Quote Of The Day: from Clay Shirky's 'Cognitive Surplus'

"The dramatically reduced cost of public address, and the dramatically increased size of the population wired together, means that we can now turn massive aggregations of small contributions into things of lasting value." -Clay Shirky, "Cognitive Surplus" p. 161

When It Can't Be Done, Do It...

"A new idea can be either unfamiliar, silly, or both. It can't be judged by description. It needs to be done (made) to exist. It is unlikely that anyone will sanction the cost of something they don't understand. Therefore, you have no choice but to do it yourself. At whatever cost."

"Being right is based upon knowledge and experience and is often provable. Knowledge comes from the past, so it's safe. It is also out of date. It's the opposite of originality. Experience is built from solutions to old situations and problems. The old situations are probably different from the present ones., so that old solutions will have to be bent to fit new problems (and possibly fit badly). Also, the likelihood is that, if you've got the experience, you'll probably use it. This is lazy. Experience is the opposite of being creative"

- from Paul Arden's book, It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be

William Ury: The walk from "no" to "yes" | Video on TED.com

Very interesting TED Talk by William Ury author of Getting To Yes. He discusses the role of community, the 'third side', in reaching consensus.

William Ury: The walk from "no" to "yes" | Video on TED.com

Social Media Marketing: Is This Really a Conversation?

Social media is hyped as a powerful tool for ‘connecting’ with your audience. While the technology creates this potential, my experience has been that most social media usage is essentially one-way, direct mail. 

There are many people I have relationships with in the ‘real’ world whose communications with me via Facebook, email, Twitter, etc. are unsolicited self-promotion, certainly not a ‘conversation’. This can be annoying, and the net effect is to reduce the level of trust and credibility. When I receive unsolicited promotional material from strangers I immediately cross them off the list.

When we opt-in we intentionally agree to accept ongoing promotional blasts but we can always unsubscribe if these communications don’t add value. 

An authentic conversation adds value in both directions. The real question to ask yourself is, “How can I help you?” 

If a band or artist I follow comments on a post of mine it means something, and of course it works the other way around. 

Before you hit the ‘Send’ button think about what you are really giving to your audience.

Recommended reading...

Check back often to catch the ongoing updates on my favorite books…

Skill-Building and Performance

Outliers - The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell - New York: Little Brown, and Company, 2008

Malcolm Gladwell explodes the myth that excellence is the result of some mysterious, innate talent. By examining research and the lives of a variety of “outliers’ he explores the logic of extraordinary success, delving into the impact of ‘deep practice’ (10,000 hours…), family, and birthplace.

The Talent Code - Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s Grown. Here’s How

Daniel Coyle - New York: Bantam Books, 2009

Weaving together real world examples with brain science and behavioral research, Daniel Coyle breaks the process of expert skill-building into three main pieces: deep practice, coaching, and motivation.

Talent Is Overrated - What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

Geoff Colvin - New York: Portfolio, 2008

Geoff Colvin explores ‘deliberate practice’ in individual and group contexts. This book covers much of the same ground as The Talent Code with the inclusion of a section describing organizational applications.

The Way We're Working Isn't Working - The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

Tony Schwartz - New York: Free Press, 2010

Tony Schwartz covers a wide range of topics in this actionable book focused on creating efficiency in the workplace. His premise is that people need four types of energy to perform at their best; physical (sustainability), emotional (security), mental (self-expression), and spiritual (significance). He provides practical steps and illustrations for each section. For example; we work best in 45 to 90 minute, highly focused sprints intermixed with periods of renewal.

Practicing, The Psychology of Creation, and Overcoming Creative Blocks

The War of Art - Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Steven Pressfield - New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2002

This classic book (by the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance) should be read by everyone. We are all artists and have a gift to give the world. Steven Pressfield inspires in this funny, straight-from-the-hip, kick in the pants, identifying the roadblocks that keep our potential under wraps and prescribing strategies that take no prisoners. 

Free Play - Improvisation in Life and Art

Stephen Nachmanovitch - New York: Putnam, 1990

This is one of the best books I have ever read on the essence of improvisation and the creative process.

Effortless Mastery - Liberating the Master Musician Within

Kenny Werner - New Albany: Jamey Abersold Jazz, Inc., 1996

Jazz piano virtuoso Kenny Werner shares his approach to practicing, getting out of the music’s way, and developing a state of relaxed focus.

The Art of Practicing - A Guide to Making Music From the Heart

Madeline Bruser - New York: Bell Tower, 1997

This book describes both a physical and spiritual approach to practicing a musical instrument. While most of her instructions are for pianists, the principles can be applied to any instrument.

