Trading Secrets - 232. Dustin Lynch: 10 Number one songs and a Vegas residency, the BTS of the ever-changing music industry, protecting artists & writers, and the money behind it all!

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

This week, Jason is joined by country music singer and songwriter Dustin Lynch! Since his debut country album in 2012, Dustin has solidified his place as one of the country’s biggest recording artists with over 6 billion cumulative global streams. Dustin has earned 10 #1 singles, four top five albums, 10 gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certified singles. He’s a moment of the Opry and has earned several high profile awards, wins and nominations.  In this episode, Dustin shares why he loves competition, how money can be made playing cover songs in college, and getting his start at Tin Roof. He breaks down how the music industry has changed, landing his record and publishing deals, and the difference between the two. Dustin also talks about protecting writers and artists, the biggest scam in the industry, and the importance of artist leverage. Plus, he dives into the real money behind live shows, the hidden costs of award shows and late-night TV, how his Vegas residency came to be, collaborations with top DJs, his go-to social media platform, influencer partnerships, and wraps it all up with a rapid-fire round! Dustin reveals all this and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss! Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: John Gurney Guest: Dustin Lynch Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals & Deals! Square: Boll & Branch: Boll & Branch products are made different, so you can sleep better at night. Woven with the finest 100% organic cotton on earth. Feel the difference an extraordinary night's sleep can make with Boll & Branch. Get 15% off, plus free shipping on your first set of sheets, at BollAndBranch.com/tradingsecrets  Up Work: Hiring shouldn't be a hassle or a drain on your budget. Upwork is your one-stop shop to find, hire, and pay top freelance talent—saving you time and keeping costs in check—all in one place. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free Cymbiotika: Cymbiotika is changing the game when it comes to supplements. Their liquid packets are more effective, convenient, and go wherever you go. ​Cymbiotika is as clean as it gets—no seed oils, preservatives, or artificial junk. Just high-quality, real ingredients that actually do something. Go to Cymbiotika.com/tradingsecrets for 20% off + free shipping today

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tartick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment, where I'm going to tell you a little bit about our guests. And I'm going to give you a little bit of a different type of intro right now. You can probably hear a lot of ruckus in the background. We are at stagecoach right now. I'm looking at Andrew Spencer. I'm looking at Justin Glaze, John Gurney, Kelly Flanagan, Blake Horsman.

The crew is here. The crew is loud. The crew is viving. Now, this is a special episode in which we have Dustin Lynch on, Country Star, an absolute legend. And we just had two new people join the villa. So a lot of action here. But I'll tell you what, Dustin Lynch is a forced to be reckoned with, a businessman, an unbelievable country star. And you are going to hear things about the industry that you have never.

Ever, ever, ever heard before. All about where the money's made, how it's made, the different shows, the different track, all the stuff. Now, before we get into this episode, we're going to do a little tour here because the recap is a whole lot of action here. We got John Gurney here. John, how are you doing? Doing good. Stage coach, 1 through 10. How would you rate it? I would say so far we got an 8. We're going to bump it to a 10 tonight, though. Backstreet boys are going to be there live.

Andrew Spencer, we're on the intro right here. You got anything for anybody? Hey, I hope everyone has a blessed day. Yeah, do you have a good time this weekend? I had a great time. Should they listen to the recap? Absolutely. Stay tuned to the recap.

Kelly Flanagan, how we doing over here? This is the intro of Trading Secrets, Dustin Lynch podcast. Hello, how are you guys? Have you had a good weekend? I've had a great weekend. One out of ten, what would you rate it? Honestly, a 12. A 12?

Wow, all right. You guys got to stay tuned. It's going to be a great recap. Justin Glaze's intro. How are we doing over here? Man, I've been better, but I also can't complain. Why have you been better? Man, I've slept more in my day.

Yeah? I've gotten a better night's sleep. Okay, all right. Yeah. What do you think the light's going to look like in one year from now for you? I think I'm going to be happy. I think I'm going to be healthy. I think I'm going to be successful.

Successful. I think you're all those things already. I don't like when you're so politically correct. But that's okay. You're very dialed right now. You're very polished. I don't like the polish, Justin. And then Blake Horsman, you're eating a little double-double.

You perform this weekend. You'll tell us a little bit about the numbers this weekend. and we're excited for you, but how's life, man? It's good, man, hanging in there, you know, day three, feeling good. You're a Dustin Lynch fan? Big Dustin Lynch fan. He saw him at Red Rocks last week. You saw him at Red Rocks last week.

You saw him at Red Max, okay? We went to see him in Vegas. We saw him this weekend, Sage Coach, and now he is on this episode of Trading Secrets. It is one you can't afford to miss, and let me tell you, this is the music industry uncovered. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are joined by country music singer and songwriter Dustin Lynch. since his debut country album in 2012, Dustin has solidified his place is one of the country's biggest recording artists. With over six billion cumulative global streams,

Dustin has earned 10 number one singles, four top five albums, 10 gold platinum and multi-platinum certified singles. He's a member of the Opry and has earned several high-profile awards, wins and nominations. We are going to chat with Dustin all about his successes, his failures in both music and business and the unique path he took to get where he is today in this ever-changing country music world. Dustin,

thank you so much for being on Trading Secrets. Great to be here. I got to be honest, man. I was reading your resume. I'm like, this thing just keeps going and going and going. That's probably the best one I've heard, dude.

All right, I'll take that. I'll take that. I totally. Yeah, a little hype guy. It's wild like to hear all that stuff. I don't really focus on anything, but what's next? Yeah, yeah.

I said to hear those back every night and again, it's pretty cool. That's it because I just, like barely scratch the surface. If I got into it, you're hosting, your business components, your equity. I mean, we'll talk all about that. When you say you think about what's next, like personality-wise, like I've done some work on myself and I'm an Enneagram 3. It's all about like never feeling enough. What do you think from a personality type is wired in yourself to always be like, I don't think I've got to keep going on that proper test, but I'm

that we're about the same. Yeah, you take that? Yeah, I just, I love competition. I think it kind of was, was bred into me just based on who my dad and granddad are. They're hardworking guys that get up and have a tutel list every day. Almost to a point where I don't like being around them too much because it's like, we got to chill out, man. But I think I get it naturally from them and the music business kind of just parlayed off of, I grew up playing golf, competitive golf and play collegiate golf.

And that's every man for himself sport. Sure. You're only going to get better if you show up and work at it. And I think that has a lot to do with chasing songs in Nashville. And that's really what launches, you know, it's the catalyst still. I mean, this far into my career, I'm chasing songs all weekend long with buddies trying to figure out what's next. I love it.

You're still going, moving 100 miles an hour, even a residency in Vegas. We'll talk about that before we do. I want to go back to 16th. You're playing at Bluebird Cafe. You then go to college here, like you said, you play golf in college so you could be tight to Nashville and stay in this circle. At what point did these dreams, right? You started playing the guitarist at eight years old.

At what point did these dreams of like? a long shot, actually become a moment where you're like, wait a second, this is a reality. Like, I'm making money. This could be a career. Like, what was that? Yeah, it was steps. So going to Lipscomb University used to be very strict. I couldn't leave campus. We had to check in and out of our dorm room after whatever hours. If we went to a friend's house for the weekend or to party at another campus, we had to lie about it, have our mom call in and sign in and out. So to have some fun, we would go down the street to Vanderbilt and crash. I had a buddy from my hometown that wasn't a frat there, the ATO house,

and I'd crash on that couch. But they would have, the reason I go there, where they have cover bands come through. And at that time, you know, I was, I had a high school band. We were having some fun, but we all went our separate ways in colleges. And I was looking for my next chapter of music. And I saw these cover bands. I'm like, man, I could do that. And y'all are paying them, what? So, like, what did cover bands get paid when you're exploring that? They were like, it depends on who you were, but anywhere from like 2,500, up to $5,000. Damn.

