Between Art and Business: A Musician As A Startup

Between Art and Business: A Musician As A Startup

By Tommy Darker of Think Beyond The Band.

It all starts with a problem...

I'm Tommy and I'm a musician. I moved to London 10 months ago, knowing nobody. Early days, I didn't want to feel alone, so I started peering with other musicians, asking them about music in London. The most common - not so surprising - answer was inevitable: "I can't figure out how to make a living from my music!", despite London's vastness of opportunities. "Why?", I tended to ask?
Their response — which I didn't see coming: there were so many tools, they just didn't know what to use, many music industry blogs, but they didn't know which one to spend time on, many so-called 'professionals', but no idea who to spend their precious money on.
"Big headache", I thought. They're not the only ones in the world.


Success

What is everybody's goal in life? Success. Everyone's success is different, though. Do you want money? Fame? Legacy? Freedom? It all depends on how you define success. We'll all agree, though, that success doesn't grow on trees, it requires some work to be achieved.
The question is: how do you, as an independent musician, know what kind of work to do to pursue your success path?
It used to be easier, a company would lay down a plan for you and they would have the network to make it happen. Musicians would have to agree with everything the label proposed, because 'they knew best'. Now musicians need to bootstrap that work for themselves and, one step further, ask questions.
"Should I keep doing what labels used to do? Do these practices make sense now, in today's world? Are there more beneficial, cost effective and fun ways of getting my shit done? Is the kind of success I have in mind meaningful?"

Just like the London musicians were asking themselves, how do you silence the noise and lay down a new plan for your music that works for you personally, something that is equally fulfilling and financially rewarding?
Rewind

London, January 2013. A month after many meet-ups with various musicians, I invited everyone to join me in a group discussion with a music business expert. Andrew Dubber came to London one rainy afternoon and talked in front of 18 musicians, under the hashtag #DarkerMusicTalks. The whole thing was bootstrapped in a week: venue, attendees, speaker, website, branding, camera. We talked about Music in the Digital Age, with Andrew proclaiming: "Don't broadcast. It's all about the conversation". (Thanks, Andrew)
I was encouraged, as the musicians gave me great feedback on how to make future sessions better. I saw happy faces: for me, that is a good indication that things go well. Being a naturally optimistic person, I always find reasons to believe in new ideas. I like getting them out there as soon as possible, and then finding clues that they're worth carrying on. I translated those happy faces that night as an indication that there is a need for more interaction between musicians, knowledge and 'knowledge keepers'.
Those happy faces are the reason I created this series of free monthly discussions in London.

Essentially, Darker Music Talks had just started, and it's still the same today: an informal discussion between experts and musicians.
Knowledge

Why do I keep doing this? Because knowledge is a vital asset. It propels ideas forward and helps people be more creative. It opens up the possibilities of this world. It encompasses what musicians need at the moment and empowers them to become the future disruptors. The shape of the music industry — and creativity as we know it — will change from within, not by companies who want to maximize profits through content.
But in order for this to happen, musicians themselves need to see the bigger picture and take action.
They will solve a big problem. The problem is that I see a great disconnection in today's music industry. There are two types of parties involved in 'supplying art' to the world:
1. the companies, marketers and mediators who care about profit, scaling up and see music as 'content' and 'product'.
2. the music creators, who are emotionally attached to their creations, want to make a decent living making art and are afraid to market their art themselves.
Do you see what I see? There's nothing in the middle!
Musicians need to develop their entrepreneurial spirits and skills through knowledge. Since only they know how valuable their art is, they have to be capable of communicating that value to the world at large. If this communication does not happen, the market value will be driven down by companies seeking maximum profits from minimum investment. Music will become content, the people who make it will become an exploited commodity and innovation (the core meaning of art) will cease to exist.
As a fellow musician, this is not the scenario I'd like to see unfold. It's high time we took some action.
Why should we care about the Musicpreneur?

The music industry is meaningless, without musicians benefitting from it, both financially and creatively. We don't want musicians to create 'content' and conform. We need them to know what they do and innovate artistically. And by 'we' I mean 'society', 'other musicians', 'culture', 'the world'.
An industry is supposed to be a system created to streamline value and benefit all parties — the creators, the audience and the middlemen as well — not only the latter. Today's music industry doesn't follow that premise.

The business stakeholders will also find many underlying, long-term benefits. My auspicious prediction is this: since more and more musicians will start becoming their own business, they will also have new, unforeseen needs. Independent individuals or existing organizations will see opportunities and economic incentives to cater those needs with new services or standalone startups, that will then create more jobs and attract capital (the latter is a big pain for musicians at the moment).
Why do I suspect all this will happen? I tend to use this analogy: if you give people a bit of grass and sun, they will have a picnic. In other words, give them the medium and proper circumstances, and they'll figure out the optimal thing to do with them. Musicians have the chance to be that square of grass (and attract the sun back!) to create an as yet non-existent ecosystem that will make a lot of people (and themselves) happy.
But this culture of knowledgeable musicians is not easy to emerge in a mainstream fashion. Some ingrained habits need to be the subject of change, both for musicians and the audience. This will occur gradually, just like it happened with the startup world.
A musician as a startup (or a Musicpreneur, as I call it)? Why not. The framework is there and we've seen how it works.
Discussions

So, is this really another kind of music academy?
No, it's something more simple. It's a series of discussions. Held between musicians and experts, about music-related subjects that would not be addressed in a music academy, at no cost. We learn and discuss entrepreneurship, design, psychology, branding, new media and other topics, and their relationship with music and the industry, using proven experts that graciously share their knowledge.
Up to this point, around 50-70 people join each discussion, promoted through word-of-mouth. Volume is not the goal though; I prefer having meaningful conversations that bring value. The long-term goal is to build the biggest e-library of knowledge for musicians, as well as to spread free knowledge all around the world with similar events in many countries.
There is a strong vision behind the project: to inspire the culture shift towards musicpreneurship.

The discussions follow some brand protocols, but not in a way that dilute the experience of an informal discussion with a knowledgeable person. If you're wondering how it feels like to be part of one, musicians have used words such as 'actionable knowledge', 'inspiration', 'interactivity' and 'in an intimate and informal environment' to describe it. Or just watch one of the filmed sessions.
I praise the importance of revolving these discussions around the academic and exploratory nature of the topics, and avoid creating another series of how-to's that spoonfeed musicians with easy conclusions and memetic behaviour. For some habits to change, actual brainwork needs to be done.
Free Darker Music Talks around the world

My goal is to deliver free, self-contained discussions to musicians by real experts and spread globally, creating a series of independently organized events.
A business model has been set up for the initial stage, so the discussions can distribute value optimally, but also make a profit to become self-sustaining and not rely on third parties that will get in the way. Not having mediators is crucial.
I'm going to travel around the world early next year in order to personally assist with the talks. If you're interested in getting involved as the talks go global and help organize one in your country, join me on 22/11 for this Google Hangout where I will explain more about the plan. Fill this Google Sheet and I will get back to you soon.
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and my website, I'm ready to listen to anything you might have to say, talking with people is my passion.
You never actually own a piece of knowledge. You merely look after it for the next generation. It's our duty to pass it on.



