The album was done… He finished it months ago, leaves were still on the trees and were still new! Maybe it was September. But thats not the point. It was finished before the stock market started hemorrhaging.
Life was good in the mind of this up and coming musician! His hobby of music was paid for by his profession (web application design), he had some gigs lined up, and his band was enthusiastic. What happened?
A reality bitchslap right across the face. The stock market took a dump, and the uncertainty of the future caused him to begin evaluating each move he makes towards an industry that everyone and their brother tells him is nearly impossible to break into without tens of thousands of dollars.
Suddenly the thought of running his own record label and releasing his own album has become but a faint voice in the back of his head, easily overwhelmed by the voices of Prudence, and her unpopular and bitchy cousin Cynicism.
“What are my options?” he asks them.
Prudence speaks up. “Keep playing shows and sell singles! Save what you can and put it into a bank account! After about a year, you should be pretty close! And maybe by then you’ll have enough people ready to buy your album so that you’re not storing all of them in your parents’ basement while the copyright date slips into the past.”
Then Cynicism interrupted. “No, just drop music all-together! You don’t have what it takes kid, you’ll spend all your money, and won’s sell shit. You’ll wish you had put it all aside for something better, like retirement.”
“Its something I have to do,” he replied. “I have to know what will happen if I put my music out there for people to hear. I have to see if I can do it. I have to know if I can push myself through all the hard work it takes to work an album and sell it. I know its a lot of work! I know the odds are stacked so highly against me. But I just gotta try!”
Cynicism is an evil thing, discouraging as she is, but prudence was his true friend. “Remember, that when you release your album, the clock is ticking, you have roughly a year to have recorded your next set of songs or you’ll be considered a failure in the eyes of many record labels. No one would touch you with a ten foot pole! You have to keep it rolling, and when you know for a truth that you cannot afford another go round in the studio, the odds are stacked against you even more.”
He thought about this for the first time. She continued. “If you sit on what you’ve got, and release some EPs you can buy yourself some time and work your way towards a better funded future. You can grow your fan-base, spread your name, and get an infrastructure of devoted evangelists to pimp your music out to all of their friends when you finally do release it. Its the right way to go.”
He nodded. Cynicism crossed her arms and turned away. Prudence smiled at a job well done.
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