Hi,

Earlier this year, I wrote an article about Nic D: an independent artist who built a massively successful career on his own terms. Nic’s story is inspirational and filled with gems that are applicable to artists, creators, entrepreneurs, and more.

He recently appeared on The Managers Playbook for an interview and dropped a ton of game about the economics of his career, his background, and more.

Let’s explore below.

Let’s dive in ⬇️

For those who don’t know, Nic D is one of the biggest independent artists in the world. His catalog generates 1 million streams per day, which estimates his annual revenue to around $800-$900k per year just from streaming.

He doesn’t tour, barely sells merch, and hasn’t focused on creating content in a while.

He lives in Culpepper, VA with his family in what he describes as a simple, quiet life.

Here were some of my favorite takeaways from the interview:

1) Treating it like a business

One of my biggest takeaways from the interview was how Nic approached his career like a true business, even in the early days.

He talks about how in 2019 when he first started releasing music, he dropped a song every 2 weeks. Each song cost him approximately $250 to release - this included recording, mixing, mastering, and the beat purchase itself.

He set $250 as the target and very rarely wavered from it - he could’ve easily overinvested in higher-end studios, bigger production, more expensive mixing, etc but his goal was always to make back the money he spent.

His perspective was:

“What is a realistic amount of streams I can get to break even on this investment?”

The answer was approximately 50,000 streams. He carefully studied the economics of his operation and from the beginning, was intentional about creating something he could scale and make money on.

While this approach doesn’t always work for every artist (every artist has their own journey, system, and process and for some it’s genuinely not the best path to success), there’s a lesson in his pragmatic thinking.

Many artists go “all in” on their process and think they need to spend thousands or tens of thousands on the best recording equipment and high-end studios. The more expensive it is to release music and the more music you release, the bigger the hole being dug to eventually break even.

It’s also a lesson in discipline - Nic set a goal and didn’t waver from it.

2) Persistence

Nic talks about how in his first year of consistently releasing music, he dropped 24 songs and 24 music videos. Despite his assertive output, he was only averaging 1,000 streams per day on his entire catalog.

That equates to about 41 streams per song per day. Those are low numbers.

The gem in this is the fact he kept going and showed persistence. He kept dropping music, even after 24 songs didn’t fully connect. So many artists would’ve quit after that first year (or if we’re being honest, they wouldn’t have even made it to dropping 24 songs). Nic’s determination and grit to continue going is what ultimately led to his success.

His first real breakthrough song was “Fine Apple” which was actually his 80th song.

Yes…you read that right. 80. 8-0. He released 80 songs before the one that changed his career.

It takes time!

3) It doesn’t need to be perfect

Being an artist in today’s day and age is essentially like building a product or company in public. Some songs or pieces of content will hit and some won’t.

Nic shared how early on in his career, he knew the content he was putting out wasn’t top notch but he also knew he needed to work through the bad content until it got better. Most people are afraid to be bad in public - they’re afraid of being cringe or “failing”.

It’s important to work through that and not be afraid to grow and progress in public.

4) If you want to…you will

This story from Nic is inspirational - during the COVID pandemic, he and his wife were forced to sell their house because they were losing so much business (at the time he was a wedding photographer / videographer and COVID had basically paused all weddings).

After selling their home, his family moved into his mother-in-law’s house.

Because he couldn’t record in her house, he started recording in the back of his Honda Odyssey. There was one electrical outlet in the back of the van and he used that outlet to plug in his relatively inexpensive interface and microphone and recorded the bulk of his early music there.

Truthfully…this is one of my favorite stories of the entire interview. It’s a lesson in by any means necessary. This idea of “if you want to, you will”.

It’s so easy to find excuses why something won’t work or can’t happen. Many times those excuses are valid and actually pretty reasonable. That said, if you really want to make something happen…you will. You’ll find a way. You’ll bend reality to make it happen.

Most people would’ve flat out not recorded if they were in Nic’s situation.

“I’m really going to record music in the back of a van?”.

Everyday artists, creators, entrepreneurs, etc do whatever they have to do and go to great lengths to make things happen. Sometimes it’s about making things happen and sacrificing

If you want it bad enough, you will…by any means necessary.

This goes for artists, creators, entrepreneurs, etc - there is always a way!

Use what you have until what you have pays for what you want.

5) Shoot your shot

Another awesome story from the interview is when Nic and Mauricio were talking about the idea of “shooting your shot” and putting yourself out there. Mauricio tells the story of how in 2018, when he was still managing Jessie Reyez, she was on tour and had just arrived in Detroit to perform a show.

While on the tour bus, Jessie and her team were debating the best approach to reach out to Eminem’s manager Paul Rosenberg and see if Eminem would be interested in appearing as a special guest during the show.

Texting the music manager of such a legendary artist is a little nerve-wracking with such a big ask.

While they were always 100% going to do it, they took some time trying to find the right words to convince him to say yes.

They ultimately went for it and texted Paul.

A few minutes later, Paul responded and said that while Eminem passed on coming out as a special guest, he suggested that he and Jessie do a music video together while she was in town.

That text message ultimately turned into the video for the song “Good Guy”.

It’s an awesome lesson in putting yourself out there and shooting your shot. So many missed opportunities happen out of fear of rejection or someone saying no…

What’s the worst that can happen? No is no and life goes on.

If Mauricio and his team don’t send that text, a music video with Eminem doesn’t happen.

It’s funny how a simple, small action like that can lead to massive opportunities.

I checked in with Mauricio for a quick word about the interview:

“The thing about Nic, and I mentioned it in my newsletter, is that he really re-made me think the whole process of whether artist management was necessary. The truth is, we’re not. If you’re an artist who is also business savvy, mainly cares about catalogue and less about touring and merch, then it’s 100% achievable and quite frankly practical to go it on your own.

I’ve always celebrated the many ways one can make it in this game. His blueprint is just another example of how an artist can sustainably generate revenue in this newly decentralized era of the music business.”

Hopefully this was helpful on your journey - here’s the full interview below.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

_{The Vault}

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