An alarmingly fertile output of new tools, widgets, and services continue to sprout across our beautifully blooming little niche market­place, at varying levels of practicality and value.

A vast assortment of Direct to fan technologies have truly empowered the modern music business, and although their are many of us still reluctant to acknowledge or implement these new technologies, the modern musician embraces his new set of tools and systems...

But while the technological advancement, the hyper growth of our global community and marketplace has been transformational in our industry - it’s easy to get overly focused on the all the tools, plugins, and technologies while overlooking the fundamental technology that drives the others.

Want to know the reasons why 90% of independent albums sell less than 1,000 copies each year?

It’s not the resources or available opportunity...

It’s a lack of the resourcefulness required to play at this next level.

It can be boiled down to the fundamental factors for success or failure in any business, project, or initiative.

● Poor Psychology.

● Poor Strategy.

● Poor Skills.

● Poor Habits.

● Poor Systems.

● Poor Processes.

Typically a combination of some or all of them.

How to take your music biz to the next level: Some upgrades may be order

The fundamental technology we need to learn how to better utilize is our internal super processor, our INNER OS. Doing so will improve every aspect of your personal and professional life, as well as your Music Business.

But what do i mean by that?

A few things really.

...Picture a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.

Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, turn off the cold water.

Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.

The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs.

To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one.

The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.

The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Again, replace a third original monkey with a new one.

The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well.

Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys that have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced.

Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs.

Why not?

Because as far as they know "that's the way it's always been around here."

As simplistic as that may sound for a species as advanced as humans, that's actually how much of our belief systems and unconscious value structures have formed, especially as "entertainers"…

I want to change the way you THINK about your music business and growing your music career in the modern world…

The belief and value system that pervades the majority of our global community as creative professionals is outdated, often vague, and full of largely uncontested ideas that have been simply passed along for many reasons central to preserving the purity of what we do. Venturing into new ideas and non-culturally acknowledged beliefs presents a threat to a traditional mindset and way of life-that much like any kind of change, elicits a certain discomfort.

As more and more teeter along the edge of this new frontier, as old beliefs and new ones meet and sometimes conflict with each other we are finding more and more artists trip into the vast array of stumbling blocks we have learned about and documented as what we call the Creative Growth Traps.

One thing is for sure though, many Musicians are confused, anxious and sometimes even frustrated to see a world moving faster and faster, and is making it difficult to not only make right decisions, but to know how to find what that decision should be with too much information, and a completely new industry landscape.

The Reality: A Musician in the modern world can’t afford to think and deal with a new world and industry, using yesterday’s paradigms, tools, mindset and belief systems.

The fact is that the grey matter lodged in between our earlobes is our most valuable asset.

I'm no rocket surgeon, (i know i said rocket surgeon) but something tells me that our ability to use our think-boxes in greater capacities is a key to greater value creation. Whether it's new skills such as communication or emotional intelligence, or the developed ability to master the fundamentals of our hardwired mental faculties such as creative imagination, intuition, perception, memory, reason or will.

As Artists and Creators we're just beginning to scratch the surface...

The next level of story-telling is both sharing your own stories, as well as tapping into the larger narratives that connect and resonate with your audience in more meaningful ways. Modern Artists embrace multi-media, multi-channel communication, as well as generate deeper emotional connection via the interactive nature of the direct to fan experience, what we call modern content marketing.

The ability to do this is what separates the wheat from the chaff. The men from the boys, the pro’s from the amateurs.

Your tribe (knowingly or unknowingly) needs you to step your game up. They need you to lead them. They need you to be their voice, their maverick, their uniter, and they want you to give them more and better ways to truly connect with them on multiple levels.

You need to be the dreamer who has the vision, but you also need to have or acquire the technical and business skills (what we call the Entrepreneurial Skill​set) needed to make the vision a reality and to sustain the reality of your music business.

Modern Musicians take charge and learn to manage all of their resources including their time, their people, their projects, and their overall business operations.

Modern Artist Thinking is Fully Integrated Thinking

You have to be a dreamer and a risk taker and a visionary in order to get your ideas started, but you have to have the discipline to see them all the way through. You need the courage to take action and the courage to be responsible for all the outcomes of those actions.

Nothing comes free. But when you are willing to take control, to develop the Modern Musician Skill​set, you are ready to take Step #1.

The first step for upgrading your music business from one operated with a traditional musician mentality, to that of a modern musician mindset.

Step 1 is to paint your picture of paradise. It is to determine, visualize and define - in no uncertain terms what it is that you really want and desire to have, be, accomplish with and in your music career? With your next project, and with your artistic contribution to this world?

Keep it as big or as small as you'd like, but start with something so you can begin to flex and develop the muscle of illustrating a creative vision and then bringing it into fruition in real life. This is a skill and in my opinion one of the most incredible powers we possess as Creators.

Don't Quit Your Daydream!

In the modern world their is almost no limits to what we can dream up and create. Like a dental impression formed by your teeth, our incredible inner os can bite down into an abundant wax impression and generate the blueprints for printing any idea we choose into 3D.

Now we even have physical printers that can short cut that process for most physical objects.

