From Streaming Spam to Middle-Class Dreams: The Success of Matt Farley

Being an artist can be tough, but Matt Farley has cracked the code. He’s composed and recorded over 25,000 songs on just about every topic you can think of. You name it, he’s probably got a tune about it on Spotify. One of his tracks even pays tribute to Raina Douris from World Cafe. And guess what? All those plays have brought in some serious cash. But Farley isn’t in it for a quick buck. He’s been at it for 25 years, crafting his way to a comfortable living through songwriting.

Farley joined us in the studio to share his tunes and chat about his creative process. His philosophy is simple: the more you push yourself to create, the more likely you are to stumble on something truly remarkable. Sure, it means churning out a lot of junk along the way, but every now and then, a masterpiece emerges.

This episode of World Cafe was put together by Kimberly Junod, with Miguel Perez handling the web story. Chris Williams kept things running smoothly as our engineer, while Chelsea Johnson and Will Loftus took care of programming and production. Give the show a listen to catch Farley’s unique approach to making music!