VP: You have quite an impressive social media presence. I am really impressed how up-to-date you are with all these things. Some young musicians still believe all this is not necessary. 😁
Osby: The music world is entirely different than when I started my career. In the beginning, I had major record deals, managers, agents, publicists, promotions agencies, street teams, tour managers, accountants, and more. Now major labels won’t sign an artist unless they have a guarantee that they will make lots of money for them or unless they've already established a sizeable social media presence and following. Not to mention, the internet and mobile phones were not invented yet back then, so we had to actually go out and do everything in person. This meant introducing ourselves to club management and handing out or posting printed flyers everywhere possible. Now it is important for every responsible artist to take charge of their own career and destiny. It's very important to know a little bit about every aspect of the music business and to take advantage of the free access that the internet and social media offers. Of course it's a lot of work but if your time is managed well and you have a lot of spirit and hustle, you can do much better than people with low initiative who only wait for good things to happen for them. I have survived because it's not in my nature to wait around for anyone. I just figure things out and learn how to do them myself. All it takes is to prepare and get organized and to do a little bit every day. You will eventually realize that it actually doesn’t take up as much time as you think. I do my social media updates and phone calls while I am having my morning tea or coffee. Then the rest of the day is spent practicing, composing, teaching or sometimes nothing at all! 😉
