Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Passing Strange
Friday, June 18, 2010
Find this DVD and watch it. If you make music or are simply a fan, you need to see this beautiful recounting of young man's effort to shape his identity, artistically and otherwise. I'm decidedly *not* a fan of musicals. Whether musical theater or movies, the form generally makes me want to shove knitting needles in my eyes - I exaggerate, but only slightly. However, 'Passing Strange' is so brilliantly conceived, written, staged, and performed that it's in a whole different universe to me. It tweaks the conventions of the form in wonderful ways, but is still very much musical theater.
The backstory: Before the musical there were bands - 'The Negro Problem' and 'Stew' fronted by a guy named Stew, who along with longtime collaborator, Heidi Rodewald, wrote the musical. From there I'll let them tell it - you can learn more at: stewsongs.com There's a bunch more about 'Passing Strange' there too. But don't just visit the site, get the DVD and watch - Netflix has it.
The DVD is a document of closing night for the show, and the film was directed by Spike Lee. For me it tapped into something real and strong and moving about the power of music and creativity. I hope it does the same for you.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
In A Rut....?
Saturday, March 06, 2010
What have you done lately that's different?
How much of what you do is by rote?
What happens if you make a point to different things, or to take familiar things and do them differently?
Be smart about it, of course. Experimenting with driving on the left side of the road here in the US, isn't wise, and I'm not suggesting that kind of recklessness, even metaphorically. But I am suggesting that you lead a wholly examined life. A mindfully chosen path to your creativity, to your business, heck, why not to your whole life? Not just change for changes sake, but meaningful assessment and a willingness to change if warranted.
It doesn't mean that what you've been doing is wrong, you may find all sorts of ways that you've got it totally dialed and no change is necessary at present, and that's way cool.
But there are probably some areas of your life that you could benefit from a different approach, no?
What those areas are is not possible for me to say, I'm just suggesting you look to see where they are - then set about trying incrementally and thoughfully to experiment with change as necessary. Then see what new vistas or pathways might open up.
Have fun.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
The Best Music You Ever Heard Live?
Friday, February 05, 2010
What are the best musical performances you've seen and why?
Try writing a list the top 5 performances you've experienced. Note as much as you can about what made them so memorable that you are able to write about them now.
Are there any common threads that show up in what you wrote about those shows?
How close are your performances to being that memorable?
"No fair!", you say, "these were big shows, on good sound systems, not crappy PA's like the clubs I play in", or "these were performers on top of their game with thousands of shows under their belt" and that could all be true. But try to think about it like grading on a curve - that is, correct for the differences in scale or experience of the performers - even with those corrections, there was something special about the communication and intensity of connection that took place or you wouldn't have remembered the performance. Do people leave your shows with anything similar? If not, why not? I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news here, but it really needs to be a part of what happens when you play.
Everybody and their uncle has a home recording rig and is making music and chasing gigs - you need to find how to be as memorable as those performances you listed. Not by copying them, but by creating music and performance that sets you apart - that is memorable (in a *good way*!) and serves your audience.
That's the only way you're going to rise above all the rest of the folks out there trying to do the same things as you.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Sadly True....
Friday, February 05, 2010
Don't know anything about Dan Piraro, this cartoonist, except that I like his stuff... and he obviously knows about much of the current state of recorded music. Check out more on him here or here and buy your very own shirt with this comic here.
When I saw this I laughed. And then it struck me that I was having a response like the one I had years ago when I first saw 'Spinal Tap'. I had only just scratched the surface of the music biz at that time, but I knew the movie was satire...right?.... you know, satire, the use of exaggeration and irony to ridicule or expose stupidity... and surely that's there... but as much as it's a 'mock-umentary', after getting deeper into the music biz I learned that it also could play pretty much as a straight documentary too.... it was way more real and much less satire than I imagined.
Same with this cartoon... seems like a bit of exaggerated lampooning of the material and singing skills some 'artists' bring to the recording studio... but how exaggerated is it really?
