Gif of Payusnomind Addresses 6 Questions Every Indie Artist Should Be Thinking About

When indie artists Gif, and Conscious teamed up 15 years ago to launch Payusnomind they had a singular idea – create a website where they could talk about the ins and outs of the music business in a way that could help other artists in their position.

The name, Gif says, stems from being that position.

“People try to dismiss the knowledge and experience that people have if (those giving advice) haven’t experienced a high level of success where they can say, ‘Hey, I got platinum plaques,’ and stuff like that, so me and Conscious were just like OK, well, if they don’t want to listen, pay us no mind … We’re going to talk about what we’re going to talk about, and we’re going to give the information that we give, and you can accept it, or reject it.”

The site grew from being a blog, to having an extensive, and ever-growing, series of informational videos, to publishing artist guides, and creating tools to help artists calculate their ROI for everything from streaming to distribution.

Gif took the reigns of Payusnomind in full when Conscious moved on to other artistic endeavors, and has built it into the ultimate hub for information for indie artists, with both a free, and subscription tier (the latter only bring $10 per month).

The topics he covers have included everything from reviews of digital distribution companies, to explanations of the latest advancements and issues with streaming.

He realizes that much of what he talks, and writes about is very specialized info, like his comparison of smartlink providers, but that’s also the point. “There is a certain type of artist that cares that much where they would even be looking for which company is the best at that, and that’s the type of artist that would rock with us at Payusnomind, because it’s very detailed information.”

I recently caught up with Gif for an extended conversation, and the info he discussed addressed the following six questions every indie artist should be thinking about.

1. Who am I as an artist? 

Every artist needs to have an identity, because no matter how good the music is, people have to find you interesting.

Gif says having an identity, and a narrative, “Define whether an artist is gonna succeed, or not.”

“If somebody listened to you, and is like, ‘I don’t care who this guy is,’ you’re gonna have a hard time.”

2. Is being on social media helping, or hurting me? 

Gif has a bold take on social media, saying, “I think for like 99% of artists, they shouldn’t be there.”

“The reality with social media is that it is not about what you have to say about yourself, it’s what other people have to say about you. You could not be there at all, but if you’re doing something that inspires people, people are going to talk, and people are going to share, and people are going to use it in TikToks, and people are going to make videos, and post it, and stuff like that, and that’s when it’s most effective.”

One thing he can’t stand seeing is artists spending their time on social media doing things to bring attention to themselves – like skits, or talking about literally anything and everything – in hopes of turning that attention into people checking out their music. He says the reality of the situation is social media platforms aren’t set up for those kinds of conversions.

“The platform needs people to stay,” he explains, “They want people to be on the platform for as long as possible, consuming, so they can keep showing ads, so they can make money. They don’t want people to leave. They don’t want people to go to your website.”

He reiterated this, saying, “You go there for the objective of promoting whatever it is you’re trying to promote, and getting people to leave there, and check out your things, but that’s against the objective of the platform.”

3. Do I listen too much to people making money from me? 

“The way the industry is constructed right now,” Gif explains, “with all of these different entities that profit from everybody wanting to do it, do you think a digital distribution company that’s going to make $20, or $60 a year from you releasing music, do they want you to feel like, ‘Maybe my music isn’t good enough, and I shouldn’t be paying these guys to release stuff’? No … so all the information they’re feeding you is nah man, you just got to figure out the system. You just got to post more.”

That, according to Gif, is a recipe for being stuck on a social media hamster wheel.

“If you just post more in Instagram, if you figure out TikTok, that’s what artists get spun into. So rather than working on the music, and trying to get better at that, they try to get better at posting to Instagram, they try to get better at creating TikTok videos, and it’s like, if the music is garbage it’s not going anywhere, I don’t care how good you become at that, and if you do succeed at it, you’re an influencer.”

4. Are there too many hands in the pot? 

One of the greatest issues facing indie artists is the number of companies who claim they’re necessary for their career, especially when it comes to collecting the money an artist is owed.

The confusion, Gif says, is intentional, and allows artists to be ripped off by having too many people “helping” them collect, and taking some of that money for themselves.

“There’s a whole bunch of companies that pop up to solve (the collection problem) where an artist can be confused, and say – OK, do I need to sign up with this company? Do I need to sign up with that company?”

This is where keeping it simple is they way to go, as Gif advises, “All you need is a publishing administrator, and then all of that’s taken care of.”

5. Am I fighting rejection too much? 

Not every song is going to be a hit, and that’s something an artist has to accept.

Gif says, “Complications come when people are putting good money after bad. It’s like, you put something out, and rather than accepting that people rejected it, you’re like – how can I make it succeed anyway? What tool can I use? What thing can I use to give myself a reality that isn’t reality?”

It’s a lot of wasted energy on something your audience has already told you they aren’t interested in.

6. What is my place in the world of streaming? 

Streaming – where any artist can make it big … except, not really.

Gif defines a key financial aspect of streaming, saying, “What streaming does is allow more artists to make money. Not more money, but more artists to make some money.”

The problem is, with the number of artists on streaming growing on a daily basis, each piece of the pie is becoming smaller, and smaller … at least for the indie acts.

Using handing out flyers as an example, Gif explains that if someone is paying to hand out 1,000 flyers, and you hand out 100, you’d receive 10% of the budget, but what if you hand out 100, and there are a million flyers, or ten million flyers? Your percentage shrinks until it doesn’t exist. “This is the dynamic of streaming, and record companies sharing that pool, and their logic with the whole thing is they don’t give a shit about what people are streaming, they’re looking at it almost like it’s a concert, and (the major label artists) are the main attraction.”

“The record companies with those artists that are the main attraction, they’re like, dude, nobody came to see you (indie artists). We deserve the money because people are signing up to Spotify because we’re here. People are signing up to Apple Music because we’re here. So we don’t care about what people are listening to on the platform, give us the money.”

Unfortunately, he says measures are being taken to make sure that the main attractions continue to get the lion’s share of the money no matter what actual streaming numbers might say. These measures include streaming thresholds, attempts at demonetization, and flagging for streaming fraud, the definition of which the platforms constantly change to whatever suits their needs.

This is why Gif feels indie artists only pushing their work on major label friendly streaming platforms are “climbing a ladder to build a ceiling,” and should investigate other ways of getting their music to people.

For more advice from Gif, including finding some of those other ways to get your music heard, head on over to payusnomind.