Listen Now

Summary episode: In this Episode, Boston based musician, podcaster, and educator; Julian Loida joins me to talk about what most of the musicians talk about behind the scenes, life after graduating from school, fake influencers, struggles, mental health, and more. We keep the conversation very real. How do you feel the Internet revolution affected your music career and your mental health? Do you compare very often with other musicians on social media? What were your struggles after graduating from school? If you want to hear more content like this, make sure to subscribe to “The Hustler Musician” leaving a 5-star rating and review. Learn more about Julian’s music, podcast, and teachings: Follow Julian Loida Website Instagram Podcast Store Follow Alessa Ray Website Podcast Instagram

What is your favorite topic or the thing that you’re most passionate about when talking to your friends? How can you find your niche and natural talent? Nowadays, a lot of creative people want to start their YouTube channel or podcast. For musicians, it could be a great way to showcase your talent or teach skills. The question is, how can you find your niche in order to serve more? Today Nate O’Brien will give us the best advice on how to make a successful YouTube Channel. Nate is an American investor, entrepreneur, and Internet personality. He is best known for his personal finance and lifestyle YouTube channel which has amassed 650,000+ subscribers and more than 30 million views. He comes to "The Hustler Musician" to have a chat with Alessa about YouTube, niches, and finances.  If you find value in this podcast, don’t forget to share, subscribe, comment, and rate.  Takeaways 1. Everyone has something that they love or they are really passionate about. 2. People don’t mind how old you are, as long as your information is valuable. 3. Anyone can start a YouTube Channel especially if it’s something that they are passionate about. 4. I really do think that 99% of the people have a couple of things that they are better than most people at doing. 5. Focus on what is that you’re so passionate about when you’re talking to your friends. It can be relationships, music, anything that you talk to your friends that excites you when you’re in a conversation. That would be the start of your YouTube channel (niche) because it will feel you are talking to your friends but though lens. 6. With YouTube you can monetize right away because it has search engine optimization. 7. In 2020 you can bootstrap any business if you leverage the Internet. Is the best way to start a business without any budget. 8. Passive source of income is “not existing” in a way because you are putting something up front, time and/or money. Careful with people promising passive income. 9. If you want to make that passive source of income in YouTube/podcast the key is to become an expert in your field. 10. Secrets for retiring early is to increase your income and save as much as possible. 11. Work smart, not hard, you can work and have fun at the same time by learning how to strategize things better. Follow Nate O'Brien YouTube Instagram

Summary episode: How can you finish your first album? How can you keep your music career consistent with a 9 to 5 job? How can you manage your time in the most effective way? One of the most challenging things musicians struggle with is to manage time between day job and music, another thing is getting your music or album done. Sometimes it could take years or months in only a couple of songs. The good thing is that it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Today Connor Frost is in the show to tell us how to get the work done and make the most of your career. Connor Frost is a musician, educator, and entrepreneur who help hidden musicians to write and release their first album. If you want to learn all the secrets that requires being a musician subscribe to “The Hustler Musician” today and we will give you all the advices you need by bringing experts each week. Make sure to leave a comment and a 5 star rate if you liked this episode. Takeaways 1. Music chooses you, if it truly feels is something that you can’t live without, then it’s for you. 2. The way to finish an album is by booking. Deadlines and bookings are the key. The search for perfect will lead to nowhere. Perfect does not exist. 3. If you don’t have a budget to release music at least start with a demo, get full songs ideas complete. 4. The huge part of DIY is bringing people you trust into your creative process and creating that system of accountability. 5. Surrounding yourself with people who know more than you is a huge hack to grow as a musician and even person. 6. Being open to constructive criticism is really important, is hard to grow if you are not willing to accept constructive criticism. 7. Busy does not equal productive. 8. If you feel ideas are not coming you are still being productive. Exercising your creativity is super important as painful as it could be. Journaling, reading, even podcasting can help you feel unstuck with your creativity. 9. Music is a form of self-expression and therapy.  We all have a right to self-expression. We should feel lucky we have music. Setting weekly/monthly goal and completing tasks is much more beneficial. Follow Connor Frost Website  Instagram 

