When we were all in it together, the key was to be first.\u00c2\u00a0 Now we’re all grazing in different locations, stumbling upon things, and what might be new to us is actually old, but does anybody care?<\/p>\n
That’s a long-winded explanation for the fact that you might be wincing right now.\u00c2\u00a0 Lefsetz, you don’t know about 37signals?\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t know about "Rework"?\u00c2\u00a0 You’re a retard.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m unsubscribing!<\/p>\n
Be my guest.<\/p>\n
Because with an attitude like that you’re positively stuck in the last century, and the 37signals crew is all about residing in this century, to your advantage.<\/p>\n
I stumbled upon 37signals and "Rework" in the new "Newsweek".\u00c2\u00a0 And I kept reading the article because of the introductory paragraph, wherein it was stated that Mint.com was sold to Intuit for $170 million and Jason Fried of 37signals responded, "Is that the best we can do?\u00c2\u00a0 Become part of the old generation?\u00c2\u00a0 How about kicking the shit out of the old guys?"<\/p>\n
Whew.\u00c2\u00a0 This goes contrary to America’s business philosophy, wherein the corporation is bigger than any personality and the goal is to cash out so…<\/p>\n
So what?\u00c2\u00a0 So you can go lie on the beach?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think this will be satisfying to an entrepreneur who’s worked so hard for a toehold?\u00c2\u00a0 No, that’s when the going gets interesting, when you’re finally big enough to roll the dice against the big boys, to see what you’ve got.\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind that the landscape is littered with companies that were decimated when sold to a larger competitor. Remember when Snapple was a scrappy upstart?\u00c2\u00a0 When you chugged the bottle and felt part of a team?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you even drink Snapple anymore?<\/p>\n
In business, many argue it’s about the cash.\u00c2\u00a0 But is it really about the cash in music?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t your career based on more than a P&L? Don’t credibility and believability count in music?\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, should you be looking for the big check, or is that going to ruin you?\u00c2\u00a0 Especially after the company that ponies up the money tells you how to run your business\/make your music.\u00c2\u00a0 How many of the original concert promoters rounded up by Bob Sillerman are still involved at Live Nation?\u00c2\u00a0 Those were fierce independents, they couldn’t report to anybody but themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, it’s simple to argue that the concert landscape would be healthier, at least from a consumer standpoint, if the SFX roll-up had never occurred.<\/p>\n
As for bands…\u00c2\u00a0 Think about Snapple.\u00c2\u00a0 People loved the drink when the company was an independent renegade.\u00c2\u00a0 But once it was sold by the man, they were done.\u00c2\u00a0 It’d be like Apple selling out to IBM, never mind Microsoft.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans like the story.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the written-off upstart who triumphs.<\/p>\n
The whole music business infrastructure, the baby boomer infrastructure anyway, is about selling out.\u00c2\u00a0 The manager and the lawyer want their commission.\u00c2\u00a0 Make that deal with the label, we’re gonna get a check!\u00c2\u00a0 Do that endorsement deal, we’re gonna get paid! As for the agent, he’s not about investing in the future, he’s not about leaving money on the table.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, don’t argue with me, there are exceptions, but the agents are the biggest whores out there.\u00c2\u00a0 And why not, with acts jumping ship willy-nilly.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, the longest agent\/act relationships are when the agent invests in the act’s future.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, how much of a future do today’s acts have?<\/p>\n
Anyway, at the bottom of this "Newsweek" article, there’s a list of ten precepts.\u00c2\u00a0 Which first made my jaw drop, and then had me nodding my head in agreement.<\/p>\n
1. Avoid Workaholics<\/span><\/p>\n If I hear one more asshole telling me how little sleep he gets, I’m gonna explode.\u00c2\u00a0 You need sleep to be productive!\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, outside influences not only give you perspective, but inspiration!\u00c2\u00a0 Live in a vacuum and you’re Microsoft, thinking you’re the best, getting your ass kicked in Smart Phones, not even seeing the MP3 player market until it’s way too late.<\/p>\n 2. Hire The Better Writer<\/span><\/p>\n Wow.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe I’m talking out of self-interest.\u00c2\u00a0 But I judge you on your typos and if I can’t understand it, I don’t care how great your idea is.<\/p>\n 3.\u00c2\u00a0 Forget Formal Education<\/span><\/p>\n Ever notice the bigwigs in the music business don’t have MBAs, didn’t go to music business college?\u00c2\u00a0 Formal education teaches you how to think like everybody else, when in a cutthroat business like music you’ve got to think for yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 You like rules, but rules imprison you, they’re the enemy.