Taylor Swift’s Letter

If letting people listen to your music for three months for free is killing you career, you problem is most definitely not Apple Music.

“Three months is a long time to go unpaid”…I beg to differ on the sentiment expressed.

The problem will not be that you won’t get paid for streams during the 3 month trial periods…the problem is that NO ONE WILL BE LISTENING TO YOUR MUSIC DURING THEIR 3 MONTH TRIAL PERIOD.  OR AFTER IT.

You’d be fine if lots of people were listening to your music for the rest of their lives while paying $10 per month for a streaming service.  If three months for free is all you had to do in exchange for a life time of monthly royalties…

Taylor Swift is doing this because she can and it doesn’t effect her visibility/discovery/marketing that much…for now.  And more power to her.  She’s probably one of the few artists who actually know what the breakdown looks like for every half-penny stream that takes place.  And she’s willing to roll the dice.

Do you know your breakdown?

No.  You don’t.  You just complain that you deserve to be paid more money.  And maybe you feel empowered by Taylor’s letter to Apple…but do you feel inspired and courageous enough to comb back through your contracts and stare at the hard facts of what you’ve already signed?  Do you have the guts and charisma to DO something about it within your own team?

Do you have what it takes to teach and groom your fans for how you want them to consume your music?  

Taylor, it’s easy to with hold back from change, to rant and disguise it as a revolution.  But the actual revolution comes with offering up a different solution. That’s hard.

For everyone who rails against Spotify or Apple Music, I have never heard an alternative plan offered up that doesn’t involve a time machine taking us back to the 90’s.

Maybe Apple Music will be awesome, maybe Spotify will win out, maybe Google or YouTube or Sony will come up with something better.

But as for you, you just worry about making people like your music.  If a lot of people like your music, you’ll be just fine.

p.s. I personally lean pretty heavy on the side that streaming via Spotify, Apple Music, etc, is the solution.  It’ll take tweaking, it’ll take time, it’ll take training fans.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

How Do You Get The Call?

How do you get the call?

You have a particular reputation.

How do you get a particular reputation?

Experience over time.

How do you get experience?

By filling a need.

How do you fill a need?

By being fearless and willing.  And by smiling.

How do you become a fearless and willing person?

This is the question to think about, not the first one.  The first one will take care of itself.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Main Reason I Like Home Depot

There are lots of main reasons I like Home Depot.  Like just walking the aisles, imagining things.  The hot dog truck outside that I’m either eating at or judging others for eating at.  There’s a worker who looks like Santa, only he pony-tail’s his beard in the summer.

But the main main reason is that literally everyone you see walking into Home Depot is there for one reason…making something better.  That’s it.

They’re fixing something, building something new, re-doing something, installing something.  Making something better.

We used to have this in music.  A main, central purpose that a group of artists or a genre of artists was defined by.

Now we don’t really have it.  

We barely ever have a common purpose within all three bands on the bill.  Much less unity within each single band.

What happened?

If you go into Home Depot (with work clothes on) you’re in the club. The Make It Better club.

What’s your club called and how can we join?

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Fireman On Call

When I was a kid I knew a guy who was a fireman.  So most times when he was around, he’d have his little radio with him and it would chirp or a message would come through every once and a while and he’d have to go check it and maybe even have to take off to go save some one.

He knew exactly what he was on call for.

Now we all have radios with us but have no idea what we’re on call for.  So we decide we’re on call for anything and everything.  Any beep, chirp, vibration, push note, we scramble for a distraction from the present.  Why?

Seinfeld says that most tv shows 95% of the time is spent on politics and runaround and 5% on writing.  But Seinfeld was 95% writing and 5% other stuff.  If someone needed an interview, too bad, he was writing.  If the producer had a question about the script, too bad, writing.

Everything else could wait, except the writing.  That had to be done.  That’s what he was on call for.  He wasn’t on call for the other things even though most usually allow themselves to be.

What are you on call for?

What are you not on call for?

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

That Moment In Food TV

On food shows, it’s usually a host traveling around trying different food.

But after we’ve watched the back story on where the food came from, the back story on the master chef, watched the master chef measure out the ingredients, prepare the food, cook the food, put the food on display and bring it out to the host.

This is the moment.

When the host tries the food.

They try it…and….wait for it….”Woah that is amazing!”

Really? All this build up for “Woah that is amazing”?

The reaction of the host is always a let down when they actually eat the food.

The truth is, there is no reaction big enough or sincere enough to make that moment good TV.  What is the host suppose to do?  “Wow, that was SOOO good, no no, that was INSANELY good, no no, I really really LOVE that food!!!”

Why is this? Because the joy that food brings is internal.  Very hard to express through words in a unique way.

Same thing in music.

The only reaction I’ve ever deemed “enough” for when I show someone a song I love or play one of my own is absolute, boo-hoo weeping.  Non stop crying because they love it so much and can’t even handle it.

Anything less than that and I don’t believe they really understand.

(btw, that reaction has never happened)

The joy that comes from music is meant for the inside.  It speaks to the parts of us that can’t be put into words.  It hits us in places that can’t be ID’d.

So next time you play someone your song or make them a meal, it’s not about what they say afterwards but how they FEEL inside.  

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Moving Forward

About a week ago I emailed out some questions and it’s been fantastic reading the responses.

If you haven’t emailed a response to that post, I’d still love to hear from you.

One of the more popular sentiments expressed from your responses is a need and desire to know how to do certain things:

-negotiate contracts
-get more people to shows
-hire a manager
-open for bigger acts
-the list goes on…

So from time to time, I’m going to try and toss a few ideas out there for HOW to do some things.  

BUT just know, the more specific I get with the HOW, the less it will likely pertain to you… so you might just need to use what I say as the beginning of a brainstorm for HOW you actually need to do things.

The other underlying idea from you all was to push for more connection.  With people in the industry, with readers of this blog, with people on your team, etc.

So I want to encourage that in two different ways off the bat. The first is, ask/tell the people around you to sign up for this blog.  That way it’ll be easier to talk (out loud) about the various blog topics with the those around you. To connect better to the world you live in.

The other way is to connect and comment with me and others on each post through Facebook (send me a friend request and then you can comment) and Twitter.  The links to those two will now sit at the bottom of each email I send you.  Emailing me is always great too.

Thanks for reading and for sharing.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com