"Anything You Want" by Derek Sivers

This book is so good, so chock full of nuggets, that I had to stop reading it and e-mail you, even though Derek says it will only take an hour to finish.

Derek is you.  An outsider.  Who’s not trying to be an insider, just looking to find a way to make his life work.

In case you don’t know, Derek started CD Baby.  And sold it ten years later for $22 million.

Minus startup costs…

THERE WERE NO STARTUP COSTS!  CD BABY WAS STARTED BY ACCIDENT!  IT WAS PROFITABLE FROM DAY ONE!

You’re gonna like this book because it’s deals with something you’re familiar with, the music business.  It’s not like buying a business book written by a corporate kingpin or an entrepreneur with a personality brighter than a 100-watt bulb who could sell ice to Inuits.  This is a musician, telling his story.

And his story is so different from the one being told by everybody else.

First and foremost, he made money.

And he did it by himself.  His way.

Let’s start with a few lessons…

1. "Start Now. No funding needed

Watch out when anyone (including you) says he wants to do something big, but can’t until he raises money.

It usually means the person is more in love with the idea of being big big big than with actually doing something useful.  For an idea to get big big big, it has to be useful.  And being useful doesn’t need funding."

In other words, START TODAY!  NO WAITING NECESSARY!

If you’ve got a good idea.

Every day I get e-mail from people waiting to start, getting their ducks in order, bitching that they can’t get funded.  All you’ve got to do is begin.


2. "Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.

We all have lots of ideas, creations, and projects.  When you present one to the world, and it’s not a hit, don’t keep pushing it as-is.  Instead get back to improving and inventing."

If no one reacts to your music, write new tunes.  If you still don’t get traction, change styles.

People hate to hear this.  BUT WHAT ABOUT MY INVESTMENT!

You never forget what you’ve learned.  Yes, read "What Color Is Your Parachute?", you’re developing transferable skills.  Don’t be married to failure.  This doesn’t only apply to the music business.  If you can’t make it as a lawyer or a doctor…change course!  Doesn’t matter if someone else is successful, they’re not you.

3. "A business plan should never take more than a few hours of work.  Hopefully no more than a few minutes.  The best plans start simple.  A quick glance and common sense should tell you if the numbers will work.  The rest are details."

You can do the business plan in your head.  It should be just that simple.  If you’re paying an MBA to write it, you’re just justifying the price of his education.  As for impressing investors, Derek didn’t take any money.  He built upon his success.  If you’ve got no success, stop.


4. "Any time you think you know what your new business will be doing, remember this quote from Steve Blank: No plan survives first contact with customers."

Voila!

You’ve got no idea what’s gonna happen until you open your store, until the audience hears the first note.  Turns out people like a different track than you do.  Turns out that little thing you do that embarrasses you audiences love.  Maybe your instrumental passage is the highlight of the show.  Or vice versa, maybe it’s when you sing a cappella.  You won’t know until you try.

Last night Jim e-mailed me to ask if I too wouldn’t take the $1.3 million paid to Nathan Hubbard.  If they offered me that gig.

They’re never gonna offer me that gig.  I’m not the right person.  I don’t play well with others.  You’ve got to kiss a lot of ass to succeed in the corporation.  You’ve got to hold your tongue when the President acts like an idiot.  It’s about being a member of the team, and you’re not the coach, you’re not even the star player.

I don’t work that way.  I’m in an endless pursuit of the truth.  I can’t suffer incompetency.  Even worse, I can’t handle when people don’t work.  I’m paying you, PAY ATTENTION!

But if you run your own business…

I know Derek Sivers.  He’s not like the people at Live Nation.  He confided personal information to me right off the bat, unafraid I would use it against him, that I would hurt his career by revealing it to his superiors.  When you run your own operation, you can be free!

