Forced Listening

Ever since music was a popular thing, forced listening was a staple. i.e. You can’t listen to what you want when you want. To a certain extent you’re stuck with what ya got. We’ve decided what will be played next and you don’t really have a choice.

Payola and musical politics ensued, then came Napster, then Spotify…and it turns out people seem pretty satisfied with picking whatever music they want whenever they want it.

Perhaps forced listening will find a way to reinvent itself…because the beauty of forced listening was that when you heard a song you didn’t really like, it was very likely you were going to hear it again. And again. And maybe by the fourth listen you started liking it a little bit and by the seventh you were hooked. Your relationship to a song and artist where it took a bunch of listens rather than just one is a really different, interesting dynamic.

These days we don’t take time to listen to music we don’t really like. Why would we when we can just tell Siri to play a different song? Even the thought of it seems strange. But songs we don’t really like can turn into songs we love when we’re ‘forced’ into hearing them a few more times.

Leaving room for things to grow on us is becoming a lost practice. No need to return to the way things were but hopefully there’s a way to carry with us the best things from the old days of forced listening.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Selling Your Stuff

Not all of a comedians jokes are funny…but the great comedians know how to sell all the jokes as funny.

Same thing for musicians. Not all the songs an artist plays connect…but the great artists know how to sell all the songs through connection.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Pursuit Of...

Whatever it is we’re pursuing, what we really want is control of the timeline of the pursuit.

We, appropriately, don’t think we’ll achieve the big thing all at once or in the next day or week. But frustration mounts when the timeline isn’t what we hoped for. When the plan isn’t going as planned. When the incremental achievements are taking years instead of months.

We want results but even more than that we’re in the pursuit of controlling when and how we get the results.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Affirm and Reward

Your fans think they’re really smart for liking what you do.

They believe they have good taste and have discovered an oasis in the crowded streets of content.

They know it’s unlikely you’ll hit a home run every time but they also like being the kind of people who are along for the ride, the kind of people who give another chance, the kind of people who are curious and loyal and gracious enough to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Keep finding ways to affirm and reward these people.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Asking and Action

‘What can I do for you?’ is often met with, ‘nothing’.

And because you know this, instead of asking the question you go ahead make an educated guess and take action without asking…

‘Here, I did this for you.’ is often met with, ‘thank you’.

You might not have done the exact right thing that was needed but it’s probably a lot better than nothing.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Beach Response

Would you rather get bad news while sitting on a beach in Hawaii or while on a rainy drive home from work?

The correct answer is the beach in Hawaii.

At the beach it’s easier to focus on the facts of the bad news and not the emotion of it. Because your emotions are being ‘distracted’ by the beautiful water and waves and sun and pina coladas.

On the rainy drive home it’s easier to blow it all out of proportion.

The trick is to develop a beach response while on a rainy drive home.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple