The Reality of Being a Music Creator in 2026 (ft. Aryy)
About this episode
Dmitri interviews Aryy about the realities of building a music career in 2026, discussing the creator economy and the emotional challenges faced by artists.
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…
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