Why I FAILED

Music & Money Monday - What Are You Worth?

Here’s what I said over a year ago in a post called More On Pricing:

“One of my most dreaded questions during my career as a professional musician was “how much do you charge for…?” I hated it for two main reasons: first, I hated to have to draw attention away from the music and onto money. Second, I always felt like no matter what was said, I’d either ask too much and not get hired or worse, get hired easily and suspect that I could have asked for more money”

The point of that post was arriving at a logical and realistic rate to charge for your services. I came across a related post at Duct Tape Marketing, where John Jantsch asks “Are You Worth More Than You’re Making?” He also suggests a way to determine your pay rate, but here’s what I’m bringing to you today: “If you want to achieve any of your goals and finally start making what you are worth then you’ve got to find a way to stop doing $5/hr work. Period.”

I can relate…

With the exception of a ‘64 Rambler, my family always bought used cars. My dad was a music teacher but he was also a fairly good shade tree mechanic. And because he hated paying others to do work he could do himself, he often spent weekends - sometimes SEVERAL weekends - underneath the hood of one of our cars. He used to joke that he could fix anything, it just took him three tries.

This used to drive my mom crazy because she saw the toll this took on my dad in terms of time and his ability to do other things. Of course we saved money this way, but what was the real cost? What was the value of my dad’s time relative to the cost of paying someone else?

I’m not sure what his pay scale was, but he was probably paid slightly better than a great mechanic. BUT, it took him three or four times as long too. So, using imaginary numbers, he might have saved $150.00 by doing a three hour job himself, but it REALLY cost him $450.00 or more of his own time. He lost money big time.

So what about you? As an entrepreneur, this is a particularly powerful question. Because of the nature of your work, it’s easy to fall into this trap. You probably think that as long as you have enough gigs on the books, it’s wise to mow the lawn, fix the shower and change the oil on your car. But, as the CEO of You, Inc., your responsibilities go far beyond showing up and playing music.

What if, as John suggest, you payed a kid $20.00 to mow the lawn and spent the same amount of time marketing your talents? What’s that worth? More than $20.00?

I realize there are times when the economics of your situation make it necessary to do things yourself, like when you’re um, er…BROKE! But, even then, be aware of the trade off and use it as motivation to move yourself ahead. As a musician, you are a highly skilled professional. You’d consider it crazy for a successful doctor or lawyer to work on their car, and the same applies for you.

Slicethepie

I no sooner got done writing about SellaBand’s anniversary and commenting about transformational changes in the music industry when I read a comment on the Springwise article.

Kudos to Julian Clayton for directing us to Slicethepie.

SellaBand One Year Anniversary

When I first wrote about A Musical Stock Exchange called SellaBand, the site was just getting started. Springwise - where I first heard of SellaBand - is back with information about the site now that it’s one year old. How’s it going? 4,000+ bands have signed up with 7 albums either done or in the works. And that’s just the first year.

“Fans have invested over USD 1,000,000 in the bands they believe in. The first band to raise USD 50,000 was Nemesea, which did so in 83 days.”

I’m particularly intrigued by the plans for enhancements which include “the tools to scout talent, track the recording process and promote ‘the heck out of the artist’ once an album has been released.”

Just like mico-lending (kiva, Prosper & PlaNetFinance)is revolutionizing banking and finance, SellaBand and sites like it are doing the same to music. And none of this is a surprise.

Industries, like all things (your career. your life.), are cyclical. In addition to ups and downs, growth and atrophy, successes and failures, there are transformational times of shifting power and/or structure.

For instance, at one time, there were over 3000 automobile manufacturers in the US. Over time, a mass consolidation occurred until we had the “big three” of today. There are hundreds of reasons behind this change, but for now we’ll say that people didn’t need 3000 varieties to meet their needs. That has changed again. My goal here isn’t to give my theories on the auto industry, but I believe there is a growing market for thousands of varieties of automobiles. Things have changed.

The same is true for the music industry. There were also hundreds and thousands of publishing/recording houses 50 to 100 years ago, now there are four or five. But there aren’t just four or five. Just like Lotus, Scion and Tesla, the music world has indie labels and artists popping up all over the place. But their not just popping up, they are successfully finding fans and selling music.

Both of these trends - auto & music - are being driven and supported by the global marketplace. 1,000,000 people cannot support 3000 auto manufacturers, but 8 or 9 billion can. Tesla doesn’t need to sell millions of cars per year to make a statement and make a living.