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Elvis on the Dock, or 'Fishing With the King', either way, it's Part II!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
ELVIS On the Dock Part 2
So while I don't think I actually saw Elvis in Key West, I saw a representation of Elvis' persona. And to a much different level, just as the real Elvis probably felt trapped into the ELVIS persona, I think we all can get trapped into the persona we create by the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Sometimes those stories are true, but just as often, they're incorrect and limiting. I'm not talking about a stage persona here - but rather the larger personas we take on for our life. What is it that you tell yourself that is not true, or is otherwise unhelpful or limiting to you and your efforts to build a music career? Not that the 'promote your own show' example in Part 1 is a panacea, but did you read those lines and think, "I can't do that"? If you said that, do you have relevant real world experience to support that response? Or do you simply shut down the idea before you even start to consider it, thinking you're no good at stuff like that? I'm not talking about objective and wise assessments of your strengths and weaknesses based on experience - that is good and helpful self knowledge. But if you are shutting yourself out of pursuing ideas and opportunities without ever trying them, you're starting to become trapped into the persona of you as bad at this, or incapable of that. This isn't a one size fits all suggestion, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and honest self assessment and reasoned planning are vital, but the invitation here is to try to do that real and honest assessment and consider where you might be keeping yourself from opportunities.
Try these on for size:
Do you tell yourself that you're no good at co-writing songs?
That you cannot have a more engaging stage presence?
That you're no good at dealing with social media online?
That you can't work with other players and have a band?
That you can only work with other players and cannot perform solo?
That you can't sing a love song, or that you can only sing love songs?
That you shouldn't waste so much time reading blogs from cranky artist managers... wait, no whatever you do, don't tell yourself that one!
Or expand the above into general assumptions about your whole life, like how you might tell yourself that you're not destined to be happy or find true love, or get out of a city where you may not like living, or.... or, or......
Questions and assumptions large and small fall under the umbrella of these potentially limiting self stories.
While you're probably right in your self assessment about some things, it's just as likely that you've got some places where you're wrong about yourself, and trapped in negative stories, patterns, and habits as well.
In the interest of full disclosure here, despite my efforts to avoid getting trapped in the unhelpful stories I tell myself, I am reminded on a regular basis that I am, indeed, limiting myself in numerous ways through these types of flawed self assessments.
Here's another option for you to ask, "is this blog about the music business or Ultimate frisbee?!"...but it all ties together, honest..... the game is a great place for me to be reminded of some of the flawed stories I tell myself about my talents and attributes... it's remarkable how different the outcomes are when I go into a part of a game thinking "Crap, I'm not good at this situation" vs when I go into the same situation with a quiet confidence that I've experienced this before and I know what to do and how to do it. Big difference. But I also get (re)educated on a regular basis with some harsh, real world assessments of my abilities - which is helpful self knowledge. It regularly happens covering some fast, fit 20 year old guy who can jump ten feet in the air. In that example, it doesn't mean I don't go all out to play well against that guy, but there's no point in getting too bummed if I was in good position and they still sky over me for the catch. I've got 23 more years of wear and tear than they do, and what I used to have in terms of 'ups' went down a while back! But I'm nowhere near as sanguine, nor should I be, when it's someone my age that beats me to the disc.
For me, Ultimate presents a reference point, helping me find, if I allow it, an objective view of the places where I fall short of my ideal. I also get to see the places where I can improve my skills and my conditioning, but also see where I'm more capable than I often will admit to myself. It's a chance to revise and edit that story I tell myself about me.
I try to take those lessons on self assessment from Ultimate and apply them to the rest of my life. I can also see where I can adjust to my limitations - like the aforementioned young guy that I might not beat in sheer physical terms, I may be able to compensate in other ways to even the odds and allow me to succeed against him. If I just got lost in telling myself that I'm old and hopeless, I probably wouldn't get to that vision of other options before me in similar situations in the future.
