Making Personal Music

Another first Monday of the month…new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple. It takes some work to put it together but I always like that I did it.

It’s still a lot of work to put out your music.

There’s been so much talk of AI taking over and killing songwriters and creatives. But as of today, my take is that AI is really good at making music but has a hard time making your music…if you give AI all the inputs and ask ‘what song am I going to make next’…odds are it’s going to be a lot different from the one that you come up with yourself.

There are so many weird decisions, so much whimsy, emotion, stubbornness and compromise that get injected to a song written and recorded by an artist. Music from an artist is personal. And because it’s personal it’s a lot of work.

Impersonal music is going to keep getting faster and easier to make.

So which are you going to get better at making?

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

When You're Winning

You’ve become the one other people wonder about

It’s not a fluke

You can let them come to you

You get more credit than you deserve

It’s easy to get complacent

Everyone says they knew it all along

It’s fun

There’s more interesting opportunities

You think it just might last forever

It feels like justice

Winning, like not winning, is simply a different set of problems to embrace and navigate.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Find Your Airport Gate

When you show up to your gate at the airport you find bunch of other people wanting to get to the same place as you do. No one called each other to coordinate…everyone just showed up because they heard this plane goes there.

If no one else was there, there wouldn’t be a flight. But everyone is there, so there’s a flight AND everyone shares the cost.

In music this sort of thing has happened…Nashville, New York, LA. No one told musicians to move there but because they did (and continue to) it’s ultimately easier to get to the desired destination.

Being around people who want to get to a similar place as you will make the journey more likely, more fun, more efficient…even with all the turbulence along the way.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Not So Dreamy

When you have the opportunity to see some of your dreams become reality…the dreams aren’t quite so dreamy.

Let me clarify…

They can be just as rich and monumental and meaningful, but you find out the gritty, boring, long term work that has to happen…which isn’t quite as fun as that late night conversation pouring out the dreams of your heart.

It’s great to dream. But whichever dream you decide to put action behind, you’re choosing to take out some of the romanticism in favor of building it into a reality.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Zaxbys Nibblerz

I met the guy who makes the buns for Zaxbys Nibblerz.

He doesn’t own a restaurant. He doesn’t manage one. He doesn’t come up with the menu items, or train the cashiers.

He makes one part of one menu item for a chicken place. And has a wildly successful business.

If you’ve been trying to open a restaurant for a while and it’s just not working…consider a career making the buns.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Step By Step

We love a good step by step process. We identify where we are, where we need to go next and what victory looks like when we complete the last step.

i.e. Here are the steps, now go as fast as you can.

But some processes aren’t meant to speed through…

Making a friend

Writing a song

Building a culture

Grieving a loss

There are books and outlines and podcasts and courses on topics like these, and while they’re helpful, it’s easy to think that if you’re not completing the final step that you must be behind in the game.

The goal isn’t to get to the end. Speed isn’t a key ingredient. Rather, the goal is to experience the sturdiness that comes from each step.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple