My kindred Chris Guillebeau is visiting every country in the world, on a surprisingly small budget. He shares what he’s learned in two great e-books: “The Unconventional Guide to Discount Airfare” and “How to Become a Travel Ninja”. They’re filled with advice on how to get the lowest rates, which airlines and airports are best, how to fly around the world for $1000, and much more.
Matthew Bennett writes a monthly newsletter called First Class Flyerfull of strategies on how to get first class seats for the same price as economy.
They’ve both done a great job at summarizing thousands of hours of experience into a quick overview you can read in a few hours.
But what if I don’t even want to spend a few hours?
I need to go to London, Australia, and India for three conferences in July, September, and November.
I want someone who’s thoroughly read and understood these guides to hook me up. Get me a free upgrade to first class. Make me a Platinum member. Get me a pass to the red-carpet lounge. Take advantage of every loophole to get me the the best possible deals.
A commission-based travel agent couldn’t take care of all of these loopholes. They get no commission for getting me these freebies. So it needs to be someone who knows all this info, so they can tell me what’s best for me.
I’m sure if I were to call Chris or Matthew they’d know off the top of their head. But that doesn’t scale.
But thanks to these great summaries, someone can become a semi-expert for under $100 and a few days’ time, then offer their semi-expertise at $20 per hour to all those people (like me) who just want someone to tell us what to do. They could be anywhere in the world, working from home in their spare time. At that rate, anyone who travels would be silly not to spend $10 for them to tell you the benefits that apply to you, or another $10 to have them take care of it.
This applies to all industries. There’s so much info out there, so cheaply, that anyone looking for a self-employed career could become a semi-expert at anything.
For example, someone could read How to Be Your Own Booking Agent, Tour Smart, and The Tour Book in a week, and become a pretty good booking agent the following week, available for $20 per hour. Hundreds of musicians would use them.
The pitch is a humble one: “I’m only doing what you could do yourself, if you felt like taking the 100 hours to learn how. But if you don’t, I’ll be glad to tell you what to do, or do it for you.”
In the comments to Version 0.1 = Start lo-fi, Larry Rood pointed out that start-up companies who have too much money often blow it. That there’s an advantage to being under-funded to keep you from making mistakes.
It reminds me of what it was like to have a CD Baby booth in the exhibit hall of conferences:
1998
Me at a plain table, talking with people and handing out flyers. Not many other booths.
1999
Me at a plain table, talking with people and handing out flyers. Other booths have big LCD displays and fancy corporate backdrops.
2000
Me at a plain table, talking with people and handing out flyers. Other booths have booth-babe models, fancy multimedia displays, and giving away $50 items.
2001
Me at a plain table, talking with people and handing out flyers. Others have bought out an entire pavillion, laser light shows, giving away cars, offering a million dollar prize.
2002
Me at a plain table, talking with people and handing out flyers. Not many other booths.
I remember being pressured during the dot-com boom to take venture capital. But my response was always, “I’m profitable and have plenty of cash. The company doesn’t need more money.”
They’d come back saying we could “expand our reach” or other vague terms that to me sounded like blowing money on ineffective advertising.
They’d say we could have a big marketing budget, but I’d say, “Marketing doesn’t cost money. ‘Marketing’ is another way of saying ‘being considerate’. It’s all in how you talk with people.”
By then they’d decided I was just crazy and would surely fail, which was fine with me, because it let me get back to focusing on my clients and customers, undistracted by investors.
First read “Version ∞” and “Early drafts…”. Here’s an example of how I think of “Version 0.1”:
A guy at a conference was telling me how he really wanted to build a music recommendation service, but had been trying for a year to raise the $2 million dollars he said it’d take to build it.
My suggestion for him: Don’t wait for funding. START NOW. Like this:
get a dedicated phone number like Google Voice
tell friends to call you at that number for music recommendations
they call you, tell you what they like, and you recommend something they might like
write down in a spreadsheet what they requested and what you recommended
afterwards, ask how happy they were with your recommendation. write that down, too.
eventually put this spreadsheet into a database
eventually put this database on a website – letting people browse past satisfied recommendations
keep improving your ability to recommend (by asking experts, learning more)
eventually write a program to have the computer recommend without you
By getting that initial lo-fi hands-on experience, you’ll have a deeper understanding of what people really want from music recommendations.
Then you can build your service incrementally based on real user communication, instead of hiding in a lab for a year programming in isolation based on a year-old hunch.
If you say you want to do something, DO IT! Never blame outside forces stopping you. Work around obstacles to start immediately.
(P.S. He didn’t like my advice. That was a few months ago. He’s probably still looking for funding.)
I get so encouraged looking at early drafts of great work, thinking, “I can do that!”
In this clip from “Le mystère Picasso”, you watch Picasso start with a simple scribble of a goat, then flesh it out. Not only adding textures, but changing his mind and removing things as well.
One of my favorite essayists, Paul Graham, lets you watch as he types one of his essays. It’s incredibly encouraging (and funny!) to see how many times he’ll re-write a sentence, and discover what he’s saying as he goes.
The Beatles’ “Anthology” had some great outtakes and early versions of songs I thought of as untouchably perfect. Like seeing stars without makeup, you realize how much of the magic is in the finishing touches.
I meet so many potential entrepreneurs who think they have to spend millions and months in development before launching. (And therefore, they often never launch.)
For the first nine months of CD Baby, every page was hand-coded HTML and the site did nothing but email the order details to me. I had to copy-and-paste all the info from each email into four places: a mailing label, a thank-you email, a vendor-alert email, and a Filemaker database. It was as lo-fi as can be, but it was enough to get started, and it was profitable.
So I’m writing this in hopes that we get more of these “Version 0.1” stories out there. Encouraging potential entrepreneurs, songwriters, artists, and inventors to compare themselves to the early drafts, not the final polished perfection.
If you’ve got a story from inside a company (“In the old days of __[big company]__ we used to __[something inspiringly primitive]__.”)…
If you can share a recording of an early demo of a song that went on to become a big hit record….
… or anything else like that, please email me at derek@sivers.org or leave a reply here, below. I’ll share the responses in a future article.
To get fundamentals and theory foundation, drop the “internet” part of your requirement. The internet is just another way to connect people.
All successful marketing comes down to a fundamental understanding of people, how we like to be spoken to, what captures our attention, and what messages stick.
Read my notes and excerpts on some of these books to get an idea if they’re what you’re looking for:
Small is the New Big – by Seth Godin
A “best-of” collection of small essays about marketing. Seth writes in general terms meant to give you perspective, change the way you think about marketing, and inspire you to actions, no matter how small, that make all the difference. Read anything by Seth Godin (as others here have said), but this is his best overview.
You, Inc – The Art of Selling Yourself – by Harry Beckwith
Harry Beckwith is amazing. Read everything by him. This is just his newest. He’s the best at reminding you how basic human consideration translates into marketing.
Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got – by Jay Abraham
Jay Abraham is an absolute marketing genius from an angle the others here don’t cover. This gets you into his mindset, seeing profitable aspects in your business you never noticed before, and how to communicate them to your audience. Sorry I don’t have notes on this one:
When I made a living playing colleges, I had three different acts: a rock band, a solo acoustic act, and The Professional Pests, where I’d run around in a black lycra bag, bothering people. The Professional Pests out-booked the other acts by 5-to-1, because there are tons of rock bands, tons of solo acoustic acts, but only one place to hire a guy running around in a black lycra bag.
Look around at what your competitors are doing. Can you do something radically opposite? If they’re trying to be all-inclusive, can you be exclusive?
The book “Made to Stick” analyzed it wonderfully for stories and words. But what about music?
There are some songs I haven’t heard in 30 years, but I can still play them in my head on call. (example)
Yesterday afternoon I heard the song “Tonight” by Lykke Li, and this morning woke up still singing it. (Great repeating 1-bar hook with the highest note on the downbeat. Find the full album version with great orchestration.)
Books like Brain Rules analyze evolutionary reasons why our brains do the things they do. (“Brains in wild animals are 15%-30% larger than tame, domestic counterparts. The cold, hard world forced the wild animals into constant learning mode. It is the same with humans.”)
They set up a free tasting booth in a grocery store, with six different jams. 40% of the customers stopped to taste. 30% of those bought some.
A week later, they set up the same booth in the same store, but this time with twenty-four different jams. 60% of the customers stopped to taste. But only 3% bought some!
Both groups actually tasted an average of 1.5 jams. So the huge difference in buying can’t be blamed on the 24-jam customers being full. Lessons learned:
Having many choices seems appealing (40% vs 60% stopped to taste)
Having many choices makes them 10 times less likely to buy (30% vs 3% actually bought)
Surgeon Atul Gawande found that 65% of people surveyed said if they were to get cancer, they’d want to choose their own treatment. Among people surveyed who really do have cancer, only 12% of patients want to choose their own treatment.
So, if you ask your customers if they want extensive choice, they will say they do – but they really don’t.
In “preference matching” contexts, where people come looking for something they already know and prefer, extensive selection increases the likelihood they’ll be successful in their search. (For example: a menu at a Chinese restaurant.)
Many tests have shown that when people are given some choice versus none (choosing between six possible activities versus being assigned an activity), having some choice increases motivation and enhances performance.
How do we use this info?
Online stores often offer too many choices on their front page. Lists of dozens of new arrivals, top sellers, sale items, and categories.
Artists showcasing their art (music, essays, photos) often present a giant list of everything they’ve done.
But all of us could come to these conclusions:
Only present 3 to 6 choices at a time. (No less than 3. No more than 6.)
Only show your deep selection when people are searching for something specific.
My favorite example of this is Firefox’s about:config feature. Those hundreds of intimidating options are hidden from most people, but there for the few who need them.
Shouldn’t you announce your goals, so friends can support you?
Isn’t it good networking to tell people about your upcoming projects?
Doesn’t the “law of attraction” mean you should state your intention, and visualize the goal as already yours?
Nope.
Tests done since 1933 show that people who talk about their intentions are less likely to make them happen.
Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed.
In 1933, W. Mahler found that if a person announced the solution to a problem, and was acknowledged by others, it was now in the brain as a “social reality”, even if the solution hadn’t actually been achieved.
Four different tests of 63 people found that those who kept their intentions private were more likely to achieve them than those who made them public and were acknowledged by others.
Once you’ve told people of your intentions, it gives you a “premature sense of completeness.”
You have “identity symbols” in your brain that make your self-image. Since both actions and talk create symbols in your brain, talking satisfies the brain enough that it “neglects the pursuit of further symbols.”
A related test found that success on one sub-goal (eating healthy meals) reduced efforts on other important sub-goals (going to the gym) for the same reason.
It may seem unnatural to keep your intentions and plans private, but try it. If you do tell a friend, make sure not to say it as a satisfaction (“I’ve joined a gym and bought running shoes. I’m going to do it!”), but as dissatisfaction (“I want to lose 20 pounds, so kick my ass if I don’t, OK?”)
EXAMPLE: “It’s a social networking e-commerce portal for live music, where everyone creates a profile to enter all their dates, if they’re a musician or venue, or their available dates if they’re a music fan. Then we connect the fans with artists’ dates. Then we can sell the tickets for the events, and give a digital download preview of the music. After the show, the artist uploads the video from the night, and people can purchase the video of the show they were at, and connect with other people who attended that same show to create tribes of people, who will recommend other music you may like if you like that. Oh and it will have a dating component, and real-time chat.”
(It sounds like I’m exaggerating but this is unfortunately a very typical example.)
I have to say, “OK. You know software version numbers? Mac OS version 10.4? 10.5? What you just described is version infinity. That’s everything it will ever do in the future. First focus on launching version 0.1.”
What’s the one crucial part of that giant plan? What’s the one killer feature that nobody else is doing? Get it launched with just that. Then add the rest later.
The Hedgehog Concept
The book “Good to Great” studied hundreds of companies that started out as good, then at some point in their history became great.
They found that all of these companies had the “Hedgehog Concept”: focusing on the one thing they do best, and letting go of the rest.
(A fox is smart, with many tricks. A hedgehog only knows one trick: curl into a ball with its spikes out. But the fox’s many tricks are no match for the hedgehog’s one. A fox can’t eat a hedgehog. Many companies are trying to be the fox. The book says the winners are like the hedgehog.)
Got a complex business idea? Break it down into its ingredients, and let the specialists do what they do best.
Video aspect? Let YouTube handle that part. E-Commerce aspect? Use Amazon’s system. Payments? PayPal. Social networking? Facebook.
Don’t reinvent any of these wheels. Focus on what’s left – what hasn’t been done.
Specialize at that one thing, and become that go-to company that nobody can beat in your niche.
(I think the term “version infinity” came from a talk with Jason Fried.)
(The music publishing business gives a cash advance to a songwriter in return for owning half the income generated from their songs. The publisher is betting that the songs will earn at least that much, whether recorded by a famous artist or the songwriter themselves.)
One day, as I walked by someone’s desk, I noticed she had accidently left out the balance sheet showing every songwriter signed to the New York office, their cash advance, and how much they had earned. I quickly took it to the Xerox machine, made a copy, and put it back.
That night, reading it on the subway home, I learned a great lesson by looking at a huge difference between two songwriters:
There was one writer who was wonderful – a publisher’s dream. Her songs were great and easy to pitch to famous artists. She turned in a new song every week, professional and well-recorded. She was signed to Warner/Chappell because one of the managers there heard her and believed in her, even though she hadn’t had any success yet. Her advance: $15,000.
The other writer was horrible. His songs were really bad metal that’d make Spinal Tap cringe. Poorly recorded, terribly performed, sent late, and on reel-to-reel tape that nobody used anymore. (I always had to dust off the reel-to-reel machine twice a year when his new demos would arrive.) But in the 80s he’d been in a band with a major rock star, and had 1/16th of a songwriting credit on one song that was on a record that sold over 20 million copies. His advance: $500,000.
The lesson I never forgot:
You have to make your own success first, before you ask the industry for help.
You have to show that you’re going to be successful with-or-without their help. Show that you have momentum, and if they want to accelerate it or amplify it they can, but it will cost them to ride your coat-tails.
If you don’t do this, then even in the best-case scenario, where someone at the company really believes in you, you’ll have no negotiating leverage, and will get the worst deal possible.
If you’re just starting out, don’t ask the industry for help yet. Make something happen by yourself first, so you have a success story to tell and momentum to show.
I sat silently. I steamed. I soaked. I slept to the sounds of the sea.
I could not have been more relaxed. My head was empty.
For the first time in ten years, I had nothing I needed to do. No responsibilities. No plans.
What a relief, right? Can you imagine?
I brought along the great book Seeking Wisdom, and read in my peaceful Japanese ocean-facing room.
The book was great. Charlie Munger’s thoughts on behavioral finance were brilliant and contrarian. This book was inspiring all kinds of entrepreneurial ideas that I wanted to try!
When I was at CD Baby, I’d be able to play with new ideas immediately. (“What if we had a $5 sale?” “What if I could co-op card swipers?” “What if I could go multi-lingual?”) Any time I had an idea, I’d be able to test it out within days.
But now, for the first time in 10 years, since I had no company, I couldn’t test out these new ideas! All I could do was read, think, and maybe write about it. Damn!
Then I realized why I need to start a new company. Not for the money. Not because I’m “bored”. But because a company is a laboratory to try your ideas. (The word “laboratory” is defined as a room for research, experimentation or analysis. I think of it as a sandbox or playpen.)
Realizing this in my peaceful hot-springs, I caught a train back to Fukuoka, and jumped into action.
I started MuckWork so I could play with crowdsourcing while helping people get their boring work done.
I re-launched MusicThoughts to experiment with a fully multi-lingual site, and lang.pro to organize this translation work.
And this made me happier than doing nothing. This isn’t work, it’s play. It’s my place to try my ideas.
We all need some time off. A change of scene and pace. Silence and solace if we’re stressed. Reckless adrenaline if we’re in a rut.
But for those of us who think that an eternal escape from work would be paradise, don’t forget that we all need a playground, and your own company is one of the best playgrounds of all.
“If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert.” – Australian psychiatrist W. Béran Wolfe
“Find a happy person, and you will find a project.” – Sonja Lyubomirsky
The ceramics teacher announced he was dividing his class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right graded solely on its quality.
His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would weigh the work of the “quantity” group: 50 pounds of pots rated an A, 40 pounds a B, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an A.
Well, come grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity!
It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
Is there something in your life that you’re trying to perfect?
Being an analytical learning-addict, I can’t help but distill some lessons from this “Guy Starts Dance Party” video taken last week. I’d really like to hear your thoughts, too. First, let’s watch:
You can’t help but smile. First at the guy, then at the reaction. It’s so fun!
But this is also the most obvious, instant, and visual example of how to start a movement, that books like Tribes and The Tipping Point have covered so well.
For anyone interested in starting a movement, or hoping others start a movement around your company/mission/music, how can we describe what we see here?
The leader has to be doing it for his own sake – not trying to start anything.
He has the guts to look a little ridiculous, but not care. Most are too shy to stand out like that.
He’s so clearly having fun that others think, “He’s having more fun than me. Maybe I should join in.”
What he’s doing is so simple, it’s almost instructional. Even if you usually don’t, you could do that.
The turning point is when he gets one follower. Following the leader, and also clearly having fun doing it.
But maybe they’re just two freaks? Hmm… better not get involved yet. Tempting, though. Wait and watch.
It’s important that they were very public – seen by everyone. Movements need to be visible.
Now comes the second follower. It’s almost a crowd. If you were to join in now, you wouldn’t be a freak. Hmm… maybe?
The tipping point is the next two people that jump in. Now it’s a crowd!
Three more jump in immediately. Momentum! It’s a movement! No reason not to. Let’s go!
Every adventurous person in the crowd jumps in.
Finally, every non-adventurous person in the crowd jumps in, because they’d be ridiculed if they don’t.
So if you wanted to make a movement, what lessons would you take from this?
If you want to be a starter, have the guts to stand out. Make your actions easy to imitate. Fun to follow. Attract attention. Show everyone what you’re doing.
