Made It In Music: Interviews With Artists, Songwriters, And Music Industry Pros · Full Circle Music: A Nashville Recording Studio & Online Music Education Academy

What They Don't Tell You About The Music Industry (Part 1)

January 10, 2024·44 min·3 clips

Sam says a song with “no radio, no Spotify playlist, no placements” still reached 500,000 streams and gold.

1. Made It In Music: Interviews With Artists, Songwriters, And Music Industry Pros centers on “What They Don’t Tell You About The Music Industry (Part 1)” with Riley Taylor hosting a live Song Chasers discussion. 2. Riley Taylor is the host and community manager at Full Circle Music, while guests Seth Mosley, Sam Tanez, and Paul Duncan bring artist, songwriter, and producer experience. 3. The episode asks how songwriters survive the music business when record deals, publishing deals, and viral moments do not create a career by themselves. 4. Paul Duncan says he grew up playing music, started a two-man acoustic band in college, toured for about three years, and then moved to Los Angeles with a guitar after the band split. 5. He says he entered a “period of yes,” taking work leading worship at camps, backing up bands, learning Pro Tools, and doing independent recording to keep money coming in. 6. Paul says his first writing-session invitation came around 2003 or 2004 with Al Kasha, whom he describes as an older writer who became a mentor. 7. He says that first cut was a country song, but then he went five or six more years with little happening before recording picked up again in 2010. 8. Sam Tanez says he started in Mike’s Chair, then shifted into writing for contemporary Christian artists such as Mandisa and Newsboys. 9. Sam says a record project with Josh and Zach Farrow of Paramore fell apart after he put his savings into it, and that failure redirected him toward artist development and sync work. 10. He says he and Maggie Eckford, later known as Ruel, helped develop her early career and saw that work dominate TV and film syncs, including a Billboard No. 1 ranking in 2018. 11. Paul says the music business feels like a “giant pond” once you leave the local attention of high school and college. 12. He says the early belief that things would be easier later turned into repeated returns to the drawing board, which he credits with building craft. 13. Sam says the industry rewarded his work when a song called “Play With Fire” reached gold status after roughly five or six years of slow growth. 14. He says that release had no radio, no Spotify playlist support, and no placements before it eventually reached about 500,000 streams and earned a gold record. 15. Paul says he had to get out of an “arrival mindset” after signing a 2016 publishing deal because the deal did not end the work. 16. He says measuring progress in writing, relationships, and ability mattered more than treating any single deal as the finish line. 17. The tone is practical and candid, with Paul and Sam answering follow-up questions from Riley in a conversational, live-audience format. 18. The pacing mixes long-form story, workplace reality, and short jokes about LA weather, In-N-Out Burger, and “Pink Travis.” 19. Artists, songwriters, and producers facing slow growth. 20. Listeners wanting glossy industry success stories only. 21. Riley Taylor is identified as Full Circle Music’s community manager, and the episode is recorded with the Song Chasers live online audience. 22. Paul says his wife supported him through lean years, but he also admits she did not love every song he wrote. 23. Sam says he moved from artist work into writing rock songs for acts including Sum 41, Filter, and Dashboard Confessional. 24. Paul says his Songcraft podcast has featured guests such as Vince Gill, Smokey Robinson, Elvis Costello, Steve Perry, and Linda Perry. 25. Riley frames the whole conversation around the gap between what shows like American Idol suggest and what the music business actually feels like.

As heard by us

A grounded look at owning a music career before anyone else does.

This episode is about the realities of building a music career with confidence and ownership. Seth Mosley, Sam Tanez, and Paul Duncan keep circling back to indie mentality, publishing, and the idea that a manager, agent, or publisher works best as a partner, not a rescue plan.

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Hear three veterans unpack what they don't tell you about the music industry.

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