Agree so much that I started a blog called http://MusicCapitalist.com however what is also needed if for local gov, banks and investors to understand the market potential for USMADEMUSIC.
BTW look for @LabelBookCamp in 2014
Posted by: Nelson | 11/18/2013 at 01:04 PM

Location:Sycamore Dr,Lancaster,United States

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 7

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 7

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.

This is the 7th and final part. Each part is linked at the end of the post.

PART 7
The chicken and egg problem. What comes first: the Medium or the Message?

Sangeet Paul Choudary [23], expert in platform building, mentions a term that is spot on to describe the main challenge in the upcoming music ecosystem: ‘the chicken and egg problem.’ (by the way, read his blog, it might turn your head on the subject of platform thinking)

What will come first? The change of Medium (the music ecosystem) or the Message (musicians solving their problems)?

I have practical experience when it comes to platform and community building, and I can confess that the underlying principles are the same whether you build a music, tech or stitching community. We all obey the rules that dominate our nature — not merely as music lovers, but as human beings in general. This is my attempt to suggest something practical, hoping that my expertise and guesswork will not fail to make sense.

Let’s put things in perspective and attempt to give a plausible answer.

A platform or ecosystem is powerful because of the network effects: the more people that use it or inhabit it, the more valuable it becomes. In other words, somehow a brave start needs to be made.

For a platform like Facebook, the initial problem might go like this: there’s no value in the platform without users inhabiting and interacting in it, and there’s no reason for the first users to come in an empty network.

For a platform like Ebay, it would be: there’s no reason for people to put their products online if there’s no-one to buy them to and there’s no reason for the first customers to show up unless there are products to buy.

What comes first? How do you inhabit a promising platform or network, if there’s ambiguity in how to make a start? How will this music ecosystem arrive, if there’s no Musicpreneurs inhabiting it and no services to cater the Musicpreneurs’ needs?

There are numerous ways to solve this problem, but the most practical, in our case, is to find an already existing structure and exploit it.

How will we find this structure?

First of all, we already have Musicpreneurs operating around us. I’ve met many of them during my trips. They build businesses around their music and think like entrepreneurs when it comes solving problems, but switch to thinking like artists when it comes to creating questions. They are the foundation, the strong bones that embody the new ecosystem.

But they’re isolated. These aspiring Musicpreneurs are unaware that others exist. If they did, it would be easier for them to connect, collaborate and innovate. A community and an ecosystem starts gaining momentum when a few active leaders gather together and show practically the way to others. These ‘others’ are the musicians who want to and are willing to do the work, but need a kick in the butt to start. They are the smaller (but equally important) bones of the ecosystem.

In other words, the already existing Musicpreneurs need to connect with each other, then start being active with innovative Messages (or create dots, as you prefer) in order to lure and trigger the curiosity of other musicians who would love to do the same.

It might take a while until these Messages start creating momentum and media coverage, fuelling debates about new practices for musicians and business. I’m sure it will spark the audience’s curiosity — every novel activity does. I’ve been told “the more you talk about an idea, the more real you make it”. These conversations are the ligaments of the body, giving it the ability to stand up strong.

This momentum will grab attention with successful case studies to be examined and analyzed. Universities, institutes, music media and already existing communities are a perfect ‘carriage’ for these Messages to be transmitted to a broader, but targeted audience. This official examination of Musicpreneurship is the flesh and consciousness of the ecosystem, making it real for people to see.

Once some momentum is created, the participating Musicpreneurs will start identifying themselves with the common characteristics, attributes and goals that unite them. Do you know what happens when like-minded people walk towards a mutual direction? A movement is born. This means that the ecosystem stops being merely a body, it also shapes its own personality.

The bigger the movement, the more inelastic it will become, with more problems to solve, more motivation and belief to be fuelled and, of course, more resources and time to expend. These ‘bad problems’, though, will essentially create and shape the desirable ecosystem we all crave! Why? Because problems create the need for interaction with other, more-experienced ecosystems, in order to solve them.

An ecosystem is created to solve and cater to a community’s needs, and that’s what will happen in our case too. Imagine for a moment. Investors capital will come when they see money already being made by Musicpreneurs. Services will come when a significant amount of Musicpreneurs need a problem solved. The audience will start supporting artistic enterprises in a sustainable way, when the enterprises take themselves seriously and work with a small but loyal audience that will help them scale up. The government and music industry will recognize and support musicpreneurship when it becomes a movement that can be recognized by the public.

What a new music ecosystem would potentially include:

• Education system
• Service providers
• Governmental support
• Business partners
• Investors (angel- and venture-)
• Cultural accelerators
• Responsive audience

Most importantly? There will be the involvement of superstars, leading Musicpreneurs, middle class Musicpreneurs and amateur/hobbyist musicians. Not just the former and latter classes, the big gap in musical ‘success’ we see today. Education will help the promising amateurs to become middle class, luck and work will make them leading and labels/infrastructure/partners/investment will be used to scale up towards the head of the Long Tail.

Does it seem like a sci-fi scenario? It’s not. The foundations are being laid down this very moment. Musicians are thinking of solutions at this very moment. It will start to become powerful when the innovative Musicpreneurs connect with each other, something which I’m working on myself.

Last thing to mention.

Talking about Musicpreneurship as something that we expect to happen is like secretly awaiting our next boss to dominate our lives. Musicpreneurship is something that we do, not something that happens.

We are the brave new music world.

Conclusion

After this meticulous exploration of today’s musician’s problems, the current context that we operate within, feasible suggestions to cure the problems and a sneak peek at the future musical ecosystem, I think it’s time to quickly recap.

(Part 1,2) The notion that musicians face problems that are local and specialized is wrong; the majority of musicians around the world face the same problems. This creates the opportunity for a universal solution.

(Part 3) Actually, there is only one problem to be identified: the false belief that the ways we obtain knowledge and do business are still the same like in the past. Things have changed and the problem is our resistance to change.

(Part 4) Exploring Marshall McLuhan’s ‘Medium is the Message’, we currently use labels and technology companies as our main Medium to solve business problems, while music academies and blogs serve the purpose of the Medium for obtaining knowledge. These Mediums offered a lot in the past, but they create an outdated ecosystem for musicians today, failing to solve our problems efficiently.

The way musicians currently solve our problems when it comes to live performances, making an income, promoting our work and managing our time is not effective, despite the existence of promising alternatives. The main reason why? The context around these problems is itself problematic and needs a change.

(Part 5) Exploring the main Mediums that constitute success in the Musicpreneur era, Mediatization and Communities are the two environments where modern musicians can prosper and create richer stories for their tribes.

(Part 6) “Innovative Mediums need innovative Messages”, and in order to build a flourishing environment, 7 focal areas have been identified:

• The way musicians understand and treat business
• The educational system that provides musicians with knowledge
• The means for musicians to spend their time productively
• The importance of collaboration, connection and disconnection
• The notion that innovation comes through seeding Community Gardens
• The insight that building communities creates long-term sustainability
• The changes that will occur in the future musical ecosystem

(Part 7) There is a bright future ahead. Momentum will truly grow with the connection of existing Musicpreneurs...