And Derek is nice.  But he’s not Steve Jobs.  He’s not so charismatic that you’d follow him anywhere, he’s not a super-salesman. He’s a musician who thinks.  Who is willing to get his hands dirty.  Who will try something new and make mistakes.  We all hate making mistakes, but when we own the company we’re not worried about retribution, we’re not worried about losing our jobs. And we learn from our mistakes.

5. "Five years after I started CD Baby, when it was a big success, the media said I had revolutionized the music business.

But ‘revolution’ is a term that people use only when you’re successful.  Before that, you’re just a quirky person who does things differently."

And there’s no room for the quirky person who does it differently at the corporation.  They call that person an artist.  Maybe that’s why Derek could be so successful, at his heart he’s an artist, willing to take his own path, not susceptible to corporate reviews and not beholden to the HR department.

AND FINALLY:

6. "Business is not about money.  It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.

Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself."

That ain’t Wall Street.  That ain’t Pandora or LinkedIn.

Do you know how boring it is to work for Goldman Sachs?  How unfulfilling?  Working with numbers just so you can make enough coin to vacation in a first class way, buy tickets to the shows of people you wish you could be if you could only take a risk?

Life isn’t about money.  It’s about personal fulfillment.

But you can’t do it without money.  And Derek Sivers acknowledges this.

Just like I could never be Nathan Hubbard, I could never be those people writing business books.  Which is why I’ve completely given up on self-help tomes.  They’re not me.  Yeah, that guy could become rich, BUT ME?

But reading Sivers’s book I feel like I’m listening to a soul brother.  It gives me hope.

Read it.  It’ll inspire you too.

Who’s gonna have a hit with this song?

I was combing the blogs for bootlegs and I found this album by Bettye LaVette, a compilation of cuts from decades ago, most unreleased, and there in the track listing was "The Stealer".

One of the most famous tracks in rock and roll was never a hit single.  I’m speaking of Big Star’s "Thirteen".  There’s a wistfulness, an encapsulation of what it means to be an isolated rock fan, the music being the most important thing to you, being misunderstood but finding one other person who gets it.

All the musicians know it.  Listen to Wilco’s cover.  It’s faithful, as they all are, because you can’t improve on Big Star’s rendition of "Thirteen", you can only honor and respect it.

Kind of like Free’s "The Stealer".  Covers have been done by everybody from Bob Seger to Leslie West and one thing they do not change is the riff, the groove, and Bettye LaVette doesn’t either.  Even though horns take the place of guitars.

Speaking of unsung heroes, it’s Paul Kossoff who created the riff.  The same guy who constructed one of the most famous riffs of all time, "All Right Now".  Just think if he hadn’t O.D.’ed on that airplane, what other delectable nuggets he might have concocted.

Now most musicians are not concerned with the hit.  That’s the company’s fascination, that’s what the media gloms on to. Musicians are infatuated with songs and sounds.  They know all about infection.  Sound pouring out of the speakers into your arm like a drug injection.  The high is instant and stratospheric.  They mess with their instruments trying to figure out how it was done, they play around with their influences and do their best to create something just as infectious.

Don’t confuse those people on the hit parade with the players.

But the players’ time is coming back.

Because you remove the money and the fame and that’s all that’s left.

In other words, the time for the gunslinger has returned.  But it’s not solely about technique, it’s about feel, it’s about soul.

And speaking of soul, that’s what Bettye LaVette evidences on this cut.  She’s living proof that if you’re good and don’t give up and wait long enough, the public catches up with you.

If you’re a member of the club, you’re nodding your head.

If not, get ready to be indoctrinated.

"The Stealer"

Original Free recording

Free take with extended Kossoff solo

Bettye LaVette’s take

Leslie West’s take

Bob Seger’s take

"Thirteen"

Big Star original

Wilco cover

P.S. This is how all those classic rock legends became such.  They were infected by these records, picked up instruments and figured out how to make these sounds.  These sounds are the bedrock of our musical culture.  They feel as good as orgasm but last much longer, you can’t burn out on ’em.

