Image and Brand

In order to be anybody, one must have an image and a brand, and everybody wants to be somebody.

This is especially important in those creative fields in which I dwell (in addition to music, I'm also an author of mysteries). I know this because it is reiterated in every article I read on how to be a success in the music biz, and we all want to be successful.

The only problem is I'm old, certainly by music standards, and I don't have a brash PR machine to get the word out. I've whined about the age thing so there's no use in going over that (jerks), but, as we all do, I still feel the need to play along.

We'll start with image, which obviously is how you project yourself to the world at large. Here are a few choices:

The first one obscures the fact that I'm no up and coming young dude. The second accepts that I'm a tad over the hill, but the fake hair makes me appear eternally youthful. Before you laugh at that, note that MANY rock gods from the 60's, 70's, and 80's all seem to have long luxurious hair even though we all know they don't, so no dismissing the wig. The third one, my favorite, is me when I was, in fact, young and good-looking. The only problem is that, like a dating app rendezvous, those who encounter me in real life will be disappointed.

Next.

The brand thing, for me, is fairly simple, here's my music, which I describe as beautiful sad songs that embrace pop, rock, and jazz traditions. Catchy, right?

Since everything depends on it, I've got to nail it.... Yeah, I thought the same thing.

Why is this important? Well, I have a new album coming out on July 26th, Winter:

Obviously, I'd like the world to hear it and love it and praise me and all the rest of that kind of thing and, as the articles advise, I've got to get it all together, man!

Wish me luck.

©2019 David William Pearce

It's Not Personal, It's Business...

The business of music reared its ugly head recently, when Taylor Swift decried the sale of her back catalog, over which she has no control.

Much has been made of her anger at Scooter Braun, who bought Swift's former label, and with whom she's feuded... and how the young and innocent are taken advantage of in their zeal to be famous and successful.

Note how I put that: famous and... (then) successful.

Famous means people know who you are; successful means you actually make a living at it long enough that it becomes a career. It is in this distinction that many fall by the wayside.

Any number of up and coming acts, both those promoted by the industry (labels) and those on their own (social media) become famous. Whether they achieve success is rarely brought up and only after the fact of becoming well-known and generally in the context of "Whatever happened to?" The music business, certainly for performers, is the graveyard of dreams. Far more are famous than successful. I know that sounds harsh, and to some, defeatist, to which I say: good for you.

I'm comfortably in the "I'm doing it my way" group, and am not terribly concerned whether I become famous or not. That also means I've accepted that I will not be successful based on my own criteria. Again, I'm okay with that.

Because...

If there is one thing that can be counted on it's that those who seek to be famous, and hopefully successful, must start early. Beyond your mid-twenties, you're toast. Yes, there are those very rare performers like Susan Boyle, but she was something of an anomaly and while we're on the subject, name the many middle-aged successes in the biz since?

Take your time...

This is the only business; okay, maybe acting, with so strong an age bias because we've universally accepted that all of our musical canon is developed when young and after a certain age we do not form new musical patterns of listening. This is both right and wrong. It's right because in our youth we have the time to seek out and listen, and wrong because as the business of music is predicated on creating new acts for the young and recycling the "classics" for older generations, new music made by anyone older than 25 isn't played. In fact, even many very well-known musicians continually produce new music that never makes the new music rounds and is almost never played in concert.

Example A: Paul McCartney rarely plays ANYTHING he's recorded after the mid-80's, and yet he's continued to write and record. Can you name a single song from his last album? (Hint, the album was Kisses on the Bottom.) And that's not a knock on Paul; it's the way it is.

As for Taylor Swift and her anger at who now controls her back catalog; that too is a common music biz complaint. It is the source of success! Whether she was taken advantage of; she was 15 when she signed her first contract, is something I'll let you, dear reader, determine for yourselves, but the biz was like that long before Taylor, and will continue to be long after her.

On the plus side, Ms. Swift is both famous and successful.

©2019 David William Pearce