If you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to follow him/her. You’ll also stand out, but you’re serving one of the most important roles in making this a movement. Show everyone how to follow.
Found something cool that only a few freaks are doing? Get some friends and say, “Let’s go!” Jump in.
(… what else? …)
Doing something that needs followers? (In this case, the music.) Help fan the flames of this process:
Shine a spotlight on the first fan that loves you. Help them be a starter. Show what they’re doing, and how happy they are.
Help your second fan join together with the first, instead of also dancing alone.
Make sure they do almost exactly the same thing, so it’s easy for others to also see how to join.
Give a few early adopters the courage to jump in together with the first. Make sure they stick together as a group.
Now it’s not about you, it’s about them. Publicize the group, not yourself. Make it fun to join.
Make sure all late-adopters can see what fun the early adopters are having.
I’d like to get 100 parrots and teach them to say “It won’t make you happy!” – then let them loose in shopping malls, big electronics stores, and car lots.
Then, when people are considering spending thousands of dollars on a giant TV, or going deeply in debt with a new car, a surprising squawk might shock them back to their senses.
The quickest way to double your income is to halve your expenses. Any study of happiness will tell you it’s best to actively appreciate what you’ve got.
I feel a responsibility with my PA system of blog, Twitter, and Facebook to only put helpful thoughts into the world.
So, no product raves here. You already have more than you need.
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut tells his friend, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.
Heller said, “Yes, but I have something he will never have: Enough.”
What I’m about to tell you is one of the most interesting things I’ve read or heard in the last few months, and I know you’re going to love it, so please read to the end.
The Marshmallow Experiment
40 years ago, at a nursery school at Stanford University, psychology professor Walter Mischel ran an experiment.
A bunch 4-year-olds were brought into a room, one at a time. They were given one marshmallow, and told they were allowed to eat it immediately, but if they could wait 15 minutes without eating it, they’d be given a second marshmallow, and could eat both.
70% of the kids ate the marshmallow right away. Only 30% of the kids could wait the full 15 minutes to get the second marshmallow. This experiment has been repeated in other countries (Brazil and Japan) over the years, and the ratio stays the same: two-thirds can’t wait, one-third wait.
But here’s the interesting part:
15 years later, the researchers followed-up and found that those kids who waited for the second marshmallow scored, on average, 250 points higher on the SAT test, and were higher achievers in whatever field they had chosen (academic, athletic, artistic). They were all-around more successful and happier.
So the ability to delay gratification is one of the best indicators of future success.
You’re giving more importance to the future than the present. Willing to give up a little pleasure in the present, to benefit your future self.
The great book, The Time Paradox, notes that we all have a different time-focus that greatly shapes how we think and act.
Future-Focused People
For future-focused people, long-range goals fuel today’s decisions and actions. This keeps them ambitiously working, saving, and planning for a better life. Self-discipline and the ability to delay gratification are key.
Future-focused people are more successful professionally and academically. They also eat well, exercise regularly, and schedule preventative health exams.
But by always looking through the present to the next goal, they often do not fully appreciate the present. Think of the stereotype of the successful executive who is always too busy for his family. (Friends and family require your attention to be in the present.)
Present-Focused People
Present-focused people actively seek activities and relationships that bring pleasure, variety, immediate gratification, and short-term payoffs. They avoid anything tedious, requiring effort, maintenance, or routine. They’re playful and impulsive, engaging in leisure activities (until it becomes boring).
Present-focused people are more likely to gamble, use drugs and alcohol. They’re less likely to exercise, eat well, floss, or get regular health exams. They are the least likely to be successful.
While some present-focus is needed to enjoy life, too much present-focus can rob life of the deeper happiness of accomplishment.
Past Focus
How you view the past is also important because we see our lives as having a trajectory. If you remember the past as happy, you predict your future will be happy. If you are haunted by an unhappy past, you probably predict your future to be unhappy, too.
What causes or changes your focus?
Though the experiment with 4-year-olds shows that we each have a built-in tendency, we can intentionally change our focus.
Ask a future-focused person to name every background sound they can hear, or where their body is touching their chair. Their focus will change to the present. Ask a present-focused person to describe their ultimate career, then brainstorm step-by-step ways to achieve those goals. Their focus will change to the future.
Circumstances change focus. You need safety and stability in the present to start thinking about the future. Cavemen needed a full present-focus at all times to survive in the wild and find food each day. It was only after the development of agriculture that people could spend more time thinking about the future.
People who lived in tropical climates had less future-focus than people who lived in places with cold winters, since winters required planning and saving.
Political and economic instability also cause people to focus more on present survival than long-term investing of time or money.
Balance is best
Please don’t think this means we should all be extremely future-focused.
The happiest and most effective people are balanced: equally high in future-focus and present-focus, and viewing the past as positive.
When you have work to finish, be future-focused. When your work is done and it’s time to relax, be present-focused. During family holidays, be past-focused to enjoy family customs.
Which leads to the most colorful example of this need for balance….
Ghana football (soccer) team
The Ghana national football team always played beautifully and creatively but were at the bottom of the league because they often lost for not adhering to the disciplined rules of the game. In the context of this story, let’s say they were very present-focused.
In 2004, they brought in a tough new coach from Serbia: Ratomir Dujković. He relentlessly focused on discipline, toughness, goal-scoring and punctuality. He set high expectations for future success, telling them they could get into the semi-finals for the world cup if they worked hard.
Sure enough, in 2006, with their great combination of present-focused creativity and a new future-focused desire to win, they almost won the World Cup, only losing to Brazil in the final game. They did win the FIFA “Most Improved Team of the Year” award.
For years, when I was broke, I’d use cracked/bootleg copies of expensive software programs like Photoshop, Office, and Windows. Now I’m glad to pay for them, even though I hardly use them.
For years, if I’d see an opportunity (say, for something to promote my music), but saw it cost money, I’d immediately lose interest. Now I’m glad to pay for services (like SoundCloud, for example) that are doing great work, even though I don’t use them much.
When musicians put me on the guest list at a venue, I pay anyway. I like to support the venue and the artist.
I pay Pandora $36 per year to have no advertising when I listen.
At Magnatune, people can pay as little as $5 to buy an album, but the average price paid is $9.82. (Many pay much much more, because they know it goes to the artist.)
Radiohead’s In Rainbows album was offered for free, but 40% of people chose to pay for it anyway.
And I always pay street performers.
The key moment is when I realized that all of these people charging a little money are not greedy, usually not rich, and are just trying to make a living doing something I admire and value.
It’s like donating money to your favorite politician or charity. You don’t have to, but it makes you happy.
So I do my part by paying for things often.
When designing your business, service, or product, even if you’re offering it for free, don’t forget that there are lots of people like me that like to pay! Appeal to this side of people, giving them a feel-good reason to pay.
Tell them what their payment will go to support. Show them how appreciated it is.
Some will feel good about paying. It will actually make them happy to give you money. Let them. Always offer this.
The most powerful philosophy of marketing I’ve heard is from my hero Seth Godin, and I think it can be summed up as this:
You’ll know when you’re on to something special, because people will love it so much they’ll tell everyone.
If people aren’t telling their friends about it yet, don’t waste time marketing it. Instead, keep improving until they are.
How can you apply this to your business, music, product, or service?
Seth wrote: “Sell one. Find one person who trusts you and sell him a copy. Does he love it? Is he excited enough to tell ten friends because it helps them, not because it helps you? If not, you must stop what you’re doing and start over.”
This is encouraging, because in the past it felt like the only way to do effective marketing was to spend a ton of money on mass-media advertising.
But now the goal is to create something absolutely remarkable, until customer word-of-mouth generates a buzz.
And that’s only limited by your creativity and persistence, not budget.
I decided at 14 I was going to be a full-time musician.
Because of this, I knew:
I’d never have a job
I’d never have a salary
I’d never have insurance
I’d never have a boss
I’d have no security – no guarantees
Nobody would help me – I’d have to bootstrap everything myself
Fighting against apathy and gatekeepers would be a constant struggle
I’d have to be one-in-a-million brilliant to achieve this incredibly difficult goal
But I was psyched about this! This was my dream-come-true scenario. I told everyone I was going to be a successful musician.
And I did. I worked nonstop. I started touring profitably when I was 18. Moved to New York City. Did whatever it takes to make a living as a musician. When I was 27, I bought a house in Woodstock with the money I made touring. I was living the dream.
Today, the amazing Carla Lynne Hall asked me why I chose the entrepreneur path instead of the 9-5 job mindset.
But look at that list, up top, again. It all applies to entrepreneurs, as well.
If you decide to start your own company, you’re not going to have a job, boss, or guaranteed income. It’ll be a constant uphill struggle, without help from anyone.
No wonder I fell into being an entrepreneur so naturally.
All those negatives are my dream-come-true scenario.
Your advice to artists on marketing and promotion is well-documented, but what is the main strategy for artists to balance the creative and entrepreneurial duties in order to capitalize on the opportunities that this new DIY world has presented?
After you write a melody and harmony, you make creative decisions on how to arrange it, then how to perform it.
After that, you make creative decisions on how to record and mix it. The amount of distortion or effects, for example.
After that, you make creative decisions on how to package it. The band name, the album title, the album artwork, the photos.
These are all just further expressions of the original song idea.
My point is that the marketing is just the next step. It should be as creative as anything else. Creative decisions on how to get it to fans, how to approach sponsors, even what you say when you call up the venue owner to try to get bookings. It’s all just further expression of the music, and can be just as creative as the rest of the process.
What was the main motivation behind you writing the e-book “How to Call Attention to Your Music”? What type of response have you received from independent artists? Do you have plans to write more books in the near future?
Those are mostly articles I wrote over the past 10 years in response to people’s questions. They’ve all been free online for years as separate web pages, but now that I put them together in PDF form for easy printing, people are thrilled! I’m really surprised, honestly.
I’m always going to keep writing anything I think can help. And I guess I’ve learned I should keep publishing them as e-books every now and then, yes.
When talking about your career evolution, you’ve mentioned that you spent time “working inside the music industry just enough to know I didn’t like that side of thing”. What were those roles and what specifically did you not like about that side of the business?
Most deals I saw were based on friends-of-friends and he-said-she-said stuff. Successful artists would come into my library and vent about how they were no longer in control of their music, not allowed to make the choices they wanted, not allowed to release the songs they wanted to.
Rebellion is what drew me to music in the first place, and I still have that spirit of never answering to anyone. So it was personally revolting to see that once an artist signed their rights over to a label, that label was now the boss that owned their music and could tell them what to do. I realized I wanted no part of that.
Of course we want to touch on the recent news that you sold CD Baby. You’ve spoken about how you weren’t very involved in running the business from a day-to-day standpoint for quite some time and that you were interested in pursuing some new interests. Explain how the deal with Disc Makers evolved, and why you made the decision to move on to something new.
It was just a personal challenge. I like to push myself to never get comfortable. I started CD Baby over 10 years ago, so it was just time to challenge myself to take all of these new ideas I’ve had for the past few years, and turn them into reality.
As for Disc Makers, I had always been impressed with their operation, so I gave them first dibs. I had much higher offers from other companies, but Disc Makers were my first choice, so I’m glad it worked out.
You recently stated that “CD Baby is in better hands now, and I’m off to new things.” What are the newest projects that you have on the go?
Mostly educational things for artists. You may have noticed that even though I was running a music distribution company, I always had a heavy focus on artist education. Now I can give that my full attention.
A series of success stories will share the details of what the most successful independent artists are doing.
A series of documentary shorts will profile the venue bookers, magazine writers, film/tv music supervisors, etc. Taking a video camera into their office and showing things from their point of view. It’s important for musicians to understand what it’s like to be on the receiving end of their music. To understand the frustrations and how they can help make their jobs easier.
But my pet project is MuckWork : a system for remote assistants to help artists do all the boring uncreative dirty-work that goes with being an independent musician.
Talk a bit about MuckWork and how the concept behind that fits into the new “Do It Yourself” music world.
I always encourage artists to turn off their computer and focus on their unique value to the world – their writing, recording, and performing – not in the endless clicking on MySpace.
I hate to see amazing musicians or songwriters spend hours a day doing the completely-uncreative work of updating profiles, approving friends, registering copyrights, researching venues, etc.
I’d love to tell them all to hire an assistant, but you know how that goes. So I thought if there was a great network of assistants that was optimized to take care of the work that musicians needed, it could be cheap and easy for any musician (with no management experience) to dump their dirty work on us.
On your site, you’ve got a section with all your recordings from 1989-99, with the line “They’re all free for the taking. If you’d like to record and sell your own version of any of these songs, you have my advance permission, and I’d love to hear the final result!” What are some of the results you’ve seen from this? Have you had a lot of response from artists taking you up on the offer?
None, no. Maybe songs are like business ideas or babies. Everyone’s got their own. They don’t want to hear yours.
Do you ever play this conversation-game? Ask a group of friends this question. It’s interesting to hear different people’s answers, and what they reveal.
When I was a kid, I wanted to fly.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be invisible. (Probably to sneak into girl’s rooms and watch them undress.)
For the last 20 years, I wanted to stop time. (So much work to do! Never enough time!)
But recently when this game came up with a friend, I realized that for the first time in 20 years, I didn’t want to stop time. I’ve changed. My new super-power is I want to know everything. (Speak every language. Know every fact. Understand the universe.)
A year from now, it may be a different answer.
Whenever I went to a book store in the last 10 years, I’d go to the business section (as you can see, here.) But this past year, I was more interested in the travel section (India, Asia, Iceland, etc.)
A month ago I found myself wanting to take two years off to go visit 24 countries for one month each. I was quite seriously considering this!
Last week, I found myself in a book store again with a friend. She needed to go the the travel section, so I went with her, but found I had no interest anymore. Something’s shifted. I want to work again. Vacation is done.
Sometimes you don’t notice these changes in yourself until a conversation-game or book store reveals it.
So, since we’re here talking anyway, I’m asking you now: What super-power do you want? Please leave a reply, below.
(Not sure what super-power you want? Take this cute quiz.)
A woman came up to me at a music biz conference, handed me her CD, and very proudly said, “This album cost $80,000 and two years to record. Everything is top-notch – we used one of the finest studios in the world.”
She wanted me to be impressed, but once she said “$80,000” I lost hope in her ability to make a living making music.
The music may be brilliant, but for a career to be sustainable, it has to be profitable.
I’d be much more impressed with someone who could make an album for $8000, because that would show sustainability. They could record 10 albums for the price of hers!
I’d be most impressed with someone who could say, “This album cost nothing, and took two months to record, because I used my own home studio, and know how to make it sound great. My next 10 albums will also cost nothing.”
A big hit at the Cannes Film Festival last week was the movie “Colin”, made for only $70. Director Marc Price used volunteer actors, used leftover makeup, and borrowed friends’ equipment. American and Japanese distributors are interested. (Read more about it, here.)
There’s a similar story behind El Mariachi, made for only $7000, by Robert Rodriguez, who went on to do Spy Kids, Sin City, and I’m sure has decades of innovative filmmaking left in him.
Both are admittedly low-budget, but prove the resourcefulness of the director, and their ability to make a great film despite any restraints.
If I was an investor, I’d invest in that kind of person.
Talent usually increases over time, but the ability to be resourceful usually decreases over time.
It’s best for a career to start from a place of absolute resourcefulness.
Ever since I was a teenager, my dad would occasionally send me things to sign. Things for the family business, where I was part owner. I didn’t understand the complexities of it, and didn’t need to, so I’d just sign without question.
In 1994, as I was recording my first album, I needed to borrow $20,000 to buy studio equipment. He said, “Instead of lending you money, start a corporation. Then the family business can buy shares in your corporation.”
So I did. Because my band was called Hit Me, I called the company Hit Media Inc.
My dad’s company bought some shares, and that helped me finish my album, and continued to run my record studio at a profit.
Four years later, I was living in Woodstock New York, and started this little hobby called CD Baby.
The first time I got a check addressed to “CD Baby”, I brought it down to the bank and told the bank teller, “I need to set this up as a new business, so let’s open a new business account.”
She said, “Oh you don’t need to do that. You can just make it a DBA on your Hit Media account.” (At that time, Hit Media was a recording studio and booking agency.)
Seemed a little strange since CD Baby was definitely a new business, but it saved 10 minutes and $100, so I said OK.
Four years later, CD Baby is doing really well. A few million dollars in sales. Probably half a million dollars in net profits. I paid my dad back the $20,000 I borrowed.
I call up my accountant in January to say, “OK. I got all the Quicken books balanced. Should we file early this year?”
He said, “Oh, you don’t need to file. CD Baby is just a lineitem on your dad’s company’s tax return.”
I said, “Uh… what?”
“You didn’t know that your dad’s company owns 90% of CD Baby?”
“Uh… what?”
“You should talk to your dad.”
Yes, it turns out that one of those pieces of paper I signed without question had sold 90% of the shares of Hit Media Inc to his company.
That would have been fine, except the bank teller advised me to make CD Baby a DBA of Hit Media, so now that meant my dad’s company owned 90% of CD Baby.
FFFFffff…. SSSSssss…. RRRRrrrr…. Oh, what a sinking feeling.
I couldn’t be mad at my dad. He was doing me a favor in 1994, and thought I knew the deal. Nobody thought my little hobby was going to turn into a multi-million-dollar company.
It was my fault for not reading what I signed. My fault for letting a bank teller’s quick advice make that major decision for my business structure.
What made it even worse is that I couldn’t just buy it back for the original $20,000. The IRS won’t allow that. The only way was to pay full market value, as determined by an outside valuation company.
In the end, I had to pay $3.3 million dollars to buy back that 90%.
Lessons learned:
Really understand something before you sign it.
Ask all questions, dumb questions, hypothetical questions, extreme-scenario questions, “what if” questions, until you’re sure you really fully understand it as well as anyone on earth.
It’s also very worth paying for an hour meeting with your accountant, and asking 100 questions there, too.
Each separate business venture should usually have its own LLC. It’s very cheap through companies like LegalZoom, and well worth it.
