Setlist Trouble

I used to be in a band called The Kicks.  In that band, we had a song called Let Me Love You (you can listen to it HERE), and it always went over really well at the live shows.  The song goes back and forth from pretty chill to wild and raucous a few times before really lifting off at the end.  So by the time we were done with the song, we had definitely hit a climactic moment.

The audience would be engaged, the band was engaged, the groove was good, the guitars were blazing, big vocals. This was it.

Naturally we tried putting the song at the end of the set list because it seemed to be this energy filled, uplifting, rock n roll moment to close with.

But it didn’t work.

To this day I can’t explain why Let Me Love You wasn’t the right song to close with but it just wasn’t. Every time we’d close a show with it, we’d get off stage and know it wasn’t right.

So we started putting it right after the acoustic portion of our set.  We’d play a couple down songs in the middle of the show and the thought was to pick the energy back up with Let Me Love You.

This worked. Everytime. 5 people or 5,000 people, it worked.

Again, I can’t totally explain why, but anyone or anything, any energy that we’d lost up to that point in the set, we would gain back when we played this song.

And this presented a new problem. Here we were 30mins into a 45 minute set and we feel like we just blew the roof off.  We just played the ace up our sleeve. What now?

What in the world do we do with the final 15 minutes of the show? How can we create an even bigger moment to end with?

For artists and bands, these are the questions. The ebb and flow, the story of your set list, the place you’re leading people to and why you’re leading them there.

I think the best shows The Kicks ever played were when we solved the little riddle of the above situation.  It took a lot of tinkering, some failing, some fighting, some new songs, some old songs, but once we nailed it…

I say all this to say, keep paying attention, keep looking for a way in, keep listening to your gut, keep pushing for a better way.

How Have The Shows Been?

Oh, you’ve been on the road lately? How have the shows been?

“Pretty good”.

Why is this? Because ‘pretty good’ doesn’t demand any follow up inquiry.  The truth is the shows have been going pretty crappy, cause if they were going really well, you’d want to say that instead.  Prompting another question as to how they were so great.

(Or there are some who down play that their shows have been going really well because they don’t want to come off arrogant or self righteous.  This is also sad.)

The questioner is satisfied when you answer pretty good, it flows in conversation, and maybe they were asking just to be nice anyway.  Pretty good gets you off the hook. Pretty good avoids skepticism from the outside. Pretty good is the status quo. Pretty good is safe. Pretty good avoids criticism.

But can’t you realize that all your best stories, and what makes you magnetic, comes from admitting to crappy shows and/or really great ones.  Everyone loves extremes.  The middle is boring.  You say 'pretty good’ and rob yourself of the opportunity to say something interesting.

I truly hope your shows haven’t been just going pretty good. If they really are, lean in harder and either break through or fall apart.

But as for conversation, change the norm of everyone here in Nashville walking around talking about the pretty good shows they’ve been playing.

The Winter Blues

It’s January, it’s cold. Not much daylight. Rain. Snow. Cold cars.  Dead batteries.

The winter blues are a real thing. January is the worst. 

Stay away from making big, rash decisions at a time like this.  You’re not totally yourself at the moment.  You’re cooped up in your house, post holiday depression has set in, Alabama lost, sunlight is rare, your chips are down and your spirits low.

At least don’t make big decisions by yourself right now.

I’m serious. 

It’s going to get warmer soon and you’ll be able to think clearer.

If you have to decide something big in the next couple weeks, talk with a handful of other people.  Not just one or two.

Make major decisions in the sunlight and/or the company of wise people.

Keep working ferociously hard. 

The Thing About The Blog

Here’s the thing about the blog.  I want it to be back and forth, me and you.  I want to initiate conversations and then field your responses, questions, challenges, support, contempt.  And then probably respond back to you, personally.  I think the best way to do this is to have the blog emailed to you (it will still be posted on the website), then all you have to do is hit Reply and we’re in business.

So if you’re into something like that, there’s an easy one-time email sign up on the right side of the page, or if you’re on mobile, just click the Menu and the Subscribe button.

