The Key to Success

Several weeks back, the New York Times published an article titled, “Is This the Time to Chase a Career Dream?” As you can probably determine from the title, it is one of the seemingly-endless economic crisis articles that basically says that the lemonade to be made from this (large) financial lemon comes in the form of being able to pursue dreams that one could not previously pursue while holding down a full-time job.

Like many of you, my eyes tend to glaze over whenever another one of these articles appear, but this particular piece has stayed with me for two particular reasons…

Smackdown: Music Is My Day Job vs. Digital Music News

In “The DIY Utopia,” Digital Music News editor Paul Resnikoff takes on the idea that independent artists can earn a living from being a full-time musician. I do not mind that he is asking questions about the economic viability of the do-it-yourself model, nor do I take specific issue with his reluctance to make predictions on what the evolution from the major-label machine to DIY will have on the industry and music marketplace in general. However, what irritates me about this particular commentary (and prompted this response) is his obliviousness to the existence today of so many successful independent musicians who were not signed at one time or another to a major label…

Once: The U.S. Release that Almost Wasn’t

The first time that I saw the movie Once, it was via a less-than-perfect DVD copy in a conference room with two dozen music industry executives, assistants and interns. It was sometime in 2006, and we were watching the film to determine if both the movie and soundtrack justified a release in the U.S., and, if so, through which of our distribution channels…

Musicians: how do you define success?

Today, you can successfully earn a comfortable living as a musician, and despite what you may think, it’s not that much more work. However, you have to have a different definition of success.

After looking at Rollo & Grady’s interview with marketing genius Seth Godin, we examine how success as a musician today is different from what it was in the 1980s and 1990s.