Cash. I like the bars? At these frat parties, yeah. Wow, okay. The bars, no. We can get into that. Yeah, we'll get into that. That came a little later, but I'm like, okay, I got to start learning some more covers and what

kind of band do I want to be. I love country music. They loved a lot of Texas country, a lot of Southern Rock as well. So I started going back to the, you know, in my off time that I had back to the dorm and apartment and just learning cover songs, trying to get that catalog up to where it could be, you know, an option I could present whoever when I had the chance. to do it. And man, I just took a stab. And there was this band at Tenroof to Mumbrian Street that played called Hendering the Seahawks. And I became friends with him through the years.

And that was back when it was easy to get into Ten Roof. And he let me get up and sing a couple times with them. And then I had the courage just to ask the bar staff, hey, would you let me take a Monday night? You know, nobody's going to be there. But I'll bring some friends from Lipscomb. And they're like, yeah, take it. And that's where it started. It was just me and a guitar at Ten Roof on a Monday night. And it kind of just grew throughout the week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, Friday, and then we started playing regularly onto Mubbrian Street at those bars and kind of building our following from that. And then when visiting schools would come play Vanderbilt, they would see us play at these college bars. And that's how it really started

cranking in the Southeast Forest because all the SEC schools saw us play in Nashville and then would ask us to come play their events. That's pretty cool. When you first started off at Tinder, if that's wild on a Monday night, were you doing covers or are you doing your own music? It was covers. And then I had my own music. We were pretty much an original. band in high school. But the songs were terrible, right? You're just learning how to do it. And I'm trying to get better at that craft every chance I can. And when I got a couple things I was proud of, I would sprinkle them in. But you'd lose the room. It's tough to hold a room with the original song. Of course, of course. Back in those days, Monday night, you're playing,

you're just doing covers. What do you get paid at something like Tinroof? I don't think I was getting paid anything. But I will say this. We went down to lower Broadway and it was $30 for four hours. 30 bucks for four hours. Then you work for tips, of course. I think that's gone up a lot since then. But Nashville wasn't what Nashville is today back in. There's only a handful of bars down there that we're doing business. Now, wasn't there like the old adage that if you played in Nashville back in the day, you could get picked up by a big label any day of the week?

Has that changed? And was that the case then? Or is that a rumor? I don't think it's changed. I think it's a lot harder now to make that happen because, you know, labels this day and age are watching consumption with the access you have. Anybody can put music up any day. And everybody is.

Back in that day, it was really the only accent. you had to get mass consumption was through those labels. So I think they took a lot more chances on new folks. Now you've got to kind of prove yourself that the market wants you. It's crazy how distribution channels have changed in the music industry, especially when you're talking about TikTok and trends like the whole business is night and day from probably what it once was. When you guys build this following, you're going to SECs, you got your band, you're doing your own thing. Like at what point did something, did a manager reach out? Was it one song that popped? Like what was the moment that you go from just a band that colleges are enjoying to?

to this resume that we're reading today. Yeah, it goes, it really, I think my whole career is all about just full circle moments. One of my golf team members went to work for an insurance company down in Cool Springs, Tennessee. Okay. And one of his co-workers's father-in-law was a manager of a new artist named Justin Moore. Okay. Who I was familiar with. And he turned, he turned this co-worker on to my MySpace page.

Stop. No kidding. Oh, my God. And the guy liked it. So he was like, well, my father-in-law is a man. manager, I'm going to send this to him if that's cool. And anyways, Pete, his father-in-law ended up just cold calling me. And I went and met with him. After I figured out he was a scam artist, I went and went with him in his house, played him some songs. And it was kind of the first time I was

playing originals and really hanging my hat on my original music. And he liked what I had to offer. And we were in a label like two weeks later. Interesting. And from that meeting, it was kind of a crazy meeting. From that meeting, the guy that I met with was head of Valerie Music Company. and Valerie was an offshoot of big machine music, which was where Taylor Swift was. Of course. Trying to think of the other artists that were there that were popping at that time.

She was obviously the big one. So it was a big deal. I remember getting out of the car to walk in. I looked down on my flies open. I mean, just from the get, man, it was like, oh, shit. The nerves are crazy. I never played for an executive like that.

I'd play for, like, publishers and stuff and writers' rounds, but like a big executive on music row and Taylor Swift's label, it was a really nerve-wracking experience. But so, like, my second song, Andy turns away from me and starts typing on his computer. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, this is not going well, man. What do you end up doing?

The girls, his girls, his promo staff were sending him emails like, who is this? We can hear through the walls. Oh, wow. Don't let them leave without signing them. Wow. So, yeah, I had a record deal and a publishing deal offer not long after that. Okay, when you say record deal, published deal, we also heard the word scam artist. We'll get to that, because everybody has a story, record deal, published, you know,

what does it exist with people that are listening that are just curious about business? What does that mean? What does a record deal actually mean in writing? In writing, it means, well, it can mean a lot of different things. It depends on what kind of deal you have. There's all sorts of deals. They've changed drastically since I've signed my first deal. Okay.

I think that was 2009. Back then it was really, for me, I was trying to get out of working day jobs. You know, I want to just just do music full-time and focus on music. So the record deal really did nothing at that time except lock me up with my creative, you know, depending on what the master structure is. And essentially, your record label is a bank. so you get like a guaranteed amount you can get a guarantee it could be structured where you know it costs right now this day and age if i'm doing a song for real yeah if we're going to release a song it's about 17 000 just to get a song out there just to get it just to get a song sounding right

interesting so you know you look at doing a 10 song album there you know you're 170 in right that's without that's just to get it on the desk when you haven't even promoted it yet okay so there your bank um and from that you know they're your bank um and from that you know they an ownership in that product. Okay. Because at the end of the day, that's what we're doing, right? We're putting something up, hoping somebody buys it. Okay.

So they're the bank. They help you put everything to life. Yep. Then the publishing deal, what is the role of a publisher? Yeah, the role of a publisher is, which is where I was, that's where a young artist and writer like myself that's trying not to do a day job and just write full time and make music full time, we lean on it, what's called a draw. So you essentially are selling your copyrights or a portion of them to a publisher that's

going to exploit those to other artists, connect you with other creators, creatively steer you to other creators you think they think would make some magic. You get a draw back off of that. So, you know, you signed for, I don't know, I think my first drawl was, you know, $28,000 a year or something, $20,000 a year, which you can get back then, could get by on. Sure. Especially if I, you know, I'm playing these frat parties and wedding receptions making cash. I was, I was loving life. But I didn't have to have a day job anymore. You know, I had a guaranteed income from this publishing deal. I was allowed to, you know, write songs. And I still do have a publishing bill. Because it's such a, how do I, how do you track down, you know,

money that's, that your music is making all over the world. You've got to have that network in play. You've got to have that admin in play. Okay. And that collection in play. And so that's what publishers really, and that's a very broad stroke. But that's really kind of what the nuts and bolts of what that is. So for the publisher deals, you're writing for the publisher. The publishers then distributing those lyrics and what you're writing. And then if they sell them, you're making it back on your draw. And if you make more than your draw, then you're compensated in addition to whatever the dries. Is that right? Yeah. And we can hit on like sell. And especially in country music, you're never really selling a song. Maybe to sync fee, like for TV or something,

you can sometimes there's a lump sum sell. But for like country radio, like if I write a song and let's say Thomas Wrette records it, he's not buying that song for me. He's just recording it. And then we are hoping that he has success with it and making residual income off of that. Interesting. So you'll get a percentage of the income that comes from that song as a writer. Correct. And usually what is the breakdown between artist and writer with a song? So yeah, so it differs.

