How to never become a one-hit wonder

With every album I’ve owned, it takes me several listens to really get every song. Even then, I will repeat the first 4 songs 20 times before going to the next four. If people can barely pay attention to one song, good luck trying to get people to listen to 12-14.

What is crazy about the record industry is that singles are way better selling than albums. They are also cheaper to make. In spite of all this, artists continue to release albums.

If you ask me, singles are where it’s at, bro. The reason selling things to other people is so damn hard is because attention is scarce and feedback is either slow or imperceptible.

If people don’t get your single, you have nothing to offer your listeners. It’s like owning craigslist and no one ever posting anything on it. You have something of value, but its true value comes from its enjoyment and use.

On a blog that teaches me how to write better, I found something interesting that really hits this point home.

The article in the  link above teaches that the goal of your headline (intro) is: to get your first sentence (verse) read (heard).

The goal of your first sentence is: to get your second sentence (chorus) read/heard.

The goal of your first song (you get my point now) is to get your second song heard.

Only put out good stuff. Use the rest for your own personal development, so you can release better stuff. Just because you can release 14 songs at once, doesn’t mean you should.

Chris Brown and trying to come back

This is Chris Brown’s new song, “I can Transform Ya“, linked straight to Brown’s site. I was not approached or bribed into writing this. I am just discussing my thoughts on his song and how it may impact his career at this stage.

Nobody is proud of what he did with Rihanna.

What Chris knew, however, and Lilly Allen did not, is that you have to admit when you make a wrong move as soon as possible. When I add that Chris did less to alienate his fan base, and has less ground to make up in order to regain his standing on the charts, I say he has a great chance.

I doubt it will be so easy for his personal life though unless he is getting some help.

Chris has a lot of fans who are reluctant to give him up, and he needed a strong hit to comeback with.

Enter “I can Transform Ya”.

I got online today in a cafe and loaded up Youtube to get a listen to this new song, knowing that this one NEEDS to be strong.

Electric Guitar 5th chords in the mix…nice. Lil’ Wayne, not my first choice, as his voice is not as strong as Chris’s, but he did better with this intro than with many of his other tunes.

The verse had catchiness, which is what his fans love him for. He overdelivered in that aspect. As most catchy songs go, when I heard it I visualized the performer (Chris) moving around on stage like crazy, which I know he can do.

The only downside I have with the song is that last part of the chorus

Shoes you got it (got it)
Bags you got it (got it),
cars you got it (got it),
money still got it (got it),
I can transform ya, I can transform ya,
Anything you want I can (i can) get it for ya,

It seemed weak. This is all opinion here, but a stronger, “Yeah” by Usher influenced vocal strength would have pushed this song above and beyond.

In this end, “I can transform Ya” will please Chris Brown fans immensely, and will help recover his position, though not completely. It could have been stronger, but it was strong enough.

What are your opinions? If you were in Chris’s place, what would your strategy be for regaining what was lost?

Lilly Allen, will she choose career death, or an escape rope to career safety?

Lifehack.org reports with these sources that 100% of CEOs (not surprisingly), frequently think about their company’s reputations. (Weber Shandwick, February 2009)

A high 80% of executives are worried about the risks of being involved with social networking. (Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law, July 2009)

When you are the face of your band, or your business, YOU are the CEO. As such, you may be worried about what happens if you make a mistake with social networking. These worries are now even more relevant with what happened with Lilly Allen.

In a previous article, I mentioned Lilly Allen’s blog against piracy, which is now shut down due to negative press generated against it’s creator, the British singer/songwriter. I read its posts several times before it shut down. Many of these posts were by her and other British artists supporting a law that would suspend the internet connections of those who pirate music. There were many comments (90% of them NOT sharing her viewpoints) that were well-supported arguments in favor of piracy.

The thing that drew and quartered her crusade was the issue of her using mix-tapes of pirated music herself before she became a big artist. People do not like hypocrisy, and it hurt her career. She then proceeded to shut down the blog and stop making music, which is a stance she (I hope) is already extricating herself from.

What hurt Ms. Allen the most was not a political stance that 90-95% of her audience disagreed with. It was hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy can be found in education, business, church, and psychology. Wherever one mindset clashes against another within the same person or group of people, that is hypocrisy.

The implications for Lilly are severe, because hypocrisy, her act of crusading against piracy while justifying her own reasons for doing so (the same reasons most people do it), creates distrust.

I think it is not the end for her, if she does follows the one principle that I believe can help salvage her career. And no, i’m not talking about making music worth stealing, that’s a matter of opinion. The principle is…

Humility.

Rather than continuing to justify her actions while she was crusading against others doing the same, she needs to admit her mistakes. Given, this won’t work like a draft of water from the holy grail on her career, but it just may slow the hemorrhaging of trust all over the digital countryside. When the bleeding stops, she will need to stay this course and rebuild trust.

Rebuilding a career broken by mistrust is as difficult as a couple staying together after one of them has an affair. It isn’t easy, but it is an opportunity to rebuild and become stronger, if you choose to make it so. Either way, she will have to earn that trust back, which is an uphill road.

There are two principles that will help CEO’s of all kinds stay alive after an online mistake:

1. Write with the intention of building trust.

2. If you make a mistake, admit it as soon as you can, then follow principle number 1.

The sooner these things are done, the sooner anyone can regain their footing, and this is very relevant for Lilly Allen at this stage of her career.

We shall see if this popular UK artist is a giant who falls to her death, or a woman about to get back up (first her knees, then her feet) and make the greatest decision of her career.

I am learning about the music industry

It is why I started this blog in the first place. I am no expert. In fact, it amazes me how little I know, despite the books I read, the blogs I visit and musicians I talk to.

It is for this reason I want readers to ask questions. It will let me know what to search for, and what questions I would forget to ask in the first place.

I am focusing on making this blog a place where artists, fans, and businesspeople can learn about the music industry, and develop themselves into the type of people they need to be in this wild world.

When I focus on building readership, it is to promote more questions and answers.

The biggest question I would like to help answer, and use this info to guide artists to commercial success, is the question of priorities.

When promoting your work  in the past, this business used to have an understandable model, one that said “if you do X, Y, and Z, there is a guaranteed 5% chance of success”. I think it was a lousy model, but one most people could wrap their head without much trouble.

Now it seems the industry says “If you do A,B,C,D….through Z everyday you will be famous for a little while, even if you have almost no time to get really good at music. Even then, where does the money come from?”

What do you focus on? There could literally be thousands of answers to this question, with hundreds of those answers being right!

My point is, there is so little that I know and I am a beginner when it comes to actively working in this area. While I won’t be a beginner forever, it is what I am now.