I will continue to write posts about artist/band issues, the entertainment business, leadership, entrepreneurship and even throw some humor or general pop culture from time to time.  I hope you’ll join me.

If there are others who you think might like to join the conversation, pass my website along, it’d be great to have them.

There’s one more tweak for the blog I’m working on, so when that happens there might be another one of these invitation type posts.  But I wanted to get things rolling now, rather than later.

It’s all happening.

gabe

Gift Cards Are Fun To Open Again

Gift cards have pretty much come full circle.  When they first started getting really popular, I don’t know maybe 10 or 15 years ago, it was really exciting to get one because it meant the possibilities were wide open to purchase whatever you wanted from that particular store.

It was just a little piece of plastic, nothing flashy, usually taped inside of a generic Christmas card, but it was truly a gift. Freedom. A new, fresh kind of freedom.

Then you got the same thing the next year. And then you started getting more gift cards, and more gift cards, and the excitement started wearing down a little, cause it wasn’t new anymore.  Yeah, it’s cool being able to spend money on what you want, but it wasn’t exciting to get a gift card.

And that’s really what we want, the excitement.

But a couple years ago, and definitely this past Christmas, companies have purposefully gone out of there way to make gift cards exciting again.

Have you seen the packaging on them? It’s beautiful and inviting.

Now the gift card comes in a box of some sort. It’s elaborate. It’s thought out.  The gift card is situated just so, usually with two little finger tabs that are begging for us to reach in and touch the treasure.

Cause that’s the excitement of real gifts. The reaching in!!

And the boxes are nice too. It’s all marketing, but it truly makes for a better experience.  

I’m telling you, there were meetings at GAP, Target, WholeFoods, Macy’s, everywhere about how to make gift cards exciting again.

And now this brings be to the grand finale, the reason I’ve been thinking about the gift card business all day.

The same thing needs to happen with album/song art or packaging.

It used to be awesome and people got excited by it.

Now they don’t.

How could we bring it back around?

It’s still all about the song (just like it’s all about the actual fact that the gift card means I have money to spend), but I think we need to wake up to the thought that there’s an opportunity to bring music packaging/art back around.

Or maybe it’s playlists on Spotify or Beats. Playlists are boring to make, boring to send, boring to receive.  How could we make them exciting to receive? 

There’s your billion dollar idea for the day.

The Complaint I've Never Heard

You know what complaint I’ve never heard before…

I make music that tons and tons of people want to hear and hear again and they’re telling all their friends, but there’s just no money to be made in the music business.

Lots of artists say they can’t make money on music…but have they ever backed up and looked at what they’re pedaling? What songs they’re pedaling?

The most played song on Spotify is Avicii’s song Wake Me Up. As of today it has 318 million plays, which would net the Avicii empire (not necessarily himself, depending on the deals he’s signed) anywhere from $1.2 million to $2 million.  So streaming revenue off of that one song more than payed for the cost of making the entire album, the marketing plan, a radio push, and probably some new sneakers for the artist.  

With those costs covered, if he’s smart, a much larger percentage of the other revenue streams will be net profit.  He ain’t complaining about making money in the music business.

Yep, I used the most extreme example possible, the highest played song on Spotify to make my point. But what’s your counter point?

Take away terrestrial radio (which is still important) and the playing field gets very even, very quickly.  Sure, those with deep pockets will still try and pay off the gate keepers, but there are less and less gate keepers today than ever before.

By the way, there are lots of songs on Spotify’s Most Played All-Time list that you haven’t heard before. Songs with over a hundred million plays. 

If the opening complaint is where you find yourself (and if you’re honest with yourself, I don’t think you could make that complaint), then there’s a breakdown in the equation somewhere that you’re not noticing. So I’ll give you a brief plan to remedy the situation.

Spend half your time writing songs. Will you start here? Or did you already decided you’re going to “play the business”, or try to “get some syncs” and go from there?

Spend the other half relentlessly building a quality team. A team with sharp edges but put all together will round out the entity as a whole.

That’s your job. Admit you’re a leader. Be a leader.