Today at Apple Creative Studios encourages young creatives
to pursue their ambitions across music and the visual arts.
In partnership with Apple Music, we're going to have you all
working with top tier mentors in studios,
collaborating with peers,
and really just connecting with the right folks,
as you build out your body of work.
My name is Reyna, I'm a singer from LA.
Thank you so much for being here and talking to us.
My question is when the time comes,
what are some ways that I can branch out,
building my network and also just connecting
with fans from other places?
Well, the Apple Music for Artists tool
is great for finding those fans in other places.
Back in the day, and even today,
I mean, you walk into the airport,
I don't know if you all been in an airport recently.
You might just see young dudes in there,
and they on the move.
Young chicks in there, they on the move,
they got their bag and they're flying to a town,
meet up with a producer, rhyme on this,
sing on that, try,
spend a couple of days here, stay in a cheap hotel,
figure it out.
I'm a firm believer in meeting people where they are.
Social media is great, but when you touch down
in somebody's city and visit them,
that's magic for somebody, you know what I mean?
Like, "Wow, you came to our town?
Oh, s***, we f*** with you.
Like, okay," and they going to remember that forever.
Neil, I know you've ran a record store, right?
Like, the epitome of what would help artists back in the day
before the digital era, was all consuming.
And now fast forward to these 40 students
that we're on with right now.
And what wisdoms would you gleam
from everything that you've seen within your career?
As a generation of new artists,
you guys have opportunity that no artist before you have ever had.
You have access to tools to make music,
you have tools to distribute your music.
The gatekeepers of the music industry
are largely stripped away,
and you guys all have the power to see that through.
The largest marketing platforms
are no longer MTV or Terrestrial Radio.
Sure they help when you get to the top of the mountain
and help keep you there,
but now it's like social media and TikTok
and you see the power of these things as creators yourself,
that you can build your own brand, your own identity,
show that authenticity and that sincerity,
and that's what helps you be successful,
and hopefully the music then connects with those fans.
The hard part of that is there 60,000 people every day,
also doing the same thing.
So with that, right, if you've got
that kind of pressure on your shoulder
and you don't have a team to help you,
you need to be entrepreneurs on top of what you are as artists and creators.
You need to think about you as a brand,
as what it is you want to achieve
and set attainable goals for yourself.
What are you portraying?
How are you're portraying yourself on things like social platforms?
How are you building your creative vision?
I think it's just really, really important
that you think thoroughly about every aspect
of who you are and what you want to be,
and put that creativity into those aspects.
Those set you up with a foundation to be successful.
Also know what you know and know what you don't know.
There's too many people out here trying to do everything,
build your tribe.
Who's your people, man?
Community is key.
You know what I'm saying? I'm not talking about social media community,
I'm talking about your people. Like,
"I write these songs but, damn, man, I don't…
I don't know how to read analytics,
where are my people at?" You know what I'm saying?
And they may not know either, but they don't write songs.
So since I'm writing these songs,
and I'm singing these records,
I need you to go ahead and study up on these analytics
and these other plays real quick.
Read some books, make a flyer, do something like... squad.
You know what I mean? Let's run this play together.
You got to have people that is in that room with you
that's saying, "Hey, yo, listen, you sound amazing,
but we need a songwriter and a producer."
You know what I mean?
And that's a real thing.
Everybody has their Quincy Jones, who is your Quincy Jones?
Find them, keep them close, grow with them.
So, most of us here are from the ground, the bottom.
So how do we grow our team when you don't have money
to maybe get someone to be your market… what is it?
Social media manager, or you don't have money to buy beats?
You could say, "Work and get money,"
but there's so much that a person could do
from starting from ground zero to build a team.
How would you go about that?
A few years back, it was interesting
I had two almost nearly back to back meetings with Cuco,
and then shortly thereafter with Omar Apollo.
And both of them are really cool kids, right?
And I think they've really hit some strides of success.
But at the time, they were just trying to get a leg up
and friends of theirs were bringing them in
to just talk to us and play their music that hadn't been released yet.
And both of them in those meetings,
mentioned how they'd been just DM-ing people
left and right on Instagram, just hitting people up, like,
"How do we collaborate on songs together?"
They didn't know anyone at that point.
They were just getting started,
and they were getting responses left and right,
and they weren't in the same room. And they both told me that within weeks,
that DM is what really connected them to communities
to help them get started and build collaborations
and learn how some of their favorite musicians were creating music and whatnot.
So I think if you don't have that immediate community,
social media can be a great resource.
And people are really open to receiving that,
especially other creators, because…
…you might have massive superstars
that we look up to, but there are so many others
who are struggling, that we think are successful,
but are struggling day to day financially,
or haven't made it as big as we might perceive they have.
And they're like, they love that feedback,
or they love that communication and outreach.
So you'd be surprised on how quickly
you can build some community and networking
amongst peers and with people you admire.
I just had a question about mentorship.
I know you were talking about how we have a lot of tools at our disposal,
but I feel like I have a lot of tools and no manual, no guidance.
- So… - It's overwhelming.
Who did you go to and where did you look for an mentorship?
When I came up in the game, it was in 1990.
Oh, I was 15 years old.
I was just in the street.
And so I would DJ parties,
and I knew the people at the radio station 'cause I worked at the mall.
And then I just kept showing up places,
just being in the room, being available,
being ready to work.
For me, I was what you all doing,
Where y'all out tonight, I'm over there.
It kept me out of trouble, you know what I mean?
And so I say all that to say that,
if you're looking for mentorship,
there are so many amazing people
that if you just figure out a way to contact them
and say, "Hey, this is who I am," and send them a nice email.
"I would love to learn about what it is you do."
So you see you… for identify somebody that's doing
what you want to do,
or maybe is in proximity to what you want to do,
or learn about.
Reach out to them.
When reaching out to people who have jobs,
they work all day, right?
Be clear.
Yes.
Be cordial.
Be professional.
Be patient, but also be direct,
right? Know what you are…
The information you're trying to gather.
The one thing I want all of you to write down right now,
put this on a post-it,
it's helped me throughout my career.
Consistency over an extended period of time.
Is what you're doing, attempting to do, wanting to create,
going to be able to be consistent
over an extended period of time.