So radios is structured to where the artist does not get paid on the place. Okay. Only the creators, the writers do. Interesting. Which is bizarre. Yeah. Very bizarre. Streaming in XM, everybody gets a percentage.

Okay. So that's kind of a weird thing that has always been the case. You think, oh, I'm hearing, you know, Morgan Wallen 100 times on the radio. If he's not writing those songs, he's not getting played for those pays. The writers are. That's fascinating. If he's a writer on the songs, obviously, he's getting a portion of that. Okay, gotcha.

Obviously, there's money to be made elsewhere. We'll get into that a little bit. But I'm curious what you just see, we're talking about the early stages of your career, the frat party is so much fun hearing, like, those stories. But what was, like, the first check, the biggest dollar amount that you got? What were the age that you were there that you just said, like, this check changed my life? And what was it connected to from a career perspective? What either song or album was it?

It would have been the first quarterly check I got for Cowboys and Angels because I was a song writer on it. Okay. And that song was a big song. It still is a big song. Huge. You know, I'm still getting money from Cowboys and Angels.

104 million streams right now. And this was seven years before streaming became a thing. Wow. And it still was already at 100 million. You know, so you think if it came out this day and age, it'd be way on up there. Way bigger. Well, can you say what that check was? I don't really remember what it is.

Because in the life of a song, you're getting paid pretty much on chart positions. So, you know, and it's delayed, right? So, like, your biggest check from a number one will be the following year at some point. Following year. Yeah, because it goes up to number one, it has all these plays. And then you've got to get your payment back. So I'd guess, like, you know, three to six months would be your biggest check from that number one peak. Oh, wow.

Interesting. But, you know, you get like, oh, man, here's $15,000. You know, and then, oh, here's 60, you know, and I don't know, it's rough math, but I think like a number one song total would pay, you know, a million dollars. Okay. Interesting. Total. And then, you know, you divide that between the writers and the publishers. And yeah. if you hit a big song in this space you hit one big song like a cowboys and angels at 100 million plus or you know thinking about you 200 million plus in streams now can you like live off that like if you hit one big one hit wonder off the royalties is that sustainable does it create that much income no and i think you know we've got to find a balance with that with streaming you know obviously streaming is is very valuable to us as artists and and us as songwriters but i think i think the songwriters are with album sales completely going away with consumption being so short-lived. Yeah. You know, everybody, it's, every song is just a flash in the pan now.

And then it's on to the next. And the release structure of the music industry isn't helping them at all because we're releasing so much music so quickly that there's another song by my artist that he put out that I forget about this one, that probably would have had double the streams than it does this year. Sure. Seven years ago or whatever. It's oversaturation.

Over saturation is really, really crutch. and songwriters, and I think the way streaming is structured to pay the songwriters is not correct yet. I think, you know, we're working on it and doing our best. But we've got it, National's got to figure out, the label's got to figure out a way to include the songwriters, the creators, the creators. There's no music without songwriters and artists, no matter what they say. We're what makes the world go around. And we've got to make sure we protect the guys and girls that create the songs. If you're in the standard deviation of, let's just say, like your average songwriter, good, but you're not like putting out the biggest hits every

single year, but you're good. Is it hard to make a sustainable living? Like, is it currently given the structure? Yeah. And so what do you think? Really? Like on average, what do you think those songwriters are making? Like the good ones, the average ones in town if you had to guess. I mean, they're making a, they're making a good living. If, you know, if you go, oh, that's, that's a pretty good living because you're just doing music full time. But then you step back and you go, wait a second, you know, a billion people have done life to this song and, you know, they're struggling to raise a family and that's, that's assinide. That's crazy. Well, when you think about the numbers of social media right now and if someone is putting up

a billion impressions, the amount of money that they're going to make off those billion impressions, if a songwriter is creating lyrics, they're touching a billion plus people, that should be in the world of marketing, that should be life-changing money. Yeah, well, you look at, you know, if it's an impression, let's say, if I do YouTube content and I have a billion views on this podcast, right? It's a lot of eyeballs. You think about a billion plays,

that's a lot of plays, but how many people heard the, how many people in the room heard that play? You know, probably a bunch of people in that play. So it's way more than that consumption-wise. Yeah, it is, you know, I'm an advocate for trying to figure out

how to continue to get, I want to see these guys and girls that create the soundtrack to our lives and the world. I want them to be, you know, celebrated. Yeah. And be comfortable and not be struggling and, you know, not to have to have have their significant other go to work so they can live their dream. You know, and so I hope it swings their direction at some point. I think so many people listening this don't realize how many lyrics they hear aren't written by the actual artist that's singing. And what's crazy about living in National,

you get to go to Bluebird. You get to go to these writer circles and you hear the stories from the people that are writing it. And it's so cool to connect the writer and the artist. And I agree with you. There's obviously a lot of work to be done in that space. One thing I can't, overlook and I got to go back to. We've had Arod on the podcast, Sergio Garcia and Gronk. They've talked all individually about agency management relationships. All of them had had people burn bridges. You mentioned the word scam artist. What in this space happened that like you got got and what's your biggest learning lesson that maybe someone could take from home from someone that took advantage of you? That's a great question. Yeah. And I would say like

with you mentioned burning bridges, but earlier I mentioned full circle, it seems like every time I've wanted to get mad at somebody in this industry, there's been a weird turn of events or circumstances where I come back around and work with that person in a different setting or an offshoot of something else. So I've learned that time and time again, you know, it's like, you know, you can burn the house down and burn it, burn it down, burn it down, burn the city down if you get mad at somebody or be ugly. But you never know. It's a small town. You know, the creative industry is small. And so that's a lesson I've learned and still, you know, try to practice. I think, you know, the biggest scam would be having people that are close to you

that in your inner circle you trust and you find out they've been taking your stuff. How does that work, though? Like, how do you not have visibility to what they could be taking? Because you see it in the movies, you hear it in podcasts. Like, how does it work? Well, you know, a lot of times you, well, for me, you know, I want to protect my address and where I live and my residence. So, you know, a lot of thing, a lot of our business opportunities and and partnerships, everything is sent to an office. You know, it's not, it's not sent to my personal address. So things go missing.

And so it's like, that's where, you know, you wake up and it's like, oh, all right. That kind of stinks. You know, that was my deal, but you have half of it. So I would think that would probably be it. I don't know. There's been a handful of things where, you know, handshake deals have happened. Yeah. And not followed through.

And then, yeah, then people like to forget those. Yeah, which is sad. Yeah, and when you're under contract, you know, working with a group and, you know, you do a handshake deal, you feel like it should be solid. But yeah, to those out there watching, make sure you don't overpaper your handshakes, but if it's something you really believe in, get some paper written up on it. We had someone that came on the podcast. She's a big wedding dress designer, and she signed a contract in which she actually signed her entire name away and didn't realize it. Wow. And the company took her name.

She couldn't use her name. She couldn't say her name. She couldn't operate her Instagram. She couldn't operate in the space that she was competing in. Like the wedding dress, she couldn't do anything. She lost everything. She spent like millions of dollars just getting her name back. So if there's one thing, hopefully the people on this podcast that listen have heard, it's like be careful with contracts.