What do *you* do that helps you find an objective, balanced view of your strengths and weaknesses? If you don't have a person or a practice that helps you gain some unbiased perspective on yourself, I suggest you start looking for one, pronto... and don't tell yourself that you can't do it, 'k?!
And if you get to Key West, look for Elvis while you're there, he'll probably be fishing down by the cruise ships, (or hanging out at a pickup Ultimate frisbee game?)
umaThursday, December 31st 2009 1:26AM
Meanderer! Poacher! Jump! Higher! No excuses! *chuckle*
nice, really nice.Thursday, December 24th 2009 10:37AM
the person/persona thing is so important. helpful entry. I'd love to get these as regular emails - can you set that up? RW
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Elvis on the Dock - Part 1
Sunday, November 08, 2009
I saw Elvis fishing off a pier in Key West...honest, there he was, almost ready for the stage, dressed just short of the full sequined jumpsuit while he sat drinking beer, casting his line. He bore a strong physical resemblance to Elvis. But apart from that, I was amazed to see an Elvis impersonator so dedicated to his craft, really taking on his character, owning it, living it... then it occurred to me that he was pretty old to play the Vegas Elvis, and way too old for the black leather clad Elvis, heck, he was maybe even as old as Elvis would be, which got me thinking, "what if this really *was* Elvis"? There are loads of conspiracy theories about Elvis' death, but it struck me that hiding in plain sight could be the best strategy for an Elvis who had soured on *being* ELVIS and all that that entailed.
So the schemer in me got to working on this whole thing - certainly there are difficult aspects of such a plan, paramount among them finding a suitable dead body to put the authorities off the trail. However, the application of a sufficient amount of cash, in the amounts Elvis could easily muster, could probably secure the help to making this work. First put piles of money into Swiss bank accounts, fake the death, let some time pass, and then go fishing.
But the other jump I made after seeing the Elvis impersonator on the dock was to imagine the newly freed Elvis eventually tiring of life without performing - divorced from what defined him. What if Elvis liked aspects being 'Elvis', maybe it was just the pressures of the whole huge industry and persona created around him that got to him? He could check out of the rat race of being him, take a break, and then go back to the simple part of it that perhaps he loved best? Being on stage.... sure the crowds were smaller and all, but you've got to think he'd be able to get the best gigs available to an Elvis impersonator, given how good he'd be at faking himself. But imagine the pieces of his life that he could experience that he could not during his old life in the gilded cage of fame and notoriety. The new, 'not Elvis' could go fishing, walk down the street un-accosted, meet people and talk to them as only a faux Elvis. Maybe hiding in plain sight is the best strategy for Elvis wanting to escape being ELVIS?
Pure fantasy and speculation to be sure, but it got me thinking of a number of topics relevant here - like what sort of opportunities are hiding in plain sight for you in the building of your career - good possible gigs you don't know about, people that may be able and interested in helping you? This isn't a treatise on how to find them per se, as I couldn't suggest any one size fits all solution in this context. But my reason for writing this is to encourage you to take a different view of what opportunities and options are before you - a sort of beginners mind assessment of you, your career, and options that might exist that have thus far remained out of your field of view.
As one quick illustration, you say there are no good gigs or venues for your music? Make one - I don't mean open a club, but there are plenty of halls for rent, and plenty of other musicians to join forces with to plan and present a show. If you're not finding the kind of gig opportunities you seek - make them for yourself. Not simple, not easy, but potentially worthwhile. The preceding is merely an example of one small area to reframe, and re-view the landscape around you and your career. What are the new vistas unseen, or opportunities hiding in plain sight around you?
More to come....
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
From the 'Miscellaneous File' - An executive who gets it....
