As a musician, I cannot really begin to say how redundant it is to be constantly told that I should audition for reality television competition shows. I can’t count the amount of times someone told me to audition for “American Idol” when it was on, or even more so, “The Voice.” These shows have conditioned people, musicians and non-musicians alike, to think that appearing on one of these competitions will kick-start your career – or worse (and falsely), that it is the only way to kick-start your career. I’m here to tell you otherwise, and to let you know it’s probably more helpful to your musician friend’s career to come out to their performances than to encourage them to audition for a television show.

Now don’t get me wrong. I used to love “American Idol.” I watched about five seasons of it religiously when I was a kid, whether that meant forcing my friends to turn it on if I was over their houses on a Tuesday night, or leaving my school concert early so I wouldn’t miss the finale. I enjoyed laughing at the awful auditions. I voted. I had “American Idol” video games. I planned what I would sing when the day came that I would be old enough to audition.

Surprisingly, when the day finally did come that I was old enough to audition, I no longer cared about the show. Ironically, this also coincided with me caring a lot more about music and taking it much more seriously than when I was in middle school. Seems like that should have been the perfect recipe for me to want to audition even more, but instead I stopped watching it altogether and swore that I would never waste my time on an audition.

Perhaps this was because I had met someone who had auditioned for “American Idol” three times, only to be turned down at the first screening audition every time. (Yeah, for those of you who don’t know, you don’t immediately see the judges and audition on TV, you have to get past a bunch of preliminary auditions before you ever set foot in front of the camera or celebrity judges). This person was an exceptional singer, who was very successful and well-educated in music. Now, “American Idol,” has hundreds of thousands of people who audition, so obviously they can’t put everyone through to the televised audition rounds and great singers will be turned away as a result. But when I watched the same three seasons that this person auditioned for, and saw ridiculous acts in the audition room that somehow did make it through the screening auditions who either couldn’t sing or were acting stupid for their 15 minutes of fame, I was somewhat disillusioned by the show’s integrity of finding the next great American singer. Turns out, television is just that: television.

So I stopped watching, caring, or following anything having to do with “American Idol.”

Sure, when it came down to the top twelve or whatever it was in the later seasons, those people were generally good singers. But they didn’t get there just on talent. They got there with sob stories (“I used my last two dollars on the subway ride to get here today!”), they got there because of weird, exploitable circumstances (“I’m from Kentucky and have never seen the ocean but I have now that I’m in LA!”), they got there because the television producers who are really in charge of who gets selected saw an opportunity for “drama” and “a good plot.”

And before you say I can’t possibly know that for a fact, I can. I met another person who put herself through the torture of auditioning for “American Idol” multiple times. She had a bit more luck than the first person I spoke to. She actually made it through all the rounds of screening auditions, and was rejected each time at the last step before the televised audition. After explaining that some of these “auditions” just consisted of everyone at Table A being told “no” and everyone at Table B being told “yes,” she said that the final screening audition came with a question: “What’s your story?” Literally, they asked her what her story was. Then they told her that having a job and being able to afford an apartment was not really juicy enough for television, and that even though she’s a really good singer, she didn’t have enough of a compelling story to be on the show.

As I said before, hundreds of thousands of people show up for auditions, and obviously most of those people need to be weeded out. But then hold an audition, fill your quota for each city first-come, first-served and get on with it. The first good singers to audition get through, the people in the chicken costumes get sent home before seeing the judges, and no one worries about your compelling sob stories. If that’s how “American Idol” worked, then yeah, maybe I would have considered auditioning for it. Instead, I’m thankful it’s off the air.

But what about “The Voice,” you say? Yeah, that’s not much different.

I’ll give “The Voice” credit in that once you’re on television, being selected for a team is really based solely on your voice. But the initial auditions aren’t much better than “American Idol.” I know, because someone twisted my arm enough to get me to audition a few years ago.

I’ll start by saying the only reason I auditioned was because “The Voice” outlines very clearly what the rules of auditioning are on their website. They don’t want people showing up in chicken costumes, they want people who can sing. So the rules stated clearly that you should sing a song in a popular genre (not classical), and you shouldn’t come in any kind of silly getup. Instruments are not allowed. You’d be automatically disqualified for violating these rules.