Yeah. While we're here, I just, I have to mention this because I feel like I didn't have anybody really to hold my hand and walk me through the music industry. Other other artist buddies that have and I envy that knowledge they have. early on in their career and how they were able to structure their first contracts with leverage and realizing no hold up you you have something to you have more to give because whenever you go in and negotiate your young artist you're hungry young songwriter you're hungry you just wanted to happen a lot of it is ego based it's ego driven you want to go back i want to go back to tell home in tennessee my hometown and go i got a record deal at taylor swiss label you know and you feel like

you're an idiot if you turn that down and it could be the worst deal in the world but your ego gets the way and you're like, yeah, but I want to go tell my friends in high school that I got a record deal. I did it. And a record does mean shit. It means that you have given away all of your, all of your songs. It's all it means. Right. And, you know, until you have great success and they make the majority of the money back, you make very little from it. And so for young artists out there that are like, I just need a record. I hear all the time still, it's like more so than ever with social media and how you can, the technology of recording music at your home in a room like this you can make i mean i record my album in a room like this like

you can make great sounding world class music in a really cool easy way this day and age and then it's up to all all of the world overnight yeah and so you have the leverage and don't give that up too soon and don't get frustrated and go man if i if i just had a deal i would get more impressions and my song would take off on ticot no it won't interesting it won't you know i'm a firm believer and you've got to build that traction organically this day and age. And if you can command attention on your own

and you start getting impressions and views and listens and followers, you're going to walk into these meetings with record labels and they're going to get on their knees and make a life-changing deal for you. And I have buddies that have done that, you know, and I'm so proud of them that, you know, they had the balls to stand there and go,

and I'm just going to wait. You know, I think I'm worth more than this. And I didn't have that. I love that. It's like create your own leverage, right? Without it out. And with today, with all the numbers and the transparency to it with social media and everything, you can see the numbers and therefore you're creating it and building your community.

Last thing I got on this topic and then I'll move off of it. We talk a lot about like different financial infidelity and relationships and financial cheating and all these things because we can learn from them. I'm just curious, one thing when you found out that you're obviously mail was being sent to him or whatever happened, one thing that like, how did you actually find out something was happening? So what was the one thing that you found out because maybe it's the way you found out someone listening to this can then find out that it's happening in their business

partnership or their relationship or something like that. For sure. Yeah, it was just, you know, you kind of have that gut feeling and it was kind of a slip of the tongue on his part. Oh, interesting. Good liars. You have to have a good memory. That's it. All right. Yeah. And that's literally what happened. And then you, you know, you just start kind of uncovering and asking questions. And yeah, it's unfortunate. But, you know, like I said, it's, it's, I think, especially in my world, you've got to kind of take it on the chin and not really hold a grudge, but make a change. I like it.

And then let go of it. I like it. Okay, great advice from Dustin. We talked about streaming. I wanted to get into just some of the numbers. It's the biggest question that I got asked about this podcast. You hear, we were talking 200 million, 100 million, 350 million on small town boy. How do you get paid on a stream?

How does the breakdown of it pays it like a penny per million? Like, how does this work? No one knows. It's a big moving target. It is a big moving target. It constantly moves. I figure what the money is now. I think it's crazy.

I think like maybe a million streams of 700 bucks or something. It's wild. It's very bad. I don't even pay attention to it. Yeah, because it's interesting. I just got to be, because my,

what's, my record deal has probably be the worst one in Nashville because of the timing of it. You know, when I, when I, when I signed my record deal, streaming didn't exist. I remember going to these meetings the first few years and it's like,

why are we going to San Francisco to meet with this? What's a stream? What's streaming? Yeah, how does that work? Yeah. Napster's illegal. That's gone. LimeWire's gone. What's Spotify? Like, why are we going to Spotify? Like, what is that? And we kept going to these meetings. No one was using it. I'm like, I'm in the music business and I don't know anyone using this platform. And then boom overnight. And what happened with my record deal. And here's another one while we're on the topic of kind of getting railroaded by your team. So the label's getting to this big, you know, kind of crazy tellspin of, oh, no, we're not going to sell CDs anymore because that's how we, were distributing our music before streaming.

So at the time, the head of my label comes back in and goes, we've got to renegotiate all of your record deals because we're not going to make any money off of your music anymore because of streaming. And so a lot of record deals were reworked to where the labels got participation in touring money, in merchandise sales on the road. So I was a whole part of that spin. And then to come to find out now labels are. making more than they've ever made in their lives. And guess what I'm stuck with? Fascinating.

This contract when they weren't going to make any more money off music. Ah, geez. Yeah, so I don't really pay attention to the money I make off of music because I don't really make money off of music. It's crazy like I'm in the music business, but I'm not in the music business. Maybe as a songwriter. Yeah. I make good money. But as an artist, it's not really my focus. Inspiring artists right now, aspiring creator, songwriter, musician hears you say that. someone with like this insane resume, what direction do they go? Well, they're in a lot better space now. The record deals now are,

way more back in favor for the artists. Understood. I would do anything to go into an office right now and sign up for a, you know, a modern day record deal with streaming that exists. Okay. You think back, streaming did not exist when I had a, when I was signing these papers, and now it does. And I'm just like, well, okay.

I mean, I love it because it's how my fans consume music. and the whole world can consume my music versus you got to go to Walmart and get a CD, which is when I, Cowboys and Angels came out, that's what we did. That's crazy. It's changed that much in 12 years, you know? So yeah, as a young artist, I think you can get a lot

more creative with your record deals now and your distribution deals. But yeah, I'm just kind of stuck in this weird bubble working my way out of it. Yeah, okay. And just so fascinating to hear the before, during, and even current where you're at, you talked about touring a little bit. So there's non-toring, right, without your entire band, and then there's touring with your

entire band. Let's talk about when you're touring with your entire band. How does the business component work of that? Because the costs of it are so significant. So is it like all ticket sales go to you? And then based on ticket sales, you're paying off your expenses or isn't an advance for a tour? Like, what does that look like?

Yeah, a little of both. Ticket sales don't usually go directly to the artist. Most of our deals that come in are structured as there's a promoter. whether it be for a whole tour or the one event or a few events and the promoter is taking a chance on the artist so he's gambling he's the gambler gotcha so he's the buyer and he goes hey you know sandwich illinois fair i want to bring in dust and lynch and we're going to pay him this much and the fair the fair has employed this guy that they believe in to book the talent and hopefully see net profit after all of this is said and done so

we usually get a guarantee that guarantee usually comes 50% up front and then after we complete the show that night and hit all of our marks you know whether it be hey you got to do this meet and greet hey we need you to sign this many things whatever is in our deal memo sure you got to play this many minutes once we do that then we go collect the the second half of the guarantee that's the majority of the deals we do on the soft softer ticket ticketed events so your festivals when we say soft ticket it's it's kind of not big built in crowds, but not, hey, it's Dustin Lynch's tour. I'm selling tickets to this arena. We're a rich stone type thing. Okay, it's different than that. Okay. That structure differently. You can have multiple promoters in that situation or one.

And then those promoters are the gamblers again going, okay, we're going to guarantee you this much money per night because they're hoping you sell the tickets to make back profit. Of course. And then they're also getting to participate in beer sales, food sales, parking. and do artists get for soft events do artists get any portion of that yeah sometimes there's back what we call back end okay so there's a guarantee if you do this amount of of you know if capacity is 10,000 if you do 80% it's this amount if you sell it out it's you can really you know it kind of compounds quickly and then on the what gets fun with it with the harder ticket stuff is you know when you start getting to participate in parking and in food sales and in beer sales with the promoter

you know, for me as an artist, I love, our show is a big party. So I'm like, I'm going to build another drinking moment. Yeah. Maybe sell some more beers, you know. There's an interesting tactic. I had to, like, talk my friends through. And they'll have more fun. For sure.

It's like, I had to talk a lot of my friends through this recent Morgan Wallin show because it was like, man, it's been an hour and a half. He's still on stage. I go, y'all understand he's participating in beer sales. Like, and you've drank two $18 beers waiting on him to come on stage. Like, that's incredible. That's what's happening right now. Wow.

