimental,
but I just don't think it does anything for me
because I know I don't like doing that.
I like it when each album is like adjacent to the other album.
It's not the same that you're trying new things
and you're experimenting,
but it's not completely detached from like the style
that cultivated you that audience.
Yeah, totally.
I've been working on figuring out new voices.
Like a lot of my songs are pretty,
like monotone. It's like ball singing the
wild pop ball off it. And I keep in that tone a lot
because I'm probably just insecure
about my other voices. But you know
like how Kendrick Lamar
on. Yeah, yeah. How he goes like high pitches.
Like hi brother, what's good, well? Yeah, he does
that. He does a lot of it. Yeah, yeah. He does a lot of
this stuff. And that that's the reason
if you look at all the really successful
rappers, they all have different voices.
Hmm.
Yeat. Eminem. Eminem. Yeah. Like Drake.
Drake's fucking, dude,
Drake pulls out a UK accent sometimes.
And then like a Jamaican accent, bro.
It's like...
Interesting.
Kendra does a lot.
And Kendra does a ton.
And it actually...
I didn't realize this until recently,
but it really makes a difference,
having different voices.
Do you have any checks and balances
or people that you know
that have their fingers, like really on the pulse
where you show them your music
and they're not just like,
oh yeah, dude, that's fire,
that's going to go bang?
Or do you see any artists
that you think have just consistently
over time just nailed it
every single time?
Because I imagine
if you're like making music
and you're passionate about it and you're like really loving it.
Like people are just going to be like, oh, yeah, that's fire.
Unfortunately, sometimes I wish I had some more yes, man.
Because sometimes I like, nah, that shit sucks, man.
I'm like, fuck.
So I'm set on that.
Do I think I make the best music in the world?
No.
Do I think strike of genius sometimes?
I'm like, this song rocks.
Yeah, God bless.
When I made It Boy, I remember I ordered an Uber.
And we made this other song and we were working.
They just started the beat in our,
I was like, yo, this beats fire as fuck.
And he was like, yo, lay something on it before you get on Uber.
And the Uber was waiting.
And you know, when they text the Uber, he's like, hey, I'm here.
And then I just literally wound up to the microphone.
The first thing I said was, I, T, B, B, N, O Dada, S.
Yeah, that's me.
Yeah, that's right.
And they were, they just both turned.
We were like, yo, that's fire.
And then they were like, hey, what's the next lyric?
I'm like, I don't know, Gen Z, M&M.
And they were like, that is so fucking stupid.
And I'm like, hell, yeah, let's run it.
I'm not even Gen Z.
And then we ran it.
And then I sent all my friends the song.
And one of my best buddies, my DJ,
I sent it to him, he's like,
this is the best hokey you've ever written.
I promise you the song, I'll blow it.
And then I just like,
I buckle my feet down, finish the song.
And we just, yeah, it did well.
So, and it's easily the most turned-up song I have live.
This song is, I play like an orchestral introduction to it.
Oh, that's cool.
And then I'm like, the only reason why you guys are fucking here
is to tell your parents that are your fucking,
oh, goddamn legend, like, get your fucking dicks up.
And like, I just like screamies at the microphone.
I don't want to yell it down.
I'm like, get you.
And, yeah, they just lose their mind.
It's just everyone's, literally, everyone's jumping.
They're all, ah, yeah, it's really cool.
So when you make a song like that, you can feel it,
and it actually invokes a feeling of like, hey, I want to move,
or like, hey, this makes me feel sad.
That feeling is infectious.
I don't know if only musicians can, like, see it for the first time,
but you don't when you hear a song, you're like,
damn this is fire i promise you other people feel the exact same way and that's probably why a
song will be big just infectious i don't really know how it's a feel it's just a feeling yeah i like
rick reuben a lot and i listen to his interviews it's incredible he has no musical training whatsoever
doesn't know music theory nothing he just has an ear and he's like if i like it i have a feeling
other people like it too yeah and that's it's it that that really is it it's like and it's kind
of like people are like oh what type of food you like and i'm like good food it's the same thing it's the
same concept.
Because maybe you don't like good food as I like good food per se, but like I'm not going to
say no to a $17 pokey bowl where I know it's going to be good as fuck.
Yeah.
For me with food, by the way, a good analogy is like, you know how your smell influences the taste
of the food?
Yeah.
For me, it's money.
How much does it cost?
Yeah.
That influences the taste of the food.
The cheaper it is, the better it tastes.
The cheaper it is, no matter what, or the more, the more free it is, the better it is.
If something's a dollar, it's going to taste the delicious.
Oh, I love free shit.
What kind of free stuff do you get as a musician?
Kind of like if I read, okay, you know RX bars?
I love R.
Oh, it's so good.
So I have DMs with them of me sending voice notes.
Be like, hey guys, I'm like a huge fan.
Please get back to me.
I really want some product and I'll promote you guys and I promote them.
And I like literally tell my fans, I'm like, please spam them.
I really love an RX bar.
Like they cold turkey me.
But basically I've gone, I think the coolest thing that I'm,
I've gone for free was a Steam deck.
It's like, it's a game, it's a Game Boy, basically, from the company like Valve and Steam.
And I've been playing that all the time on planes and stuff.
