Category Archives: rants

Thoughts on the John Mayer Q and A at Berklee

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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?

Music Licensing Opportunities

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve been exploring new ways to generate some cash from the music that I write and record. The good news? There are a lot of ways to generate the money, as I have found. The bad news? It seems like every other artist has discovered the same thing that I have. I’ve found a bunch of websites that claim to “specialize” in what is called song placement or music licensing – places called “pitching houses” (basically just a new name for a music publisher). The problem is that I’m having trouble navigating this over-crowded sea of music speculators.

For lack of a better comparison – actually, no, I think it’s a perfect comparison – the digital music licensing world looks *exactly* like the California gold rush days: everybody is vying for the same territory, the “mining” technology (a content delivery system) is readily available to almost all artists, and the value of the commodity (good, quality music) is fluctuating based on its availability.

So what does this mean for my music and the music that Swiftly Running Records represents? It means that now, more than ever before, I have to rely on personal contacts to exploit song placement opportunities. And the best way to continue to establish those relationships is to be where those decision-makers are – to live where the music supervisors live, eat where they eat, attend the events they attend, invite them over for dinner, take them out for coffee. I know a heck of a lot of them live in L.A., a few in Nashville (I think), and maybe some in NYC(?). But I’m not so sure I’m willing to relocate just so that I can pitch my songs. (Maybe I can get somebody else to do it[?].)

I want to play. I want to perform the music I write. I want to be on stage. I’m just looking for a way to make enough money to keep doing what I love.