Practicing - A Musician’s Return to Music

Glenn Kurtz - New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007

Classical guitarist Glenn Kurtz describes his personal journey as a music student who eventually drifts away from his passion only to return years later. The book is largely a memoir but contains many vivid descriptions of the process of practicing.

The Pat Metheny Interviews - The Inner Workings of His Creativity Revealed

Richard Niles - New York: Hal Leonard, 2009

With the unique perspective of a fellow guitarist and long-time friend, Richard Niles captures the essence of Pat Metheny’s creative evolution, process, and work ethic in a collection of conversations culled from a three-part BBC radio series.

Can Positive Deviance identify successful outliers in the music industry?

Positive Deviance (PD) is an approach to problem-solving that has proven to be highly effective at facilitating systemic social change in situations that appear hopeless or intractable. The basic idea is simple: focus on the successful exceptions, not the failing norm. In their fascinating book, The Power of Positive Deviance - How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems authors Jerry Sternin. Monique Sternin, and Richard Pascale, present case studies describing applications of PD including; arresting the epidemic of childhood malnutrition in Vietnam, reducing the practice of female circumcision in Egypt, and decreasing infection rates in US hospitals.

"The basic premise is this: (1) Solutions to seemingly intractable problems already exist, (2) they have been discovered by members of the community itself, and (3) these innovators (positive deviants) have succeeded even though they share the same barriers and constraints as others." -The Power of Positive Deviance, Harvard Business Press, Boston MA 2010 

PD is a 'bottom up' approach driven by the community itself. Facilitators do not act as experts but ask the questions that will help the community identify its own successful outliers. Once the community has discovered how its own members are able to succeed against all odds, they can scale these solutions and integrate them into their culture.

While the music industry is much too eclectic and broad to apply this approach unilaterally, it occurs to me that a PD perspective can be helpful in identifying successful trends. Clearly, the DIY dream will not replace the traditional record industry, but nonetheless, individual success stories can scale across specific industry segments. Professional musicians continually adapt their career models to accommodate disruptive changes in technology and business.

What’s working for you?

Using the "IKEA Effect" to connect with your audience

In his new book, The Upside of Irrationality - The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home, behavioral economist Dan Ariely describes the psychological effects of ownership and creation, what he calls “The IKEA Effect”. In a nutshell, we tend to overvalue what we create or work on. This phenomenon is well documented and anyone who has put together IKEA furniture or lovingly shown off pictures of their kids understands this immediately.

Marketers have exploited this human trait for years. A classic example cited in the book: the instant baking mix products introduced in the 1940s. Initially these all-in-one mixes did not catch the interest of housewives, but when the formula was changed to require adding eggs and oil the market took off.

This effect partially explains the popularity of blogging and user-generated-content on the Internet. Musicians have built strong connections with their fans by encouraging them to contribute, through remixes, blog comments, videos, graphic design contests, etc.

As musicians, do we overvalue our creations? Of course. Music is an extension of who we are and what we stand for. It will always have a unique flavor to its author.

All artists need to put in the hours every day; creating the conditions necessary to welcome The Muse, irrespective of the marketplace. See Steven Pressfield’s classic, the War of Art for the definitive word on this subject. When we change hats to take care of business we must be very clear that making something for others to use is different from making something for yourself alone. Not such a problem when getting paid to write music for a commercial, but a little more challenging when trying to figure out what to do with original work.

Good, objective feedback from trusted collaborators and partners is essential. “Trust" is the key word here. The most meaningful insights come from people who understand business but also truly get your vision and your values.

If we cannot distinguish the two processes we run the risk of compromising our work in an attempt to be more “commercial” or repeat past successes, or we simply give up on taking care of the business side of our careers.

Composer John Adams on concentration..

Here is a nice post by composer John Adams on the challenge of Concentration when composing music. From his blog: Hell Mouth.

Enjoy!

Jazz as a business model

OK, let's face it. It's not easy making money as a jazz musician. As a matter of fact, today it is probably more difficult than it has ever been. The audience is understandably small because the music is sophisticated. It requires the listener's complete attention and an inherent interest in the format. Nonetheless there are two things the mainstream music industry can learn from jazz:

1. The artist and the music are the central focus rather than the particular revenue stream or distribution vehicle.
2. The music has to be truly extraordinary to differentiate the artist and attract an audience.

Look at the big guys. I'm sure Keith Jarrett has done very well selling CDs over the course of his career yet there are myriad ways he can make money because it's all about who he is and what happens when he sits down at the piano. No one else can offer the world what he can.