It's super, super nice.
We got Jack in the Box for free.
Really?
Yeah.
Jack in the Box.
Commented on a video because of Jack.
Jack's name is like, oh, it's a Jack in the Box.
Well, I would talk about it.
So we used to have a vlog channel.
I would talk about Jack in the Box all the time.
I love Jack in the Box.
I think it's underrated.
What's good there?
First of all, everything.
Second of all, the tacos are amazing.
Really?
So growing up, like I would definitely, so I had like very little money personally growing up.
And so I would go to Jack in the Box.
They had two tacos for 99 cents.
I would, and I ran across the country.
So I build up an appetite.
I would go spend $4, get eight tacos, feel awful afterwards.
But also just love eating them.
They're amazing.
The meat is questionable.
You don't know where it comes from.
They definitely fry the entire taco.
It's not healthy, but it is like, it's love.
Yeah, they sent us, they sent me a $500.
dollar debit card
to Jack in the Box.
Yeah, and it's like, it's called
VIP Jack Cash.
I go through the drive-thru,
like hand it over them and they're like,
I have never seen anything like this ever before.
It's been three years and I still have money.
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, fair enough.
That's cool.
Shout out Jack in the Box.
Yeah, shout out Jack in the Box.
So you got the Steam Deck for free.
Is there anything else that like huge brands are just like here,
just take it?
Like audio equipment, I would imagine.
No, no, audio equipment is like,
it stays the last forever, so like,
no one, they're not going to give you anything.
Unless I was like AAA.
You know what I mean?
I might
I don't want jinx it
but I might be getting at
Chipotle black card
No
Oh my
Okay I gotta show you what I just sent Jack
Holy
I don't want jinx it
I
I don't like
Maybe even cut it out
You should literally just bleep bleak
Bleak
No no no I want this in there
Because if in the offhand chance
Like we talk to Poli
Probably every other episode
Oh my God
That's it
It's not it's that the black card
anymore. It's the wood card. That's fire. We talk about Chipotle nearly every other episode. We
shout them out. I spend $16 there basically every single day. Chipotle, if you're watching this,
I love you. Chipotle's fire. All three of us will always talk about you. Trust me, you know,
I hope that people listen to this and go by Chipotle. I recommend it. It's healthy. Send us your cards,
good price. Yeah, it's a great price. It's a great value. It's a great value. It's a great value
spend for sure. Walk me through like a day in the life of a musician. Just I know every day is
can be way different, but let's just talk like an average day. How often are you in the studio per
month? Okay, so I usually do studio work like making music in a very sporadic. It's like two or three
months, I'll just be like, fuck it. Like, let's make a ton of music. And then I kind of just choose
all that, all the good music that I've made. Let's say I make 100, 100 songs and I'll take like seven.
And I'll be like, okay, we're going to, we're going to market these seven songs. I really
like these seven songs.
I'm going to shoot music videos.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do that.
And just hope for the best with these joints.
I used to, in the past, like, do tons and tons of music making.
Because that's all I had.
Like, I was just making music constantly.
But now it's, like, more formulaic.
It's kind of, like, very, like, structured.
Because if I have a tour coming up, I have to, like, prep music.
Because I want, I want people to show up and want to give them new music to hear and to
find enjoyable to when I do the shows.
What else?
So a typical day, let's say, okay, when I go back, November 1st, I'm going to be in L.A.
My typical day would be, I wake up, do a little bit stretching, go to the gym, come home, figure out what I'm going to do in that day.
I'm like, do I have a session?
If I have a session at 3, which is music session, I'll make music, then I'll work with my team of like content strategy for the next week or something.
that and then go make the session go make the song hope for the best in the studio and then come
home rinse and repeat for weeks and then one off day will be like hey we have a show on the 12th
so we're going to fly to Mexico City and hang out there for a couple days I'm doing a show in Mexico
City and then I will fly back to LA or go to another place and just make content with people
and doing those shows in like the one-offs in Mexico City are those worth it financially or would
You say that's more so cultivating the audience.
So one-off shows, college shows, festivals,
those are worth it because they have a ton of production already.
And it's sometimes, I would say,
9.6 times out of 10, it's not a bad look.
Or 96% of the time is not a bad look.
Sometimes, like, the festival will flop or not sell tickets,
and then you're just like kind of left shitless.
you're like, well, I didn't have the ability to market this.
But sometimes, like, people can, like, post a video if there's, like, no one at your show and be like, wow, bro, fell off.
I've seen that with a few, like, rappers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I swear I saw that with, like, like, little baby or something.
So, tickets right now, ticket sales are the lowest they've been in 35 years.
Why do you think that is?
TikTok brain.
People don't care.
People want stimulus now.
Why would you go to a show where it's like an hour and a half of your day, an hour transiting probably, where you're like, oh, I have to go, like, listen.
listen to these songs in person?
Yeah, there's obviously a lot of people
that probably don't see that way too,
but think about the younger generation.
And also, there's a lot of people
who probably don't even see it
because social media is so alienating now.
It's too much for people.
Like, is it not too much for you guys?
Definitely is. It's not good for my brain.
So I'm similar to you.
I try very hard.
