The Longer Path: Why Musicians Need Agency More Than Algorithms
The algorithm wants you to make a 15-second hook.
The playlist curator wants you to sound like last month's breakout artist.
The marketing team wants you to chase whatever's trending on TikTok.
But here's what they don't tell you: the shortest path to nowhere is still nowhere.
The Adventure of Agency
When you choose the longer path, when you book that tour of coffee shops instead of waiting for the Spotify playlist placement, when you write that 8-minute instrumental piece instead of another verse-chorus-verse- something remarkable happens.
You become the author of your own story.
Not the algorithm. Not the tastemaker. Not the trend. You.
This is what agency looks like in music: the conscious decision to build something that matters to you, even when (especially when) it's harder than following the prescribed formula.
The Magnetism of the Authentic
Consider the artists who've lasted. The ones whose work you return to years later, decades later. Did they become indispensable by following the rules, or by making their own?
Johnny Cash recording "Hurt" in his seventies. Radiohead releasing "Kid A" when everyone expected "OK Computer Part II." RAYE securing her first UK number one after a very public break with her label.
Each chose adventure over algorithm. Each chose the longer path.
And each built something irreplaceable.
Your Small Venue Philosophy
That dingy club with the broken PA system? It's not a stepping stone to something better. It's your laboratory. Your chance to connect with 30 people who chose to spend their Tuesday night with you instead of Netflix.
Those 30 people matter more than 30,000 passive streams from people who can't remember your name.
Because connection scales. Authenticity compounds. But only if you're willing to show up, night after night, venue after venue, building your craft one conversation at a time.
The Concept Album in a Singles World
Everyone's making singles for the algorithm. So make an album that tells a story.
Everyone's chasing the 2.5-minute pop formula. So write the song that needs to be 7 minutes long.
Everyone's making music for the masses. So make music for the people who get it.
This isn't contrarian for the sake of being different. This is strategic differentiation. When everyone else is building the same thing, the different thing becomes the remarkable thing.
Your Terms, Your Timeline
The industry will pressure you to move fast, to compromise, to give them what worked last quarter.
But sustainable careers aren't built on other people's timelines. They're built on your vision, your values, your willingness to take the long view when everyone else is optimizing for the short term.
The adventure, the real adventure, isn't getting famous quickly. It's building something that lasts. Something that matters. Something that's unmistakably yours.
The Choice Is Always Yours
Every day, you get to choose:
Follow the formula or find your voice. Chase trends or create them. Build for the algorithm or build for eternity.
The longer path isn't longer because it's inefficient. It's longer because it goes somewhere worth going.
Your music deserves that journey. And so do you.
