Fifteen Minutes of Fame Music Entertainment

Originally Published on April 6th, 2026

This platform started through the social interaction of a community of small independent artists across the new Threads social platform a couple of years ago. Back then, there were no bots, no trolls, and dare I say, not much (if any) negativity at all. It was internet utopia.

Unfortunately, being a Meta byproduct, it wasn’t going to last forever and that time is tragically upon us. Threads is now infested by bots, trolls, and there is a hefty dose of negativity throughout the platform. It even finds its way into our small community of independent musicians from time to time, with debates over AI, Spotify, and other controversial topics.

In recent “rage-bait” news, a poster recently made the statement that, “if you’ve been releasing music for 10 years and still have less than 1,000 followers, give it up.” The poster went on to say that these independent artists are holding “more important” artists back and that record labels did a service by gatekeeping the industry before streaming.

Obviously, commenters went after this post. I also took offense. This isn’t the rhetoric I typically entertain here. However, for sake of objectivity, let’s discuss.

To me, it sounds like this person is trading one gatekeeper for another. It’s hypocritical to praise a record industry for deliberately gatekeeping and then condemn independent artists for coincidentally gatekeeping. The reality is 4 out of every 5 musicians on Spotify have less than 50 monthly listeners and every one of them hope to increase that.

It’s not just musicians starting out that are struggling to get noticed. There are musicians with 10, 20, and more years of experience who are trying to still be heard. Many of these artists are incredibly talented. Should they quit because there is statistically next to a zero percent chance for them to break through?

That depends: if an artist’s sole objective for creating art is to break through into mainstream music entertainment, then perhaps the post makes a valid argument. Statistically speaking, a person who has been making music for more than 10 years and they’ve not exceeded 1,000 monthly listeners won’t break through.

But most musicians don’t make music for the sole purpose of being famous. They do it to make music, because they’re artists. There are millions of artists around the world. The only thing that’s changed is the capacity to share their music. Some recording artists release music because they want to share it with their friends and family. They don’t promote their music, they don’t lobby for attention. They don’t play shows or sell merchandise. They are just playing music while the record button is pressed down.

It is awfully presumptuous to declare what an artist should or should not do without knowing the intent of the artist. Shame. And I hate to break this news. If your sole intent on making music is to break into the music industry and you have more than 1,000 monthly listeners, guess what: your chances are still remote. The difference is the opportunity exists for everyone. There are 8 billion people on this planet and most of them have the capability of connecting to the worldwide web. I have a song that is coming out this Friday. It is a cover of Bobby McFerrin’s song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Chances are it will never reach 10,000 streams. Statistically, it is less than 1% that it will.

Unless, it is used by one person, one time, in the right way to cause a chain reaction leading to a viral outcome.

Every single person has that chance. Beyond the sea of striving content creators. Beyond the algorithms that gate-keep viral sensation. Beyond the mainstream media and music entertainment that occupy most of our time. That 1% chance means that it happens for somebody. It could be any one of us. But even if it’s not, don’t stop playing. If there is nobody else to play for, we should play for ourselves. Because music is a beautiful thing and those of us who can create it have a responsibility to do so. It is an art that will live on, not because of Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran, but because of mothers and fathers teaching their children. Piano teachers showing new students scales. Violin teachers showing young students proper bow grips. Vocal coaches teaching singers the correct way to breathe. That is how music will be passed on. Not because somebody had a song on the radio that one time. That doesn’t matter.

Music matters. Keep playing, no matter what.