June 28, 2021 by willedare

Nice Work If You Can Get It…

I recently completed a ten-day course via Zoom about how one can use Facebook ads to expand one’s circle of musical supporters.

Photo by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

It was a very worthwhile AND affordable undertaking — only $100 for 25+ hours of instruction which included many opportunities to ask questions and get help.

I came away from the learning experience with many new ideas… and a few reservations.

The first thing I liked about this training course was the opportunity to spend time with a hundred other musicians from around the world who also wanted to learn how to expand THEIR listening audiences.

I felt both reassured and inspired to see that I am not the only musician with challenges, questions, concerns, anxieties, insecurities, ambivalences and dreams.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

The man leading the ten-day course was himself a musician who had formed a band with several high school classmates and toured around the USA for several years.

They ended up working with very good producers, recording a bunch of powerful songs, selling tens of thousands of CDS, gaining millions of views on Youtube, and becoming successful without the services of a manager or a record label.

Then he got married (to someone he met as a result of his band’s performances), started having children, and realized that he didn’t want to tour any more.

He wanted to stay home with his burgeoning family.

So he began coaching other musicians on how to increase THEIR musical audiences and advance THEIR careers.

And he appears to be successful doing this as well…

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Photo of George and Ira Gershwin from the Library of Congress

This whole process reminded me of a classic song written by the Gershwin Brothers in 1927 — “Nice Work If You Can Get It” — which was one of nine songs Ira and George created for the movie A Damsel In Distress, which starred Fred Astaire, Joan Fontaine, George Burns and Gracie Allen.

It was also one of the last songs George finished before he died — much too young at the age of 38 — in 1937 (as Hitler rose to power in Germany and opened the Buchenwald concentration camp near the city of Weimar…)

All of the the successful Jewish songwriters, performers, directors, producers, designers, movie moguls, etc. were very aware of what was unfolding in Europe in the 1930s…

Jewish composer Kurt Weill — one of the Gershwins’ peers — for example, had fled from Germany to Paris in 1933 and then moved to New York City in 1935.

Anti-Jewish German Newspaper courtesy of WIkimedia

I can only imagine how ambivalent the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, Irving Berlin, RIchard Rodgers, Larry Hart and their Jewish friends and co-workers must have felt about their extraordinary success in America while Europe was hurtling into war and genocide.

Fred Astaire (whom some biographers claim had partial Jewish ancestry which he chose not to share with the public during his lifetime) was the first person to perform “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”

I wonder if Ira’s lyrics might have been inspired in part by the opulent lifestyle he and his brother and their family were enjoying in Hollywood at the time — living in big houses with swimming pools and tennis courts and huge lawns (perfect for fancy parties under rented tents) — while much of the world was still struggling to dig its way out of the Great Depression.

Life is full of strange historical juxtapositions…

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Let’s return to my recent ten-day course in music marketing.

All of us participants wanted to learn how to share our musical gifts with more people.

And the guy leading the course was showing us how…while simultaneously grooming us to want to sign up for even more coaching.

Photo by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

I became increasingly aware during the ten-day-process that he and his excellent support team were both educating us AND laying the groundwork to pitch us more intensive/expensive coaching opportunities at the end of our time together.

I found myself simultaneously admiring their marketing system AND being somewhat repulsed by it.

The first step involves reaching out to potential new fans using short (20-30 second) videos which one can make using one’s cell phone.

Then for as little as $3 per day one pays Facebook to share these videos with Facebook users who have in some way indicated that they are fans of a particular genre of music (such as reggae, hip hop, pop, rock, R&B, folk, musical theater, etc) and/or a particular recording artist (such as Ella Fitzgerald, The Eurythmics, James Taylor, Coldplay, Earth, Wind & Fire, Rosemary Clooney, Bob Marley, etc.)

Then one begins interacting via FB Messenger with the folks who respond to one’s ads by sharing a link to one’s own songs — and if they like THAT, one continues interacting with them to get a better sense of their musical taste, if they have ever gone to a live concert, if they have ever bought merchandise (such as T-shirts, hoodies, a mug, a poster, a CD, a magnet), if they have ever supported the career of a favorite musical artist with monthly donations, etc.

All of this seems OK and possibly quite exciting — especially if total strangers from around the world respond favorably to one’s marketing outreach and genuinely like one’s music.

On the final day of the training, however, some of the woman musicians started sharing about interactions with new fans which had begun well and then turned into scary stalker situations.

One person in England, in fact, was in the midst of talking with lawyers and protective services while she was simultaneously participating in our ten-day training program.

Argh!!!

The shiny, happy, everyone-can-learn-how-to-increase-one’s-fanbase-using-these-simple-practices vibe of the training sessions became much more nuanced and grounded and real.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Having had a few days to reflect upon the training session, I have concluded that sharing authentic interactions with people who like one’s music seems do-able and not-too-morally-bankrupt (although the astounding and somewhat terrifying amount of data that Facebook collects about each one of us in order to be able to sell these specifically-targeted ads is something that deserves much more discussion and regulation…)

However, if one is successful in jumpstarting these authentic conversations with new fans (with whom one is careful not to share too much personal information such as street addresses or phone numbers so that they are less likely to become stalkers…) via FB Messenger and continues to run ads, eventually one becomes unable to keep up with all of these human interactions…

So the next step — not taught in our ten-day workshop but available as a much-more-expensive coaching opportunity — is how to automate one’s responses using chatbot programs.

