Hello friend 🫡⚔️

Welcome to my weekly newsletter, "The MAD Records Monologue", where I teach music business in a way that hopefully...... isn't incredibly annoying.

My newsletter is published through the writing platform, Substack, so if you see notifications from Substack or The MAD Records Monologue, do not be alarmed.... that's me!

We also publish a weekly podcast on Substack that you'll also get delivered direct to your inbox where I interview folks from all around the music industry to talk music business.

I'll check in here and there over the next few days to see how you're liking everything, but for now, feel free to dive right in!

Here are some articles to get you started:

🔥 = most popular articles

🪩 = personal favorite articles

1. Music Business

   • ​Branding is dead​ 🔥🪩

   • ​Read this before trying to get a record deal​ 🪩

   • ​The only business rule you ever need ​🔥🪩

   • ​Building a career in a recession​

   • ​7 business tips for artists ​🔥

   • ​The basics of sales funneling for musicians​

   • ​A real-world example of sales funneling​

   • ​Why streaming pays like crap​

   • ​An important business lesson for artists​

   • ​How to actually make money from your music (part 1​)

   • ​How to actually make money from your music (part 2​)

2. How to Leave Spotify

   • ​My official stance on Spotify and streaming​ 🔥🪩

   • ​The 9-Step Guide to Leaving Spotify​ 🔥🪩

   • ​My exact plan to build a music career without the streaming platforms ​🔥

   • ​My first single release without using Spotify​ 🔥

   • ​5 takeaways from releasing music on Substack​

3. The Music Industry

   • ​Why Spotify will Collapse​ 🪩🔥

   • ​How we fix the music industry​ 🔥

   • ​My top 3 music industry predictions​

   • ​TikTok and the UMG feud​

   • ​AI and the future of music ​🔥🪩

   • ​My thoughts on the P. Diddy scandal​ 🪩

   • ​Spotify’s Sneakiest Move of All​

4. Music Marketing

   • ​The social media bubble​ 🔥🪩

   • ​Read this if you hate music promotion​

   • ​How to start an email list (for artists)​ 🔥

   • ​How to get attention​

   • ​Keeping someone’s attention once you have it​

   • ​How to communicate with your audience​

   • ​Why marketing feels cringey​

   • ​How to market your music without feeling gross​

   • ​60-second advice for marketing​ 🪩

5. Mindset

   • ​Creativity + Mental Health​ 🔥

   • ​I interviewed 100 independent artists​ 🔥

   • ​A much too personal story​ 🪩🔥

   • ​Gambling is ruining the music industry ​🪩

   • ​The cure for analysis paralysis​

   • ​Is everyone faking it?​

   • ​The most dangerous question in music​

   • ​Dealing with rejection​

   • ​The troll​ 🪩

   • ​The Sky Is Falling​ 🪩

6. Podcast and Interviews:

   • ​How to build an email list (with ​​Seth Werkheiser​) 🔥

   • ​Interviewing the Lumineers’ Stelth Ulvang​

   • ​The Future of the Music Industry (with ​​Emily White​)

   • ​Interviewing a Spotify stock analyst​ 🔥🪩

   • ​Interviewing Samply CEO, Eric Shirtzinger​

Let me know what you think in the comments for each article.

Welcome again!

Michael from MAD Records