

Becoming A Pop Star With Zero Experience - playhard
http://hackthesystem.com/blog/becoming-a-pop-star-with-zero-experience-how-to-hack-the-music-industry-in-under-8-weeks/

======
mootothemax
A more down-to-earth guide, and an absolutely fantastic read at that, is The
KLF's "The Manual - How To Have A Number One The Easy Way" by the KLF:

<http://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/>

It's a bit dated, given that they wrote it in the 80s, but it contains some
absolute gems:

 _Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus lyrics that
go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single buying girls in this
country. Their most successful records will kick into the chorus with a line
which encapsulates the entire emotional meaning of the song. This will
obviously be used as the title. As soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of
the chorus on his debut single it was all over - the Number One position was
guaranteed:

"I'm never going to give you up"

It says it all. It's what every girl in the land whatever her age wants to
hear her dream man tell her. Then to follow that line with:

"I'm never gonna let you down I'm never going to fool around or upset you"

GENIUS.

As soon as they had those lyrics written they must have known they could have
taken out a block booking on the Number One slot. Then within the next twelve
months to have written the chorus:

"I should be so lucky Luck, lucky, lucky I should be so lucky in love"_

~~~
laumars
This is quite a long read so I'm going to bookmark it for now. But as I'm
quite a fan of KLF, I'm looking forward to having to time to read :)

~~~
mootothemax
_This is quite a long read so I'm going to bookmark it for now. But as I'm
quite a fan of KLF, I'm looking forward to having to time to read :)_

If you like listening to music, it's well worth the read. You'll start
noticing quite how many popular songs stick to the rules they outline in the
Manual.

It's also a really interesting historical document of how the industry
operated at the time, with a few nice tape-reels-and-fun-old-tech thrown in.

~~~
laumars
Oh I'm a huge music fan. In fact I used to compose and produce music back in
the 90s and 00s (and obviously listened to it long before that) and spent much
of the last decade DJing in house and techno clubs (though not as a headliner,
sadly). So I've been an observer of formulas used within music for quite some
time :)

In fact I used to deliberately play off contrasting formulas just to challenge
peoples perceptions of what music they like or should expect from a specific
genre. I'll be honest, sometimes with little success. But enough times I'd
create something unique and engaging enough to make the failed attempts
worthwhile.

I wish I still had the time for all this, but it's really an all or nothing
passion; you really need to dedicate your life to it otherwise you're never
going to be happy with your output (particularly if you're hypercritical of
your own work, like I am). Sadly my wife doesn't share the same passion, so
it's hard to justify spending weeks locked in my modest home studio. So these
days I just produce the odd novelty record for NYE house parties, friends
weddings and such like.

~~~
mootothemax
_particularly if you're hypercritical of your own work, like I am_

Heh, I think there are few people out there who think differently :)

For me, I'd love to have a couple of hours every day that I could dedicate to
getting my piano playing back to the level I was 15 years ago. C'mon passive
income!

------
venus
Well that's all very good, well done etc, but now what?

This guy, through a combination of youthful good looks, utter lack of shame,
and sheer hustle has managed to get himself onto the british top 10. But he
can't sustain it and the song itself is utter crap; he never set out to make
good music, after all.

So what's the point?

The author mentions Tim Ferriss and I see the parallels. Ferriss also "hacked"
his way into the Chinese Kung Fu champion's position, by unconventional use of
the rules, in a paper achievement lacking any real accomplishment or respect.
To his credit, Tim followed up by writing several books of actual value, and
never confused hacking a competition with actually being a kung-fu master.

Like Ferriss's win, this is a stunt, a conversation starter, a prelude. It's
AirBNB's Cheeri-O's, or whatever they were called. A cool anecdote to talk
about - and kudos to him, genuinely, and AirBNB, and Ferriss. But it's not a
real achievement in and of itself, not one that I particularly care about,
anyway. At the end of the day, you still have to make AirBNB.

So now what?

~~~
laumars
_So what's the point?_

Notoriety and because he can? Same reasons many hackers do what they do.

I'll concede that I wish he was doing it for the love of the music, but I
don't think anyone who seriously loves music takes the charts seriously these
days anyway (it's largely just recycled, generic and heavily watered down
crap).

~~~
venus
> Notoriety and because he can?

Yeah, I'm not trying to downplay what he did. More effort than he implies but
still, mission accomplished.

