If you are sick of reading about marketing your band on myspace, or how to get people to buy your mp3’s, or come see your show, this post aims to help you regain a little focus on the big picture by taking the emphasis off all the made-for-musician free advice floating around the web and focus for a moment on where our current music opinion leaders get their music marketing inspiration. Often this inspiration comes from highly creative and innovative sources outside of the music industry. For this reason, I’ve chosen to write about the importance of wisdom. Every appearance of the word wisdom in this post has a unique link to a different place of wisdom. None of the wisdom destinations are music-centric. But all can be applied to your music business.

By James Pew

Turn on your wisdom magnet.

Always be looking for and open to wisdom.

Consider two types of wisdom

1. The simple that we often pay little attention to even when following it.
2. The impressive and profound, provoking thought, and inspiring creativity.

Recognize the difference but realize that wisdom is wisdom regardless of which type. Don’t underestimate the simple it is often the most profound.

You never know when wisdom will present itself.

If your wisdom magnetic is perpetually charged, you can pick up empowering wisdom when you least expect it. But if you’re not constantly open to receiving wisdom, it can consistently pass you by.

Places you may consider Likely to find wisdom.

Classrooms, books, seminars, blogs, forums, mentors, etc. are traditional places we default to when in need of wise advice. As an indie artist you are not only an artist, you may also be an entrepreneur, a marketer, an event promoter, a road manager, a booking agent, a web designer, among two dozen or so other things. So attending classes, reading books, blogs, and forums about music entrepreneurship, music marketing, music management, music event promotions, music web design, etc. is probably the best place to start.

But remember, all the other indie artists are sponging the same music-centric advice that you are. So try looking beyond those music focused resources for a while and take in some of the method found in places specializing in, for example, general marketing.

A big part of being successful in the music business is being interesting and unique.

By broadening the scope of information resources you use, and studying successful techniques of non-music industry sources, you may find inspiring ideas not yet considered, or fully implemented, in the music business. As long as you can make the connection, and relate what you discover, about branding for example, to your music business.

Places you may consider – unlikely to find wisdom.

Listening to songs, watching movies, talking with friends or family etc., are some of the places you may find great ideas and wisdom if you’re receptive to it. Take for example Tradition is the illusion of permanence or, Our lives consist of how we choose to distort it – two quotes from Woody Allen’s film Deconstructing Harry – apply these to yourself and your approach to the changing music industry, and you’ve got some solid ideas to base and form strategies. And that’s from a movie I saw last week!

The point is wisdom is everywhere, and the wisest choice is to let it find you.

Cliche’s

Cliche’s are well… cliche. Take for example, A failure to plan is a plan to fail, or the one about the dangers of assumption and how an ass is made of the people involved.

Cliche’s become cliche because people repeat them. People repeat them because they make sense in broad and diverse ways. And most importantly they are wise.

Take a closer look at a few cliche’s now and then the two above are universally accepted and often universally ignored. Why is that?

Complexity Theory

To mathematicians and scientists complexity theory has something to do with chaos, and how all things affect all other things in a world connected throughout the spectrum of natural and unnatural systems. This is the butterfly effect talked about in Jurassic Park.

This is romantic sci-fi stuff. Its cool and interesting. It blows our minds. So much so that it has led me to believe that we no longer appreciate simple theories, ideas, or wisdom.

My own complexity theory is that lust for the clever and complex impairs one’s ability to fully see or appreciate the simple. Consider the billion dollar diet industry and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, you can find under the title some profound yet simple wisdom it reads:

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants

Instead of taking this advice to heart, North Americans are more likely to continue spending the billions on diet pills, books, scams, and plans.

Occam’s Razor

Occam’s razor is another scientific theory often paraphrased like so – “All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.”

Not quite as impressive as the butterfly effect of chaos-theory, doesn’t make a very good movie premise either. The unromantic wisdom rooted in the world of everyday life can be the most useful, most profound, and sadly the most overlooked.

Here are my top 5 favorite pieces of wisdom.

1. The harder I work the luckier I seem to get. Thomas Jefferson

Repeat this to every person that thinks luck is the only way to succeed in the music business.

2. Unlearn what you have learned. Yoda

This does not mean forget what you have learned. It means place it aside so it does not interfere with the learning of new things. But always keep it in within your reach.