This was definitely all my fault. No one else to blame.
… plus whatever other lessons you’re going to teach me in the comments, below.
One of the problems with being an expert at something, is you forget what it’s like to not know the basics.
Because I like being very easy to contact, I get all kinds of questions about the music business and entrepreneurship.
Some of them are so basic, I’m almost stumped!
It’s like someone asks you, “I’ve got this henhouse full of chickens, but I don’t see any eggs. What should I do?”
(Hmmm… Maybe it’s a strange disease we should look into? Maybe the chickens are over 3 years old? Maybe it’s temperature?)
Before getting complicated, you dare to ask the obvious, “Uh… have you looked under the chickens?”
“[pause] … Hey! There they are! Wow! I never thought of that! Thanks so much!”
Computer technicians, plumbers and doctors must have this more than anyone.
I like getting these questions, though. They’re a good reminder of beginner’s mind. I try to remember all the questions I must have asked when I was just getting started.
Science fiction predicted that by now, we’d all be cyborgs like The Six Million Dollar Man or Robocop: humans with some parts replaced by bionic or robotic ones. Machine-enhanced abilities to see, hear, and communicate – our brains tapped into the central computer.
But if we let go of the idea that these robotic parts have to be under the skin, we realize we’re already there.
Our mobile cellphones do all of that, and they’re practically glued to our hands or ears. (In Finnish, the word for “cell phone” loosely translates to “extension of the hand”.) Thanks to the internet, we’re all tapped into the central computer, able to know anything, anytime.
The point of the science fiction prediction was our machine-enhanced abilities. They didn’t really need to be under the skin.
Yesterday, a musician friend said he really wants distribution for his CD.
I had to ask, “What do you mean? You’re already on CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, and everywhere else.”
He said, “I want my CD to be in record stores.”
“Why? Are people who want your music getting in the car and driving to one of the few remaining record stores, then coming back empty-handed, and giving up? Is anyone unable to buy your music?”
After we talked a while, he was actually really happy once he realized he already had full worldwide international distribution. Everyone who wants his music, anywhere on earth, can buy it instantly. He had been stuck on a 20-year-old detail that it had to be on plastic discs in wooden bins in certain kinds of shops that were popular 20 years ago.
Ever wanted to be on TV, or have your own TV show, watched by millions of people worldwide? You’ve got it. YouTube. A typical Baywatch episide had 20 million viewers. So does Fred.
(Or maybe you were more looking forward to the fights over creative control, having a dozen different producers and writers in the mix, and all of that?)
Ever wanted to publish a book? Write it, then put it online as a PDF, and let go of the detail that a big company needs to print it for you. People can print it themselves, if they want.
Even old dreams like retiring, sailing around the world, or living in a mansion can be done cheaply and easily if you revisit some old expectations of exactly how it needs to happen.
We can’t predict the future, so what old dreams of yours might already be do-able if you let go of some details, and remember the real point?
Has anyone heard a truly backwards song structure? (Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Verse?)
Not backwards, but I always admired that Dancing Queen starts with the pre-chorus (“You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life…”).
The backwards romantic relationship is used sometimes in movies: start fighting immediately (hate eachother at first), then merely annoyed, then in love, then passionately physical, then notice things they like about eachother, then co-exist. Another variation is Benjamin Button, of course.
See the brilliant Memento, where the story is told backwards, showing the ending first and the beginning last. (If you’ve seen it once, see it again. It’s even better the 2nd time.)
The dot-com era had plenty of backwards businesses: start by making a ton of money (IPO), (now have 500 employees), then build solid business infrastructure, then spend a lot of money marketing, then figure out what you really have to offer, (now only 100 employees), then try to make a profit, then brainstorm really good ideas, (now only 10 employees), then close the business, and the founders go work for someone else.
In 1991, when I ran the tape room at Warner/Chappell Music in New York City, I had an NYU intern named Nick Ruechel from Germany. He was a few years older than me, had recently moved from Cologne to New York, and seemed really driven to do whatever it takes.
He was a very hard worker, but also great at befriending the managers at the company. He put himself into the center of existing success (the company, the managers) and both learned and worked to earn his place in that world.
We lost touch for 17 years, but I knew he would be successful at whatever he chose to do. It was just in his character. He had the right approach.
So it was no surprise when I met him in New York this week, and we caught up on the last 17 years. He had thrown himself into photography, assisting increasingly successful photographers, learning everything he could, until he got the best possible job: first assistant to Annie Liebowitz for over three years.
Now he’s a successful freelance photographer, specializing in portraits of jazz musicians. Happy and healthy. Of course. (See NickRuechel.com.)
We compared notes about our other colleagues at Warner/Chappell Music, and where they were 17 years later. Again: no surprises.
One manager, Jocelyn Cooper, seemed so clearly destined to rise to the top. She was very effective and just a little aloof, so that she really came across like a natural leader. Back in 1990, I could tell she was going to be very successful, and sure enough: she is.
Another manager, though he was a fun guy, seemed too moody and unfocused. Sure enough, he flamed out of the company, and is now bitter, unfocused and unhappy.
In March 2009, at the SxSW Music Conference, I was on a panel called “Artist as Entrepreneur”, with successful independent artist Rachael Sage.
The moderator was asking her about specific tips and techniques. How did she get the word out? Where did her big breakthrough come from? What was the key to her success so far?
At the end, I had to say, “I’ve known Rachael since 1996. She was the first artist on CD Baby. She’s so driven, ambitious, and hard-working that she would have been successful no matter what industry she chose. It’s her nature.”
(To be fair, I’ve noticed the same thing about myself.)
So what does this mean? It’s just fate? Nothing you can do? You’re either the successful type or you’re not?
Of course not. But it’s true that how you do anything is how you do everything.
Your “character” or “nature” just refers to how you handle all the day-to-day things in life, no matter how small.
And luckily, it’s completely under your control, and seems to be a great indicator of future success.
It was a small office, about 12 people, but the door to one room was always closed. I assumed it was unused.
One day, after a few months, I hear an old man yelling, “Goddamn it! What’s wrong with this typewriter? Can’t someone make a simple goddamn typewriter work?! What the hell?”
He was in the previously-closed room, door open, fighting with the typewriter. I went in to help, and as I was fixing it, I noticed some press clippings on the wall about Sammy Cahn, then looked at the man and realized it was Sammy Cahn!
I fixed his typewriter, then said, “Sammy – my name’s Derek. If you ever need anything, just buzz number 12 on your phone and I’ll be glad to help.” He scowled at me, then waved me out of his room.
But from them on, every time he’d come into town, I’d be the first to know, because his voice would bark over my intercom, “[beeeep] Derek, goddamn it, get in here!” Everyone else at the office avoided him.
One day, he had me go to the Time/Warner Cafeteria to get him his favorite bowl of soup. When I gave it to him, he yelled at me for not filling the cup all the way to the top.
One day, he had me get some Ben Gay from the drug store. When I gave it to him, he asked me to rub it on his neck, which I did, but I used too much, and he yelled at me for making his neck all goopy.
But I liked him. His cranky personality was like a running joke, and didn’t bother me a bit.
He was still writing songs every day. Usually custom lyrics for existing songs, tailored for friends’ birthdays or special events. But he was still writing new songs, too.
I spent hours with him helping him autograph his songbooks. He patiently answered all of my eager questions about songwriting. (“As soon as I hear a melody, I can tell you what that song will be called. The piece of paper goes in the typewriter, I start typing, and when it comes out, it’s done! No edits!”)
I’d find an excuse to be in the room when he was writing new songs with composers like Walter Afanasieff. I played him some of my songs, and he gave me advice. I was thrilled. 20 years old, living in New York City, and working with Sammy Cahn.
One day as I was xeroxing something in the kitchen, he was yelling at the coffee machine. (“What’s wrong with the goddamn coffee? Can’t I get a simple goddamn cup of coffee anymore? What are all these buttons?”)
I laughed and said, “Sammy, you know what? I like you.”
He looked at me, and his usually-scowling face went blank. Like the mask he always wears had dropped. Like he hadn’t heard “I like you” in a long long time.
He paused for a while, then said, in an unusually nice voice, “Thank you. You’re a very nice man.”
Then he went back to yelling at the coffee machine.
A few months later, in November 1992, I quit my job to be a full time musician, and went out to an isolated part of the Oregon coast to record. No TV, no newspaper, no internet, no radio. Just me, all alone, just recording. Warner/Chappell Music was long behind me, and I didn’t keep in touch with anyone.
Every morning I’d wake up with no alarm clock, and remember all of my dreams. I started writing them down. The more I wrote, the more I remembered. Sometimes it would take 45 minutes just to write down all the vivid details.
One Friday in January, I had this vivid dream that I was outside a big military building in the 1950s. A mounted air force jet outside, and General MacArthur was at the door. We talked for a minute, then he let me in. I walked down a long empty hallway, then took a right, and walked down another long empty hallway.
At the end of the hallway was a younger Sammy Cahn, in the 1950s, with a full head of brown hair, waving his arms, yelling at someone. (“Goddamn it! What the hell were you thinking?”)
As I got closer, he stopped, turned to me, and said, “Who the hell are you?”
I said, “Sammy, you don’t know me, but I came back from 40 years in the future to tell you that in 40 years, you’re still going to be alive and well and writing songs every day.”
Just like that day in the kitchen, his face went blank. His mask dropped. He said, in that rare nice voice, “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”
Then I woke up.
I wrote it all down.
The next day, a friend of mine called me at the beach and said, “Well… I guess you heard the news?”
“Uh, no. I don’t get any news out here. What’s up?”
“Your friend Sammy Cahn died last night.”
The same night I had the dream.
Whoa.
I didn’t believe in any of that stuff before, but couldn’t help but wonder about that life-after-death stuff you hear about, or maybe ESP, or something. Who knows if I had the dream right before he died or right after, but I still think he came by to say thank you.
You’ve been meaning to take real action on it, but could use more motivation.
Let it go. It’s a bad goal.
If it was a great goal, you would have jumped into action already. You wouldn’t wait. Nothing would stop you.
Goals are not to improve the future. The future doesn’t really exist. It’s only in our imagination. All that really exists is the present moment, and what you do in it.
Judge a goal by how well it changes your actions in the present moment.
A bad goal makes you say, “I want to do that some day.”
A great goal makes you take action immediately.
A bad goal is foggy, vague, and distant.
A great goal is so clear, specific, and close you can almost touch it. (This is crucial to keep you going.)
A bad goal makes you say, “I’m not sure how to start.”
With a great goal, you know exactly what needs to be done next. (Even if just a phone call.)
A bad goal makes you say, “Let me sleep on it.”
A great goal makes you say, “I can’t sleep! I was up until 2 doing this, then got up at 7 to do it some more.”
A bad goal makes you say, “That’d be nice.”
A great goal makes you say, “Oh my god! Yes! That would be amazing! I can’t wait!”
A bad goal makes you say, “I’ll do it as soon as I do this other stuff.”
A great goal is so interesting and important that you can’t be distracted.
Some goals seem great. They impress your friends (“I’m going to bike across India”), satisfy an old wish (“I want to go into space”), or are good for you (“I’m going to lose 30 pounds”). But unless it changes your actions, right now, it’s not a great goal. Find another variation that excites you.
Lastly, remember that the daily actions have to be exciting, too. “Speak fluent Italian” may sound nice, but “take Italian lessons an hour a day for two years” has to excite you just as much, or you’ll never stick with it.
Justin from Berklee College of Music sent me these interview questions. I’m posting it here in case it’s of use to anyone.
If you were starting or promoting a band today, (pretend you’re back at Berklee) what would you do to spread the word? What tools would you use?
The most important part is deciding what to do! You don’t just make any old music, then decide how to spread the word.
You decide BEFORE you make the music: What could we create that would be SO noteworthy, SO remarkable, that there’s no way it could be ignored?
If it were me, I’d probably make some freaky Blue Man Group type band, and we’d often do michevious publicity stunts to give the media something to get worked-up about.
As for tools, I’d try to find ones that aren’t already saturated with music. Maybe an artistic use of Twitter. Or Improv Everywhere.
But really I’d make sure that I was always in a real three-way conversation with my fans. Encourage them to talk with me and with eachother. Make my success their success, like Obama.
What are your feelings towards the major record labels today? Have they completely missed the big picture as far as how to market artists and distribute their songs?
It’s easy to look at them as buffoons (like we do politicians), but most of them are surprisingly smart.
If you just look at results (the current biggest-sellers), they’re almost all on major labels, so it’s just bad logic to say that the labels are doing everything wrong. Many things wrong, yes. But not everything.
This last 10 years has been humbling for them. It’s shaken out the people that are only in it for the money. So most of the people at labels today are in it for the right reasons, and are more entrepreneurial.
Why is the indie scene alive and kicking while the major labels are suffering?
Most indies can profit off of 10,000 sales, but majors can’t. Their different expectations change their costs.
The music business might be like the poetry business some day. Which means: almost no profit, and people do it because they want to, never for the money. I’m sure there are some companies making money off of poetry, but not many. Not making millions. So labels still have to get incredibly lean and efficient, so they can actually profit off of something that sells only 10,000 copies.
Since lots of indie musicians make their livings primarily on touring, what do you think the proposed Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger will do to indie artists trying to play big venues? Will there be enough smaller venues left to support the smaller artists?
Every trend has a counter-trend. Video moving to bite-size bits on YouTube? At the same time, the super-long narrative (Lost, Sopranos, 24) is more popular than ever.
So if big venues are gobbled up and homogenized, there will be a counter-trend of tons of small places offering small concerts. Whether small businesses or house concerts.
Did you sell CDBaby because of the decline of recorded music? Is the recorded music business among indie labels still thriving?
I only left CD Baby for personal reasons. I like to challenge myself to stay immersed in the unknown. I had been doing CD Baby for 10 years. It was too familiar. That was enough.
Recorded music is definitely still thriving for indies. They’re on more of a level playing field than ever. Sales are up.
I’m not sure what your experience is with agents, managers, promoters, etc., but you have talked to numerous successful (and probably unsuccessful) musicians over the years. What is the general consensus on how musicians feel about those people? Do they feel that they need a manager to get gigs? Do you think independent artists need managers today?
Well… Most musicians feel if they just had a good manager/agent/promoter they’d be “all set”.
But most managers/agents/promoters will tell you “most artists aren’t ready yet”.
I agree. I’m a hard-ass when it comes to talent, because I was a hard-ass on myself. I wrote, improved, recorded, and perfected over 100 songs before I ever released one! Produced and engineered those 100 songs, playing all the instruments myself. I practiced my vocals for 2 intense hours a night for 5 years before anyone heard me sing. I would write twenty verses for every song, to find two good ones. I’ve performed over 1000 shows in 10 years, to all kinds of audiences. 8am in the cold to kids. 2am to a drunken southern bar. Learning how to win over every kind of crowd under any situation.
So if I were to invest in an artist, I’d expect nothing less than what I’d done, as just a basic entry-level way of showing they’re serious about this, and are going to commit at least 10 years of non-stop diligent self-improvement to it.
In other words, I think it’s the artist’s responsibility to develop themselves to the point where they’ve proven their persistence and ability to make music that people love – to put on a show that people love.
Then yes, once they’ve got more bookings than they can handle, it’s a good time to hand that job to an agent.
As for a manager, I think that should be like a business-minded band member. One person in the band whose sole job is to handle the business and marketing. It doesn’t have to be a professional manager. But yes, someone of that mindset should definitely be included always. Don’t go too long without one!
If I could take away just a few things from what I’ve learned about you, they would be: 1. Be true to yourself. 2. It’s all about the music! 3. Don’t do it (start a business, band or anything) for the money or some other material motivator; do it because it helps you, it helps other people or because it’s what you love to do. Is this accurate? Is there anything you would add?
Cool. There’s a great quote: “If you can learn music, you can learn anything.”
Making music is a great vehicle for self-improvement.
To be a great musician, you have to learn how to focus. You have to observe yourself objectively to notice what needs improvement, and have the dedication to improve that, even when you think you can’t.
To be a successful professional musician, you have to learn how to look at yourself through others’ eyes. You have to understand why the venue owner is really booking artists, why this person really signed your mailing list, and why people really go out to a bar at midnight on a Thursday.
It’s an amazing learning experience, and as you’ve noticed, I’m endlessly fascinated in this side of things.
What do you do for feedback on a new song you’re writing?
Do you play it for a few friends, looking for praise?
Do you play it for a few friends, looking for criticism? (Really asking, “What don’t you like about it?”)
Do you upload it to your site, and email everyone you know, asking what they think?
Do you send it to a company for paid critique?
Do you have a songwriting teacher or mentor?
When you get feedback, are you looking to change and improve your song?
Or by the time someone hears it, is it pretty much done?
When I was at Berklee College of Music, then later living in New York City, I loved the songwriting workshops where you’d play unfinished songs for one teacher/mentor and a room full of other songwriters. They’d really tear it apart, analyze every note and word, and suggest improvements.
I learned so much about songwriting from those sessions. Not just for my own songs, but it’s really educational to help improve other people’s songs, too.
But that was before the internet. Is there something like that online, now?
What do you do for feedback on a new song you’re writing? The more info you can give, the better. I’m really trying to understand other people’s approaches to this. Thanks!
My favorite movies are the ones where the humble main character realizes how powerful they really are, then accepts that responsibility for the greater good, even though it would be easier to keep denying it. See the ending of Spirited Away, The Godfather I, or The Matrix. (Any others like that?)
I had that moment myself, yesterday.
For the last two years, I’ve been avoiding all responsibility. I gave away everything. Sold my house, car, and company. Roamed around the world with only a little backpack. Lots of learning, reading, thinking, and writing, but not a lot of doing.
When people asked what I do, I’d say, “Not much.” (When Seth Godin heard me say this, he said one should never spread ennui. That hit me.)
Then yesterday, as I was writing about ideas, I mentioned something I’ve always known would be incredibly powerful, but was just denying the responsibility to make it happen.