Saturday, December 27, 2008
There's a local weekly rag called The Portland Mercury... it's a pretty standard arts, entertainment, and political alt-weekly. Their general style is heavy on snark and low brow humor. Back around Halloween they ran the cover you see above - larger version here - click on cover image in link to enlarge.... I thought it was funny, with some great local jokes for article topics etc. I also thought it a bit ballsy given how grievously they were infringing upon National Geographic's cover design, type face etc, but I'm no attorney so I can't say I thought much more of it - I know that there is some significant room for parody of both copywritten (copyrighted? - gotta get me a dictionary!) materials and trademarks - though I couldn't tell you exactly where those lines commonly get drawn.
Weeks later in the December 18th issue's letters to the editors I was struck by the following exchange between National Geographic and The Portland Mercury:
GO GEOGRAPHIC
DEAR WILLIAM STEVEN HUMPHREY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, MERCURY GEOGRAPHIC [Halloween Dress-Up Issue, Oct 30]—Your October [30], 2008 edition of Mercury Geographic has been brought to our attention. I hope you are not surprised, as National Geographic has a 120-year-old record and responsibility to cover the world and everything that is in it.
Our first instinct in such circumstances is to issue a cease-and-desist letter to prevent any unauthorized use of our valued trademarks and trade dress, as well as various copyrighted material. We recognize, however, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and that your mimic of our recognized look for your "Halloween Dress-Up Issue" was not malicious appropriation, but in good fun.
In the same spirit of turning the other cheek, I hope that you will encourage your readers who are not current members to reconnect to the National Geographic Society by going online and subscribing to our official journal, National Geographic Magazine, where a fellow Northwesterner, Chris Johns, is editor in chief. For an important educational and entertaining product with significant relevance, take a new look at this familiar yellow-bordered magazine now. A membership for a loved one makes and economical and lasting gift for the holidays, too.
•Terrence Adamson, Executive Vice President, National Geographic
CONGRATULATIONS TO TERRENCE and the entire crew at the National Geographic Society for their ability to take a joke. We encourage everyone to check out both the print and online publications put out by this fine, time-tested organization. Likewise, we encourage National Geographic to explore the unique culture of Portlanders—their winnings for letter of the week are a good start, with two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish!, where I'm sure you will find fish species unlike any you've seen before.
I'm taking the time to chronicle this here since I was struck by how well Mr. Adamson of National Geographic handled this situation. While it's possible that National Geographic's lawyers were busy behind the scenes in addition to his letter, the fact remains that conceptually, the music business could learn quite a bit from Mr Adamson on how to make an opportunity out of a circumstance such as this. This parody cover is not directly analogous to file trading or the posting of video and musical content on YouTube, but his response does illustrate how much Mr Adamson's bit of thought, class and wit contrasts with the RIAA suing people and basically missing no opportunity to actively make things worse as new technologies gain favor amongst consumers.
I should stress again that I think that intellectual property deserves to be protected and the owners/creators of same be compensated for its use - however, I also think that the door of the old business model barn has been open for so long now that the horses are about 2 counties away from us by now and still running hard. It's well past time to figure out some other way for us to interact with consumers of music and monetize that relationship using a new model. But that's just one person's opinion, and clearly, I don't run a major record label or publishing company. Shiny round plastic discs aren't dead yet, but I think we can hear the death rattle quite clearly. I prefer to move aside in a new direction instead of ending up trapped under the falling corpse of the old business colossus - because we can.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Who are you working with... and why?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Do the people that you are working with share your goals? Can you work together when you are just starting out, or is it already contentious? If so, perhaps its time to have a discussion about how to improve your working relationship. Things will only get harder and more complicated the more successful a band becomes - its common to think that its hardest when you are slogging it out to get started - and it *is* hard and stressful. However, with every step up the foodchain, while old hassles may be diminished, those stressors are almost always replaced by other, new stresses. Not that it never gets better, it does, but the stresses never go away - so its vital that you have relationships and lines of communication that are strong enough to weather significant storms. I’m not advocating breaking up the band or the partnership if there are difficult relationships within - but rather that you take the time and effort to improve those relationships and your ability to communicate directly and productively.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
A little bit about my philosophy of life, the Music Business and Everything, (including Ultimate Frisbee)
Monday, December 17, 2007
Thats me with the disc in a tournament a few years back. I think that something brilliant happened as a result of my great throw here.... leastwise that's how *I* remember it.
