JP Saxe Is a Grammy-nominated singer writer who released the second part of its two-part album, “Make yourself at home”, in June. He had planned an ambitious tour that would take place in the autumn and led the place with low thousands of capacity such as New York’s Brooklyn Steel and Seatles Showbox, but earlier this week he published a tictoch that declared that if he did not sell another 20,000 tickets for the tour In 48 hours he would have to cancel the entire hike. He said that with an honesty and self -awareness that rarely shown by musicians in similar situations.
That honesty continues: on Friday morning, he announced That, as an increasing number of artists in recent months, he did not meet his goal. In the brutally honest editorial below, he considers the difficulties of being touring musicians and what artists experience when their expectations are met with an unexpected reality.
Due to unforeseen circumstances …
The circumstance: I did not sell enough tickets.
Last week my team said we would need Cancel my autumn tour. Ticket sales were not where they needed to be. The proposal was: Take L, try again next year.
The industry standard in this situation is to offer some egobic-saving explanation-“wrong timing”, “new opportunities”, “a scheduling conflict”, “illness”, “global warming …”
What you should not say is:
“Hi, I guess people aren’t really fucking with me right now.”
“I was aiming too loud – my bad.”
“All of you who bought tickets? You are more than enough for me emotionally, just … not pragmatic.”
But I said it anyway. I Published a video And told you the truth: I was embarrassed. I have always prioritized to join deep over, but if we did not sell another 20,000 tickets in 48 hours, the tour would be canceled.
To my surprise, people answered – in a big way. The video met a few million views. A small grassroots army of emotional songs loving cuties showed up and tried to buy every tournament ticket they could.
Self -image is sensitive on a good day, fragile on a bad one. As an artist, your self -esteem is tangled with your “brand” and it will be difficult to distinguish how you actually do from how you are perceived to do.
And if you are just as successful as you seem to be, the success begins to depend on your ability to shape the perception. In Scroll-World where there is no time for the nuance-flash the lightning fact. That is why a show is over 80 percent sold, you call it sold out. It’s not a lie, it’s marketing. We’ve all seen it work. You create the illusion of bucks, people become curious, the audience is growing – and suddenly the buzz is real.
It’s the game. If the ship sinks, you announce that you have decided to be a submarine.
Instead, I told everyone that the ship sank.
And somehow … they jumped aboard.
Strangely, it was more embarrassing before I shared it. When it was out, it began to feel strangely powerful. Honesty cracked something open.
I didn’t expect to receive messages from so many other artists who called me bold (or, absurd, brave). I didn’t expect my team to get so many calls from industry people who praised me for telling the truth.
We say “honesty” wins a lot when talking about social media strategy. But I think it’s incomplete. It’s not just honesty. It is honest with a hook.
It is “I am embarrassed to tell this …” followed by a jump cut and a vulnerable pace drop.
But maybe it’s part of the art form now. It’s not just about doing something worth caring about – it’s about knowing how to make people care.
I’m afraid I’m just as successful as I’m perceived to be. To feel successful I have to look successful – for my friends, my friends at home, my family, their families …
But how much of it is just … lies?
I hate to lie. It gives me anxiety.
I also hate trying to “create an identity.”
I would rather just say too much, share too much, be too much – and hope that somewhere in the mess of it, something more honest takes shape than I could have designed on purpose.
Applause for success is good. But it is something more interesting about being applauded for honesty in failure. It’s not as good for my ego – but it is perhaps better for my growth.
Although a few thousand more people showed up in just a few days – which was emotionally and the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me on the internet – it was still enough to save the tour, and I will repay each ticket.
To borrow an allegory from my lifestyle 2014 …
Very few artists want to sleep in their car eating the frame, but every artist wants to say they used to Slept in his car and eat the frame. So if I really believe (which I do) that I will sell arenas one day … then I also have to believe how much better it will feel when I get there – to know that I can tell the story of it once, autumn 2025, when despite the support of a few thousand beautiful strangers on the internet … I had to interrupt the whole tour.