I’ve started an incubator company called Now Now Now, where I develop each of my ideas for services that can benefit musicians, and:
set the plan, direction, and goals
fund it and own it
hire people to build and manage it
then just oversee it and guide it.
This is a HUGE challenge to me: To resist the temptation to do everything myself. To be a great leader of an entire team of people that’s dedicated to helping musicians. To really use and learn the lessons from some great books on business leadership:
I’ve always known that doing things this way would be infinitely more powerful than casually doing everything myself. I just didn’t want the reponsibility. Now I do.
Long ago, I wrote a short article called “ideas are just a multiplier of execution”. It’s one of the most popular things I’ve ever written, quoted and linked-to all over the web and books.
I didn’t intend to really do it. I just put it out there as an idea. Maybe it will influence the other companies already doing song contests. Maybe someone else will do it.
It’s not even really a business, since it has no plans to make money. It just seems like something worth doing, that musicians need.
I feel like I could write up one of these ideas every day, though I wouldn’t sleep well at night, wanting to turn these ideas into reality.
Brilliant. What a great exercise. By turning off all self-censoring to come up with that many ideas, it makes it so clear that ideas are just ideas, and the hard part is the persistent work to make it happen.
The scary part for me is that I’m pretty good at designing the tech and business blueprint for how to turn an idea into reality, so it’s daunting but tempting to make an incubator company, where I’d take every half-decent idea for music-based companies, make the execution plan, own it, fund it, hire people to build and manage it, then I’d just oversee it.
I’m thinking about song contests, what a scam they usually are, but don’t have to be.
By “song contests”, I mean all those ones that want a submission fee to enter, promising big prizes if you win, and whose judges are a small group of insiders.
Doesn’t it seem so out-dated, unnecessary, and greedy?
Why not make a totally-free annual song contest done only for the benefit of the art/craft of songwriting? Wide open and community-driven.
It costs almost nothing to set up a simple site where songwriters can upload their best song, and people can vote on them.
The listening, judging, and voting is best done by the largest number of people possible. (Read “The Wisdom of Crowds” if you disagree.)
It’d be double-blind anonymous, so listeners won’t know who they’re listening to, preventing favoritism or ballot-stuffing. (They can find out who it is after they vote, so they can find more about the ones they loved.)
Every negative vote against a song would have to include a reason, so the songwriter can receive some constructive critique.
Companies that provide services or products for musicians would be asked to contribute something as a prize. Every prize will be listed so that each songwriter uploading a song gets to choose which prize they would like if they win. Maybe you need a marketing consultation, but don’t need a ProTools plugin.
With lots of prizes, that means lots of winners, instead of just one.
Companies would get good advertising from thousands of musicians considering each of their offerings, and saying which they want.
Songwriters would get good critique on their song, bragging rights and a prize if they win.
Listeners would be both music-fans looking for great new music, and fellow songwriters who must judge a few anonymous songs for every one of theirs they want entered.
The website interface would be in many languages, so songwriters and listeners from Japan to Brazil to Greece to Russia could all contribute equally.
Have it funded by someone who isn’t trying to profit off of this, but just thinks it should exist. (me?)
Seems it’d take nothing but one programmer and one organizer to make it happen. What do you think? Any thoughts or ideas? I’m just thinking out loud. The idea is only a few minutes old, so be as critical as you want.
Because I wasn’t eager for new work or even new connections, not having a business card helped keep the less-interested people away.
I was easy enough to find. If someone wanted to contact me, they only had to go to my company website, and click “CONTACT”. But that step kept away most of the salesmen who just collect tons of business cards, scan them all in to their computer, then relentlessly spam those contacts for life.
But now, since I’m going to many conferences, and I’m not with my old company, I thought I should finally make cards again.
I wanted to do a creative design. Something to do with music. Not the normal business-card shape.
It didn’t have to be big. I don’t have a mailing address, and prefer not to get calls from people unless we’ve already emailed. So just my name, email, website, and maybe a short description of what I do. (“entrepreneur”)
Hmm…. What’s small, flat, and musical? I know! Guitar picks! (I remembered an Ian Rogers post from long ago.)
(sorry – only cellphone camera)
I had them done at Clayton Custom in Oregon, which was ridiculously fast, cheap, and easy.
If I see you at a conference, I’ll be glad to hand you my business card for the first time in years.
I got an email today from a 19-year old guitarist from Alabama who wants to be a session guitarist, is tempted to go to Musicians’ Institute in Hollywood, but is overwhelmed by the expense that would put him into debt for decades. He asked my advice, so here it is:
School won’t give you much you can’t give yourself, if you’re motivated. All the knowledge in the world is out there in books, CDs, and videos available for $0-$100.
You could be a disciplined mofo and dedicate yourself to 4 hours a day of intensely focused practice, devouring every instructional resource out there. Learn to play along with everything from jazz to bluegrass to classical to shredding metal. Study every guitarist you’ve ever heard of, and learn how to imitate them, so when someone says, “Give me a Jeff Beck style slow tremolo tearjerker,” or “We need a driving 12-string acoustic stomp like Leo Kottke with Busted Bicycle.” – then you know what they mean and how to do it.
Besides just imitating the virtuosos, you should be able to be a tasteful rhythm guitarist for many different genres, including samba, James Brown funk, Delta blues, dreamy new-age, etc.
All of this costs you almost nothing. You can do it at home while keeping a part-time job to save some money.
Give yourself a future goal, like “By my 21st birthday I’ll be able to play, note-for-note, the 3 definitive pieces by each of the top 50 guitarists across all different genres. And I will have saved $10,000.” Work your ass off to meet or surpass that goal.
Then on your 21st birthday, move to LA or NYC. Get a cheap apartment right in the middle of everything, and commit yourself to learning the social skills needed to be the guy that people call. It means a few hours a day of meeting everyone you can, being around the studios where people are hiring session musicians, being a good listener, being positive and helpful, keeping in touch, etc.
(I made a living as a session musician in NYC for a few years. I’m a good guitarist, but I swear the reason I kept getting called is I would find a way to appreciate whatever crap they played me, telling them that it’s awesome. It was a white lie but a good one, because people can be really insecure in the studio, and need encouragement.)
Be humble and constantly learning, understanding you’ve made a many-year-long commitment to mastery. Some may scoff at you for being the new kid in town, so agree with them, respect their experience, and make sure they know you’re committed. So few really are, that you’re sure to stand out.
Do some research to find out who the top session guitarists in town are, and find a way to meet them. Let them know they’re your role model and ask for advice. (Like you did with me, just now! Pays off, doesn’t it?)
Good luck. Let me know how it goes.
I know I’ve got some wise and experienced readers here, so if you have a minute: What advice would you give this kid? Please leave a reply in the comments, below.
When you hear someone complaining, here’s what it means:
1. They know what’s wrong, but don’t realize they can change it. (They think they’re powerless.)
2. They know what’s wrong, but are too lazy to change it. (They’d rather sit and complain.)
On the personal side, being a friend, I hate this. Because it’s a lot of work to make complainers realize they can change things. They always push back with all the reasons they can’t, which just reinforces the two points above.
On the business side, being an entrepreneur, I love this. Because I know I’m powerful and can change anything. Because every complaint is an opportunity. It’s fun to invent solutions to problems, turn ideas to reality, and watch my creations make the world a little better.
Then afterwards, on a personal note, I can say, “There! See? Told you it could change.”
Once you’ve moved a few times, packing and lugging piles of stuff you’ve acquired over the years, you can really appreciate the simple freedom of letting old stuff go, and refusing to acquire new stuff.
But minimalism is usually a quirk of the guilty affluent. Magazines about it sell well in expensive organic grocery stores. People without still want more.
I love open-source software.
Once you’ve felt trapped by expensive proprietary software lock-ins, you can really appreciate free open-source community-developed software like Firefox, Ubuntu, OpenOffice, GnuCash, GiMP.
But in many poor developing nations that seem like they’d need it most, attempts to integrate free software are refused, saying it’s cheating people out of learning the best software used in the developed world. (Interesting story about this, here.)
I love independent musicians.
Once you’ve tangled with the dirty politics and greed that run the business of massive fame, or felt the sick post-signing regret realizing the executive that owns your music is now your boss, you can really appreciate the “indie” world, where you can make a living owning your own music, and are your own boss.
But many musicians are still trying to get signed.
Getting past it:
With each example, I realized that getting to the more peaceful place means getting past the original goal. It’s only after you’ve had too much stuff, proprietary software lock-ins, or bad music biz dealings that you can appreciate the better option by comparison!
Which of course reminds me of many mistakes I’ve made in relationships, business, management or programming. I had to make the mistake to feel the pain and realize why it was a mistake.
Or did I?
We all know that through vivid storytelling (whether oral, written, or movies) you can feel you’ve experienced something, just by hearing it.
Maybe we need more vivid stories that can help people feel the pain of the mistake vicariously without having to make the mistake?
The reason I’m asking is that a musician friend emailed me two questions last week (December 2008):
How can I find a great/major booking agent?
And how can I find an investor? I need someone to invest $500,000 into my band for radio, touring, recording, videos, PR, payola, etc.
My answer was:
Sorry, but when it comes to this stuff, I think the healthiest attitude is the most cynical one:
There are no great agents that would want to take you on unless you’re already earning $5000 a month gigging, so that their 10% cut (only $500) would be worth their time.
There are absolutely no investors that would invest in a musician now. Even solid profitable businesses with customers and employees can’t find investors these days, (December 2008), so just assume you will not.
So: No agent. No investor. No one’s going to help you until you’re already successful. So how do you get successful with no help from anyone?
How can you make $5000/month from gigging, so that an agent will be interested enough to take it to the next level? Only you know.
How can you call so much attention to your music online, that a company will gamble on you, and finance the expensive offline campaign?
Those are the healthy questions to ask.
Unfortunately that’s not the answer he wanted.
To him, my answer was really discouraging.
To me, (if I was receiving that answer from someone else), it would be really encouraging.
I like being reminded that nobody’s going to help me – that it’s all up to me. It puts my focus back on the things I can control – not waiting for outside circumstances.
But it got me wondering: is that just me?
When you think that nobody’s going to help you, does that encourage you or discourage you?
I’m really interested to hear everyone’s honest answer. Please leave a reply in the comments here. Thanks!
Happiness is letting someone make you the villain.
When I was making my record, I hired a bassist. But listening back to his tracks afterwards, I decided to play bass myself instead. I’m glad I did, and love the results. But I hear he still hates me, 13 years later.
A writer in LA loved CD Baby, and kept insisting I hire him as a consultant, clearly wanting the association. After his many requests and my many refusals, he threatened to tell everyone CD Baby was a scam unless I hired him. I didn’t pay, so he’s been slamming me publicly for years now.
Some ex-girlfriends and ex-colleagues hate me. Some people I’ve never met write pages on their blog about how much they hate me.
Funny thing is : I’m happy to be the villain they need.
Some people can only feel right by making someone else wrong.
I know I’m doing good helpful work. I’m so filled with love that nothing gets me down. So I guess if anyone should be the villain, it should be me!
It doesn’t bother me, and noticing it doesn’t bother me reminds me how happy I really am.
So, bring it on, anyone. Project your frustrations on to me. I’m happy to be that for whoever needs it.
Being the cheap music-biz conference slut that I am, I’m often asked my advice for attending a conference. Here it is:
The Tao of promotion: it’s about them, not you
You know the way to be interesting to others is to be interested in them. (Why is this so hard for self-promoters to understand?)
So, the week before the conference, read “How to Talk to Anyone” or any book about how to be a great listener.
Then use the conference as your testing ground for your new listening skills. Get extremely interested in those around you. Think like an investigative reporter.
For each person you meet: how can you help them?
Turn to a stranger and say, “Hi. What do you do?”
Ask follow-up questions about how they got into that. What they love and hate about it. Ask why they came to the conference. Talk about non-work-stuff, too!
Notice your similarities. Appreciate your differences. Be very curious about their unique perspective. Learn from it.
Think of how you can help them. If you don’t know yet, keep asking questions.
(Sometimes the way to help someone is not what you’d expect! If they are painfully shy, maybe the best way you can help them is by introducing them to the next person you meet, or inviting them to dinner. If they are painfully popular, maybe they need your help to escape the crowd for a little peace and quiet.)
Get their business card. Take notes on the back of it as soon as the conversation is done.
Each night, before bed, enter everyone’s info into your computer, including your notes. (Trust me: it only takes 15 minutes, but it’s crucial to do it that night before you meet more people the next day!)
Send them one tiny email immediately, connecting the digital you to the physical you. (“Hi John. Nice to meet you today. I’m the one in red who also hates Björk. You were right about the burritos! I still want to see your Malaysia photos. Maybe see you at the wrap-up party tomorrow.”) Your email signature should have your full contact info.
By being sincerely interested in them, and actively trying to help them, they will likely be interested in you, and try to help you.
What about me?
Notice I said nothing about promoting your gig, your band, your service. You have to trust the Tao of promotion. This is about them, not you. Your promotion will come later.
When they do ask about you, have a very (VERY!) short but impressive summary of what you do, with one question-inducing curiosity. (“Songwriter of the Crunchy Frogs – the worst punk bluegrass band ever. We’re headlining the showcase tonight. Our singer milks horses.”)
Then seriously, I can’t emphasize this enough : SHUT UP after 3 sentences. Please. Stop there. Don’t pull out your CD. Don’t hand them a flyer. Wait for them to ask, or change the subject back to them if they don’t!
DO NOT push your crap on someone who isn’t asking for it. It’s the biggest turn-off of all. Because it shows you don’t understand the real point, which is…
REAL business is done in the follow-up, NOT the conference itself!
The conference itself is a mad blitz of distractions. Only use it for these initial connections, as described above.
Assume that anything you hand someone at a conference will be thrown out. So don’t do it, unless they ask.
Instead, if you want them to have something of yours, send it to them separately, afterwards.
The best time to get down to business is when they’re alone, back at their desk, a week or two after the conference, undistracted, and can give you their full one-on-one attention.
That’s when you want someone checking out what you have to offer: when they’re focused on you – looking at your site.
They’ll remember you as incredibly nice and a fascinating conversationalist. When they find out you’re also incredibly talented, they’ll feel they found you – not bombarded by you. (See “Leave ‘em Wanting More”.)
It’s ALL about the follow-up
After 15 years of 100-or-so conferences, I can tell you from experience that only about 1% of the people ever follow up. Therefore, 99% of them wasted their time. Please don’t be in that 99%.
It’s ALL about the follow-up. It’s ONLY about the follow-up. Remember this, and you’ll do well.
What was the first music you heard? Do you remember the mystery?
My first album, when I was 10 years old, was The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”. The crazy psychedelic sounds of “Only a Northern Song” and “It’s All Too Much”. The weird lyrics of “Hey Bulldog”. So freaky. I listened to it over and over before getting The White Album, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper’s.
Late-period Beatles were quite a lot of mystery for a 10-year old. (Imagine at 10, trying to understand the lyrics to “I Am the Walrus”.) After that I got into Led Zeppelin, a bunch of Birmingham heavy metal, (Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden), and plenty of others that were such a big dark mystery to a kid from Hinsdale, Illinois.
I still remember that as one of the most fascinating times in my life. I was completely obsessed with this mysterious music, spending hours a day, for years, wanting more, trying to figure it all out.
“Lyrics are best when they’re mysterious – like listening in to someone else’s phone conversation when the telephone wires have crossed. You don’t know the history or context. You don’t understand the references. So it draws you in even deeper, trying to understand.
If you’re too obvious and explain everything in your lyrics, you don’t get that mystery. So what I do is this:
Write out everything I’m thinking, everything I want to say, but then cross out every other line, and write the song using only what’s left, even though it doesn’t make total sense.”
Digg shows how to make intriguing titles
digg.com is a site where people share links to things they find interesting. Everyone votes-up the submissions they find most interesting, and the top-voted ones rise to the top of the chart each day.
So, since Digg is proof of what thousands of people find intriguing, you can use it to find inspiration for song titles or subjects. Usually the title of the link is most of what makes it irresistably clickable. Lists like “The 7 Most Terrifying Disney Movie Deaths” – or oddities like “Bit by shark and hit by car, athlete perseveres”.
Of course this is taken to extremes by TV news channels, when they give the early-evening teaser ad that says, “Could something in your house right now be killing you as we speak? Find out later tonight on Channel 9 News!”
Are you making mystery?
Can you create music that’s even strange and mysterious to yourself?
Can you make a song title (or band name, or album title) that’s irresistably clickable?
Does the first line of one of your songs ask a question that the listener needs to know the answer to?
Does your music seduce people to the point where they start searching?
Not just the music itself, but your images/artwork/communication around it?
Can you make your listeners actually ask themselves a question about you, trying to figure you out?
Every other expert on the show is laughing out loud (literally), scoffing at him, saying that’s the most ridiculous thing ever. (Then watch those same experts make predictions about 2008 that could not have been more wrong.)
For all you musicians and entrepreneurs who are used to having people tell you your plan, band, or company will never work, let this be a great reminder of what real rebellion feels like, and how sweet it is when everyone else is wrong.
For each lesson, I’d bring in one song I was trying to improve.
First, I’d sing it for him as-is.
Then he’d say, “OK – now do it up an octave.”
“Uh… up an octave?”
“Yes! Go! 1.. 2.. 3.. 4..”
I’d sing the whole song again, in screeching squeaking falsetto, sounding like an undead cartoon mouse. But by the second half of the song, it was almost charming.
Then he’d say, “OK – now do it down an octave.”
“Down an octave? But I don’t think I can!”
“Let’s try! Go! 1.. 2.. 3.. 4..”
Have you ever tried to sing lower than your voice really goes? Mine sounded like a garbage disposal or lawn mower, but he kept saying, “Pitch!” – and the point was the control of the vocal chords down in that chaotic range and the intense focus it takes to hear the pitch in a creak.
Then he’d say, “OK. Back to normal pitch, but double-time! 1!2!3!4!”
I’d sing the whole song twice as fast, which brought out different rhythmic phrasing and articulation challenges.
