Issue 19 Volume 1
May
2009
May
2009
Page 2
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Issue 19 Volume 1
May
2009
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BUSINESS VERSUS MUSIC As management thinker James Womack observes, there is very little that is new in business. Moreover, very few business people, even the most successful, have more than one idea. The challenge is rather to find something that works, then set up a system to keep doing it without gradually adding waste – applying “lean thinking” as he calls it. Music, on the other hand, is not so simple. Some parts of music are highly repetitious. Playing classical music, especially of the traditional repertoire, belongs very much in that camp. Playing commercial music (especially covers) in live venues is typically about finding a form of repetition that provides the punters with what they expect. Other types of music are much more about finding something new to say. Most forms of popular music, jazz and contemporary classical music highly prize originality. To the extent that they are pursuits of new forms of artistic expression, they are inevitably in opposition to business. Business is about repeating the same thing; art is generally about never repeating the same thing. What do these differences mean? Mostly that there is an inevitable tension between the practice of business and the practice of the musical arts that needs to be understood if musicians are to successfully bridge both worlds. It is a failure to understand these differences that is one of the main reasons why musicians are so often vulnerable to unscrupulous business practices. How often are musicians willing to accept the line from managers: “You are the artist so you look after the creativity, and I will look after the business?” Musicians usually find it easy to leave the repetitive, and often dull, requirements of business to someone else. Musicians also often find that having done so they are deprived of what is rightfully theirs. The music business, at least in the recorded form, is undergoing the kind of challenge that only occasionally occurs in any industry. The customary way of doing business– recording music in the studio, tricking the musicians into giving up most or all of the intellectual property rights, engaging in expensive marketing, providing “incentives” to the radio and distribution outlets to make sure the product is pushed heavily at the market, then recouping outlays by getting large profit margins on the compact disc that are high enough to ensure that the many failures are outweighed by the occasional successes – is being fatally undermined by on-line piracy. It is hard for any business to compete with a free alternative. The business challenge is to find a new way of doing something that can be repeated perpetually. Most of the record companies are finding this challenge beyond them, at least for now. If musicians start to take more of an interest in the business end of what they do, they will be doing so on a fairly level playing field. The old ways of doing business are dying and this presents an opportunity for musicians to step up and become more involved in the business side of the industry.
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