I too have fallen victim to that, but it's not a victim because I love it. It makes the business that much better. So when you're doing, when soft events versus like a hard tour, I assume you're making more money doing a hard tour, right? Do you call it a hard tour? I just made that up. I would say, well, it depends on who the artist is. And where I am right now in my position and I would say my class of artist,

the soft ticket events are usually the higher paying nights. and the more profitable nights because we don't have the hard costs usually at these big festivals they have the infrastructure they have the sound they have most of the lights so we're not having to provide that

on my hard ticket tours I'm having to provide more trucks more drivers more techs because we've got to roll in there and hang all the sound hang all the lights sometimes bring all the staging too wow so there's way more overhead but the experience for the fan

is it's we only the night. Okay. And we're building that long-term fan versus, hey, I'm going to go get a corn dog and ride this roller coaster and go watch this guy sing a song. It makes sense. Is it possible to go on a tour and lose money? Absolutely. Really? And has that happened to you? Yes, believe it or not. We can get into that. Yeah, I'd love to. Yeah. And how much did you lose? Like, I can't imagine you go on tour. You're grinding your ass off. You're tired, you're shot. You're doing everything. You got fans going crazy, dying for you to sign things and then you lose money. Like I'm trying to Yeah, I always try to equate what we do to sports teams, right?

Yeah. And athletes, can you imagine playing a full season of NHL hockey and then at the end of the year going, oh, by the way, you lost money this year? It's insane. Well, I did it. So, and really what the, and this happened to a lot of us, and it was because of the scale of just the world and everything that's priced, the ticket price didn't go up after COVID, but travel tripled.

Hotels tripled, fuel tripled. And so we were kind of stuck in this weird window of we have to have this many people to make our show happen. We have to have this type of show to play these stages. You can't roll in there with nothing. You know, the fan expects more. And then, you know, when all of your, that's the big three expenses for me is the travel, the fuel, and the hotels. You know, I mean, when all of those triple, bottom line is screwed. It's true.

How much did you lose? Can you say? It was like right about a break-even type thing, but that's a loss. Okay. It's still a loss. Yeah, you're playing a whole season and then it's not going anywhere. So that's frustrating. Interesting, though, during COVID, how right restrictions go up. So then that's kind of fascinating. And then with merchandise, that's all worked into the system too. Like, how do you get paid on merch? Is it a percentage of? It's a percentage of. And what's crazy, this is another one of those, like, really frustrating things. So most venues are owned by, you know, Live Nation.

or a group like that. And they have what's called a house fee. So that's pretty much their house tax. And usually the venue makes just as much money as I do at the end of the year on my t-shirts. Interesting. So your take home is usually about, we try to get about 30%.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. But that's just one of those things. You know, you look at, you know, I think maybe you don't, but obviously I'm consumed with all this, but you look at like all the fees

when you go to Ticketmaster and buy a ticket. It's kind of like that. Okay. And this is, you know, everybody getting their, what they think is their cut, but what are you going to do, not sell merch? Yeah, exactly. You've got to sell it.

Interesting. Interesting. It seems like a lot of optimization has to be done in this business, but it's also cool to hear about it. When you're up there singing, you talked about how many minutes you might play in a festival.

Do you know, I've always wondered, like, will you play more if like you're vibing out, like the crowd feels good? Or you want a quick, strict, like it's got to be the second. If it's our show, well, two things.

If it's our show, we can do what we want usually unless there's a hard curfew. Okay. Sometimes if you're outdoors, that, or whatever. I've been with some artists that are having such a good time. They'll pay the fine because they don't they don't care. They don't care. Yeah, that's great. That's a great night.

I love that. You know, if we're headlined at a festival and there's not a hurt curfew, we'll play longer for sure. We have those moments. That's fun. They're rare. Yeah. Because usually there are hard curfews or we're direct support. The last thing you want to do is play over. For sure. You know, you want to be mindful of your time allotted and respect that artist behind you. That's fair. I love it. Okay. Let's talk about some awards. So single of the year in 2012, American Country Awards. You have music video of the year. Yeah, top new artists of the year in 2014, CMT Music Award, Mail Video of the year. I can keep going. I'll stop there. With these awards, how do they impact your business?

Do you get paid when you win an award? Does it have a big impact on the monetization, the branding? Like, how do you view awards in the world of the country music scene? I love the award shows. No, you don't get paid directly. I would say, you know, if you went, you in a group of the sales, let's take Old Dominion. If you win group of the year, nine years in a road, they're probably making some ticket sales off of people going, we got to go see this. I mean, it's been this lock. Yeah, right? These guys are legends.

So that's awesome. Award shows cost a lot of money to be a part of them. You know, we've got a team of, I mean, it takes, I'm not picking out what I'm wearing on a red carpet, you know, so I'm paying, I'm paying stylus. I'm paying whatever that suit costs to wear, you know, hair and makeup, go, go if you're on TV, that's, that's a must. And then you've got, you know, for me, it's like I'm paying a security guy, whatever airfare and hotel ground transportation same with late night television late night television cost an arm and a leg

morning television costs an arm and a leg you know it's all it's all marketing expenses so you're like when you say arm and leg like a few thousand bucks five thousand back in the day when we were playing late night tv it was like 30 35 grand no way out of pocket yeah yeah you don't have to pay to actually beyond the show though do you no that's just what it costs it's just so just for all the cost i mean i'm you know we're moving 20 bodies yeah and do you do you think you see the return though? Like so you don't know like SNL or Jimmy Fallon or something like that? You think those artists see the return? I think it's building blocks. You know, I don't think you play it and unless you're Stapleton and Tim, if you have a Stapleton moment like at the CMAs where it literally

changed the face of country music in his life. Yeah. With Tennessee whiskey. Like that performance is a direct like, boom, that one worked. Yeah. I think it's building blocks. You know, through the years, it's it's reminding fans that you exist and which this day and age is impossible. to do. There's so much traffic out there. I consume country music every day all day, and I was just looking at a playlist the other day on Spotify, and I knew like four artists on it. It's unbelievable how many people are able to get music out now. And it's great. It's awesome because you find, like I found a band the other day I had never heard of, and I've been listening to them the last three days. Yeah. So, and they're here in Nashville. So, you know,

there's, I guess, upsides to all of that. And it's just building blocks. You know, I think it's investments just like any company like let's go back to we're selling a product yeah you know if i made this candle i'm not just going to make the candle and and that's that yeah you got to go get it on shelf some kind of way and get it in front of people some kind of way and so you know these moments and these award shows are great ways to do that who watches award shows you know the audience skews a little older but the audience is very engaged with who's on that show and and i know for a fact all of our super fans are watching those award shows so they're big deals you know it's not even if you know, even if the QM watch is 2 million people, well, a lot of that, a big portion of that

viewership is super fans that are for sure going to buy country music tickets. Blown away by how much you know about the demographic, the analytics, and the business behind all those moving parts, like insanely, insanely impressive. You mentioned building blacks, another building black for you, a whole different curveball. You now have a residency in Vegas. If you guys are listening to you can go see Dustin Lynch, crush it in Vegas. Tell everyone about, this is the first ever country artist to perform at Wynn Nightlight Residency. like tell us about how this came to fruition because this is a different curveball it is it's different

even in my closer end as i'm explaining because people think oh residency in Vegas you're to theater you're playing multiple nights all year long yeah it's not how this works we're playing the nightlife you're playing the in my opinion the sexiest biggest club is the most fun i've ever had in my life at excess yeah which is like i've been to places i've been to clubs all over the world yeah excess at the wind is is up there for me and i can't believe this you know we're having this conversation it organically happened yeah i got asked by pBR professional bull riding to play an after party for their world championship last October at excess and I'm going how are we going to pull that off yeah what do you want and so call them

and they're like well whatever you want to do we've never had country and so I'm going well that didn't help me at all yeah but I've been in enough shows is yours I've been enough shows I knew I was going on really late I knew I didn't just want to be this karaoke singer I knew I didn't want to be just an acoustic guitar me that probably would have been great I probably worked really well but I wanted to take a chance because I had a dream, man, of if I'm going to get to play excess. My favorite club in the world once,

I'm going to go up there and just drop the mic and do something fun. And so this is crazy how this came to be. I played an event for Twin Peaks. It was like their world championship of the calendar girls in Nashville. We got booked to play the show, best show of all time.

