The Talent Isn't the Problem

I went to NICE, a fest, a three-day independent music festival in Somerville, MA expecting to talk with musicians about Musician Growth Lab.

I came home thinking a lot less about Musician Growth Lab and a lot more about musicians.

Before I get into that, I want to thank the NICE team for inviting me to participate. Beyond putting together a fantastic weekend of music, they gave me something just as valuable: access to the musicians performing at the festival.

The Thursday before the festival started, they held a music business mix'r and gave me a table to begin introducing Musician Growth Lab to the musicians performing throughout the weekend. Then I spent the festival seeing performances and talking to as many of those performers as I could.

It ended up being three days of listening. And not just listening to performances, although there were plenty of incredible ones, but listening to the people making the music.

And what I heard kept reinforcing the same idea.

The talent isn't the problem.

That might sound obvious coming from someone who just spent a weekend at a music festival, but it's worth saying because it's easy to assume the artists who "make it" are simply the most talented. The musicians performing at NICE aren't household names. That's exactly the point. They're independent artists still trying to build careers, yet the level of talent throughout the weekend was remarkable.

After watching sets by artists who were new to me like Fai Laci, Exit 18, HEYSISS, and Malik Elijah, and seeing crowds discover bands I already knew like GYMSHORTS, Air Traffic Controller, and Twen, I left convinced that talent is everywhere. There was no shortage of great songs, compelling performers, or people putting everything they had into their music. I kept having the same thought: Why haven't I heard of this artist before?

What I saw was a gap between making great music and building a sustainable business around it.

Almost every conversation eventually found its way to the business side of music. I brought rack cards describing MGL that listed some of the topics we plan to cover: branding, publicity, booking, touring, contracts, royalties, taxes, and more. As I'd point to those topics, I'd get the same reaction over and over again. Heads would nod. Someone would smile. Inevitably, I'd hear, "Yeah... nobody teaches this stuff."

That wasn't just one person's opinion. It became one of the themes of the weekend.

Several musicians told me these were the parts of their careers they struggled with most. Not because they didn't care, but because they didn't know where to start. Others admitted they avoided them altogether. Some lacked confidence. Some didn't have the time. Some said they didn't even realize everything they were expected to know until they were already trying to build a career.

I've had this feeling before and this weekend of conversations reinforced it: we're asking musicians to become entrepreneurs without ever showing them how to run a business.

There was another pattern I wasn't expecting.

A number of musicians approached our table cautiously. At first I assumed they were just shy, but after a few conversations I realized something else was happening. They're used to people wanting something from them. A show. A favor. A percentage. Content. Exposure. An email address. There always seems to be an ask attached.

Once they understood what Musician Growth Lab is, and, just as importantly, what it isn't, the tone of the conversation changed almost immediately.

One musician said something I'll probably remember for a long time. Paraphrasing, they told me, "Usually when someone offers something to musicians, I'm waiting for the catch. This might be the first thing I've seen that's just trying to give musicians something."

I hadn't anticipated hearing that, but it says something about the environment independent musicians are navigating. If generosity feels unusual, that's a problem worth paying attention to.

The other moment that stood out came whenever I mentioned the $5,000 grant each member of our inaugural cohort can earn by completing the program.

People were genuinely surprised. Not because $5,000 is an enormous amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but because someone was willing to invest it in musicians.

That's a pretty telling commentary on the reality many independent musicians are navigating.

It's easy to talk about "supporting musicians" in broad terms. It's harder to appreciate how often a lack of capital determines which opportunities an artist can actually pursue.

I left NICE more optimistic than I arrived because it reinforced that the challenges facing independent musicians are significant.

That's what I'll remember most from the weekend. Not one performance or one conversation, but the realization that we're surrounded by talented musicians who are doing almost everything right: creating great music, building audiences, putting in the work.

The talent isn't the problem.

The opportunity is making sure talent isn't where the story ends.