10 Music Industry Conspiracies (BUY or SELL)

I think that that's a very real possibility if you piss off the wrong person. Powerful people are fucking petty. We can't carry white lighters either, like or walk under ladders. The shit hits so hard it makes you want to cry. How deep does the rabbit hole go? Why? Why would you do it? It's all come back to big pharma. Yeah. Music industry conspiracy theories. I've got 10 of them. We're gonna get real conspiratorial today. Is that the version of that word? I just work here, bro. I don't, I saw, I just showed up and you said, let's get on the pod. Yeah. I have no idea what you're talking about at all, actually. What are you saying here? You know what a conspiracy theory is. Yes, but what are we talking, what are we doing? So I asked ChatGPT about some um big conspiracy theories in the music industry, and I just want to get your take on them. What made what made you prompt Chad GPT with this? I'm feeling conspiratorial these days.

I'm gonna keep saying that until I learn the right thing. Until it becomes a word. Yeah, conspiratorial. Okay, it's gonna be a word by the end of this. Yeah, no, it's so um I picked 10. And I think uh the way we do this, we're just gonna have a little system. We'll talk about it for each one for a couple minutes and then decide like buy it, sell it, or like if we wanna, you know, pussy out a little bit, maybe neutral. Not an option. Dude, I'm not, I'm, I ain't no pussy. I ain't no pussy, Henry. So if we believe in something 51%, then we're buying. We're buying. bro. If we don't believe it, 49% or lower, or there's no way we're selling it. Selling that shit. And then 50-50, we'll decide if we're gonna do 50-50. Buy low, sell high. Exactly. I've heard from you, man. That's the strat. Dude, what are we doing? Okay, let's go. Conspiracy theory number one. This is the classic, It's probably the oldest one in the book. It's the 27 Club. Do you know about the 27 Club? No, assume I know none of these for real. Like, and assume everyone else. And I always do this, like for our audience. For our audience, but for me. Assume our audience has no idea what you're talking about.

So the 27 Club is essentially the thought that there is this mystical magical age where people die and musicians die at age 27. It's a very popular age for young musicians dying. We got Jimi Hendrix, uh Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain killed himself at 27. I think Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison. The list goes on. It's actually crazy. Like there is a whole No, I I now remember what you're talking about. That's a whole thing. I'm there. For sure. So okay, so go ahead. So I'm selling this one. I think it is crazy. Like it is, it is a little weird. It's a little wonky. But it's a little too mystical, magical, I think for me. It is like it's an outlier. It's weird. What are we thinking's happening? Is there like a brain development? Like, is that when peak depression hits? Like, does something. Yeah, but people that are buying this is my point. Like, what are they, what are they saying is like, you know, other CIA. that's- Otherworldly. Okay, otherworldly. Okay.

It's otherworldly is what they think. I believe so. Which is the main reason I'm selling this one. I'm 100% selling, bro. I'm still on planet Earth. This is ridiculous. This goes hand in hand with the white lighter thing. It's I mean, it's a crazy coincidence. I a hundred percent agree. It is. There's an astronomical amount of 27 years old death in music. But I mean, guys. Yeah. Like come on. Come on. we can't carry white lighters either. Like it's though, like or walk under ladders, you know. And at this point, don't you feel like there's probably some degree of like self-fulfilling prophecy? Because a lot of those also committed suicide, right? Yeah. Not all of them, but yeah, but some of them for sure, overdosed at certain times. Maybe they have that in their heads. Maybe they're going extra hard. Yeah. Not giving a fuck at that point, right? Self-fulfilling is a good point. It might be. I could play into it, but I got it, bro. selling. Two sells. Yeah. All right, moving on. Number two, fake feuds, aka fake beefs, the notions that high-profile feuds between artists are orchestrated by their management to generate publicity and boost sales. Okay.

