The whole LA move for me was an exxxxtremely personal growth lesson for me in my music career so I would love the opportunity to share my story as someone who has been through that journey so I can help you navigate it.
When I was little I had two goals. Live in LA. Work in the music industry. So with that naturally I wanted to go to USC growing up but I mean hey who really has 60k a year lying around. So instead I dropped out of college after my first semester at 19 to build a music tech company called GoLoCo. (Circa 2015) At 21, (Circa 2017) I decided to make my “big move to LA.” I had a partnership with Ticketmaster/Live Nation, worked closely with tastemakers Space Yacht and Brownies and Lemonade and also was working for a label from Brooklyn who the owner was planning to move to LA and for us to be roommates. Everything clicked and I saw the bright lights. Time to live “the dream.” So with $500 in my bank account at the time I hoped in my lil toyota and hit the road from my home state of NC. The first week I got there I chilled and took in city life and had meetings with all my industry friends and etc. The second week the head of the label I was workin for said he planned to quit music, had sold his label and wasnt moving to LA anymore but back to his house to FL. So all summer to all my industry friends everything looks super successful and etc but on the flip side the struggle was real. I will tell you this Ive been broke in LA and broke in NC and LA broke is another type of stress that is crazy. That stress affects the music and what ended up happening to me was right as I finally found a job at Warner Bros, I got kicked out the house I was living in and had to go back to NC. All the ego that is living in LA to “make it” equalled a huge ego death which at the time was hell but now that Im 24 was the greatest life lesson Ive ever had in my life. Currently have been touring with different artist I help do creative direction for, went back to Berklee, and plan to move to ATL next year because I can still “live the dream” without the stress of living life in LA as someone who lives on music money. LA IS FOR SHORT TRIPS AND ONCE YOU MAKE IT.
If you have only 6 months DO THIS INSTEAD:
Airbnb a house in LA for 1-3 months. Go super hard No, like SUPER hard Fail fast, learn faster Take the other half of the money and invest it in niche marketing campaigns to grow your fan base Return home for a bit and plan the next move from there based off all you learned Write off on your taxes the trip to LA as a “business expense” (major key alert)
“If at the end of it it didn’t work, I’ll have less in the bank account but at least I know I tried.” This was my mentality as well, I love where youre comin from but the post LA burnout is real, set yourself up to win dude if I could go back this is what I would of done different. The tips I gave you protect your pockets and mental health and LA WILL rape both. And the mental health part is real, LA will gas you the fuck up while youre there and then boom youre back at step 1 and broke and the mental health creeps in. I maybe be right, I maybe wrong idk this is just my story. But I do know that although I dont know you I have been in these shoes and walked in them on those gorgeous LA beaches and this is how I would do it different if I could do it again and the last thing I want is for you to go through what I did and leave ya soul in LA. That shit painful. Artist gotta look out for artist cause these labels sure as hell dont. Anyway, sorry if I wrote you a book this subject is just a huge left turn in my life and I wanna be able to use my story to help other artist not make the mistakes I did. Stay safe big man and feel free to hit me with any questions.