the TrueFans AMP—Magazine Issue 131

Helping Music Artists build real careers—without selling their soul.
____________________ 

“People may forget what you said or what you did, but they will never forget how you  made them feel.” 
— Maya Angelou (was she speaking about live music?)

• Recommends—Jason Blume and His “Songwriting With Jason Blume” Newsletter

• Your BIZ—Netflix, Music, and the Quiet Expansion of Opportunity

• in partnership with Carlo Kiksen and The FanBase Builder 

• Greatest Music Artist of All Time—Nick Cave: The Courage to Tell the Truth— and Keep Creating 

• the TrueFans Takeaway—Dead or Alive: Why Live Performance Refuses to Be  Replaced by John Fogg 

• P.S. from PS—No HUSTLE 

Here’s the playlist

If you want truth, perspective, and hard-won insight from someone who’s been around  the block—and came back smarter—Jason Blume is a gift. 

• RECOMMENDS—Jason Blume's “Songwriting With Jason Blume” (Newsletter) 

“Experience is expensive.  
Jason already paid for it.” 

In a world overflowing with hot takes, shortcuts, and AI-powered confidence from  people who’ve never actually done the work, Jason Blume stands out for one simple  reason: 

He has. For decades. 

Jason doesn’t teach songwriting as theory, trends, or tricks. He teaches it as a craft— earned through years of writing, listening, critiquing, publishing, and helping real  Songwriters get better at what they do. His newsletter reads like a conversation with  someone who’s already made the mistakes you’re about to make—and is kind enough to save you a few years. 

Recent issues tackle AI and songwriting with rare clarity and zero hysteria. No pearl clutching. No evangelizing. Just seasoned perspective: AI is a tool. Songwriting is still  the job. That kind of grounded wisdom is increasingly hard to find—and increasingly  valuable. 

Jason’s work spans books, instructional recordings, workshops, articles, and one of the  most respected critique services in the business. The through-line is always the same:  helping songwriters write better songs, not just feel better about the ones they already  have. 

If you want encouragement, you can find that anywhere. 
If you want truth, perspective, and hard-won insight from someone who’s been around  the block—and came back smarter—Jason Blume is a gift. 

“You don’t need more noise. 
You need someone who knows what matters.” 

Bonus: When you subscribe to Jason’s email list, you receive a free 30-minute video:
“3 Things You Must Do For Success.” 

No fluff. Just fundamentals—delivered by someone who’s lived them. 

Tap the link: Jason Blume to learn more and get his newsletter and bonus.  Strongly. Confidently. Happily recommended. 

Netflix isn’t becoming a music platform—but it is becoming one of the most powerful  drivers of music demand on the planet. If you understand what’s actually happening,  this shift opens doors most other artists won’t even see. 

• Your BIZ—Netflix, Music, and the Quiet Expansion of Opportunity from Jon  Skinner's piece for Music Gateway 

Whenever a giant platform like Netflix makes a move, the industry reflex is panic.

Uh oh. Here comes another gatekeeper. 

But that’s not what this is. 

Netflix going deeper into music doesn’t shrink opportunity. 
It widens the surface area where music is needed—and that’s the part most artists miss. 

This isn’t Netflix trying to become Spotify. 
It’s Netflix embedding music more deeply into storytelling, culture, and global content  at scale. That distinction matters. 

Music-led documentaries. 
Competition shows. 
Global formats. 
Live broadcasts. 
International spin-offs. 
Fast-turnaround unscripted content. 

All of that requires a lot of music—and not all of it can (or will) be superstar catalog. 

Here’s the quiet truth: 
Behind every headline artist placement is a constant demand for... 

• background music 
• emerging sounds 
• genre-specific cues 
• cost-effective sync 
• artists who own and control their rights 

That’s where independent Music Artists don’t just participate—they fit. 

Netflix operates globally, not territorially. 
One placement can travel everywhere. 
One catalog-ready track can outperform years of streaming grind. 
One smart deal can compound. 

But—and this is the TrueFans part—it only works for artists who are prepared. 

This moment doesn’t reward noise. 
It rewards readiness. 

If your masters are clean. 
If your metadata is right. 
If your rights are clear. 
If you understand sync as storytelling, not just placement. 

Then this isn’t a threat. 
It’s an invitation. 

The artists who win won’t be the loudest online. 

They’ll be the ones who understand rights, context, and long-term leverage. That’s always been the TrueFans way. 

What You Can Be Doing… Right Now 
You don’t need a Netflix deal to prepare for one. 
You need to become sync-ready. 

That starts with a few unglamorous—but powerful—moves: 

First, own and organize your rights. 

Know exactly who owns your masters and publishing. If it’s not 100% you, know the  splits. Guessing is disqualifying. 

Second, clean your metadata. 

Every track should clearly list writers, publishers, PRO info, contact details, moods,  tempos, genres, and versions. Music supervisors move fast. Confusion kills momentum. 

Third, think in scenes, not streams. 

Ask where your music fits: tension, intimacy, triumph, melancholy, motion. Sync is  storytelling. Songs that serve story travel farther. 

Fourth, build a small, focused sync catalog. 

Not everything you’ve ever released. A tight set of tracks that are immediately  licensable, emotionally clear, and easy to place. 

Fifth, learn the language of licensing. 

You don’t need to be a lawyer—but you do need to understand basics: exclusivity, term  length, territories, fees vs royalties, and usage types. 

Sixth, play the long game. 

Most placements don’t come from one big moment. They come from being consistently  professional, reliable, and easy to work with. 

Streaming is one lane. 
Sync is another. 
They reward different behaviors. 

Artists who understand both—without confusing them—have more ways to win.

__________  

About Jon Skinner 
Jon Skinner is a music-industry veteran turned founder, with nearly three decades of  experience spanning DJing, production, songwriting, label ownership, and music  publishing. 

After leaving the traditional music business, Jon built and ran a successful tech company—an experience that gave him a new perspective on the structural problems artists face: funding, access, rights clarity, and getting music heard by the right people. 

Music Gateway was born from that intersection. Not as another “opportunity platform,”  but as a practical system designed to help artists, Songwriters, and producers operate  with more control, clarity, and leverage in a complex global industry. Jon’s work is  rooted in lived experience—not theory—and in a simple through-line: 

Artists do better when they understand how the business actually works. 

__________  

About Music Gateway 
Music Gateway is a global platform built to help music creators navigate licensing,  funding, collaboration, and rights management with confidence. 

Founded in 2011, Music Gateway focuses on removing friction from the creative and  commercial process—saving time, improving access, and opening practical pathways  for artists, producers, and rights-holders worldwide. Rather than chasing hype, the  platform emphasizes structure:  

Clear rights, clean data, real opportunities, and scalable solutions that work across borders. 

Music Gateway partners with major brands and emerging talent alike, supporting  projects from early concept through real-world release and placement—always with the  goal of empowering creators to operate on more equal footing. 

• in partnership with Carlo Kiksen and The FanBase Builder

Nick Cave’s greatness isn’t just in his music. It’s in his refusal to turn away from grief,  doubt, and beauty—and his willingness to keep creating his art with the truth. No matter what.  

• Greatest Music Artist of All Time—Nick Cave: The Courage to Tell the Truth— and Keep Creating 

“It’s the audacity of the world to continue to be beautiful in times of deep suffering…  it was just carrying on, being systemically gorgeous.” 
— Nick Cave 

There are Music Artists who entertain. 
There are Music Artists who impress. 
And then there are the rare ones who tell the truth—no matter the cost. Personally and  professionally. 

Nick Cave belongs firmly in that category. 

