Blog posts and interviews on the music industry
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Personal Thoughts
With artificial intelligence tools becoming more popular, the question question arrises of AI’s role within the arts and whether it can truly replace musicians, writers, and illustrators. If the next radio hit, catchy jingle, or best-selling album is just a few prompts away, are we wasting our time still making music the old-fashioned way?
A little while back I was interviewed by Casino Gobbet from Yahoo Brazil.
I really enjoyed the questions Casino had and I thought you may find interesting reading our conversation.
Two years ago I started writing a book, today I am excited to tell the world about it.
I was fascinated with what set successful musicians in today's music industry apart from those with talent but no music career in their future. Research for the book had me taking a serious look at successful musicians and artists through to CEO's, athletes and the world of neuroscience.
"You are exactly where you are supposed to be...." This is what my friend Ryan Stanley told me once and it has given me a whole new perspective on life. I don't know about you but I have found myself blaming a situation, or even worse, other people, when things have not been as successful as I had hoped. You hear it all the time, "If I just had more money, or, if I just lost a little weight,... etc... things would be better."
Your Thoughts Create Your Futre crop
My dad always told me "the helping hand you are looking for is at the end of your own arm...", however sometimes it has seemed easier to reach for the arm of another. My whole life he's said, "Your thoughts create your future..."
Taking responsibility for your own actions, and accepting that the present is where you have lead yourself, is not always easy. At times it is even difficult to understand why those around you experience greater success when you have been given the same opportunities.
I have lived my life by the words of my father, that your thoughts create your future. However, when Ryan told me "you are exactly where you are supposed to be...," all of a sudden it became clear to what degree I am responsible for the present I am experiencing. I am supposed to be exactly where I am, and in the situation I am in, because of the decisions and choices I have made in the past. Consequently, I have the power to decide where I am supposed to be in my future.
Once I fully realized the power of the present, the fact that the present will be our past, and that at one point it was the future, I realized just how much control I have of my own life.
If you want to fulfill your dreams, stop dreaming! As long as you dream of them being in the future they will stay in the future. It's like the horse that has a carrot dangling in front of it, no matter how fast it gallops the carrot doesn't get any closer. The future is made up of present moments. If you spend your time daydreaming about what you are going to do, where you are going to be, what sort of lifestyle you plan to lead, etc... when you get to the future and it is not what you had imagined, it is because you never made "right now" count.
Whether you are fulfilling your dreams or not, "you are exactly where you are supposed to be!"
Thanks Ryan.
I thought if we put this into context with the music industry, how many of us start out being told that we won't succeed? That you can't make a living in the business, that you need a real job? "It's just a hobby..."
Wouldn't that be like stacking a tower of paint containers, all the while hoping it doesn't fall? More importantly, if we take the approach of a two year old, and simply believe that we can do what we set our minds out to do, we can stack our tower as high as the sky, that we can create the career that we want?
I have recently started teaching a music business course I have developed called "Above The Noise." The idea is to determine what it takes to be heard above the noise! There are a lot of people out there doing the same things you are and ultimately the hardest part is being heard above everyone else. I have established what I am calling the 5 pillars to being "heard above the noise."
When it comes to success it seems that successful people know what they want and don't give up until they reach their goals. Even the interviews I post here have that in common: every one made a conscientious decision to make their career in the music industry and none of them have ever given up.
If you commit yourself wholeheartedly and believe that what you are doing is the right thing, chances are it is! If you know what you want, you have a goal and are committed to obtaining it then sooner or later it happens!
I recently spoke with Jack Conte of Pomplamoose about the couple's incredible success and how YouTube has helped generate a full-time income from music sales. Although the band has recently completed a mini tour of the US's east coast, up until this point the band's success was mostly online. The band created some well edited videos of popular covers and made YouTube's "suggestions" function work for them. They created artistic videos showing the duo recording covers and uploaded them to YouTube. YouTube's "suggestions" function helped draw fans of the original artist to Pomplamoose's versions. Soon enough the videos were getting massive views and the band was adding their original music to the channel too. The point of true success came when they were able to convert their online followers to paying fans. This happened when they released their album "Tribute to Famous People" on iTunes and had 30,000 downloads. Since then the band's success has only grown and now when the phone rings it's Toyota and Hyundai asking to synch their music in commercials. We all know how lucrative that can be...
Work your craft, hone your skills, become the best you can be, get out and play, learn from mistakes,... but do the business too! The reality is, that as an artist you're an entrepreneur and a business owner! If you can't invest time into to all aspects of your own career then no one will!
Something to consider is the fact that if a song is not written by a band member then it is the writers that are going to see no return on the free giveaways. Many bands give their music away with the hopes of generating more fans and consequently more ticket and merch sales, etc... this however does not benefit the writers (except that with more exposure can come more opportunities to license a track).
I have heard a lot of really good music and a lot of really bad stuff too! But some of the bad stuff is "technically" really good... What do I mean by this? I mean people can hit all the right notes, have a great melody, great lyrics, great production,... and still the song does nothing, it doesn't move me, it doesn't stir an emotion, it doesn't transmit anything. 9 times out of 10, it's because the performances are coming from the brain instead of the heart.
As a musician you can compare your career to that of an entrepreneur, you build your business from the ground up and you stick to a plan. You set your goals and then you follow your road map. The ultimate life lesson for me was climbing in South America in high altitude. It wasn't easy and the lack of oxygen didn't make it easier. I would take ten steps, stop to rest, then keep going. The lesson I learned and have applied ever since is that if you put one step in front of the other and and don't give up you always reach your goals.
Here we will be posting our interviews with industry specialists as well as industry news on a regular basis. 
