I recently stumbled upon a short article by Robin Davey who writes for Hypebot and Music Think Tank among many other things called 10 Simple Truths for a Delusional Music Industry.
As I read through it, I went through a range of different reactions.
There is a certain amount of ‘snarky’ humour to it and I found it somewhat amusing at first. However, by the time I got to the end of this short top ten list I had a different feeling – that the overall message is a very negative one for musicians.
It basically leaves you with the impression that making a living as a musician is hopeless, and as someone who has wrestled with overcoming my own limited perceptions on money perhaps I’m overly sensitive to it.
This is my first exposure to Robin Davey, and while at first I thought that perhaps his article was a bit of link bait… I ended up on his Tumblr page and saw the different projects he’s involved in – so I think he isn’t another cynic telling everyone to give up.
At the same time, I caution anyone who seriously wants to earn a decent income as a musician to not fill their mind with the doom and gloom of the music industry. Realism is a good place to start, but don’t bury yourself in negativity or you may seriously hamper your efforts.
One of the ideas that Stephen R. Covey teaches is Think – Do – Get. What it means is what you think affects what you do which affects what you end up getting. This means that the very first thing that anyone should do if they want to get what they want is to change how they think.
Simply put – if you “think” that you can’t make money as a musician, you’ll take actions that perpetuate that thinking and as a result you’ll get the result of not making enough money; this is the classic self-fulfilling prophecy!
I’d love to hear what you think of Davey’s article. Check it out below and leave me a comment.
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/07/simple-truths-for-a-delusional-industry.html