Godin: New habits

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"You can live on old habits for a while, but the future depends on investing in finding and building some new ones with (and for) your customers."

How many schools of music, orchestras, publishers, record companies and music stores should have realized this over a decade ago?

And how many of them either continue to not notice or are standing there with their fingers in their ears, their eyes closed and screaming "LA LA LA" at the top of their lungs?

It's easy to spot the blind spot in other people or other organizations. But can you spot your own in time?

Seth's Blog: New Habits

Article: Gary Numan thinks the music industry's collapse is a beautiful thing

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"There are a lot of people who are really frightened about what’s going on at the moment. I’m the opposite. I think it’s an amazing time. It’s a golden era for bands. You’ve just got to be aware. You’ve got to be savvy with the technology that’s coming and adapt it to you, or you to it, whatever it might be. I’m optimistic, because I’m sure there are other things coming that are going to be really useful. But most of it involves direct access to fans."

The above quote is from a great interview in Fast Company with electronic music pioneer Gary Numan. I love his attitude towards the changing music industry.

And I really love this coming from someone who had a bunch of success in the old model.

Fast Company: Gary Numan Thinks The Music Industry's Collapse Is A Beautiful Thing

Article: Entrepreneurship and the Artist-Revolutionary by Mark Rabideau

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Below is a link to a must-read article by Mark Rabideau, Director of the 21st-Century Musician Initiative. Here is a money quote from the article:

"Musicians, by design, are built to be creative agents of change, yet, somehow we have fallen victim to a narrowly defined set of professional standards focused on memorizing and mastering set repertoire and a list of career options that hasn’t expanded much since the Middle Ages, particularly if you are a classical musician. Not only does this not align with the opportunities that exist in today’s marketplace, it does not align with what most people, especially today’s under-30 generation, want out of a career – a life of means, the ability to provide for those whom they love most, a life of meaning, doing good work and making an impact within their community and a chance to give back. Rather than fearing the trends of shrinking traditional career paths, we must embrace a willingness to invent our own most promising futures and craft an excitedly uncertain future for our music."

If that doesn't get you fired up I'm not sure what you're doing reading this blog. The entire article is a must read.

Entrepreneurship and The Artist-Revolutionary by Mark Rabideau

Article from The Guardian on the state of the music business

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Here is a thought-provoking article from The Guardian commenting on the state of the music business and then need for more "portfolio musicians" in the workforce.

Here's a great quote from the article:

"However, the professional development of classically trained musicians still primarily focuses on the pursuit of excellence in relatively narrow terms: interpreting and performing great works of the past at the expense of experimenting and progressing musical skills relevant to the needs of today’s society."

I highly recommend the full article by Sean Gregory.