Almost all of it, anyway.
“Cut down on carbs” can be great advice if you want to lose weight. But what if you want to gain some?
“Smile more.” This is great advice if you’re not smiling enough, making people feel uncomfortable, and losing out because of it.
“Smile less.” This is great advice if you’re overdoing it, coming off as insecure, and finding that your colleagues don’t seem to take you very seriously.
“You should focus on releasing singles.” “You should create more high-quality free content — and put it out it more often — instead of starting out by releasing it all at once.”
This is great advice if you want to grow an audience.
But what if you already have one?
“You should charge more for your music.” “If you were really serious, you’d make an album instead.”
Great advice if people already like your music so much that they would be sad if you stopped making it.
But what if they’ve never heard it before? What if they don’t know whether they might like it? What if they don’t even know who you are?
“Your music is worth something.”
Now that one is an absolute. That’s because it’s not advice. It’s a principle. And a damn good one too.
The question is, do you really believe it, and do you act accordingly?
Here’s another way of thinking about it:
Whether you’re charging for it or giving it away, how might you act differently if you believed that your music was valuable?
And how might you act differently if you didn’t?