It's honestly like 150 of the hottest girls at Twin Peaks. You guys needed that. extra invite or plus what I'm in on there was unreal so we played that in Nashville and afterwards of course we have to go to that and after party so we roll into this club that's in Nashville and in this DJ like intertwines a couple of my hits into rap music and stuff and I'm like how did he do that that was impressive yeah and I went and got his Instagram and that was a couple years back anyway so I get I get this wild idea to do a DJ show at excess one time only sure

and I find them on on Instagram and I find out of you I shoot him a message. Yeah. And I gave him a call and I said, I mean, here's the challenge. We got a month to make this show for excess. He's like, I'm in. So he probably loved that call.

And, well, I mean, to get to play excess, like, come on. And so luckily we had, in years past, kind of done some EDM tricks for our live shows. Okay. And for social media, just like sizzle real stuff. Sure. Yeah.

So we kind of had a little launching point with those. And we just found a way to intertwine those hit songs, add some new ones, do some new remixes, in and out of the antics of, like, my pool situation brand. So I had that leg up, and I love to host and into hip hop back into country. We just came up with this half hour of fun stuff. And we get to the wind, and the GM and everybody's there. And they're like, so what do you need? You got a guitar player?

I go, no, man, it's me and this DJ and my playback tech from my drum tech from the road. I need three mics and set of decks. And they're like, what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're thinking we're going to karaoke. you know yeah and we do sound check and i look over i can tell they're like oh shit you know and the night before that gig i ran into marshmallow at the when we're young festival this rock festival yeah he was in the booth with us watching my chemical romance and i just asked him i said dude

i'm doing the show i don't know what to do he goes go just play least common denominator sing alongs okay trust me i'm like okay good because i had like i knew what we kind of had ready that was it and in the queue and he's like i'll come I'm like, yeah, okay, you're right. I look over during my set, marshmallows in the booth. No way. Watching this go to out.

So having him there with support and then head of nightlife with him. Yeah. And then a couple other guys, I got off and he's like, dude, you nailed it. That was awesome. Congrats.

And the next day, we had a call from Live Miami. We had a call from this place in Toronto. And then not long after that, excess called us to come back with Diplo in a few weeks. And we knew we'd done something cool. That is so cool. You know, we got out fast.

Yeah, I mean, it's different. it's cool, but it's the vibe. It's where people are going. It's where people are spending their money. It's where people are spending their energy at the clubs now. Like, that's the game. Yeah. And that type of, like, from a business perspective, you got mics, you got three people. You don't have all this travel. You don't have all these bands. Can you make more doing a gig like this than you would at one of these soft events you already explained us? Yeah. So the net profit on those is a little better because we don't have the overhead, right? Trucks, buses. We talked about travel being what murders me. Sure. On, on, you know, bottom lines. And but also we can, we can, we're

now being able to promote a product to these promoters and buyers that can come at a, you know, not so big of a nut, right? So the full band show is this. Yeah. Or he can come to do this DJ set for this. So it's opened up these opportunities. Like in a week or two, we're playing the grand opening for Baltimore Orioles. Wow. And they would, would never be able to afford the full band show. They don't have, they don't have the stage space to get us up there. But we've offered them now a new product with this DJ set where they can have, the same amount of hits they can have a very unique experience for their fan base and i can do it for that for a cheaper price because of the overhead and you know there's not much to travel with and

it just i don't know it's it's really opened my eyes to this this brand new space so and and then really the dream of this is you know next year i'm already looking at festivals and curating my own after-party tents at all these festivals to where if we're at a festival you know i'm already going to be at the festival for this price, but we'll play the after-party tent at the after-party tent for an extra whatever. That's pretty sick. And so we're kind of getting two parties and one, and the promoters, they know they can trust us and we're already there. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, your first album drops in 2012. It's 2025. You know, you already talked about how there's oversaturation. There's all these artists. It's tough to continue and sustain and have

longevity. Based on what I'm hearing and your ingenuity and what you're doing in a space that's so hard to stay and continue to be successful, it feels like every year you're obviously. You're optimizing it more and finding more sources of revenue. Is it fair to say that like your graph when you look at like, let's just call it net income, not even gross income, but net income, is it moving this way? It is. Other than that one year where we had to do some figuring out.

Other than the HL year that you plan at no cost. But like this year, you'll probably make more than you've made before because of all these different options and avenues to find revenue and optimize the costs. And I think too, you know, 12 years in, I'm not the new kid on the block anymore. you know so that flash in the pan of oh this guy this guy this guy is and now it's it's going how can we continue to reinvent ourselves and and make the brand sustainable as long as we can and grow the brand and i'm probably what i'm most proud of you know with with the pool situation brand kind of

meeting with with this dj nightlife brand in addition to you know still having hit songs at country radio and playing these festivals i'm most proud of keeping it fun for us you know i yeah i could sit back and just put out a country song and go play, you know, our arenas and festivals and be fine. Yeah. But man, the challenge of curating, you know, new shows and playing the biggest nightclub in Miami and playing my favorite nightclub in the world in Vegas and Encore Beach Club in Vegas, you know, it's just, I think we talked about building blocks earlier. It's just, you know, all these little things kind of, you just figure out a way to put them together and it's kept it exciting. I'm 12 years into this and the most excited I've ever been to create

music because the DJ set has now allowed us to look at this new wave of EDM and you know with the success that streaming has had across the world the success that Morgan Wallens had and Luke Combs has had all bringing all these new eyes and ears to country music, American country music. Now I've found a way to mix in a little dance music and collaborate with the songwriters behind the big dance hits and some of these big DJs and I'm working on a project right now in that world. So it's going to allow us to really get out worldwide with a little bit of our music and sky's the limit now. Your last album, 23, killed the cowboy. So like what's now you're going to make some originals in the EDM space? Like, what can we expect? Yeah, first and foremost

is country project and working hard at that right now. But also hand in hand, it's fun because I can go like, I mean, I'm writing like a madman right now because I'm so inspired. But I can, I can go in a right country one day and then the next day I'm with one of the top producers with big DJ writing for the dance record. Okay, one question I got that I know everyone's asking about, you release this new music that you're working on right now once it comes out. Obviously, you have to deploy a social media strategy now, which 10 years ago you didn't have to do. What type of things are you trying to do like on TikTok? I'm sure it's crazy for country artists of your caliber and longevity to be like, I can't believe I have to make a dancing trend. But are you? Like, is that part of your strategy

with this new music? What's it look like? I, you know, I think someone, I didn't start. If I was starting out now, I'd probably have to get into the dance game, like where I'm doing the thing. Yeah, but that wouldn't be genuine for me. It's all about being, you know, genuine to yourself and treat yourself. And I think, yeah, I've got to navigate those spaces, obviously. But there's, I think there's stuff, there's so much you can do content-wise that goes hand-in-hand with my brand as a country artist, right? I'll let the others kind of take it from there. And hopefully we have a song take off that I would love to put out a song that becomes, you know, a dancing trend in every country bar for the rest of the time. That's like the big.

biggest goal ever, right? To have a line dance till the end of time is like, that's unbelievable. It's a great goal to have out there manifest. Okay. So yeah, I definitely, I love it. I love social media. I'm on Instagram the most just because I get caught scrolling. And TikTok, I'm like my main goal this year is to up my TikTok game and be more consistent on there. And that's a really fun spot because, you know, you can have something like the other day I was flying my plane. And, you know, it was just like a cool sunset. I took a video and I threw it up there. And I threw it up they're not doing anything fun or cool. Like I've probably posted that 100 times or for whatever reason on TikTok.

