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.