I'm buying this for sure. This is a little more believable. Yes. Yeah. What do you think publicity stunts are? Like a hundred percent. This is uh I'm buying. I mean, it if you need proof that beef sells, look no further than this entire year of 2024. I mean, like, rap was kind of like in this little downward kind of spiral. And I'm not saying the Kendrick and Drake beef is orchestrated, although maybe, but it certainly brought hip hop kind of back into the mainstream, like I think more than it was before, right? A hundred percent. I mean, the fact that Ross wanted to just like chime in, yeah, Kanye made it this song for no reason. He was not part of it. A 100%. And now not like us is the song of the summer. It's a beef song. It's crazy. Do you think that it would have been the song of the summer without this beef? No, I think the beef like was the inspiration for the song. The beef fueled the elevation of the song.

Um, yeah, it completely is, but it's also a great song. That's what I'm saying. Clearly, like it's a good song. Just just the whole Not Like Us and then that production, like that that Mustard fucking beat is insane. Yeah. So for me, I don't think it has any. I think it would have you know stood on its own two feet, to be honest, without the beef. For sure. I think you're spot on that like the success it's had thus far, and like as quickly as it had it, like it went bonkers. But let's get specific. Like Tupac Big, were they friends the whole time? Like Jay-Z and Nas, were they like having dinner behind closed doors? Like, like how deep does the rabbit hole go? I definitely agree with you that this happens. But I think beef back in the day, bro. More more real. More real, bro. We're a little more gimmicky now. Social media. Exactly. They could put on their own, like anyone can put on their own stunt right now. Yeah. They can literally put a camera in front of their face, post it, it's there. Right? Like those those artists had to like be maneuvering and like doing things that caught the attention of like mainstream media, like journalists and shit. You know what I mean?

Okay, but I'm gonna counter you. It was a lot easy to fake a beef back then. Cause there wasn't there's not a camera everywhere, and like you everyone's documenting everything everyone's doing, and you're in the light, so much you can kind of hide it, and you can generate the news articles a little easier. So I don't know. Yeah, bro. But I'm buying this one. I'm buying the beef. I 100% think that a lot of these beefs out here are completely orchestrated. People will do whatever to generate publicity and it's a story. beef sells. It's a story, it's the oldest story in time. And we eat that shit up. Like breakfast, my friend. Okay, number three hidden agendas in lyrics. Claims that popular songs contain hidden political or social agendas that are meant to subtly influence listeners. Oh, okay. So this is interesting. This is this is where I'm going with this. You remember in like language arts class, we'd be like studying poetry, and they'd start talking about all this, It's like, oh, well, do we think that the poet meant this, that, and the third? Fuck no.

Probably not. He was Not thinking that deep. This is 200 years later, bitch. We're overanalyzing it. Yeah, it's true. I think there's a lot of that in music, bro. Yeah, people read too far into shit. We just draw from our own little experiences, and like once again, it's like that self fulfilling prophecy type shit, or whatever, where it's like, yeah, it became true because something happened that then we can be like, oh, well, then he meant for it to happen, or he knew it was gonna happen, or that's what he was talking about in this lyric. And nah, man, it's not that deep. You don't think there's political parties that back artists and they have them like subtly like, hey, make this lyric about like this. No, bro. And we'll sell more of this. Bro, you've met enough artists, right? Back big pharma. Yeah, you've met enough shit. You've met enough artists, bro. I don't know. I think it I think it's possible on a small scale. For the most part, I see what you're saying, and I'm I'm generally selling this, but I'm also like, this is not crazy either. What do you mean? Like, who do you actually think that they're they're referring to in this in this idea? Like, you actually think big pharma? It's like, no, give me a give me a

give me a real example of what you think they're talking about. Uh like I don't know, like someone makes a song about abortion or something for like do they? What do you think they're talking about? When's the last abortion bar you heard? Maybe not a song about it, but like a yeah, a bar about it. Did you I don't think I've heard many. I just know that people with money are out there and they will, you know, use their money to spread their message however possible. Clearly, musicians are loved by the the general public, and so if they think they can get a message across using an artist as a medium, it's not the craziest idea to me. That's all I'm gonna say. I feel you, bro, but like I don't know, man. I've just met too many artists at this point, and they won't even make a song they don't like that the label wants them to make Yeah. Here's a million dollars. Exactly. No, I'm saying here's a million dollars, you'll do it. If I put that shit in your face, but they've gotten a million dollars from the label and they still beef with the fucking label and don't put out the music that the label was. Oh, was it fake beef? Oh, okay. Back to number two. Nice, Nice callback.

