In this episode of the Music Business Newsletter with Matthew Rix, I share one of the most heartbreaking emails I’ve ever received.
It’s from Sarah, a pop artist who inherited $200,000 from her grandfather and wanted to use it to chase her dream. She recorded a full-length album in Atlanta, spent over $120,000 on production, and trusted a promotional company to help her reach real fans. Her songs hit 3 million streams on Spotify, but then came the nightmare.
Spotify pulled her album for fraudulent streams (bot plays), her DistroKid account was banned, and her name was blacklisted across all streaming platforms. Additionally, she later discovered that her producer was taking 60% of her royalties and 50% of her publishing rights.
To make matters worse, the same promo company “grew” her Instagram to 220,000 followers and her TikTok to 400,000, only for her engagement to crash to nearly zero views per post.
In this video, I break down:
-What went wrong and how she could have avoided it
-The dangers of bad contracts and fake promotions
-What to do if your music gets pulled from DSPs
-How to rebuild your career after a major setback
Sarah’s story is emotional, raw, and real — and every artist needs to hear it before spending a dime on promotion or production.
Got a question or story about your own music industry?
Visit https://MatthewRix.com. The more details you share, the more your story can help others.
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