I was checking out a service that would give artists coaching and help with their careers. I was checking it out TO see who the coaches are. Two out of five are people that really don’t know anything about the music industry. People that haven’t taken any artist anywhere. They run a record label in their bedroom. Both of them are also failed musicians.

Sure, I don’t know everything. There are things I’m not good at or the perfect person to ask. This thought makes me angry to fool artist with info that has the same truth as a Donald Trump speech to pair up new artists with people that has second to no knowledge. This is like you taking a person that failed the exam and now putting them in as a teacher.

And I get more and more of this lately.  Several times I get students fresh out from the University of music that has none to nothing in knowledge and you just ask them who their teacher was and you find out that the bad guitar player that did everything wrong now teaches these kids his knowledge. No wonder they don’t know a thing after three years of education. And the little education they got has passed its best before date ten years ago.

The problem is that in this business there is no paperwork to back you up. Years ago now I was seeking a job with a major label. Already, I was one of the most experienced people to place songs in Sweden and had done a couple of big USA campaigns and some TV series in both the USA and Europe. Still, I wanted a job for the time being. The funny part was that in the interview we got to look at a car commercial and put a song to that commercial. I saw directly the song that would fit the commercial, the problem was of course that the major label didn’t have that song. I had to choose one from their library. I told them that I could license the song from the label that owned the perfect song and make a good on to that. How did I know? Since it was my label that owned the song, but they didn’t know that. No, instead, I had to pick a mediocre song from their catalogue. It went well though they liked what I did so they took me back for a second interview the next day. They had to choose between a younger girl straight out from the University and me. She had no experience, but she had a certificate from a school where she was educated in the music industry. I was self-taught, but I had experience and a network. In the end, they had to give it to the girl since they needed more girls, and she had a certificate that said she had the knowledge.

What did I do? I went home and called up the ad agency that had the car commercial.  Pitched my song that was a perfect fit. The advertising agency did have a deal with the major label, so they had to take their song. I have had that problem before so I explained how you could pass that rule. It ended up that they took my song for the commercial, dropped the contract with the major label since they always thought they didn’t get the right music from them.

I kept on going and a year after this I landed the biggest commercial in the world for a five-year contract. Also, two years ago, the boss that made the decision to not hire me sent me an email trying to get a job at my firm after he had been laid off, of course, he didn’t remember that I sought the job back in the days. I was almost on the verge of just writing back that he didn’t have any papers that proved that he had any knowledge, just work experience. I didn’t, and I just looked him up and he is a salesperson on a shitty car dealership. The girl that got the job is not working in the industry either.

We have a huge problem in the industry it’s too many that don’t understand what the knowledge should be. To many blind people leading blind people.