Aim for the edges.
May 7th, 2008
An amazing shift has happened in the last 10 years, as an artist.
You now have a better chance of being successful by being remarkably unusual, than by being normal and mainstream.
Songwriters constantly search for that universal theme, aiming to write the next “Yesterday” that will resonate with millions of people for decades to come.
But what good is the next “Yesterday” if nobody hears it because your music is too normal?
(See my article called “Well-Rounded Doesn’t Cut”.)
You already know we’re moving to a niche-driven culture, probably permanently. In 1948, Milton Berle’s TV show had 80% of all viewers, because it was one of only three choices! When the Beatles played on Ed Sullivan, they had 60% of all viewers. The biggest American Idol episode gets 30% now. There won’t be another Michael Jackson Thriller or Fleetwood Mac Rumours.
With unlimited options online, music fans don’t wait for mainstream media to tell them what to do - they explore, click, follow links, and can immediately listen to absolutely anything they’ve heard people talk about. Because of this, tastes are more spread-out than ever.
Your goal should be to attract and excite the people who have headed to the edges. They’re the ones who are looking for something new, and more likely to rave about it if you impress them.
I think of this like an archery range metaphor:
In the old music business (before 1997) it felt like hit-single-or-nothing. The only way you could be successful was to hit a tiny 1-inch target on the other side of a field. If you missed by an inch, you get nothing.
Now it’s like the target is huge, and you can aim for the edges, and hit something pretty easily - BUT - there’s a catch : someone cut out the middle.
If you’re still aiming for the middle of the target, there’s nothing there. They’re all out exploring niches.
Aim for the edges.
I like the metaphor, but, I think it carries further. I write new thought music, which, a few years back WAS on the edges, but, now there’s lots of new thought musicians. I recently got an opportunity to play a baptist church. To them, this was definitely the edge. they’d never heard anything like it and loved it!
Not a combination I ever thought would work. So, sometimes it’s not about writing for the edges, but, finding an audience that thinks what you write is on the edge.
Definitely like the way this post makes me feel.. Perhaps may quirky lyrics will resonate somewhere after all!
http://blakegriffith.blogspot.com
myspace.com/deletememusic
I’ve noticed the trend that niche independent artists often have more success than “mainstream” indie artists. The CD Baby top sellers are reasonable evidence of that. But I really hate the notion that I should have to create a niche just to own it. The music my band writes and performs is generally well-liked and falls into existing rock categories from grunge, alternative, pop, alt-metal. We don’t really get noticed precisely because our music does not truly tread any new ground. I’d like to think it’s not completely derivative either, and we put a lot of effort into ensuring each of our songs doesn’t just sound like the next.
I’m sure if I put my mind to it I could probably write 12 easy listening songs about pottery sculpting. But that would be extremely disingenous, even if the songs turned out well. I would be unique but I wouldn’t feel good about it. I manufactured a genre for the sake of standing out and resulted in making music that I don’t love. Is it not more important to be true to yourself as a writer and performer than to force yourself to be unique?
I like Cliff’s idea of finding people who really view your music as edgy. Maybe if I can just find some sheltered kids and hook them while they’re young…
And your photoshopping abilities continue to improve. Well done.
I guess I’m just stuck on the old tried and true for my generation 30’s 40’s 50’s music. With the moderate sucess of my two albums I’m happy with that, you younsters go for the edge, I’ll stay where I am, happy with my music. I’m not inventive, I sing the Sammy Cahn, Richard Rogers etc music. Still work gigs that I want, I’m 74 years young.
It’s fascinating how the digital music business has evolved since 2003 when I was a freshman music publisher and label executive just two weeks old and green fresh off my first outsourcing adventure with Groove House records in L.A. Wow how time passes! I learned so much by just being a member of CD Baby. All that independent talk really absorbed and prepared me with all those great tools that would serve any independent artist well on an amazing journey through this amazing industry. . .LX
What is the edge and how many listeners are downloading it? To me it all boils down to writing music that people want to listen to. I say to write music that the listener can hold on to and then you will have something.
Great article Derek! The target metaphor really hit home, since i just shot a bow and arrow for the first time in about 20 years last week… I will definately keep the edges in mind now.
-paul
Interesting thoughts, as always. The trouble with aiming for the edges is that, although they’re easier to hit, you get a lot less points (sales/income) for doing so. In any self-sustaining sense, hitting the edge is the easy part - what’s harder is growing that into something that you’re comfortable with (as an artist/parent/citizen).
Remember: amateur singer/songwriters have been having massive hits in the smallest niches (their own bedrooms) for time eternal …
There is always someone that will like something just because it’s different. It makes them feel that this strange new band is theirs and not everyone else’s. If what your saying is true then I guess the words selling out will be applied to the edge aimers coming from the center. I personally plan on shooting the arrow straight up thus missing the target all together. Hopefull I don’t end up hitting just myself which could happen because I am the person I write for.
I like Dan’s response.
I get emails every week from customers (i still can quite get used to calling them “fans”), who reflect their perspective of having “found” Tania Rose music. They feel a personal connection and a sense of discovery because they “stumbled” on something special. Everyone knows ’so-and-so’, but “i’ve found something special”. We are a instinctively hunters and gathers, who find being spoon-fed unconsciously degrading.
smiles to you,
Tania
Interesting analogy, but possibly misleading. I’ve been living on the edge for too many years. I believe if you aim for the middle you’re more likely to hit the edge. So the trick is not to aim for the edge but to be happy with the edge. In fact if you look at the geometry of your ex. you’ll see that you’ve moved away from hitting probably 2/3 of the edge by aiming for the edge. Imagine aiming for the left edge (which now becomes your new center … To do this, draw a circle the same size as your target and move it over. you’ve now excluded a majority of your target and increased the likelihood of missing the target altogether.
Ex. I know our music would never win a popularity contest, yet there seem to be thousands of contests for us to enter for the big prize … Seems absurd to me. But still, I might enter (if it doesn’t cost) because it does give me some exposure …
And besides if you look at what people think is their difference you might discover that their edginess is really closer to the center than they think . Actually I came across this discrepency in reading up on some of the “paradox” stuff I got on the google link you posted. (But please don’t ask me to retrace my steps … )
When my band first started playing together in 1995, I was 13. It has been comprised of my closest friends and we’re still playing together under the same name (BENCH GRINDER).
I have and always will be a devout fan of Pop-Rock. When I was an impressionable teenager in Seattle, pop rock was abundant! That was primarilly what I listened too and therefore has always been the underlying theme in what I write.
I remember people saying to us earlier in our playing days “You guys sound like everything else out there.” While I never got offended by that (infact, I took it as a complement!) I never thought we we’re a copy cat of anyone because we listened to EVERYTHING (pop rock, pop metal, pop hip hop.. any thing that was catchy).
It’s funny that, at our recent shows, everyone says “You guys are great! You sound like no one else today!” We have honed our skills a lot as songwriters, musicians and performers but we never strayed from our initial goal: write songs that people will enjoy dancing/singing along to.
It’s strange to think that what may’ve been considered ‘Mainstream’ 10-15 years ago is now looked upon with such disdain. Pop has taken such a negative conotation in the past decade. I think the best advice is do what you love and do it well. That’s the only way to be successful.
Honest music will always prevail. Wether you’re playing Speed Metal, Hip Hop, Country, Rock or whatever. If your sincerity shines through the song.. people will dig it!
http://www.myspace.com/benchgrinder
[...] Sivers just wrote a great post called Aim for the edges. He says, “You now have a better chance of being successful by being remarkably unusual, than [...]
I’m with you on that one, Derek. As a matter of fact, I’ve read many of your blogs and articles to that same effect.
Further stated, if I were a religious person, I’d ask you to start a religion so that I could join. Of course, I’d be the guy who only showed up on certain holidays and after I’d done something unmentionable, but that still gets me in the pews on a frequent basis.
Fringe is in. Again.
My question is, does a guy like me (with familiar and unique exhibition in his work) get the same opportunity in the “big game” for “major success”?
I see the cycle (the ‘Matrix’), but do the young industry leaders of today see it? I can predict that ’something’ and when it will occur. I grow impatient knowing how long I will have to wait for that ’something’. I believe that successful artists in this industry have the same ability, the same knowledge gathering ability and by-nature instinct. But do the gatekeepers?
Regina Spektor is a great example of someone who got more famous as she got more quirky/edgy. She was on CD Baby for a few albums, and now she’s quite a big artist on Warner Music.
The way to impress the gatekeepers now is to bypass the gatekeepers.
Personally I take aim at the target with in myself. If I don’t feel it, I don’t do it. If people like it great, if they don’t then that’s fine to. There are no gatekeepers where I travel in this business. I am free to do as I please and make my own edges or sit and watch the others follow the beaten path.
Maybe we should all take note of what Tony Moreno is doing and follow our own heart.
Writing, playing, and recording music that you truly believe in, feel, and enjoy doing equals honest music. No matter how it is received by the public, you should be proud of what you create. Anyone entering the music business who is focused on being adored by the masses and wealthy beyond there wildest dreams is doing just that. Dreaming. IMHO it all starts with honesty and tapping into your inner self. It’s not easy.
I just feel that if you plant the seeds of honesty and individuality in your music you are bound to produce music that is fulfilling to you and is more likely to be appreciated by an ever diverse world of consumers. Without massive corporporate backing, looking inward is more realistic to me. Invest in yourself and grow your best product to share with others. Commercial “failure” can still be a personal success.
Pinedog
[...] May 20, 2008 by stickmansix I found the following article on 13 Rule-Breaking Films on a website called G.L.I. Press . Pretty cool article. I know a bunch of you are filmmakers (bless your hearts, I lose a couple years off my life every time I make a CD. I CANNOT imagine making an entire film. ). In this day and age of Long Tail economics, you “have a better chance of being successful by being remarkably unusual, than by being normal and mainstream.” You can read more about this in an article by Derek Sivers called “Aim for the Edges.” [...]
One maybe kinda simple way to say it is, “there is only one you — so all you have to do is REALLY be yourself.” But that’s not as easy as it sounds, at least for me. Someone (the screenwriter Eric Red) once told me, “You’ll never be a great writer until you’re not afraid to look ugly.” I like this post a lot.
Know thyself. Many times we use common terms that we THINK we understand: and sometimes their real meaning is quite different. Like the word Religion. The original meaning of the word Religion means ´To gather all your energy
to find out`…
Dear Derek,
I find your advice interesting but have not really found it to work. We have what we feel is a beautiful album of songs on CD Baby called “I Spread My Wings…” by Angelica Tucker, which we call a unique mixture of classical and soul, but we haven’t sold a single CD. I tried to promote it on the internet, but i don’t really know what i am doing in that department. We have it on a showcase, and people write in and say how much they like it.
Angelica hasn’t felt very comfortable performing the songs in public because they are too different, so that may be the problem.
She can write in a contemporary R&B/Hip Hop style, so we are trying to go that route for her second album, and hope that if she gets well known, we can eventually widen people’s tastes and sell the first album as well.
Do you have any suggestions?
Eric Price
beautifil , woo hoo
I thought about writing a book about a “three-year period” in my life. It was an exciting time.Who knows?Maybe I’ll look back and feel the same way about what’s happening now with my music endeavors.Thank you for allowing me to feel this way again.
Wise words the perfect voice