Thoughts on the John Mayer Q and A at Berklee

If you’re a songwriter and you haven’t read this yet, check it out:

http://www.berklee-blogs.com/2011/07/john-mayer-2011-clinic-manage-the-temptation-to-publish-yourself/

It seems as though Mr. Mayer has gotten a hold of himself and regained some serious perspective on life, music, and success. I’ve always had respect for the man’s music and guitar playing, but he hit a serious low last year with his quest for the Joshua Tree of… Just look up his Rolling Stone interview if you have no idea what I’m talking about. Actually, one more thing about his music: using the word “respect” to describe how I feel about his music would be an understatement. I would say he’s one of my top 10 favorite artists of all time, actually. I wish that artists more often lived how their music sounded. Is it too much to expect the writers of extraordinary music to live extraordinarily virtuous lives?

Maybe not.

But this time around, I think Mayer has reformed some of his previous errors.

The biggest take-aways from this short interview/article are Mayer’s comments on social media. Mayer admits that this crap is addicting, distracting, and creatively worthless.

I’ve heard one artist, when asked “How did you get to where you are today?” say, “I just turned off the T.V.” What he was getting at is that media is a distraction and, ultimately, it is a progress killer.

Does anybody find it ironic that I’m blogging about this topic?

A Song is Not a Cookie

I distinctly remember reading a book for a marketing class in college that referenced the start-up of some, well-known cookie manufacturer of today. That cookie company was started by one dude giving away cookies on public transit buses in whichever city he lived at that time. I could have sworn he did it in the city of Chicago. I’ve searched, but alas, cannot identify the company. Maybe it was all a dream… I’ll try to remember to dig out a couple of books and search for the company the old-fashioned way – by browsing my book collection.

But here’s the deal: a song is not a cookie.

When a dude wants to start a cookie company, he just might become successful by giving away his cookies for a month straight, and, assuming his cookies are fantastic, he might gather a long line of customers who seek to eat another one of those fantastic cookies – and pay for it – after that time.

With artists, songwriters, record labels, and anybody else who relies on *recordings* for their income, you can’t, ultimately, just give them away for free. Why? Because once someone “tastes” (IE: downloads) your sound recording, the person never has to come back to you to get that same flavor – he already has it in his iTunes library. You’ve just given away your number one commodity, and users can re-create that listening experience without you now.

I haven’t decided exactly what this epiphany means for me, my music, and the music Swiftly Running Records represents, but you bet I’m thinking about it – alot.

If you think you’ve got a few good ideas to explain what I’m talking about, or if you’ve got other ideas about how to make sound recordings work for artists, please let me know. Or maybe I’m way off base…