P.P.S. That Buddy Holly covers album getting all the hype is a throwaway.  The originals supersede the covers and the only people interested are those who are familiar with the originals.  Better to have an album of covers of buried treasures like "The Stealer" and "Thirteen", giving them wider exposure to a public that is mostly out of the loop.

If music is free, should concerts be too?

How the hell are you going to build a devoted fan base if you’re ripping off your audience?

Apple doesn’t discount and neither should you.

1. Play an appropriately-sized building.

You look like a star when people can’t get in, that inspires them to buy tickets early next time.  You are in the career business, right?  You are interested in next time, right?

In other words, when in doubt, underplay.

2. Scale the house accordingly.

Better to leave money on the table than to offer discounts.  Consider it an investment in your future.

3. The promoter is not on your side.

You take that big guarantee, forcing the promoter to make his money on parking and refreshments and his percentage of merch.

If you want to succeed, make the promoter your friend, not your adversary.  That’s what Don Fox does, he invests in bands, he builds acts, that’s what he’s done from ZZ Top to Michael Buble.

Don’t expect the corporation to invest in you, to build you, to take a loss on your way up, they’re not on your side.  It’s only when it’s your money, your upside, that you care.

This is what killed the major labels and is killing Live Nation.  No one involved has got a vested interest.  Whether your show sells out or tanks doesn’t really matter at Live Nation.  Kind of like a major label…it doesn’t care which act hits, so long as ONE act hits.

Live Nation wants profitable shows.

Build a partnership with an indie and stay loyal.

Live Nation is for established acts and TV stars.

4.  The label is not on your side.

The label makes money off recordings.  And even if it’s got a piece of road revenue, it doesn’t understand that.  And everyone at the label is an employee, and if you don’t think there’s short term thinking at America’s corporations read "The Wall Street Journal", it’s all about quarterly profits.  Long term is almost irrelevant.  But it’s all that’s relevant if you’re an act.

5. The agent and the manager work for you!

The agent gets 10%.  And can be fired essentially at will.  It’s hard for him to take a smaller advance, to invest in the future. Good ones do, but not all.  But never forget, the agent works for you, tell the agent what to do.

The manager tends to have a contract, however its enforceability is always in question, still the manager only gets his 15-20% if you make money.  Many managers are loath to forgo a payday.  But if you take that money in the short term, do that endorsement deal, does it ultimately hurt you?

There are great agents and great managers.  Just remember, they’re below you, not above.  Without you, they’ve got nothing.

6. Your goal is to get the fan to return.

This involves many elements.  A great show.  With fair prices.  With the fan being treated properly.

If the venue screws up don’t blame the promoter, take responsibility yourself, try to make it right.

Don’t play so frequently at such a high price that a fan can’t come to every show.

7. Discounts hurt YOU.

There’s no one else to take the blame.  One can argue that when GM blows out Saturns it doesn’t hurt Corvettes.  But give discounts on Corvettes at the end of every quarter and try getting someone to pay full price.  It’d be very difficult.

8. Schnorrers are schnorrers.

There’s an illusion that if you just get someone to try your product, by enticing them with a deal, they’ll become a fan.

This is untrue.  Just read the reams of hype on Groupon.  People sniffing for discounts are all about the deal, about their wallet, the odds of them becoming long term full price fans is very low.  In other words, if BMW started blowing out the 7-Series for $25k they’d have a big audience.  But how many who finally got behind the wheel of the Ultimate Driving Machine would pay 70+ grand to replace it?  Almost nobody.

The discount deal benefits everybody but the act.  The concertgoer and the promoter, but not who’s up on stage.

In a perfect world, we’d go back to percentage deals with low guarantees.  This would help make concerts a partnership between act and promoter.  With each sharing in the upside and the losses.  But with high guarantees, the cancer of unsold seats is eating at our business.  Who’s going to buy early at full price in the future?  With Groupon ads zinging around the Net as soon as they go live?