Few artists have stared so directly into grief, love, faith, doubt, violence, beauty, and  redemption—and kept writing anyway. Fewer still have done so publicly, vulnerably,  and without aestheticizing the pain or sanitizing the questions. 

“Nick Cave is a writer of enormous seriousness and courage. His songs deal with God, death, love, violence—the big stuff—and he never blinks.” 
—Bono 

Nick Cave doesn’t offer comfort. 
He offers companionship. 

And for that alone, his place among the Greatest Music Artists of All Time is secure. 

A Life Marked by Art—and Unimaginable Loss 
Nick Cave’s story cannot be separated from his art—nor should it be. 

Born in rural Australia, Cave emerged in the late 1970s and early ’80s with a ferocity  that felt biblical even before faith became an explicit theme. His early work was raw,  confrontational, violent, and poetic—drawing as much from Southern Gothic literature  and Old Testament imagery as from punk and post-punk music. 

But in 2015, Cave’s life was irrevocably changed when his 15-year-old son Arthur died  after falling from a cliff in Brighton, England. 

Years later, tragedy struck again with the death of his eldest son, Jethro. 

There is no hierarchy of grief—but few experiences approach the devastation of losing a child. To lose two is, as the devotional put it, unimaginable. 

Cave did not retreat into silence. 
He did not hide behind irony. 
He did not explain it away. 

Instead, he kept showing up—to his work, to his audience, and to the questions that had  no answers. 

“I think Nick Cave is one of the great songwriters of our time. He’s fearless, and he  understands that songs are a moral undertaking.” 
— Leonard Cohen 

“I Don’t Believe... But I Believe...” 
Nick Cave’s relationship with faith is not tidy. 

It never has been. 

He has said: 

“I don’t believe in an interventionist God, but I do believe in God.” 

That tension runs through his entire body of work—songs that wrestle with mercy,  judgment, love, damnation, grace, and the fragile hope that meaning might still exist  even when logic collapses. 

Rather than offering doctrine, Cave bears witness. 

He does not tell listeners what to believe. 
He invites them into the wrestling. 
And that, for many, is far more honest—and far more useful. 

Career Highlights: A Body of Work That Refuses to Flinch 
Over a career spanning more than four decades, Cave has built a catalog that is both vast and cohesive—unified by voice, intention, and courage. 

With Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, he created albums that feel less like collections of  songs and more like chapters in an ongoing moral and emotional inquiry. 

From the brutal urgency of From Her to Eternity… 
to the mythic violence of Murder Ballads… 
to the aching tenderness of The Boatman’s Call… 
to the spectral grief of Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen… 
Cave has never chased trends. 

He has never softened the work to broaden its appeal. 

And yet, his audience has grown—not because the work became easier, but because it  became even more true. . 

“You don’t write to be liked,” Cave has said. “You write because you have to.” 

That insistence—that obligation to the work itself—is the through-line of his career.  

Writing as Survival, Not Strategy 
One of the most important lessons Nick Cave offers Music Artists is: 

Art is not branding. 
It is survival. 

Cave has spoken openly about how writing became a way to stay alive—not  metaphorically, but literally—in the wake of grief. 

The albums that followed Arthur’s death were not “about” loss in a conceptual sense.  They were shaped by it—fragmented, fragile, stripped of artifice. 

“Grief is a state of profound vulnerability, And in that vulnerability, the heart  becomes more open.” 

For Music Artists, this is a powerful reminder: 
The work doesn’t need to be polished first. 
It needs to be honest first. 

“Nick Cave’s work feels eternal. It’s not chasing the moment—it’s wrestling with  what it means to be alive.” 
— Bruce Springsteen 

The Red Hand Files: Radical Listening as an Art Form 
In recent years, Cave has expanded his role beyond musician into something closer to a  public companion in grief, faith, and doubt through The Red Hand Files—an ongoing,  direct dialogue with fans. 

People write to him about loss, addiction, faith, despair, creativity, and hope. He answers—not as an expert, but as a fellow human traveler. 

