Measuring

Bigger is just so easy to measure. We can’t resist. Followers, likes, what are the pollstar numbers, streams, monthly listeners, VIP packages, gross revenue, net revenue, merch sales per head.

Better is just so difficult to measure. What change did the song make for each person listening? When you took time to get the wardrobe right for the video, how much did it raise the viewing enjoyment? When you released the demo version after your song became a hit, did the inner-circle of your fans get tighter?

Measuring and scheming for bigger is a quick and easy pop if the numbers are going up.

Measuring and scheming for better is a long play, difficult, not flashy in the short term but it’s the best way to ensure you’ll be around for the long term.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Complaining and Making

Complaining is easier than making something.

Complaining is often a socially acceptable distraction from doing the actual work we set out to do.

It’s a lot harder to make time to complain when we’re in the midst of making something that has potential to make a difference.

Skip the easy way out and make something instead.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

28 Ways An Artist Can Switch It Up

Try something new…

write a song with your agent

call your manager’s spouse to thank them

buy your bass player some strings

introduce two of your artist pals to each other

recommend a book to your fans and then do a FB live the following week to talk about it

make a playlist of your fifty favorite songs and share it

ask your PR agent or team what they would love more than anything

write a song with two different choruses that both happen twice 

send an email to the drummer of your dreams asking them if they’d be interested in playing on a track

turn your phone off for an entire day

post every hour for an entire day

make a little video introducing your fans to your team

send your fans merch

get coffee with your producer just for fun

buy some Facebook or Instagram ads promoting an artist other than you

go test out amps with your guitar player

call the people from your high school rock band and tell old stories

take a Polaroid every day for a month, auctioning each one on eBay 

write a really fast song

write any song and release it on soundcloud the same day, maybe livestream the entire day

make the best music video you can using only free stock footage

draw a picture and then throw it away

release a song on myspace

release a song under a different name and don’t tell anyone

come up with a new idea for how you end your live show

hang posters around town with just your name on them

watch Almost Famous with other musicians 

write lyrics to a song without writing them down

I don't know. Your turn. You think of something...

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

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