Jonathan Wallace

“Yes, you read that right: things have gotten so weird in the music business that high-profile acts are inserting ads into their song lyrics. The next time you hear a brand mentioned in a song, it could be due to a paid product placement. And unlike magazines, songs are not required to point out which words are part of an advertisement.
In the e-mail, Kluger (who has represented Mariah Carey, New Kids on the Blog, Ne-Yo, Fall Out Boy, Method Man, Lady GaGa and Ludacris) explained via e-mail that for the right price, Double Happiness Jeans could find its way into the lyrics in an upcoming Pussycat Dolls song.Source“

This is what’s wrong with the music industry.

The perfect product placement is not paid for. Originally, rappers talked up brands they used but had imbued with their own meaning. Marketing tactics like these are going to alienate listeners by constructing artificial niches. Targeted demographics aren’t predictable, especially in music. No single person, marketing firm, or government will be able to accurately predict market behavior, or the collective values and choices of it’s participates.

With their current strategy, the Kluger Agency’s days are numbered. Brand strategies like these dilute the music at the expense of it’s creators; which these days seem to be a council of marketers rather than an artist.

I’m supposed to write something every week. Those goals have been shoved aside for some reason. I have no good excuse or rationalization for utter lack of focus.

I notice myself writing everywhere but here. I’ve written lengthy emails, scribbled notes, and even finished articles. All these blurbs of information never make it here. Some techniques to keep writing that work for me are less motivational and more technological. These are some techniques that work for me.

Write Daily

Writing daily is like working out every day; it’s hard to get started but once you do the process flows easily. Keep a journal, get the famous Moleskin notebook. If you feel pressure to fill the pages with someone as fancy as the leather binding, keep a folded piece of paper in your pocket instead.

Publish Yourself

Make a blog or website and publish your writing there. Publishing yourself where everyone can see you (but won’t necessarily) gives the illusion of importance. Making a personal blog is then not an ego trip but a motivation to write.

Read a lot and critically.

A better reader makes a better writer. They say art is imitation; I’m not so sure about that but imitation certainly makes good practice. Copying the voice of your favorite writer is a good way to mold and shape your own style.

Reading expands your vocabulary. Keep a dictionary handy; never skip a word you don’t know. If you haven’t found something wrong with what you are reading, you probably aren’t thinking critically enough.

I’ve been working on this project (one of the goals). It requires a significant investment of time and thus a considerable amount of risk. That is to say, I ‘ll either fail this or don’t eat. Basic needs are not my motivation. My motivation is the fear that I am wasting my own time.

We are walking sacks of meat with timers counting backwards till’ death, hovering above our heads. I could waste away in style; buy the nice car, nice house, make the nice family, and wake up everyday to make the payments necessary to afford those luxuries. But I’m not content with complacency. If I’m anxious about the outcome, I’m headed in the right direction.

Predicting our own failure is an unfortunate flaw in the human wiring. If I don’t do it, if I don’t try to realize my own goals, then how do I know if I’m wasting my time? How can you lose when you haven’t even started playing the game? That mental barrier that de-motivates you before action is a product of our flawed, internal risk assessment mechanism.

Take chance. Ask that girl out. Send that letter. Call that relative. Invest that time or money. So she turns you down, you get a return to sender, that relative hangs up, and the startup fails—you’ve lost nothing but time that would have been wasted wondering “what if I…”

If you aren’t a little bit scared, you’re doing something wrong.