And neither do you.

More Pitching Your Price

Today’s word of the day is indulgence. As in this quote from Jones Soda CEO Peter van Stolk:

“Our strategy is to be a treat. Our marketing campaign is ‘Drink less
soda, just better soda.’ We’re the first to admit that we are an
indulgence and if you’re going to indulge then you should have the best
available. We think we have that—the best packaging, best product, best
taste, best ingredients, best in class,”

I urge you, beg you and plead with you to go read this entire article.

If you’re in a hurry, the highlights are here.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Learning

My thanks to Eric Boehme for the following quotes at his “the blogging boss” blog:

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”
- Confucius

“Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.”
- W. Edwards Deming

“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”
- George Santayana

I particularly like number two. You don’t have to learn or survive. However, if you want to survive, you had better learn - all the time.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Music & Money Monday - Pitch Your Price

This is a complete post from John Dodds entitled “Pitching Your Price”:

“The cake stall In Borough Market was laden with goodies and my eyes were drawn to the succulent chocolate brownies - and then to the price. £1.50. Not cheap.

But wait - with two words the vendor totally changed my reaction to the price. For these brownies were not £1.50 each. These brownies were £1.50 per indulgence.”

John’s short story illustrates two aspects of business:

1. Making a service memorable and,
2. Earning a premium price.

Brilliant.

The words per indulgence change the usual exchange of “X money” for a square of chocolate, into an exchange of “X+ money” for satisfaction. The cake seller is saying “pay me an amount and you’ll be satisfied.” Of course the price is high, but you’re not limited to a square either. PLUS, the word indulgence has a powerful ring to it too - marketing at it’s best.

What about you,? Could this work for a musician? Is there a way you can charge for satisfaction instead of your product/service? As I wrote in Pricing the Value of Your Music, “the difference between success and failure will be measured by your ability to deliver beyond everyone else in ways outside of music.” So, what if you didn’t charge per song download? What if you charged for 30 minutes of downloads either by the length of the music or the time spent online with access to your catalog?
What about live? Ozzy did it with this year’s Ozzfest, could you? He got sponsors, but chances are you’re already doing this if you ever play a gig for free but sell your swag. Could you go one step further and package stuff into a bundle as part of the ticket. Ya know, sell an indulgence instead of a performance?

I’ll bet you can.

Try Middle America

Brazen Careerist guest writer Ryan Healy offers twentysomethings advice in his post entitled “Forget the big city, try middle America.”

It could be good advice for you too.

“From the outside, cities like Cincinnati, Ohio and Norman, Oklahoma aren’t nearly as exciting or trendy as New York or San Francisco. …chances are we will just be able to “stay afloat” either way. Since that is the case, I will not hesitate to choose the fulfilling, under paying job in a small city rather than grind it out during the week to party until 4a.m. on Friday with the rest of the yuppies in the big city.”

Think about it. If exciting, trendy and partying yuppies are moving to Cincinnati and Norman, they will need exciting, trendy and partying entertainment there too. In the globally interconnected world we live in, more and more people are making these choices. Choices driven by a desire for life rather than money and prestige. Don’t get me wrong, they are still driven, but they are not following the Wall Street or Silicon Valley norms. They don’t have to.

There are trade offs though. A person choosing Omaha over NY will make less money. They will also be passing up opportunities to work for the top firms in the world. And it’s unlikely they will become superstars in their profession and retire on the Riviera.

And the same will be true for you. Choosing to build your career in Omaha means similar things for you. You will make less money because of the smaller economy. You will also be passing on opportunities to tour the world with the top artists and bands and you probably won’t be an international superstar. Of course, it could happen, it’s just hard to get your name out from Omaha.

However, what you CAN have is a very good life playing music. There’s nothing wrong with being the big fish in a small pond, especially if it pays your bills and gives you a LIFE.

So, as Ryan says: “It’s time for me to make a decision, because there is no reason to be bound by geography or the “coolness” factor of a city.”

So true…

Music & Money Monday - Non-Music Cashflow, Part 5

“We’d like you to come play with us.”

As I hung up the phone, I told my wife that I had gotten the gig with Russ Taff, a gig that would take this newly married couple to Nashville and on to who knows what. It was fall of ‘86 and we were soon driving from Dallas so I could rehearse with the band and start a six week tour with Russ. In early ‘07, we packed everything we had and moved to Music City just in time to celebrate our 1 year anniversary by eating pieces of our wedding cake while sitting on boxes in our apartment.

