the weekly wrap up July 14
Here's what caught my eyes this week.
In defense of lazyness - this is an article about sports and how some athletes with better genes have a natural ability to recover fast from intense workouts. Obviously this is an advantage - in addition to other talents. Give this a read and apply it to your music making and professional lives. I say that because it's a slap in the face to the "work hard" "hustle' mentality that's so popular right now.
Everyone says they work hard but what does that really mean? How do you define it...how do you know you're really working hard.
People love to believe that "working hard" will get them success while failing to acknowledge the role that luck, and timing play. And you see the reward for hard work play it self out in things like movies. We love to see people rewarded for their effort which makes for a nice story but reality seldom works this way.
How many producers catch a lucky break because they are already connected? Many. This is part of the reason I made Underground Elite, to get people good at production fast so that when you make a connection and start building a fan base around your DJ following it doesn't take you 5 years to produce a piece of music.
It's the lazy smart approach.
Being lazy smart is ideal, however don't brag about it. It usually won't win you any fans in the office because most companies glorify work martyrdom and "putting in the hours." Ever go to work and get frustrated by all the stupid pointless procedures? I have many times. The obsession with email distribution lists and getting emails you just don't need. Pointless reports, endless analysis of data...fuck that. If you've ever done anything entrepreneurial you realize how pointless this crap is and you rid your self of it.
Sadly this thought process spills over into the production world - it's not about hours logged but results. So yeah, think about how you can apply being lazy smart to production as this coach has done for athletes.
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When you get to that level Anthony Parasole and others have advice about leaving your day job. I can't say Im the biggest fan of Anthony's flavor of techno however he seems like a regular working class dude turned DJ.
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Sadly some people did quit their jobs to work at Soundcloud and sadly found their new positions gone. News of this along with learning about their lavish office culture has been a complete turn off. I've been a paying member for 4 years now, so I won't be sad if the whole shit house goes up in flames.
I guess they never really figured out their product and in the process let some rounds of funding go to their heads. Plus the founders must have made some big promises about sales growth that were based on hopes and dreams and not traffic and conversion. One day this thing will be sorted out - could take 5-10 years. So work on your music and grow your fan base.
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