Art thrives on risk. Taking an abstract idea, filtering it through a unique vision and creating something new, is in itself a risky activity. Truly great art exposes ideas in a new way, forcing those witnessing from their comfortable universe to view through the intended lens of the artist.
Commerce thrives on stability. Making calculated decisions, measuring analytics, and responding accordingly is necessary for growing and maintaining wealth. Commerce requires measurable results that can be repeated with predictable outcomes. Risk is an inherent enemy of this type of operation.
The worlds of art and commerce may have never collided so catastrophically as they have in today’s independent music industry. Not only are artists expected to produce captivating content, but they are also charged with simultaneously fronting a business enterprise. DIY musicians must be constantly cognizant of the commercial aspects of their art, and balancing these conflicting ideologies has proven difficult to orchestrate. Creation and logistics require different types of thinking, even different sides of the brain, to work out the intricacies of the particular problems associated with each.
The trend I have noticed amongst independent music artists in the last few years is that they seem to be spending lots of time focusing on the business side of their craft, while neglecting the art that is the basis of the enterprise itself. Let me be clear: artists make art. Anything else is a distraction from the primary objective. Now in no way am I advocating the days of the label model, where artists gave up the control of their business (music) to a record label, who, under the guise of the artist’s best interest, made the business decisions, took the profits, and after recouping, hopefully paid the artists some small percentage of the proceeds. I think it’s great that artists now have the opportunity to steer their own ship as far as their business is concerned. My issue is that I see literally hundreds of mediocre artists spending their days hustling the back alleys of social media trying to boost their follower numbers in hopes that they’ll find some type of success, while altogether ignoring that it’s their art, not their notoriety, that is holding them back. People have things backwards. What’s the point of having 20,000 Twitter followers when the content you’re creating isn’t enthralling enough to keep them interested? Content is king, and always will be. If you aren’t creating content so good that it cannot be ignored then you need to reevaluate your focus.
Artists please stop spending all day grinding out new ways to play your music for people. Spend all day in the studio. Realize that truly great content will ALWAYS sell itself. Perfect your art, the rest will happen organically.
therealkfish 