Everything you do is news!

Here begins our first installment of “new media musician” articles for the 21^st century. It’s a different side of the story to what it means to be a musician now in a world where the record selling business is over, but the new media adventure has just begun. If you are a band, bedroom producer, solo musician, remotely creative in any field, etc, realize that you are a brand as well and brands are built upon the creation of experiences and the delivery of those experiences.

I want to tell you that you’re an expert. Not just in the finished product of your music, but in all that you do to make that music happen. What goes into making music??? Don’t you know? –So much more than just learning an instrument or a recording software application. You have to be healthy to play. So over time you become an expert on how to whip up healthy meals. You have to be in shape for live tour, so now you become an expert on maintaining a regular health practice such as running or yoga. But you didn’t set out to learn all this other stuff to make music –it just happened over time, little by little, day by day.

These supplemental experiences all add up. And now looking back, you have one or two opinions, a boatload of personal stories, and a great big list of helpful hints and tips on any number of subjects that go into the total picture of what it means to be a musician and or having a music career in the 21st century.

So what’s up with that? Now, more than ever, it’s time to share all of that personally refined and collected information with a network of people, mostly online, who could really benefit from your wisdom. Not just passive consumers, but the active digital co-creators of media experiences across the net and down the street.

Take a look inside -what else did you do along the way to creating the music you love? Read any books on mixing or production? Test drive or own countless pieces of gear? Mastered certain levels of a software program? Have survival tips and stories from being on the road and touring? Take an inventory of all the topics you have become knowledgeable in, through direct experience and plan a way to share that incidental expertise to an audience that is waiting for it right now.

To accomplish this you have to adopt a mind shift first: In a networked world EVERYTHING you do is: news, news, news! Meaning: you set out to become a musician/recording artist/singer but that quest doesn’t live inside a bubble. The things you did, and are doing right now, can shed light on what it means to take on such a journey –and a journey here is a story with you or your band in the protagonists driving seat.

Also, many musicians set out to make an album or become a live band –obviously! But in the realm of the music business 2.0, making music is just one component of whole circle of activity that you must now be conscious of creating.

Here’s your attention economy mantra: Everything I do –is news!, Everything I do –is news!, Everything I do –is news! Now share it!