Stefan Sagmeister: The Power of Time Off

RIP, Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)

Captain Beefheart Dies at 69

Iconoclastic musician and painter Don Van Vliet died today after a lengthy battle with MS. Many of his recordings including Trout Mask Replica, Lick My Decals Off Baby, and Clear Spot where game-changers for me. A true original who will be missed.

Check out Van Vliet's paintings here: Run Paint Run

C-SCAPE: Curation, Consumers, Convergence, Content

""How do you get people who can talk about anything to talk about you? The answer is to offer them something new and interesting to say - to chat about, blog about, tweet about, and spread the word about in all media, new and old and in between."
- Larry Kramer, C-SCAPE

Veteran media executive Larry Kramer's book on the influence of social media and the Internet postulates that today, all businesses are in the media business. He identifies four key trends; the convergence of consumers and media producers, the increasing power of consumers, the need for trusted curators, and the importance of content. These ideas have been explored in depth in many other books (such as the Groundswell series) but I find his writing concise and actionable. His enthusiasm is contagious and many of these ideas are directly applicable by musicians reinventing themselves in this massively disrupted industry.

The John Scofield Quartet: New Morning, The Paris Concert

Check out this  video by the great John Scofield and a killer quartet. I was very fortunate to know and study with John when I first arrived in Boston way back when. He is a wonderful person and a phenomenal jazz musician and innovator. This is a particularly good DVD with some nice extra footage.

Selling the DIY Dream

The larger music business has always contained a smaller industry focused on selling the dream of success to independent musicians. In the Go-Go record label days, this involved access to decision makers and copious amounts of advice on making your music more “commercial”. Musicians hoped that  Mr. Big would hear their amazing song, fall in love with it, and next thing you know, the band is flying around in private jets.

Today's pitch is that relentless, athletic Internet marketing will eventually build a brand and a full-time career. While many of today’s tools are powerful and can be very effective, the business models of these companies are built on selling services to musicians and are not necessarily dependent on the success of the artist.

Marketing is key to the execution of every business plan, but by no means the whole enchilada. Successful businesses create products and services that meet fundamental human needs. DIY Internet music companies are serving the need of the musician to be acknowledged and feel empowered. Are you  just as clear about your market and the needs you are addressing? People don’t buy what you do but why you do it. Without a clear vision of what makes your music extraordinary, and who you are serving, all the marketing in the world will not create a mega-successful brand.

Most pro musicians have multi-faceted careers (performing, recording, producing, writing, publishing, teaching, orchestrating, etc.) and have spent tens of thousands of hours developing their craft. If you are seriously committed to a long term career in music, I suggest studying these people as well as general business and marketing concepts. Be very realistic about circumstances that have influenced individual successes and may not scale.

Internet music marketing is powerful and exciting but it is also a huge time suck. If your marketing is not carefully aligned with a larger plan, you may simply be feeding another industry: the DIY Dream Machine.