So we're double selling. Oh, yeah, selling for sure. Now that's I mean, like, I get it, guys, but let's let's relax. I'm questionable on that one, but we'll move on. Let me take a moment to interrupt this episode and tell you about our friends over at DistroKid. DistroKid is easily the best DIY distributor on the marketplace. Let me tell you why. It's only $23 a year. That's less than two bucks a month for you to upload unlimited music to all of your favorite streaming platforms on the planet. It's so easy that it takes me like five minutes per upload, and that's when I'm multitasking dealing with my two-year-old son. Hands down, my favorite part about DistroKid is how easy it is to add credits to an upload. I don't know what distributor you're using, but with DistroKid, it's super easy. You can put the artist, the producer, the songwriter. I'm pretty sure you could put like the junior associate engineer of a song. And me, I I want to know who's on the record. And if you sign up using this link, you're gonna get 30% off an already insanely low price. And you can finally start adding your collaborators because they are checking. They will notice when their name's there and they will thank you for doing it.

Let's get back to the episode. What do you think? Okay. Number four industry blacklists. The idea that the music industry has secret blacklists banning certain artists or producers from success. Okay, well, let's just talk about who who we think the industry, what, like who do they mean by the industry? You know, who do you think? I think it's people with power and curators, with money, playlisters, like the heads of Spotify, you know. Illuminati, labels, I don't know. But Rothschilds. But I guess more so like in the music industry, you know, like Yeah, the people in power, for sure. Sure. Yeah. So label heads, yes, platform heads. Yes. Um, okay. Yeah. What do you think? I think it's very possible. I think it's c I'm kinda. That goes for any industry though, bro. Sure. They can talk about a Hollywood blacklist as well. And I think it is very possible though. Because you see, you see people fall off for no explainable reason sometimes. And you're like, how the fuck did this person fall off? You know, and people have come out and said that they were blacklisted and people typically don't listen to them, but I think that that's a very real possibility if you piss off the wrong person.

I think, yeah, I think the blacklist thing is like it's not a list. It's meant to be a physical list. Yeah, like let's just relax about that. But there are like 10 people that control the fucking industry. And if you piss off one of them, they probably have a group chat with the other, you know, and they you know, say like, hey, we're not fucking with this guy, and then boom, your life's over. Like, yeah, well, so then is this on your list? Is industry plant on your list? No. So let's let's kind of go in there. Let's flip the coin here. Okay. And do we agree then, or do we think then that industry plant, because that's the exact opposite version of this whole thing that we're talking about here. Can these powerful people also whitelist? Well, I hate that it's right. I mean, we didn't make the fucking names, guys. We're just two white guys talking about blacklists and white lists here. But yes, I'm buying industry plants and I'm buying blacklists. Yeah, but you're buying. I think I'm buying both. I think I'm buying. I absolutely see it as a real thing. I don't think they would talk about it.

I don't think we would ever necessarily know. But there are people in power that want to work with who they want to work with. You see it in other industries. Why wouldn't it be in the music industry? We're just flawed humans. We're petty. Yeah. So yeah, powerful people are fucking petty. Yeah. So it's and there's a million other artists that sound like you. Like, I don't need you. Oh, you can write good songs. Oh shit. Oh, look, two degrees to my left, and here's another one that looks just like you, sounds just like you, has the same fan base, writes equal quality songs. Like, Ooh, they don't need that was that was kind of sad. That was intense what you just said. I meant it. Yeah, okay. Well, hey, some of you guys are as unique as you think, and keep going, all right? No one else sounds like you. Fuck Henry. But also they don't need you. No, I mean, yeah, it's a giant industry that makes a lot of money without you. So yeah, even if you know, we blacklisted Drake, the music industry would move on, etc. Right. For sure. Yeah. So I'm buying. Yeah. Number five is the AI songwriting takeover. Rumors that AI is increasingly writing hit songs with top artists merely performing the pre-made tracks.