Then he’d say, “OK. Relax. Now do it half-speed. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . .”
Singing a song half-speed really brings a microscope to its details!
Now sing it like Bob Dylan. Go! Now Björk. Go! Tom Waits! Go!
Now sing it like I just woke you up at 4am. Now like it’s a chant at a football game!
We’d end with me singing the song at its original speed in my normal voice, like I did the very first time. But of course it sounded different – like seeing your home town after being away for years.
If you care about a song, it’s worth an hour of experimentation. Realizing the initial choices you made are just one of many brings all kinds of weathered wisdom and perspective to your song.
Business:
I’m taking an entrepreneurship class now. I’ve never studied business before.
We analyzed a business plan for a mail-order pantyhose company.
After reading the whole thing, I felt like my old voice teacher:
“OK – make a plan that only requires $1000. Go!”
“Now make a plan for 10-times as many customers. Go!”
“Now do it without a website. Go!”
“Now make all your initial assumptions wrong, and have it work anyway. Go!”
“Now show how you would franchise it. Go!”
You can’t pretend there’s only one way to do it! No business goes as planned, so make 10 radically different plans.
Realizing the initial choices you made are just one of many brings all kinds of weathered wisdom and insight into your business.
Life:
Now you’re living in New York City, obsessed with success. Go!
Now you’re a free spirit, backpacking around Thailand. Go!
Now you’re a confident extrovert and everyone loves you. Go!
Now you’re married and your kids are your life. Go!
Now you spend a few years in relative seclusion, reading and walking. Go!
… bringing all kinds of weathered wisdom and perspective into your life.
I’m trying to understand self-identity and native accents in a foreign country.
My friend Aurelie from Paris has a beautiful French accent, so when she orders a ham sandwich in English it sounds like, “Allo, good I ove an om sondweech, pleece?” Even though she’s lived in New York for 15 years, her accent is as strong as ever.
When I was in Paris, I met a man who’d been living there 20 years, but still had this strong American cowboy twang when he’d say, “Donny-mwa un sandwich doo jam-bone, see voo play.”
(Sorry – it’s hard to type accents.)
When I heard the ugly American accent speaking French, I thought, “Can’t you hear yourself? Can’t you hear you sound nothing like them? You’re saying it all wrong!” He’s saying the correct syllables, but with the wrong accent it sounds ridiculous.
Then I thought of my friend Aurelie, and realized it’s no different.
This guy may be in France, but obviously holds strongly to his identity as an American, so he’ll say the words correctly, but keep the American twang that he knows as his voice. Aurelie still clearly identifies as French, just living in New York for now.
If you asked either of them to imitate a native, they can pull off a convincing American or French accent, but do it mockingly and laugh afterwards, because “that’s not me!”
Then I think of my ex from Sweden, who moved to America to be with me. When we first met, she had a strong accent, but almost immediately her accent became totally 100% California, which matched her self-image as a girl who was born in Sweden but is quite American now.
Does Governor Schwartzenegger still feel Austrian? Or is he just living up to the public image of him with his strong accent, now, where changing would feel ridiculous?
I don’t know much besides English. A tiny bit of French, Japanese, Spanish, and Mandarin. But it seems the first thing I’d want to do with my first 100 words is to imitate the accent completely, to get that sound in my mouth, to sound as native as I can, which would build my identity and confidence of, “I don’t know much yet – but I sound good,” – then take that confidence to learn new words.
More succinctly put : identity first, words second.
Anyone reading this living in a country where you have a strong foreign accent?
Anyone successfully changed your original accent to sound like the natives in your new home?
Any insight into this accent-identity thing or accent-adoption thing? Please leave a comment, below, if you have a minute. I’m really curious about this.
If even ultimate insiders like Greenspan, Bernanke, and Paulson don’t know the future, then neither does Jim Cramer, your stockbroker, Nostradamus, nor you.
We have a human need for certainty that desperately yearns to believe that someone can turn our future from unknown to known.
Even if we logically understand that it’s impossible, we’re emotionally sucked back in and fooled again when someone important tells us with such conviction what the future will hold.
But nobody knows the future.
Some people predict so many things, so when the random future lands on their number they can say, “See! I told you!” But how many times did they say so, and it didn’t come true? (Like the joke, “He correctly predicted 12 of the last 3 recessions.”)
Our pleasure-seeking brains remember the times in our past when we were right, and forget when we were wrong. So it’s easy to think we’re smarter than we are.
Every time I speak on a panel, the moderator has to ask, “What’s the future of the music business?”
My first thought is always, “Nobody knows. Anyone who pretends to know is not to be trusted.” (And, even the ultimate insiders, the heads of every major record label, got it wrong.)
But then my thoughts turn to whoever is asking the question.
Why should it matter what anyone says?
Realistically, what would you change about what you’re doing, day-to-day?
And so it comes back to fundamentals.
Just like we know there will be gravity, and water will still be wet, there are laws that don’t depend on predicting the future.
You know that people love a memorable melody.
You can’t know what instrumentation or production-values will be in vogue.
You know that people prefer people who make an emotional connection with them.
You can’t know what technology will carry that communication.
You know that writing lots of songs increases your chances of writing a hit.
You can’t know which song will be a hit.
So the best thing to do instead of predicting the future is to focus on the fundamentals that never fluctuate.
If you’re a songwriter, write at least a song a week, always aiming for a memorable melody and words that make an emotional connection.
If you’re a performer, make weekly improvements on your ability to captivate an audience, and make a goal of really connecting with 10 new people every week.
The details are unique to you, and will change constantly. But the real point will never change.
A. I’m reasonably happy, but the money’s not the point. It’s an indication that I’ve succeeded in the grand adventure of understanding reality.
Ah… I love the way he puts that.
For him it’s investing. For others it’s songwriting. For me it’s creating businesses that help musicians.
It all feels like a grand pursuit to understand the world, doesn’t it?
Songwriting feels like a grand pursuit of expressing the sounds and thoughts in your head within music’s restrictions. Also, understanding the secret combination that makes the difference between an average song and an unforgettable classic.
Programming feels like a grand pursuit of using a limited language to make the clearest, foolproof, flexible, and efficient execution of a task.
When I posted my book list a few days ago, I got a lot of criticism for being too obsessed with non-fiction. Yes, I’m a learning addict. The owner of the world’s longest attention span. It actually took some guts to post my book list publicly, admitting I’ve enjoyed nerdy books on investing and accounting. Still obsessed with the grand adventure of understanding reality. In the last 8 days I read (and finished):
But that’s one of the best things in life, right? Do whatever excites you. Always learning and growing.
So, those are mine, but what’s YOUR grand pursuit? I’m sincerely curious to hear others’ stories. Please leave a reply in the comments at sivers.org/grand-pursuit.
In the book Predictably Irrational, tests show that people do the same thing with prices.
When we first consider buying a product or service, the first price we see is the anchor to which we always refer. Cheaper than that seems cheap, and more expensive than that seems expensive.
I noticed this when I moved from New York to Portland. Everything seemed so cheap! In New York City a little 1-bedroom apartment would cost $1,000,000, while in Portland a nice 3-bedroom house with a yard would cost $150,000. Amazing!
Then I’d hear people complain how expensive Portland was – because they had moved there from even-cheaper places like Idaho or southern Oregon. I had anchored to New York City prices, but they had anchored to Idaho prices.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting…
From 3000 B.C. until 1990 A.D., a cup of coffee had historically always been under a dollar.
So how did Starbucks successfully start charging $4 per cup? How did they get people to switch their price-anchor to consider $4 a normal (not expensive) price for a cup of coffee?
They made sure it was such a different experience, that you could not directly compare it to your previous coffee-buying experience.
They focused on ambience, to make it feel like a continental coffeehouse. Instead of small, medium, large, you say short, tall, grande, venti. They made drinks with expensive-sounding names like Caffé Americano, Caffé Misto, and Frappuchino.
They did everything they could to make the experience feel so different that you would not use the regular “cuppa joe at the diner” as an anchor, but instead would be open to a brand new anchor.
This is what Cirque du Soleil did for circuses, too. You’d hardly think to compare it to the old Ringling Brothers circus with its sticky-coke-covered benches and dumb clowns selling popcorn in the aisles.
This doesn’t always have to move upscale, either. One old-fashioned traditional CD distributor complained that CD Baby wrecked his distribution business, since potential clients would now ask him why it cost more than $35, why he couldn’t pay them every week, and couldn’t show them the name and address of everyone who bought their CD!
So how does this apply to you?
Can you say that your product or service is cheaper-than, more-expensive-than, or about-the-same-as the average price for your product or service from competitors?
If so, can you instead imagine doing something so different that your answer to that question is, “What competitors? There’s nobody doing anything like this!”
Instead of being yet-another wedding band, maybe you become a unique service that writes a custom song for each member of the wedding party and family.
Question: “Should I put my music on LOTS of websites, or just a few?”
Answer: Lots. Here’s why:
Millions of people love Rhapsody. They get all of their music at Rhapsody, so if you’re not there, and they search for you, they will shrug and listen to something else instead. You might have just forever lost a potential new fan.
Millions of people love last.fm. They get all of their music at last.fm, so if you’re not there, and they search for you, same thing. Oh well.
Same with iTunes. Same with eMusic. Same with a dozen different sites.
For me, last year, it was Yahoo Music. I had this amazing little Sansa Connect that was hard-wired to work only with Yahoo Music. I loved this little device and it’s where I did all of my listening.
When someone would say, “Hey you should check out Joanna Newsom,” (for example) I’d search for her, and there she was. Cool! I love it. I’m a huge fan now.
But if someone told me to check out an artist, and they weren’t found on Yahoo Music, well… hm… I’d mean to check them out, but usually wouldn’t get to it, since this little Sansa Connect player was glued to my ears full-time.
Since the moment passed, I forgot their name.
I’ve met many people who are this same way with Last.fm or Rhapsody or iTunes or MySpace or… whatever. (Alas, Yahoo Music Unlimited is no more, and my Sansa Connect is now worthless.)
Point is : just tell your distributor to do them all. There’s no reason not to.
Being un-available on one will not necessarily drive people to leave their favorite music site and go search for you somewhere else. There’s a good chance they might just shrug and forget.
People often asked, “How much does the average artist on CD Baby sell?”
Others would take the numbers on the “about” page and divide them: $85 million paid out to 250,000 available albums = $340 earnings per album. Now we know how much the “average” album sells!
Problem is: the numbers are right but the answer is wrong because it groups together two completely different types of approaches to an album release, giving an inaccurate average for your type.
For some artists, releasing an album is like the starting line in a race. The gun goes off! They work it! They spend hours a day pushing, promoting, selling, striving. For the next few months, they never stop. Reaching new people by any means necessary, whether playing live for strangers in strange venues many times a week, or joining new communities online.
For those types, I’d say the average income (through my one little store) was $5000. (And 50 of them earned over $100,000 each.)
But for many artists, releasing an album is like the finish line in a race. They’ve always wanted to make a record. They did it. It’s done. They give some for free to friends and family, and glow in the compliments. They might do a record release concert and make a website, but in terms of effort spent, they’re done. (Sometimes from satisfaction, but sometimes from entitlement: “Now that my brilliant album is done the world will recognize my genius!”)
For those types, I’d say the average income was $20.
The people who would ask about the average were usually artists trying to predict how well they would sell on CD Baby.
Because 50% of all sales on CD Baby were returning customers just browsing for new music, it was possible to sell a few albums without doing anything at all.
But the important thing is it’s up to you which kind of approach you want to take.
After reading The Art of Learning, I was thinking of mastery : committing yourself to years of achieving mastery of one single thing.
My first thought was computer programming, but that didn’t feel fulfilling enough. I enjoy it, but only as a means to a different goal.
Then I realized the thing I could really commit myself to a lifetime pursuit of mastery is entrepreneurship. It satisfies me on every level – much more for personal and altruistic reasons than financial.
But – what the hell is mastery of entrepreneurship? Starting one successful company? Ten? Or is it something else entirely? There’s no championship, no finish line, especially since happiness is a crucial barometer.
And if entrepreneurship is about creating a new company, then focusing on that means starting a company, getting it to proof of success, but not getting involved with ongoing management, since management is a different skill. The focused entrepreneur should then start a new company.
The Art of Learning talks a lot about mastering the simple skills one at a time (“making smaller circles”).
In his chess examples, he would spend weeks competing with his teacher with only 2 pieces on the board, to thoroughly understand strategy with just those 2 pieces.
In his Tai Chi examples, he would spend hours a day for days or weeks on end, just doing one simple arm extension.
But what are the building block ingredients to entrepreneurship? Coming up with ideas? Turning rough ideas into a specific written plan? Turning plans into a working system and specific goals? Working with people to ensure those goals are met?
Sorry I’m all questions and no answers today, but I’m really curious to hear your thoughts. Please leave any thoughts in the comment box, below. Thanks!
Have you noticed how a small action can change your self-identity?
Last week when I was learning scuba diving in Iceland, I took a snorkeling trip to my dive spot first. The snorkelers did everything the divers did, minus the tank and weights.
So a week later, when I returned to dive for real, I felt a little like an assistant teacher. I was helping the other tourists who had never been there before, showing them where to go, and helping them rinse their masks.
Even though the day before, I wasn’t very confident about my diving skills (I had just got my scuba certification that day), taking on this role of assistant-teacher made me feel a bit like an expert. By the time I got in the water, I was confident and excited. (An hour later, I helped a panic-stricken diver get to the surface, really cementing this feeling.)
I think back about the other tiny actions that changed my self-identity.
When I joined the circus at 18, I was unable to sleep in moving vehicles, so I became the designated driver of the circus truck. Having this role made me feel in charge, so I acted in charge, so I became in charge. After used to being the leader in this small way, I ended up being band-leader of all my bands after that, then starting my own company. It just felt like, “Well, that’s who I am,” but how much of that was due to a decision to drive the circus truck?
When I was 22, my girlfriend’s hippie parents (and the book Island by Aldous Huxley) inspired me to quit my safe and happy job at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, and to never have a job again. I was now an entrepreneur, committed to creating a living from my own ventures.
Hm, well, maybe that last one wasn’t small, but the one action of quitting my job became some kind of proof that I’m the type that avoids my comfort zone to step into the unknown.
Recently, when I quit my company and was riding a scooter around Vietnam, a long-lost friend called out of the blue. When I told him what I was doing he just said, “Yep. That sounds like you!”
Based on what?
A series of small actions I’ve taken along the way, I guess. I could have just as easily made a single different decision earlier at 17, and be married with kids teaching guitar lessons in Chicago quite happily.
Talking to a beautiful stranger.
Helping someone in need.
Starting a band.
Like those life-changing coincidences – (how did you meet your spouse?) – taking a small action can snowball into huge changes that create a new you.
Talk I gave to incoming first-year students at Berklee College of Music today (September 5, 2008)
#1 : Focus. Disconnect. Do not be distracted.
My favorite part of the movies is the training sequence, where a young Bruce Wayne, Neo or Kung-Fu Panda goes to a remote location to be trained relentlessly, nonstop, past all breaking points, until they emerge as a master.
The next few years can be your training sequence, if you focus.
Unfortunately you’re not in Siberia. You’re surrounded by distractions.
You’re surrounded by cool tempting people, hanging out casually, telling you to relax.
But the casual ones end up having casual talent and merely casual lives.
Looking back, my only Berklee classmates that got successful were the ones who were fiercely focused, determined, and undistractable.
While you’re here, presidents will change, the world will change, and the media will try to convince you how important it all is.
But it’s not. None of it matters to you now.
You are being tested.
Your enemy is distraction.
Stay offline. Shut off your computer. Stay in the shed.
When you emerge in a few years, you can ask someone what you missed, and you’ll find it can be summed up in a few minutes.
The rest was noise you’ll be proud you avoided.
Focus. Disconnect. Do not be distracted.
This is your #1 most important challenge. If you master focus, you will be in control of your world. If you don’t, it will control you.
#2 : Do not accept their speed limit.
You don’t get extreme results without extreme actions.
Berklee classes set a pace the average student can keep.
If you want to be above average, you must push yourself to do more than required.
There’s a martial arts saying, “When you are not practicing, someone else is. When you meet him, he will win.”
If you are a writer, you should not only write a song a week, but spend twice as long improving it as you do writing it.
Inspiration is a good start, but it’s the diligence to make every note and every word perfect, that will really set you apart.
Luckily, when I was 17, a few months before starting Berklee, I met a man named Kimo Williams who used to teach at Berklee and convinced me that the standard pace is for chumps.
In just 3 intensive lessons, he taught me 3 semesters of Berklee harmony, so on opening day I started in Harmony 4.
In one intensive lesson, he taught me the whole semester of Arranging 1.
Then I learned I could buy the book for a course I wasn’t enrolled in, and do all the examples myself, without even needing to attend the class. I could approach the department head and take the final exam for full credit. I did this for all the other requirements like Arranging 2, and traditional counterpoint classes.
I graduated Berklee in 2-and-a-half years.
Do not accept their speed limit.
Blow away expectations.
#3 : Nobody will teach you anything. You have to teach yourself.
When I first arrived at Berklee, I was disappointed. My teachers weren’t teaching me. I almost dropped out.
I went home to Chicago and got accepted to Northwestern University. Then I realized their music program was more about memorizing the name of Bach’s many children.
So I came back to Berklee with gusto. I decided to squeeze every bit of knowledge out of this place. Nobody was going to do it for me.
Do not expect the teachers to teach you.
They will present some information to you, but it is entirely 100% up to you to either make the most of it, or waste your time here, and go home and get a normal dumb job.
Berklee is like a library.
Everything you need to know is here for the taking.
It’s the best possible environment for you to master your music.
But nobody will teach you anything. You have to teach yourself.
#4 : Learn from your heroes, not only theirs.
When I was here, I wanted to be a great songwriter, among other things.
Berklee’s songwriting courses are amazing! I learned so much about song crafting that made me look at all of my favorite music with a whole new insight, and forever improved my own writing.
