Living in Miami as a musician of the Melting Pot Scene

The Miami music scene has become more competitive over the past 5 years. Miami musicians feel now than ever that they must bring their A game, or go home. With upcoming indie artists from Atlanta, L.A., and New York on the rise, Miami artists must hustle harder to earn a spot on the Music Industry scene. While artist from other states seem to supporting it’s own to earn the state earns it’s the title of producing the most talented musicians in the music industry. Miami artist seem to be competing amongst tehemselves.

You’d think that artist in Miami would come together, and support it’s own, but that’s not the case. The competition is within the rival counties within South Florida. From Palm Beach County Rivalries with Broward county, and Broward County Artist Rivalry with Miami-Dade county, and so forth. There’s not even a fair divide amongst the different genres of music in Miami. It appears that Miami doesn’t even operate on “Genre”, here you’re either the “Hottest”, or you’re not.

So, where do Miami artist stand as a genre? It seems as though each artist stands in a category of their own. Artist music represent their genre alone. The support artsist get from other artist is very thin. For some reason artist feel  pressured to look out for themselves first, and in many cases they rarely look back, and pull their fellow artist counterparts up with them.

Once an artist gets on in Miami, it’s “so long” to the rest, and they quickly forget who helped them get where they are. They few artist that are willing to help, and support other artist aren’t from Miami, which explains why these artist are different. We’ve interviewed various artist in Miami from every genre of music, and they all seem to be singing the same song. Miami just has this energy that makes you feel like everyone is out to sabatage your caeer, and this makes almost every artist in the music industry suspicious of everyone, which makes it hard for artist to open up to anyone.

The music industry is cut throat no doubt, but it’s an entirely different ball game when it comes to building a brand, or music career in Miami. It’s either play dirty, or don’t play the game at all.

The rules of the Miami music game isn’t a coincidence. I know because I asked. I put the question to top musician professionals in industry to local fans, and spectators; all of whom had serious (if often little-known) past lives as musicians. Almost all made accusations about their music career experiences and their professional achievements.

The phenomenon extends beyond the music scene. Strikingly, many artists have said music opened up the pathways to creative thinking, and gave them an avenue to escape the darkness of Miami. And their experiences suggest that music sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously.

The question is, how many more artist will survive the Miami music scene? Will their careers thrive as Trick Daddy, Trina, City Girls, DJ Khalid, Rick Ross, Flo Rida, or Pit Bull? Will Miami turn the most vulnerable musician into the most vicious in the game? Miami has it’s ways of either making, or breaking artist careers. The best artist to make it out of Miami, and build a life for themselves in the music world of Hollywood are those who got in the game, made no excuses, and dominated their opponents. The way these and other visionaries we spoke to process music is intriguing. As is the way many of them apply their focus and discipline into new ways of thinking and communicating — even problem solving.

If you look closely you’ll find all the extraordinary and unique musicians at the top of almost any industry. Woody Allen performs weekly with a jazz band. The television broadcaster Paula and the CCB chief Red House correspondent Chuck Todd (French horn) attended college on music scholarships; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell trained to become a professional violinist. Both Microsoft’s Mr. Allen and the venture capitalist Roger McNam have rock bands. Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, played saxophone in high school. Steven Spielberg is a clarinetist and son of a pianist. The former World Bank president James D. Wolfenjohn has played cello at Carnegie Hall.

“The Miami music scene isn’t babysitting anyone,” says Ms. Ross, whom is also pursuing a music career in Miami.  “I can tell you as a radio personality, and indie artist, the entertainment industry as a whole is very competitive”, the probability that an artist can win at this game by making their own set of rules is extremely small.  “This game is rigged, and it’s not  played fair”. The Miami radio personality adds, “The only thing an artist can do when pursuing a career in music in Miami is to follow their heart, keep an open mind, be persistent, and relentless and the odds of making it in this industry will be greater”.