Deciding To Play The Game To Win In Art

Art is a complex entity. On the one hand it is beautiful, pure and expressive. On the other it’s this vicious competitive game that will eat a person alive. Pretty much every human I’ve ever seen pursue art seriously ends up wildly frustrated, expressing disdain for those who betrayed them.

I went from questioning why every rapper seemed paranoid to becoming paranoid and antisocial. Now my experiences aren’t reflective of everyone but I share the same internal conflict as many creatives. How does one actually retain some integrity while creating and also to get paid for it?

The real answer is to use the same tools (data) as everyone else. When you want money from people, you need to make sure you are providing something people want. You need to decide to play the game.

The journey from hobbyist to professional

We all start as hobbyists. Passion and desire move us to create. In my case it was music (I rap) and writing. At first the world is your oyster and everything created is exciting and new. There is this deep thrill of discovery and the growth trajectory is pretty clear. You are trying not to suck.

Then one day you stop sucking if you stick with it long enough. Chances are you got a lot of feedback from peers and prospective fans alike. These people helped shape your craft until you reach this threshold where all of a sudden you are on the cusp of something greater. For me that manifested with people buying my merch and actually getting paid to perform. 

The art creation process is very liberating. Creating art that people will buy requires an insight into the innate desires of others. The common idea of making art for yourself only holds true when what you represent is based on community. People need to feel moved in some way to connect with your creation. 

There are a million independent rap songs about addiction. None of them resonate with people like an Eminem one does. When we grew up watching Eminem go through his troubles it made us feel his music more. Unfortunately, most people’s “I overcame addiction storytime” songs are identical in theme. None of them were superstars going through it adding the flavour that piques curiousity.

People see the addiction songs Eminem puts out and try to emulate them. No one asked for their addiction story, so no one cares. To approach professional art is to really delve into what you do and connect your vision with an audience that shares beliefs with you. It requires compromising and “selling out” for lack of a better term. It’s more about making art for reasons beyond yourself.

The power of friendship 

I realized along the way that in music, crowds matter. Especially when posting visuals. To illustrate what I mean, this is the view from the stage at Montreal’s Club Soda. I was there to open for Dave East with the homies. 

By contrast take a look at this crowd show from a show I hosted in the basement of a Royal Canadian Legion location. It’s much harder to sell a ticket with this level of density when compared against the packed crowd shots.

People like to see people getting along. The solidarity in a larger collective of people working towards a greater goal is far more monetizable than any singular brand. Back in the day MGK had his “Lace Up” movement. If you were willing to lace up your chucks and put the work in, you identified with what he represented. 

I started to see that pattern all over. Wu-Tang Clan notoriously pulled up to events with 300 people. This allegedly was a safety issue crossing boroughs in NYC in the 90s. When you watch a lot of classic videos, there are always these large crowd shots. The neighbourhood pulls up to support the artist or it’s an impressive concert performance with an engaged audience. 

It signals that a lot of people already like this artist. You should join in the collective support and become a fan. You’ll find people who don’t know a lot about the inner workings of music prefer to follow pop, or things that sound good to them. A lot of the reason they do that from my PRSPCTVS is because it creates some social lubricant with their peers. I watched a lot of Netflix shows in my day just to keep up with people on cigarette breaks. 

By creating a dynamic built on friendship, you can create a community of loyal paying customers. Only if it’s sincere though.

Learn to play the game

Whether you like it or not, commercial art is about winning a game of attention. While a lot of people argued about newcomers ruining music, video games dominated the world. When you look at the market share numbers, video games is 277 Billion and music is at 28.6 Billion in 2024. 

The reality is, the entirety of a local music scene is competing against giants like Microsoft. We throw concerts and are upset that people are staying home to play the new video game that just dropped. Only we’re not upset about that because it never comes up.

In order to win the game of attention we need to focus on the numbers. What actually works. This often requires a competitive analysis of the field. I need to go read a bunch of Substack stuff and find out if the way I write even makes sense on this platform. As I learn more, and interact more with other creators, I will start to get more feedback. 

Leveraging the stats I can see what content is more or less interesting to others. It’s not that different from music. You want to release a lot of content, see what resonates with people and let the universe tell you what your single is. Then when you push it, people will be more likely to respond then you deciding you can be an A&R on your own.

It’s important to practice in public. Then fail in public. Learn, grow and show the world you are really about that life. Then after working long enough, hard enough, fan by fan, you’ll hit  your goals. Treat content & art like a video game. There are rules and if you figure them out, you can hit the next level.

I hope you are enjoying my journey as I level up with y’all.Live Long and Prosper Everyone