We know that popularity and quality aren’t the same thing. At times they run parallel but we often get confused with two extremes…
How did that artist get that opportunity when they’re not that good and we’re way better? (The thinking here is that better quality ought to equal more popular)
And
They’re on the big chart so they must be great. (The thinking here is that high popularity must equal high quality)
When someone asks a question it elicits a certain set of likely responses. There’s a million things we could say but the question itself narrows it way down. The question is meant to put boundaries on what gets said next.
(If someone asks you what the weather is outside it’s very unlikely that what comes to mind would be a story about your grandmother’s macaroni recipe.)
But ‘what comes to mind’ is really powerful. And if you want to change what comes to mind or stretch those boundaries for yourself it involves better intuitive listening and having a better understanding of your own game.
You can’t change the question but you do get to decide what to do with it.
It might seem crazy but…Eventually we will move on from releasing one single at a time.
We’ll move on. ‘The way it is’ will change again. Something longer, shorter, more collaborative, more imaginative, more immersive, more immediate, more personal.
A couple interesting problems with the vast majority of artists only releasing singles these days is…
What should we listen to next?
Where does the single fit into the artists’ landscape?
If singles are being released all the time, then the energy for each single is even more fleeting. i.e. The artist moves on from it quicker. But if I’m a fan and I love the single I want to believe that the artist isn’t moving on from the song I love.
Maybe the next way it is will have better answers.
First Monday of the month means a new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple.
If everything turns out the way you hope it will and you achieve the mountain top of fame and fortune…not everyone will know who you are. Most people on earth can’t even hum a Beatles tune, or Michael Jackson or Beyonce.
And that might be a rude awakening. Not everyone is going to know who you are.
So once you live with that for a while you’ll probably realize that you don’t need everyone to create the career and life you desire. You just need some. You need enough.
What is the life you want and how many do you need to get there?
»» If you’re wondering what was on past playlists, hit the archive.
As your fans or customers pull back the layers to what you do and what you’re all about, what will they find?
Will they peel back the layers to find even deeper beauty and intention…or will they find they would have been better off not peeling?
If they look closer will they discover a trail of beauty you’ve been building for them all along?
What would it look like for your thing to be imbued with meaning?