Just pop. Boom. It just popped. And it's like, okay. So it's just consistency, you know, and that's original to me. Like, that's me flying to literally eat Mexican with my parents one night and then fly home. That's sweet. And, you know, and it takes off.

And I get all of this, all these views and all these new eyeballs that follow me. And now I think whenever it comes time to do, you know, a country release or our country EDM release, you know, I have all those new eyeballs that are going to see it. That's huge. One of the last things I got for social media, you kind of touched on it already. 1.2 million followers on IG, go follow Dustin Lynch, TikTok, 460,000. X, you got 850,000 YouTube, 825,000 subscribers. We've had people come on the podcast, and with these numbers, they're making millions

and millions of dollars with brand deals. You have so many sources of revenue. Are you participating in, like, the creator-influencer game as well? Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of different ways. You know, there's direct partnerships we've done, which are great, and I'll continue to do. What, define direct partnership? Like you're promoting- You know, John Deere goes, all right, for, you know, the next six months, we need three posts. Got it.

We need you to have, you know, a meet and greed of at this, you know, dealership and, you know, whatever, Illinois, before your show, that type of thing. Yeah. The indirect partnerships are a lot of fun, too. Define indirect. And there's a couple of indirect partnerships. So indirect would be... I guess happy dad, and I think that's the genius of that brand, is it's not drink a happy dad. Sure.

It's just, you know, we did a deal and it's like, hey, man, we're going to send you product. We'd love for you to drink it. We'd love for you to wear a hat. We'd love for you to wear a shirt. Just make it a part of your life, you know? And so it's not as like. And then there's a fee for it. And then also there's, you know, investment opportunities from that.

Got it. To get equity in the game. Yeah. Without a doubt. This is intentional. We just did a six-figure deal with Starbucks. Oh, nice. But they're not, there's no payment for this right now.

Right. But, like, it's intentional, like, with that, right? Yeah. So that's, like, kind of a thought. But that's really cool how happy dad's doing that. Like, they'll give you product, make it, make it natural. And then they'll give you the ability to get into the game from an equity perspective or potential cash fee. Yeah, I love it so much because people just see it around and they want to know what it is because you're not telling them what it is.

Yeah. Yeah. And if they ask you what it is and then you get to tell them what it is, then they're more connected to it, you know, and, and, and, It's just in the background of pictures or photos, you know, or videos or it's not this hashtag ad. Yeah. When I wake up, here's my happy dad. That'd be a fun life. Yeah.

Sounds like a good time. All right. Let's do a quick rapid fire and then we'll get your trading secret. So this is kind of like a money fun topic and we'll touch on country music. But what is one thing that you spend too much money on? You know you spend too much money on unless you go completely broke like that area. You're like, I'm still going to spend on that. What is that area?

Oh my gosh, man. it's got to be hunting. Okay, got to be hunting. If you had to guess how much you think you spend on hunting? Millions. Oh, not annually, no, no, no, I'm just saying. But in total, probably. Well, I just, I've bought so much farm farm around to hunt on.

You know, at the end of the day, like, that's an expensive hobby. I literally got my pilot's license so I could fly to my farm. Yeah, I saw that. Like, he has his pilot license, too? What the hell? Like, that's ridiculous. Oh, yeah, that's crazy. It's unbelievable.

I love it. Okay. So hunting is, is the hobby that. That's a good one. Yeah. I mean, I think if you're like, if you take everything away from me, I'm still going to find a way to go on. Okay, that's your thing. That's where you get out of there. Okay, let talk to me about this. Like, you have a, you have a blank check and it's a dollar amount one day, like you dream to be worth this amount.

Like this stems from Jim Carrey. When he went to L.A., put a blank check in his wallet, he said $10 million, I'm going to make $10 million in five years. And it was four and a half years later. That's when he got dumb and dumber and he got paid $10 million. Oh, that's where this comes from. Like your blank check, like what does it look? Like, what's the dream if you had to write it right now? Yeah, I would like to get, that's funny, because it's never going to end. I mean, this is how you and I are programmed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do have a goal to get to 100. Yeah, and then when 100 comes, you're going to 100.

Yeah, because I love like, I've learned so much. COVID was such a big blessing for me because it allowed me to go, oh, shit, what am I going to do? And I really started looking into my money and going, okay, what am I doing with this cash in the bank? And I started finding opportunities because out of just desperation of, of bored. them, but also if we never get to go to her again, because there was a point in time, I was like, I don't know. Sure. And I started investing in real estate.

Cool. And so I think if I get to the 100 mark, I'm going to just have, I mean, I'm like, a lot of my day is managing my investments. And I love, I love dirt. I just, as far as investing goes, I like to be able to touch it. I like to be creative. Okay. So either developing land or managing something or developing products.

And so, like, I'm constantly, it takes up a lot of my bandwidth. And I would probably just do more of that at a bigger scale. Okay, I love it. And you are equity owner and equity partner of Beard Club, too. So shout out to Beard Club. I was going to ask you if you could think, like, one best investment, one worse investment. Like a good one you made and like the worst one. Well, I think best investment would be some of my commercial real estate.

Sweet. Yeah, just and being able to leverage, you know, some good, you know, I guess percentage points on some things. Yeah. that's great those are fun worst investment worst investment it's probably going to be well i to be yeah too be determined so far i have t blow up in 2020 i don't know did you did you get involved in any of those messes no i didn't i haven't got involved in in the crypto thing yet um let me i truly i've had something just go sideways there's one thing i thought would be a home run it a part of this fund that was kind of a celeb indirect marketing group okay

And a lot of our stuff was restaurants, and so then COVID hit. Gotcha. And so, you know, it was like yoga studios, restaurants, all this stuff where it just business went, we thought it was going to grow to dead. Oh, geez. And so we took a big hit there. But we had a couple other things work. So we're kind of, we've got to got water right here still.

Yeah, it's like that break even tour. Yeah, I may sneak out of there even, but we'll see. I love it. All right. Here's the last part we got. It's you can invest for them. you could play with them and you can manage them. So there's one country artist right now

that you can invest in what country artists other than yourself are you investing in. Wow, okay, say that one more time. Okay, so this one's going to be invest. All the country artists that are out there. Okay, I want to make sure I get this right. You got all your cash. You can buy a country artist right now

like you can buy stock in a company. Okay. Who are you investing in right now? Luke comes. Okay, that's a good one. Now you can manage someone. So you're like, all right, I'm going to be their manager. I can make 20% percent, 5%,

whatever your percentage is. I see what's going on. I want to manage them this second. Who would you want to manage? I've want to manage Zach Top. Okay. That's a hell of a one. And then the last one is play with. So you can write a single with any artist, any artist. It doesn't even have to be country. Any artist in the world, who's going to be? This will be fun to say. Let's say, I'm trying to, there's a million of these. A million, a million. Because I have a huge crush on her. I would love to make, and I love, I love this type of music. I would love to make music with Tyler. Okay. Hey, this is how Taylor Swift did Travis Kelsey got together.