But… I remember a lyric writing teacher saying a good lyric needs to use all 5 senses. He’d say, “Don’t just mention your grandmother. Describe the veins on the back of her hands. Don’t just mention a bedroom. Describe the smell of the dust on the curtains and the sound of the creaky stairs.”
So for years I thought every lyric I wrote was crap unless it described all 5 senses.
Then finally I noticed that my favorite songs by Nirvana or Talking Heads were abstract collages of evocative nonsense.
My favorite glitchy electronic music by Björk is nothing they’d ever teach in a Rock Arranging For Live Performance 1 class.
So I finally realized the one important point I missed while here, that I hope you don’t forget.
The teachers are taking their favorite music and using it to teach you techniques.
Learn and appreciate those techniques. They’re great.
But if you only learn the techniques they teach you, you’re only learning their favorite music.
Never think their heroes are better than yours.
You’ll hear a lot about the greats, but whatever you love is great, too.
The same way they will break apart a Shania Twain hit song or a classic Charlie Parker solo to teach you the craft inside, you must learn how to break apart your favorite music and analyze it.
I finally analyzed my favorite Nirvana and Talking Heads lyrics. Finally analyzed the glitches and growls in Björk’s music.
Distilled their ingredients for my own re-use.
Learn from your heroes, not only theirs.
#5 : Don’t get stuck in the past.
While at Berklee, I felt I had to learn Donna Lee, the old bebop jazz standard, to be a good musician.
Got a great gig going to Japan for a month with Victor Bailey on bass.
Here’s one of the best bassists ever, who’s played with Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Sonny Rollins, Sting, and more.
He heard me playing Donna Lee a bit, and said, “Man – jazz was all about inventing something new. For a musician 50 years later to be stuck in the 1950s would be like a 1950s musician being stuck in the 1900s. There’s nothing cool about that.”
A couple weeks later I was at the piano quietly working on one of my own songs, and for the first time he said, “Hey – wow – what is that? That’s great, man. Can you show me?”
Innovation is needed more than imitation.
Don’t get stuck in the past.
#6 : When done, be valuable.
While you’re here, stay locked in the shed.
Enjoy this wonderful isolation, with no responsibility but to improve yourself.
But when you leave here, head to the business aisle of the bookstore and start reading a book a week about entrepreneurial things like marketing.
Never underestimate the importance of making money making music.
Let go of any weird taboos you have about it.
Money is nothing more than neutral proof that you’re adding value to people’s lives.
Making sure you’re making money is just a way of making sure you’re doing something of value to others.
Remember that this usually comes from doing the things that most people don’t do.
For example : how much does the world pay people to play video games? Nothing, because everyone does it.
How much does the world pay people to make video games? A ton, because very few can do it, and lots of people want it.
…
Be one of the few that is clever enough to make money making music instead of pretending it doesn’t matter.
Be one of the few that has the guts to do something shocking.
Be one of the few that takes your lessons here as a starting point, and pushes yourself to do more with what you learn.
Be one of the few that knows how to help yourself, instead of expecting for others to do it for you.
Be one of the few that does much more than is required.
And most importantly, be one of the few that stays in the shed to practice, while everyone else is surfing the net, flirting on MySpace, and watching TV.
In China, some doctors are paid monthly when you are healthy. If you are sick, it’s their fault, so you don’t have to pay that month. It’s their goal to get you healthy and keep you healthy so they can get paid.
Shai Agassi of Better Place designed a business model for electric cars where the car is given away for free because the company makes its profit on the electricity and battery maintenance.
Services like Rhapsody aim to let you listen to any song ever recorded, any time you want, on any device anywhere in the world, for free – as long as you pay their small monthly subscription fee. This challenges the whole assumption that we need to own copies of recordings at all!
FreeConferenceCall gets their income from the phone companies instead of their customers, because they know which phone company each person is using to call them. So they negotiated an affiliate payment for generating more long-distance calls for each phone company.
In the 70s, IBM let Microsoft make the operating system for their computers because software was just the free stuff that came on the expensive hardware. In the 90s, it looked like the hardware was going to become free because all the money was in the expensive (Windows, Office, Photoshop) software. Now Google makes it seem like the software will be free, too, just to get you into their advertising network.
Professor Dan Ariely told his class that he would be doing a reading of poetry, but didn’t know what it should cost. He handed out a price survey to all students, but secretly half of the surveys asked if they’d be willing to pay $10 to hear him read, and the other half asked if they’d be willing to hear him read if he paid them $10!
Those who got the question about paying him were willing to pay. They offered to pay, on average, $1, $2, $3 for short, medium, long readings.
Those who got the question about being paid demanded payment. They wanted to be paid, on average, $1.30, $2.70, $4.80 for short, medium, long readings.
An entire business model flipped upside down just by starting with an opposite assumption. I love it.
What assumptions are you running on?
Are there things you assume you have to pay for, that might instead be willing to pay you?
What current business models might as well be flipped around, or get their income from a different source?
There’s a beautiful quote from Abraham Maslow: “Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.”
You might have seen in CD Baby’s 10th birthday announcement last March that I haven’t worked at CD Baby since last year. In fact I’ve hardly been there since 2002. I designed all the internal systems to run without me, so that I could be free to go learn and invent new things.
But now my new projects are exciting me so much that I decided to hand over CD Baby to someone that’s going to make it better than ever for you. I chose Disc Makers as the new owner because their president Tony Van Veen has been one of my favorite people for years, and I always felt they’d do a better job of running CD Baby than I would.
The CD Baby staff, location, name, and everything else will stay the same, but I think you’ll start to notice more attention given to improvements that help you sell more music.
So, this isn’t big news. Just letting you know that CD Baby is in better hands now, and I’m off to new things.
The real question is: How much of your potential audience are you willing to exclude?
We’re in transitional times. A lot of people have iPods. But most still don’t. A lot of people get all their music online. But most still don’t.
If you decide not to put your music on iTunes or Rhapsody – (say, if you have cover songs and don’t want to bother with the paperwork) – your music will never be heard by the millions that get all their music on iTunes or Rhapsody.
But if you decide not to have your music on CD, your music will never be heard by the millions that still do all their listening on CD. (Even if they listen to streaming clips while sitting at their computer, they do all their real listening in the car, or on the home stereo.)
So the answer for 2008 is : if you’re serious about being a professional musician, you need to do both.
If you’re just playing around, and never expect even 100 people to want your music, then just upload to MySpace like everyone else does, and don’t make a CD.
But in these long-tail days with over a million bands on MySpace, having a professional CD – a beautifully designed and manufactured CD – really sets you apart and shows you’re serious to anyone in the music industry receiving your CD. Investing $1000 into manufacturing CDs shows that you plan to make at least $1000 selling them. Not spending the $1000 is like saying, “I don’t think I’ll ever make $1000 doing this.” Then you wonder why a booking agent or label is not interested?
To close with a telling example:
When visiting Apple iTunes, I had lunch with the guy who’s in charge of independent music editorial – the one who chooses who gets featured placement.
I asked him, “What’s the best way for me to turn you on to something I think you’ll love?”
His answer? “Send me the CD.”
I said, “Uh.. really? What if it’s already on iTunes? Shouldn’t I just send you the link?”
He said, “Yeah. I commute an hour each way to Apple’s office. I do all my real listening in the car, so I need the CD.”
Something’s changed. I just can’t get myself to buy an iPhone.
I had been planning it for months, when friends would tell me about theirs, I knew I was going to wait for the 3G version. It’s even the reason I chose AT&T. The day it was announced I thought, “Yes! Finally! July 9! Can’t wait!”
But luckily I had time to think, between announcement-date and availability-date. And as time went on, I wanted it less and less. I realized my existing phone works just fine.
Maybe it was the amazing Story of Stuff video that made me realize that every manufactured thing creates a ton of waste just to make.
Every item is now judged harshly as a major burden that better have a damn good explanation why I should carry it around with me everywhere as I travel.
After my amazing time riding a motorcycle around Vietnam, you might think I’d want to buy a motorcycle, but no – then I’d have to OWN it. (Say the word “own” with your most disgusted po-faced tone.)
Wouldn’t it be more fun to never have to OWN anything, but to just have it when you need it?
I did an interview today with Diana from savethesongwriter.com, and she said it was OK to republish some of it here:
Q. Not every good performer is a good writer, nor is every good writer a good performer. Do you have any suggestions as to how a writer (i.e. lyricist and/or composer) should proceed in order to get their songs covered?
First, figure out exactly who should be recording your song. Do your research and find out what songs that artist has recorded by other writers. Then Google those songwriters and song titles to see if interviews have revealed how that writer got that cut.
If nothing is found online, ask Diana if you can contact the writer in the name of savethesongwriter.com to interview them about how that artist chose to record their song.
Once you’ve done this research (which really only took you an hour, tops) write down at least five different ways you can reach this artist the way they like to be reached. Don’t stop at one idea. Come up with five and do at least three of them. Persistence really pays off.
Q. While becoming known is a desireable goal for a performer, many excellent songwriters will never be famous, nor is that necessarily a goal. How do you suggest a songwriter proceed in order to have their songs covered and develop a source of income?
Be where music is being made.
I used to work at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing in New York City. One of our most successful writers was only a lyrics-and-melody guy. So he would hang out at studios where many of the producer types, especially in R&B, had leftover grooves and tracks that they had never turned into songs. He’d just say, “Toss me your leftovers. Let me see if I can turn it into something even more valuable for you. If you don’t like my ideas, no problem, it’s still your track.” He’d just take home a copy of their groove/track for the night and sing to it, seeing if he could turn into into a cool song. About one out of every five songs he co-wrote like this was impressive enough that the producer liked it, and would often get it cut by whatever artist he was working with.
On the flip side, if you’re more of a music-only person, not so into writing lyrics or melodies, co-write with recording artists, letting them come up with the words and melody to your tracks. They’ll be happier with that because they can sing words they wrote, and the song is almost sure to be cut that way.
Q: What words of advice do you have for the new, up-and-coming songwriter?
Commit to constantly improving.
Don’t think your songs are etched in stone. Every song can be improved. Changing a single note or word can make or break a song.
Never underestimate the power of an arrangement. Prince’s song “Kiss” is loved by millions because it had such a unique arrangement. If it had been a typical bar-band blues arrangement (the chords are just a I-IV-V blues) – it would have been unimpressive.
Maybe you’ve got great songs that aren’t getting the attention they deserve because you didn’t continue your creativity into the arrangement and instrumentation. People think they can hear though things like that, but they usually can’t, so it’s up to the writer. Maybe try never calling a song done until you’ve recorded it in five radically different arrangements.
Which comes to the last point : have a home studio. If you need to spend a ton of money at someone else’s studio every time you want to record your songs, it’ll hold you back. Spending just $1000 on equipment (decent mic, compressor, input adaptor, and software), then taking even 10 hours to learn how to run your home multi-track studio setup well, will pay off immensely.
I often get questions like, “Can you recommend a good distributor for classical music?” or “Do you know a good publicist for hip-hop?”
I try to help, but always realize I’m the wrong person to ask.
If you want to find a good classical distributor, go to the record store in your area that sells the most classical music, and ask them what distributors they love. Ask friends in other parts of the country (or world) to do the same. Then contact those distributors, saying those record stores recommended them. (It’s always a good way to break the ice.)
To find a good publicist for hip-hop, go pick up a bunch of hip-hop magazines that you’d like to be in, notice which new artists are getting a lot of press, and just do some online research to find out who their publicist is. Or contact the magazine offices directly, ask for the editorial department, and ask which publicists they’d recommend.
It’s always best to get recommendations directly from the source. I’ve written about this before in “Call the Destination and Ask for Directions”, but thought it was worth mentioning again for this related scenario.
A Wired magazine article called “Snacklash” explains that in a world of bite-sized entertainment from YouTube, 50-hour-long dramas like The Sopranos, Lost, or 24 are more popular than ever.
Increasing effectiveness of using anything-but-email to reach people. (Phone, SMS, snail mail, Facebook message.)
ACTION:
The push to make recorded music free.
REACTION:
Reaching people who are happy to spend money to show their dedication to an artist. (One of CD Baby’s top-sellers costs $150. Many of david m. bailey’s fans buy all of his albums at once, at a cost of $233.)
ACTION:
Customized entertainment online, where you only see/hear what you want to see/hear. (Pandora, Last.fm, etc.)
REACTION:
The luxury of someone else choosing your entertainment, based on what they think you need to see/hear. (It’s healthy to hear other points of view.)
ACTION:
Social network, where hundreds of people you’ve never met are called “friends”.
REACTION:
Anti-social network, a secret site where you can’t see who else is on there unless you’ve privately communicated a shared password. Then your “friends” can be your real friends, and you can have a better (private) conversation. (No this doesn’t exist yet, but that’s part of the fun of this action-reaction thing : using it to imagine what should exist.)
Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, said (via the Wikinomics blog), “If you are looking for a career where your services will be in high demand, you should find something where you provide a scarce, complementary service to something that is getting ubiquitous and cheap. So what’s getting ubiquitous and cheap? And what is complementary to that?”
From 1995-1998 I made my full-time living playing at colleges. Got hired by over 350 schools for about $300,000 (gross, not net) on the East coast (from Florida to Maine, as far west as Arkansas.)
I’ll try to put into one article, here, every bit of advice or wisdom I could share with my fellow musicians, from my experience. (Disclaimer: These are my opinions and observations from my unique experience only! Others may disagree. Also, this advice is 10 years old, so I’d love it if you could leave a comment at sivers.org/college saying how things have changed.)
Who does the hiring at colleges
One thing to get straight: don’t confuse college radio with college gigs. The kids that run college radio are the real music fans. The ones deeply into music for music’s sake. But the ones with the big budgets for entertainment and activities are called the “Student Activities Office”.
These are usually made up of the girls in pink sweaters who won the election for Class Treasurer in high school. (Think Reese Witherspoon in the movie “Election”.) It’s a very play-it-safe environment because they want everyone (yes every last person) to be happy, so they can get re-elected.
This means that the Student Activities Office wants to hire the most fun, safe, lively, crowd-pleasing entertainment possible. Whether it’s a hypnotist, comedian, rubber sumo-wrestling suits, the guy that brings the exotic lizards, a famous talk-show host, hot-wax hands, a magician, or musician – they just want entertainment.
When approaching them, you need to emphasize what a safe bet you are. Your marketing should be filled with testimonial quotes like:
“One of the finest performances we’ve had here all year!” – the College of St.Angus.
“…the crowd couldn’t stop laughing at his lyrics!” – the Thirsty Whale.
“A real joy to work with – we can’t wait to have her back!” – Siberian Sunbathers’ Convention.
Your bio should mention all the awards you’ve won, and what big-mainstream-media sources have also recognized your talent.
It’s not glamorous
Ask anyone who’s done over a dozen college gigs without a big track record. You often play at lunchtime for a depressing cafeteria of stressed-out students who are trying to study, and scowl at you for disturbing them. But at least you get paid afterwards. Some actual situations I’ve had:
Their contract said they had an adequate P.A. system but it turned out to be a tiny microphone that plugs into the wall for the principal to address all classrooms. (I did the gig anyway, and sang into it.)
We drove 22 hours for a $4500 gig in Arkansas, but they forgot we were coming, so we played to 8 people in a backyard in 40-degree weather. (Fingers numb.)
In a big echoey gymnasium, having to set up next to the noisy cotton-candy machine, because that’s the only power outlet in the room.
An example
See my diary from two typical weeks on the road, here.
It’s not a perfectly-scheduled tour
The idea of a real “tour”, where you cross the country in a perfect line, rarely happens. The way I was able to make a full-time living out of it was by saying yes to everything.
Ohio on April 8.
Connecticut on April 9th.
Michigan on April 10th.
Maine on April 11th. No problem!
Play for 2 hours. Drive for 14. Play for 2. Drive for 16. Repeat and fade….
Another scenario: You live in New York. You mail your flyer to colleges from Florida to Maine, imagining a nice long tour. Instead you only book two gigs: one from South Carolina, one from New Hampshire.
Because of this, doing the college circuit on the East Coast is a lot easier than doing the West Coast. There are 500 colleges within an 8-hour drive of New York City.
But you’re a road-dog, right?
You can perform in any situation, right?
Your guitarist quits the night before a gig, and you’ve got another guitarist to take her place, right?
You’ve got enough money to pay for your own transportation and hotel both ways, in case something goes wrong, right?
After driving 14 hours, you’re clean, lively, and friendly, right?
When they change their mind at the last minute, and want you to perform at 11am instead of 11pm, you roll with it, right?
When the drunk frat boys heckle you, and run their “play some Skynrd!” joke into the ground, you keep your cool and do your best show possible anyway, right?
You know plenty of crowd-pleasing cover songs for emergencies, right?
You’ve played in the cold with numb fingers, sang full-voice at 9am, and can do three 2-hour shows with no break in one day, right?
If not, prima donna, this is not for you.
They usually book long in advance
Rule of thumb: they book the Spring semester in the Fall, and the Fall semester in the Spring.
Exceptions: I always booked a lot of April shows in February, and December shows in October. But these are usually the smaller “last-minute” shows.
Secret: June is a great month to contact the colleges. The staff-employee, the Director of Student Activities, is there working for the summer when things are quiet. This is a good time for her to book some “Welcome Week” entertainment for the end of August and beginning of September.
Consider being flexible in your size
I mainly got into the college market to promote my 5-piece funk band (Hit Me). But I figured since I was going to spend all that money on membership fees and marketing, I might as well make some other ways to book me, too. So I made:
for $1000, the 5-piece funk band
for $600, the acoustic two-person version (me & one other band member)
for $450, me alone
and as an afterthought, I made the Professional Pests, where I would run around campus in a black fabric bag, bothering people. Price? $1500. (Of course the Professional Pests got as many bookings as my musical acts.)
Point being, I was able to work with any budget they had. Of course I wish they could always book my $1000 full band. But if not, I could always sell them on the scaled-down version.