Uh fuck it. I'm buying. I'm buying it, dude. I mean, look, they they use songwriters already. They're already notoriously pop artists, at least, right? The biggest artists on the planet are already notoriously not and openly not writing their own songs, right? So if AI is already proving to like enter into the marketplace, why would we think there's gotta be at least some? I'll say this. I think we are still early. I think we are in the majority of hit songs are still being written by human beings. I think in five years, it's gonna be wild. It's gonna be wild. Do you think the performing is still gonna be humans then mostly by then? Like five years from now, do you think more artists will still be like humans performing the songs versus AI artists? Because the AI artist thing has also come up. We'll we'll come we'll come to number seven. Oh shit. We will save that for number seven. Two AIs and the 10? Not exact kind of okay. Kind of. I'm on the edge of my seat, my friend. So I'm buying, but I'm super buying like long term.

Yeah, like I'm buying. I'm buying the leaps, the long term call options, like five year expiration date. I'm buying now. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's happening, bro. Oh, I mean, yeah, it's happening. Yeah, no doubt. Number six the streaming manipulation allegations that major labels and streaming services manipulate streaming numbers to favor certain artists. I'm buying, they all do it. Move on, bye. Number seven. I was like, what are we talking about? It's already they're doing it. Yeah. They're all doing it. We've talked to people that know that it's happening. They're buying fake streams, all of them. Yeah, they have stake in the DSPs. It's happening. Number seven. Move on. That was an easy one. Number seven. Cloning pop stars. Ooh, okay, okay. Okay. This is the bizarre theory. Cloning. That certain pop stars have been cloned to maintain their youthful appearances and extend their careers indefinitely. So like this is a black mirror episode, bro. This is this is the Miley Cyrus episode. Yes. I'm gonna tie this in. I love that one. It's an amazing one. I was talking about that with my dad yesterday.

Really? Yeah, that episode. It's so good. I swear to God. Yeah. So let's lump the cloning in, cause cloning's kind of crazy, like we have. That's insane. Let's lump that in with AI. Let's just holograms, AI, replacing It's Miley Cyrus, Black Mirror. No, but let's get the cloning out of the. We're selling the cloning. But listen. The cloning's not happening. Avril Lavigne. is not cloning. Actually, she's not facing, you know, but there's a lot of people that think she's not real. Like what do you mean? There's a ton of people that think Avril Lavigne is not real. She hasn't aged a day, and she's had to come out and be like, no, it's me. Like way too many times. What do you mean? No, it's me. She did it again this year. She did it last year. What? It keeps popping up. Like Avril Lavigne is not real. How have I missed this, I'm telling you. of pop culture. It's also like, is you know, Tupac holograms, is Tupac dead? That's a whole nother one. That's not that's not on the list, bro. Stick to the fucking list. Okay, so cloning. It actually is on the list, but it's next, but is it really? Yeah, yeah. Okay, Wow, so okay. Cloning AI, like okay, well, cloning. no, I'm selling.

Okay. Okay, so like AI, what do you mean? Yes, AI is replicating people's voices, yes. But like appearances. No. Personality. No, we're not there. Not there yet. We're not there yet. I think I agree. We're not there, bro. But we're on the way. I mean, I it's gonna happen for sure, but like the scariest part about Black Mirror is that yes, all this shit is so believable. Like this could be happening every day. No, no, no, no. It's gonna happen, but but we have to stick to the present right now. Yeah, I'm selling, it's not happening. They're like, she's in a coma, but here's the hologram version of her, and she's scalable and she becomes like half a mile tall, and they're like, even the people in the back row have front row seats, yeah, and perfect choreography and perfect pitch every time. It's like, whoa, that's terrifying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no. No. Not yet. No, okay. It's not there, man. Yeah. Number eight is the death hoaxes, persistent rumors that certain musicians, uh i.e. Elvis Presley, Tupac Shakur, aren't dead. Fake their deaths and are living in hiding. No, guys, guys. I don't know.

