Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

Posts

A quick brainstorm on the current music industry vs. Apple.

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Comparing and contrasting these two industries is an interesting exercise. One continues to fail in most all areas, while one continues to grow in most all areas. One focuses mainly on lawsuits and legislature. One focuses on perfectionist design.

Subscription content continues to make meager headway into the mass market. Music publishing (licensing) continues to generate growth. RIAA continues to try using the law to restrict access to copyright. Major labels are still run mostly by lawyers and boards of trustees who have little to no knowledge of music licensing, how it works, and why its successful. Steve Jobs and Apple have ALWAYS put design first and will continue to do so. Apple has just had it’s first $50-billion quarter. Streaming is inconvenient when no wireless connection is available. Apple products go out of their way to make things convenient – not free – but convenient. Apple just passed RIM in their market share. Apple sells copyrighted content and devices that access, and utilize that content seamlessly. The music industry has access to loads of copyrighted content and executes its exploitation poorly. The music industry consecutively sees revenues fall.

What can the music industry learn from a company like Apple? What can Apple learn from companies like WMG and EMI? If you had to rate Pandora as a music provider, what would you give it on a scale of 1 to 10? How would you rate Apple as a music provider? If you had to rate your iPod as a music player and content purchasing device, what would you rate it? How would you rate Pandora as a music retailer? How do you rate a major label as a music retailer? Post your thoughts to the comments!

Building yourself up.

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Over the past five years I’ve done thousands of music searches. Yes, thousands. Whether looking for music for a television promo, commercial, or film trailer there are some very consistent ideas that come across from my clients. One of those is build.

Music that builds is key in advertising of any kind (for a product, film, or show) because the goal is to tell a story, hopefully an interesting one, and do it in limited time.

Granted like any other rule there are exceptions to this one, generally speaking though it holds true. Take a listen to some of your most recent songs and ask yourself – is this going anywhere? Watch a few trailers, commercials, and TV promos and ask yourself “if I put my music under this, would it help drive the story along?”

Perhaps the best question you can ask yourself is: Does my music tell a story on it’s own? Where’s the beginning, middle, where’s the end? Even better try asking your friends to identify it for you and see what they say.

If your songs do build you’ll have a much greater chance of getting licensed than if they’re fairly static or even-keeled, which means you’ll have a better chance at making some money and getting great exposure with your music.

Patterns

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If you’re a musician you’re use to living in patterns. iii-vi-ii-V-I, circle of fifths (or cycle of fourths if you prefer), and so on. Patterns literally surround and encompass everything musically and help give loose structure to the art form. This structure can be manipulated, modulated, changed, transformed and broken altogether for the sake of making a great new sound.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about what advice musicians should take to heart; how to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to all the questions that entail getting a song licensed or expanding their audience.

In the end, it comes down to recognizing patterns in everything you do and improving them. Music practice applies to everything in life – business, health, success and failure in general. So what can you learn from yourself? What lessons might you already know?

Approach every problem or obstacle in your life like practicing your craft. Identify the goal of practicing (is it notes in a particular phrase? a complex rhythm? or do you just want to improve your fluency in a given key signature?), set out the tasks to help you improve at it (slowly go over notes, break down complex rhythms, identify scales/chords/passages in the key), and most importantly get started.

Even if what you decide to work on or how you start to solve a problem doesn’t turn out to be the most efficient, you’ll still learn a ton – both about yourself, and the problem at hand. Set a goal, make a plan, and get started.