At what point is is necessary to start an LLC for my music business? I don't plan on signing or starting a label. I just want to release music and sell merch

A little short story, I hustled and stumbled my way into a great situation. I have been making music for a little less than a year now, (like actually taking it like a career). In this time space my music has taken so many twists and turns, from finding my particular style and how to make it marketable. The quality of the music has also jumped, from recording at my dorm to know having access and recording at a professional studio. Finally found my confidence and it saw my music take gigantic leaps, during one of these days hustling found myself in a studio with an industry guy (mob ties, Atlantic records) this guy has worked with and works with big names all across hip hop and pop. We made a song and the song was good but nothing amazing, just knowing I had his cell and how well he is connected made me grind even harder to sharpen my tool set. Which brings us to the present I have amazing material now, over the months of knowing him Ive kept him in the loop with the moves I've been making and tracks, which he has been mostly just leaving on read until recently. Did a couple shows, nothing to big and crazy, but through that I met this promoter who books shows for big hip hop artists, and now Im going to be opening for a lot of artists in my city, san digeo and la. These recent moves have caught his eye and now he's more hands on and inviting me to come to the studio more to work on tracks and so far without cost. He's a busy men and is always flying around to work with larger artists and so I know how valuable his time and money is. Im deleting all my old tracks and starting new, reason was the older tracks were not as high quality and the bars were not as lyrically sharp. Knowing I have his eye made me want to invest money into the marketing side for the new ep that's 5 songs and replacing all my old catalog. The question is if you had 1000 to put into promotion what would be the best ways to grow streams, If I can get just one track to take off or all to get decent numbers, my bet is that they would want to take over and pour the gasoline, as I am not paying for anything right now, I feel like Im being tested to see what I am capable of.

Yoo, whats good! Just got added to BMN. Im a manager and director. The music industry gets a terrible rep (rightfully so) but I still believe there's genuine people in this field who cares and wants to do right! Looking forward to learning, networking, and helping however I can.🤞🏾

I made 30+ songs with a two producers from my city. My friend introduced them to me. At the beginning of our interaction before recording I let them know that I was looking to build a relationship and hone in on creating a sound. We went over what the splits would be. They said I could come over anytime to cook up for free. I didn’t have the funds at the time to correctly release the songs which they knew. After 2 months of recording they got upset because I didn’t drop anything. Now they want $400 a song if I want to release anything. Should I try to save those songs or should I just move on and record new music.