Ask yourself, how many mainstream pop artists pass that test? There are entire genres of music that are intentionally imitative and mediocre; trendy, lightweight, stylized fluff. 

Let's get our perspective straight. Sure, if the sugar water industry suddenly collapsed it would be a huge financial adjustment for many people, but let's not forget, this stuff is not actual food. It's unhealthy for regular human consumption.

Since the traditional record industry is collapsing why don't we think about rebuilding our business models on something substantial, something that really matters and adds value to the world. 

Taking care of business - We're all self-employed

Reading Paul Resnikoff's essay this morning it occurred to me that the 'vehicle' for the future of the music business will be a completely individualized start-up mentality. Everything has changed; what it means to be a performer, a recording artist, a songwriter, an instrumentalist, a composer, a music publisher, a record label... As long as we hang on to the old paradigms we won't see opportunities for the future.

Apple dropped Computer from their name because they're about something bigger; challenging the status quo and and building things that empower individuals. They practically own the word, "i". Computers, smart-phones and music downloads are manifestations of their larger identity. Think like a start up or a game-changing company. Why do you do what you do, how do you add value to the world, and how can you make money with the gifts you give?

Professional musicians have always worn multiple hats and been less dependent on CD sales as their primary source of revenue. Ask yourself what your favorite musicians stand for. What is their vision of music and how have they organized their lives around that commitment?

CDs are a by-product of something much bigger. If we continue to focus on the rapidly shrinking 'what' and 'how' of the past we'll miss the opportunity to do something exceptional today. Get back to why you make music. Forget about how the music business is supposed to work and visualize creating something unique, powerful, and profitable.

Why Do You Do It? - Pt. 2

Most record labels were started by people who loved a particular type of music and wanted to share their passion. They liked to make money, but most were driven by a real love for music. Labels had unique identities - Atlantic, Delmark, Blue Note, Reprise, Prestige, Columbia, Nonesuch, Verve, Folkways, Deutsche Grammophon... As I discovered music I felt a clear loyalty to particular labels that has been absent for decades.

As the record business grew the focus shifted to what they did and how they did it - throwing money at radio, creating mega-stars, selling CDs, music video, etc. By the dawn of the Internet age the music business had been replaced by the CD-selling business. Lacking consensus and visionary leadership the industry completely missed the huge opportunity presented by technology companies like Liquid Audio and Napster. Steve Jobs stepped in to pick up the pieces which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. Apple is all about Why and they understand how music works in people’s lives. So what can we learn and what happens next?

Why first, execution 2nd…

The music aggregators of the future may not look like old-school record labels, but I don’t think success will be based on a particular distribution methodology. The opportunity is for smart business people and artists to get back to the Why of music and build from there. Smart execution is key to creating a profitable business and distinguishing yourself in today’s flattened, over-supplied, music world is a formidable challenge. But first you need to know what you stand for and why you are doing what you do. If that starts to get fuzzy, your business will fade into the noise with everybody else.

Why Do You Do It? - Pt. 1

Reading Simon Sinek’s new book, Start with Why I was struck by his statement that,  “...people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” Sinek describes a simple formula he calls the Golden Circle. The center ring is WHY, the middle circle, HOW, and the outer circle, WHAT. Most businesses he says, talk about WHAT and HOW, but real leaders start with WHY and work outward. WHY is what creates loyalty whether in business, politics, or the arts. I ask myself why I still listen to certain artists and particular pieces of music after decades. It’s not great technique or a killer sound that brings me back, it’s why they did what they did.

Someone told me a story about Ry Cooder many years ago. I don’t know if this is true, but supposedly Ry showed up at a recording studio for a session, to discover that his favorite recording console had been “upgraded” to the latest and greatest. The owner enthusiastically extolled the virtues of his new board but Ry just shook his head, said, “We won’t be making any music today….” and walked out the door. There’s a guy who know why he’s doing what he does.

When I asked LA indie band, Killola what makes them engaging to fans they said, “We tend to reveal ourselves in more realistic light, and show people that we're just regular folks who just happen to have this outlet for making music in a band.  I think that lends to the accessibility.” Sounds like WHY to me.

37signals is a company that is all about WHY. They built Basecamp because it was the product they wanted to use. This flies in the face of conventional Product Management thinking, yet their approach has built a very profitable, devoted, user community.

Sinek talks extensively about Apple and Southwest Airlines. I recently booked air travel to a city that Southwest does not reach with direct flights. When I realized this I very, very, reluctantly switched airlines. Why this loyalty? Air travel is not a big deal for me one way or the other, but something about my experience with Southwest over the years has made them my default choice. WHY explains it.

