Speaking with Andreea Gleeson<\/b> (TuneCore’s former CEO) during a keynote at SXSW in Austin last week (March 18), the American rapper, singer, songwriter, producer and best-selling author<\/a>\u00a0said: \u201cWe were doing it every day. Literally every day. That was the habit. Making music every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Gleeson described Russ as the definition of a multi-hyphenate \u2014\u00a0 <\/span>an artist, songwriter and producer. Addressing the artist, Gleeson said, \u201cYou have been charting with the music that you’ve been releasing and often are the only independent artist sitting on the top charts like the Billboard<\/i> 200 in a sea of major record label releases, which is just so incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n Gleeson said artists today are building their own careers and owning their music. \u201cSo many times when you would sign those record label deals, you would give up ownership, or for a period of time, etc\u2026 Artists [now] are building a much different, deeper understanding of both the creative and business side, which is kind of making them a little bit dangerous, because when they sit across tables to negotiate, they know much more.\u201d<\/p>\n Andreea Gleeson<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n About two months ago, Russ became<\/a> the second-highest RIAA-certified independent rapper in history<\/b>. His most recent album, W!LD,<\/i><\/b> <\/i>debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard <\/i>200, No. 1 on the indie chart, No. 2 in rap, and No. 3 in overall album sales, according to Gleeson. All copies were signed by Russ himself, sold directly through his own website, highlighting the importance of direct relationships with fans.<\/p>\n \u201cEven signing the vinyl \u2014 and I signed myself, all 18,000<\/b> or 20,000<\/b>, whatever it was. And you know, it’s exhausting. It’s so much physical work. But it’s like every single one of those is a real person. So that was the reminder that was just really unjading for me, because I’m sitting there signing all these vinyl.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s real people behind these comments, behind these DMs, behind these numbers. And signing the vinyl with my hand and doing the in-person activations \u2014 it just makes it real.\u201d<\/p>\n Russ explained that going direct-to-fan isn’t just about having a shop on an artist\u2019s website, but also about years of genuinely talking to fans \u2014 Discord<\/b> sessions, Instagram<\/b> group chats, FaceTimes<\/b>, responding to DMs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability to even sell direct to fans is because there is a direct-to-fan relationship there. I’m not just an artist posting on Instagram and hoping that people buy my stuff. You have to really create that bond.<\/p>\n Russ<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cThe ability to even sell direct to fans is because there is a direct-to-fan relationship there. I’m not just an artist posting on Instagram and hoping that people buy my stuff. You have to really create that bond. You have to create that relationship. And it’s something that I care about deeply because fans are the infrastructure of your entire career.\u201d<\/p>\n The artist also shared how consistency in building a catalog helps propel an artist. \u201cI think success at the end looks really dramatic, but it’s really just consistency \u2014 staying alive long enough to compound\u2026 It\u2019s 15 years of putting out songs and building a catalog that, again, if you stay consistent long enough, it’ll compound, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n By June 2015, Russ said he had 200 songs in his catalog, 11 albums and about 30 or 40 weeks into weekly releases. \u201cSo I had 200 songs out. Again, when the music is great and you’re consistent enough, your fan base sniffs you out.\u201d Russ said this was pre-algorithm when fan bases \u201csniff out\u201d artists.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd once people found my music, they were able to become diehard fans because there was enough music to stay.” In 2017, Russ said<\/a> he dropped a song every week on SoundCloud<\/b> for 2.5 years<\/b> straight.<\/p>\n Russ compared his method of putting out music to the Netflix model: \u201cimagine your artistry and your career is a TV show, and each album or each year is a season, and you’re just adding episodes to the season.\u201d He says he gave people \u201cthe ability to not have two favorite songs from me, but 50<\/b>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOut of 400<\/b> songs, if you only like 40<\/b> of them, you only like 10%<\/b>, that’s still 40<\/b> songs. It’s a ton of music.\u201d<\/p>\n All of the 200<\/b> songs he had by June 2015 were owned by him, all distributed through TuneCore<\/b>, and none of it was tied to a label deal. Russ has so far amassed<\/a> 24 billion<\/strong> streams and sold more than 35 million<\/strong> singles to date.<\/p>\n \u201cGiving up ownership of what we were doing wasn’t even on the table.”<\/p>\n Russ<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cGiving up ownership of what we were doing wasn’t even on the table,\u201d Russ said of his label DIEMON.<\/p>\n As MBW previously reported<\/a>, in June 2020, Russ\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0TuneCore income statements to\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0\u201cfor inspirational purposes\u201d showing his monthly earnings from his music between 2013 and 2017.<\/p>\n\n
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<\/i><\/a><\/figure>“Artists [now] are building a much different, deeper understanding of both the creative and business side, which is kind of making them a little bit dangerous, because when they sit across tables to negotiate, they know much more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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