About NACA and their conferences
There’s an organization called the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) that puts on conferences where all the Student Activities buyers can get together to check out showcasing talent. Their website is http://www.naca.org
It’s VERY hard to get a showcase spot there. You’re up against the best-of-the-best that are spending thousands on making a super-professional video submission. Artists on the Billboard charts, performers with 20 years of college experience, comedians from Saturday Night Live, etc. Everyone puts together a great 3-5 minute video of their live performance sampler. Quality matters. Edits matter. That’s a whole ‘nother subject, though. In short: your video needs to be amazing. Once a year (summer) you can submit it for showcase consideration. Out of ~250 submissions, they pick ~20.
And it’s expensive to get involved!! First you have to be a NACA member (~$300) then buy a booth (~$200) then a registration (~$125) then a submission fee (~$50) and after all that the odds are 19 out of 20 that you’ll be rejected. But if you get accepted, a showcase-acceptance fee (~$150), then the cost of going and playing (~$500). Now I’m not complaining. I don’t think NACA is getting rich. This is just what it costs to do everything they do.
For my band, I submitted for three years, (and spent $20,000 doing it!) until I finally got a showcase spot. But once my band played on that mainstage showcase on the opening night, we booked 30 gigs at about $1000 each, right there on the spot. (Another 100 or so over the next year.) So it CAN all be worth it if you’re really going to commit to this and really think it’s your thing.
On the other hand, some people spend years trying to get a showcase, finally get one, and don’t get any gigs from it. My band was a VERY fun-party-crowd-pleasing band. I think that’s why we did so well.
NACA or no-NACA?
Every month, I would send out flyers to the Student Activities buyer at every college in my area. My advice on making a good college flyer is here:http://cdbaby.org/collegeflyer
Out of the 350 schools that hired me, I think over 200 of them came because of my flyers. Which made me think if I had to do it all over again, I might just skip the NACA conference completely, and save the money to spend on marketing methods that go directly to the college buyer.
My advice: If you are considering doing the college scene, start with the mailing list and sending flyers. Get a few shows that way, and see what you think. If you love it, and want to commit years to doing it, no matter what the startup expense, then either join NACA or get a NACA-friendly booking agent.
Surprisingly good! Some brilliant arrangements of Beatles songs. The actors did all their own vocals amazingly well, with the help of auto-tune in a way that only musicians will hear.
CD Baby artist Dana Fuchs stole the screen as Sadie, and there was a big scene with Bread and Puppet, who I know from my circus days. Martin Luther from the San Francisco area did an amazing job of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and if that was him doing a Jeff Beck style instrumental guitar melody to “Day in the Life” then I’m even more impressed.
Best thing was the creative re-contexting of songs, like “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” as Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty as the I and She. A great reminder that context can change everything, another subject I should rant about some time.
Just don’t expect it to be a movie, really. It’s really more of a 2-hour music video with just a few bits of non-singing. Very worth seeing for anyone who appreciates great vocals, and new arrangements and contexts for the well-known songs.
(Someone asked me how they could sell more of their instrumental music. My answer:)
For instrumental music, it sells best if you tie it into a purpose.
Massage music sells very well.
Yoga music sells very well.
Instrumental Christmas music sells very well.
… all because they’re selling more than just harmony, melody, arrangements : they’re selling something that non-music people find useful. They solve a problem.
Different example:
Imagine two candlemakers.
One says, “My candles have only the finest wax with the best quality wick!”
The other says, “These are prayer candles. Light one whenever you pray.”
There are dozens of people who will buy the first.
I often hear musicians say they want to do advance promotion – telling people about their new album before it’s available for purchase (whether digital or physical).
Though the plan may be to generate excitement, I think the opposite happens. Imaginary dialog:
Check out my new music!
Where is it? Can I buy it?
Not yet – but soon!
Why are you telling me now?
So you can be ready for the announcement!
(… 2 months pass …)
Check out my new music! It’s ready!
I think I already heard of this. Not new. Delete.
Or, as Cory Doctorow says, “Internet users have short attention spans. The moment of consummation — the moment when a reader discovers your book online, starts to read it, and thinks, huh, I should buy a copy of this book — is very brief. That’s because ‘I should buy a copy of this book’ is inevitably followed by, ‘Woah, a youtube of a man putting a lemon in his nose!’ and the moment, as they say, is gone.”
(Next time you think a song you wrote deserves 5 minutes of someone’s attention, look at what this guy did to compete for that same 5 minutes of someone’s attention.)
So, the best plan goes like this:
Record your music.
Start conversations with bloggers and other biz-people you’ll want to turn on to your music later. Nothing to pitch them now, just get to know them.
Prepare your marketing/promotion plan, but don’t do it yet.
Get your music up for sale (on iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, etc).
Once it’s available at every store (and you’ve tested it by buying one copy yourself) – update your websites (including MySpace, etc) to make it obvious everywhere and easy to buy.
NOW do your promotion. Tell fans and friends repeatedly. Contact people you’ve come to know from past conversations, let them know it’s available, and ask if they’d like to hear it.
NOTE: the exception to this rule is when you’re raising money by letting hardcore fans buy the album before it’s released.
How can you NOT be inspired to write a rule-breaking song after reading that?
I guess it’s not as big of a deal to write a rule-breaking song, since a song can be written and recorded in mere hours for no money, whereas a movie involves hundreds of people and millions of dollars.
But that being said… what are your favorite rule-breaking songs?
Feel free to include a link to your own rule-breaking song, here, in comments.
One of my favorite artists of all time is Fela Kuti from Nigeria.
At Berklee, I was in an Afropop ensemble that would play a lot of Fela Kuti arrangements.
The teacher/bandleader explained that what we know as the “1” – the downbeat, the start of a phrase – in West African music is considered the end of a phrase.
Instead of “How you get to main street?”, it’s “You get to main street, how?”
Instead of “ONE two three four, ONE two three four”, it’s “two three four ONE, two three four ONE”.
Later I found out that Fela Kuti never performed songs after he had already recorded them.
I couldn’t help but notice the similarity. As if to him, the recording was the end of the life of a song, instead of the beginning. Makes just as much sense if you think about it that way.
Which of course makes me wonder about all the other beginnings and endings and things we just take for granted as fact, but make just as much sense in their opposite.
I am an artist/musician/educator/mother and all the rest.
I was living in Chicago and raising my kids, teaching art, and playing out with my beloved band. And I just couldn’t stand our situation any further. The gunshots, the schools, the crumbling infrastructure, the leased SUVs, G. Bush, and on and on.
Don’t get me wrong – Chicago is filled with ethical, educated, creative movers and shakers. But I was visualizing something else for me and my family.
I found online teaching jobs, my husband got our house shored up and entirely rentable, and in 2005 we four moved to a little stone house on the banks of the Seine just 40 minutes south of Paris, France.
Where we live is 360 degrees beautiful. The schools are excellent. Guns are banned. The culture is not propped up by credit. Our kids are fluent in French. We have learned so much.
I miss my band and the Chicago scene, but have had to switch gears and my songwriting has taken off, and now I am working on guitar technique and singing, and recording at home. And along the way I have found people around here to play with, and we’ve played out at a few parties. This is not what I was up to in Chicago, but I am grateful just to stay in motion.
I was just hired to teach design at Parson’s Paris, which is a top art school, and a major feather in my cap. Last year we bought a house here. My husband and I are both painting a lot and exhibiting our work here.
Who knew? It worked.
Moving to France is a small thing, but it was a leap for us. The details have one by one settled into place. The quality of our life as a family is so much higher than what we had crafted for ourselves in Chicago. Our creative and professional lives are on track and thriving. And we work less, and spend much more time together. I am grateful daily.
First thing I thought is, “You can just DO that? Just up and move from Chicago to France, family and all?” Maybe this is more of an American mindset I’m stuck in, where moving out of the country feels like such a big deal. (Versus the European mindset where it’s probably no big deal to move from Sweden to Germany.)
Moving to a new place is such a great way to force good change.
I had been thinking about moving to London for a while, then one day just went online and booked a flight, 2 months in advance, with a return date 7 months later. I didn’t know the details yet, but forcing this action just got me over the hurdle of doing it. Same with India. Just booked it, impulsively. It can be that easy. (Frequent flyer miles help.)
My friend Nikki was a promoter in Las Vegas, then just used some frequent flyer miles to book a trip to China to study karate. She loved it and now lives there, working in Xi’an. My friend Karla, a journalist, moved to Argentina and now does her freelance journalist work online. Since the cost of living in Argentina is so much less, she only has to work part-time, and can spend the rest of her time writing a book.
Any other stories of a big move being the best thing you ever did? Please leave a reply in comments. I love these stories.
An amazing shift has happened in the last 10 years, as an artist.
You now have a better chance of being successful by being remarkably unusual, than by being normal and mainstream.
Songwriters constantly search for that universal theme, aiming to write the next “Yesterday” that will resonate with millions of people for decades to come.
But what good is the next “Yesterday” if nobody hears it because your music is too normal?
You already know we’re moving to a niche-driven culture, probably permanently. In 1948, Milton Berle’s TV show had 80% of all viewers, because it was one of only three choices! When the Beatles played on Ed Sullivan, they had 60% of all viewers. The biggest American Idol episode gets 30% now. There won’t be another Michael Jackson Thriller or Fleetwood Mac Rumours.
With unlimited options online, music fans don’t wait for mainstream media to tell them what to do – they explore, click, follow links, and can immediately listen to absolutely anything they’ve heard people talk about. Because of this, tastes are more spread-out than ever.
Your goal should be to attract and excite the people who have headed to the edges. They’re the ones who are looking for something new, and more likely to rave about it if you impress them.
I think of this like an archery range metaphor:
In the old music business (before 1997) it felt like hit-single-or-nothing. The only way you could be successful was to hit a tiny 1-inch target on the other side of a field. If you missed by an inch, you get nothing.
Now it’s like the target is huge, and you can aim for the edges, and hit something pretty easily – BUT – there’s a catch : someone cut out the middle.
If you’re still aiming for the middle of the target, there’s nothing there. They’re all out exploring niches.
Some things I’ve learned this year that turned my world upside-down and I’m still trying to wrap my head around:
Unlimited servers with unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth : for 10 cents an hour – only when you need it, and not when you don’t.
It used to be, when I decided that I wanted to do a whole new project that needed a new server, that I would…
Buy all the parts online (1 hour + $3000)
Assemble it when it arrives (1-2 hours)
Install Linux on it (1 hour)
Install it in our server rack, assign an IP address, and make sure it’s live. (1 hour)
… then that server would be there forever, until I decided to repurpose it, upgrade it, or abandon it. If it got overloaded, I would need to spend another $3000 and another 4 hours to set up a 2nd server.
But now, thanks to Amazon EC2 and S3, I type a few commands on my laptop, and somewhere in Seattle a powerful server jumps to life one minute later, just for me. I can play with it for as long as I’d like, then shut it down or replace it with something else anytime I want.
This changes everything! I’ll never need to buy or set up another webserver again. The first time I saw it work, my mouth hung open, and I couldn’t stop laughing for a couple minutes.
It’s a total base philosophy switch from needing to own something to just having it appear when you need it, and not when you don’t.
(Imagine if any guitar you ever wanted could appear in your hands, in your home studio, for just the few hours you needed it to record, for 10 cents an hour.)
Letting Google be the mailserver for my own domain, for free.
I’ve spent so many hours setting up Qmail, tweaking it, upgrading spam filters, and all that fun stuff. But Google lets you use their mailservers for free, even for your own domain. (No “@gmail.com” needed. No need to use their webmail. Just set them as your POP and SMTP server in your mail program.) Their spam filters are amazing. The only downside is you can only send 1000 emails a day through their server, so it wouldn’t work for CD Baby, but the huge upside is their permanent archive of incoming and outgoing email.
Currently providing a service to an employer? Read some Tom Peters, who suggests you think of yourself as a 1-person company (“Me, Inc.”), whose current biggest client is your employer, but hone your service so that it can be hired by other clients as well.
Put these two together, and you have a world of service-providers and clients, with everyone as their own boss. The whole concept of employee mainly came from the factory age, but there are less reasons these days for the traditional employee-employer relationship.
From a small business point of view, I’m better off hiring independent specialists to do what needs to be done, and not need someone to be doing that in my office, 40 hours a week, from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday, etc.
(Note how similar this is to using Amazon’s servers instead of needing to own your own.)
Diverse independent groups of people are smarter than any one person.
The Wisdom of Crowds and Wikinomics blow apart the notion of experts, proving that a diverse collection of independent outside opinions will almost always be smarter than any expert. And no matter what your organization (whether you’re Google or Sony), the brains and labor outside your organization is always better than anything you’ve got in-house. So learn to open up your organization to outside contributions.
I could talk for hours about how this changed everything for me, and I’m looking forward to trying some hands-on examples of this myself over the next few years.
The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read applies this same truism to investing, showing that active financial managers (aka “experts”) on average perform worse than the market average. (In November 2000, Fortune magazine released the “top picks” from its panelists of “top” stock analysts. Those picks ended up under-performing the market average by 400%! He gives many of these examples, and encourages you to ignore ALL experts, and only invest in broad indexes of the entire market. In other words : trust the wisdom of crowds.)
No computer needed. It connects by wifi directly to Rhapsody, which has almost everything you’d ever want to hear, available any time you want to hear it, without needing to buy.
Go to Pitchfork, look at their top-rated albums, and download them all from Rhapsody to your device to listen to any time over the next few weeks. Doesn’t cost you anything, so there’s no risk.
Tell it to play you a radio station. Hear something you like? Click [GET THIS SONG] or [GET THIS ALBUM] or [MAKE A MIX LIKE THIS SONG].
I got turned on to more music from my little Sansa Connect than I have by any other means in years. I have a massive music collection but I haven’t accessed it in months, since anything I want to hear is available instantly any time I want to hear it. Why maintain my huge collection anymore?
The 4-Hour Workweek
Let go of 80% of your actions, to concentrate on the most effective 20%. Shorten the deadlines for getting all actions done. Go on a low-information diet, realizing you don’t need to know all that stuff you spend hours a day ingesting. Have remote assistants take care of everything that can be done by anyone else. And voila : you have the 4-Hour Workweek. Again : I could talk for hours about how this changed everything for me, so I’ll stop here and talk about that stuff in future posts.
We are happier with restrictions, and trusting others’ experiences.
A combination of Stumbling on Happiness and Paradox of Choice. We’re bad at predicting how we’ll feel about something in the future, so we’re better off trusting other people’s experiences.
People are surprisingly similar in much of their experiences, even though they think they’re more unique. (90% of motorists consider themselves to be better-than-average drivers.)
With more choices, we may make better decisions, but we feel worse about them. (Note how this ties into the Wisdom of Crowds, above : others, collectively, know better than you do.)
I’ve started trusting the collective reviews from Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes. And I’ve intentionally decided to limit my options in other ways I’ll describe soon, trusting (from others’ experience) that will make me happier.
Each one of these things probably deserves its own longer article here, but I just wanted to list them in one place, because it’s amazing how differently I see the world now than I did even one year ago.
I’m sure there are more I’ll think of after posting this, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear any of yours:
Any things you’ve learned recently that “change everything” for you?
Someone says, “Write me a piece of music. Anything. No restrictions. Go!”
You’re stumped. The blank page syndrome.
Instead, someone says, “Write me a piece of music using only a flute, saw, and this broken toy piano. You can only use the notes D, E, and B – but never all 3 at the same time. It has to be in 3/4 time, start quiet, get loud, then get quiet by the end. Go!”
One of the most common things I hear my musician friends say is, “We’re looking for a booking agent.” (or manager, label, promoter)
I reply, “Who?”
They say, “Uh… what?”
“Which booking agent are you looking for? What’s their name?”
“But… we don’t know!”
“How do you expect to find someone if you don’t even know their name!”
It’s not hard to find the answer to anything.
What venue do you want to play? Contact them and ask which booking agents they use.
What band do you want to emulate? Contact them and ask who their booking agent is.
Once you find the person’s name, voila – you’re no longer looking for a booking agent. You found them, and it only took a few minutes.
Yes I’m being a smart-ass, but trying to help.
Whenever you find you’re aiming for something you haven’t defined – GET SPECIFIC.
It’s amazing how that one step turns goals from impossible into easy.
EXAMPLES:
“We’re looking for a manager / agent / promoter / person”
Who? Do 10 minutes of research, and turn it into a name. Even one name to start, just to convert it from vague to specific.
“How can I get my music out there?”
Where? Where should it be? Radio? What station? Contact them to ask their favorite promoters. A TV show? Which one? Check the site to find out who chooses the music for that show.
“I need someone to help me.”
Do what? Start by naming just one thing you need help with, and, as if you were hiring an assistant to do it, describe exactly what they would need to do.
This applies to many things. I was working with a programming teacher to be a great Ruby programmer. When I first contacted him he said, “What does great mean to you? How will you know you’re great?” He made me get really specific. (For me it was “I will go through these 4 Ruby books and be able to write programs like the examples. I’ll know how to do anything I need to do off the top of my head, without looking it up first. I’ll be able to code in Ruby as effortlessly as I can in PHP.”) He then made me get even more specific about each of those 3 things, breaking them down into bits (how many chapters in those 4 books? how many per day will you do?).
Once I had named exactly what I wanted, THEN he could help me.
He had pushed himself to the point of death to find out whether he was strong enough to survive. He was.
“Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness.”
“The human body is capable of extraordinary feats.”
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!”
He pursues extreme anonymity because he wants to avoid random interruptions to a long-running experiment he’s conducting on himself. He’s exploring what it’s like to live in strict obedience to reason. On first encounter, he appears to be one of the happiest people I’ve ever met.
With SuperMemo growing more and more popular, Wozniak felt that his ability to rationally control his life was slipping away. “There were 80 phone calls per day to handle. There was no time for learning, no time for programming, no time for sleep,” he recalls. In 1994, he disappeared for two weeks, leaving no information about where he was. The next year he was gone for 100 days. Each year, he has increased his time away. He doesn’t own a phone. He ignores his email for months at a time. And though he holds a PhD and has published in academic journals, he never attends conferences or scientific meetings.
