Making Your Career Last Longer
And: Is Tik Tok Paying Fairly For The Music It Uses?; Biopic Movies; Industry News
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I came across a brilliant and interesting article compiled by the folks at The Art Of Longevity Podcast (which you should follow). It is themed about the “7 secrets of longevity”, as they called them: tips for maintaining and managing a long artistic career. I’ll put a few excerpts in this newsletter, but make sure to read the full article.
Make art not entertainment
The American playwright Thornton Wilder once said “If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good”. Many artists have come a cropper by either trying to write a hit or trying to repeat the trick of writing a song like the one that previously was a hit. This is made harder by the pressure they are often under to do so, applied by record label execs with an obvious bias to hits, since that’s their job. But resist the temptation and the hits will come anyhow, at least sometimes.
Way back in 1979 Gary Numan composed his debut single ‘Cars’ on the bass guitar in a few short minutes. It went to number 1. Numan followed Cars with a successful run of three number-one albums but by the late eighties, he had mislaid his artistic vision as he struggled to write the kind of songs he thought people wanted to hear. In the early 90s, though, encouraged by his wife Gemma, and inspired by Depeche Mode’s ‘Songs of Faith And Devotion’, Numan decided to write the kind of album that he wanted to hear. The result was ‘Sacrifice’, which was an unarguable return to form, a trend he sustained on the subsequent albums ‘Exile’ and ‘Pure’. Gary got his mojo back by working to fellow musician Steve Wilson’s mantra: make art not entertainment.
Make music about themes you associate deeply with
In the continuous waterfall of new music releases, it’s almost impossible to stand out. The best records contain strong themes that the creator can channel in a way that is individual and authentic. Laura Veirs is a native of Colorado and resident of Portland Oregon. Originally a Geology major, Laura is better known as a gifted folk-pop singer-songwriter. It is no surprise that her music is steeped in nature. Her rise to fame came with 2004’s Carbon Glacier, the first of four records themed on the elements. Carbon Glacier was earth, Year of Meteors was sky, Saltbreakers was sea and July Flame was...guess what? Fire. By the time she got around to July Flame, Laura had made her first masterpiece. As the best authors say, write about what you know.
Invent a sub-genre
At the height of the ‘second latin music explosion’ in the late 90s came Calexico. In 1998 the band’s second album The Black Light, a concept album of sorts inspired by the desert of Arizona and northern Mexico, received excellent reviews and put the band firmly on the map. With their eclectic mix of Tex Mex, mariachi and indie-americana, Calexico brought something different and new. The music journalist Fred Mills captured their sound perfectly with two words - ‘desert noir’. All three musicians continue to make new music, thriving and still restlessly creating across many styles and genres. They earned the right to do so, however, because they created a genre.
Make your songs a bit weird
There are few such masterful chartbusters as Nile Rodgers (his beat-up 1959 Fender Strat. is even nicknamed ‘The Hitmaker’) yet when Nile took control of David Bowie’s early folk rendition of ‘Let’s Dance’ and turned it into Bowie’s biggest commercial success, the creative result was fantastic, yet also (in Rodgers’ own words) weird. Everyone involved knew Let’s Dance was special, but it sounded like no other song ever to reach the charts. Despite the ‘song-by-numbers’ culture in the streaming era, it’s worth remembering that audiences are real people, and that real people like stuff that’s weird.
Keep in mind that your best work is ahead of you
After her second album Fires, Nerina Pallot was suddenly hot property on the music scene circa 2007. Never quite comfortable with that, her third album The Graduate (2009) was an uneven affair that failed to keep the spotlight shining Nerina’s way. Maybe that turned out for the better. Nerina regrouped to make a more consistent and accomplished record ‘Year Of The Wolf’ in 2011. The album received positive reviews from fans and critics alike, many complimenting the more mature sound and direction. It became a foundation for what she does – make finely-crafted records of grown-up pop music.
Earn the right to say ‘no’ and recognise what this means for your career
After Fink made ‘Perfect Darkness’ (album number four) the band had earned the right to say “no”. No to playing small shitty venues. No to rushing out a follow-up record. No to some (of the many) sync offers that came rushing in. It was at that point, after seven years of saying yes to everything, that the band began to realise they had created something of real value and were in it for the long game. They hadn’t hit ‘the big time’ (that might come later) but they earned the right to make their choices, including ‘no’. Be ready to turn down what doesn’t feel right for you, even if those around you think it is.
Many more brilliant tips in the full article.
Is Tik Tok Paying Fairly For The Music It Uses?
If you keep up with music industry news, you might already know that Tik Tok pays a ‘blind check’ to labels every two years or so, as a sort of blanket license for the music it uses. Now, apart from the fact that no one really knows how much of that money actually reaches artists, another important point is emerging in the conversation: Is Tik Tok paying enough for the music it uses?
MBW delves deep into the conversation, in a brilliant and thought-provoking podcast.
They also estimated how much money Tik Tok paid to the music industry in 2021
The Elvis Presley Shake-Up: How Music Biopic Movies Are Revolutionizing Music Catalog
Chartmetric delivers a coherent analysis of how a big biopic movie can revitalize an artist's catalogue. Read it here.
Industry News
📀 Believe CEO thinks majors want premium slice of streaming payouts
“The suggestion that “major record companies [are] trying to pressure music streaming services to pay DIY artists lower royalty rates than those received by established superstars” is pretty significant”.
🎸 British music venues encouraged to plan daytime activities
“The Independent Venue Community (IVC) is all about programming music-based activities during the day in small venues, with a particular focus on six areas. They are: early years, young people; deaf, disabled and neurodivergent; mental health and wellbeing; LGBTQIA+; and older years.”
📻 Brands be warned: TikTok’s UGC music licences don’t include you
“When social media companies sign music licensing deals covering user-generated content, those users do NOT include brands. If a brand wants to use commercial music in one of its social media campaigns, it needs to license it properly as a sync.”