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Most of you will be familiar with Alec Baldwin’s legendary speech in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. The main take away from his speech is his ABC motto. Always Be Closing. In the context of the film this refers to salesmen that need to make their sales goals.

Below is an excellent quote from an interview that Esquire did with Ricky Gervais in this month’s issue. I propose we combine his point of view with that of Alec’s character, and turn it into a new ABC. Always Be Creating. Whether it’s a song, an amazing short story, a bunch of code, a photo, a meal, or a design for a new bicycle. Strive to affect the world positively by creating something great. A sex tape doesn’t count.

My lovely friend Rachel, artist wrangler at music startup Liveset, asked me this poignant question: “So why music for you?” I’ve had a lot of practice thinking about this question lately while we further crystalize our vision at Family Records, and slowly expand our tiny but awesome team.

The answer to this question is the fundamental reason that I chose to work in music instead of the more obvious and direct result of the path I was on in terms of my education and location. It’s the reason that I gladly accepted that my monthly income would be much lower than if I would’ve walked the path most traveled, but it’s also the reason that I wake up excited to work every day. It’s both what got me here and what keeps me going.

Rachel: “So why music for you?”
Wesley: “Because at its best, music can reveal truth and beauty like very few other things can, and it can improve lives on a relatively large scale.”

However much that may sound like an overly idealistic sound bite to some, this is genuinely what is at the core of what we’re trying to achieve at Family Records. Our mission is to positively impact the lives of as many people as possible through music, and we see it working just like that on a modest level right now as we try to grow to a high level in the future.

Now, make no mistake. Even if we’re idealist in our view on how music can impact people for the better, we are by no means a non-profit. We’re a for-profit with a social mission. We’re very much a company that operates with the idea that the more revenue we bring in, the better positioned we will be to improve more and more lives as we go, our artist’s as well as our audience and our own. We use everything at our disposal to make this happen, grow and impact the people we encounter and work with positively. We operate very much along the lines of the lean start-up movement, which is somewhat of an exception in the music business, but one we’re very happy to be spearheading for others to see and learn from while we learn ourselves. I’ll be sharing more about the ways we try to accomplish things at Family, and share some business processes and techniques in the future. If there’s anything specific you’d like to hear about please do let me know in the comments. Speaking of comments,  I’d love to hear your own answer to Rachel’s question: “So why music for you?”, whether you’re an artist, fan or (aspiring) music biz person of sorts.

The Guardian posted a tremendous article that investigates a few odd phenomenons that often occur in a band’s evolution. The all-too-famous sophomore slump, whether it be creatively or sales wise, is at it’s core as it explores the role of an artist’s mind state, fan reactions, song quality and much more.

Singer-songwriter David Gray has a few great insights when it comes to motivation and the emotional roller-coaster ride that follows success:

“What helped me is that I’d been making music for a while when the success came,” he says over the phone from Italy, where he is on holiday with his family. “I could handle it better. But the period after the success is always very difficult. If Radio 1 or Radio 2 don’t playlist your record, it has a profound impact on your sales. When the BBC decided to play Babylon, all hell broke loose, but if you don’t keep that up then you end up back in the Borderline – and when you’ve got used to the Hammersmith Apollo, that can be very depressing.”

“[...] it’s amazingly exhilarating,” he says with a laugh. “But success like that blows your compass completely, it’s so heavy, so all-enveloping. You do begin to think that perhaps you are God’s gift. I spent three years touring White Ladder, but when the festivals and the champagne and the private planes suddenly stop, when reality kicks in again, the shock is numbing.”

An artist has to be an incredibly strong and steady soul to be able to deal with going from being a no-name to everyone blowing smoke up your butt and treating you like a famous person. Do not underestimate how difficult it can be to keep grounded and focused when you’re pulled in different directions by different people, all interested in a piece of you. There’s a great quote from an XXL Mag interview with the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA on the period in which he created the group’s seminal debut album, and two of the first Wu solo albums that followed by Raekwon and GZA, also venerable classics:

The only two albums I did with nobody f*cking with me was [Only Built 4 Cuban] Linx [by Raekwon] and Liquid Swords [by GZA]. I was on a mission. To make all those early albums took three and a half years of my life. I didn’t come outside, didn’t have too many girl relations, didn’t even enjoy the shit. I just stayed in the basement. Hours and hours and days and days. Turkey burgers and bluntes. I didn’t know if it was working. But nobody could hear or say nothing, no comments, no touching the board when I leave. Everything was just how I wanted it. (full article here)

Fully undistracted, focused on the work itself, RZA created a bunch of classic albums in his Staten Island basement. That was the mentality. No partying, no opportunity for others to distract him with fancy parties or crazy thoughts and changes. Later of course RZA moved to LA and the period of Wu dominance, creatively, ended a few years later. But he’ll always have the legacy he built in his basement and he can coast on this forever more. This is not to say you can’t have fun while you’re putting in all the hard work of touring, song-writing and more. Just that ones focus and motivation has to be right. Everything in moderation.

Getting back to the Guardian article, the author shares some interesting comment on Welsh singer Duffy’s experience after becoming a huge success with her first album:

“Duffy is an interesting case,” a music industry lawyer says, “because her story applies to a lot of artists. Buoyed by success, they immediately think, ‘Why am I giving 6% of record royalties, a third of my publishing and a 20% management commission to other people? I am a genius! I will do it myself!’ [Duffy parted company with her manager, Rough Trade's Jeanette Lee, and with Bernard Butler who produced Rockferry, and co-wrote and played on much of it] And then make a bad record without any guidance from professionals. And then they wonder why it’s all gone wrong.”

An artist’s personality, attitude and work ethic is so key to their success. It takes true talent to get there in the first place, but it takes the right personality to stay there for a long time. It takes the right personality to resist all the people that will start whispering things into your ear once they see your successes. People will try to poach you, convince you they can do better, or make it all go faster. And if it’s not others, then it might be the artist themselves, like in the case of Duffy above. I feel very fortunate to only work and have worked with people in the past that I feel have the right attitude to accompany their amazing talents so that when they get to a bigger level of success and grow into national and internationally successful artists they will be able to stick around. That being said,  it’s time for me to get to the office and help make that happen with our amazing team by putting in another day of hard work!

Related Reading:

• It’s Not Always The Major Label’s Fault (Or Artist’s Motivation) (read)

When you’re involved in creating and marketing music it’s easy to get caught in the trap of focusing too much on the art and not enough on the process of selling it. If you’re doing it right, you’re involved with, or even creating, music you truly are in love with. Especially in that situation we can fall victim to thinking that our art is so darn special that it will sell itself. In these times with more new music being released each week than ever before, this is the furthest from the truth. The “build it and they will come” mantra does not apply to music. Unless you’re a genius. And you’re not. (Sorry.)

Seth writes:

“Some things are bought–like bottled water, airplane tickets and chewing gum. The vendor sets up shop and then waits, patiently, for someone to come along and decide to buy.

Other things are sold–like cars, placement of advertising in magazines and life insurance. If no salesperson is present, if no pitch is made, nothing happens.” – Seth Godin

Not even the biggest stars in music can rely on being in the first category anymore. Not with concert tickets and not with album sales. There is simply too much new music out there, and too much competing entertainment in general. To be able to cut through the noise the quality of the music isn’t enough anymore. Marketing is just as important and needs to be integrated into a release from the start. Know your audience, know how to speak to them, and make them part of your process.

In previous posts I’ve written about the lessons learned in the restaurant and food world, and how we can apply them to the music business. I came across another one recently, and it’s perhaps the simplest and truest concept of all. Chef Anthony Bourdain states:

If there’s a new and lasting credo from the Big Shakeout, it’s this: people will continue to pay for quality. They will be less and less inclined, however, to pay for bullshit. - A. Bourdain

This is the new axiom of being a product-based company in the new age of engaged and empowered customers. Interestingly it was also the old axiom. We’re about to exit the short period between the old and the new. The period where mass media allowed for genius marketeers to sell “bullshit” by the boatload. This period will be over soon, and in many ways it already is. Enjoy and please continue to push companies to see its truth reflected in their bank accounts.

Related Reading:

• What If Danny Meyer Worked In The Music Business? (read)
• Hospitality In The Music Business (read)

I discovered Gotye‘s “Somebody That I Used To Know” about five months ago when Rosi Golan recommended it. I had it on repeat for days, eagerly anticipating the release of the album*. Everything was working as described in my post “The Importance Of Free Music (Or Give ‘Em A Taste First)”. The single was a great first taste, and I craved more. I was excited to wait for the album, anticipation was enhancing my experience, and I was telling my friends about how great the single was. So far, so good. That’s when it went wrong.

Gotye is based in Australia and when the album came out, it was exclusively released there. When I checked for it on US-only streaming service Rdio, I found nothing. But I knew it was out there. I checked on my European Spotify account and my iTunes US, and again found nothing. But I knew it was out there. There was no clarity on a US release date and the whole situation was driving me crazy. You can probably guess how I ended up satisfying my craving for the full album, and how my evangelizing failed to have the positive effect on my friends that were interested but not quite as motivated as myself to jump through some hoops and dig up the album. Lets call this experience a set of “lost transactions”.

There is a world of lost transactions out there. In part, due to artificial market separation and distribution delays based on geography, and in part because of release inefficiencies per distribution channel. The latter is most glaring in the world of movies, which often still operates with different release dates per market. I stumbled upon “I Love You Phillip Morris” on iTunes UK in early 2010 while traveling, but wasn’t allowed to buy it on my iTunes US account until early 2011. That seems silly. The movie industry also distinguishes between distribution channels and offers extended periods of exclusivity to those channels perceived to lead to greater value (mostly movie theaters). Fred Wilson wrote about a frustrating experience in his aptly title post “Scarcity Is A Shitty Business Model“. A choice quote:

“Film executives [...] insist that they need their windows. They argue they need to manage access to their films to extract every last dollar from the market. That just doesn’t make sense to me. If they went direct to their customers, offered their films at a reasonable price (say $5/view net to them), and if they made their films available day one everywhere in the world, I can’t see how they wouldn’t make more money.”

I subscribe to this point of view, both for movies and other forms of digital entertainment including music. Beyond the fact that many execs are rusted into place and unwilling to change, the challenge here lies in the fact that part of the food chain will strongly opposed this idea as they stand to lose a lot of money. This lobby is so strong that they have come very close to pushing a bill through congress that would potentially break the internet and limit freedom of speech. You better believe if they go that far to “fight piracy”, they will protect their windows of exclusivity with just as much vigor.

If you take away the window of exclusivity, movie theaters will be exposed for what they have become: a mostly mediocre entertainment experience. The window of exclusivity = the emperor’s clothes. Without it theaters would have a much harder time pulling the crowds necessary to maintain their levels of income. Most mainstream theaters no longer provide a superior experience to watching a movie in your home on a big flat screen. Aside from semi-relevant technology** like 3D, the only thing that really keeps them in business is exclusivity. Sure, people also go to a theater to be part of a group experience, and because some movies look much better on a really big screen, but in the big picture*** it’s mostly because of an antiquated set of rules and not because theaters provide an undeniably awesome service we cannot wait to consume.^ That’s when you know you’re in trouble.

As a business and technology geek  I experience lost transactions, even when they save me money,  as ugly and inelegant happenstances caused by the failure to provide a quality experience around content that I am eager to pay for. When we fail as companies to provide these quality experiences we turn fans into reluctant pirates, and we lose their support. I hope that the ever-louder voice of the consumer can push us along to accept that we now live in a single market world when it comes to digital entertainment. It’s pretty great actually, and we should take advantage of it rather than fight it.

* (I actually reached out to his management to see about a US release on Family Records, but they had it locked in already.)
^ Let me emphasize I am talking about most mainstream theaters, and that there are also some great independents out there that provide a much better experience like the Alamo Draft House chain in Austin (TX) and Nitehawk in Brooklyn (NY).
** Semi-relevant because it only really makes sense for a certain type of movie.
*** Get it?

Related Reading:

• “The Importance Of Free Music (Or Give ‘Em A Taste First)” (read)
• The Incumbent Almost Always Loses (Or Earning Your Spot) (read)
• Fans Would Love To Pay For Music (Or The Tale Of The Reluctant Pirate) (read)

In a recent Esquire interview, actor George Clooney shares an insight that creatives and normals can benefit from. It speaks to the dangerous trap of being so focused on specific ultimate goals that it becomes detrimental to actually achieving those goals. A loss of overview and perspective can lead to less than desirable end results, the loss of satisfaction from the actual activity (making music), a lack of internal psychological momentum, and more. Setting goals is very important, and laying out a path to achieve them equally so, but an unhealthy focus on overly specific goals mostly leads to disappointment and bitterness. Keep your eye on the ball in a big picture way, and like Bruce Lee said, be water. Here is George’s healthy perspective.

• It’s Not Always The Major Label’s Fault (Or Artist’s Motivation) (read)
• The Difference Between A Means And An End (Or Don’t Take Shortcuts) ( (read)

Fred Wilson recently wrote about his experience as a loyal and paying cable TV basketball viewer, and how a lack of options has driven him to consume the pirated product instead. A customer more than willing to pay is being turned away because the product isn’t made available in a customer friendly and convenient manner? Hmm that sounds familiar. Replace “cable tv” with “music industry” and read Fred’s post or the quote below:

“I’ve long believed that piracy is largely a business model problem not a human behavior problem. If you give people a legal way to consume the content they want, they will pay for it. But when you make it impossible to legally consume the content they want, they will pirate it.”

Fred hits the nail on the head and identifies exactly what went wrong with the music business as well. Every customer knows this to be inherently true. If you don’t believe that, just look at the numbers. In countries where legal streaming was launched and allowed to prosper, like Sweden, illegal downloads are way down. We might not be happy about the drastic reduction in income when customers move to streaming, but that doesn’t change the actual point of this argument. And it doesn’t mean we should drive customers to piracy. If we provide a convenient and affordable alternative to illegal consumption, customers will pay for our products. And sure there will always be some that will refuse to pay, but that was no different before. The grand majority will pay if we make it possible for them to do so. It is our challenge as an industry to figure out how to best execute this, and not the fan’s challenge as a customer. So let us stop complaining, let us stop blaming customers, and lets get this right in 2012. We’re not the victim unless we choose to be.

Related Reading:

• The Benefits of Streaming (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (read)
• The New Way Of Consuming Music (Or A Dollar Less To Rihanna Means A Dollar More To Tegan And Sara) (read)
• The Best Does Not Always Win (Or Why Spotify Will Beat Rdio) (read)
• Music On The Move (Or How We Listen) (read)
• The Importance Of Free Music (Or Give ‘Em A Taste First) (read)
• Digital Retailers, Revenue Per Song (read)

In June of 2010 I wrote one of the most-read articles on this blog: “2012 (Or The Year We Finally Took Music Back)”. I made a few sweeping predictions, and now that 2012 is only a few days away I thought we’d check in and see how it’s going. (Your reading experience will probably be optimal if you spend a few minutes reading the original post with my predictions, though the below works as a standalone piece just fine).

Radio and Mobile Retail

• I predicted that radio stations would enter the music retail market, enabled by smart phones and mobile sales platforms that have a direct playlist feed including one-click buy links. Exclusive bonus material for these purchases would be content generated by the radio station, including on-air freestyles and interviews. We’re not there yet but I still think it should and can happen. #NOTYET
• One of the digital retail predictions included instant synching of music upon purchase between my mobile phone, cloud music locker and my iTunes at home. Since then Google has launched Google Music, which works with an cloud-based Music Locker. Apple also recently launched their iCloud service, which works exactly like I described. #YES
• A third prediction involved the fictitious start-up Not.es, which provides mobile/online liner notes and credits. Not.es was also later fictitiously to be purchased by Apple and integrated into iTunes. This is a huge part of the listening experience for a music nerd such as myself, and there still isn’t a good solution. #NOTYET (Note: I own the domain albumnot.es and if you are a developer interested in exploring this idea I could make it available. E-mail me.)

Direct-To-Fan:

• I predicted that a massive legacy artist forgoing his many decades long relationship with a major in favor of a direct-to-fan model. We’re seeing this happen right now with a few classic legacy artists, but not yet someone of the caliber of Bob Dylan, my example in the original post. I think it will happen in 2012. #SORTOF
• While I predicted it would be Sigur Ros that would release a concert movie direct-to-fan, with unlimited streaming permissions, it actually ended up being comedian Louis CK that just this month pushed the envelop in this exact way. Expect more of this #YES

I was a Spotify US beta tester about a year ago and have to admit that I didn’t really “get” it. The ugly design was (and still is) distracting, the search was (and is) broken, and I just fled back to my nice clean iTunes experience, comforted by a gigantic hard drive of music. A few months later I later tried Rdio and streaming finally clicked for me. My first thought as a consumer was: “Wow! This is awesome. I can have access to almost everything I have, plus everything else released, anytime? No more bulky hard drives and organizing my music!”. My first thought as an artist manager and label person was: “Oh crap, why would anyone ever want to buy a digital download again? We better think of something quick!”.

From a consumer’s point of view, having access to all this music for a cheap monthly fee is a winning value proposition. Beyond increasing your library to near infinity, it’s also much more convenient and easy to consume. No waiting, no cataloging, just search and click play. As high speed wi-fi access grows, and smart phones become the norm, it’s hard to deny that streaming will be the dominant way in which mainstream casual music fans will consume music. (Hardcore fans will follow an alternate consumption pattern, and more on this difference here: “The New Way Of Consuming Music”.)

From an artist and manager’s point of view, streaming represents a scary and radical shift in consumption. It includes a massive loss of income on a per customer basis. This shift changes all the financial aspects of releasing music. (For details on the difference in income between streaming vs downloads check out “Digital Retailers, Revenue Per Song”.) Rather than the typical music industry doom talk, I’d like to suggest that we look at how this shift could actually benefit artists. Once we get past our knee-jerk fear-based reaction, we see that streaming could actually be seen as a much needed breakthrough technology and shift to lead to industry growth after a decade of imploding. Benefits include the simplification of income tracking and accounting, lower overhead, the enormous amounts of new customer data and improved metrics, increased access for a larger audience, distribution efficiencies, and more.

The loss in income from digital downloads is very real of course, but we can look for ways to offset this loss, at least in part. This can happen through the benefits that come from improved metrics and properly measuring an artist’s influence and audience. This will be easier in the near future than it ever has been. It will be very similar to how a newspaper measures their circulation, and a TV show it’s ratings. With the right team and model, the modern artist becomes a multidisciplinary creator and curator, with an audience that rewards them by giving dedicated moments of attention, permission to market, and the purchase of tickets, merch and music. This attention is valuable to others who may want to partner with the artist on a project.

A second benefit is the artist’s ability to expand their audience faster and more easily through streaming services. The lower the effective monetary price to check out a new artist based on a friend’s recommendation, the more it will happen. In streaming this perceived cost is $0. We also see that streaming services have integrated all the easiest ways to stimulate people’s natural inclination to share what they love with friends. If an artist and her team capitalizes on this increased level of attention by providing more quality content and opportunities to see the artist perform live, the income will follow, often times faster than from the aged royalties on record sales model. Great examples of watching this in action at The Weeknd, Mac Miller and Drake during the lead up to his first album before he signed with Universal Motown.

Most established artists and companies would rather stop the audience’s move to streaming than adjust for it. Adjusting to this new consumption pattern takes a lot more grind and guts than the old way. Being an incumbent will be less and less beneficial as the gatekeeper roles change as well. Seeing that we can guarantee that consumer progress is impossible to stop, we shouldn’t waste any time complaining about it. Instead we should look to improve our business models to be more in line with our customer’s wishes and needs. Living through this evolution will certainly prove challenging for most of us, but much more so for those who insist on holding onto the old model. Those of us that embrace the challenge will also see better positioned to identify the opportunities it brings. That’s how we see it at Family Records at least.

Related Reading:

• The New Way Of Consuming Music (Or A Dollar Less To Rihanna Means A Dollar More To Tegan And Sara) (read)
• The Best Does Not Always Win (Or Why Spotify Will Beat Rdio) (read)
• Music On The Move (Or How We Listen) (read)
• The Importance Of Free Music (Or Give ‘Em A Taste First) (read)
• Digital Retailers, Revenue Per Song (read)