Today is Thanksgiving. Every year my extended family sits around the table and each us gives thanks for something in their lives. As I was running this morning, I was trying to think of something meaningful (and new) to add to the usual list: my family, my job, my health, etc. I didn't come up with anything new for the dinner table. However, I did come up with music business-related items for which I would like to express gratitude:
1) Thomas Edison/Emile Berliner: These two pioneers invented ways to record music into a format that could be easily distributed. Until then, if someone wanted to hear music, they had to bring in a musician or go to where a musician was. After the invention of the phonograph (Edison's cylindrical device) and the gramophone (the early version of an LP), music could be widely shared. You could say that it was the first form of P2P and launched a consumer desire for music products.
2) MP3: It is without question that the MP3 file format, invented in 1991, created a revolution that is still rippling throughout the world. It is undeniably that an MP3 file sounds worse than other file formats (wav, aiff, wma, etc.). Previous physical, audio formats proved that audio quality was not the main concern of the music consumer. Does anyone remember how awful a cheap cassette sounded or how bad an 8-track was? Without the development of the MP3 format, however, we would not have seen the meteoric rise of the digital music industry which was, for the most part, a desperate response to the growing availability of unlicensed, free music content. So whether you are an audiophile who curses how MP3's are dumbing down our ears or an out-of-work record exec who wonders what the hell happened, we can still thank MP3's for exposing music creators to music lovers on a global scale.
3) My Staff: The music industry has an undeniable allure to it. Music instills passion and there are always many people who want to be near those that create music. I suspect that there are many industries that one can simply sit at a desk and do the work without caring much about the end product. But in the music industry, that is really hard to do. I am very fortunate to have an incredible staff. Not only are they hard working, intelligent people, they also care deeply about music. Many of them are budding composers, songwriters, producers and engineers. I used to think that I wouldn't want to hire such people because they would care more about their music then the work they needed to do for me. Now I realize that it is the same passion for creating music that benefits a company like mine. Who better to understand how important an album is to one of our 1000's of indie artists then a fellow artist. Even the staff who are not actual creators of music still possess a love of music that motivates them to succeed. So, today, I have to acknowledge my thanks to my entire staff. They are an incredible group of people.
4) Artists: I used to be a self-unemployed film composer. I have to admit that I sometimes miss creating music. Nowadays, I don't play very much and my playing chops have significantly waned. To satisfy my creative urges, I rely on writing, speaking and running the business; all endeavors that tap into the same creative resources that my composing used to do. Every day, we receive albums from musicians and artists that obviously reflect their dedication to and love of music. Ultimately, that is where the content comes from. Even if we are getting music from a publisher or music library, all roads eventually point back to some composer, singer, artist, or sound designer working in their studio and deciding if they have the right amount of reverb, the drums are too loud, do I need to tune that background vocal line, etc. I can never forget that the source of business success originates from the vision and energies of the people that create the music and audio products that we represent.
5) CERN: For some people, Al Gore invented the Internet. In reality, the credit can most likely be given to CERN, the Geneva scientific institute which created the World Wide Web project in 1991. Elements of the Web had proceeded them. But it was CERN that really put it all together. Everyone can admit that our lives have been transformed by the Internet. For the music industry, it is more than obvious to state this. Forgetting the impact of P2P file sharing, the most amazing thing about the Internet is the ability to connect people in disparate regions around the world. Admittedly, I am still one of those people who is amazed at the fax machine. But when I think of the empowerment of the Internet, I am overwhelmed. Ten years ago, if you were a jazz musician in Chicago and wanted to sell your music in Germany, you had to press an album, find a label locally, find a German distributor who then has to convince a German store to carry your album. Then hopefully a German jazz lover will find it in the bins and buy it. Now, thanks to CERN and the Web, any musician with an Internet connection can make their music available to any music lover ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! That's incredible. OK, the issue of discoverability is always going to put a slight damper on this. But that doesn't diminish the remarkable potential we now have at our fingertips.
6) My Partner: The ongoing joke here is to say "my business partner". When I conceived of the idea of BFM Digital (nee Big Fish Media), there was only one person that I could envision turning to. Looking back at the past four and a half years, he has been an excellent compliment to my skill set. He has pushed me to do things that my instincts rebelled against. I feel it is important for a business owner to always have a sounding board, partner or not, to give one a sense of perspective. It is very easy to lose site of the trees for the forest. I am grateful for my partner to help push me out of my comfort zone in order to build a thriving business.
7) My Family: You are probably saying that this last piece should be reserved for the dinner table. Maybe you are right. But creating a digital distribution business from scratch involves the support of one's entire family. When I moved my office out of the house, my children cheered because they each could have their own room. The flip side of that coin is that I now get a call at the end of each day: "When are you coming home, Daddy?" Knowing that they love what I do for a living and give me their complete support is crucial to survive the challenges of being a small business owner. It sounds corny, but I couldn't have accomplished what I did without it.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