How can I increase my streams and wrap my year proud of my stream? How can I get into more playlists? How can I find the right audience for my music? How can I avoid scammy Spotify services? Elliot Tousley is the co-founder of DeNovo Agengy and Songflowr. A musician who turned into an entrepreneur, music manager, and marketer. De Novo utilizes data-driven music marketing to help independent artists generate organic streams, form target audiences, and create business opportunities. Today Elliot comes joins “The Hustler Musician” to explain us everything you want to know of how your music can be heard and how to target your audience without being in a record label. Takeaways 1. When it comes to spammy Spotify services, give it the eye test, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. 2. The editorial playlist and the algorithm don’t listen to your song; they analyze the data of the people who are listening. 3. What you need to do as an artist is to generate some sort of traffic 2,3,4, 5 thousand monthly listeners, enough to give Spotify enough data to learn who your audience is. 4. Consistency doesn’t mean new music every 2 weeks; you need to consistently generate engagement. 5. For music promotion, you can promote your BRAND on Instagram, but not your song if you don’t have an engaged following. People who are on Instagram mode don’t check music unless they are a fan. 6. Spotify has all the music available but what it does is it analyzes all your listening habits and gives you a sophisticated unique menu of songs that you in particular are going to like. Generating enough information where the algorithm starts to see what gender, age and location listens to your music. Find those listeners to spread them value. 7. The best time to release a song is when you have the plan and the budget to make it successful. 8. Record labels are pretty much banks now, they loan you in advance and they do the math of how much they can make if you do x, y, and z sales. They are not in the business of making something out of nothing. They are in the business of taking something and multiplying by 50. 9. Whatever platform: Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Spotify, they are all using algorithms and they all using algorithms in the same way at a macro level to collect, organize and use data, to find value for their customers. So you have to put yourself in the mindset of the business. Because the business has to benefit, not you. The algorithm is looking to give value to its users. Follow DeNovo Agency https://linktr.ee/denovo.agency Elliot Tousley Instagram Follow Alessa Ray Website Instagram Apple Podcast

How do you get music placement for TV/Film? How do you get in touch with music supervisors without being pushy? Where do you find them? We all know that TV/Film placements can be career changing for an indie artist. Not only helps you with your streams or finances but also gives you credibility as a musician. The question is: what type of music are music supervisors looking for? How do we, as hustler musicians can provide them to fulfill their needs? Where and how do you meet them? If you want to dive in and learn all about this, Chipi, Philip and Alessa will share with you their experiences. Come and join the coffee time with us! Chipi is a sound editor and mixer of several award winning short films like Fleck, Return to Sender, Our Way Home, and Animals. He is a film composer winning of the Intercontinental Music Awards in the soundtrack category for “She Stays Strong”. Phillip Garcia is a music producer, multi instrumentalist, and media producer. He is the founder of the blog Vision Quest. His credits include: NBC, MTV, Universal, Miramax and more. Alessa Ray is an award winner singer and songwriter. Her song “Mamacita” was feature in CW channel in the TV hit show “!Zombie”. She was in Music Connection Magazine as the Top 100 Unsigned Artist. If you found this episode valuable subscribe to “The Hustler Musician”  and make sure to leave a comment and a 5 star rate if you enjoyed this episode. Takeaways 1.     The least expected tracks and the power of networking could bring you great surprises. 2.     Music Supervisors look for everything, depending on what they are working on. It could be a massive hit or just instrumentals. You just have to get your music to their ears. 3.     Instrumentals are safer to place. When you have lyrics it becomes more specific. Always make sure to have an instrumental version of your song and the stems. The more tracks you have the more placements you can get. 4.     If you want to place your music on TV/Film you have to be careful with samples and Splice. Even though Splice is royalty free, you can’t use them in isolation. It can ruin your deal. 5.     A great way to build credits in music licensing is to do music for film students. 6.     Sometimes you can hear covers on film trailers; music trailer companies and specific composers are hired for that. They rarely pick an indie artist’s cover for placement. Follow Chipi Estrada Website Instagram IMDB Follow Vision Quest Sound Website Instagram YouTube Apple Podcast Follow Alessa Ray Instagram Apple Podcast Website

In what ways, changes made an impact in your life? What is your strategy of networking? What are the challenges you are facing this year, or in your music journey? Phillip Garcia is a music producer, multi instrumentalist, and media producer. He is the founder of the blog Vision Quest Sound; he joins Alessa Ray to chat about his journey as creative, his challenges and how changes made an impact in his life. He will share with us some of the best and most creative tips for networking, for branding your business or artistry. This hustler musician/creator started by being a chef and ended up having songs on NBC, Universal, Miramax, MTV. In this episode we will learn from him how to be resourceful besides any challenge. How do you think this 2020 change will impact your life? Takeaways: 1. Out of frustration of not having money that gave me fuel to learn everything about recording and producing. 2. Is all about being at the right place at the right time, the power of network, and teamwork. Helping each other grow. 3. Best networking hacks: LinkedIn- (goldmine), Facebook, inviting them to your show. Or indirect networking: Playing tennis 4. But definitely: Podcast is the way to go. The secret key to make new connections. 5. Podcasting is a great space of therapy for both parties. 6. In order to grow your business or your brand awareness for your artistry, is important to have a BLOG on your website. 7. Referral is a huge power. 8. The artist mind and heart in life is scar, is not wired to be a doctor, or a lawyer or an architect 9. When I was doing my morning pages there was a sense of being free, there was a sense of creativity, you’re able to communicate not just to others but to yourself. 10. This is a time for change. If we learned these bad habits, we can unlearn. We can start by helping each other, by being closer, by reaching out, because black lives matter. It starts in our mindset. Follow Philip Garcia www.visionquestsound.com IG: @visionquestsound