It's a conscious effort to limit it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've seen a lot of them cancel shows.
Yeah.
Like, oh, we can't do these shows.
We just didn't sell enough tickets.
Yeah, there's a lot of...
Part of it could be the cost, though.
Well, no?
It's like costs, but it's also just people aren't selling tickets.
I don't know what it is.
Luckily, thank the gods, my American tour,
because I was worried I was not going to sell any tickets.
I don't know, just everyone around my camp,
the people that I know just aren't selling tickets.
And I was like, oh, shit, man.
But we, like, blew out 10,000 tickets in a week, which is sick for me.
Like, that's way above average.
My agent's texting me, he's like, bro, really proud.
like this is this is sick we're on the up like amazing he's like you're really blowing out tickets like
this is going to be great news for all the promoters and all the buyers of like festivals so i'm going to
be able to do like festival shows and get bags there um but yeah i mean things things on my side are
are great so so google estimates your net worth at three to five million is that accurate
where do they get that number from are they just guessing i don't know how they make these numbers
uh it's it's not accurate but um
Low or
Is it high?
Hey man,
we come to the game
We sometimes don't know how to play
But I don't, yeah
I've never fully understood it
Of how they would make this assumption
I think if I wasn't independent
I would probably have less than that number
hypothetically.
I don't know.
One of my largest decisions
that I would say is a mistake
is when I had La La La La La
I didn't sign my al-a.
I didn't sign my al-a.
That album that I had, I didn't spend a penny marketing it because my algorithm, my name, was so fueled, just like fueled in all social media.
Like I uploaded a video on YouTube and it did like $7 million first week because the next thing you upload when you have a banger is going to do better because the algorithm.
I don't know fundamentally what it is.
But so when that happened, I was like, all right, like I'm going to do it my way.
But I fucked up and I didn't spend a single penny on marketing that album where that album could have been ginormous if I spent $100,000.
What do you spend the marketing on?
Just like getting creators to make content.
It's just like developing out the story as well.
So like if I had a $200,000 budget, I'd probably spend like, it's probably spent like $20,000 on like third party marketing teams to get like real big blog editorial posting.
so it feels real.
So you can just use that content.
You can get like a magazine post
and be like, yeah, I'm on a front cover of a magazine.
Even if the magazine doesn't do anything.
So it signals to the fan, you're like, oh, I'm cool.
I'm real.
And then I would, if a song goes crazy,
you run it to radio.
So radio is a completely tertiary,
basically dying format.
But if you have a song on like pop, pop, pop, pop radio,
and it's going crazy, you're making million dollars a week.
Like, you're making a shit,
kind of money from the publishing side.
So that's only if a song goes crazy.
And then really, like, I would send the rest on a bunch of really epic music videos,
like developing out the story of the album, the likeness of the album, the, the creative endeavors
and just putting more money into that so people can dive deeper into it.
And then really, 70, 60% of that marketing budget, just drop it on like Instagram,
Reels or people having making TikTok posts.
Yeah.
And like when you see a little smoke come up, when you, that's the thing.
You got to be really, really opportunistic in music.
And when you see a little smoke bubbling or like a bubble, you're like, oh, we got to
spend.
Because you might miss it in a mill a second.
So how do you recommend someone who wants to get into the music industry to start?
Let's just say they're making their own music.
They are, you know, in their parents' bedroom, just getting started.
How do they blow up?
well so this this guy named David I don't know you know David in the closet yeah in the closet so this guy I think his songs like 1.5 billion now he made a song like on his fucking iPhone and it's ginormous like triple quadruple platinum the homie was like making music in the fortnight closet like legit he was a fortnight streamer and it was like fucking I'm gonna make music made one of the biggest songs like 2022 2023 I don't know when it was on his iPhone you can just
put music out. You never know what's going to hit. And yeah, his whole life changed. Like Siza brought him
on tour and just, just like that. And he's young. He's super, I think he's like 18 still.
Yeah, like when that song came out, I think he was like 16 or something like that. Yeah. And there's like,
he uploads like photos of him and his, I think a little sister or a little brother and they're just like making new song.
And I think the brother's like, or Laura little sister, I don't really know. It was like seven.
Wow. And it's just like, dude, what like? So how did he get traction to that? Is it just,
just posting it on YouTube?
Did he use his audience?
The TikTok is really what blew up.
I don't know if he used his audience.
I have no idea.
Like there's a void in there.
But the thing is, is like, when you upload a song and you're just being yourself on social
media, it will hypothetically resonate.
Something that you said, you're like, are people making music for like TikTok moments?
I think if you just try to make a good song, it might go on TikTok, it might not.
But even if it doesn't go on TikTok, if it's a good song, people are going to
listen to it. That's it. Like, how have you been so strategic in marketing yourself? I feel like there are very
few artists that go on as many podcasts as you go on that, like, that are so active on social media,
that, that, like, I mean, you collaborate with a bunch of, like, YouTubers and stuff like that.
And as I'm scrolling reels, like, like, I'll see you all the time. Like, were you strategic in that
area? Or is that kind of just you taking every opportunity? It's kind of like me taking every
opportunity, but I also like have kind of branded myself to just be low effort and it works
sometimes. Sometimes it definitely does not work and it really misses. Tick-Tong is fucked as well.