Then, through collaboration, success stories, and inspiring others to be part of a tangible movement follows a new and better ecosystem for a new and better musical world. And you can be a part of it.

Join our community of #Musicpreneurs

We build the music ecosystem we want to live in.

Don’t forget to remember: https://twitter.com/TommyDarker/status/481742638241296384

Further investigation and resources are necessary to explore the present and future of music, so I reckoned it would be useful to provide some links below. They are either already mentioned in the essay or provide additional context to the issues discussed.

[23] Sangeet Paul Choudary

Statistics about music experiences.

Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 6b

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 6b

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.

This is part 6b. Each part is linked at the end of the post.

PART 6b
The new music world: innovative Messages demand innovative Mediums.

4. Connection, disconnection, collaboration, reuse

The biggest problem in the digital world is not creating the dots; creation was never a problem in the digital world. No, the big challenge is connecting the dots in a way that makes sense, and having the wisdom to know when and why to disconnect them for new combinations to be made.

By ‘dots’, throughout the essay, I mean pieces of information, human connections, creations, products, everything that makes sense in a self-contained way.

In an ocean of abundance of ‘self-contained dots’, the question is: why should we be connected with them and how?

Practically, in the past it was difficult — maybe impossible? — to be connected and collaborate with other creators independently. Mediators had to be in place, and it was exclusive luxury for a few. Hence, the creations produced were usually a product of a singular mind or a small team of people (usually the band or collective). This group of people, in the best of circumstances, would be locally connected, with all the physical constraints this involved. My point is, the creative outcome could be as nuanced as the singular mind that produced it and the limited tools involved in creating it.

Today, things are a little bit different. Distance is practically non-existent and we connect with people because of interest, rather than physical constraints. This changes how our brain is wired. A musician can now think about how to connect with all the creators around the world and create something richer in terms of perspective, as a result of a group of connected minds. Collaboration and the co-creation of genius minds are steadily replacing the cloistered creation of one genius mind.

Of course, knowledge brings responsibilities regarding its use. Because we can connect and co-create, it doesn’t mean we necessarily should. However, everything starts with the notion that “I can connect with people from all over the world and create in amazing ways that didn’t exist before,” rather than denying that this option is possible and persisting in the old paradigm.

Obviously, with connection also comes disconnection. A world full of stable clusters of information and fixed mindsets would be very uninteresting. Disruption is a word that comes in mind when talking about disconnecting the dots, in order for a new, fresher solution to come in play and take over for a while. Until the next disruption.

The last notion that I’d like to highlight is the one of ‘reuse’. The ‘sharing economy’ is blooming and we are, as a human race, directing our activities towards reusing, not throwing away. This is a wiring that affects all aspects of life, such as art and creations. A hypey word that has come out of this culture is ‘crowdsourcing’, as mentioned above.

“Everything is a Remix”, said Kirby Ferguson [19], and he finds me in line. There’s no parthenogenesis, no thing that comes from nothing. It’s high time we accept this argument and shout it out loud for the world to hear, instead of silently accepting it but publicly omitting its validity.

Feel free and remix. But, again, because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. Still, let’s not deny that you can.

Why are we mentioning all these things in this space?

Because we need to understand that the main characteristic of the Internet is its interactivity.

Back to Andrew Dubber again, the Internet is conversations about social objects [20]. As the Cluetrain Manifesto stated years ago [21], things on the Internet have a human voice. That means, the Internet is just the medium through which we communicate our human thoughts, predominantly using the language we wired our brains to communicate and think in for thousands of years.

I love this quote and use it as a compass: “Write like you talk and they’ll read like they listen”.

In the Electric Era, our main medium was broadcasting, one-directional and restrictive to the experience. Now interactivity allows collaborations, creative solutions and experiences to spring in life.

In a few words: we don’t need to create things to fit a pre-established medium, like we used to (think of CDs, recording, publishing, marketing etc.). Collaborating, remixing, reusing, connecting and disconnecting is the dominant mindset of the new (music) world.

5. Community gardens

A thought not to be forgotten in this overwhelming amount of information is that “Art is a long-term game.”

The mission of art is to create questions. Thought-provoking creations endure the test of time. Remembering this is paramount in an era of disposable art, ideas and personalities.

Tying this with the aforementioned idea of collaboration and openness, I’ll stand by Steve Keller, who mentioned the term ‘Community Gardens” in our interview for the full version of my last book [10]. It’s articulated so well that I need not explain any further:

“A metaphor I’ve found helpful is that of planting a garden. This, again, is a process — a cycle. Seeds are planted, the garden is nurtured, there’s ultimately a harvest, and on it goes. In business, as in life, some moments I’m planting seeds, others I’m tending, and still others I’m benefiting from the harvest. I’ve rarely had a “jack in the beanstalk” moment where I’ve planted a seed and overnight it grew into this massive thing.

The interesting thing I’ve noticed is that, while I’m planting seeds, I may not always be the guy at the end getting the harvest. Sometimes I’m watering someone else’s garden. By the same token, I sometimes benefit from harvesting a garden that someone before me had planted and tended. I understand the benefits of “ownership” and the fact that we need to have regulations in place to protect content we’ve created or innovations we’ve developed. Yet I also think we need to foster more “community gardens” where we incubate ideas, where we spin processes, but open up the progress make to others who can take it further. Operating communally requires a great deal of trust and a sense of fair play.”

Thinking of the music world as a one-shot game will significantly reduce your chances of harvesting the Community Gardens that await.

6. Platforms with fans, tribe

Every era is excessively transformative for the people that happen to inhabit it. Due to our tendency to look in the current era with the previous era in mind, we have the “Rearview Mirror Effect”, as described by Marshall McLuhan.

The “horseless carriage” was the new invention, later to be called a car. We listen to Web Radio and watch Internet TV. It’s no that we’re really watching TV or something. We just tend to describe it like this, in order to grasp the idea more easily. It would be preferable, however, to name the new artefacts with a new name drawing a line of separation with the old ones.

With the same way of thinking, we call modern musicians ‘Indie’, as if they’re supposed to be attached in a label by definition. My suggestion for the musicians who operate as entrepreneurs in order to make a living is to be defined as ‘Musicpreneurs’.

Likewise, the mainstream perception about musicians has changed: from the untouchable stars of old to the community leaders of today.

Let’s dive into the community thing a bit.

Why should we take communities seriously?

It all comes down to attention.

As stated above (Part 5), music is the connector and musicians, the administrators of this connection. They connect humans with emotions and stories, with their art being the focal point. How precious is that?

What’s more, success used to be counted in terms of sales. The more the record sales, the more successful the artist. Well, they still count it like this, in a way. But, in an era where access is more important than ownership and information clutter pollutes every industry, attention becomes the main driver of the economy.

Got attention? Great — now you probably you have a good chance to get the money.