Exhibit A:

"$25 for One Ticket to See Ke$ha at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium on July 31 at 7:30 p.m. (Up to $57.32 Value)"

Now the Nashville Municipal Auditorium can be scaled anywhere from 3,000 to 9,654.  A small arena at best.  Media tells us Ke$ha is a star, but she can’t even go clean in her own hometown?  Meanwhile, the ticket purchase limit is 8 and only 239 tickets have been sold so far.

How much longer does Ke$ha have?  If she doesn’t have another hit, she’s Vanilla Ice, she’s toast.

Exhibit B:

"$30 for One Ticket to See Miranda Lambert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, on July 15 at 8 p.m. (Up to $59.50 Value)"

Capacity ranges to 16,000 at this venue.  Still, only 424 people have taken up this offer at this time.  Does it pay to fill up the lawn with wankers consuming high-priced wine, talking through the show, or do you only want the people who care?

Lambert’s got a long career in soft ticket shows, but once again the vaunted hype machine is just that, hype, she’s not that big.

News Corp. Sells Myspace for a Song

Now does Tom Freston get his job back?

Remember, Sumner Redstone was mad that MTV didn’t buy MySpace, that Rupert Murdoch/News Corp. moved so quickly and stole it from underneath their noses.

But what was the true value of MySpace?

That’s an interesting question.

You’ve got to follow this guy David Heinemeier Hansson on Twitter.  He’s willing to go against the conventional wisdom, with facts.

Hansson does a brilliant analysis of the jump in LinkedIn’s stock.  He says it’s a pump:

LinkedIn underwriters say jump, the market asks how high?

Furthermore, he eviscerates "Forbes"’s analysis of Facebook’s value:

Wizards of bullshit: How Forbes turned $6.5 million into $20 billion

And after you’re reading all that, take a gander at the latest news re Square, the credit card processing company:

Square Raises $100 Million Round At $1+ Billion Valuation, Led By Kleiner Perkins

Square’s now worth a billion.  But don’t expect the company to crash overnight.  Two months ago they were processing $2 million a day, today they’re doing $4 million.

What we’re learning here is you’ve got to have a real product, that makes real money, you just can’t believe if you’ve got enough eyeballs you can sell advertising.

That’s what Facebook is struggling with.  What can it sell beyond advertising, how can it make you stick to the site.

Which is why musicians must find a way to get paid for personal appearances.  Sure, get enough YouTube views and you can make some coin, but how can you make good enough music that people want to pay to see you live, that should be your goal, that’s where the rubber meets the road.

The music is the advertisement for the tour.  We’re back to the days of vaudeville.  How good are you live, do you electrify the audience?

In other words, it doesn’t matter if no one buys Grateful Dead albums if they go to the show.

That’s the Phish paradigm.

On some level it’s the Gaga paradigm.  However she’s a bit like MySpace, she’s been in it for so brief a time people are not completely bonded to her.  In other words, Gaga’s MTV on steroids.  MTV could rocket you into space, but you’d fall back to earth pretty quickly.

But if you’re propelled into the stratosphere by fans as opposed to corporations, if you keep giving back as you take, you’ve got a better chance of sustaining.

We’re definitely in an Internet bubble era.

But we’re also in a music bubble era.  People want to believe we still live in the nineties and they’re doing everything they can to get famous instantly and get paid.  That’s what "American Idol" is about.  That’s what "The Voice" is about.

I’m gonna hip you to something.

"American Idol" doesn’t want you.  Nor does the major label.  Now it’s your time to thrive, on your own terms.

TV shows only want beautiful people with big voices.

Major labels only want artists they can get on Top Forty radio.

Those two sometimes intersecting paradigms leave most of music out.

That’s where you come in, that’s where you deliver.

If you build it slow, it lasts longer.

It’s easier than ever to be known by people overnight.

But it’s harder than ever to sustain.

Start slow. Build off the radar.  Base your choices on audience reaction, not that of the middleman.

Focus on the music and the show, the rest is secondary.