But I feel like a lot of the time it's just like the lower the effort, the better the results.
I just see a lot of like the really popular artists as well, like Kendrick Lamar or Drake or
Daniel Caesar, Rexner County. Like they're just completely gone. They're recluse. Like they don't go on
social media. They don't go on podcast. They don't do anything. And then they just show up every once in a
one and all with an album. Yeah, I mean, there are different types of artists. I think I kind of live in a
space where I'm a little bit new age and I have to promote my music for it to be heard kind of thing.
I also could just literally put a song out and just not touch it. I could totally do that.
But I like the challenge. I like thinking about it and being like, you know what, I would love for this song to be huge because it means a lot to me or
something like that. Uh, sometimes it gets incredibly frustrating and like, there's too many people
speaking and I'll just like be like, what the fuck? But, uh, most of the time, it's very rewarding when
it works. And, you know, it's like, what's the point of doing something if you're not going to do
it to the best of your ability? I think that comes across as like something that is very like,
like a heart point of my, of my brand. And it's a very, uh, accessible for people to be like,
oh, he's just like, he's just a literal idiot on social media that's, that like, kind of,
to make good music. It's cool. So that's my take on it, I guess. It's interesting when you mentioned
that you were bigger in China of all markets. I heard you say that recently.
China, dude, it's so ridiculous. China, I was in university and I got a DM. It was like right during
like midterms week. And I was like, man, I don't know if I can do this music shit anymore. It's
really not working. Like, I was genuinely going to give up. And this, I was also doing a copious
amount of Adderall because I'm not an academic.
I wouldn't recommend you guys.
So I got a DM from this girl, didn't follow anybody but me on Twitter and was like,
hey, you're famous in China.
I'm like, shut the fuck up.
Like, what do you mean?
She's like, no, I'm being serious.
I'm like, huh?
And I had a foreign exchange student in my class.
And I was like, yo, like, do you know this like app called NetE's and like Wong-Y and like
163 music?
and he's like yeah
and I was like do you know
like do you know like what this means
and I was asking him
like what all the analytics were
and he's like wait
this is your song
and I'm like what do you mean
and he's like dude this song's huge
I'm like really
and then we just like became friends after that
and he like helped me get WeChat
helped me get Weibo
and a bunch of the social medias
and then there's this dude named Luce
out in Shanghai
and I was like
I made a fan group on Weechat
and so
so many fans poured in.
They were like,
my phone was like buzzing
off the wazoo.
And I was like,
holy shit.
I remember just sitting there
with my roommate,
Kyle and Daniel,
and we were just like,
dude,
what the fuck is going on?
My phone.
Like,
I couldn't use it
because it was like,
and I,
I texted this guy loose.
I was like,
what's up?
Everyone's telling me to hit you up.
He's like,
cool,
let's do a tour.
And I was like,
really?
And homie scammed my ass
so hard.
Like,
we sold out
six,
capacities all like 900 plus and I went from doing midterms not selling it literally doing a show in like
victoria bc with like one singular person like one person to doing 900 capacity sold out shows like drunk
off my ass being like fuck it let's party and like didn't even know my DJ didn't even know to
DJ like we're just winging it so hard and uh at that point
He gave me like $2,000 for all these shows.
And I think he probably pocketed like 100 grand.
But at that time, I was busting tables and I was like, all right, this is sick.
And I'm like, I'm making more money I would have made than busting tables playing my own music in China.
I'm going.
And I went and it was like the greatest experience of my life.
Like it was life changing for sure.
Like people had tattoos of me out there.
I was like, what the fuck is going on?
I remember the first show I turned around.
I looked at Dan.
and my DJ and I was like bro what the fuck is going on
and people like wow and I'm like bro what that like uh so that was like the first like whoa
moment uh and then everything honestly everything after that kind of just became normalized
because i was like if if my music can be so impactful in china like it has to be able to be
impactful out here and I was just like I got to keep trying and then my homie young gravy blew up
and then it was just like I just kept trying stop stop partying started waking up at like four in the
morning, started drinking coffee. I just started really giving it my all. What song was that?
It was a song called YoYo Tokyo, which I only had had out in North America for like not long.
Like, not long, very short. It was like a week. And then I don't know the inception of how.
So basically what happened was this guy, 16th birthday, Jackson Yee, Jackson Yee, he danced to one of my songs and a two-song choreographed like set up.
and it was just one of my songs,
so I have no idea who recommended it.
I have no idea if my music was popular there prior,
but soon as you dance, I went immediately viral.
That was basically it.
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How was it performing in front of that amount, like 900 people, after previously only performing in front of just like,
one or 10.
Dude, I had,
I got water on the CDJs
and I had to do pushups
for like 30 minutes.
It was,
it was a joke.
I had no idea
what the fuck was going on.
Was it freaky for you?
It was like,
this is funny.
You know,
like,
it was like,
this is so not what it should be.
But I'll take it.
So it was kind of like
a really,
really eye-opening experience
that I was like,
oh, maybe I do have the ability
to do something like this.
And I think it really gave me
the driving factor
of being like,
I have to do this.
Like something is telling me.