As an extension of this reality, short-term attention (viral hits etc.) seem like short-term money, which doesn’t equal a real and scalable business. How can this attention be recycled, instead of being scattered in a myriad of directions? This is where communities come in, contributing to the long-term game of maintaining attention.

Coming back to the musician as a connector, I see music artists turning into great platforms, where interactions around music-related social objects are held. As Seth Godin puts it in his book, Tribes [22], the musician will be the leader and fuel for this interaction, until they gain enough momentum to become a self-managed community.

How viable is this, then?

Platforms give tools for members to communicate with each other and express themselves — creating content around the social objects discussed (the art of the musician).

That’s not where it all ends, however. Platforms and movements don’t survive unless they can become self-sustaining.

Musicians will sooner or later be called to discover a business model to monetize these connections and interactions. The good news is, each solid tribe will start developing needs and a common mindset. This is where the commercial aspect lies.

“Got an example, Tommy?” Yes, sir.

Say, in collaboration with a headphone brand, a gothic band creates self-branded headphones for their community. Gothic people don’t fancy wearing commercial crap with happy colours; they have the need to be unique and show their belonging to the gothic culture.

This is merely the idea that commercial experiences and products that can be designed to create a more personalized, customized, intimate, meaningful and rich experience for the audience.

The key-words that sum up the music-fueled platforms: musician as a leader, social objects around music, tools for user-generated content, community-driver mindset, seamless connections and interactions between members, and business models built upon these interactions.

7. Music ecosystem

Eventually, the last thing that will change, as a consequence of all the previous mental and practical transformations, will be the ecosystem surrounding and embracing music and commerce. By that, I mean everything that is not an immediate need when it comes to music creation and conducting commerce with music — but that can still be helpful — as in things that make activities faster, easier and more efficient.

Examples include: time management methodologies and software, better tools to create websites, investors to give cash for musicians to supports their art, the proper mindset from the audience to support music practically, the spirit of community in artists’ tribes, workshops that teach musicians about business and other practical stuff, mobile apps that keep you in connection with your business, collaborative projects and grants etc.

In simple words: the ecosystem reduces the friction and makes the connection of dots easier. Currently, we’re in an era with a lot of created dots, but with few connections between them.

The whole ecosystem will change, gradually. This is for sure. And it’s not the first time that this will happen; look at the tech startup world for many live, unfolding examples of this in action.

Today, the tech world ecosystem has evolved in a way to cater to the new needs that pop up regularly. In the past, it was impossible to think that it would be that easy to approach an investor and pitch them your project. Now it’s very easy to find one; they even teach you how to talk to them and make their job easier. That’s because there is a need for cash to move fast.

Well, I’m not saying that it’s equally easy to close a deal and get funded, manage your time and build a product that the world needs, but — hey! — this is still a game that requires skills, abilities and hard work to win. Before, it wasn’t hard to be able to do all that, it was impossible. On the other hand, nobody can tell you not to go for it today. You can. The barrier to entry is close to nothing. If you don’t yet know how to, you can learn. Which means, more competition and more noise to overcome. Well, these are the modern challenges of the digital world that everyone needs to face sooner or later.

The same shift will occur in the music world. The investors and all the other devices that will shape the new ecosystem (to replace the label hegemony) will come to cater new, real needs. The ecosystem’s behaviour towards musicians will change, once the mindset of musicians changes, and that will be reflected in their actions, en masse. Noise will remain, but that’s inevitable.

The immediate outcome of this transformation? There will be nobody to tell you that you can’t make a living as a Musicpreneur.

Hello, we live in the most exciting time in the music industry!

Welcome.

Further investigation and resources are necessary to explore the present and future of music, so I reckoned it would be useful to provide some links below. They are either already mentioned in the essay or provide additional context to the issues discussed.

[19] Kirby Ferguson — Everything Is A Remix
[20] Why some social network services work and others don’t — Or: the case for object-centered sociality
[21] The Cluetrain Manifesto
[22] Seth Godin — Tribes

Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 6a

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 6a

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.

This is the part 6a. Each part is linked at the end of the post.

PART 6a
The new music world: innovative Messages demand innovative Mediums.

How ready are we to welcome the new music world, where musicians will be entrepreneurs and thrive? Once again, let’s not jump straight to the answer, but let’s go around it. Shall we?

Patrick Vlaskovits created a presentation worth reading about growth hacking [5]. He mentioned something that grabbed my attention and triggered thoughts:

“Innovative products demand innovative channels, context and mediums.”

That is to say, for the new generation of Musicpreneurs to flourish and create innovative art, business models and solutions to their problems (Message), along with the proper innovative context (Medium) need to be in place. And vice versa; as an important and inevitable by-product, each innovative context needs innovative products (cultural and entrepreneurial) to keep making sense.

Alright, enough with the theory. I think I’ve stressed enough that existing Mediums provide wrong context for the era of the Musicpreneur to fully blossom.

Fundamentally, Musicpreneurship is not mastery of the existing system of infrastructure, it’s true innovation set to build a music business and preparing the ground for a new ecosystem.

In my presentation in Midem [6], I mentioned that, despite being in a transitional era, the current D2F is not strong enough to replace the old system set up and maintained by labels. Hence, all the problems and insecurity for musicians that keep letting people down.

What should we focus on, in order to build this innovative environment and musical products? I’ve discovered seven areas imperative to the new music world.

Let’s discuss them.

• Business understanding (business models, revenue streams)

Where do you turn to when the old music biz system is not helping you anymore and there’s no-one to run your business activities effectively? I see only one solution: it’s high time musicians understand the fundamental business mindset themselves.

Where to start? The bullet-point method never fails:

• First and foremost, learn about Lean Thinking [7] and how to build a startup [8]. I’d suggest that you start with Steve Blank and his free courses/blog. This will unlock the perspectives of what an enterprise is and how it drives value to your audience and you. Hint: when musicians demystify what business is, they see clearly that it’s all about creating value for their audience, while enjoying making a profit doing so.
• To get started, there’s no single more representative way to approach the music business methodically than the Business Model Generation system [9]. Buy the book and read/watch the numerous free resources about the topic.
• Find out what other industries are doing. They’ve experimented far more than musicians have, so there are valuable lessons to take away and rework. See examples and how modern business models work for other companies. They will provide inspiration on how you could operate and think as a music business.
• Business is learned better in practice. Studying can help but, from my experience, nothing compares with actually trying to sell something and then trying to understand why you’ve failed to do so.
• Finally, if you’re a musician that loves stating ‘I’m a musician, I only want to make music’, then here’s a personal confession for you: I’m not a natural-born businessman either. Neither did I enjoy it in the beginning. It came out of necessity and desire for innovation and independence. The idea of demystifying the notion of business came from getting immersed and facing the real problems of my music ventures. And, guess what? I find myself more complete and creative now. Somehow, creating new dots, connecting and disconnecting them, as Steve Keller says [10], brings astounding and unpredictable results. The endless possibilities keep me going.

I tend to document everything along the way and put it online publicly. You can read it here.

• Obtaining knowledge (Darker Music Talks)

As I mentioned in Part 4, our current music education system progressively becomes more irrelevant and more unable to illustrate the dynamic, modern environment. Our education needs to be smarter and more practical. Knowledge has broken free from the certificate, which is not as useful as it once was.