What are some tips to keep your creativity flowing avoiding writers block? What is your relationship with fear and how do you deal with it? Why should musicians should have more than one creative project besides their main one? Lauren LoGrasso- singer/songwriter, actress, speaker and podcaster. Her credits includes: People magazine, The Goop Podcast, Girl Boss Radio, SagAftra and much more. Lauren LoGrasso is the perfect definition and reflection of what female empowerment really means. Her songs and her podcast reflects her personality and today she joins The Hustler Musician not only to share her journey in the entertainment industry, but also to inspire and share the best tips to unleash your inner creative and get fears out of the driver’s seat! Subscribe to “The Hustler Musician” today, don’t miss the episodes. Make sure to leave a comment and a 5 star rate if you liked this episode. Follow Lauren LoGrasso IG: @laurenlograsso TW:@laurenlograsso  Follow Unleash Your Inner Creative http://smarturl.it/uyicpodcast Pre Save “Like a Bomb” https://ffm.to/likeabomb Takeaways: 1. Audio is the most powerful medium, is not just music, is not just talking is audio as a whole. 2. One of the reason is good for creative to do another creative project other than their main peruse is because it gives you a lot of courage when you go back to the thing that is in your main field. 3. I got over the fear when I realized that if I don’t put this out, ill never be okay. 4. “And when it’s judgment day, tell me what you’re gonna say, you’ll be on my knees feeling everything you did to me”- Rise 5. Every time I do my meditation, keeping my journal and letting my poetry come out whenever it comes out, I feel a lot more able to write music. 6. If you are engaging your creativity several times a day, it allows that creative energy to get unblocked and start flowing and then you’re more able to access in the areas that you really care about it, like songwriting. 7. Know when you need to sleep, know when you need to rest, know when you need to take a week or two to create and just be a person. If you are not filled as a person you have no foundation to create out off. 8. Struggle, pain, and survival pain is what makes us interesting. 9. We are so focused on the negative because it leaves a deeper scar; we have to take every win. 10. In 50 years 80% of our jobs will require creativity, is one of the few things that computers can’t replicate, you need to be a creative thinker so that you can be financially viable in the future. Mentioned in this episode: “The War of Art” “The Songwriting School of Los Angeles”

Marco Leon is Musician, producer, entrepreneur CEO of the band Sonder City - joins Alessa to chat about habits of a hustler musician. How do you think this virus is affecting musicians? What can we do meanwhile? What are the best side jobs for musicians? He shares about his stories and his experience as a hustler musician. From being a marine to owning his own studio producing not only his songs but to other artists as well.  If you found this episode valuable  and you learned, make sure to subscribe to "The Hustler Musician" and leave a comment.  Follow Sonder City IG: @sonder.city  www.sondercity.com FB: @sondercity Takeaways. 1. The hustler musician is working hard on your craft towards success, however you define success. 2. With every challenge we face there is opportunity, and being forced to stay home, you have a lot of time to work on your stuff. 3. I try to keep myself motivated by doing music that I like. 4. Instead of trying to be perfect all the time, I think it’s a better move to put things out, be consistent, and get better, you’ll going get better each time you do it, instead of waiting for perfection. 5. A very hard decision to make as a hustler musician is: when do you wait to release it, because you do want to make as good as possible, but you do have a life, you do have a budget, you have a deadline, because if you wait forever prince charming will never come. It takes time to get better. 6. As hustler musicians we have set deadlines stick to them and not wait for perfection. Perfect is the enemy of good. 7. Look at the goal, don’t get bogged down on the criticism, listen to consistent criticism and take that to improve where you have to improve and move forward. 🏃‍ 8. Best survival jobs for musicians: Freelancer jobs: such as Uber, Lyft, Postmades, Fiverr, Soundbetter. Jobs where you can have freedom to create. Mentioned in this Episode Fiverr Soundbetter LogicProX

Are you hungry to thrive in the music industry and make your dreams come true? Are you one of the musicians who keep looking for opportunities? Would you like to quit your day job? If your answer is yes, host Alessa Ray, a hustler musician will share with you her quest to find out how to turn from part time into a full time musician. Each week she has genuine conversations with successful people from the music industry about practical steps of what to do to reach our goals. If you are a musician or creative this is the show for you. If you think this show is for you subscribe to The Hustler Musician today and share it with someone who needs it. You are not alone in this. Let’s make it happen!