So what does Ultimate Frisbee have to do with any of this? I'm glad you asked, very little and everything.... its a hard game, lots of running, people (like this kind, yet resolute gentleman) standing in your way trying to keep you from getting gigs, or uh, throwing the disc to your teammate. And sometimes things happen, the wind picks up making it hard to throw accurately, you get tired, someone drops a note, er, a disc, but you keep at it. It's incredibly hard work, particularly in a long point on the second day of a tournament where everyone's tired, but the reason that you keep doing it is because you want and need to do it, and, most importantly, you enjoy doing it. You even have to enjoy that it *is* hard - it may suck at times, but you will be best served if you love what you are doing, and would be doing it anyway, just for the love of it. Very, very few people play Ultimate Frisbee for any kind of a paycheck, so anyone who plays the game does it because they love it... that doesn't mean that folks don't work hard to improve their game, just like you are trying to do with your career, but the most important thing at the root of those efforts is the love of making music, I mean playing Ultimate. The bonus of a career making music vs playing Ultimate Frisbee, is that its a *lot* easier to make a living at music... so for as bad as you might think you've got it slogging it out in some club, you can look to Ultimate players and know that *you* have a better chance of making a living at music than they will ever have by playing disc. You're ahead, you're *winning!*
See how it all ties together?
upa.org
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Can I get more me? - UPDATED
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Can I get more me?
That's one of my favorite lines from recording one of the two Pacific Wonderland CDs. Pacific Wonderland was a late, great band that I played in here in Portland. The lead singer, Steve Lockwood, (check out his kickass current band - The Redeemed) was asking the engineer to turn up the volume of the vocals in his headphones before doing another take. Since it was right before the count in to the song, we heard that little request about a hundred times before we were done recording, and it made me laugh every time... who doesn't want more me?
I'm pretty sure *you* don't want too much more *me*, but since this is the first post here, it seems somewhat relevant to give you a bit of background on me.
I got dragged into this wonderful mess of a business over 25 years ago by playing bass in bands, a bad habit that continues to this day, unchecked by time and hard earned wisdom. Things got even messier and better when I started working for CBS Records in 1985 as a College Rep. Upon graduating college, I moved to New York to run the College Department at CBS Records/Sony Music. Following a stint doing A R, I left the company to start a management firm in 1991. My management career has seen me working with artists as diverse as Fastball, Steve Forbert, Maia Sharp, Matthew Sweet , Timbuk 3 and many others. Since 1993 to the present I have managed singer/songwriter David Wilcox.
I've played in a bunch of bands over the years across the country, but since 1997 here in Portland its been Red Footed Genius, Pacific Wonderland, Marvelann, and The West.
But enough about me, I hope to keep the focus of this blog much more on how artists can build themselves a long lasting, sustainable and satisfying career playing music.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
You, yes, you, can do much more than you think to build your career
Thursday, December 31, 2009
All of what follows assumes that you and your music posses a level of quality sufficient to at least stay in, but hopefully rise above, the crowd. We can name well known 'artists' who are deficient in objectively quantified musical talent, but in most instances, they *are* good at something memorable in some way, or they've got a staff of people behind them who are good at something. As such, there are a variety of different 'somethings' we can look at, however, I choose to focus on the music side of this equation, and it is from that perspective that I write.
So, starting from the idea that your music is original, memorable or interesting enough for people to tell their friends about, we begin below..... (if that doesn't apply to you, perhaps an appointment between you, your bandmates and the practice room are in order - practice, write, perform, experiment, and repeat until you get some musical traction).
