The Reality of Being a Music Creator in 2026 (ft. Aryy)

What does it actually look like to build a music career from the ground up as an artist in 2026?  This week Dmitri sits down with Aryyzona, a Brazillian-born, LA-based artist who has been posting videos on YouTube since 2009 and recently released her hyper pop EP Gacha World, complete with a custom video game.  With over a million YouTube subscribers and a devoted following across TikTok and Instagram, Aryy has a perspective on the creator economy that challenges a lot of assumptions. She breaks down why she refuses to call herself a social-first artist even though she posts constantly, how she balances paid brand partnerships with creative integrity, and what the traditional music industry gets wrong about creators who built their audiences outside the label system. They also get into the emotional reality of being a music creator, including separating your self-worth from your analytics, navigating hate comments, and staying grounded when engagement is unpredictable. Plus, Aryy shares a story how her ukelele videos once landed her on a Southwest Airlines flight to Hawaii to teach an entire cabin of passengers how to play ukulele.  If you are a musician trying to understand the creator economy, a content creator wondering whether you can make it as an artist, or someone who wants an honest look at building an audience and a music career at the same time, this episode if for you   The news Sony in advanced talks to buy Blackstone's Recognition Music for up to $4B, reports Bloomberg YouTube allows creators to replace music with copyright issues with genAI songs Zuckerberg Personally Authorized Massive Copyright Infringement to Train AI, Multiple Publishers Allege Suno CEO Calls AI Platform "Ozempic of the Music Industry" How Duetti Finds Big Value in Small Catalogs: 'It's Not About Aggregating Rights… It's About Taking Care of Them' Nebula becomes latest fan-to-artist investment platform   The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!  Get Dmitri's Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.