If you’re not familiar with my site, my name is Richard and I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Business. I’ve been studying and learning about the biz for a long time. But I don’t make my living in the music industry – nope, I’m a web developer. I’ve done several things in my life: audio (not auto) sales, cd/lp/cassette retail, teacher, educational tech specialist, server admin, trainer, web developer/designer. I also have a BS in Elementary Education but that’s another story.
Anyway, when Napster killed the traditional music business, I was one of those old farts screaming that the world was going to end, hoping I was wrong. And I was wrong. Boy, was I wrong.
Did I think so little of music and songwriters that I thought the removal of money from the equation would kill music? No, I knew music would be around still. But without a big studio budget, a band like Rush could never record 2112. Insert your own fave album analogy here. The point being, studio time is crazy expensive and you also have to have the free time to put into your art.
But studio time is essentially free now. For about 3 grand you can own a pretty good home recording setup. Of course, you also need to know what to do with it, and there’s a learning curve there. But everything you need to know is available in multiple learning formats online. A big name studio could charge $200 an hour, but for the cost of 3 days of that you could own your own unlimited tracks digital studio.
Not just that. Instruments are cheaper than ever. News flash – in your recordings, that Squire Bullet Strat will sound pretty damn close to that Custom Shop Strat, assuming you have a good amp. And you should, because for $699 you can get a tube amp combo good enough for recording and gigging for the next 30 years. Want to learn how to play/mix/market/do anything? YouTube. Want to put out music for the world to listen to and buy? You don’t need a record company – you can do it yourself.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Technology has taken away all of the excuses for making music and putting it out there. But one thing technology hasn’t really replaced is free time. In order to devote the countless hours to your art that it requires, you need to have available free time. And you also need to pay your bills. What to do? You need a job. And then you have nights and weekends and vacations to do your art.
And there is the one big truth the old farts are, um, expounding: if you have 40 hours to write a song, you’ll get a better song than if you have an hour a night after you’re tired from working. Lack of record companies isn’t the biggest issue – time management is. So whatcha gonna do?
Well, you need to be disciplined in your efforts. Unlike me. If you look me up in iTunes, my last album came out in 2009. That’s 8 years ago. What the hell have I been doing since then? Mostly pissing away my free time watching Netflix or collecting guitars or working on guitars or typing on this website. But I’ve got two albums that I’m working on right now, and each one is about 60% done. Another time management problem: I need to finish one first. But I answer to no one in terms of my music. I have no manager (any more.) I can do whatever I want. And THAT is the biggest challenge. I’m in the process of putting together a really good time management plan so I can get off my ass and finish my albums.
(UPDATE) I did finish one of those two albums! It’s called “The One Thing” and you can find it digitally everywhere, but especially Spotify and Apple Music.
Time management is something I’ve studied extensively, and I’ve used it to great effect at work. I’m a time management guru at work. But at home, and with my music, I don’t practice any kind of time management. So now I’m working on a plan for that. When I’m done, I’ll share it. Maybe it’ll be a series of blog posts. Maybe it’ll be a book. I dunno yet. I’m still working on this.
So us old farts sit around and scratch our heads and wonder how music can get made, with the tools right under our noses. And we worry that we’re too old to get a record contract an even if we had one, record companies are dying. In the meantime, the youngsters coming up don’t know anything about that stuff – they can just make music.
People think social media marketing is the number one thing that needs to be mastered, but nope. It’s time management in general. There’s too much to do. Here is a good shortcut – don’t go it alone. Subcontract and delegate. Get other people on board with what you want to do. Or don’t. If it’s just for fun, it’s just for fun, but you still ought to do a good job so you can end up with something you’re proud to have made. Don’t forget about bartering – you can trade services.
There are no rules, but there are strategies. If you want to become really, really good at time management, read Getting Things Done by David Allen. It’s the best book on time management ever written. Having limited time is the biggest challenge out there right now.