You never know. You never know. Last one I got is you're sitting at a table. You can have a beer or drink with any artist dead or alive. Who's it going to be? Probably hag. Okay. That's another good one. Yeah, I'm Earl Haggard. Great answers. If my house caught on fire today, I would run and grab. I got to sing on his tribute album. And I got surprised. He wrote me a, put off a big poster and he wrote me a really nice note on it. Yeah. So that's what I probably would grab. I'd grab that and then all of my opera gear I have. And run out of the house. I love it. Awesome. Well, we got to wrap with you. the trading secret. So it's a trading secret to your life. It can be financial. It could be

professional or personal, only based on your experience. You can't hear in a TikTok tutorial or from a professor reading the textbook only from Dustin Lynch. So what trading secret can you wrap us with? Yeah, I think we've already hit on it. You know, know for a fact that I would say this, let's keep it short and sweet. You may have to cross the bridge again. Don't burn it down. Don't burn it down. That's a hell of a quote right there. I like it. And we're going to happen to everybody. Everyone at some point. Everyone. And when you talk about ego, your ego will want to burn it down. But let your logic serve you there, I think. I'm watching a date in your industry. Oh, we can do a whole different podcast on that.

Shit, that's a good one. You know what? I've really tried to. Do you want to elaborate on that? No, I've, that was one of my packs I made with myself early on in Nashville. Yeah, you wouldn't do that. No. Oh, that's smart. Because you never know. That's really smart. Right. Because you might not even want to burn a bridge. Well, you know, you're at 10 Ruth playing an acoustic show. You're just, you know, just aspiring songwriters. And the next thing you know, she's running your record label. five years or 10 years. You don't want that going down. No, you don't want that.

Yeah, stay out of your industry. That might be the best train secret we've ever had. All right, that's a great, great way to wrap up. I know you talked about some of your management failures, but we have red light management here who is one of your successes. So thank you guys for making this happen. Wouldn't be with them if they wouldn't be with them. Yeah, wouldn't be with them.

Take thumbs up to them. And Dustin, thank you so much for being on this episode, Trang Secrets. Ding, ding, ding. We are closing in the bell to the Dustin Lynch episode. but we are live right here at stagecoach out in the middle of California. And let me tell you, this is a site for sore eyes. I got Jay Glaze to my left chugging down a body armor. We got Andrew Spencer in the house.

John Gurney's here. Sam, Katie, Blake, the DJ Horseman. And Evan Sarr, the legend himself. We're going to go to Justin Glaze here first, first before we kick it to Dustin Lynch. I want to ask, how's your stagecoach weekend, Ben? man, it was fire. Yeah, why are you so tired right now?

Because I don't, I don't do this anymore. Yeah, what do you, what do you mean? You don't do what? Yeah, I don't go outside. I stay inside. Are you a country fan? Sometimes. What do you think about this weekend, 1 through 10? I like Shaboozy.

Yeah? What do you like about Shabuzi? I think he's really talented. How are you being so weird right now? I get awkward on camera. Okay, you're not on camera. You're just on audio. Yes, you are. John got a camera right here.

Oh, Kelly Flanagan has just entered the room. Kelly Flanagan, how's your stage coach weekend, Ben? Wild. These boys are crazy. Mr. Andrew Spencer,

how are you doing today? I'm good. Why are you so scared right now? I'm not. I'm doing what you do. How's your week? How's your weekend? Oh, man.

It's just been so exciting. This is my first stage coach ever, so I'm really happy to be here. What's been your favorite memory so far? I think was probably, you don't fall asleep with with jalapeno chips last night

that's your favorite memory who's been the best who's been the best who's been the best who's been the best who's been the best performance you've seen this weekend Shibuzi

right back to back I will say you look you two are looking quite fit you're hitting the gym here for anything specific I just I just try to look good for you know Kelly Flanagan

yeah wow Wow. Kelly. Kelly, how do you feel about that? Wild remark. We're going over to Blake, DJ Blake. This is a crazy recap right here. Blake Horsman, how are you feeling this stage coach? I'm feeling good. I'm just happy to be here. I'm just happy to be here. You performed yesterday, right? I did. I did. I performed yesterday. It was a good time. It was a vibe. What did you think about it? It was fun, man. It was fun. It was a fun little like activation from Malibu. So it was a good time. You just saw Andrew Spencer take his shot at Kelly Flanagan. What did you feel when you saw that action? I've been seeing shots taking at Kelly Flanagan all weekend.

You have. All the boys in the house. All the boys. We are in paradise. What advice would you give to Kelly Flanagan? Don't. Don't. None of the Bachelor boys.

Stay away from all the Bachelor. Stay away from Bachelor Nation. Andrew Spencer is coming in hot right now. He is on his knee asking Kelly Flanagan for a date as we speak. Kelly, did you say yes? Wait, Justin Glace is now holding. in Kelly's hand. What is happening in this villa at stagecoach? It has gotten out of control. Let's talk. Let's talk a couple dollars and cents. You make some good money yesterday, DJ?

I did actually. I had a pretty good weekend. Is this a pretty is this like, do you sponsorships too? Yeah, yeah. I got some sponsorships. And, uh, yeah, they made a DJed Coachella and they made it up for me too for paying me extra here. All right. So if we think about DJing, we think about brand sponsorships, give me a number. 20 grand this weekend? No, not that 10K. 10K. This plate courseman in the house. Yay! think about the days you were out on stage coach making mistakes and now you're just cash and chess i'm the only one who didn't go to an after party this weekend i've changed i'm a fall i'm a daddy now you know what i mean i'm a daddy you get PTSD being here or no no no and what was

your biggest favorite memory this this this podcast is now okay all right we're going to our tourney sophie justin and kelly at a moment what is happening get back what what moment the they have um i don't know how much i'm allowed to say why is justin sweating right now oh he's okay let's go back wait what justice can you what's going on here can you confirm her to i'm confused andrew wants to take callie on a date i mean she just said she's always had an eye for me cal is that true this is the first time i'm really getting to know kelly you know and i was trying to hook you guys up, but she, like, I don't know, she's been coming on pretty strong. Wow. All right. John Gurney, what do you think? I'm the only non-batchelor guy.

Yeah. She is scalding now. So that was, that was laying next to them on the couch when all this was happening. Oh, my God. What is happening in this house right now? Holy hells. Get the producers of the bachelor over here right. now. There is a lot of action. Kelly has now left the room. We're going to go shake her down right here. Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, come in. Come in, Kelly. What happened? Can you tell us what happened in that? What happened on the couch last night? What happened on the couch? Nothing. Andrew, were you part of this too? Yeah. No, you weren't here. So, Kelly, I know there's a lot jokes lying around here and stuff, but are you dating anyone right now? I'm not.

Single. Interesting. Why wouldn't you go in Paradise? I don't think it's for me. You know, I'm like in a stage where I think I need to be single. Okay. All right. She is single and good at it. Does anyone, Dustin, this is the Dustin Lynch episode, just so you guys know. A lot of interesting things there.

John, you are a musician. What did you take away from that episode? So Dustin, I felt the coolest thing was how each show is a product. So he's an acoustic show, an EDM show, a full band show, how they can package each thing like Andrew Spencer almost just nearly died. Andrew, are you okay? That might be the wildest recap we've ever had on trading secrets, but you know what? That's fitting for stagecoach. We're out here doing some work. We're out here having fun, but I really hope you enjoyed this episode. You know, Dustin Lynch truly is a force to be reckoned with, not only in the country

artist space, but as an entrepreneur, businessman, and investor. And it's so interesting to hear more about him. And I will tell you personally, spending some time with him in Vegas. this past weekend and here at stagecoach. He is a really great guy. Down to earth, humble, caring, charismatic. I can't say enough good things about him. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of Trading Secrets and hopefully it was one you couldn't afford to miss. Living the dream