This, too, is part of his greatness. 
Nick Cave understands something many artists miss: 

Listening is an art form. 

And it deepens the work. 

What Music Artists Can Learn from Nick Cave 
Nick Cave does not offer a replicable formula—and that’s precisely the point. But his  life and work offer enduring lessons for any Music Artist serious about building a career that lasts. 

1. Don’t Protect Yourself from the Truth 
The audience doesn’t need perfection. 
They need recognition. 

2. Let the Work Change You 
If the art isn’t altering you, it won’t alter anyone else. 

3. Depth Builds Loyalty 
Cave’s fans didn’t stay because the music was easy. 
They stayed because it was real. 

4. Don’t Confuse Vulnerability with Weakness 
Vulnerability is strength that refuses disguise. 

5. Keep Going 
Not because it’s heroic. 
But because stopping would be unacceptable. 

Legacy: Why Nick Cave Matters and Keeps Mattering |
Nick Cave matters because he reminds us what music can be when it is not reduced to  content, product, or strategy. 

Music can be: 
• A witness to suffering 
• A container for grief 
• A language for faith without certainty 
• A place where beauty survives pain 

“Hopefulness is the enemy of despair,” Cave wrote. “And when hope is gone, despair  wins.” 

His work insists—quietly, fiercely—that hope can still exist even when answers do not. That is not entertainment. 
That is a deep level of service. 

“Nick Cave showed me that you could be completely uncompromising and still deeply  connected to people. That was hugely important.” 
— Thom Yorke 

the Final Chorus 
Nick Cave is not for everyone. 
He was never meant to be. 
But for those who find their way to his work—especially Music Artists—he offers something rare: 

Permission to tell the truth. 
Permission to keep asking. 
Permission to keep creating—even when life breaks your heart. 

That's greatness. 
And it endures.  
As does Nick Cave. 

Somewhere between the lights dimming and the first note landing in a room full of  people, something happens that no platform has figured out how to replicate. It’s not better. 
It’s different. 

• the TrueFans Takeaway—Dead or Alive: Why Live Performance Refuses to Be  Replaced by John Fogg 

There are a thousand ways to hear music now. 
Endless streams. Infinite playlists. Perfect sound. On demand. On your phone. 
And yet… 

Somewhere between the lights dimming and the first note landing in a room full of  people, something happens that no platform has figured out how to replicate. 

It’s not better. 
It’s different. 
And for artists who want to be remembered—not just heard—that difference really  matters. 

Hearing vs. Being There 
Streaming is extraordinary. 
It’s generous. 
It’s global. 
It lets your music travel farther than you ever could. 

But live performance does something streaming can’t quite touch.
It turns sound into memory. 

A live show isn’t just listened to—it’s experienced. 

Your music gets attached to a night, a feeling, a face, a moment in someone’s life. 

People don’t say, “I streamed that song once.” 
They say, “I was there.” 

That distinction—I was there—is where fans quietly become something more. 

“People may forget what you said or what you did, but they will never forget how you  made them feel.” 
— Maya Angelou 

Why Live Performance Still Converts Faster 
This isn’t about nostalgia. 
It’s about compression. 

Live performance compresses time, trust, and connection into a single shared  experience. In the moment. 

In one evening, people see: 
• how serious you are 
• how you handle imperfection 
• how you connect when nothing is buffered or edited 
And they decide—often unconsciously—who and how you are. 

That decision can take months online. 
Sometimes years. 

In a room, it can happen before the second chorus. 

“A concert is not about perfection. It’s about presence.” 
— Bruce Springsteen 

This Is Not an Either / Or 
Let’s be really clear—because this matters. 

Some artists are built for rooms. 
Some are built for headphones. 
Some are built for screens. 

And many discover, over time, they’re built for more than one of those. 

Streaming builds reach. 
Live builds relationship. 
Neither replaces the other. 
They work best when they talk with each other. 