No, selling. Bro, What. what why? Why would you do it? What did it to go down a legend, bro? No, dude. You're a legend. No, artists don't think like that. Not like that, I don't think. I don't think so. Tupac very easily could have been a Lauryn Hill who decided to just stop doing music and yeah, has a great album, but is not the legend that Tupac is. You know, he had to he had to die for that too. He wouldn't know that that would be easy, dude. No, I'm kind of just are you buying? Are you buying this? I don't think so. I'm selling this so hard, bro. I think there could be one or two guys out there. Like, I think Elvis and Tupac are dead. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie on those two, but it's not the craziest thing in the world to fake a death and relocate. The FBI does it every day. Just to be clear, the the reasoning would be to what like just from a fame perspective, be more like if you wanted to quit music, it would be and you didn't want to go out by saying I quit, you want to fake your death. You're a legend at that point.

You go out on top when you're hot and you don't and you've had enough of this industry, you want to just live in peace and sit Mai Tais by the beach for the rest of your life with your money. But with technology the way that it is today, you don't think we would have found him on Snapchat or fucking Well, he's definitely not snapping. TikTok. He's not. doing that. I know, but you think he lives in isolation? Do they live alone? I I think he had to learn a new language, probably in another country and live with the natives. And you know, the FBI does, you know, relocation shit with people all the time. What's the program called? Uh witness protection. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. They do it all the time. Yeah, you're you're reaching, bro. I'm I'm selling. I was I'm selling too, but I wanted to like explore the other side of that. No, I mean It's kind of interesting. I I get the idea. Like anyone who gets to that level, yeah, it's gotta be overwhelming. Yeah, right. To like, how do I continue to operate at the highest level? How do I maintain this, you know, status that I built for myself, right? Yep.

Um, so I could totally see them wanting to have an out. So like I get what you're. But maybe they just want to go to the grocery store and peace, you know what I mean? And if they have to fly halfway around the world to some little island to do that. I totally understand. So, but I just possibly don't know, man. I think it's possible. I think Elvis and Tupac are dead for the record, but rest in peace, legends. Yeah, I'm selling. Selling. Let's move on. Number nine is the music mafia. The idea that there is a powerful group controlling the music industry, deciding who succeeds and who fails. So this is this is kind of similar to the other one. This is this goes deeper than like this is not like the the people that we know are in control that work at the radio at the DSPs. This is like the hidden, this is more Illuminati-esque. Oh. Like people in power pulling the strings. That aren't music, that aren't people we know in the music industry. Not forward facing, yeah. Uh in my mind, that's how I interpret it.

Okay, well, let's just go off that. Let's go with that. I I'm selling, bro. It's not that deep, bro. Are you sure? It's not that deep in my mind. I don't know, man. So you're buying? I think that there that the people with the real power and the real money are the ones that aren't in front of us all the time. I do believe that there is a group of people that have just silent investors or something. disproportionately like stupid amounts of money that are pulling strings. It just, I think that, you know, the presidents don't even matter that much. I think there are these other people that are, you know, puppet masters in a way. So I could easily I believe that just for life and for the world, to be honest. So I could easily see it being a thing in the music industry as well. And so I I mean the way you put it, I'm kind of being convinced a little bit because I do agree that clearly there are people with certain interests that you know influence decisions, whether it comes to like lawmaking or whatever, right? Yes.

Tax legislation, etc. 100%. Um ultimately, though, their goal, you have to think. is money. Always. They need to make more money. Always. It's all they care about. So then power. So yeah, sure. But in in this case, like we're claiming that they don't even like power because they're I guess power, not forward-facing power, but maybe they just know they're powerful and that's fine. I don't know. Having powerful people in your pocket, you know what I mean? Sure. Money is not exactly the same as power. It can equal power, but like being in a position to make moves at certain times. It's very interesting, man. That there's a group of people, bro, and this music mafia. What's an example in the music industry? What what would you claim these people would do? Like, give me like a if you can, like a specific, like here's how they would influence this happening, and this is why that would matter. If a. artist on Sony went viral with a song called, I don't know, fuck Walmart. Okay.