Last month, Mark Small wrote a great article in Berklee Today speaking with a variety of Berklee alums about why they make music. When I hear great musicians it is food for my soul largely because there is absolutely no question at all why they are doing what they do. I talk about business models, marketing and all the rest, but let us not forget WHY. If music inspires and deeply moves us, that is the true compass we need to follow. The HOW and the WHAT will fall into line...

The Real World...

“The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.”

- Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson, "Rework"

Listening to music in the age of digital abundance….

A recent tweet from @slainson, and an LA Times post from Steve Almond has me thinking about how we experience music in this age of digital abundance and endless entertainment choices. Music is everywhere today and largely functions as sonic wallpaper. The stuff is inescapable, whether you like it or not.

I often think about how music was consumed 100 or 200 years ago. The composition and production of classical music was highly specialized and funded by the church or nobility. Only the most elite aristocrats had the opportunity to hear it. It was fancy. It amazes me to realize that people would routinely get dressed up to sit in a room and listen to live performances of music they had never heard before! Keep in mind that the composers of the era (Beethoven for instance) were continually pushing the envelope and writing music people found challenging or disturbing. The premier of Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ caused a riot. Contrast this with life today where you can’t even sit at a stoplight without being bombarded with some distorted sonic artifact. It’s everywhere and we have became anesthetized. As if that weren’t enough, music is continually competing for our attention with countless new forms of digital novelty and synoptic stimulation.

When I was growing up in late 1960’s Chicago, music was the cultural meeting place for an entire generation. There was no Internet, no video games, computers or video. Listening to music with rapt attention was the Big Thing. I remember a company that sold stereo equipment...the last item in their catalog was a roach clip! Music discovery for me involved running up to my room after dinner, putting on these clunky headphones and listening to “underground radio”. There was this DJ who called himself Scorpio and whispered into an echo chamber. His programming was personal, iconoclastic, and would make KCRW look formatted. I would take notes. I remember one night hearing Savoy Brown back to back with Freddie Hubbard ('Straight Life'). I was blown away. This was the first time I had really heard George Benson. I had no idea it was possible to do what he was doing on the guitar and the soul/funk polytonality of Weldon Irvine’s ‘Mr. Clean’ sent me on a musical quest.

I would sit in front of the stereo listening to LPs until the grooves wore out (despite my best efforts to keep them pristine with various exotic accessories). I studied the liner notes obsessively and when I heard something I liked I would track each of the sidemen, trying to find everything they had recorded. I was fascinated with musical family trees and communities. The LA country rock scene took me down a long and winding road and one exceptional musician could lead to a whole string of new discoveries. I moved through the musical channels of LA and New York to Nashville and back. Meanwhile I continued my education into jazz and contemporary classical music. I was learning songs and solos by rote and it wasn’t long before I started doing transcriptions. The convergence of artists like Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Buck Owens, Captain Beefheart, The Flying Burrito Brothers, McCoy Tyner, The Beatles, David Bromberg, Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Bartok, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Stravinsky, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Debussy, etc., etc., seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me.

When I went to college in Boston I discovered the Harvard Coop record department and thought I had died and gone to heaven. They had these big Schwann catalogs on pedestals where it seemed as if you could look up anything in recorded history. The Coop had shelves of sequentially numbered record label catalogs, big and small. As I discovered new jazz and ethnic musicians I could look up everything they had recorded as leaders or sidemen and 9 times out of 10 find the treasure on these shelves.

I was working for Internet music pioneer Liquid Audio when everything shifted toward the Web. The company was founded and largely staffed by audio pros and musicians and was truly innovative, using the AAC codec (which sounded noticeably better then MP3 and would later be adopted by Apple) and developing a very flexible music player with a full array of metadata, including album credits, an unfortunate casualty of most current digital distribution schemes.  It was a very exciting time. It seemed as if the vast expanse of musical possibilities would soon be available to everyone with the click of a mouse.  Interestingly enough I was never really motivated to buy digital downloads because the audio quality was inferior to CDs which were in themselves an old technology at that point. I liked the idea of subscription services because they reminded me of my hours spent at the Coop. I could find anything I wanted and if the music stuck I would buy the CD.

Today we are exposed to new music through an exhausting number of channels including web sites, Internet radio, video games, television, film and advertising placement, retail sponsorship, and terrestrial radio. We listen on our phones & iPods, in our cars, and on our computers. I haven’t owned a traditional “stereo system” in years. The time I spend listening to music under ideal conditions with my complete attention has become increasingly rare. Of course I’m not the typical consumer. Being in the business you listen to (or play) so much music that peace and quiet is cherished. One of the barriers to focused listening is consolidating all of your music sources. Sonos has a great solution that integrates home theaters, digital music collections and streaming music services in one simple, multi-room user interface. I hope to see more growth in this area of consumer electronics.