His days are blocked into distinct periods: a creative period, a reading and studying period, an exercise period, an eating period, a resting period, and then a second creative period. He doesn’t get up at a regular hour and is passionate against alarm clocks.
A checklist Wozniak wrote a few years ago describing how to become a genius: You must clarify your goals, gain knowledge through spaced repetition, preserve health, work steadily, minimize stress, refuse interruption, and never resist sleep when tired. This should lead to radically improved intelligence and creativity. The only cost: turning your back on every convention of social life.
Then there’s my hero, Tim Ferriss, of the 4-Hour Workweek book, who tried radical experiments with work-time, outsourcing everything possible, only doing email once a week, keeping all phone calls to one minute or less, and firing 90% of his clients to focus on the most profitable few.
In my own life, for the last two years, I’ve been on an experiment to take all of the “someday I’d like to…” and “I wonder if I could…” things, and start doing them.
got divorced (it was mutual and happy)
moved to London for most of 2007
started lessons in Spanish, Mandarin, surfing, and Rails
went to India for a month with nothing but a tiny backpack
restructured my company so that they don’t need me at all
If I had a record label, would you be signed to it?
I never liked the idea of having a record label, because you’re too deeply invested into something you don’t control.
So if I were to have a label, my decision on who to sign wouldn’t be decided just by the quality of the music. There are plenty of people with great music but destructive work-habits or an unsustainable approach to their career.
To confidently invest in an artist (as a label), I’d want to see:
every song has been absolutely improved repeatedly – every note/syllable crafted to be the best it can be
vocal performance is not just perfect but head-turning, striking
arrangement is everything it can be to bring out song/vocal
arrangement offers a new idea to the world, and not just the usual paint-by-numbers
photos/image are striking and amazing, and capture the essense of the music
live show is so entertaining that even a deaf person would enjoy it
band has been around, recording and gigging, for at least 2 years
artist has done this for a few years and still believes that this is their real calling in life, regardless of external rewards (or total lack of)
band members don’t need unreasonable amounts of money to perform (can perform profitably)
band can entertain a crowd without props or big sound system (in-store appearances)
off-stage persona is sustainable (stamina, dealing with fans well, etc)
no addicts – to anything
an unflappably healthy attitude to the immense amount of work it really takes to be successful at anything
And so you see why I’ll never have a label. Who could possibly fit this list? Garth Brooks? Dave Grohl?
I haven’t talked to any labels about this yet, but I wonder what their perspective would be. I’m friends with Jac Holzman who discovered the Doors and obviously didn’t regret it, despite Jim Morrison being the opposite of everything on my list. I should ask him. (Jac, not Jim.)
Anything you’d add to the list? (I’m assuming there are many things you’d subtract.)
Just asking that question of myself and the world at the same time. Please add your thoughts in the comments, here, and I’ll post a 2nd post about this soon.
“You can either be proactive or reactive when it comes to how you respond to certain things. When you are reactive, you blame other people and circumstances for obstacles or problems. Being proactive means taking responsibility for every aspect of your life.”
Steven Cravismade a comment on this blog saying, “We can’t do anything about things beyond our control so we might as well keep on focusing energy forward on the next thing we can create.”
The author says to imagine a circle that contains ALL the things you care about:
Inside of it, imagine a circle that contains ALL the things you can affect (do something about):
Your goal is to either expand your ability to do something about the things you care about…
… or shrink your circle of concern (stop caring about some things) so that you don’t care too much about things you can’t do anything about.
It’s an interesting metaphor I’ve thought of often, though usually for his final comment at the end of the section. I don’t have the book here but it was something like:
“Some dangerous individuals’ circle of influence is actually bigger than their circle of concern. They are affecting more than they care about, often unintentionally hurting others in their path.”
I’ve felt like that a lot over the last 6 years. I employ 85 people at CD Baby. I’ve never even met half of them. Clients I don’t know get hurt because I never replied to an email I never saw. I started hiring the services of a small company, then changed plans, and found out that my change-of-plans sent them into default on a bank loan, practically destroying their company. Etc.
I spoke at a conference last weekend, where a woman in the audience was SO mad about piracy that she was physically shaking, red in the face, tears in her eyes, fuming spitting livid, asking how we can stop this rampant piracy.
I didn’t answer her concern well, but I said “More people are killed by pigs than sharks each year, but because shark attacks are more newsworthy, they seem more prevalent. Piracy gets all the attention, but I don’t think most of you in this room have lost more than $30 to piracy.” (I got a big “Booo” from the audience for this.) “Obscurity is your real enemy. Fight obscurity until you’re a household name, then piracy will be more of a problem than obscurity. Until then, worry about pigs, not sharks.”
The woman got so furious about this that she screamed at me with tears in her eyes, “I HATE YOUR POINT OF VIEW, BUDDY!” (and some other angry things I forget.) From her point of view, piracy was Enemy #1 and anybody ignoring this massive threat was hurting us all.
Driving away from the event, of course I figured out what I wish I would have said in that moment:
The thing separating us from where we are and where we need to be is not piracy.
It’s always something more internal, whether writing, communicating, producing, networking, promoting, or taking a wildly different approach to marketing.
Putting so much attention and energy into fighting piracy (as if, when solved, you’ll suddenly start selling 10 times more) – is misguided effort, distracting you from what you really need to be improving.
That’s the real reason I often tell musicians not to worry about piracy. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. But energy spent worrying about it is energy better spent working on what you know you really need to do.
A guy writing a book asked me for 5 tips for musicians, today. Here are the 5 I gave off the top of my head:
Turn off your computer. Improve that unfinished song, without distractions. We’re drowning in a world of mouse-clickers. Stand apart from the pack by doing the focused work of improving your skills. The key that unlocks the door to success is not online, it’s in you.
Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever scares you, go do it. Whatever drains you or bores you, stop doing it immediately! Find someone else who loves it, instead.
Meet 3 new people each week who might help you. “Do It Yourself” doesn’t mean do it ALL yourself. You need help. There are people who love booking gigs, love promoting, love building websites. Put a few hours a week into finding them. Let them help you. Email strangers, and suggest a phone call or lunch. Almost everyone says yes.
Keep in touch with people. The best connections always happen right after a recent contact. It’s always the person you talked to yesterday who will get you a gig or introduce you to a key contact, because you’re at the forefront of their mind. Just put aside 30 minutes every few days to call people who matter to you, and say hello. Send them something you think they’d like, whether a link, an article, a trinket, or a pizza.
Bring out your weird side. What’s great about the long tail is that there can be infinite niches. Be (and trumpet yourself as) the best at your tiny sharply-defined niche. Better to be the world’s leading songwriter of songs about seaweed, than yet-another normal-but-good rock band or folksinger.
I’m starting some new companies to help musicians. Getting back to the core of what I love doing : helping my fellow musicians in ways that big companies don’t find worth it.
I’m learning piano – boogie piano, specifically, but I have to start with just doing my scale fingerings that I haven’t practiced in 18 years.
Great contrast from the complexity of running a company with 85 employees and 200,000 clients. Just practicing my scales with a metronome.
I sold my house, furnished! Now everything I own fits in my car. Once I read my queue of 50 books and give them to friends, everything I own should fit in 2 suitcases.
It’s fun to be back at square one.
Confidence is needed to shake off previous expertise.
What should I do when someone says, “Let me know what you think!” of their music?
I love listening to music, but the minute someone says “let me know what you think” it becomes work.
See – I’m still a musician/producer at heart, so if someone REALLY wants to know what I think, my real thoughts are usually, “Rearrange the structure to put the bridge into the intro,” or “Drop out all instrumentation there in the 3rd verse to give it more sonic variety,” or “Tell the drummer to lay off the cymbals a bit.”
But if it’s a finished manufactured CD, what’s there to say? It’s too late to change anything, so who cares what I think? Whether I like it or not shouldn’t change anything they’re doing. Better for me to just enjoy it and not tell them what I think, unless I’m the producer.
On the other hand, I *LOVE* real constructive critiquing like songwriting workshops.
So, it’s really two different kinds of questions:
UNFINISHED WORK-IN-PROGRESS?
Say what I really think.
Hope they’re tough enough to ignore me if they disagree.
FINISHED RECORDING?
They don’t want to know what I really think.
They just want to know if I’ll help promote it by telling others.
So find something positive to compliment to lift spirits a bit, maybe give a bit of marketing advice, and wish them the best.
A wise man said, “Never have a limit on your income.”
Example he gave:
If you sell pens for a living and someone orders a million pens, no problem! You just place an order with your manufacturer for a million pens, get them to the customer, and celebrate.
But if you do hands-on massage for a living and a recent spot on Oprah gets you a waiting list of 10,000 people, “you’ll wish you were in the pen business.”
Point being : if you make a living only providing an in-person (hands-on) service, you are limiting your income. If you were in a “while you sleep” business, there is no limit to how much you can make.
So… what about musicians?
For the last few years, many people have suggested that the products (CDs, even downloads) are now just the free giveaways to get people to go to the show – that musicians are only in a hands-on service-provider business now.
Of course I disagree because I watch CD Baby pay more and more to musicians every month (while they sleep).
Musicians MUST NOT buy into that “only earn by performing” belief because it limits your income.
I spend a LOT of money on music, but haven’t been to a live concert in years. The recorded music has great value to me, whether MP3s, CDs, or even subscription services.
What other ways can music be a “while you sleep” income-earner for musicians? (STUPID BRAINSTORM WARNING:)
write songs for others to perform
creating commercial-use music (that businesses will use in advertising, for example)
getting your music into film/tv
paid-area access to your web-archive with all your music, even works-in-progress
make it easy for fans to donate
create a recognizable brand once, then license the name or model to others (like “Chicken Soup for the Soul”)
franchise your band: train multiple bands how to sound just like you, then all can go tour, while you get royalty when they do
creating music-education programs used by many schools
release your unmixed tracks for fans to remix, letting them sell the remixes on a 50/50 split
Just got an email from a high school student asking if I would recommend Berklee College of Music, as compared to taking a year off to travel the world.
After givng some details about Berklee, I realized it came down to this:
I have some easy rule-of-thumbs to follow
whatever excites you, go do it
whatever scares you, go do it
every time you’re making a choice, one choice is the safe/comfortable choice – and one choice is the risky/uncomfortable choice. the risky/uncomfortable choice is the one that will teach you the most and make you grow the most, so that’s the one you should choose.
So if travelling Europe as a vagabond for a year is what seems more scary and exciting, do that! Though if that feels like slacking or avoiding, and going to music school is more scary and exciting, do that!
I started CD Baby 10 years ago this week – in March 1998.
You probably know that I’m just a musician-geek, not a business-man. Never meant to start a company. I was just selling my own CD, then helped some friends do it, then it accidently turned into CD Baby. (Ooops!)
Now CD Baby has paid over $70 million dollars(!!) directly to musicians. And despite the moaning you hear from the major labels, independent artists are selling better than ever. Even physical CD sales are up 30% over last year!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Friends will tell you that for the past 10 years I’ve spent most waking hours, 7 days a week, doing nothing but CD Baby. Last year I just slept on the couch at the office for 6 months, usually working from 7am to midnight.
So today seems like a good day to tell you that I don’t work at CD Baby anymore, and haven’t in months.
I’m still the owner, but haven’t been to the office since May. The crew there is running things better than I ever could. They know more than I do, and do a better job.
I’ve made that transition from self-employed to business-owner. (You know you’re a true business-owner when you can leave your business for a year, and come back to find it’s doing much better than when you left.)
WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS?
Because the reason I freed-up my time is to find more ways to help you.
Helping you develop, create, promote, and sell your music makes me happier than anything. It’s still why I bounce out of bed in the morning.
I love it even more than making my own music. (Weird, huh?) By helping you get your music out to the world, and helping you make a living doing it, I feel that in a way I’m making more music than ever.
There are many ways I can help you, but I’ll email you about those next week.
Today was just a CD Baby birthday announcement. Still, I wanted to let you know there are exciting things to come.
Thinking about the difference between aiming to please a few big clients versus aiming to please lots of little clients.
From a business point of view:
Many small entrepreneurs think, “If we could just land Apple, Google, or the government as a client, we’ll be all set!”
Software companies often do this. They hope to make some technology that a huge company will want to build into every product, or install at every employee’s desk.
But there are many problems with this:
you have to custom-tailor your product to please very few specific people
those people may change their mind or leave the company
who are you really working for? are you self-employed or are they your boss?
if you do land the big client, they practically own you
by trying so hard to please the big client, you lose touch with what the rest of the world wants
Instead, imagine if you designed your business to have NO big clients – just lots of little clients.
you don’t need to change what you do to please one client – only the majority (or yourself)
if one client needs to leave, it’s OK, you can sincerely wish them well
because no one client can demand you do what they say, you are your own boss (as long as you keep clients happy in general)
you hear hundreds of people’s opinions, and stay in touch with what the majority of people want
Now, let’s think of this from a music point of view:
Some musicians think, “If I could just land a deal with Interscope or Warner, I’ll be all set!”
But look at the above lists again. It all applies.
The dangerous thing about the record deal mentality is you start changing what you do to please the one or two people at companies who have shown an interest in your music.It not only hurts your music, but puts you on shaky ground when (not if) that person leaves the company.
By making a plan to only please your fans, labels be damned, then not only do you stay in touch with what people love, but it puts your career on much steadier ground.
If you own or run a company, and haven’t read Wikinomics yet, you really should.
It gives some amazing examples of how companies in many different industries from gold mines to pharmaceuticals are learning that if you give anyone-interested full access to the data, they collectively can do much better work than any in-house staff.
If everyone is famous for 15 minutes, we need to learn a quick lesson in celebrity : the public you is not you.
Over the summer, I rewrote the CD Baby software. I learned some programming lessons along the way, so I felt a kind of social obligation to share my lessons learned, to help a future person in a similar situation.
It took 90 minutes or so to write out my explanation of the situation and lessons learned, then I posted it on my (other) blog, not thinking many people would see it, read it, or care.
The next day I found out that many of the top programmer-focused websites had linked to my story with a sensationalist headline. Hundreds of people screamed their anger in the blog comments, calling me an idiot, saying my website sucks, the world is crap because of people like me, any warthog could have programmed my site in a tenth of the time without opposable thumbs, etc.
It reminded me of the times in the past when I’ve posted things on the CD Baby message board that got hundreds of people calling me a genius, saying my website rules, the world is great because of people like me, and nobody else on earth could have done the brilliant things I’ve done.
In both cases, people are talking about the public version of me, not the real me.
Neither one should be taken personally. (Unless you’re feeling down, then go read the compliments and taken them very personally, temporarily, to get back in gear.)
For musicians, it’s especially important to remember this, since your music is not you, but just something you’ve done.
Some easy ways to practice this mindset:
* – Put your songs out there for anonymous critique. garageband.com used to do this, though I don’t know who else is, now. anyone?
* – Put your songs out for non-anonymous critique, and realize it’s the same as anonymous. They never were critiquing you, just the notes, words, and recording quality.
* – Publicly say something controversial. I wonder if the Dixie Chicks were able to remember that none of the uproar was about them, as people?
Had an interesting conversation with an ex about what makes you feel loved.
Turns out we had quite opposite definitions.
Mine was feeling transparent. Holding nothing back. Revealing everything, faults and all, and still feeling accepted.
Later, I was thinking about CD Baby and how fun it’s been to open up and show our numbers. (See a history of this, below.)
Then I was thinking about collaboration, Wikipedia and all that. How the collective intelligence of the world is always better than what you’ve got in-house.
Combine those two thoughts, and I’m imagining what it would be like to open up ALL aspects of CD Baby: * show not just our sales numbers, but ALL numbers, including expenses, salaries, income, taxes and everything else * (clients’ and customers’ info would be show only collectively not individually, for obvious privacy reasons) * if a paper supplier sees what we’re paying for our mailers and knows they can beat it, they can contact us to let us know * show performance numbers, such as # of CDs shipped per-day, emails answered per-person, # of albums added each day * post audio of our company meetings on the site for all to hear * open all of our internal knowledge-base, form-letters, etc * encourage suggestions on how we could be running things better * open the PHP source code that runs the site * allow any webdesigners to make their own CSS skin for the site * encourage corrections to anything on the site. spelling fixes in artist bios, etc.
I like this for a few reasons: * keeps us on your toes by encouraging competition * reminds us that the real value here is in our relationships with the musicians. anyone can take our PHP source code and make "another CD Baby", but not anyone can win the trust and relationships we’ve built one at a time over the last 10 years. * makes us double-check our internal decisions against public scrutiny. (we already always do this, but this would emphasize it even more) * shows everyone we’ve got nothing to hide. that we really are trustable. (hey – was there any doubt?) * gets others involved. allow anyone to buy shares in the company, so they can have a vested interest in our success. * makes it easier to get our financials to our accountant (“just go to the site. it’s all there.”) * it’s contrarian.
What are the downsides? * big security risk if my PHP code has bugs that can be exploited to get customer/client data * pain in the ass, having to hear the world’s opinions on every internal thing every day.
Sometimes the difference between success and failure is just a matter of keeping in touch!
There are some AMAZING musicians who have sent a CD to CD Baby, and when I heard it, I flipped. In a few cases, I’ve stopped what I was doing at that moment, picked up the phone and called them wherever they were to tell them I thought they were a total genius. (Believe me – this is rare. Maybe 1 in 500 CDs that I hear.)
Often I get an answering machine, and guess what… they don’t call back!! What masochistic anti-social success-sabotaging kind of thing is that to do?
Then 2 weeks later I’ve forgotten about their CD as new ones came in.
The lesson: If they would have just called back, and kept in touch, they may have a fan like no other at the head of one of the largest distributors of independent music on the web. A fan that would go out on a limb to help their career in ways others just dream of. But they never kept in touch and now I can’t remember their names.
Some others whose CDs didn’t really catch my attention the first time around, just keep in touch so well that I often find myself helping them more as a friend than a fan.
(sorry – only cellphone camera)
