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January 5, 2005

On Music Business Porn

I mentioned earlier that I’m trying to rid my life of “music business porn” — the magazines, newsletters and books that focus on “how to make it” in the music industry. To be fair, there are some really good resources out there. There are many more that are not.

I was talking with a co-worker yesterday about this. He’s an aspiring writer and has interest in doing voiceover work, and he suffers from the same sort of “how-to” overload. It’s easy (and strangely comforting) to spend way too much time reading articles on how to be a successful songwriter, or a bestselling novelist, or a great illustrator, or whatever.

Worse, there’s a whole industry whose existence depends on keeping creative-yet-insecure artists (and I’ve never met one who wasn’t a little insecure) in that limbo state of reading and thinking about things they want to do, instead of actually doing them. They’re counting on you to feel just unsure enough to buy the next tape in the series. You end up mistaking a passive activity for real action. It’s like trying to become a tennis pro by reading books on tennis — forever.

Above all, the things that I’m cutting share a common characteristic: a lack of real, actionable advice. And what little advice they might contain is usually nonspecific to stuff I’m dealing with right now.

So my co-worker and I, we’re gonna write a book: “How To Stop Reading How-to Books.” Followed shortly by a series of seminars entitled “How You Too Can Write A ‘How To Stop Reading How-to Books’ Book (and Earn Millions!)”

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And Paul Roub did speak thusly:

It’s all about the follow-ons…

The “How to Stop Reading How-To Books” daily journal.

“How to Stop Reading How-To Books” interactive CD-ROM

“How to Stop Reading How-To Books: The Next Level”, which will teach us to avoid even learning about how-to books.

“How To Stop Reading How-To Books” book-to-avoid-a-day calendar
And scottandrew did speak thusly:

OMG, that last one was snort-milk-out-my-nose hilarious. :)
And victor did speak thusly:

Well, I’m not going to defend how-to-record/sing/be-a-star books — that would assume I’ve ever read one.

But according to my logs, google + sites like this (and mine) make for a pretty decent way to get information quick about what you are doing *right now*. (See your ‘how to record acoustic guitar entry’)

A million years ago I used to have a separate machine for my DAW and Web browsing — I can’t imagine one without the other nowadays.
And Idiotprogrammer » Archive » Creativity Porn…and how to avoid it did speak thusly:

[...] Andrew on music business porn: I was talking with a co-worker yesterday about this. He’s an aspiring writer and has interest in [...]
And Robert Nagle did speak thusly:

Ok, I found this hilarious. See also
http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/?p=83399541