The deeper I wade into the nuts and bolts of music marketing, the sicker I feel. Are all industries as over saturated and horrifying?
Of all things, music has been the closest to my heart forever. And so I can’t imagine how I would feel, marketing something I didn’t even like. Oh, wait. Actually I can. Last year I worked in marketing at a hi-tech company here in NYC. My job in a nutshell was to sell software that didn’t exist with features and benefits that the company could never produce, to non-existent customers. What a shithole. Try feeling confident when pitching imaginary products based on technology you couldn’t produce or even talk about intelligently, to Fortune 500 companies. Good luck!
Anyway. I just came across a really cool hip-hop biz blog. Justin Boland has a style that I can really identify with. As the Bobs would say, this guy is a “real straight shooter”.
Some of my favorite comments of his that I’ve come across so far:
Depression is counterproductive and self-indulgent. The time you spend brooding is time you could spend building.
I constantly have to remind myself that this is a path I chose, consciously and deliberately, and this frustration is the inevitable consequence of Doing It Right.
The music industry is a parasite, extracting and exploiting resources from their host organism, completely unable to sustain itself without fucking the little guy over.
Marketing is Simple and Boring as Fuck
MySpace is a demonic entity that sustains itself off the life-energy of it’s users. It is a Waster of Time and an Eater of Hours. I do not like it.
“New Business Models” Are For Rich People. The biggest disconnect between my theory and practice was this: here in reality, 95% of our planning doesn’t mean shit and never will.
I find it admirable that someone disposed to such flippant and cynical opinions is working 16-hour days to launch a record label. He’s also got some sweet advice.
Maybe he needs an intern?
But don’t worry. Back to the matters at hand. Coming up, we will have an article on Rumblefish, a review of the music licensing companies we’ve covered so far, and many enlightening interviews from fabulously successful people.
And remember, as I need to, that the music part is actually fun! The best thing I’ve done in the past several weeks was to play a few songs at a music festival at The Tritone in Philadelphia. Damn are those people nice!