Here’s my advice for those who love music and want to cut through the noise and bring back the full experience:

• Make a special place to listen.
• Get the best sound system together you can. You can pick up powered studio monitors that don’t sound half bad for as little as a few hundred bucks. Listen to the highest quality audio available to you.
• Make a plan to discover music that’s new to you….Perhaps checking out a new artist or exploring a musical genre that is unfamiliar. Find your favorite music discovery channels and support them.
• Set aside time just to listen with your full attention. 
• Turn off your phone, log off Facebook, etc.
• Give it up to the journey the music takes.
• When you hear something that moves you, listen to it over, and over, again.
• Find out everything you can about the musicians you like and follow their creative path to discover new artists.
• Go out and find the music live.
• Write about it...talk about it...support the artists...spread the word!
• Repeat….

Are you ready for Telegigging and Songles?

Computer scientist, musician, and philosopher, Jaron Lanier, has created a fascinating, intelligent, critique of digital collectivism in his new book, You Are Not A Gadget. This is not the cynical rant of a Luddite, but a serious examination of the dehumanizing potential of technology. Mr. Lanier compares the impact of Web 2.0 paradigms on humanism and individuality to the relationship between MIDI and music. He makes convincing arguments questioning the rhetoric of the digital gurus, and proposes several fascinating new approaches to the cultural and financial conundrums presented by the explosion of the Internet into our lives.

Music and The Curse of Knowledge

One of the greatest sources of alienation and disillusion for professional musicians is the profound sense that their deep love of music and lifelong commitment to developing their skill, is completely invisible and unappreciated by non-musicians. It’s easy to becoming bitter when you see a crowd jump out of their seats for ‘The Chicken Dance’ at a wedding, yet the original piece of music you have rehearsed for weeks is completely ignored and/or misunderstood by the few people that hear it (often friends showing up out of sympathy for the disenfranchised artist).

There is a tendency to try to balance this phenomena by dumbing down the music, making a more ‘commercial’ record, hiring a mediocre singer simply because they look good on stage and bring in a crowd. This only leads to furthering the distance between musician and listener, deepening the cycle of bitterness and isolation (“...nobody likes my stuff anyway, so I’ll just climb into a hole and write really weird music…”).

We want others to be as moved by music as we are. Why is this so difficult for many of us to achieve? The explanation for this phenomena, and the way out of the artist’s conundrum, is understanding The Curse of Knowledge. This principle is well articulated in Chip and Dan Heath’s book, “Made To Stick”, which I heartily recommend. The idea is that, once we know something, it is very difficult to imagine what our experience would be without that knowledge. A professional musician has spent years developing their ability to hear, perform, and understand music. The simple act of listening to a commercial on television triggers a complex array of associations, emotions, and physical reactions that a non-expert does not experience.

So, how do we bridge communication and understanding between musician and audience? The behavioral change must come from the artist. The key is to find common ground for both parties. It has to be real to avoid the ‘dumbing down effect’. Put yourself in the listener’s position. How will they respond to your music, emotionally, physically, the visual presentation, etc.? Of course, appreciating music is a very personal experience, built on exposure throughout a lifetime, but there do seem to be certain musical phenomena that resonate almost universally and stick with people for hundreds of years. How can you use this idea to connect with your audience without compromising the deepest, most personal elements of your work?

Impermanence & Innovation in the Music Biz...

Michael Masnick’s great presentation at NARM 2009 really lit a spark in me. While many of us want to hold onto or modify the old business models in this industry, everything has changed.

The supply of digital music far exceeds the demand, and most everything is available in one form or another for 'free'. The devaluation of recorded music mandates the development of new, innovative business and collective licensing models.

As Tim Hurson states in his book, Think Better, reproductive thinking can only go so far. No amount of incremental improvement will ever turn an adding machine into a spreadsheet. Creative problem solving, the back and forth between out-of-the-box thinking and structured strategic planning, is the key to breaking free from old paradigms and dead ideas into new, productive territory. The urgent need for new ideas increases daily as the globe shrinks and technology continues to disrupt.

Now hiring...

Great Job For The Right Marketer

This is a great time to think about what is really important; building community, connecting with others, giving back. Put your energy into solutions that are grounded in reality and make the world a little better place each day.

Seth, thanks for sharing this!