Care to elaborate on the "not even close" part here?
Tumblr automatically puts search results on google. It has built-in features to network with other artists, as Shino pointed out. It's incredibly simple and grotesquely popular right now. And if he hooks up a twitter feed as well and uses the two in tandem (making posts on tumblr and shouting them out on twitter with links), it becomes very simple to get his name and site out there.
My two cents, Kingypoo: Spending money for a professionally-designed and operated content site is silly without having a fanbase that will actually be following and paying attention to the stuff you post about. You want people already on your side who will be sharing your content with their friends before you go about actually spending money on a site like that.
Tumblr does not " automatically " put search results on google, that requires backlinks from high PR sites. I can create a myspace page and have it linked onto google with high PR. But that doesn't even mean anything. Tumblr has many many many restrictions when it comes to things, for an example it doesn't allow an extent amount of html, php lol forget it. If you are planning or doing a music based site you'll want to insert your music as well as have ratings and comments, tumblr restricts many things RELATED to that.
Tumblr CAN get your site on google but it will be viewed as a social site rather than a serious professional site. Not only that but it won't put your tumblr top 10,20, or even 30 without optimization and professional work. This is why people have blogs first, then have stuff like tumblr, google+ and digg accounts. Tumblr and other social sites always link back to your blog, so your blog gets the credit for the source, hence you going up in google.
There are just too many restrictions from tumblr,
You must be logged in to even comment and view some of the videos, you have to be logged in to share the users posts, videos or other images. If you want to become successful by doing it the tumblr way, then you are in for a long period of waiting. You can ask any webmaster that.