It has been almost a year since I first officially laid out my 4-Pillars of Success in music. These things I had been writing about for a decade or two, and I didn’t even mean to make it into a simple list of four easy steps (ha!). Sometimes these things just happen.
A year on, how has this 4-Pillars helped people?
Sadly, I must say that while I think it really helps clarify the basic mindset in creating the core strategy required for success in a journey like music – that one hopes to sell to the masses (or just four people) – the reality has been that wherever I show this, people turn away really fast.
Why is that? I think it is that people don’t want to think. I also think that the people out there complaining that they are being gatekeepered by the industry and not being given a fair go, are not willing to do any of the work. Even more so now that AI exists, telling everyone that with the press of a button, they can do what they never could before: make a song.
When presented with the 4-Pillars, they will use excuses like, You aren’t famous like Michael Jackson or Trailer Swift, so this is not a thing. It must be BS, ie, easy to ignore. Or my personal peeve, Your music is so simple (read sukky because I don’t understand anything but bad Rap) that whatever you have to say must be irrelevant. Huh? I don’t dig Trailer Swift or Billie Eyelash, but I do understand that they did something that worked out. They had strategies that they played out by doing all the work.
Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies
The AI thing in particular is a clear symptom of the avoidance of effort. The lie pedalled (above) about how making music is denied to some/many is clearly rubbish. Singing is always free. That is, there is no gateway or cost to get started; open your cake-hole and push some noise out. Yer Singing dude. That requires no permission or payment. In many cases, the same applies to guitar or keyboard playing, most houses will tend to have a guitar or keyboard of some kind around. Nothing stops the kids from picking them up. The internet is on computers, and if you have a Mac, Garbageband is free. There are plenty of other free DAWs (software studios) and free instruments & effects to run in them. There is no gate being guarded here. Anyone can make as many songs as they invest time in.
And yet… they don’t.
This is the problem: My 4-Pillars of Success is not flawed. My assumption that people want this information is.
Over and over, I see people who, with a Plan and the right work, could present a much better outcome; an outcome more likely to engage with real potential fans. Something to be truly proud of. Yet they make really scattered results, as if they deliberately want to confuse audiences. Then just complain about how the game is rigged against them.
Is this a lack of access to information about:
- Artist Development – a clear idea and presentation of who they are
- Backline – the people working with them on their project/s
- Location – where they are physically & emotionally
- Fans – developing relationships
Or is it that people really are so afraid of trying that they would rather make a mess, hide behind lies, than have a fair go at it?
I think the latter, as when presented with information, people deny it. That is the very definition of the word Ignorance: the act of choosing to ignore better information.
To use another of my sayings, this is Dumb:
Dumb is when you are so self-focused that you damage your own self.
Example: I had a client who was offered a record deal with the famous act he was on-tour with’s label. He blew the deal. He didn’t ask my advice first; I already told him this might happen. It was part of the strategy. He must have known it was probably real and that he could/should seek my advice. By the time I found out, he pretended that there wasn’t a deal, saying that they screwed him over when, in fact, he screwed them and therefore himself by acting sulky. He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Fear. This was dumb.
I understand fear; we all have it. It is what one does next that counts.
The Q then is what to do with the 4-Pillars of Success?
It’s a tricky one. The idea seems to have failed. Or simply, I have not managed to get those 4-pillars built right. Let’s try applying the 4-Pillars of Success to see if something makes sense:
People seeing me almost being signed as a fail and reason to dismiss what I have to say is a worry. We have a young seeded tennis player in the family. He isn’t playing center court (yet) but people are impressed. He is a winner already; people want him to teach them tennis. Why the difference in perception? People who don’t support success are never the right people. People choosing to lose always lose. Maybe I don’t understand, or worse, don’t believe myself. I must be pitching to the wrong audience. Definitely, people in groups complaining are not a group ready to do it differently or work harder. Pearls before swine and all that. I’m chasing the wrong postman. I’m missing something. What I know is that I have no idea how to access the right people. (#1 Artist Development)
I had a publisher who took on The Indie Musician’s Guidebook. The project fell into production hell for years. I let it sit too long before I took it back in hand. Without that ‘cred’ of a publisher, people were less likely to want to believe. Having acts that I had helped, even to the point of a good deal, walk off the stage doesn’t help here either. Nor does it when people in forums deride that work. With no one in my corner, it is effectively impossible to appear credible. (#2 Backline)
I have my website, I have my YouTube, I have my Bandcamp. All places to find me. But somehow, people don’t see me as someone they want to work with. Someone they need to prove themselves to, so they can access my skills. Part of that may be that I work in long-form, and most people won’t read a whole Tweet! Part of that is probably because, for want of finding where I can talk with my kind of peeps, I have stooped. That makes me look like I am nowhere. (#3 Location)
I am not the right kind of person. Not my real skills, but the ones that people respond to. People respond to a certain type of person. The prettiest girl & boy in school who define the social scene are the ones most people want to follow. Some people are naturally like that. Many are not. If you are not the type that people want to follow, you will struggle. While I am told I am a great teacher, a smart cookie, people still want that kind of person. While I expected that my numbers would be low, my directness, follow the song-ness, do the real work-ness, on with the show-ness, doesn’t seem to have helped build those relationships that make fans/clients – at least not those willing to do the work I am here for. (#4 Fans)
I still back my 4-Pillars of Success, they prove themselves here. Even if I don’t really know how to solve the Strategy, Tactics, and Actions that bring a change for me here, the pillars and what they stand for are valid.
People who actively work against these truths will still struggle. They will still tend to blame everything outside of themselves, particularly the “music industry” and all those other things they have decided to use to make it not a thing they have any say in. Sad, but this is the way of people, they fight, or they don’t. One can ask people, make rousing speeches, offer tools etc, but if they don’t believe that it is worth it, they will not fight.
Benedict Roff-Marsh 