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4 Marketing & Business Secrets of the Least Likely to Succeed Singer in History
He learned to play guitar just to pick up women.
He played for 9 years before he had a “hit.” Reaching #30 on the Billboard chart, it did break into the Top 40, but it made little impact.
(I have no memory of hearing it.)
It took him 3 more years to score another successful single, the only real one of his 55-year career. And it maxxed out at #8. And was only the 12th Bestselling song of the year.
Yet that song is the foundation for a fortune worth $600 million. He makes around $100 million per year by branding himself and exploiting his intellectual property in ways nobody else in music would have dared to dream of.
In that pre-Internet era, radio airtime was the key factor in selling lots of records. With the exception of that one real hit, the radio stations never pushed his songs.
He didn’t fall into their convenient slots. He wasn’t rock, country, folk or any other label.
Meanwhile, the huge superstars of his time, who did enjoy radio airtime pushing their record sales and concert tickets, became mere shadows of their former glory, if they still exist at all.