How will we build a better educational environment that reflects today’s needs and mindset?

Innovative Mediums require innovative Messages, remember? Instead of courses made to stay static for the years to come (music colleges) or courses with no credibility and touch with reality (music blogs), we could focus on the power of crowdsourcing; learning from experts in our field of interest, and from musicians that have already had success in building their audience and business. All we need is a platform connecting these musicians (demand) with the experts/successful musicians (supply) — which can facilitate this curated knowledge in a platform.

This way, we ensure the relevance and practicality of the knowledge we receive. We won’t have static lessons anymore, but proven knowledge, delivered by the most relevant local resources in the most personalized way.

These resources will not have to come from the music industry itself. The gaming, diamond, casino, porn, and book industries (and so many others) have so many valuable lessons to teach us. I know, because this is how I discover fresh approaches to all of my projects — I see what ideas the other industries have to share.

In practice, how could that work? Don’t worry, I’ve started.

My main venture, Darker Music Talks [11], whose mission is to spread entrepreneurial knowledge wherever musicians around the world are, is a series of discussions that connect local knowledge keepers with musicians, in a chance for a constructive dialogue. Each discussion is free of charge. These conversations are educating more than 700 Musicpreneurs in 6 countries at the moment (as of June 2014), with a goal to reach 13 by September 2014.

For those who want to go a bit deeper, there are limited slots for full-day workshops, where musicians have to pay a small fee (in order to cover expenses and create some budget for the venture’s expansion) to get practical knowledge and actionable plans by accredited educators on subjects such as business models, social media, crowdfunding, project management and lean startup thinking.

Picture for a moment what AirBnB does. This is the mindset Darker Music Talks follows too; AirBnB discovers available local resources, instead of building new hotels, turning local accommodations into rooms-to-rent. Darker Music Talks discovers local knowledge keepers and practitioners, instead of building new music colleges/courses — and turns them into credible knowledge resources.

In a world where Coursera-type online courses help thousands of students obtain information, Darker Music Talks could be the platform to disrupt music education as we know it.

It’s time to provide musicians with practical knowledge on what to do next to build a sustainable business around their music. If you want to organize one in your city, get in touch.

• Productivity

As we saw in Part 4, management is the Achilles heel for musicians. There seems to be some kind of problem that prevents musicians from getting much productive work done.

I think the explanation is simple: too much information. Musicians today are overwhelmed with a vast amount of information and tasks to undertake, making their artistic life less enjoyable.

It makes sense. And, to be bloody honest, a new ecosystem without musicians doing ‘the right work’ won’t really go anywhere. Nobody just wants to be ‘busy’. That’s a myth we artistic types need to get over.

The problem with information clutter could be easily tackled with the aforementioned knowledge system. A filter that shows (and teaches) musicians what information is worth consuming could be a great time saver.

However, it’s not enough to make an artistic person more productive. I’ve been there, trust me. A problematic area seems to be the completion of admin tasks. We’re pretty good at being creative, but not in completing the work that ‘has to be done’. I can already picture in my head the last musician to complain about having to update his social media profiles.

What I did, in order to put my life together and minimize the time spent on workload, is pretty straightforward. Practically speaking, it is not a method I read somewhere, but it’s helped me loads and I’d like to share it with you. Since it’s my own creation, let’s call it ‘The Darker Method’. Again, this list is to be followed by order, otherwise it won’t be of much help.

1. First of all, I focus on getting some pre-work done. Before I undertake any kind of project, I make sure I understand what the heck I’m putting myself through!

In German: I clarify my goals and set priorities. This is the absolute number one step, which creates a structure of thinking throughout the whole project.

I won’t go in depth about goal-setting and prioritizing; there are many resources out there. It’s worth mentioning that I wrote this article, which mentions goal-setting (Why Do Musicians Always Feel Disappointed About Their Careers? [12], and this book about decision-making and action taking [13], which includes practical tips about prioritizing.

2. Once I’ve done the pre-work, I shift my mindset to high-value productivity. Woody Allen wrote, directed and produced 44 movies in 44 years, half of which got awards! THIS is high-value productivity. [14]

Work for the sake of work won’t take you any further than the perfect average.

Moreover, instead of working for the whole day, I found it super helpful to focus on exactly 3 hours of work per day. 3 high-value-productivity hours, forcing myself to get everything done within this timely limit.

This helped me break my constraints and cut the fluff out of the game. In 3 hours, I don’t have much time to contemplate on unnecessary stuff. Instead, I follow what Woody Allen inspired:

“Be bold in conception, but pragmatic in execution.”

No brainstorming, creative stuff or day-dreaming. Just workload that HAS TO be done.

To break this even further, I use 30-min volumes of high-value work, following the Pomodoro Technique [15] (it works great for me) and track my progress with the following principle.

3. “Just don’t break the chain!”, said Jerry Seinfeld about the way he becomes productive. He just gets his work done every day, no matter what. He focuses on not breaking the chain of work he’s created. [16]

A great way to put that in perspective is the ‘Numberless Calendars’ idea that Andrew Dubber suggested [17]. I’ve been following this method for a while now and, I got to confess, it is the perfect drug to keep me doing.

4. Ok, let’s say we’ve managed to organize our shit and become productive, with only 3 hours of work per day (it needs work, trust me).

How more awesome does our day look like now? If you wake up at 6am, like me, you’ll be done by 10am. The whole day for you to devour and do creative things.

To take this one step further, once you’ve got hold of the amount of work it takes to get specific tasks done, you can start outsourcing them. You now know exactly what it takes to get them done. Create a checklist and let other people get them done on your behalf.

Some ideas that could be handy:

• Allocate tasks to your band members. You’re a team, right?
• Ask your fans/interns to get some work done for you. The former want to be part of the experience and the latter want a better CV.
• If you have budget, find a virtual assistant and let them do specific tasks per day. There are many services out there. Just Google ‘outsourcing’.

5. Last thing to keep in mind: once you’ve understood how to manage your time and tasks effectively, it’s high time you get a manager to take you to the next level.

‘A manager will not fund your career, but will help you leverage what you’ve already built,’ says Ian Titchener, a manager and supervisor from London with more than 35 years of experience in the industry, in his interview for my book [18].

I’ve never had a manager, but I have a feeling that they will play a vital role in the era of the Musicpreneur.

Further investigation and resources are necessary to explore the present and future of music, so I reckoned it would be useful to provide some links below. They are either already mentioned in the essay or provide additional context to the issues discussed.

[5] Patrick Vlaskovits on growth hacking
[6] Midem 2014 — A Musician As A Startup
[7] Steve Blank on Lean Startups
[8] How To Build A Startup
[9] Business Model Generation Canvas
[10] Steve Keller, founder of IV Audio Branding, featured in ‘The Indecisive Musicpreneur’
[11] Learn how to be a Musicpreneur at Darker Music Talks
[12] Why Do Musicians Always Feel Disappointed About Their Career?
[13] Tommy Darker — The Indecisive Musicpreneur
[14] Woody Allen and the Art of Value Productivity
[15] The Pomodoro Technique
[16] Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret
[17] Andrew Dubber — Numberless Calendar
[18] Ian Titchener, experienced music manager, featured in ‘The Indecisive Musicpreneur’

Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 5

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 5

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.

