Fifteen Minutes of Fame Music Entertainment

Originally Published on July 1st

It. Is. Here.

Today officially marks the one year anniversary of Fifteen Minutes of Fame! I remember this time last year, writing the review of Second Chances by LuisG. Not having a clue of what to expect, I remember just listening, writing, and letting the music guide the words I typed. 

I remember writing the post hoping to get 10 submissions so I could establish a base for people to get to know my writing. I remember thinking if I didn’t get a response I could just scour threads and write reviews. Not to be discouraged if it wasn’t received this month. We’ll work towards it. The last thing I was thinking is that the post would be seen more than 12,000 times with more than 200 people submitting. 

There is a lot to discuss but, before we do that, let’s talk about what happened in June.

What Happened in June?

The June campaign kept me very busy this month. We published new reviews, recaps, spotlights, and Blind Reactions. Additionally, in an effort to diversify our focus, there was a bigger push to put out content on social media and on the CAN! website. 

June Campaign

June was another incredible month for our campaigns. There were 15 new publications (with 2 more on the way) and there were 4 new Blind Reactions (with 2 more on the way there too)! Including a review that will be published later today, Fifteen Minutes of Fame have now featured artists from 32 states, 20 countries, and 5 continents. That encompasses more than 150 artists worldwide!

The Fifteen Minutes of Fame Website has now been visited nearly 3,000 times, by more than 1,500 readers, with around 100 reactions and 15 subscribers! 

Speaking of the website, the launch is now official! As we continue to maintain relevance, there will be updates and features added over time. But it’s officially here! We are home!

How We’ve Grown

In a special Anniversary Recap, I wanted to talk about our growth from when it all began. I want to say this: I’m not a numbers guy. Numbers might be my least favorite thing to talk about and they can be a redirection from what’s important. I do this for transparency. It’s a way to offer the readers some credibility into just what they can expect when walking into the Fifteen Minutes of Fame and CAN! communities. That being said, let’s look at where we are.

Social media has immensely grown in the first year of Fifteen Minutes of Fame. Here’s the rundown to keep it simple.

Facebook: July 2024, 71 followers. July 2025, 167 followers.

Instagram: July 2024, 332 followers. July 2025, 985 followers.

Threads: July 2024, 324 followers, July 2025, 1,440 followers.

Blue Sky: In its first year, we have amassed nearly 130 followers

YouTube: July 2024, 3 Subscribers. July 2025, 103 Subscribers

TikTok: July 2024, 518 followers. July 2025, 855 followers.

Our reach has been volatile with some months reaching a couple of thousand people over all of our platforms and, at our peak, having a reach of nearly 100,000 viewers across all platforms. 

In July of 2024, we had 1,200 followers across social media. In a year that number tripled to more than 3,600 followers. That’s incredible. Absolutely incredible. 

So, I want to clarify something.. I say I’m not a numbers guy because I don’t let numbers affect what I do, or how I do it. I like listening to readers, listening to artists, and finding content that I enjoy myself to draw inspiration for what Fifteen Minutes of Fame publishes. That being said, I also AM a numbers guy. I mean, I work in finance. I don’t like to focus on numbers for something I’m passionate about. I don’t do that as an artist with my music and I don’t do that here. But I do like to learn from the numbers. In other words, I like to see how far we’ve come. I won’t let them dictate where we go though.

Reviews, and Social Media Reach

June showed a slight increase in traffic across social media and on the CAN! platform, while there was a very slight decrease here on the FMOF website. But that’s ok! People are still reading, still engaging, and we are still BUILDING a platform tailored to independent artists!

Though there has been a slight decrease in traffic on the website, we are still trending at roughly 1,000 views and 500 visitors per month, which is fantastic.

Social Media saw an increase on some platforms like TikTok and Threads where some posts garnered hundreds, even thousands of reviews and reactions.

And YouTube saw a little bump in traffic as I was able to put out more Blind Reactions this month.

CAN! has also started showing signs of being more interactive, both on the CAN! website, and throughout social media. It’s really quite amazing to see everybody engaging with one another.

What’s Next?

Well, OF COURSE we have the July Campaign! In preparation for the big anniversary event, I’m a couple of days behind on getting everything ready for announcing the campaign but, that being said, you can expect to see that announcement VERY SOON! I’ve also got a couple of articles that are carrying over from last month that I will be posting this Thursday, prior to the anniversary event.

As always, same rules apply:

For reviews, submissions can be sent to jeffthomas@fmofmusicentertainment.com or you can DM the Instagram Profile. For emails, Please put the Name of the Work, The Name of the Artist, and the Release date in the Subject Line.

All submissions must have a release date of June 1st, 2025 or later.