<\/p>\n 4. Drug Dealers Are On To Something<\/span><\/p>\n Or, as Ahmet Ertegun once said, a hit is a record that gets a listener to jump out of bed, put on his clothes and go to the all night record store to buy it after hearing it on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 I listen to the radio in my car all day long.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s rare that I have to write down the title of a song and rush to my computer to download the track.\u00c2\u00a0 Happened with Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy".\u00c2\u00a0 And, in the CD era, with Alanis Morissette’s "Hand In Pocket", I had to go home and rifle through hundreds of CDs to find "Jagged Little Pill".\u00c2\u00a0 And then there’s Walt Wilkins\/Pat Green’s "Wrapped"…\u00c2\u00a0 Point is, hit records sell themselves, like drugs.\u00c2\u00a0 If your record is not selling itself, you’re never going to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, if you’re working me, you’re in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Your track should be so great I hear about it from someone else!<\/p>\n 5. Emulate Chefs<\/span><\/p>\n They give their secrets away.<\/p>\n Interesting, I’m still thinking about this one.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if you break an act, and it’s signed to a long term deal, why not tell everybody how you did it, for the overall health of the business!<\/p>\n 6. Retire The Term "Entrepreneurs"<\/span><\/p>\n Separates the company into creatives and worker-bees, leaders and followers.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody can innovate, and should.\u00c2\u00a0 Why do the best ideas have to come from the top?\u00c2\u00a0 Just because that guy’s paid the most?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the kid on the bottom is more in touch with the street!<\/p>\n 7. You Need Less Than You Think<\/span><\/p>\n Do you need business cards in a virtual world?\u00c2\u00a0 When you can just e-mail your newfound client immediately, or instruct him how to add your name to his BlackBerry?<\/p>\n Do you need an office?<\/p>\n Do you need a zillion employees?<\/p>\n Image might be important with an act, but in business, your product, your success is your image.\u00c2\u00a0 No one cares how clean the factory floor is.<\/p>\n 8. Pick A Fight<\/span><\/p>\n I LOVE this one!<\/p>\n I was listening to Richard Roeper on Howard Stern, he lamented the guest hosts from Hollywood who co-starred with him on "At The Movies" would say nothing negative, for fear of alienating some potential business contact.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s when you say something negative that you endear yourself to a group!\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re offering a better product…<\/p>\n I beat up Ann Powers the other day.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel a bit guilty.\u00c2\u00a0 But first and foremost, she should move back to L.A. or be fired by the L.A. "Times", second she should know her writing is so dense and overwrought as to make me quit reading it each and every time.\u00c2\u00a0 If I don’t say she sucks, who will?\u00c2\u00a0 How will she ever improve?\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, if I’m saying she sucks, I’ve got to be better.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ve got to believe you’re going to rally around me, the independent, and agree.<\/p>\n That’s risky.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you willing to take that risk?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you willing to state your truth and own it?\u00c2\u00a0 Elton John talks shit about other people. But most acts demur.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like Jon Bon Jovi if he just said SOMETHING or SOMEONE sucked.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s so busy sucking the public’s dick I miss no chance to beat him up, point out his band’s foibles, because he’s not real…and I know many people agree with me. Then again, most people are indifferent!\u00c2\u00a0 And only by taking a side can you get them to care!<\/p>\n 9. Build An Audience<\/span><\/p>\n Build it, don’t try to nuclear bomb people into submission.\u00c2\u00a0 Advertising slides right off of us.\u00c2\u00a0 Be real.\u00c2\u00a0 Online.\u00c2\u00a0 Win our hearts. Consistently. This is about deciding what’s in and what’s out.<\/p>\n Talk to a great creator, he’ll tell you sometimes you’ve got to leave the best stuff out, because it doesn’t fit, it ruins the whole.<\/p>\n And then there’s Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 Simple, simple, simple.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s easy to add a button.\u00c2\u00a0 But can you leave that button off and have the device do everything it needs to, without requiring a read-through of the manual?<\/p>\n Oh, there are so many other great points in the book.\u00c2\u00a0 Like no meetings.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever been on a conference call?\u00c2\u00a0 What a waste of time.<\/p>\n No, I haven’t read the book.\u00c2\u00a0 But I went to the Website, and I read the excerpt.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m glad to have someone on my side.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, these guys closed me just that fast, by stating their truth, by not pussyfooting, by not being afraid of alienating people, putting it out there so I can identify.<\/p>\n And I think you can too.<\/p>\n
10. Be A Curator<\/span><\/p>\n\n