Recorded music invites people in. 
Live performance gives them a reason to stay. 

“The live show is where the relationship becomes real.” 
— Amanda Palmer 

For the Quiet Ones (Yes. You. Maybe.) 
Now—a word for the artists who just felt a twisting tightening in their chest. 

If you’re shy. 
If you’re introverted. 
If the idea of a stage feels… exposed. 
You’re not broken. 
And you’re not disqualified. 

Live performance does not require bravado. 
It requires honesty. And yes, courage. 

Some of the most powerful live moments happen in: 
• living rooms 
• house concerts 
• listening rooms 
• small cafés 
• backyard gatherings 

You don’t have to conquer a crowd. 
You just have to invite people into your work. 

“Intimacy is not about size. It’s about attention.” 
— Nick Cave 

And if you need a hand—an invitation, a framework, a gentler way onto the stage— that’s not weakness. 

That’s wisdom. 

Alive Is a Feeling 
Recorded music lasts. 
Streaming scales. 
But live performance lingers. 

It’s the difference between being played and being remembered. 
Between consumption and connection. 
Between fans… and TrueFans. 

Alive doesn’t mean touring endlessly. 
Alive means your music leaves footprints and fingerprints. 

And for all the tools we have now—all the reach, all the tech—nothing does that quite  like a human being, standing in front of other human beings, offering a song. Still alive. 
Very much so. 
__________  

About John Fogg 
John Fogg is the editor of the TrueFans AMP™, co-creator of New Music Lives™, and  a lifelong writer, listener, and fan of great songs and the people who make them. A  million-selling author (The Greatest Networker in the World), Fogg has written and  coached artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries for more than four decades. Through  the TrueFans AMP™, he champions a new generation of Music Artists building  sustainable careers—Making Right Now Money and having Fans Forever—and Helping Music Artists build real careers—without selling their soul.

• P.S. from PS—NO HUSTLE 
I need to say this out loud. Okay, SHOUT IT! 

My inbox is a mess. Every day it’s flooded with offers aimed at Music Artists: 

“Grow your streams.” 
“Crack the algorithm.” 
“Get signed faster.” 
“Six figures in six months.” 
“Just one more course.” 
“One more membership.” 
“One more shortcut.” 

Most of it is hustle dressed up as hope. And I hate it. I hate watching Music Artists— especially the ones who need clarity and encouragement the most—being pushed and  pulled to spend money they don’t have on promises that rarely deliver. The cruel irony  is hard to miss:  

The people least able to afford this stuff are the ones being targeted the hardest. 

Let me be clear. 
There’s nothing wrong with learning what you need to succeed. 
There IS something wrong with turning fear into a marketing model—especially when  the people paying the price are Music Artists trying to survive. 

The music business has always had its hustlers. That’s not new. But the scale of it now?  The volume? The relentlessness? The Hustle? 

That’s new. 
And it’s exhausting. 

Here’s what I know after doing just about every job in this business: 

There is no shortcut that replaces connection. 
There is no system that substitutes for relationship. 
There is no hack that turns strangers into TrueFans overnight. 

Real careers are built the unsexy way—one fan at a time, with trust, consistency,  generosity, and actual human connection. 

That’s why the TrueFans AMP™ is free. 

Yes, someday there will also be a paid support option. 
And when that day comes, it will earn its keep. 
But our Artist First commitment means this: 

No paywall on the basics. 
No toll booth on encouragement. 
No tax on hope. 
No Hustle. Ever. 

Helping Music Artists build real careers—without selling their soul—isn’t a slogan. It’s a line we won’t cross. 

No hustle. 
No hype. 
No shortcuts. 
Just the work that actually works.

Thanks for reading. Give us your feedback.

And PLEASE, if you've got any Music Artist friends, pass the TrueFans AMP™ on, because... It’s Time... for a Change. Big Time. Past Time...