3. Learn the art of rushing. Freddy Gabrsek

When we are first learning something it is recommended we go slowly and pay close attention to the details and subtleties of what we are doing. To follow that wisdom inevitably leads to mastering the task. This is when the art of rushing can be applied. Now that you’ve mastered the correct procedure your next challenge is to perform it quickly with the same level of accuracy and quality expected from a master. After all, you are an indie wearing many hats and fulfilling many tasks you haven’t a moment to lose. So rush dam it but do it artfully.

4. Do what you love and money will follow. – Marsha Sinetar.

Do not endlessly chase money; raise it if you need seed money but get on with doing your thing and focus on doing it well.

5. Do the Never Seth Godin

Find out what’s the always. Do the Never.

Looking for Wisdom beyond Music Resources by James Pew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Technorati Tags: Cliches, Complexity Theory, Freddy Gabrsek, James Pew, Michael Pollan, Music Business, Occam's Razor, Seth Godin, Wisdom, Woody Allen

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By Adrian Ellis

You know how a particular smell or perfume, or a song, can bring back a powerful memory of a person, place, or time in your life? Certain stimuli can trigger strong emotional states. For me, if I smell Calvin Klein’s ‘Eternity’, I’m back in grade 9, going out on my first date, and I’m madly in love. It’s as if I’ve time traveled on an emotional level, re-living all those strong feelings from those turbulent times.

In this phenomena lies a key to enhanced creativity and unleashing inspiration.

As artists, we know both sides of the coin – those times when you are stuck, you are in a rut, you need and try to come up with ideas but you are banging your head against a wall. Everything seems hard, and nothing comes freely. Then there are those high-flying times, when you are ‘in the zone’ – ideas come fast, and there seem to be no barriers between you and inspiration. Even the challenges that arise are fun to deal with, and the solutions are exciting and inspiring.

I don’t think there’s any reason not to be able to spend every moment in the zone when you want to. Especially when you HAVE to be – if you are up against a deadline, or you are in the studio and valuable time is going by, and morale is slipping. You should be able to make every creative moment a pleasure and a joy, and ensure that great results can come out of any and every session. Maybe, we can even challenge Edison, and make the part of success that is inspiration more than a measly 10%!

What is Creative Flow?

By looking at the following characteristics suggested by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , you’ll see why this is advantageous to you as an artist/creative person (from Mark McGuinness‘ blog, Wishful Thinking):

• “There is immediate feedback to your actions. Not only do you know what you are trying to achieve, you are also clear about how well you are doing it. This makes it easier to adjust for optimum performance. It also means that by definition flow only occurs when you are performing well.

• There is a balance between challenges and skills. If the challenge is too difficult we get frustrated; if it is too easy, we get bored. Flow occurs when we reach an optimum balance between our abilities and the task in hand, keeping us alert, focused and effective.

• Action and awareness are merged. We have all had experiences of being in one place physically, but with our minds elsewhere – often out of boredom or frustration. In flow, we are completely focused on what we are doing in the moment.

• Distractions are excluded from consciousness. When we are not distracted by worries or conflicting priorities, we are free to become fully absorbed in the task.

• There is no worry of failure. A single-minded focus of attention means that we are not simultaneously judging our performance or worrying about things going wrong.

• Self-consciousness disappears. When we are fully absorbed in the activity itself, we are not concerned with our self-image, or how we look to others. While flow lasts, we can even identify with something outside or larger than our sense of self – such as the painting or writing we are engaged in, or the team we are playing in.

• The sense of time becomes distorted. Several hours can ‘fly by’ in what feels like a few minutes, or a few moments can seem to last for ages. The activity becomes ‘autotelic’ – meaning it is an end in itself.

Whenever most of the elements of flow are occurring, the activity becomes enjoyable and rewarding for its own sake. This is why so many artists and creators report that their greatest satisfaction comes through their work. As Noel Coward put it, “Work is more fun than fun”.”

So how do you do it? By using Ancient Ritual Magic!

Ok, first of all, you’re going to need to put down that knife and let that poor goat go. That’s totally not what I meant.

What you want to have is a ritual or a set of repeated behaviors, that you will go through before your creative endeavors. This way, you’ll have something which locks you into a creative zone, and as you use it, the more powerful it’ll become. You are basically performing self-hypnosis, to enter what psychologists call a High Performance State.

