Resolving Art Versus Business
One of the difficulties of working in any artistic discipline is finding a balance between the art and business portions of your efforts
. It isn't so much the right brain versus left brain problem that we read so much about-both art and business efforts should combine both of these. After all, you want logic in your art and some creativity in your business to get the most out of ALL of your talents.Typically, when making art, you want your creative side to have uncensored rein over your efforts and then be able to apply some intelligent editing and formatting to give it polish and coherency. In business, although it can be a step by step process, you want to be able to unleash your considerable creative talents to finding new approaches to business problems or obstacles. That is where your strength lies. You should be using all your resources for any problem you encounter in life.
The Balancing Act
The balancing act I am referring now to is much more basic. Simply put: both art and music require a great deal of energy and time. The balance is how and where you spend it.
Consider the simple idea of dealing with your marketing plan. We've done a couple of blogs to get you started with that effort. I suggested marketing strategies for songwriters and Kavit wrote an excellent piece on business plans .
Done correctly, these don't take an enormous amount of time. But they do take some thoughtful effort and should be reviewed regularly (daily review of your goals helps you stay on track), and don't replace your record keeping and bookkeeping. These aren't the same, by the way. Record keeping involves maintaining a current list of your songs, contracts with music libraries and publishers, submissions wherever, registrations with your PRO, following up on cue sheet submissions, and anything else relevant.
Bookkeeping is the accounting-where your money goes and comes from. Without maintaining your accounts you will dislike tax time even more than if you keep them.
On the other side, if you aren't spending an enormous amount of time working on new music, studying your craft, and trying new things, how can you hope to do anything worth marketing?
Divide and Conquer?
One approach I've heard from successful folks is that they divide their time (however much it is) into studio (aka art) time and office time. They never mix the two. They mentally put on a suit and go to the office, and shut off the phone and all outside communication when they go in the studio.
That doesn't work for me. I find myself working on a tune, and an opportunity pops up and I stop what I'm doing to evaluate it. My natural way of working is to be what computer folks call, interrupt driven. To that end, I have a music computer and music computer in the same workspace-both on. I often listen to tracks I am working on while doing the record keeping, or work on the bridge for a tune while waiting for a response to come back from an email to a music super or library.
Part of this approach has been a reaction to the way my life has developed. But I am used to it. My way might drive you nuts. The point is finding a strategy that works for you.
Einstein said that one definition of insanity was repeating your actions and expecting a different outcome. In short, the sane thing is to try different approaches and see what works. If something doesn't work the first time, evaluate what you did to see if you gave it a fair shake. Remember that some parts of this songwriting business are not fun, but need doing.
Like writing music, experimentation should be the heart of your approach to this crazy career. Be flexible.
Prioritize Your Efforts
One technique that is taught in many business courses on efficient time management says that you should:
1. Make a list of all the things that need doing (not what you want to do, although some of the things better be things you want to do, or you are in the wrong business). These should be tasks, not goals-things that you need to do in the short term.
2. Prioritize your list. Not all of it, but go through it and pick the three most important.
3. Do the first one. The idea is that because the top job is the most important one, if you spend all day on it, that's okay, because it is important. If you do nothing else, you have still done the most important thing (to you).
4. Do the next one.
Based on the results of your daily effort, you should make a new list every day. Ideally, do it at the end of your day so that the list waits for you the next morning.
I've used this approach and have been amazed at how much I can get done, and how it minimizes the time I waste. Let me know how you handle your balancing act.
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