I think once I saw some dude,
no bullshit,
have baby no money tattooed on his neck,
I was like,
okay,
you fucked up.
Like,
so hard.
Did you tell him that he made a mistake?
I think so.
Okay.
But I was just,
at that point,
I was like,
I got to do this,
like,
religiously,
like,
at least for him.
So he doesn't make
a goddamn terribleized mistake.
But yeah,
it was a very,
very interesting experience
that I don't know,
I would love to,
re-feel that again because it was it was so like unexpected but at the same time i was making music and i was
like i really hope this would happen and then i think the second time i ever felt something similar
was when i had la la la la i was like about time like it took me two and a half years later after i blew
up in china it took me two and a half years later to have la la la la la la in north america and that was
like my first big stamp of approval in in america
and in North America, like, rest of the world.
And at that moment, I was like, okay, I made it.
Like, I for sure made it.
How much do you make and then scrap?
And just don't post.
Well, when you, when you dipped out for a minute,
I was like, I basically made, like, 100 songs
and I'll put out, like, seven.
Whoa.
Yeah, I scrap a lot.
It kind of sucks because, like,
I used to be way more down to just put everything out,
but then I realized being more intentional
and, like, actually putting out exclusively bangers,
people will be like, oh, I know he's putting out a hitter.
So I'm going to go back and make sure I listen to it for the first time.
But how do you know that those songs don't really hit with an audience?
Wouldn't it be better to have like an in-person test group of like 20 people, 20 big fans,
play the music and just have them rated.
And if they like the song, maybe you test another group?
I mean, like, yeah, there's testing groups and stuff, but you never know.
like you literally never know
I remember my videographer
I sent him all a lot and I was like yo
we should shoot a banger to this one this one's gonna be it
I promise you I promise you
and he's like this song at all
he said I don't even want to shoot it
I'm like okay don't worry about it
didn't shoot the music video
and then we shot the music video because it blew up
we had to make a music video
has like 700 million plays on YouTube
and I'm like bro you fucked up
that would have been like
the biggest game changing asset for your like
directing career
For sure, ever.
But, I mean, that's just the nature of things.
I know for us and just for myself,
there are some videos that I put so much time and effort into
that I love the video on the post it.
It's terrible.
Other videos I'll make on a whim,
and they do really well,
even though I think it's not the best videos,
just for whatever reason it does well.
So I did this video,
this TikToker guy,
content creator guy named Justin Yee,
and it's like super sick.
It was for the song called Two,
the one I was talking about the music video.
and he did like a very DIY setup like made paintings do this and i honestly when i watched the video i'm
like this is so sick like it's really cool but it just like doesn't do well on an algorithm and it
just makes no fucking sense anyone would look at this video and be like yo this is so sick like
great job this is really cool and it's like the formatting or like the file type or or the video type
the video quality type will hinder the video.
And it's just like, it's kind of interesting because it puts a weird perspective on content
creators' minds that is like, I have to kind of fit into this pole or this, this line of how I make
music and how I deliver it or how I make content and how I deliver it.
And I think it's kind of like washed a little bit of people's full-blown creativity.
and I think it's like reducing the standard of quality across the board.
And I think people are just getting more and more okay with just like mid-tier everything.
Walk me through grinding for years and then having the song La La La, La, that blows up.
What are the next few days like?
What is your phone like?
Is it just constant just I message barrage?
Did you get any DMs from people you idolized?
Oh, yeah.
I remember like the last day.
Okay, so basically Y2K was going to get this record deal.
And when he was getting this record deal, he was like, we can't let this song drop.
We like the song drop on streaming.
We're fucked.
Basically, what'll happen is he might lose his deal.
So I was like, all right, I'm going to work my ass off.
So I worked like 14 hours of just like sending out people memes to post about the song, basically.
And then what happens at this moment?
I call my ex and I'm like, I have a hit, basically.
And I call my manager and I'm like, dude, we got to get.
the song go up we're fucked the next morning it goes up i fly i take a red eye to new york we sign it
just like that and i just remember like right after i signed it we went for beers and i was just like
damn about time like it like it like it felt like i was like i was like about fucking time i'm working my
goddamn ass off for like five years in north american i had no no recognition really and i was
like for the first time ever i felt like it just made sense and it was like it was
It was cool because I think it was very validating that I knew that song was going to be a hit.
And I was just like, so convinced.
I was just like, fuck it.
I got to make the song a hit.
And it was a hit.
And then, like, all the other songs I put out, like, two before and two after, they all did great.
And it was just kind of like a springboard effect that, like, took me up a lot.
And, yeah, it's been a really interesting experience.
There's highs and lows, peaks and peaks and, like, lows and whatnot.
But I wouldn't, I wouldn't change it for the world.
Sometimes it's really annoying that I have to make content all the time.
but um what's the what's the worst low sometimes i i do too many shows and i like burn myself out
really hard uh burnout is so real being a touring act i think like just not having regularity
in your schedule really is is tiresome um yeah i think i think i've i've been to the point
where i'm like oh i'm so past burnt out i'm just so in burnout that i don't even recognize it
sometimes and then it just like gets like double down
and that I'm just like cooked.
I just sometimes like sit there and I'm like,
and I like want to do things, but I just can't.
