Are you obsessed with music?
And, if you are, do you own the musical equivalent of a Harvard degree? If I mention some obscure band from the seventies, do you know it? You’d be surprised how many successful young musicians do. They know the history of the game. You’ve got to know where you came from in order to make it today.
A huge desire to be rich and famous might get you a partnership with Dr. Luke and a Top Forty hit, but that success means less than it has in thirty years, and that paradigm is going in the wrong direction, it’s going to continue to mean less.
People are drawn to musicians. Who write and play their own material. Who are original. And the only way to gain traction with the audience is to make it about the money last. You can make it about the money first, but then you’re MySpace, everybody’s talking about you today, but you’re a broke, laughable, has-been tomorrow.
Bob Lefsetz