Here’s what you need in order to have a ritual that’ll be a powerful trigger for this state (from Mark McGuinness’ post at Lateral Action )

• “Emotional intensity – the stronger the original emotional state associated with the trigger, the stronger the emotional response whenever the same trigger is encountered in future.

• Distinctiveness – the more unusual the trigger, the less diluted the emotion will be with other associations.

• Repetition – the more often the intense emotion is experienced in combination with the distinctive trigger, the more powerful the trigger becomes.”

There has to be something unique and distinct about what you do – it can’t be something you do all the time, like drinking a beverage. It has to have strong emotional intensity. You might drink a cup of a special tea blend reserved only for this moment, from a special mug you got on that trip to The Hit Factory, and you do that every time before you engage in creative work. Eventually it becomes a powerful symbol that will lock your brain into that creative zone – and it’ll happen quicker and quicker over time if you consistently ‘work that magic’.

What are some examples of rituals?

Rituals don’t have to be elaborate or particularly esoteric – they just have to have an emotional tie, they have to be particular and unique to that moment, and they have to be consistently repeated. One of the most common is the pre-show ritual many bands have – they huddle, clasp hands, say a chant together – it prepares them to hit the stage ‘psyched up’.

According to The Telegraph, English rugby players Jason Robinson and Mark Cueto have some interesting habits: Robinson “Has a strict routine for his strapping, choosing certain times before a match for each bit.. [and].. likes to head out of the tunnel first”, while Cueto “Eats the same meal of beans on toast, puts his left boot on first and ensures he is last off the coach and last out the changing room.”

For more examples of interesting/unusual creative rituals employed by some well-known creatives, check out this fascinating blog: http://dailyroutines.typepad.com/daily_routines/

Do you have any cool rituals that you employ to get into the Zone?

Photo by entrelec

Voodoo Your Creative Flow: Using Rituals To Maximize Your Creativity by Adrian Ellis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Technorati Tags: Adrian Ellis, creative rituals, creativity, Mark McGuinness, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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by Duke

We thought it timely to compile a Top Ten list of Loudness-War-related stories and videos.

And here it is:

1. Dinosuar Jr’s Album Recalled For Being Too Loud by Ryan Dombal

2. How Spotify Might Defuse the Loudness War from Production Advice

3. Welcome to the Land of Loud? by James Pew

4. Declaring an End to the Loudness Wars by Barry Diament

5. Why Mastering Sucks in the 21st Century by Ian Shepherd

6. Remastered Dire Straights from wado1942

7. The Loudness War Analyzed by Paul Lamere

8. If Smells Like Teen Spirit Were Released Today…

…and the sequel by goodrob13…

Comments? Suggestions? In the time-honored words of Dolph Lundgren, “I’m all ears.”

Technorati Tags: daley, diament, lamere, Loudness Wars, pew, shepherd

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By James Pew

Last week at Euphonic Sound we filmed a quick video on some important do’s and dont’s when it comes to the hand held microphone techniques of live performers. Big thanks to Mindbender Supreme for the awesome demonstrations!

Technorati Tags: euphonic sound, James Pew, microphone, Mindbender

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By James Pew

I didn’t contribute much to Studio Manifesto last summer because I was tied up Producing the new Andrea Gauster record “We’re Not Lost.” Some day I’ll write a post about it, but for now all I can say is what an awesome record, artist and summer. Andrea Gauster is a one of a kind folk singer/songwriter. Check out the short documentary below (produced by companero Sean Sirianni) on the making of “We’re Not Lost.” Or go to andreagauster.com to hear We’re Not Lost.

This was also the summer of the Euphonic Sound Presents charity initiative United in Flow. We auditioned over 60 local MCs, narrowed it down to the top 29, and are now producing a mixtape, and throwing a UIF live event this coming Oct. 21st. I am the producer of this collaborative mixtape that brings together diverse areas of the hip hop world. United in Flow, being a celebration of the hip hop arts – features not just MCs, but dancers, beatboxers, slam poets, musicians, beat makers and producers. Just last week I cut a track with the legendary Mindbender Supreme, look out for the first single release from United in Flow Vol. 1, by Mindbender Supreme called “When you get connected.” United in Flow beats produced by the infamous Duke Buzzy.

Below are a few videos (produced by companero Emma McKee) related to United in Flow,
Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Andrea Gauster, euphonic sound, Folk, James Pew, United in Flow

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