Like I'm at capacity.
And I also think I have ADHD and a bunch of like a loo of other things.
But I think that's probably the lowest has been.
It was recently.
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date as a musician? Is that something that's like easy? Is it difficult? Are there
different challenges that come along with that? It's pretty cooked. I'll be
honest. I remember this, this guy, David. I just bought my apartment and we just had la la la,
and it was like October, I don't know, 10th. And we're walking back into my fucking apartment.
I remember this vividly. And he's like, yo, you know dating for you is fucked for the rest of your
life. And I'm like, God damn it. Fuck. It's stupid. And it's true. It's, it's a little difficult
for sure. I, that's the one pillar in my life that I don't really have fulfilled. And that's the one
pillar in my life that I've always wanted. I just wanted like some normalcy with like love and
affection and feelings and whatnot. But I mean, hey, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be in the position
I was in if I was dramatically in love, I think. And I also wouldn't switch it for anything.
What makes it so difficult? You think it would be like really easy, no? Like, what's the hardest part
about it? Maintaining a relationship. I am a serial monogamous. And I believe out of a place of trust and
and I want to build a family basically.
But it's just like, yeah, I can go and get laid.
What's I going to do for me?
It doesn't make me happy.
I don't want that.
But it seems like it would be easy to find a relationship, too.
Yeah, but easier.
But there's all,
at least historically in the past,
for me, there's been like these weird dynamics
where I just don't like it.
I want a dynamic that we're both growing together
rather than like swapping back and forth,
like the power struggle kind of thing.
And I, you know, interestingly enough,
like I go on tour, I'm the one that's insecure.
So I have a bunch of shit I got to figure out myself
because I kind of neglected all of my emotional well-being
for like eight years to do all this music shit.
And I feel like I'm kind of like lightly, emotionally stinted.
But I'm working on it now, so.
But at the same time.
What are you insecure about if you're on a tour?
Is it like the time difference
and not spending time with someone?
I don't really know.
Sometimes I don't even know what I need in a relationship.
But I'm gathering recently that I haven't yet met a person that wants to take a relationship as serious as I do.
And I like, I want to find a connection that I really like love and find fulfilling.
And I think a lot of the time, the sometimes we view connections as like a potential dynamic where it's like,
probably not healthy or we're like oh this is fun this is great but i have yet to meet someone that
kind of checks all the boxes and actually wants i've met people that have checked boxes and
don't want a relationship or a committed relationship but i've yet to meet anyone that wants
a committed relationship and has checked all the boxes obviously yeah god fucking bless if i meet someone
that's perfect that's perfect i'm you know there's someone out there for me for sure i'm i'm
I'm not too too worried.
And one of these days they will come around for sure.
It's just like, it would be doper sooner than later kind of thing.
I got it.
This is completely like a 180, but I have a question about your hair.
Your hair line is immaculate.
Do you take any sort of thing for your hairline?
And on top of that, like the beard.
It's the perfect beard.
I am so hairy.
I have a lot of hair, but it doesn't grow in perfectly like your beard and mustache do.
Jack, you're really going strong with the compliments.
Look, I know you're single.
I'm single, too.
We can figure something out here.
Shit, man.
No, I'm just trying to understand.
It's like, how did, do you, like, derma roll or is there like a...
Are you guys going to co-parent?
Is it like...
I don't know.
I want to be a bad.
I do literally nothing to my...
Like, nothing.
It's the worst thing you could have told you.
Well, obviously, like, I, I shaved a bit today.
Like, I, you know, I got to clean it up a little bit.
But for hair, I don't use shampoo or conditioner or nothing.
I just let it go greasy and just let it grow up.
So I actually, I actually,
did that for like two or so months because I heard dandruff is generated from drying your your hair
out and then it like starts accumulating and then you dry it out again to fix the dandruff which
does it but temporarily and then it starts accumulating again but if you get past that crux
then over time you won't have the dandruff is that what you experience is that actually true
oh i don't really deal with dandruff i just like i remember i was in high school my brother
was getting all like hipstery and he was like yeah don't wash your hair bro and i just stopped washing my hair
What does the smell?
It doesn't smell bad.
So it's naturally cleaning itself.
Legit.
Smell it if you want.
Get over here, man.
All right.
Yeah, you can lean over the table.
Yeah.
Don't smell bad.
That's like, that's a good musk.
It's not even, it's not even like it's not even like it's not even, it's not that it smells like nothing, but it's, it's a musk, you know, like a good.
Yeah.
Very manly one you say.
We got to change the course of this conversation because I'm outing myself.
Guys, I'm straight.
There have been questions.
People think that grandma.
I are like dating. That's not the case. That's dope. Okay, I have a question about private venues.
Justin Bieber was paid $10 million. It might be confirmed. I don't know, but it's been widely
reported. Checked out. Ten million dollars to perform at a pre-wedding celebration for a super
wealthy, like billionaire family, one of the wealthiest people in Asia. Have you ever been offered
like a private venue thing? Or is that like something that happens? I'm so curious because $10 million to
performing for probably like 30 minutes. It's Justin Bieber and also no like Justin B,
have you seen Justin Bieber live either of you guys? No no incredible like I always was like
oh it's Justin Bieber cringe I saw him live and I was like oh like he's perfectly in key
like every every word he says is perfect it's perfect like I always I always was just like
you know what like all these girls like Justin Bieber you know whatever he's probably just cute but
he's so unbelievably professional.