Long story short, I auditioned in the middle of February in New York City. The audition was held at the Javits Center, which is quite close to the Hudson River and therefore really freezing in the middle of February. I was very thankful that I opted to wear jeans rather than a mini skirt (as some of the other auditioners wore), because we stood in line outside the Javits Center for about two hours before finally being let through the doors.

Once we were inside, anyone not auditioning was told they couldn’t follow us beyond the lobby – so my parents, who had planned on keeping me company for the long day, were turned away. I made my way downstairs, where thousands of people were herded into rows upon rows of folding chairs, waiting to be called for an audition. We weren’t allowed to take photos. We weren’t allowed to sing together (you know, like warming up?). People already started violating the rules, pulling out guitars and breaking out into choruses of “Wonderwall” with the fifty people around them, until security would try and settle them down. A woman a few seats down from me cradled a baby who couldn’t have been more than two weeks old (yeah, because she couldn’t find a babysitter for this? Really? Sounds like a “sob story” in the making to me…) We sat there for a good six hours.

Finally, row by row, they shepherded us to another area for the audition. We waited outside the audition room for at least another 45 minutes. There were a few audition rooms, and they took people in groups of about ten into each room for the audition. I went in with the people I’d been sitting next to all day. One of them was the woman who kept being turned down for “American Idol” for not having a sob story, another was a man who had auditioned for “The Voice” in a different city the week before and had gotten through, and was basically running an experiment to see if he’d be picked twice.

Our judge looked to be about my age, if not younger than me, and didn’t introduce herself as a musician of any kind. In fact, other people who I’d spoken to through the day who had auditioned for “The Voice” before even offered up the idea that perhaps these judges were just interns for the television network, putting in their hours. We each stood up one by one and sang our thirty seconds of a song. The man who had gotten through in his last audition was asked to sing a second song, which seemed promising. Myself not included, there were about three people in that room who I thought were exceptional singers who I would have sent through in a heartbeat if I were the judge.

Who got through in my room? The girl who sang half her song out of tune wearing crazy clothes and a tiara – in blatant disregard for the rules on the show’s website. She was given a “maybe” slip, but it was more than anyone else received – including the man who had gotten through previously. The only person given a “maybe” in the next room was someone who also broke the rules by singing an opera piece.

And why did these two people, who broke the rules, get through and not the amazing singers who followed them? I guess those particular people fit the audition requirements for that particular day. Because “The Voice” was not looking for the best singer in the room, it was looking to cast a television show, and those two people fit the bill for the day, whatever it happened to be.

So when I’m told to “audition” for a show like this to further my career, I might as well audition for the next season of “The Walking Dead,” because it’s no different. It’s an audition to play a part on a television show. And if you don’t have the character traits they’re looking for, your music education, your years of work to build a successful music career, your resume of venues you’ve played and people you’ve worked with, and above all, your talent as a singer, do not make a difference whatsoever. As someone who is a serious musician, who went to music college, meticulously recorded an album, and spend hours every week working to further my music career, it’s rather insulting to watch someone get selected for “American Idol” or “The Voice” – the supposed chance of a lifetime – simply because they have a sob story and possibly can hold a tune.

Perhaps the worst part about the popularity of reality music television competitions is that they fill young musicians' heads with the notion that winning a TV competition is the easy way to fame...or the only way. This is completely wrong! Not only are your odds of making it onto one of these shows long enough to make a difference in your career incredibly low, but it is certainly not the only way. I can't tell you the amount of people I've talked to who are amazing musicians who have become "serial audition-ers," attending "American Idol," "The Voice," "The X Factor," and "America's Got Talent" auditions every year, but who have never set foot onstage at a local music venue or open mic. So many of our young musicians have really been conditioned to believe that the only path in music is through reality TV that they are missing out on the real fun of actually playing music.

I didn’t write this article because I think everyone should boycott shows like this. Like I said, I used to watch “American Idol” and really enjoyed it. It’s some of the best television around. You get to laugh with people, cry with people, hate the judges and root for the underdogs – it’s really got it all. But just remember when you’re watching these television shows, that’s all they are: television shows. It’s a great show the same way “Modern Family” is a great show. It’s not about music, or giving equal opportunity to all of America’s great musicians. It’s simply produced entertainment.

If you want to help your musician friends further their careers, share their social media accounts, go to their shows, download their music. Don’t tell them to audition for a reality television competition.