It's just that he says his aim was:

 _to be a successful musician in the UK with a Top Five single in the charts_

And he's talking like he achieved that, the easy way, with a "hack" no less.
And it just doesn't seem to me like he's actually a successful musician yet.

~~~
tehwalrus
The easy way?

If it were easy, everyone would have hundreds of thousands of Youtube
subscribers and more video views than One Direction.

edit: OK, so his one direction stat is nonsense. It's still not easy.

------
k2xl
What utter BS of a guide. As a musician for many years, I can tell you that he
would not have a number 1 hit if he didn't have hundreds of thousands of
YouTube subscribers. If this guy didn't have the YouTube subscribers, he would
of sold to his family and friends and that's probably it.

The music industry is a popularity contest. Believe it or not, there are
hundreds of thousands of artists who produce high quality songs but don't have
a huge fan base preexisting on a social network.

Getting a big hit is the same as getting a big hit in the startup world.
Unless you have a prexisting connection/PR marketing presence, the success is
mostly driven by luck and brutal hard work.

What grinds my gears in the music world (and startup world) is when people who
have success think it has something to do with their product/song being more
unique or better than the next guys. 9 out of 10 times it is due to some
competitive advantage the artist/founder had over others.

~~~
d23
That was what seemed like the crux of the article to me: get 650,000 Youtube
subscribers. Taking that as a premise makes anything after seem like cake.

------
aw3c2
Vague mumbo jumbo including the sentence "I had recorded songs before with
other producers (...)" as a not-so-zero experience indicator. The guys has a
well frequented Youtube channel for 5 years. And he does not even get into
that pre-benefit.

Skip, you are not missing anything in this "let's drop the word 'hack'" fluff
piece.

~~~
laumars
I think you're underselling the piece. There are a few interesting insights in
there (not least of all his _3\. Find and Exploit Loopholes_ piece).

I'm not really sure what you expected though, as if it was that easy to get
into the charts as an independent artist then everyone would be doing it.

~~~
mootothemax
_if it was that easy to get into the charts as an independent artist then
everyone would be doing it._

This is why I like The Manual by the KLF so much (I've mentioned it elsewhere
in this thread).

They really spell out the effort involved:

 _So how do you go about achieving a U.K. Number One? Follow this simple step
by step guide:

Firstly, you must be skint_ [having no money] _and on the dole_ [state
benefits] _. Anybody with a proper job or tied up with full time education
will not have the time to devote to see it through_

 _Having no money sharpens the wits. Forces you never to make the wrong
decision. There is no safety net to catch you when you fall._

And a word from one of the authors:

 _If you wanna have a number one, if that's... it's a pathetic thing to wanna
have, but if you want to, you can have it. It won't make you rich, it won't
make you happy, but you can have it._

<http://www.libraryofmu.org/display-resource.php?id=521>

------
nakedrobot2
STOP using "HACK" !

I'm putting this word in the list of vomit-inducing words and phrases like
"synergize", "leverage", "circle back", "win-win", etc.

~~~
maneesh
Probably shouldn't read my site 'hackthesystem.com' then :p

~~~
ianstallings
There's another name for that - it's called scene whoring.

~~~
maneesh
what? OP posted a link to my site, hackthesystem.com

------
citricsquid
The One Direction Youtube channel the article links to has ~95,000,000 views,
that channel is the one that _only_ contains interviews and tour diaries,
their actual music channel has almost 1.5 BILLION video views
(<http://www.youtube.com/user/onedirectionvevo>). He doesn't even come close
to the exposure of One Direction, their channel is ~18 months old and his >5
years, and 1D's real channel is 15x the size in 1/3rd of the time.

------
josscrowcroft
I posted this link out on Facebook and somebody asked "Have you listened to
his music?"

I hadn't.

The horror, the horror... if this is "the future of music", then we're in for
a rough ride.

Still, if even _half–decent_ musicians can take something away from the
publicity stunt and hustle a bit, then we might make some progress... maybe.

------
k-mcgrady
Something not mentioned in the article which I think is important to note is
that the song "dropped to number 112 the following week, setting a record for
the biggest drop in UK Singles Chart history, falling 108 places". It seems
like he used his online fan base to push the single that one week and it
gained zero traction with the general public once it got there.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Yours_(Alex_Day_song)>

~~~
andyking
I was working as a radio presenter at the time this song was around, and I
remember it getting on our playlist - I played it a few times. I remember it
being trailed as a "YouTube sensation" on the little cheat sheet of artist
notes that accompanies the new music playlist.

Next time the playlist was issued by our Head of Music, it had disappeared.
Usually, we kept a current song on the playlist for 3-4 weeks at least. It was
highly unusual for a track to disappear after a week! The only other songs I
can remember with such a short shelf life were novelty / charity / Christmas
type records which lasted a fortnight or so before dropping off as public
attention drifted elsewhere.

------
TamDenholm
I think one of the best points here is that you should exploit loopholes for
your own advantage. Alex did this by allowing multiple song versions to be
purchased so he could compound the sales that meant he didnt need as many
people to buy his song. Tim Ferriss did it when he became a kickboxing
champion by shoving his opponents outside the ring and essentially winning on
a technicality.

Sure, these kind of things may be considered unethical and if a new guy came
into my industry and rose to the top very quickly by exploiting a loophole
after i've devoted years of my life to do it the right way, i'd be properly
pissed off. But this option can act as a springboard into turning your
ambition into real success.

