Why I FAILED

Fighting Back Against the Recording Industry

Not that I think this will change anything, it is interesting to read this story about a New York teen fighting the label’s illegal downloading suit against him. Two things jump out:

Part of the countersuit is that the recording companies first promoted file sharing and then turned against it. Hmmm

They are also accusing the normally competitive recording companies of acting as a cartel making extortion threats.

Before you go read the article, let me make one thing absolutely clear: I am NOT a proponent of “illegal” file sharing and my definition of that is in line with the major labels. Intellectual Property is the single most important property there is. Nothing happens without an idea, and if you don’t reward the creative person behind the idea, what incentive is there to BE creative?

Now, with that said, IMHO, the problem here is that the industry allowed themselves to be caught off guard by the greatest opportunity EVER. They are now playing catch-up and that is unlikely to work. What IS likely to work is a completely revamped business model focused on the end-users.

DrumART.com

LOVE THIS!

Of course it’s because I’m a drummer, but this is a cool business idea executed very well. DrumART.com is a business by drummers for drummers that makes custom drum heads, decals and a host of other related stuff for musicians.

Of particular note is their slogan “Rock Star quality at Garage Band prices.” What musician can’t relate to that? Perfect.

If I were still playing, I’d support them just because they are doing what they’re doing so well.

Be sure to check out their MySpace site too and read about some newlyweds.

A Career an Industry a Field and a Job, Part III

Earlier today I picked a quote off Seth Godin’s blog. It read “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.” This presents yet another reason to consider the differences and interconnectedness between a career, an industry, a field and a job.

I, like most of you with any natural talent whatsoever, thought, planned and dreamed of a career as a musician. As logically as 2+2=4, a love for music + playing drums = musician. If you’ve read my story, you know it worked too. For almost 20 years I WAS a musician. Or, like I said in part I, was a musician who worked in the recording and live music industry as a drummer playing freelance for a number of artists and producers.

But then my career began to fade and 2+2 stopped = 4. Not all at once of course, but over time the math didn’t work. I just couldn’t make a sufficient living as a music lover playing drums. My math told me it was time to leave the arts.

What I lacked was options, but only because of my limited perspective. I failed to realize that 2+2=4 can also be written as 1+1+1+1=4. I didn’t realize that I could plug all the facets of my love for music into anyone of thousands of different combinations of careers, industries, fields and jobs.

Whether you’re starting out, in the midst of your path, or fearing and/or wrestling with the end, take the time to think about the math you’re using.

Oh, and one more thing, new careers, industries, fields and jobs are being invented everyday. Who knows, you may have the idea that will unlock the power of the internet to legally and effortlessly serve the needs of music lovers everywhere.

Preparation and Movement

Here are two powerful reasons to read Seth’s blog:

“Swedish maxim:  There is no bad weather, just bad clothing.”

“99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn’t
coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard
part is actually executing the thing you’ve thought of.”

Well said.

A Career an Industry a Field and a Job, Part II

Earlier today I wrote about considering careers, industries, fields and jobs as a means to uncover opportunities. Later in the day I thought of an extreme example to get your creative juices flowing.

A drummer, consulting for Fortune 500 companies, facilitating business meetings as part of Drum Cafe.

Yes, I’m serious. Drum Cafe is a business consultancy with offices all over the globe. They use drumming to conduct their seminars on team building, communication, diversity and collaboration. My company hired the Atlanta office for a Technology Summit 2 years ago and it was one of the best business meetings I’ve attended - and NOT just because I’m a drummer.

Of course it’s an extreme example, but that exactly why I brought it to you.

A Career an Industry a Field and a Job

I used to be a musician who worked in the recording and live music industry as a drummer playing freelance for a number of artists and producers.

What about you? What’s your career, industry, field and job?

These are important questions because they open a world of opportunity you may not have seen before.

Here’s what I mean.
- I could have been a musician, in the education field working as a writer of instruction books for elementary school music publishers.
- Or a musician, in the recording and live performance industry, who played drums for the Air Force.
- Or a musician, in the film industry, who rented drums as props for movie producers.

If you’re stuggling in your career, it could very well be because you’ve looked at your options too simplistically. Without realizing it, you’ve said “I’m good at music, so I have to perform.”

I’m not suggesting that’s wrong, but I am suggesting that doesn’t really mean anything. Put some definition behind it by asking yourself these questions:

What do I want to be professionally speaking?
What industry do I want to do that in?
What specific function do I want to do within that industry?
Who, or what organizations do I want to work for within that industry?