It's nuts.
Have I done like a super private event?
I've definitely done private events,
but not to that extent, obviously.
Like, if I was making $10 million from a private event,
black cards would be on me for sure.
I've definitely done private events.
I mean, they typically do pay better,
but they suck.
It's not as fun.
Well, yeah, definitely not.
Because no one's like singing your music.
No one's like actually there for you.
you're just like, that, that is, that is like the wife's dream.
And he's like, all right, I got you.
Like, I love you.
Here's $10 million.
But, I mean, I would have loved to go to that wedding.
Sounds like a fucking blast.
I think it lasted over, like, several days to that wedding.
Did it really?
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
I mean, $10 million, man.
That's a lot, yeah.
It's so interesting that he would still do that shit for $10 million.
I mean, you know, there's a lot of money.
Private Jet, like, and they'll make it so easy on him.
I think he just showed up, performed in the left.
So it's like maybe 24 hours, maybe 30 hours for $10 million.
Yeah, apparently he left right afterwards.
I'm pretty sure some of it was posted on TikTok, not the concert itself, but like his wedding.
And I believe it lasted like a week.
That's so far.
It was like a week long.
And when I get married, I'm two weeks.
Yeah, all the groomsmen got AP watches, but like this, I think it was like the skeleton AP.
Yeah, because they posted a photo of like all the APs together like in a circle.
So you really know all the more.
Damn, we fucking suck.
We shouldn't have the way.
We need it.
I love it, D.P.
What about features?
Is there a lot of money in features?
Like, doing features?
Doing features, yeah.
Or like, do you pay other people to come on your...
How's that economy work out?
Typically, I really like just doing a song where it's like, I meet them, I meet them, and I'm
like, I actually vibe with them.
And then I'll send them a song and they'll do it or something.
I did this song with the Young Bay Age to Go.
We ended up getting a whiz.
Was Califa.
Yeah, Wis Califah.
I got Wis Caliph on it.
And, uh, wow, how did I,
yeah, I was about to say, I'm like,
Wiz what?
I'm like,
Califa.
Yeah, it must not be Califah.
Dude, I, yeah, my brain just turned off.
This is sponsored by new time.
So we ended up getting him on it.
It was like 50 grand, but like I had no communication with it.
This wasn't my song.
They like uploaded it.
They did everything.
And yeah, he kind of made this song a little cooler,
but it didn't really do anything.
50 grand to get Wiz,
Wiss, Kleeve on a song.
Yeah, but this was like,
this was like,
four years ago.
when he was a lot more popping.
Interesting.
Because I think he probably had a couple kids and I was chilling.
Who's somebody that you would love to collaborate with on a song?
I've always said like Pharrell Williams or Timbalin, Missy Elliott.
Missy Elliott.
Just like the legends.
Yeah, that would be really basic.
But as far as I'm more like more contemporary,
there's this girl named Leveh.
Yeah.
Dude, I love her.
Yeah.
Like I don't think we would make a song that makes any sense, really, maybe.
but there's something that her music has
that is eons better than everyone else's.
It's so beautiful.
It's so pretty and like charismatic
and also like the visual imagery
comes across perfect in her music.
You can listen to a song
you can just like see it in form of a Disney movie.
It's weird.
No, she's awesome.
That would be really cool.
Yeah.
I'm really curious where you invest her own money.
Like do you save it?
Do you invest it somewhere?
I say so I have a saving
principle of like at least minimally 70%.
But that has been since day one.
I started working at my dad's store like super, super early on.
So I've been saving about 70% minimum.
But honestly, it equates to about like after my net, probably like 80, 90%.
I don't spend, I don't spend any of my fucking money.
And then I just honestly, I could be doing a lot better financially.
I have like probably 5 or 10% in like kind of high risk or like risk.
All that.
Like individual stocks and crypto.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Stuff like that.
During the crypto pump in like 20, 21, I ended up doing pretty decent, and then I poured it all
into Bitcoin.
So I have, like, five coins.
Oh, good.
It's pretty dope.
And then I have, like, probably, like, 80%, 85% locked away and just, like, high interest, high
interest.
Oh, like, savings accounts?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, you're not, what about index funds?
No, I just don't do that.
Why?
My dad and I
We just have this principle where it's like
Safety
Just full-blown safe
That might be a little too safe
Because you're losing some purchasing power to inflation
And the downside
You're getting taxed at your normal tax rate
Just keeping it in the savings tax
That's like the least optimal thing that you could do
Yeah
It's better than just a non-hygics
You know what I mean?
Nothing totally I don't disagree with any of you guys
But I also like
I don't like looking at my mind
that much. So my dad is just, he kind of just does it for me. And I'm like happy that he has
like a portion in my business. You might want to look into a financial advisor or something just,
I do have a financial advisor, but that is like, listen to him. He like only does like crypto shit.
Okay. That's not a financial. I don't know. I honestly, that's like, that's like,
your friend's neighbors, like older, bro.