In addition to touring with Russ, I began to get recording work playing on advertising jingles. The extra money was great, and having the chance to record taught me a lot that I needed to know. The big challenge, however, was that between the jingles and the touring, we were not making enough money to live. Russ, as a successful artist and songwriter, didn’t need to tour much to make a living, so there were often months where we would not play at all. I, on the other hand, needed to work all the time just to pay our bills.

The solution? Temp agencies.

Temp agencies, or Temporary Employment Services, are companies that find short term workers for businesses and organizations. Businesses need these workers for reasons ranging from employee illness or vacation, to assistance with short term projects and assignments. Others need the help regularly, but can’t afford people on the payroll all the time.
it’s the agency’s job to have a large group of people with a variety of skills and talents and flexible schedules to call from to fill these positions, which is where you come in.
I found work through a “general labor” agency. This company specialized in placing people to collate and send mailings, organize and file papers, work in warehouses, deliver and install equipment and perform other light duty labor jobs. This agency was perfect for me, because I had very little experience and no business skills whatsoever. What I DID have was a flexible schedule and a need to work.

Which is why temp agencies LOVE musicians:

• First, we have flexible schedules. As a freelance touring and recording musician, I had days or weeks when I was working, and days/weeks/months when I was not. I simply called the agency when I was or wasn’t available and within a day or two I was working somewhere earning some money. They understood that music took precedence and that music work could come up at the last minute too, but that’s the real beauty of working for an agency - you can say NO too! But in general, I, and my fellow musicians, had schedules that meant we were often available to work.
• Second, we’re dependable. Though this runs contrary to the reputation of “typical musicians”, the qualities that make us great musicians, make us great workers for temp agencies. Being a musician takes self-motivation, self-discipline, dedication, independence and a “can do” attitude. We’re also devoted to our career and view working for a temp agency as a means of sticking to our goals. Put all those together, and agencies know that when they send a musician to a job, the person will show up and finish the work.

If you’re in a position where you need extra cash, but cannot imagine getting a full time job, even with part time hours, look into temp agencies in your area. Start by asking around and looking on the web and yellow pages. You can also ask local businesses to find out who they use for their temporary needs. Interview with a few of them if you’d like - it’s even okay to be listed with several at a time, especially if you need work badly.

Temp Agencies are a great source of non-music cashflow. They allow you to maintain your independence and flexibility while putting money in your pocket when you need it. Best of luck.

YOU can be Jerry Seinfeld

Remember my post about Jerry Seinfeld’s red X’s? Well, someone WAY smarter than me has created a website you can use to be just like Jerry!

Remember, don’t break the chain…

How To Find Your Passion

I am passionate about helping others live passionate lives, or as I call it, living fully alive. At one time, my passion was to be a world class drummer. All along it’s been to be a world class husband and father (a most difficult goal I might add), which means that world class drummer was often bested by a passion to merely play enough to pay the bills.

And there were times when there was no passion. Not only was there no passion to do anything, there were times of no passion to figure out a passion. In all those times, I didn’t give much thought to passion, I simply sought to move forward somehow or another. When I heard or read about passion it stirred something in my heart, but I always felt stumped as to what to do about it. I suspect I’m not alone. And as the idea of “pursuing your passions” has become more and more popular, there’s pressure upon everyone to figure it out, but not much guidance as to how.

Not surprisingly, a post from the Pursue the Passion blog has the answer: stumbling, dissatisfaction and courage. Brett Farmiloe tells an inspiring story that has led him from the all too common path of choosing a career based on advice to touring the country in an RV.
Brett stumbled into accounting, which led to school, interviewing for jobs, taking a summer to tour the country, going to work at a firm and getting pampered. All along, however, he experienced a growing dissatisfaction and frustration with his world - work especially. And then came courage:

“I made the decision that it was now or never for me. It was time to quit the job I despised.”

And so he did. Leaving certain security behind to pursue a dream of living on the road, interviewing successful people and watching ball games. Go read the rest and be inspired.

Be inspired that there is no great mystery to finding your passion and living fully alive. You can’t know what you are to do without DOING something. So always be doing, but along the way, look for life’s feedback and pay attention to it. Take the feedback seriously and run it across your core beliefs and then across your core desires. Not the desires for cars and houses (though those are important), but the desires for the lasting things like family, relationships and building memories.

Lastly, run these all across you - the real and complete you. Because the only reason too live a passionate life is to be the best you you can be.