Do You Know Who You Getting Your Advice From?

When I need specific information quickly, often the first place I’ll check is an internet forum.  Internet forums are the one place where the most knowledgeable, obsessive and helpful people around the world can easily get together to talk shop.  BUT you need to remind yourself that a good deal of the people who claim to know about & have experience with certain subjects most likely have none at all.  They may not even remotely be in a position to give ANYONE advice or creative input…

Just because someone has a high post count and is a regular on a forum, it DOES NOT mean they are an authority on anything…  Some of these people get completely out of pocket and just make things up.  Others just rehash what they read secondhand from somewhere else.  I’ve seen forum regulars giving beat making advice that have horribly amateurish music.  I’ve seen multiple people who have gone on “beat maker vs producer” rants who haven’t “produced” a song anyone outside of immediate family ever liked.   Unfortunately, there is someone on the other side of that forum taking these opinions & critiques as gospel.  This CAN NOT BE YOU.

This does not mean that you should never trust anyone’s advice on a forum, because there are definitely a bunch of very knowledgeable & experienced people out there.  Still, if you have no idea who someone is and what they have done, you need to treat them like the guy in the picture above.  If you were walking down the street and saw him, would you take publishing advice from him?  Would you ask him about the minutiae of a 360 deal?

As in anything, consider the source of any advice you get.   This all may be obvious to most or hopefully all of you, but I just feel like it needs to be pointed out.  I know there are a lot of people being led astray.  So remember to ALWAYS CONSIDER THE SOURCE!

Jim

PS  I started this site mainly because I wanted to address questions that I have gotten aked over the years.  So don’t be afraid to let me know if you want advice.  If I can’t answer something properly, I definitely know someone who can.

PPS  This also extends to pretty much any other type of  forum/blog you can think of…  Music and internet marketing forums seem to be the worst though.