New Music Strategies' Mission To Demystify Music And Technology

Via a post on Freelance Switch, I stumbled upon New Music Strategies, a blog that I think should be recommended reading for everyone in the musical field. Written by Andrew Dubber, NMS discusses the changing the landscape on which the music industry stands, or tries to stand. From Andrew's manifesto:

01. The music industry has not changed. It is changing.
One of the biggest mistakes music businesses make when trying to adapt to the online environment is to acknowledge the changes that have happened online and then set about adapting to accommodate those changes. In fact, those changes are still underway, and it is a process of navigation, not a process of conversion from an old model to a new one. By the time you have adapted you will be obsolete again. Develop a strategy for keeping up.

Among NMS's resources are a list of articles, a music industry newswire, and the free downloadable ebook 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online.

Resource Roundup: Avoiding burnout at the busiest time of the year

This is the time when everyone seems to be going nuts with the recital, audition, and exam crunch. Here are some ideas from the productivity blogosphere about how to stay fresh:

If you didn't think things were busy enough, Everyday Wonderland has a list of 5 Ideas for Stressful Living to make things even worse. I presume that if you don't heed this advice you can avoid undue gnashing of teeth when navigating the peak season... (Thanks, Valerie)


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On the positive side, Slow Leadership has a list of 12 ways to prevent burnout. I like #11:

Keep a sense of humor. Your worries and fears are really funny, if you look at them from the outside. What’s the worst that could happen to you? You could die, but that would end all your worries for good. You could be fired, but if the job is driving you nuts that’s a benefit. Take a look around you. Who are the grimmest people you can see? The control-freaks, the over-achievers, the worry-warts, the pocket dictators. Who are the funniest to watch making idiots of themselves? The same list.

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We are artists. We must develop and move forward even though we're often jumping through hoops for others. Freelance Switch has a post about Staying on top of your game that has some insight on how to maintain your edge and continue your development even when you're in the thick of it:

When you work in a job where you are surrounded by others, or when studying your trade at university, you will feed off other people and naturally push yourself to compete. However as a freelancer, often working alone, you can easily fall into a vacuum where your current level of expertise feels good enough. Give in to this and your service may lose value over time. Unless you have a burning internal urge you may find it helps to put yourself into situations that force you to stay on top.

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Next, check out this list on Problogger of 5 ways to enhance your creativity, with ideas on how to keep the muse going. Also take a look at the 39 comments (so far) following the post with even move creativity hacks.


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Finally, you might want to try some of the books in Julia Cameron's celebrated The Artist's Way series, and learn to build a creativity process from the ground up that works for you and can weather the peak season.

(Photo by alexindigo)

Accompanist/Collaborative Pianist groups on Facebook

For those of you in our noble field that haven't yet joined Facebook, here are some of the groups that you are missing:

• Collaborative Pianists (31 members)
  
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Accompanists (791)
  
• Accompanists Unite! (5)
  
• Collaborative Pianists (AKA Accompanists) Rock! (16)
  
• PETA - People for the Eating of Tasty Accompanists (24)
  
• Salvation Army Accompanists Anonymous (18)
  
• Appreciate Your Accompanist! (158)
  
• Martin Katz Fan Club (4)

All membership numbers are accurate to May 6, 2007 and will probably grow as the Facebook community expands. Right now the largest and most visible group is PETA, with a lot of fascinating thought and dialogue going on.

So this is what it's like in the Borg Collective

After several months of futile resistance, last night I finally gave up and joined Facebook. After previously been warned about the dangers of runaway social networking, I am proud to say I am completely addicted to the site, and have spent already too much time furiously friending my way through the Toronto arts community.

I must say that this type of community is much more polite than ones of yore. In the mid 90's I was a dedicated member of Cafe Utne (now renamed The New Cafe), a first-generation conferencing site where members could discuss various issues on several "conferences". The level of discourse was educated, but extremely rude with flames abounding--Cafe Utne (using a format similar to The Well) was known more for conflict than friending. After two years I gave up, never to return. Many years later, the social networking site has come back with a vengeance.

Anyway, my new addiction calls--time to get back to the Crackbook, find some more friends and write on walls.

Is this blog a resume?

Are the classical music bloggers just a bunch of eccentric hobbyists or are they the vanguard of what is to come in the field?

Adam Darowski at Traces of Inspiration writes that the blog is in fact the new resume:

Blogging is the perfect way for a candidate to give an employer a more detailed sales pitch—to show they can “talk the talk” (as opposed to just fill a resume with buzzwords). I can’t think of a reason for any serious tech professional to not have a blog. Not only does it serve as an excellent notebook for storing ideas and links, but it can come in handy in a job hunt where what interviewers really want to just know what, professionally (and somewhat personally), engages you on a day to day basis. How often do you look at a resume and wonder what exactly the person’s role on a project was? Well, if the person blogged about it then you would have a better idea—and you would know if the role would fit in with your team.

In the classical music field, this would seem to fly in the face of traditional wisdom, where many people with witty, informative, and irreverent writing styles were aghast at my suggestions that they start a blog because of a perception that they would never get hired if they decided to actually voice their opinions. In Canada at least, the experience of Erin Wall, author of the now defunct Chiago Canadienne, seemed to point that the more work you got, the more scrutiny would be levelled at your blog writing. Is this true? I certainly hope not but the idea persists.

At any rate, I've been writing this since November 2005, have got only a few angry comments, have more work than ever, and am throroughly enjoying myself. If I had never started blogging, I wouldn't be as knowledgeable about a lot of things as I am now, although I would certainly be a much better player of computer games.

For those interested in reading more about this issue, Traces of Inspiration also has a discussion roundup on the issue.

Update 23-04-07:

Doing an old-fashioned resume? You might want to check out these bookmarks on del.icio.us.

How strong is your social network?

It's not about what you know, it's about who you know--so goes the familiar social networking adage. But is this something that you can actually map and measure?

Flowork Social Network Audit is a free service you can use to actually test this theory and determine how your professional goals can be aided by a clear map of those in your social network, how you relate to them, and how you can improve these links. Developed by Dr. John-Paul Hatala, Flowork is a program currently used by government and educational institutions to train people to harness the power of their social networks in order to organize job searches and achieve professional goals.