I once heard a story, no idea if its true or not, of a guy that bought a chain
of retail sports stores. He didnt have any real money, but managed to
structure the deal to pay a small deposit and pay the remainder over time.
What he did to raise the initial deposit was get a series of personal loans,
house, friends and family, etc. He then bought the business by paying the
deposit, then immediately sold off all existing stock as quickly as he could
in sales and wholesale lots, giving the business a massive cash injection and
revenue spike. That allowed him to pay off all his personal loans and pay the
remainder of the money to the seller. He then got long term lines of credit
from suppliers based on the long term good history the business already had,
restocked and resumed normal operation, over time paying down the lines of
credit and keeping the business on the good track it was already on.

My point being, is that you should always look for your competitive advantage.

~~~
fgsdfsdfsdf
The behaviour of the guy you talk about was incredibly irresponsible.
Stretched that thin, the slightest hiccup could have brought the whole
operation crashing down. Worse still, he wasn't gambling with his own money.
His failure would have cost his friends and family, the suppliers who gave him
credit, and, in his struggles to stay afloat, he likely would have ruined the
finances and reputation of the business he took over. Lastly, in the event
that he had failed, the original sellers of the business would end up with
nothing but the initial deposit (and the pain of watching their hard built
business run into the ground by an idiot).

It's also worth pointing out that the guy's plan of action was pretty stupid.
If the suppliers had paid the slightest bit of attention, maybe even talked to
each other a bit, they would have found out what he was doing, and refused his
request. The long term good history of the business wouldn't count for
anything if it became known that the owner was up to his eyeballs in high
interest debt and had just sold off all his stock. I mean seriously, his plan
hinged on the suppliers not noticing that all his stores were empty.

The story probably isn't true, but if it is, then it isn't something to aspire
to. It's a story about a guy doing something very unethical (if not
fraudulent). It's a story about a guy taking massive risks with other people's
money in order to benefit only himself.

If your idea of competitive advantage is doing something that only helps you
and harms others, then you shouldn't evangelise about it. For one thing, it
can only hurt you in the long run if other people pick up your ideas and act
this way.

~~~
TamDenholm
I agree with you, and perhaps i used a poor example, i was just saying that
there is sometimes an alternative route, i'm not saying that you should take
it though, but i think being aware of it would be valuable.

------
hoi
I'm sure he wouldn't have 'hacked' the system if he hadn't already had 650K
youtube followers that took him 5 years to grow.

------
Joeboy
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manual>

------
JonnieCache
So strange that what was once a tactic of cynical industry players is now the
modus operandi of young artists themselves. Where is there room for
compensated self-expression in this brave new world of content creation I
wonder?

------
momchenr
"Be strong on YouTube." Great Advice. Also, advice for pediatricians: "Be good
with kids." Love it when advice is so general that it's insulting.

------
brendoncrawford
Just what the world needed: More talentless hacks teaching the world how to
more efficiently spread bad art.

It really is a shame that time invested into areas having nothing to do with
the music is rewarded over the music itself. This seems to select out the good
artists who are actually doing something interesting.

------
jdmitch
I wonder how many of the purchases were "revenge" - it seems to be that most
years there is an aggressive social media campaign for anyone BUT the latest
X-factor star. I know in 2011 there was definitely a big push for anything but
the JLS/One-direction single to be #1

~~~
jbrooksuk
I remember that good Christmas where Rage Against The Machine became no1 in
2009. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/20/rage-against-
mac...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/20/rage-against-machine-
christmas-number-1) That was a good Christmas.

------
darkxanthos
I didn't believe this guy was for real before reading the Wikipedia article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Day>

I guess even I'm still too much of a perfectionist. Inspiring.

------
unkoman
I'm an Alex Day fan and don't really understand the negativity in the comments
here. He makes music I like and spread it in an unconventional way. That's
about it.

Not a hack, but just a different way to go about it.

~~~
k-mcgrady
He definitely hacked the system to get so high in the charts by releasing
multiple versions of the same song. As for his music, everyone has their own
taste but as soon as I heard the song embedded in the article I understood
why, even reaching so high in the charts, I'd never heard of him. I don't pay
much attention to the charts but I've heard most of the songs in it either on
radio or at clubs/bars. That's the first time I've ever heard of him or the
song. It's cool that he was able to hack the system in this way (there are
other obvious loop holes in the chart system that can be hacked too) but if
his goal was to become a successful musician he hasn't achieved it. Definitely
an interesting article though.

------
petercooper
Get ready for the book: _The 4-Bar Rockstar_

------
yowmamasita
>Net result: the sales doubled.

Doubled? How? Vague. I think he's attributing his success to the wrong things.

~~~
k-mcgrady
Through selling multiple versions of the same song. I presume that he offered
the collection of versions for a low price leading to some people who were
just going to buy the single to buy the collection instead (which would
contribute multiple sales to his total).

------
alan_cx
This reads like brick layer decides to build own wall.

Am I wrong?