The music business can seem far more complicated than it is. It can also appear like some secretive guild with knowledge and opportunities apportioned out only to initiated insiders. However, basic business skills like well targeted, simple, direct, courteous and persistent communication coupled with follow through will take you farther than you think. It is, to be sure, a challenge, but as you progress, you'll get better at selling yourself.
I don't offer up that previous comment lightly - its far easier for me to 'sell' artists that I manage than it has been for me to sell groups that I have played in. Despite my experience and awareness of this fact, it's far harder when you are intimately connected with the creation of the music - rejection of the music or the band becomes more personal. Though it is difficult, it is also reality for most musicians. Very few escape having to sell themselves for at least a period of time when they are starting out. This makes believing in what you are doing and drawing validation from within that much more important - it is far easier to sell something that you can really get behind and own.
We interrupt this post for something you don't want to hear, but will:
No, NO, Nein, Non, NO!, Nr, Nao, No, ¡No!
The preceding was provided as a public service to familiarize you with a word that you'll be hearing regularly - don't fret, the best have heard it... talk to the Beatles, a bunch of labels turned them down before one said 'yes'. Whoever you are and whatever your music, you'll hear it: No, Not now, No, I didn't get your package, (they did)..., We're not interested, 'maybe',No, Not now, "You sound ok, I'll put you on the bill, first on a Monday night, that's where all first time bands to start." No, NO, NONONONONONONONO, maybe, No, no, no, perhaps, yes, then no again.
Know that 'no' happens, and that even after you've 'gotten to yes' consistently at one level, you're likely to still hear it at the next rung up the ladder - every time you move up, it will return to some degree or other. A worthwhile goal is getting to the point where you can hire people who can field the no's - and help you get more yesses. But at the start, its most likely going to be just you and your band mates, so it helps to be prepared ahead of time.
Now that we've kicked around the internal side of selling yourself - how do you do focus your efforts to do it most effectively? Resources such as web sites, books, magazines, and your peers can provide you with tools to help. But the simplest way I can distill this down is to urge you to be a constant gatherer of information. Where are bands/artists similar to you performing? Where are they getting media attention and from what writers? Where are they getting played on the radio (if anywhere)? What blogs and web sites are covering their music? Do you know other comparable artists in different cities nearby? Keep track of this information on something other than hastily scrawled bar napkins. Build a simple database or spreadsheet to track all this info in a sortable fashion, grouped by market, contact type etc. If you don't feel like building your own, there's a great resource, built specifically for music biz entrepreneurs (that's what you need to consider yourself, btw) called Indie Band Manager - it's a database and well worth checking out - Indie Band Manager, no they don't pay me to promote them - they make a great product that I personally use and I'm happy to help spread the word - (kinda like if your music is great, people will help spread the word, just like I'm telling you about this product).
In addition to the targeted efforts detailed above, another vital way to spread you and your music is through creating your own network. In the past we used to have to shoehorn music into existing 'networks' - it had to fit to get gigs, or get on the radio, in magazines, or on TV. Too far outside the 'box' and you weren't exposed. Now there are niches for any kind of music you can imagine, and some for music you can't imagine as well. You can control the exposure and dissemination of your music to a far greater extent now than every before.
Don't spend time or money worrying about artificially inflating your plays or friends list on Facebook or MySpace and other social network sites - put your effort into creating, and serving a solid group of fans in those places - they will help you increase your numbers by telling others. Through all of it, make your various online locations (yourband.com, myspace.com/yourband, etc.) into destinations - give people reason to stop back regularly and interact with you - they will tell others if you give them something of value for their time - and if the music's good.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Wherein The Consultant Fails to Practice What He Preaches
Thursday, October 29, 2009
That's my hand at the very top of The South Sister in Central Oregon..
So there are some cobwebs 'round this blog, I know. But I've got a good excuse.... no really! I was taking some time away from work for the summer.