This is the 5th part. Each part is linked at the end of the post.

PART 5

What constitutes today’s success in the music business.

Ok, hopefully we see how poorly we currently behave and the potential for a better future for musicians. Identifying and outlining a problem is one part, suggesting a solution is another. This is what this Part 5 is all about.

Before we dive in, let’s articulate the main idea of this part, so we can provide a framework of thinking along the way:

There are two main Mediums in the modern music world: Mediatization and Communities. Mediatization represents Storytelling and Communities represent Humans.

The First Medium: Mediatization

There is a fundamental premise about modern music (that separates it from classic/contemporary music). Except for the formalistic idea of ‘the intrinsic value of music’ (that is, the exclusive value for what music IS on its own terms), the main value today lies in the context around music (or, value for what music MEANS OR REPRESENTS), which strengthens the musical experience and listener comprehension.

In modern reality, musicians are connectors, not just songwriters. They’re connecting people around stories and feelings. This is the magic power of a song and what the most successful tunes do: they connect. Humans. Around stories.

No surprise, then, that the main economic driver for the contemporary music industry is based on the story built upon the musical expression. As the French economist, Olivier Bomsel [1], calls it: Mediatization.

Mediatization is storytelling upon the musical expression that adds meaningful value to the music experience.

Without attempting to be conclusive on this, I love the idea of Mediatization as the first of the two Mediums upon which musicians can build success in the music industry. ‘Richer storytelling rewards you with success.’ Sounds like an ideal scenario.

And, in a way, it is. Think for a minute what prompts you to buy something — concert ticket, music itself, merch, anything — from your favorite artist. Is it the fact that they wrote some music? Or the fact that you’ve been reminded about their existence due to a new story that’s been published?

We buy music-related products because of the fusion of three factors:

• We have affection for the artist’s craft. That is, we love their music.
• Something triggers our affection towards them. That is, a story gets published.
• They give us the opportunity to purchase something. That is, they have something available for sale.

This is how the industry has been making money Direct-To-Fan so far.

In short, the business value of any musical activity, such as live performances, selling merch, getting sponsorships etc., is mainly based on the Mediatization potential of the artist.

This is the grand picture of the Medium in the music industry. We don’t sell the music itself, we sell the story around music. As Troy Carter, the ex-manager of Lady Gaga, said: “Music today sells everything but music.”

“Interesting. Tell me more about Mediatization…”, you say. Let me explain, without going too much in depth, with the help of Olivier Bomsel (who actually wrote a book on the subject).

Mediatization shapes the music experience and perception of the value of the song. The economic value in the music industry is based on the mediatization potential. As a natural consequence, mediatization contains the extended social functions of music:

• People connect and communicate because of music, and
• The more people that connect because of this music, the more valuable the music becomes, triggering network effects.

Once mediatization has been built upon the musical expression, it cannot be detached.

It’s obvious that mediatization is a meaningful compliment and cannot exist without the great music it’s built upon.

“I still cannot get my head around it. In practice, how does Mediatization manifest? Gimme examples”, you say.

Sure. With the artist’s branding (it can be myths, symbols, story, persona, colours, logo etc.) and the context around the music (campaigns, triggers, discovery process, marketing, distribution etc.). The tongue logo of The Rolling Stones is contained in mediatization. The numerous times David Bowie reinvented himself, the unconventional ways Trent Reznor releases his music, the personal touch Amanda Palmer brings to interactions with her fans.

The blatant truth is: for the music business, Mediatization is more important than the musical expression itself, but the former cannot exist without the latter.

That is to say, for the music businessman, it’s not enough that you’re a good songwriter. You need to be able to attach a nuanced and original story that can endure the course of time.

Needless to say, this story needs to be communicated properly to the people that would enjoy it.

It would not be an exaggeration if I classified ‘Communication’ as a separate Medium by itself. However, stories and music never communicated (or that don’t endure the course of time) maybe serve little practical purpose. That’s why Mediatization and Communication are inextricably connected — and one could say that Communication is a sub-medium contained in Mediatization. As Andrew Dubber mentions, ‘there are only two types of content of any value online: conversations, and the things about which the conversation takes place.” [2] I’m with you, Andrew.

The last, but probably most important thing to jot down, is that each musical expression deserves its own Mediatization.

As a consequence, in the past the mediatization of music was mainly delivered through CDs (and this was the main economic driver, leading to a universal business model in the ‘record industry’). But now the means of music mediatization can be as diverse as the musical compositions themselves (each artist can find their own unique way to show the story of their songs — not just CD releases — leading to a plethora of business models to use).

In short, each artist’s success could be sought upon a unique business model for their musical expression, based on richer and authentic stories. In the digital world, everything can be copied and replicated digitally (even physical objects — see 3D printing), leading their market value to a race towards zero. What will survive, however, are the intangible experiences we can create. Selling copies of music in plastic discs is not the only way anymore and we have to stop pretending we’re still in the MySpace era.

Hint: knowledge about business models and Mediatization is essential for modern Musicpreneurs. [3]

I repeat once again: each musical expression deserves its own Mediatization.

This simple sentence is responsible for the huge mess in the current music industry. We don’t know which business model to follow, after a long period of capitalizing relentlessly on a handful of established business models.

Anyway. No matter how necessary the first Medium might be, the full picture remains incomplete unless we go to the second Medium that artists will have to build their business upon.

The Second Medium: Communities

As we saw, musicians today are not just music creators, but also connectors: they connect human beings with stories. Mediatization had something to do with stories. The second Medium has to do with humans.

The second Medium is Communities.

Musicians attract people around the music. They evoke the audience’s feelings and awaken their sentiments. This phenomenon has better effects when the audience has gathered in a physical space to enjoy a shared experience (in a live performance or any other experience around music, generated by an artist).

You’ve definitely been in a large-scale live concert, right? Remember the feeling you get when 80.000 people scream the band’s name or dance to their music? Priceless. It’s the vibration and exchange of energy with people tuned in the same frequency. Something that doesn’t happen with other arts except for music.

The power of live music as a shared experience lies in the activation of network effects (the more people that use and/or enjoy an experience/music/product, the more valuable it becomes).

This partially justifies my previous argument that ‘music never communicated maybe serves little practical purpose’.

While elaborating on the fact that network effects are an essential — and actually inherent — part of the Mediatization process, it reminded me of another, obscure word connected to them. This word is not a buzzword or something everyone pays much attention to. Yet, the biggest and most high-valued tech companies today ARE this word. And, not many people seem to have realized this idea’s worth.

What is the word? The word is Platforms.

iTunes is a platform. Facebook is a platform. YouTube is one as well. Pinterest, Flickr, Twitter and — hell — even Uber and AirBnB are platforms.