And then this guy that secretly owns Walmart, owns the owner of Walmart in the shadows, actually, has a vested he is Walmart. Like calls the CEO of Sony and is like, it's not okay. Blacklist him, shadow ban him, shelf him, whatever. Like, so now we're still going back to maybe like the blacklisting and like political agendas. Tangentially related, maybe. I don't know, man. I mean, look, I think there's rich people that want certain outcomes, right? But I also think that they typically are driven by money, right? So, like music industry makes money, not the artists, but other people make money. Exactly. So, like, I I can't really, I don't know. Music is so, it's not like pharma and these other things that you can kind of like understand it happening a little bit more, and like even the food industry, right? Like them wanting to not have the FDA all up in their business because their chicken farms are not actually up to fucking code and they don't give a fuck because they want to get the cheapest chicken out to the world or whatever. Yeah, but artists music just seems like not music is cool.

It seems more pure. Artists are cool. So being able to influence the people that other people think are cool lets you influence culture. Like maybe like all these rappers coming out and supporting Trump. Maybe that's a deeply rooted thing that we don't even know about. Oh, that is. I'm sorry. Okay, so you know what I'm saying? Why is every rapper love Trump now? Fuck it, I'm buying. I'm buying. Let's go, bro. In a weird way, like, I see it being a thing, man. I can't prove it, and uh, please don't come for me, but I wanted to end it on a more positive note. This has been very negative nine conspiracy theories. But number 10. Isn't every conspiracy theory? No, not number 10. Okay. Well, number 10 is the healing frequencies. Oh. The idea that certain music frequencies have healing properties suppressed by the music industries to sell more conventional medicine. Wait. It's actually did get negative at the end. So negative. What are you talking about? You read healing and we're like, yeah, this is gonna be a really good one. I forgot to read the description of it. Yeah, this is gonna be a really good one. And then he proceeded to actually read the fucking idea, uh, the the theory, and it's fucked.

It's a little bit negative. What are we no, dude? I'm selling, bro. Okay. What would be the point? To sell medicine? What do you mean? Like the United States is notorious for selling medicine in an alarming rate. So you think we're the only country that uses for medicine. Hold on. We're Advertising medicine. Hold on. Our doctor should tell us what medicine to take. So this is literally, once again, big pharma one it's all come back to big pharma. Yeah. Big pharma wants music to be less therapeutic, less healing, because they want to be able to be the ones that sell us the thing that heals us. That's what I'm saying. Dude, that's that's fucking insane, bro. It's not that crazy. That's insane. bro. No, we're reaching, bro. I'm selling. Do you think music has healing properties with frequencies? Because music is frequencies, the earth, everything is made up of waves. I I don't know enough about the specific frequencies, but obviously music has healing healing powers. To ask anyone what music they love and what it's done for them.

You're gonna run into so many people that you didn't even know had depression, be like, music saved my life. Like this song saved my life. This song gets me through when I'm having a terrible day, when I lost someone, when I'm you know what I mean, like at my wit's end or whatever. So absolutely, that's what we I mean, that's what I fell in love with music for. Like it was beautiful, it completely changes moods. It can make you the happiest you've ever been, it can bring you, you know, tears, right? Because the the shit hits so hard it makes you want to cry. Uh, it can get you turned up when you're like sleepy. Yeah, it can put you to sleep. I mean there's the like playing classical music for babies thing. Literally, like literally ups their IQ, it's been proven. Like, yeah, some weird shit with music for sure. Yeah, so I do think that music has so many like emotional and like physical benefits. Uh, but dude, I mean, no, bro. Like the big pharma's not. We're finally disagreeing. I'm buying this one. No, no, I'm buying this one.