The Fame Paradox

Most artists are stuck in a loop.

Buy ads. Get streams. Buy more ads. Get more streams.

It's expensive. It's exhausting. And it's exactly backward.

Here's why: When you buy ads to get streams, you're renting attention. When you build fame, you own it.

The marketing industrial complex wants you to believe that success is a numbers game. That if you just spend enough on targeting, retargeting, and micro-targeting, you'll break through.

But there's a secret that nobody talks about: Famous people don't need to optimize their ad spend.

Think about it. Taylor Swift doesn't agonize over her cost per click. Kendrick Lamar isn't A/B testing Instagram creatives. They've transcended the metrics game entirely.

"But I'm not Taylor Swift," you say.

Exactly. And that's why you're spending money on the wrong thing.

Instead of buying ads to get streams, what if you bought ads to become memorable? Instead of optimizing for clicks, what if you optimized for conversations?

Here's the paradox: The more you chase streams directly, the more expensive they become. The more you invest in becoming famous—even micro-famous, even niche-famous—the less you need to chase anything at all.

Famous people don't find audiences. Audiences find famous people.

Famous people don't need algorithms. Algorithms need famous people.

Famous people don't beg for attention. They attract it.

So here's the question: Are your ads building fame or just buying temporary attention?

Are you investing in becoming someone worth talking about, or are you just paying to make noise?

Because in a world where everyone's selling something, being famous—truly, memorably, remarkably famous—is the only shortcut that actually works.

Stop buying streams. Start buying recognition. Let fame do the heavy lifting.

The streams will follow. They always do.