Having The Need

If you need the services of the person you want to work with, you’re much more likely to get to work with that person.

There’s a graphic designer you love. This designer does all the big projects and is well respected by the other people in your world. It’s a bad idea to call the designer and ask ‘what would you like to design for me?’.

It’s much better to call the graphic designer and say ‘I have something I need you to design’.

Often times with artists at the beginning of the journey, the confusion is two fold…

-They want the association of working with the famous label, booking agency, management company without actually knowing what they do

-They don’t have a (current) need for what that company does.


When you have a need and express it to someone who is good at taking care of that need, good things happen for everyone involved.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

NBA Highlight Reel

By half way through any NBA season every team could make the same two minute highlight reel.

Some crazy dunks, some long three pointers, alley oops, fast breaks, some tricky passes, blocks and all the adrenaline infused reactions to go along with it.

They can all have an equal highlight reel, but the teams aren’t equal. In fact, some of those teams are really awful.

Highlight reels are good at hype, but highlight reels don’t have much to do with differentiation. And differentiation is what makes a championship team.


In case you aren’t seeing the metaphor…Your highlight reel (perhaps your Instagram, etc.) doesn’t mean you’re successful, it simply a signal that you are participating. It’s what those highlights are made from and built on that will dictate your level of success.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Music Biz Nightcap 23

Music Biz Edition…

How does it benefit me to pre-save your song on Spotify?

I wonder if George was (at least initially) mad at Paul for how busy the baseline is in Something.

You hope your sound is completely unique. We hope your sound is reminiscent of the stuff we already like.

The quality of your show increases exponentially as the quality of your drummer increases.

The crowd needs Dave Grohl. Dave Grohl needs the band.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

My Fav 50

A new fun challenge for you:

My Fav 50

It’s really simple: Make a playlist of your favorite 50 songs and share it.

Here’s mine on Spotify and Apple.

A while back a friend of mine made his list like this and it was really fun to talk about and listen though. So I thought I’d take a shot and invite you to do the same.

But the biggest hurdle is this…It’s not a declaration of the Best 50 Songs or the Catchiest 50 Songs. It’s simply your favorite. No right or wrong answer. No need to argue.

Your favorite songs are you favorite because of what you feel when you hear them, what you get to think about and remember, the people and places you associate with them. Favorite isn’t concerned with Best…Favorite is concerned with experience and connection.

A fun way to become a little more known.

So go make yours and tag it with #MyFav50


***It gets really fun when you already have 50 on the list and in order to add one more you also have to remove one :)

***I started with a giant list of possible favorites. If you’re interested in that: listen here

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Promo Photos

It’s unlikely your promo photo will be both silly and mysterious.

It’s unlikely your promo photo will be both cutting edge and conservative.

It’s unlikely your promo photo will be both seductive and humble.

What is it you need to convey, and will the people you’re conveying it to interpret it as such?

Clear message. Clear delivery. Clear connection (to a specific group of people, not everyone).

Having these boundaries are good for creativity. Try it.

Your photoshoot is a lot more fun when you know what it’s for.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Super Bowl Halftime

I guess I’ve written about Super Bowl halftime shows a lot.

Truly truly entertainment by committee. It’s so interesting to see a show that A LOT of people had to give thumbs up to beforehand.

The halftime show has one goal, which is: for you to watch it (aka to keep you from switching the channel)

It doesn’t matter how many people thought it was good or bad or whether you thought it was too this or too that, it only matters that you (and lots of others) watched. Then powers-that-be can take that number and charge more for ads next year.

Sure the Super Bowl halftime show gets advertised (ironically) as musical expression, self expression, culture, history, unity, etc…and true, that’s in there too. But that’s not why the show exists. If the show has all of those things but no eye balls, the show goes away.

And the interesting thing is the show only has to be good enough for people to watch it ONCE. The show doesn’t go on the road. They don’t have to do a good job tonight so the people will hear about it in the next town over and come out the following night.

It only has to be good enough so people will endure it.

It’s a low bar. And the NFL has a way of at least hitting that.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com