Of CD sales to ticket buyers
Of myspace listens to iTunes sales
Of Facebook followers to email signups
Of Instagram followers to Instagram comments
Of monthly listeners to VIP package buyers
It’s different for everyone.
You teach your audience how things are done around here. The audience tells you if it’s a match. Then you adjust.
What do the real fans do?
Where do you want the action to be?
Which tools fit your marketing?
What is the focus?
First Monday of the month means new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple. Click through and add it to your drive to work this week.
I’ve probably bought three microphone stands in my life. I currently have three in my office. All of which are not the ones I bought.
The three I bought got donated to the music business years ago. Someone has them. And I have someone’s.
Sometimes I have four or five or two mic stands on hand.
But buying three at the beginning seems to be the price of admission to always have enough mic stands laying around.
Take a mic stand leave a mic stand. It all evens out.
That’s what Bob Ross said all the time.
Don’t over do it. Don’t dwell too much. Don’t second guess.
And he always said it toward the end of the episode. Not at the beginning.
At the beginning it’s all fiddlin. Messing around. Making little meaningful decisions that might not all work but won’t derail the picture if they don’t work. Little decisions and then little adjustments.
So by the time you get to the end you’ve done the work. Don’t fiddle it to death.
Music is stronger than you are…but for three minutes you get to be the conductor of the power of the notes and rhythms…you get to dance on the wave…you get to ride on the edge of something with more depth and force than you could ever wrap your mind around.
This is what the artist knows…the wave is infinitely more powerful than the wave rider.
This is why people listen. Despite all your short falls and the vast differences between you and each individual listening…they’re captivated by you riding the wave, playing the music. Harnessing an infinite power, ever so briefly, and opening their minds to something other.
There are lots of them in the music business. A few fun examples…
-songwriter without a pub deal, or cuts, or hits, and doesn’t really write very often but finds a way to go on writer retreats
-young producer has the nicest studio in town
-struggling artist without any revenue streams is somehow full-time
-new band has all of the best gear known to man
-a 23 year old manager lives in a condo downtown
You’re right…they didn’t buy this reality. Someone else paid for it. They know it, you know it, they’re deathly afraid you might know it.
Mystery solved. Onto more important things.
Yeah, but how good are you at entertaining.
I like keeping up with the real estate in my neighborhood. It’s fun to see what’s happening with the houses I drive past everyday.
In the listings there’s often an emphasis on how great the house is for entertaining and throwing parties. And it is. It’s a perfect set up…but while it’s perfect for entertaining, that doesn’t mean you know how to do much with it.
Because, you know what’s also perfect for entertaining? Stages. Stages are perfect for entertaining.
But it’s not about having the house or the stage that’s perfect for entertaining…it’s what you do with it that makes all the difference.