They connect two (or more) parties around a main object. Facebook connects you with friends and interesting social objects to talk about. Twitter connects around real-time news. iTunes connects musicians with the audience directly. AirBnB connects room-seekers with room-owners. And so on.

Three of their common characteristics?

• The owners of the platform don’t create any of the content, they merely connect the content creators with the content consumers, incentivize/help both parties to keep doing so and make the information of the platform easy to find.
• They let other people build businesses upon their platforms. YouTube gives you a share of their ad revenue. Facebook enables you to make money too, through stores and building an audience. Flickr lets you sell your photos and AirBnB lets you rent your room. Any platform with an API allows you to plug your bit into the platform, giving the opportunity for you, the user, to innovate. This is how Apple’s AppStore or any marketplace works anyway.
• More common than ever, the platform will give away one product or service in order to attract one audience and make money from another(or, finally, both). Free in platforms is not a bad thing — it’s a prerequisite and it’s profitable.

By doing so, platforms build their business model upon other people’s activities and make money. They become the enablers. To simplify this nuanced matter, the more people that use the platform and interact, the more valuable the platform becomes and the more profit it makes. Networks effects in action.

Which made me wonder.

If musicians…

• Are connectors already, connecting human beings around stories and common feelings…
• Give away their main product for free — that is music — and…
• Already enjoy and incentivize user-generated (or fan-generated) content around their art…

…then what keeps them away from being their own successful platform?

The answer is: in practice — absolutely nothing. In theory — just the absence of knowledge on how to build and approach a platform.

Platforms are so powerful in the real world, that a Boston University business professor who studies and speaks about Platform Economics, Marshall Van Alstyne, said that “there is a strong argument that platforms beat products every time.” [4]

Your music (and mine, too) has been a product so far. Created, promoted, sold. Like a shoe in a factory and game in a store.

Nike changed from a shoe manufacturer to an interactive platform for runners — and they won big. The same for Apple, who allowed the game developers to create their own app games and connected them with a global audience through their AppStore, taking advantage of their iPhone devices — Apple won big and were ahead of their time, too.

Now it’s high time that the approach to music shifts: music is a platform upon which a serious business can get built, connecting people around musical expressions and musical experiences.

As Andrew Dubber mentions in his ‘20 Things You Need To Know About Music Online’ essay, “we hear music, we like music and then we buy music”. Since each platform has its own, unique business model, what if we ‘hear music, like music and join the platform about music’, instead?

I’ve been studying and experimenting with these concepts for a while now. I find them highly arousing and exciting. I even quit my well-paid job to follow them and implement them in my art. But let me be clear: both Mediatization and Platforms have a lot of theoretical and practical points backing them, but they’re not easy concepts to master.

Nevertheless, before our main focus was to impress a label’s A&R and do whatever they say — getting a cut for this ‘obedience’. Now our main focus shifts to learning about making richer stories and building communities.

More fun? I think so. And I’m looking forward to it for sure. The future is now.

Further investigation and resources are necessary to explore the present and future of music, so I reckoned it would be useful to provide some links below. They are either already mentioned in the essay or provide additional context to the issues discussed.

[1] Olivier Bomsel on Mediatization
[2] Andrew Dubber — Music In The Digital Age
[3] The Rise Of The Musicpreneur
[4] The Economics Of The Internet Of Things

Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 4

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 4

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.

This is the 4th part. Each part is linked at the end of the post.

PART 4

“The Medium Is The Message” in the Music Industry.

Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher of communication theory, rose in popularity with his thesis “the medium is the message”, a quote from his book ‘Understanding Media’.

In short, the medium carrying the message and the message itself are symbiotic, not separate. The phrase encapsulates the notion that the perception of the message is influenced heavily by the medium that it’s communicated through.

It would be useful, in other words, to examine the context of today’s music world and list the most popular ways we use to deal with problems. Said with brevity: what is the infrastructure we can use (the Medium) to find solutions for musicians’ problems today (the Message)?

We’ll attempt to interpret today’s music world, through the eyes of an analytical musician who uses McLuhan’s suggestions.

MEDIUM — Where we turn to for Business

On one side of the table we have today’s musicians. On the other side of the table we have labels (majors and indies) and tech corporations (YouTube, Spotify etc.). These are the main ways musicians rely on to make some money with their music.

Musicians hate business. They love making art. So they look for bosses (or ‘friends’) when it comes to business.

What do they do?

Musicians provide their musical creations to corporate strangers, whom they trust, because the musicians believe that they ‘see’ business better than them. They also convince themselves that they’re loved by these strangers (because ‘see part 1'). Trusting a stranger with the blind hope that they’ll make you money is a clear sign of desperation.

Obviously, these strangers will do what they do best: take something and squeeze money out of it, by selling it to an audience. They do all the work, so they and their contractors (aka mediators) take the biggest chunk of profit earned, leaving musicians with the smallest bit of the pie. Labels see music as intellectual property and tech companies as content (both of which are human inventions and have nothing to do with the musical expression originally conceived).

The difference between those two (and why we say ‘Fuck The Gatekeepers’ while we ‘Love YouTube’) — labels are remnants of the Electrical Era, and more inelastic to change, while corporations are natives of the Digital Era, and thus more customizable and musician-friendly. The old boss meets the new boss.

Quick recap: Labels and tech companies build a good business upon the massive amount of music submitted voluntarily by desperate musicians. They help only a few to succeed, but feed the hopes and dreams of millions.

Things are quite straightforward with business. What about knowledge?

MEDIUM — Where we turn to for Knowledge

Musicians are always learning stuff. Now, before we assume safely that they want to learn exclusively about making music, let’s ask questions.

The first question is: what do they want to learn about? But it’s difficult to draw a straight line between what we want personally and what we’ve been conditioned to like.

A better question: what do they think they want to learn about? The strongest reason we do things is the idea that we follow the default — the pre-existing choice!

The most interesting question to explore, then, is: what did they have to learn about so far?

Where do they look for answer? Two prominent examples that come to mind are knowledge institutions (music colleges) and knowledge curators (bloggers).

Music colleges are official institutions (governmental or not) constructed to facilitate educational activities on topics that seem to be popular, practical and realistic for a musician’s career. Their value (and relevance) lies in their ability to give you a credible certificate.

Their main value is the credibility of the paper they hand you at the end of the studies and the commitment to learning. Let’s not forget, music colleges are institutions with history, brand reputation and success rates to maintain. Their paper, however, becomes irrelevant in a world where 1) quality knowledge is democratized and freely available, and 2) people care about results or quality products more than simple assurances of one’s abilities (aka certificates).

In reality, music colleges teach musicians about the artistic side of their career, excluding a vital part of today’s reality: the practical and realistic issue of making yourself known...

Practically, the majority of the musicians graduating from a college have no idea where to go next and how to kickstart their career. Yes, they know how to approach, compose, perform or produce music (or some combination of these). But, what’s next? No clue.

Let’s return to the initial question: what have they learnt about so far? The answer: ‘how to make cool art that everyone will ignore’.

This creates a foundational framework of thinking for music students. ‘But… if the syllabus puts gravity on music, this is probably what matters, right?’ Not exactly.

