Friday, July 15, 2011

Party Like A Techie_Music Industry Analysis

FourSquare CEO_Dennis Crowley

One of my new Google+ friends (Chris Clayton) brought this article to my attention. Its written by none other than Bob Lefsetz. In the article he states that techies are the new rock stars and artists/musicians should follow their lead,
"Party like a rock star. We hear that all the time. That so and so is a rock star. You want to know who’s a rock star? The techies. The cofounders of Google have a veritable air force, and they’re not telling everybody about it. Rock stars used to function off the grid. Now the techies do and the musicians are positively mainstream.
The public has voted. The money is in tech. Because it’s the land of excitement, where innovators go to blow our minds. That used to be music’s domain. But music abdicated its position. If music is to count again it must take the above lessons very seriously, or else it will be doomed to be the second-class citizen it has become."



Here's another excerpt:

"3. Focus on the product first, not the money! Google, Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, each and every tech startup began without a business plan. When you start playing music and immediately want to get paid you’re sending the wrong message. Make it about the product first, figure out how to make money second.
4. It’s all about the users. Sure, Facebook is constantly changing its privacy settings, but do you notice the backlash?
5. Marketing comes last, if at all. Google didn’t advertise until long after it became a household name.
6. Position yourself as cutting edge, as new. No tech startup gets a toehold unless it’s doing something new, why do you think you’re going to be a big success in music replicating what everybody else does?
7. Position yourself as a renegade. That’s part of the hoodie ethic in tech. In music everybody dresses up in finery and kisses the butt of anybody who might get them ahead, radio, the press, the guy at the label. These people should be afraid of you, they should not understand you, they should be your friend last.
8. Education/practice. Mark Zuckerberg went to Harvard, as did Bill Gates. Why do you think you can make it in music if you’ve got no talent and haven’t practiced? You don’t get into Harvard on a whim, you’ve got to perform for twelve years in advance, get great SATs, have incredible grades. Bill Gates was coding when he was still wet behind the ears. If you started playing yesterday and expect to be famous tomorrow, we’re laughing."

I think he makes some very relevant points. What do you think?
Read the entire article here.

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