I know, I know, "cry me a river", you're saying, but after pretty much going flat out since 1985 in the music business, it was time to step off the hamster wheel for a bit. Sure, I've had vacations, and my life is rich and full, and reasonably balanced between work and life, but despite all of the preceding, the one thing that I've never really been able to do is step away fully from my work. When I say I've taken vacations, those have all basically been 'working vacations'. With the exception of the occasional backpacking trips in the boonies away from cel service, I'm essentially always in some level of contact with my work, by phone, email or text. I work on my own by choice, I don't have an office staff, as I prefer the freedom that affords me in other areas, but it obviously makes me need to be accessible at all times - the buck all stops with me.
So this past summer, I hired someone to fill in for me for three months. While I was still in contact with him, it was such a change to be able to know that my business was being maintained and dealt with in my absence - something I'd never experienced before.
It was an amazing and restorative time for me - I climbed some mountains, on foot and by bicycle, I played a bunch of Ultimate Frisbee, hung with friends and generally had a blast. But I'm back at work full steam now, fully energized and even more grateful for all that I have in my life and work.
So that break accounts for the *recent* lack of blog posts... but what about before that? I'll have to confess to general lame-itude there... That's the aforementioned reference to not practicing what I preach.... hey even I'm imune to good guidance from time to time!
What I so often discuss is the need for artists to create and maintain an ongoing relationship with their fans - and one of the tools to do so is regular new content on a webiste... you know, that thing that has been lacking from this site for a while! And for me, it's even more important, cause I don't have gigs to play or new music to pitch etc... This is where I get to add one of the greatest phrases in the English language, 'do do as I say, not as I have done', 'k?
But there's a bunch of new stuff in the chute and on its way....
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
Another from the Miscellaneous Files - A company that gets it
Monday, January 12, 2009
Here's another item that isn't applicable to the music business.... or is it? Not in the specifics obviously, but in terms of responsiveness to the consumer - you know, the one who is using your product or service - this is about as good as a corporation can get. Kudos to JetBlue. I'll let the good folks at the oh so cool blog, BikePortland.org tell the story if you visit here
Of course the airline business isn't the music business, but the spirit of serving customers and adjusting corporate policy to address new circumstances transcends any business. Here's some context for those who may not have traveled with a bicycle. A standard bike, even broken down, makes a and extra large, cumbersome piece of 'luggage', so a surcharge has been commonplace for years from most all airlines (even way back when all baggage was free - remember those golden years?)... Jet Blue's previous policy appears to have been written keying in on 'bicycle' rather than size of the case it is in. Hence the surcharge to this person whose bike is a compact foldable in a standard size piece of luggage.
So to tie it all together and hopefully link this to the music business, in the words of The Dude, if I may, 'new shit has come to light' ... humans now have smaller folding bikes that fit in regular size luggage... intelligent corporation JetBlue addresses this new reality and adjusts their policy instead of trying to force humans with smaller bikes to use (and pay for larger cases). Or to re-write - humans now want to find and acquire music on the internet, intelligent corporations would address this new reality and begin to adjust their business model and the larger business around them instead of trying to force humans to continue to buy shiny round pieces of plastic that many no longer want or use.
See, lessons on the failings of the music business abound, you just need to know where to look. For my friends still stuck at labels, I know my example is a bit simplistic, and there are clearly other players involved like publishers and artists etc, but we had a window to radically reconfigure the music business by design. Now it's being radically reconfigured by simple market forces that will likely leave many of the old players by the side of the road. Change was inevitable, how much suffering for the big companies was somewhat controllable by them - they've largely voted by their actions for maximum suffering on their part. I'm not advocating that labels simply close up shop and die (that's more what *they* seem to be advocating by their response), labels didn't and don't need to start simply giving everything away, there were, and still are, numerous ways to address the new realities of the marketplace, that *will* compensate the owners and creators of the Intellectual Property involved and they generally don't involve suing your customers.
