Monday, June 11, 2007
The Band IS a Startup
I read a blog post the other day by Darren Herman. It's called "The Startup as a Band" and Darren uses the post to draw analogies between a business startup and the Dave Matthews Band. He assigns each of the members of DMB to typical board roles of a startup, i.e. Dave is CEO/President, Carter is Sales Guru, Stefan is Technology Guru, Boyd is Marketing Guru, and LeRoi is Financial Wizard. Been mulling this over, being a bit bothered by it in an odd sort of way - people can make whatever analogies they like; it's no skin off my nose - but here's my revelation - A band is already a business, so while each band member can be assigned particular business "roles," in actuality there is no analogy to be made because band members are already serving as the board of directors for their organizations.
Being an artist and writer, I know how often people expect creative people (including musicians) to give away their talents - to become starving artists. So many bands struggle for beer money we forget that those who make it big, like DMB, are fronting massive organizations comprised of managers, roadies, producers, sound technicians, set designers, costume and makeup people, artists, photographers, caterers, marketers, bus drivers, pilots, etc. etc. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but my dictionary says that an analogy is "a resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike." A band IS a startup, thus the comparison is between apples and apples, thus no analogy.
It's difficult to be this crass about bands, especially those whose music we personally connect to, but there it is. The arts are big business. Minnesota Citizens for the Arts has released two studies about the economic impact of the arts in Minnesota. One, called "Artists Count!", polled individual artists and found that their economic impact as far as spending goes is $295 million. The other study, "The Arts: A Driving Force in Minnesota's Economy," shows that nonprofit arts and cultural organizations contribute $838.5 million to the state's economy and employ 22,000 people. Minnesota tends to be #3 (after New York and California) on arts spending, a haven of sorts for the creatively gifted. We, musicians, writers, artists, actors, etc., have a lot to offer society, and not just in the peace, love, beauty, quality of life categories. We're talking cold hard cash, baby. And DMB has leveraged it well as leaders of their corporation.
Being an artist and writer, I know how often people expect creative people (including musicians) to give away their talents - to become starving artists. So many bands struggle for beer money we forget that those who make it big, like DMB, are fronting massive organizations comprised of managers, roadies, producers, sound technicians, set designers, costume and makeup people, artists, photographers, caterers, marketers, bus drivers, pilots, etc. etc. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but my dictionary says that an analogy is "a resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike." A band IS a startup, thus the comparison is between apples and apples, thus no analogy.
It's difficult to be this crass about bands, especially those whose music we personally connect to, but there it is. The arts are big business. Minnesota Citizens for the Arts has released two studies about the economic impact of the arts in Minnesota. One, called "Artists Count!", polled individual artists and found that their economic impact as far as spending goes is $295 million. The other study, "The Arts: A Driving Force in Minnesota's Economy," shows that nonprofit arts and cultural organizations contribute $838.5 million to the state's economy and employ 22,000 people. Minnesota tends to be #3 (after New York and California) on arts spending, a haven of sorts for the creatively gifted. We, musicians, writers, artists, actors, etc., have a lot to offer society, and not just in the peace, love, beauty, quality of life categories. We're talking cold hard cash, baby. And DMB has leveraged it well as leaders of their corporation.
Labels: analogy, art, blog, business, darren herman, dave matthews band, dmb, economy, minnesota citizens for the arts, musician
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Roy Zimmerman
My husband was looking for references to "Dick Cheney" on YouTube and ran across musician/comedian Roy Zimmerman. The guy's a riot. Now, if you are a conservative with a taste for the current White House administration, you probably won't appreciate Roy's stuff. Don't say I didn't give you fair warning.
Along with the "Dick Cheney" song, check out "Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual."
Along with the "Dick Cheney" song, check out "Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual."
Labels: comedian, conservatives, dick cheney, husband, musician, roy zimmerman, ted haggard, white house, youtube
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Oblique Strategies
I was reading the new Wired Magazine, which has an article devoted to our snack culture (serve our media up in little bits, along with our food, please), and ran across a mention of a deck of cards created by musician/artist Brian Eno. The deck, which Brian designed with friend Peter Schmidt, is called Oblique Strategies. As artists, Brian and Peter discovered that they had strategies for overcoming obstacles encountered in their work. As they developed these strategies, they wrote them as aphorisms and eventually bundled them together as a set of cards. The first edition was released in 1975, with two other editions following within the next few years. A fourth set was created in 1996 as a private project for the Peter Norton family. (Please don't ask me who Peter Norton is.) Even though the original decks were printed in limited quantities and are hard to come by, the aphorisms are listed on the web on the site devoted exclusively to them, as well as on several other sites. One site acts as a random generator, serving up oblique strategies as you need them.
For the list of aphorisms in each deck (they changed a bit over time), see the links below:
1st edition
2nd edition
3rd edition
4th edition
The Oblique Strategies site points people to Brian Eno's official store to purchase a copy of the deck (5th edition).
For the list of aphorisms in each deck (they changed a bit over time), see the links below:
1st edition
2nd edition
3rd edition
4th edition
The Oblique Strategies site points people to Brian Eno's official store to purchase a copy of the deck (5th edition).
Labels: aphorisms, artist, brian eno, cards, creativity, musician, oblique strategies, peter norton, peter schmidt, wired
