Here at Music Is My Day Job, we’re always looking for new ways to help you make music your full-time gig, thus our “Musician’s Library” feature, where we look at books, articles and ideas that you should be adding to your reading list. Today, we are focusing on The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris and, more specifically, Ferris’ concept of “Elimination”

(For those not familiar with it, The 4-Hour Work Week is a system developed by Tim Ferris which allows one to reduce the time they spend on business-related items (think selling your music, booking gigs, contracts, etc) to a minimum, allowing you the maximum amount of time to do what you love (writing music, practicing, touring, etc).  While there has been a lot of talk about Ferris, his blog and The 4-Hour Work Week–both positive and negative–none of it has really highlighted how his system can help musicians.)

When Ferris refers to Elimination, he is describing a process of purging your daily routines of those things that produce the least while taking up the most amount of your time, whether that be meetings, difficult clients, email, media/internet distraction or tedious tasks.

Sounds great in principle, but implementation is more challenging.  For example, with regards to media and internet use, his recommended media diet is as follows (from page 87 of The Four-Hour Work-Week):

• No newspapers, magazines, audiobooks or non-music radio. Music is permitted at all times.
• No news websites whatsoever…
• No television at all, except for one hour of pleasure viewing every evening.
• No reading books…except for…one hour of fiction pleasure reading prior to bed
• No web surfing at the desk unless it is necessary to complete a work task for that day.  Necessary means necessary, not nice to have.

Now, we’re not saying that you should be as extreme (though you’re more than welcome to try), but in keeping with the intent of this concept, think about your day for a moment: how much more could you accomplish–writing, recording, practicing, marketing–even if you were to do half of what he recommends?

Out thoughts exactly.

He also has similar suggestions for optimizing use of e-mail and social media (including using auto-responses and improved use of FAQs), eliminating difficult clients and more, but the one section that may help you the most as a musician regards eliminating tedious tasks, and batching those that you can’t eliminate.  He suggests that we should all stop looking at tasks in terms of how much money we are saving, and re-frame them in terms of how much money/time they may be costing us.

For example, let’s assume that you are doing all of your physical product shipping by yourself because you don’t want to pay CD Baby’s $4/CD charge.  So, when you sell a new physical album, while you have to spend 30 minutes to package the album in a shipping container, address the shipment and deliver it to the post office, at least you are not losing $4/album to CD Baby.  If you sell seven albums a week, that is approximately 210 minutes of your time, or 3.5 hours–not much time, considering the week has 168 hours–and you are saving $28/week (CD Baby’s $4 charge x 7).  However, if by spending one more hour each week calling venues and promoters you could book one more gig per week–which pays you $300 for two hours of work–wouldn’t it be wiser to batch all of those shipping-related tasks into one and let CD Baby take that $28 so that you can spend your time booking additional gigs?

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Your challenge for today: make a list of those things that produce the least but take up most of your time.  Create a plan to get rid of the top three within the next seven days through either straight-up elimination or batching.

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You can learn more about Timothy Ferris and The Four-Hour Work-Week by visiting his official website and blog here

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• As we have previously highlighted articles on Josh Freese’s unique album packages, we wanted to be sure you caught this interview with Josh about those packages from Indie 103.1 (via Hypebot–thanks guys!)
• Somehow, between gigs and band practice, Cameron Mizell from MusicianWages.com has found the time to churn out some must-read articles over the last few days.  Here are his tips for musicians looking to effectively create an online presence, and here are his tips for dealing with the challenges that are intrinsic to leading a band. Keep ‘em coming, Cameron!
• Our UK friends over at Creative-Choices.co.uk have interviewed 40+ artists, entrepreneurs, academics and others on the Creative Economy and its evolution in the wake of the current economic melt-down.  The book is free, though you do have to register (we registered, and thus far, we have not received any spam from them!).  You can also read some excerpts here.
• I have nothing good to say about Congressman Jim Cooper’s editorial for Nashville’s The City Paper–to me, it looks like a blatant plea for campaign donations from the RIAA–but it’s good to know both sides of a story, as confused and anachronistic as one may be, right?
• The best thing only good thing about the Swine Flu epidemic? Amazing new ambient music! Experimental artist Stephan Zielinski sequenced the flu’s genetic code, and then translated that into music! You can visit his blog to both download the track and find out more about how he did. The end of the world never sounded so great! (via Idolator)

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Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for more articles and useful goodness for independent musicians.

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Besides describing his discovery of DJ-ing and providing insight into the early days of hip-hop and the history of P.E., as this was the Red Bull Music Academy, he also delves into what it means to be a modern musician and how to become a successful independent artist, including:

• The importance of musicians becoming their own multimedia networks
• Why you should customize an album to your specific needs, regardless of what others are doing
• Working with your fan community (both in the pre-internet era and in the 21st Century)
• Not resting on past success

From the interview:

…We’re in a different marketplace now than the ‘90s, so 17 tracks in the digital world can be three albums. Who’s to say one album can’t be seven tracks, one six and the other one four. You put your artwork and concept behind it and you can make a digital release of it. Of course, you might have to put 17 tracks on a CD if you’re making one, if you believe the CD is the format of the future. The CD is the format of now, but blank CDs are the ones that sell most. So get yourself out of the ‘90s way of thinking and develop your own way…In the audiovisual age you should be a person who can do it all…



If you don’t have two hours to spend going watching/listening to the full video, you can also checkout the transcript here.

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(NOTE: We were not actually going to post a musician’s library feature today, but we couldn’t not share these essential articles–enjoy!)

• David Rose at KnowTheMusicBiz.com has posted a list of 10 Online Music Marketing Priorities, recapping a recent panel he participated in. We would add a step between numbers 1 and 2 on “Identifying your fans,” but, otherwise, we recommend you read the entire list, as well as the resource list at the end, taking notes!
• We Are Hunted is a new online music chart that pulls info from P2P, Social Media, music blogs and more to determine the most popular tracks and artists each day. Click on through and waste a few hours (via Idolator)
• James Reed at FutureofMusicBook.com has published an essential in-depth look at how different artists are implementing fan-supported models to not just release new music, but earn a comfortable living doing so. From the article:
  
  
  I personally think unless you need massive radio airplay, there’s very little reason for record labels to engage with artists anymore…It’s a relic of the past in that artists today can find other ways to get to the market, to get money, to distribute their product in a way where they have a lot more control.
  
  
  Read more here.

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In the first twenty minutes alone, he discusses new music business models, using scarcity to drive demand, suggestions for digital distribution through Topspin and much more.  Even when the interview delves in to fans-only territory (favorite video games, etc), Reznor provides insight into diversifying your revenue stream and life as a professional musician.  At 40 minutes long, it may seem like quite the commitment to watch, but we consider this essential viewing for any MusicIsMyDayJob reader.

(note that this is the entire 40 minute interview–if you only want to watch Reznor’s replies to specific questions, go here)

Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions? Share in the comments below or via Twitter.

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for more articles and useful goodness for independent musicians.

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