To close out with the positive about all of the above, is if you are your own, independent entity, reaching your fans directly, you don't even have to worry about all of this BS of the dying labels - you can make your own way, connecting with your fans, building a career - and being like JetBlue - responsive. The death of the old business can be nothing more than an interesting historical footnote as you build your business to fit the realities of *your* market - it's no longer one sized fits all world - use that to your greatest advantage. Thus ends today's rant... I gotta go book me some travel on JetBlue, not sure where I'm going, but just like training dogs, you gotta reward them when you catch them being good.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
The Search For the Magic Bullet....
Sunday, September 28, 2008
.....serves only to distract you from the work that you would be doing if you didn't think there was a magic bullet.
How many times have artists said the following? "If I/we could only get a ......, then we'd be set." There are about a dozen common things to insert into the blank that come up time after time. (I'm guessing that there are some uncommon ones too, like "If we could only get a trained monkey dyed neon green* to clear the stage of women's underwear thrown on the stage, then we'd be set", however, any comments of that nature are outside the scope of this post - but hey, if your stage is cluttered with undwear thrown by fans, you must be doing something right, so maybe you do have time to worry about trained monkeys)... but I digress.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this conversation. It's actually very helpful to be constantly assessing what you need to help advance your career. Where the conversation becomes harmful is if you get bogged down in the waiting/hoping for that 'magic bullet' person/circumstance instead of doing all you can to build your career. It's not impossible that someone else will help you do it, but it's much more likely that the person who is going to do the most to build your career is you.
- No monkeys were harmed in the writing of this post.
Collisions at the Corner of Art and Commerce
How you do anything is how you do everything
Friday, June 20, 2008
How you do anything is how you do everything
You may think that some shows are not particularly important - and some may not be - but you should play every show like they all are vital. As a bass player, I’ve played plenty of crappy shows, and I’ve had to struggle to remind myself of my own advice here - it’s *not* easy. But its worth trying to follow.
I’ll try to illustrate this with a true story from my past. There was an amazing band from Portland OR called The Crazy 8’s. I first got exposed to their music as a dj at WRAS Radio in Atlanta in 1985 or so. I was really stoked that they were coming to do a show at my university. When I got to the venue I was blown away to see that the band almost outnumbered the audience. But you would never have known that from the performance that they gave. It would have been very easy for them to phone it in that night, and I probably wouldn’t have blamed them for doing so. But that’s not what they brought to the stage that night - they played to 25 people like they were playing to 2500.
They went on to make several more really great records - and in a few year’s time, I was doing A&R for Sony, and tried really hard to sign them. Not solely because they played one of the best rock shows I have seen - (which still holds true to this day 23+ years later - and I’ve been to a metric boatload of shows) - but the attitude, energy and work ethic that was on stage that night along with their continued musical development let me know that they were worth pursuing. That show let me see what they brought to the mix besides great songs and a tremendous work ethic - it showed that they loved what they were doing, which is a vital quality. They were an amazing band - ahead of their time in many significant ways - the ska influenced music was a few years before the explosion of that sound onto the airwaves. In my opinion, they were far better than most of the bands that did make it in succeeding years. They also built a career and infrastructure on their own, their own record label, and devised a host of inventive marketing and promotional ideas to launch their releases. Even then, artists were creating their own record labels and building their own careers, but the Crazy 8’s version of this was is a model that is even more effective now with the Internet and allows such great control of the growth and longevity of a career.
While the law of averages suggests that it’s not likely that you’ll play that many shows with future A&R reps in the audience, the point is that you never know *who* will be there, and what your listeners will take away from your show and share with others. A die hard, dedicated fan with a passion for sharing your music will likely mean more in our present world than an A&R rep ever could. You can be sure that I told everyone I knew about the Crazy 8’s and that show for the next few years way before I ever got into A&R. And that’s the real point of the story. You’ve got to be building fans with every performance, and every interaction - this is about more than just what happens in performance. While the example above details a show, the idea I’m trying to get across is just as applicable to a conversation or e-mail exchange - albeit with perhaps fewer decibels - but the idea translates the same - how you do anything is how you do everything.
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