We were lucky to catch up with Frank Bauknight recently and have shared our conversation below.
Frank, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
Probability in the music industry is almost fairytale-like. Many people expect artists to create music, release music, perform and be vulnerable. Completely for free. In reality 99% of independent artist spend money and receive nothing back. A lot of money goes toward studio time, purchase of instrumentals/beats, travel, etc. and earn a fraction of a penny for one stream after releasing the song on a platform we paid for, to distribute the song to all platforms. And unfortunately, there are many people who exploit and charge artists to perform at their event for little to no traction. So as a music, artist, profitability is rare. However, the narrative and the conversation has to change, I think we are getting more into having respect for artists, and everyone Has to be involved in that conversation, it’s completely free to stream and support your friends music. Some huge tips to growing profit from your music is by having merch. This allows you to sell things that promote your music at the same time mini super huge artists get their money from touring because that is where the money is, streaming can’t get you tour money. However as an independent growing artist, I’ve also seen other make a profit by investing correctly! An example could be getting a band, and securing a weekly gig at a local venue.
Frank, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Frankie B, I am a singer, songwriter, and R&B artist. A lot of times when I send my music to people, their response is always. “WOW! This is actually good“ and it it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something in at the same time. It makes me extremely disappointed in the accessibility to create music with no talent. NO SHADE. I pride myself in creating quality music, songwriting, storytelling, and overall evoking emotion. So what makes me different is my authenticity, and my ability to make people feel again through Music. Music is a universal language and it’s my duty as an artist to speak to everyone. My ultimate goal is to heal one person at a time, whether it’s a listener, Streaming my music, or someone who’s watching me perform live. If one person in that room feels what I say, and shift their perspective on life, or push them through a tough moment. Then I’ve done my job as an artist. My music is R&B, but I have shifted into pop, spoken, word, rap, and more. I started getting into music when I was a toddler I remember singing words to a song, and not knowing what half of the word meant. It was always something that swam through my blood. I was always into art in general, I was drawing and dancing before I was heavily into creating music. I didn’t start writing music until I was about 15, and then I let some friends hear my music and they were super impressed and that’s when I realize music was my actual first love.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was that comparing yourself to other artists in their journey, is one of the most damaging things you can do to yourself as an artist, and also as a human. It can really break your confidence and motivation, which is needed in this industry to grow. There’s no blueprint to doing music, people will blow up for 1 million different reasons and your reason could be the million and one. After my first album, I was excited and ready for the next big thing for myself and shortly after I was seeing that other people were doing better than me as far as numbers and fans. And for the next couple of years, I found myself doing what I thought was going to get me those numbers and fans, and in that process, I lost who I was as an artist. I lost my individuality then, I realized this is not what I’m supposed to be doing. This is not me. I got back into my bag, and created an album called SWYM. This became to be one of my most valued albums that my fans love. For any new artists, I will say, there will be ups and downs when you’re creating and finding your way. Your motivation will get the best of you sometimes and you will question yourself, that’s normal for any artist, but never compare yourself to others, and understand God gave you a gift that you are only able to use and that is what makes you special.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
What mostly helped me build my reputation is putting myself out there. I think doing shows, going to networking, events and open. Mics is so much more of a personal interaction than posting on Instagram about your music. People remember your face and your energy and tend to Have the desire to stay connected to you. I will also say I have a few close friends who support me relentlessly, and that keeps me going, but it also helps me with my reputation as well because they share my music with their friends and their friends share my music as well .
Contact Info:
- Website: Linktr.ee/FrankieB
- Instagram: FrankieBOfficial
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/FrankieBMusic
- Twitter: FrankieBMusicc
- Youtube: YouTube.com/FrankieB