The Science of Excuses

Some of the excuses I hear from struggling composers and musicians about why they choose to do things the way they do them would be pretty hilarious if they weren’t so heartbreaking. Some people are wont to bash their heads against walls until finally, one day, it all comes into focus that maybe there is just a better way. Maybe.

I’m not kidding you… each one of these is real.

Demos

A REAL quote: I really want to get one of those CD printers that print directly on the CD. My demos just aren’t going to be good enough to send out until I get my hands on one of those. That’s what all the “real” composers use.

A REALity Quote: There are 100 different ways to do demos. You don’t need a CD printer, in fact, I’d say… you don’t want a CD printer! Instead of worrying about antiquated technology like CDs, focus on something that’s a little more future-proof… your online presence. You’d poop your pants if I told you how many composers I come across who don’t even have their music online somewhere. Some don’t even have a website at all! Ridiculous. At the very least, get a SoundCloud account. There is no reason not to be on there with at least a select sampling of your very best work to date. Oh, and keep it fresh, too, will you? Update it often. When you write something that is the “greatest thing” in the history of structured sound, identify the weakest link in your playlist and replace it with this new track that kicks ass. With the proliferation of cloud computing, hardware manufacturers are rapidly turning their backs on optical media anyway so you are operating at a diminishing return if you are still pursuing it as a turnkey solution to demoing for work in the future.

A little extra tip on this one: If you just can’t bear to not have something to physically hand to someone, be creative and do something ballsy that people wouldn’t normally think of. I’ve heard a dozen or so marketing pitches for Eastern Chronicle as I anticipate the release this Fall. Some have been great ideas, and some haven’t been (like someone’s idea to put a thumb-drive of the music inside a Chinese take-out box and bundle it with a pair of chopsticks… Cool idea and I love the tie-in, but it’s a stereotype against my Chinese friends and I don’t feel it’s inline with the values of the project. But yeah… I dig the bat-shit craziness of it). Point is, don’t do what everyone’s been doing since 1986. Get crazy and come up with something interesting.

Hardware

A REAL quote: You know what sucks? I have zero upgrade cash, but without a newer rig I can’t handle gigs that would allow me to get the cash to upgrade. Catch-22. I guess one more year with smaller projects.

A REALity Quote: My very first feature score, Sharkskin 6, was done on a 1st Gen Apple iMac in the walk-in closet of my Studio City apartment bedroom. Somehow, someway, I shoehorned a live Big Band brass quintet, my dad’s bass rig, my drums, two guitarists’ rigs, a real Fender Rhodes piano, and three vocalists in there. By the end, that iMac was pulling a Herman Munster and smoking from every orifice it still had available. Here’s my rule of thumb when it comes to gear: Get the very best you can afford now and just start using the shit out of it. Who cares if it’s not the latest and greatest model on the market? Here’s a secret: Nobody will know it’s not unless you tell them it’s not. So, keep your damned mouth shut and just pump out a masterpiece. The gear matters not; It’s the product that counts.

Business Cards

A REAL quote: Mine is kind of embarrassing. I hate my design. I got cards that only have one side printed because I didn’t realize that you could do both sides. I should probably just shove these in a box and just tell everyone I’m “in transition” with business cards and wait until the new cards come.

A REALity Quote: Sure… and while you are at it, let me know how relying on their impeccable memory to retain your contact information works out. While optical media might be going away, information isn’t. Don’t be a dumbass — get a card. ANY card. Trust me, something cheap and quick with your name, number, website and email address is better than nothing at all. When people ask, “Do you have a card?”, that’s not because they are interested in sitting down somewhere over a ham and cheese to contemplate which printing house you used to get those cards made… It’s to potentially follow-up with you later for paying work. Why take the risk? Cuz you don’t want to look stupid for two seconds? Weigh that with how stupid you’ll feel when they can’t remember your name and become interested in someone else for the gig by default. Now that’s embarrassing!

Personal Integrity

A REAL quote: They just updated Cinematic Strings! What do you think, Deane: LASS Lite or Cinematic Strings 2? Either way, I’ll probably have to wait until someone releases a new torrent… It’s too much for me right now.

