Napster Songs

The first song ever I downloaded on Napster was I Love Rock N Roll.

The second song? Build Me Up Buttercup.

I’m probably not the only person who likes both of those songs. Which might suggest that if you just came out with a song like I Love Rock N Roll that your follow up will connect if it sounds something like Build Me Up Buttercup.

(While there has never been a better time to try something like this…) The better option would would probably be to follow it up with something that kinda sounds like what has already connected.

People like lots of different music. No need to try to be all of them. Go be ONE of them.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Super Bowl And Hits

I like watching the Super Bowl halftime show to see what a show built by many committees (with lots of money) looks like.

The Weeknd looked great, sounded great, the different staging and setups and camera work was really well done…but there was barely a hit in sight.

Blinding Lights has almost two billion streams on Spotify and a billion more on Youtube…but it’s not a cultural hit. “Everybody” doesn’t know the song, they can’t sing it to you.

Maybe the cultural hit, the one that everybody knows, is a thing of the past.

But I don’t think so. Sure we all want to listen to our kind of music and leave the other stuff alone. But even more than that we want to be connected. To sing the chorus with everyone, to dance the silly dance with everyone, to know that we know the same thing.

»» I wrote about the Super Bowl last year and may before that.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Trading Problems

I had a manager years ago who passed along an idea that has helped me keep my sanity…

‘On this journey you’ll be trading one set of problems for another.’

It’s helps to not be surprised when problems arise. Especially when things have been going well for a few hours or days and then suddenly as if out of nowhere they arise again.

A new set of problems means you’re out there getting things done. And each level of success has corresponding problems. So the new set of problems is part of the gift of success.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Between Structures

You have to have the structures in order to have the spaces between the structures.

The spaces in between the structures are where the improvisation happens, the spontaneity, an absence of premeditation.

It can’t be all spaces in between and it can’t be all structures. It takes both.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Busy And Tired

Everyone I know is busy and tired.

Apparently nothing can stop this.

The assumed solution is that once you’re not busy and tired you’ll figure out how to keep from becoming busy and tired all over again.

But that moment may not be coming.

Better to decide what you want to be busy and tired from.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

I Can't Do It

When you say ‘I can’t do it’ and then someone tells you you can and then you end up doing it, that’s really helpful.

It’s helpful because it starts getting you to think that when you say ‘I can’t do it’, you might be wrong.

Over time, ‘I can’t do it’ simply turns into the first step of doing it.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple