The quote below is from a Vanity Fair article on how the “The Art of Fielding” came to be a best-selling book after more than ten years of writing. Talk about wanting it badly and really committing to one’s craft!
Inside this very long article the quote is merely an after-thought, but isolated and on it’s own it’s a somewhat revolutionary kernel of truth. This truth has an ever increasing relevance to the new realities of not only publishing books, but also releasing music. As the industry evolves stimulated by changes and improvements in technology and consumer behavior, the old incumbents are being dragged along kicking and screaming. A certain sense of entitlement is rampant amongst incumbents from terrestrial radio to major labels, to music journalists, to publicists, to veteran artists and so many more. But as they say, past performance is no guarantee of future success. It’s a different world now. You can hold on and lose, or you can let go and innovate. As Bruce Lee said, be water. Adjust, adapt and make yourself useful. Not so easy for big companies and people that have been doing the same thing for 50 years of course, but nevertheless necessary.
Rather than being excited about systematic improvements for customers and artists, the incumbents have tried to sabotage change with all their might. This resistance sort of worked for a decade, but the crumbling has turned into crashing now. It should’ve happened a long time ago, but we’re now at the inevitable point in history where everyone involved in the business of music has to re-evaluate whether they’re contributing a valuable and relevant service to either artist or audience (or better yet both), and if not how they can get there. Some companies don’t care or have recognized they won’t survive these changes. They are being sold, bought and disassembled. Others are constantly innovating. Most interestingly, a third group is only now getting started and might take the lead.
Being an incumbent is great for a while, and usually hard in the end. Arrogance and entitlement can be hard to avoid after leading the market for extended periods of time. Especially if you’ve led the market in a way similar to how a bully runs the playground. But the playground was just upgraded, and there are new kids in town that are just a little faster and more creative, and pretty excited to dominate the monkey bars. Don’t feel entitled, because no one owes you anything. Keep innovating and thinking ahead, and focus on the only two irreplaceable groups in music: the fans and the artists. If you’re not in either of these groups, you better make sure you are really good at connecting them and improving the experience for everyone else. This business is not for the faint of heart. The incumbent almost always loses in the end, unless it’s willing to think like a challenger.