A REALity Quote: Want to personally burn a bridge with me forever? Become a willing participant in the Culture of Free: Download some shit illegally off the internet and then tell me about it. We’ll be done before your lips even start moving. If there is one thing that I think symbolizes the utmost disregard for professionalism amongst Creatives it a lack of personal integrity. However, personal integrity includes much more than not downloading intellectual property without paying for it. It also means that you do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. It means that people can bank on your word. It means that you’re dependable. It means that you are honest and forthright in your dealings with others. Whether that’s a policy of supporting your fellow content creators by purchasing everything you own or simply that you return client phone calls in a timely manner, it’s all the same: Personal integrity is a must if you want to succeed in this (or any) business over the long-term.

Graphic Design

A REAL quote: Graphics people are expensive! I’m going to just design my logo myself while I’m watching TV or something.

A REALity Quote: Guess what else is expensive? Your time. Whether you choose to believe it or not, your success will be measured ultimately by what you were able to do in a given period of time. Time. I’ll say it again…. TIME. Every minute that you spend doing something that someone else could be doing “better than you can”, you are wasting valuable time, and if time is money then you are wasting that, too. So, chew on this: You are getting screwed twice every time you don’t outsource something you aren’t great at. How many of those things a day are there in your workflow? For me, there used to be many. Now, there are virtually none — I outsource everything I could be doing, but shouldn’t. That’s a lot of stuff. (For more on what I do, specifically, read this.)

Networking

A REAL quote: Meeting people face-to-face is so time-consuming now. Twitter just makes so much more sense. I could do a little more social media stuff and meet some new people online and probably not have to ever go out of the studio again.

A REALity Quote: I can’t remember where or who it was, but I heard somebody somewhere say once that “If you never put yourself in the heads of business people, you’ll never make any headway with people in business.” At first, that seems like an anecdote that’s trying a little too hard, but when you think it through for second it starts to make a hell of a lot of sense. You can’t get anywhere without people to get anywhere with and getting with those people means regularly breaking free from the confines of the digital space. The huge misconception about social media is that it is in any way truly social. It’s not. It’s insulating, which is dangerous if you’re not careful. At its core, a healthy social media strategy involves only two things: Connection and maintenance. Most people have the connection part down cold, but they fall down when it comes to maintenance because maintenance requires them to go outside of their comfort zone. Connection is easy. Connection is a mouse click. Boom! You’re now friends with [insert unsuspecting Facebooker here]. But maintenance is a lot harder. Maintenance requires thought, intent, planning, communication and follow-through. And here’s the deal: Connection doesn’t mean shit without maintenance. At the time of this writing I have 2,230 friends on Facebook — Big fuckin’ deal. If I’ve not maintained a relationship with them and we aren’t aware of what we could be doing with or for each other, what good are those connections? I’ve always felt like the best way to move beyond merely “connecting” is to follow-up with a face-to-face meeting after the connecting takes place, even if it’s on Skype or in a Google+ Hangout. Don’t leave those “connections” in cryostasis for more than a week or so without getting with that person to learn what they are about. Once you start peeling back the layers of the onion with them, you’ll probably be surprised as to what all is there.

Pricing Your Expertise

A REAL quote: $X,XXX seems so low even for this kind of film. I’m sure it’s not worth it. I should be getting $XX,XXX. Screw it. I’m just going to bite my lip and take it. Next time they’ll really see that I gave them a bargain with the first one and then I can ask for more…

A REALity Quote: … the problem is… you won’t get more. If you devalue yourself out of the gate for an initial opportunity, you set a precedent of conceding to a certain premium for your work. Assuming they are just as business savvy as you wish you were, do you really think they’ll want to pay full price on Round 2? Would you? When you go the market to buy eggs and they ring up at $1.99 a dozen, will you buy them there again at $2.99? Hell no! You’ll go across the street where they are still selling them at a buck ninety-nine! Same with producers. The very nature of their job title is to “produce” —  to create economic value; bring crops, goods, etc., (Websters New World Dictionary). “Creating economic value” means getting the best deal possible. But that is a negotiation that you should be initiating, not them. Only you know what your value is, so it’s up to you to be the educator in the relationship and impart the right information so they can make an informed decision. You are selling to them, not the other way around. Quit making excuses about your asking price… “but I’ve never done anything”… “but I’m new”… “but I really want the job”… “but I’m not doing anything else right now”… “but I really need the money”… and price yourself right. Figure out your rate per minute of music as a baseline and work up from there. That’s always a great place to start. Stop allowing budgets to be the determining factor of your worth. As my friend Kerry Muzzey perfectly puts it, “Being asked for a quote these days is really just being asked to guess how many jelly beans are in a jar.” You have to be able to get past the “give us a quote” rhetoric and get down to the nitty gritty serious business of working out an arrangement for your involvement on the project.