Okay. To be real, to be real, I feel like if I spend more time on my music in my business,
I understand. Well, yeah, it's the highest part of.
why in that. Yeah, the high is a lot. But I'm just saying when you start getting into seven
figures, the amount that you're missed, like, just for perspective on this, the market is up
like 25% this year, 25%. So if you had like $3 million, $4 million, $2,000, that's $250,000
per million that you've missed out on theoretically this year that you would not be taxed on
until you sold. So there's a lot that's going on there that you really should pay a
attention to because it's just if we have another 20% year at some point in the future yeah five
million about it's a million dollars what you're aware index like you know what an index fund is like
kind of i kind of just haven't really spent too much brain power on that and i probably should
you don't need to spend any brain power i'm like just just just get a fee only financial advisor
you pay them by the hour and you just say tell me what to do or just invest what you recommend on my
behalf it'll take you probably under an hour like and and and like that one hour will make you
you i'm guessing probably millions of dollars over the course of a few years easily millions of dollars
for one hour of your time it's it's because we have a lot of people that is your justin bierre private
venue thing right there okay yeah we have a lot of people on yeah i mean i mean i honestly i've been
meaning to have a long discussion with my dad because i just feel like fundamentally we're not doing
enough with the money uh you guys are heard okay thank you that you
If you have any questions, I mean, just let us know.
Yeah.
But we could try to point you in the right direction for like, you know,
some of the talk to on this, like a professional.
But it's very easy.
It's very simple.
And as long as you're not planning to spend it in the next like 10, 15 years,
you'll be able to write out any sort of like fluctuation in the market.
There's a chance.
Listen, there's a chance you lose money over the next like 10 years.
Yeah.
Long term, it's highly unlikely.
Like the risk reward is like this amount of risk for like that much reward.
It's worth it.
And I like, if you don't like looking at it.
looking at it, I like an auto-invest feature. So every week, it just pulls out of my savings and
just puts it in there. And it can even be for you, like, a very negligible amount of money,
just so you can see it over the course of even like a year and be like, I like this. I like
how it's working. Even if at the end of a year, it's like 20 grand, you know? Yeah. Honestly, I do have
to do a little bit more diligence with that regard because I feel like a lot of the time I
kind of just turn a blind eye and just my dad is really happy doing what he's doing.
And I like to include him because that's just the most important.
thing and he's he's the most risk adverse person I've ever met in my life and I kind of I kind of like
don't mind it but doing a great job saving that amount of money yeah putting in a high yield savings
account like that is over yeah objectively it's a way worse you could be way no I could be just not
doing anything with it or you could be spending all the money yeah and I don't spend anything I yeah
we have all of it locked away kind of thing but I mean I could take it out and play with it more but
I just I need to slow down my business like mind and then I can start working on that for sure
I just, yeah.
Get someone else too.
Because I hope that your mind doesn't slow down anytime soon
because you could continue to utilize that.
Where you're at now, you could be 10 times over the next five years.
But at the same time, be making some good, like, you know.
Five years, 10 times?
That's nuts.
I don't even want that.
But.
Whatever you want.
Yeah.
I mean, I appreciate.
I appreciate the money.
The best thing is you're not wasting your money.
Yeah, no, no, no, no.
It upsets me when people aren't optimized.
yeah dude I definitely need to optimize a little bit
okay cool but my bro my
my financial advisor dude or like the guy who like
she's got a financial
okay right right we got okay uh
you know bullshit texting me he's like hey yo
should we invest in skibbitty toilet
he's like the movie's about a drop
and I was like oh my fucking God bro like didn't you
I woke up and that was like one of the first texts I saw like six of the morning
like, what the fuck?
And you're like, yes.
Skimity, toilet, come on.
Who is this guy?
You don't have to say the name.
His name's John.
Has he gotten you good returns?
Yeah, he's got me huge plays.
Like, he'll be like, yo, give me 15K
and he flips this to like a hundred something.
Dude, it sounds like a pump and dump group.
I'm not going to lie.
But it's that like an actual firm?
Do they say like,
firm?
No, it's not firm.
There's no way.
Is it firm?
There's no way.
Do they say, oh, baby, no money, bought this?
No, I don't think so.
Okay.
It's definitely not pumping it, don't me.
Okay.
Is he on Twitter?
I mean, he's definitely kind of on Twitter.
But, I mean, hey, I mean, he's...
Dude, I mean, if he's making you money, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keep the amounts that you're sending him fairly low.
Red flags, like 15.
Okay, well, let's talk off the books.
Let's talk off the books because...
Always got to make more money.
No, yeah, I'm sure.
You got to change your name to Baby got money.
Baby has, yes, money.
Has money.
Yeah.
No money, yes money.
I don't know.
Well, boys, that was great.
Thanks for the conversation.
Thank you so much for the show.
We'll link to a bunch of stuff down below in the description,
including our new song that's coming out.
Do you want to shout out anything?
Do you want to shout out anything? You have like, you know, tours coming up or?
End of November.
I might have a new song out.
If I do have a new song out, go listen to it.
If I don't, go buy a ticket coming to my shows.
It's probably sold out of that time.
Love your parents and your family.
Cool.
Thank you guys for watching.
Until next time.
