Letting Go: 5 Music Business Life Lessons

Today’s music business life lessons are about letting go. Last week when we were trying to go to Spain, my wife and I got to the airport at 9:45 AM. Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:20. We got a little snack and waited at our gate. As luck would have it, the trouble started. They kept delaying our flight 30 minutes at a time. Finally, the plane arrived at 2:30 PM. By 3, we were leaving the gate.

As we approached the runway, the pilot announced that the smoke detector in the luggage compartment had gone off.

So, the plane was surrounded by firemen in shiny silver suits and emergency vehicles of all types. After they decided it was a false alarm, they decided to ground the plane.

By 6 PM, we had our luggage and headed back home.

It was an extremely frustrating day. We were exhausted. But, I was reminded that there are some things in life you can’t do anything about. Complaining and griping about it would have only made it worse.

It made me think about some areas of my songwriting that I can’t do anything about and chalk it up to music business life lessons.

Since I can’t force them to be different, I just do my best and let the chips fall where they may. I don’t complain or gripe. Now I just work to change the things I can change and let these things go:

1) I can’t make someone cut my song. That’s their choice. And it’s all personal preference. They’re NOT cutting my song doesn’t mean it’s a bad song.

2) I can’t make someone like me as a writer. That’s personal opinion too. Someone not liking my writing doesn’t mean I’m not a good writer.

3) Today, I can’t make Spotify or Pandora pay me more. I do what I can to change that through legislation, but I don’t sit around and stew over it.

4) It’s impossible to make myself younger. I can do things to overcome my lack of coolness and hipness. I can stay current. But I’m still the age I am.

5) I can’t make someone give me a Grammy. I’d love one, but 99% of that is out of my control. So, I just try to write Grammy-worthy songs and not worry about it.

Letting go of those 5 things helps me enjoy the journey and it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders. I can improve my writing and write better and better every day. Most of the rest is out of my hands.

Write on! MD