Promotion

A REAL quote: What sets me apart is my music. It’s not like anyone else’s out there. When they hear that, they’ll know they should hire me.

A REALity Quote: This used to be true, but as the technology of music-making has grown to become accessible to all interested parties, the idea of your sound being truly original is becoming less and less likely. That’s not to say that your voice (there is a vast diference between the two) is not individual, but rather that your tools are my tools, your techniques are my techniques, and your workflow might also be my workflow. Said another way: We all have the same toys. Since those toys essentially shape a lot of the noise we are making, you cannot rely on noise alone. The fact is that unless you are evolved enough as a Creative to be blazing your own trails with sound design and meticulous attention to detail, you can be and will be replaced easily with another person doing it cheaper or faster or better… or all three. It’s only a matter of time. So, what do you do? Well, that means that the strategy of promotion that you choose has to incorporate much more than how you sound. It has to involve a plan — a business plan. A whole-earth solution for people’s needs that includes top-notch communication, response time, fiscal sense, public relations, availability, and, oh yeah, I almost forgot… the music. Today’s music Creative is a multi-tasking muthasticka. We have to be. There are too many alternative options.

Finding Work

A REAL quote: What I really need is to get an agent to get me out there. I’ve done all I can do on my own.

A REALity Quote: No you haven’t. Because if you had, the agents would be beating down your door like a herd of hungry rhinos badgering you for a piece of your action. See, people forget that agents are not in the business to make careers. They all say they are, and to their credit, they need to be to a certain degree. But just like you and I, agents are chiefly concerned with feeding their families and having some quality to their lifestyle. They are no different from us in that regard. So, nobody “gets” an agent. If there’s any “getting” to be done, you’d better believe that the agent is going to be the one doing it. They have too much on the line to just be “obtained” by some random composer who hasn’t done shit yet and has no street cred. The agents do the obtaining and they are super-extra selective about it — they don’t just take anybody. You have to already have something going on. You have to show that you are capable of the hard work it takes to sustain longevity in this industry. If you can’t provide that sort of social proof, then honestly… you are waste of time for any agent worth his or her salt. The way to do it right? Work your ever-lovin’ ass to the bone for every client you have. Let your body of work , no matter how limited it is, speak for itself. Be the best collaborator in town. Support the projects you work on long after your hands-on work has completed, even if you’ve already moved on to other endeavors. I scored part of a documentary back in 2005 that just got released this year (2012). Believe me, in the six years since working on that project my music has evolved drastically and is so much more mature now than it was back then… but even still, I hopped off what I was doing for a few days and did a ton of promotion for the doc when I was told it was finally releasing. That’s being a team player. That’s completing the job. That’s what will find you more work. That’s what will “get” you an agent.

Skill Development

A REAL quote: I really don’t know how to orchestrate for woodwinds, so I sort of stay away from them. I can hear it in my head, but I wouldn’t know how to achieve that sound. That’s why not much of my stuff has woodwinds in it.

A REALity Quote: “Leaders are learners.” A brilliant guy named Stephen R. Covey said that. “The minute you stop learning you stop leading.” Another brilliant guy named John Maxwell said that. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a follower in my industry; I want to be a leader. I want to be innovating and creating the way things get done. I want to lead the charge. I want to be the best. If being the best means that I need to learn a new skill or take on a new understanding, then that’s what needs to happen. If you don’t know how to do something and so you shield yourself from being forced in a place that requires that skill, you are selling yourself short and leaving work on the table at the end of the day. You are literally sabotaging your own success. Stop doing that. Go back to school. And by “school” I don’t necessarily mean university. (Although, don’t rule that out either!) There are all kinds of amazing places to learn about how to be a better composer on the Internet. Start at SCOREcastOnline.com. People tend to get wrapped up in our online forums and forget that the website is a virtual playbook of how to do this gig well. You’ll find more than 400 published articles on everything from spotting and production to budgets and scheduling, all by composers who are working and earning professionals from Hollywood and Europe. You can also learn new skills by tuning into super-smart people like Thomas Goss or becoming active in communities like Quora.

I’m sure that by now you’ve sensed my running through-line in all this — There are no excuses! The excuses don’t exist in the real world, only in the world between your ears. YOU are the one holding YOU back from what YOU really want out of all this. Not us or them (whoever *that* is!). Get into the driver’s seat of your career and start putting some of these things in the rearview mirror.

Leave me a comment below or send me an email when you do. I’d love to hear about the dragons you are slaying!

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