There are 10 skills in the fully integrated artistic and entrepreneurial skill-set, what we refer to as the modern musician skill-set...

The first of these skills is imagination and visualization.

Let’s test that out real quick...

How To Take Your Music Business To The Next Level

Imagine a mini ​little ecosystem.

Self​ contained, efficient, setup in a way that gave you the freedom with your lifestyle and the projects you choose, to do what you love full time...

I’m not talking about anything outrageous, or unrealistic, or unethical in any way shape or form... Just a beautiful little economic system that you govern and control and allows you to do what you love​-making music, connecting, full time, in peace.

It’s a nice a little idea?

Well many years ago that was my simple little vision... a practical, compelling little idea that I honestly believe kept me alive and motivated through 12 months of combat in a pretty active part of Baghdad Iraq, at the tipping point of the surge.

10 years later, and I’ve done it without ever once selling or marketing or polluting the world with any sort of scammy, even remotely borderline low quality products or services... Never.

Not even once offering or pitching anything that I didn’t already use, believe in, know, endorse, trust, and feel good about recommending or selling. Period. And all the while giving away just about all of my content to my community, for free, for the last decade.

I followed a rabbit hole for my passion in home recording and music production and evolved over time into my specific niche and place in the world. Though I certainly didn’t make anywhere near the amount of money I could have.

In fact-compared to most of my peers, it’s laughable.

But I’ve been after something I feel is more important and valuable to me than money.

It is the heart of what we call complete success, 3Dimensional Success, (Artistic, Career, and Personal) and it comes from the inside out.

In going this route, despite all kinds of blowback and worried disbelief... Constantly fearing that the sky is falling and i'm the stupidest person alive... Now I finally have the best of both worlds. That to me is priceless.

I’m telling you this because it was the road less traveled.

It was a cumbersome battle, but I want you to know that it can be done...

I’m very proud of what I’ve done ​as well as the way I’ve done it, and that’s why I’m telling you about it...

It’s real now. It's something more than an idea that we can see as a possibility, and instead as something that can be done.

This is something that can be done by YOU. As an artist. Without sacrificing or compromising on any of your values or operating principles in any way. Without having to be a sales­person or something you’re not...

Though there has been a LOT of temptation and frustration along the way... the lessons, skills and the experience I’ve developed have been priceless.

But while we're here-let's debunk a major myth that holds many artists back...

Many musicians think that they need huge numbers to make a financially freeing income doing what they love, and it’s just simply not true.

In the Modern World, Artists have the power to create anything they can imagine.

As you'll learn more about later, Success itself-is a very straight forward and orderly process of achievement. The G-Code is the condensed set of rules and principles that anyone can learn and apply to achieve any level of success they can imagine for themselves.

This leads us into the first rule of the GAME.

RULE #1: We CREATE Our OWN Economy! ​

Modern Musicians imagine and create their own little economies. They value self ​reliance and become masters of their fate largely because they can envision their artistic paradise. They understand exactly what they want and follow a path to actualize it.

Modern Musicians realize that they are the creators of their content, their career, and their lifestyle. They rely on no one else to create their paradise, and experience freedom and fulfillment doing what they love, when and where they choose.

All that’s needed is a laptop with at least periodic internet access, and an imagination!

The journey begins with clarity and focus

They get to the heart and soul of who they are as artists and develop an understanding of their vision and purpose, and then build a lifestyle that enables the freedom to create their content, and do what they love, on their own terms.

They get over what's known as The Magic Curtain Myth.

Modern Musicians have evolved from thinking they need, or are waiting, hoping, wishing for a record deal... For someone or some thing to come and discover them and ultimately catapult them to big time success. To building their career and fan base for them. This fantastic illusion is what we call The Magic Curtain Myth.

The Modern Musician realizes the power is in their hands. ​Success is about breakthrough thinking and bold action.

Modern Musicians Realize that there are only two pieces to the equation, and both of them are within their control...

We need to love what we do, and we need an audience that loves and supports it.

Period.

There’s an earnest​ness in attitude and outlook, an ownership and discipline in mindset, and an additional set of responsibilities that Modern Musicians embrace and honor. They realize that the opportunity we all have is unprecedented in history, and then get busy.

This begins with a Vision and Purpose.

My journey to where I am and who i am today has been a series of Visions followed by a set of Missions needed to turn that imagined vision into reality. It doesn’t have to be epic, it doesn’t have to be anything other than whatever you uniquely want, and are willing to exchange with time and effort to create.

I want you to take the next 15 minutes and visualize your paradise.

The modern world is what I call the Creators Paradise, the canvas and environment where we can literally paint our own versions of heaven on earth and spend our days there doing what we love, on our own terms.

Today, as Artists and Creators we now have both the resources and the capacity to create our own economy, doing what we love.

One that is not reliant on outside forces and economies, but that is governed by our innate talents for creative service and value generation for our audience.

I don’t care how gifted or talented or good looking you think you are, there are ways to deliver uniquely valuable content to a unique audience, in an original and authentic way that no one else can or is.

If you get clear on what, why, and how you do what you are doing, and go deep, the answers will be there.