We all make what Andrew Dubber calls ‘popular music’ (nothing to do with ‘pop’ music). In popular music, the context your music lives in matters equally as much as your music does. It’s the aforementioned ‘The Medium (context) is The Message (music)’ that Marshall McLuhan described.

Heck, even hardcore contemporary music practitioners (who used to focus on the inherent value of the musical expression) are affected by the notion of context and have realized they need to adapt to the laws of the new world (or become irrelevant and obsolete).

Why have colleges missed that they need to teach their students what to do next? Because they’re inelastic to change.

Meanwhile, there is another form of education for musicians, this time related to business and promotion. The knowledge curators (bloggers) dominate in this area.

The great thing about blogs: diversity of opinions, they’re free for everyone, you don’t have to commit to a 2-year schedule to read them and you can work on your own pace. Great stuff. Type anything in the search bar, you’ll probably find a few hundred posts about it, examined from various angles.

The downsides of this blog-generated knowledge are conspicuous:

• How credible is this knowledge and how do we filter the signal (useful information) from all of this noise (the incremental vastness of posts)?

• How do you stay accountable to someone, so you can put things in practice after you’ve learnt them, and how do you get support if you have questions?

From my experience, nothing read on the Internet should be taken for granted without investigation. When the entry barrier to publishing is having an Internet connection, quality of content inevitably drops.

Just because someone can write about a topic (in an interesting way, most of the time), it doesn’t mean it’s true or you should pay attention. Heck, not even the words you’re reading now should be digested uncritically.

Everyone can be an expert today and analyze their experiences. This creates a comfortable echo chamber for today’s musicians: everything is possible, you can make a living as a DIY artist, knowledge is free, entry barriers are non-existent.

If all this is right, where does effort and investment come in? Who stands out?

Music blogs never explain, because they’re most of the times impractical and reflect an idealistic reality impossible to implement in the real world.

Quick recap: Music colleges are institutions constructed with the mindset ‘we have a lot of tourists in this area, let’s build a hotel’. They offer credible knowledge but, as a natural result, they are slow to change and can be easily disrupted by a more relevant AirBnB-type of solution — see blogs (less credible, lack of knowledge filters, no accountability) and Coursera-type courses (not enough diversity in the topics discussed — yet).



Now that we’ve sketched today’s Medium (context), it’s time to jump on the modern Messages (how musicians give solutions to their problems).

MESSAGE

Following up on the Medium-Message theory of Marshall McLuhan (Part 4), let’s examine how musicians have been solving their four biggest problems today, as seen on Part 2.

Live performances. Why do most musicians want so badly to perform live? Because that seems the best way today to express your passion, find a new audience and make some income. It is one of the few remnants of the old music world that has survived and still makes sense for musicians.

Most musicians look for gigs by approaching booking agents or doing it themselves. They tap into a network of pubs and small festivals that is known to host similar live performances (Medium).

In short, if a musician wants to perform live, they have to build the business of the pub. This benefits everyone except the musician, since there’s no real exposure performing in front of the same people and the economics of pub gigging are made to favour the business (pub). After all, people go to a bar to pay for beer and have fun. Music is complimentary — not the main experience.

Like the labels and tech companies mentioned before, real businesses win again (the pub, in our case).

My point of view: no matter how broken the system, because of the scarce number of venues in this network and the increasing number of aspiring musicians, we all have contributed to creating an echo chamber that is difficult to satisfy our needs: to grow an audience and build a business. This is not going away unless we look for alternatives.

What we ignore: online performances / personalized gigs in living rooms / crowdfunded or pre-sold performances on demand / custom-made live experiences for die-hard, small audiences / performances in unexpected places.

Making a viable business. The notion that ‘business is bad’ is dominant and ingrained in the music world. It’s not a surprise why most artists hesitate to sell what they produce, let alone make a consistent, scalable business.

The main way of attempting to sloppily make some money comes by tapping into the ecosystem (Medium) that the dominant tech companies have created. Looking at the ways that FutureOfMusic.org suggests, we mainly see:

• Copyright-related revenues (royalties)

• Time-for-money exchanging revenues (performing and teaching)

• Brand-related revenues (capitalizing on your brand)

• Patronising (third-party funding)

In practice, most musicians attempt to make money through live performances, selling music and/or using the solutions of tech companies (YouTube, Spotify etc.).

My point of view: there are big problems with these solutions. Most of them are either not practically sustainable (your brand or fanbase is not big enough), not scalable or too time-consuming (how much time will you exchange teaching and performing?), too dangerous to rely on (I would refrain from building a business on a platform which might not exist in the future — see MySpace, Facebook, YouTube or Spotify) or probably irrelevant in today’s world (this goes for this human invention of artificial scarcity — copyright). In a few words: you’ll never build a real business this way.

How will musicians build a real business instead? By creating their own Medium! It is analyzed in Part 5 and 6.

Promoting music/building an audience. Things are pretty straightforward in this game. Promotion today is a constant fight against noise. Musicians respond by using social media or blogs to promote their work.

Although the way to ensure your music is heard by those who like it still comes down to human-to-human communication, it seems that most artists simply exhaust their personal network and cannot go past that.

My point of view: the noise in the digital world has increased exponentially. Everybody wants you to pay attention to something incredible (which, most of the times, is crap), so people choose to stop paying attention whatsoever. How do you convince some stranger to listen to you, then?

What we ignore: creating an exceptional product worth talking about / being where attention is already (riding the wave) / connecting with influencers / growth from within — fans as your ambassadors / existing fan royalty (community building) instead of constant growth / complete music experiences instead of mere musical compositions / collaborations with other brands/established networks.

Time management. I was not surprised with the massive volume of votes on time management as a huge problem. Nothing confusing here. There seems to be no Medium where musicians tap into when it comes to organizing and prioritizing their tasks/time. What comes close to the answer is probably the DIAY attitude (Do It All Yourself), which is everything but time-efficient.

This is rather sad, because spending time on everything — instead of delegating and outsourcing — leads to frustration, lack of motivation and, ultimately, lack of joy for what you do.

My point of view: I get it, artistic souls are disorganized and all over the place. I’m one myself. However, commitment and resource management (time is included) are what makes things go forward and creates a proper business.

What we ignore: outsourcing to third parties / help from fans — interns / allocating tasks to each band member / building a team around your brand / practical productivity system in place / experiments about what makes you productive / collaborations with partners / clear goals.

Each of the aforementioned problems has a respective environment it lives in and feeds from; its Medium. If the Medium is problematic, then the solution will never be developed.



In my humble opinion and with no desire to sound ominous or dramatic, the only Medium of the four that could bear fruit is the environment of business (with a few tweaks). The live venues, social media and DIAY attitude are the wrong starting point for an aspiring musician and need replacement. I will suggest some possible solutions in the following parts.

There are many other problems highlighted in my research. However, once these four main problems get solved, everything will be much easier. Why spread our attention to every trivial frustration, while we can focus on a few major pains and resolve them?

Let’s start with those four and the others will follow.


Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.


Location:Sycamore Dr,Lancaster,United States