I recently read an interview in Music Business Worldwide by Tim Ingham with one of my old classmates, Neil Jacobson, current President of Geffen Records.
Neil has a great story about rising through the ranks from carpet salesman to record company executive.
Click the image or here to read Neil's interview on Music Business Worldwide
Neil is humorous and inspiring for those of us who are working toward fulfilling our big music biz dreams.
In the piece, he said something that is important to think about as songwriter entrepreneurs.
In our Songpreneurs group, we have folks with varying degrees of acceptance of social media as part of their success plan.
Some people think social media is a complete waste of time, and others think frequent social posting is one of the most important things a person can do to break into the industry.
The things is - both perspectives are right. Social media can be a complete waste of time if you're doing it improperly or in an unplanned way.
And it also can be a very important way to increase awareness of new artist or release, build interest, increase demand and inspire action in fans that will benefit the songwriter / artist's career path.
Neil's view of social media is simple: it's a mode of "expressing yourself beyond your music."
In other words, social media posting is an extension of your artistry.
Neil says, "My artists need to be able to create across multimedia platforms."
Thinking about social media in this way helped me to come closer to embracing it, not just as something that one has to do to be in business these days, but as something I'm excited to do.
Isn't it funny how a simple change in perspective can help to stoke up desire to do things better?
Instead of thinking about social media as a chore, or as a self-promotion tool, viewing it as a creative multimedia way to express yourself and tell your story is a welcome relief.
Exercise: Take a few minutes to think about your story and artistry. What are the main qualities and ideas you want to get across to your audience?
Write these down and use them to plan your next month's blog and social posts.