This is where my reservations really kick in…

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Would new fans understand that they are interacting with very sophisticated, well-programmed chatbots?

Or would they think they are actually interacting with me?

And does this transform an authentic interaction with another human being into yet another cynical marketing campaign/ploy?

I am currently thinking a lot about this potential developmental step in my career.

And I am also realizing how many of the music industry people whose free videos I have watched on YouTube are using a similar chatbot-powered system to interact with me in a seemingly authentic way when I leave grateful comments on their websites.

Hmmm.

How misled have I felt after realizing that I have been getting auto-generated “thank you” messages from them after giving them my email address?

A little…

And then how disappointed/exploited have I felt when I have started to receive a chatty barrage of pre-programmed email messages from them inviting me to continue to interact with them (and eventually sign up for some sort of in-depth, paid, educational experience they are offering)?

Somewhat…

But it doesn’t stop me from continuing to learn from them via their free YouTube videos.

So maybe potential new music fans (who have only interacted with a chatbot version of me) would be remain similarly engaged with my music if they found some authentic value from it?

My final misgiving about this generous ten-day training program was that it never mentioned climate change and the environmental impact of using email and Facebook and Spotify/Pandora/YouTube/Amazon/Apple/Etc to share one’s music with the rest of the world.

The training session existed in a bubble of denial untouched by the increasing reverberations of climate change.

And it was being led by a late twenty-something (or early thirty-something?) father of two small children whom I hope is giving SOME thought to the future on behalf of his daughter and son…

One final deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

What have your experiences been with marketing to other human beings… and with being the target of marketing by other human beings (and/or their chatbots)?

What are your thoughts and feelings about the environmental impact of our amazing digital communications?

Thank you to the photographers at Pixabay for their lovely images.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for his wonderful piano accompaniment AND his significant production/engineering skills.

Thank you to the Gershwin Brothers for their terrific, timeless songs.

And thank YOU for reading and listening to another one of my blog posts.

You are always welcome to visit my website, and you can find me singing (with Doug Hammer playing his Schimmel grand piano) on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and other digital music platforms.

June 4, 2021 by willedare

Flight

Greetings!

More than two months has passed since my last blog post.

I started writing several drafts, but none seemed worthy of completion…

This morning, however, I awoke from very sweet dreams — about returning to my elementary school as an adult — and started the day by stretching on our back porch.

A mockingbird was singing a wonderfully idiosyncratic song from a nearby roof, and the sky above me was totally blue.

Many birds passed high in the sky — swallows swooping back and forth (maybe catching bugs?), a pair of ducks en route from one body of water to another, some cooing doves, a bright red cardinal, and a seagull.

They reminded me of a song by Craig Carnelia called “Flight.”

It was first recorded by actress and singer Karen Akers in 1994, and since then it has been performed by a bunch of Broadway folks including Ben Platt, Betty Buckley, Brian Lane Green, and Sutton Foster.

The Cambridge Center For Adult Education

When I recorded it with pianist Doug Hammer, I was still working as the assistant director of a non-profit in Harvard Square — the Cambridge Center for Adult Education — and longing to break free from my day job so that I could devote myself to making music.

I had started at the CCAE by volunteering to help with a new musical series that the PR director, a wonderful singer named Tracy Gibbs, was putting together called The Cabaret Connection.

My offer to help transformed into a part-time job overseeing not only The Cabaret Connection but also another series called The Jazz Chair and a few other special events.

Then I began sharing responsibility for publicizing these events, and when Tracy left for a new job, I was offered a full-time position as PR director for the entire CCAE.

This was not my plan.

My plan was to have a part-time day job so that I could continue to do plenty of music on the side.

But now my day job would INCLUDE music — and I would gain new perspectives (such as what it was like to have performers contacting me about the possibility of being booked into one of our musical series…)

So I said, “Yes.”

After a few years, our development director left, and I took over her responsibilities as well.

Eventually I became assistant director and helped to bridge the transition between the retirement of our beloved executive director and the arrival of his successor.

Then I was laid off.

Yikes!

Time for a deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

This was a surprise and a shock — but perhaps also a blessing.

I had been working 40-70 hours per week for many years — and I was grateful to slow down.

I also have a fair amount of “the disease to please” in my emotional constitution as well as a low tolerance for risk.

So even though many of my more psychologically astute (and cherished) co-workers had seen the writing on the wall regarding the pros and cons of our new executive director and had found new employment elsewhere, I had remained loyal (or some might say “stuck”) to the longtime CCAE community of teachers, board members, students and volunteers.

Being laid off might have been the only way to get me to leave.