Write out ALL the options you can think of and see which ones make your heart leap, which ones scare to death and which ones make you cringe at the thought. Throw out the cringers and explore the other two categories. My hope is you’ll pick the one that makes your heart leap AND scares you to death.

Success comes through a powerful mix of faith and daring,

The Power of Books

Today my thanks go out to a friend of mine in Nashville named Roy Vogt who featured me in his latest column for Eden Electronics. Check it out here and click on Lesson 19 under Music Business Articles.

His highlighting of three excellent books reminds me of something I heard many years ago. If you want to know where you’ll be in five years, look at the books you read and the people you hang around with. It’s called the power of association and books harness that power for your advantage.

Napoleon Hill passed away in 1970, and though he’s very much alive, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever have a chance to spend much time with Steven Covey. As far as Dave Ramsey goes, he’s more accessible because of his radio show and seminars he does all over the country, but even then you’re not really spending one-on-one time with him.
(If you’re wondering who these guys are and/or why I mention them here, go read Roy’s lesson like I recommended earlier)

What each of these people, and thousands of others, have in common is the fact that they have written books full of every important idea, concept and suggestion they know to be critically important for success. Spend five years reading their books and your life is sure to be transformed.

How many books? Well, you’ll have to read Roy’s lesson for the answer to that (remember to pick number 19 under Music Business Articles).

Dreams vs. Goals

By their very nature, musicians are dreamers. Whether young or old, a person practicing their scales is dreaming of the screaming and applauding fans that will someday bring them fame and fortune of some kind. And this is how it should be. Everyone dreams. Every great story in history revolves around dreams of grandeur and glory. Whether to climb a great mountain or win the heart of the princess, it all starts with a dream.

But not everyone reaches their dreams, and there are often two reasons.

First, many people believe they can have their dreams without changing themselves in the process. This is a fantasy. A dream worth having requires something of or from you. Whether it be work, time, money, passion or whatever, you HAVE to change something in you before you can reach your dreams. People are either unaware of this fact or not willing to change.

Second, people fail to make goals. But it’s actually very simple: a goal is nothing more than a dream with a date attached to it. “I will be ________ by April 22nd.” That’s all a goal is, nothing more and nothing less.

Put 1 and 2 together and you’ll see why most people fail. People would rather avoid adding a date (number 2) because it will require them to actually DO SOMETHING (number 1).

Which leads to my real question for you:

Is your dream worth changing for? Is it something so important, compelling and needed by you and hopefully the world, that you are willing to be and do what it will take to get it? If not, get a bigger dream or a new one. You will be miserable until you do and I speak from experience.

One word of caution: keep it real. When I speak about changing to get your dream, I’m not talking about dumping your friends, leaving your family and selling your soul. I’m talking about dedication, discipline, learning, etc. I’m talking about mature decisions rooted in the reality of day-to-day, year-to-year life. Success is based in reality, and it is about incremental changes followed by the next set of incremental changes.

So I ask you again: is your dream worth changing for? If so, put some dates on it and get to work. And btw, working is usually the change most people are unwilling to make.

Cover Story, Fast Company

Run out today - don’t walk - and get the February issue of Fast Company. The cover story is all about Musictoday, a company that handles the behind the scenes customer relationship management for a majority of today’s top artists. Two things of note:

One, the article mentions the fact that John Legend, one of Musictoday’s artists, used to work for Boston Consulting Group, a firm my company hired this past year. I’ll research more on his career, but I’m willing to bet he’s using every bit of his “real world” knowledge and experience to build his career.

Second, Musictoday’s goal is to allow artists to succeed without major labels and they are currently filling many niches that used to be filled by labels - the future of music is here now folks.

Be sure to run out and get a copy. Enjoy.

Koopa

I was introduced to a band called Koopa last night through a business blog that I regularly read. A couple of things caught my eye about the post.

First, it was written to question the existence and usefulness of marketing departments by asking what it is they actually do. After some general thoughts on the subject, the author used the music business to prove their point by talking about Koopa. It’s predicted that they will be in the Top 40 in the UK this week as an unsigned band (a term that I suspect will slowly disappear from our lexicon, or be replaced with something else). The point was made that music businesses argue that they are useful and needed because of their marketing expertise.

Which leads us to the second item of interest:

“When asked if their success would faciliate their obtaining a record
deal, the lead-singer of Koopa asked “What could a record company do
for us that we can’t do ourselves?”"

I don’t have an answer. Do you?