Ways to play
Five careers that all work. Pick the one that sounds like you.
Everybody writes, records and plays shows. What kind of artist you are comes down to where you put your best hours, and every one of these works. None of them is a trap, and you can drift from one to another as your career changes.
The songwriter
Live in the writing room. Train your talent, keep the songs coming, and let a shelf of good tracks earn while you sleep. The steadiest way up, and the one that leaves the deepest catalog behind it.
The road act
Play everything. The crowds pay your rent night after night, your setlist stays warm on the charts, and it costs less than any other way to play. You will not get rich fast. You will always have a show.
The face
Interviews, podcasts, campaigns. Attention is slow to start and hard to stop, so the longer you work it the bigger every next thing gets. Best following in the game belongs to people who play this way.
The songwriter The road act
The faceThe headliner
Save up, then spend big: the best studio, the biggest room, the loudest campaign. Risky early, because the big rooms cost real money before they pay it back. Late in a season, nobody earns like the name at the top of the poster.
The crew
Start a label with friends, or join one, and put a band together. What the crew wins, the crew shares, and winning together is its own ladder. See the labels guide.