And dare to focus on music.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

So I signed up to learn how to be a Music Together teacher — which some of my musical peers had thought I might enjoy.

And they were right!

I also began putting together one-hour programs of music with a jazz pianist, Joe Reid, who had left full-time employment as a corporate lawyer to pursue HIS love of music.

And I continued writing songs.

Now I listen to “Flight” with a very different perspective from when I first learned it — and was feeling such a longing to break free…

Now my time is completely my own — to vision, to plan, to shape, to fill!

I have nothing I want to escape.

My only deadlines are the minor ones I give myself AND the major ones related to climate change which loom ever larger and more terrifying with each passing day of denial and inaction.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I love the imagery in Craig’s lyrics — and the flow of the narrator’s thought processes from one moment to the next…

It reminds me of a sailboat tacking to and fro in response to the ever-changing winds.

However, we human beings were not satisfied with sailboats.

So we created the motorboat, which zooms, noisily and relentlessly — oblivious to what it might run over, hit, injure, or disrupt — in a straight line from point A to point B.

And then the airplane!

Photo by Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay

Life before fossil fuels seems like it was much less linear.

Paths and roads followed the curves of hills and streams — rather than being bulldozed or dynamited to create the most efficient and convenient line of travel.

I saw this same phenomenon in the sky this morning — with birds swooping in curvy lines while far above them a jet plane left a perfectly straight line of moisture and toxic emissions in the sky…

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

The desire to fly — and perhaps to fly away — has been with us human beings for thousands of years.

I often think about the myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus — who enthusiastically flew too high and too close to the sun (forgetting or ignoring his father’s warning about how the wax adhering the feathers of his marvelously-constructed wings could melt…) and fell to his death in the Mediterranean sea.

Oftentimes our human culture in the 21st century seems to be soaring ever higher on a frantic, teen-aged exuberance for relentless, profit-driven innovation and stimulation.

We ignore wise warnings about how our fossil-fuel-powered desires (for 24/7 computer functionality, for food at any hour of the day or night (much of it shipped from hundreds or even thousands of miles away), for the ability to travel via motorcycle, car, motorboat, ocean liner, bus, train, or plane wherever we want (and as much as we can afford… or choose to put on a credit card), for alternative currencies, etc. are leading us faster and faster towards global catastrophe.

One would think that any one of the challenges we have experienced in recent years here in the USA — flooding of major cities, changing weather patterns which have led to increased wildfires/hurricanes/tornadoes, as well as a year-long viral pandemic — might lead us to re-think and change our habits of consumption.

And might lead us to listen to scientists with a deepened respect.

But I don’t see much of that happening…

Denial is indeed an extraordinary human phenomenon.

I certainly understand why the likely scenarios — such as famine, wars over water and arable land, vast migrations of desperate refugees, more epidemics of diseases — are too terrifying for most of us to set aside any time to contemplate.

How about a really deep breath in…

And a really deep breath out….

Photo by Pierangelo Averara from Pixabay

The most recent — and to me ridiculous — example of our human hubris is Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos building a huge, 500-million-dollar super-yacht.

And — getting back to the topic of flight — the creation of rocket ships — which take our human desire for flight to an entirely different level.

I saw a posting on Facebook recently with which I immediately agreed:

“Mars sucks. Its weather sucks. Its distance sucks. Its atmosphere sucks. The little water it has…sucks. It has sucked for billions of years and will suck for billions more…
You know what doesn’t suck?
Me, earth.
I have life.
I have vast oceans and lush forests.
I have rivers to swim and air to breath.
But the way I’m being treated — that part sucks.
You use me and pollute me.
You overheat me.
You use every resource I have, and return very little back from where it came.
And then you dream of Mars — a hellhole — a barren, desolate wasteland you can’t set foot on fast enough.
Why not use some of that creative energy and billions of dollars on saving me? You know, the planet that’s giving you what you need to live right now.
Mars can wait.
I can’t.”

The only part of this posting with which I don’t agree is the idea that earth needs to be saved.

I am pretty confident that planet earth — having already withstood billions of years of evolutionary changes — will be OK.

We human beings are the ones whose existence is at stake — along with the millions of other forms of life (such as birds and bees and fungi and bacteria and trees and grasses and turtles and whales and algae and shrimp and wolves and bison) which are vital links in the amazing web of life here on planet earth which we are in the process of altering and destroying.

Deep sigh.

Awake, fellow humans!

Now is the time to make significant changes in how we live here on planet earth…

I am very grateful to the wonderful photographers who share their images at Pixabay.

I would also like to thank pianist/producer Doug Hammer for playing so magnificently on this track.

Another big thank you to Craig Carnelia for writing “Flight.”

And a final thank you to YOU for reading — and listening — to yet another one of my blog posts.

I’ve re-designed my website in recent months to include a LOT more music — and you are always welcome to visit there.

You can also find me on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and other digital music platforms.

One final breath in.

And out.

Life goes on…

amusicalifeonplanetearth

Music and the Thoughts It Can Inspire

Month: June 2021

Nice Work If You Can Get It…

Flight