For Blind Reactions, submit to the same place. All submissions must have a release date of January 1st, 2025 or later.

When submitting for a Blind Reaction remember the three rules:

1. Fifteen Minutes of Fame does not and will not support art generated through AI software under any circumstances. I will not do a Blind Reaction if the video appears to use AI in any way.
2. Please do not submit videos of live performances or live demos, (an example would be playing a song you wrote in a park, or a living room). Though I will gladly and happily watch the video, leave comments of my reaction to the music, I won’t do a Blind Reaction to it, simply for the fact that it veers away from the intent, which is to honor the tradition art of making a music video. If your traditional video contains sequences of performance or live performance, that is permissible.
3. 3. Please do not submit lyric videos. For the same reason as rule number 2. If your music video is a traditional music video and it has lyrics in it, that is permissible.

Anniversary Event

As you hopefully know by now, Fifteen Minutes of Fame will be premiering a short documentary paying tribute to the first year of our existence. It will premiere this Thursday, July 3rd, at 9:00PM Eastern Standard Time. You will be able to watch the video here, on YouTube, and on the CAN! platform.

I will be going live on TikTok 30 minutes before the start of the film to discuss ALL THINGS FMOF and CAN! related! I really hope to see you all there!

Guest Writers

We are DAYS AWAY from having our first published review from a guest writer, the amazing Kiffie! I can’t wait to read this article!

Interviews

There are THREE upcoming interviews. I am excited to say that I will be sitting down and speaking with Circumstantial Saint (and possibly Coral Rites). Let me tell you, since first being introduced to his art, his passion, and his dedication to humanity, I’ve long wanted to do this. I am so STOKED that it is finally happening.

There are two more interviews that I’m not yet announcing because, one of them comes with a special announcement of its own, and the other one isn’t locked down yet, due to the fact our guests are still working to complete their current project, which will be one of the focuses of that conversation. But rest assured, these are conversations you WON’T want to miss!

CAN! REVIEW!!!

Our friend Neccos for Breakfast has posted a review on the CAN! website! If you haven’t had the chance to go over and read it, please do so now!

Final Thoughts

On a less than happy note…

Just this week, there was a shocking revelation as the independent music world took a devastating hit from Spotify, once again. News broke earlier this week on several media outlets including San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo, and several others. In the last month, there has been an (alleged) band that has been fully generated by the use of Artificial Intelligence now on Spotify. This isn’t exactly news, except for this band in particular has 634,000 monthly listeners, and climbing! Yesterday, when I posted about this, they were at 500,000.

Here’s what we know This band, has been created by AI software and in a month, is outperforming over 99% of the musicians on the Spotify platform. That’s right, of the 11 million artists who use this platform, this band, who emerged from out of nowhere, is performing better than all but 13,000 artists on Spotify.

This is alarming.

This isn’t a question of talent. This band is deliberately ripping off other artists. The name of the band even (not so) subtly hints towards a band they’re loosely emulating. There cannot be original work with AI. This software learns from a super-advanced blueprint that has been laid out by every published musician around the world. So, at best, it’s unproven copyright infringement.

This band obviously can’t play live. They only emerged this month and, in that time have released two albums with a third expected in less than two weeks. Is it possible that the creator of this “artist,” is Spotify themselves? Though, the tech super-giant has denied this, it does beg the question. From a business standpoint, it is almost entirely profit for them. The piss-poor excuse for royalties they pay their artists doesn’t even factor here because they would be the ones collecting it.

Sure, AI won’t replace the mainstream artists, the A-list musician. But independent artists, who have to receive a certain amount of listens to receive their payouts monthly are directly being targeted and affected by this.

Many independent artists and platforms, like CAN! have committed to finding a solution that involves moving away from Spotify altogether. I think that, in the long run, this would be the most beneficial course of action for independent artists. However, this isn’t a situation where we can just rip the band aid right off. Spotify is a necessary evil that many artists still depend on to have their music heard and finding new listeners. I do consider that. I will continue to consider that. However, I want the artists represented on this platform to be exposed to listeners who can APPRECIATE their work. I want them to find an audience that might buy their vinyl. Go to a show. Purchase a Tee Shirt.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame strive for MEANINGFUL connections. We are not here to chase numbers. But we are here to connect to an audience. When our competition is so hyper-focused on the business and not the art, it tends to hurt the art. So, that being said, we will be working towards a solution away from using Spotify as our primary reference to artists’ catalogs of music.

Thank you all, I hope to see you all on TikTok Thursday night! As always, GO PRESS PLAY!

If you have made it this far in the read, make sure to type the phrase “Skynet has become self-aware,” in the comment section of this article.