
John Mayer: "Manage the Temptation to Publish Yourself" - cyanbane
http://www.berklee-blogs.com/2011/07/john-mayer-2011-clinic-manage-the-temptation-to-publish-yourself/
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Ixiaus
I think a few of the commenters are misinterpreting the message he was
attempting to convey (or maybe I am!).

What I took from that article was that, as a musician, spending too much time
making youtube videos - posting stuff up on myspace music, keeping up with
soundcloud track comments, &c... (those are my own examples of what I _think_
he meant by online social media) harms your ability to focus, to create, and
to ultimately cultivate a fan base that has a deeper appreciation for your
music than the fleeting thousands that skip impatiently through a youtube
video then go onto the next artist's video.

I fully agree, publishing yourself using social media is crucial - but so is
doing live tours, shows, showing up to a random small beach party and playing
some music (that will win you some fans), and spending time on your own
creating...

That's what I got out of it, at least, please correct me if I misinterpreted.

~~~
klenwell
I had a similar thought when I saw the Ok Go treadmill video about the same
time as I was reading Keith Richard's memoirs. If the Stones had spent as much
time obsessing over choreography of their Youtube videos in their early days
as they did just playing gigs, would they have ended up as the Stones? Will we
ever see a pop band again with a repertoire that deep?

Then again I guess the Richards himself had time to nurse a heroine addiction
and do some other extraneous stuff at the height of his creative powers. So
maybe it is possible to be a prolific music composer and obsessed with social
media. Just avoid the heroine.

~~~
madebylaw
FWIW, heroin is the drug, heroine is a lady hero.

~~~
mgkimsal
I think he had a heroine addiction as well. Or wait, maybe that was Bill Wyman
who was addicted.

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cosecant
This guy is SO out of touch with independent music it's not even funny. How
many people know amazing, talented bands that get no where? Good music within
itself does not promote itself. You have to advertise, whether it's engaging
in fans online or offline, or making friends with other musicians to split the
bill. Do not have a backup plan? Is he insane? For every insanely lucky guy
like him there's thousands of other guys working off their blood, sweat, and
tears only to end up extremely poor or with nothing. What he's saying is like
every startup is going to be Facebook or Google... I'm sorry that's not going
to happen. But at least even in a startup you tend to make decent money, not
near poverty wages like touring musicians have to endure for years before any
"break" ...

~~~
timr
To be fair, John Mayer _started_ as an independent. His first album was self-
published. He did a tour where he drove from gig to gig in his own car. Even
after getting a contract, he played unglamorous gigs second-fiddle to guys
like Glen Phillips (the lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket) at dinky clubs
in Seattle.

Sure, he's hit the mainstream, but the guy knows something about being
independent.

~~~
cyanbane
I second this. I haven't been too big of a fan of his latest work, but I
bought my first John Mayer album physically from John Mayer. To say he doesn't
understand independents isn't true.

~~~
timr
Me too. I have a signed copy of his second album that I bought from him
directly, by handing him cash, in a club. That's about as independent as it
gets.

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wf
I, like Ixiaus, also took something different away from the article than most
of the comments. I have several smart, talented friends who indulge in social
media to a gross extent. They are the kind of people, like Mayer, that are at
the point where they are asking questions like, “Is this a good blog? Is this
a good tweet? Which used to be is this a good song title? Is this a good
bridge?" but for their respective fields/talents. I certainly wish they would
invest less time into those questions and more time into their
craft/themselves.

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InclinedPlane
I couldn't disagree more. Publishing and promotion is so easy and cheap these
days it should be the default option of every musician, book writer, etc. to
self-publish.

Sure, it'll take some work to maintain a blog (or tumblr), use twitter, reply
to emails, use facebook/g+, etc. But if you do it right it'll just be a very
natural way to keep in touch with your fans and it'll be a rewarding
experience on its own. The benefits are too huge to ignore. For one, complete
control of your music and your career. For another, vastly increased profit
margins enabling you to avoid having a day job at a far, far lower threshold
than if you had used a more traditional publishing model. And ultimately a
much more significant and meaningful connection between you and your fan-base,
making your "work" all the more rewarding for both you and them.

~~~
spinchange
What is the point of publishing if you have nothing interesting (yet) to say?
He is talking about developing a voice before you scream.

~~~
InclinedPlane
That's a misleading dichotomy. All artists develop and mature over time, even
at the start. You don't need to be fully developed to nevertheless have
meaningful work and artistic talent that others would appreciate. Look at
xkcd, for example, imagine if randall munroe had said "maybe I should wait
until I have something more meaningful to say, and until I have better drawing
skills".

Sure, maybe you don't quit your day job if you're still incubating a nascent
talent, but you don't have to hide it away from the public. Indeed, one of the
best ways to improve artistic skills is to merely exercise them a lot, and to
get your work out in front of thoughtful critics and fans. Don't force
artistic development into a waterfall process, it can be iterative and agile.

~~~
spinchange
I think his general premise here is that the ease and ability with which one
can generate and publish content instantaneously -replete with instant
feedback loops- sets up bad mental habits and subroutines that begin to
inhibit the ability for John Mayer to make great content.

There is a gestational element to most great creative work that cannot be
denied. I think to protest this too much this suggests an infatuation with
tools and process, not the product.

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jrspruitt
I really liked his thoughts on this. While I understand social media is a
powerful form of promotion, its not the be all end all, there is more too it,
especially when you do something outside of social media that you are
promoting. The part about going for the little applause was great, you get
hooked on each tweet, each video, each blog post and its performance in
regards to audience reaction, instead of the entire body of work you've
created. It has the ability to chop your "art" into micro bits, because it has
got to fit inside the constraints of social media. In a way you become your
product, it sounds like he stopped being a musician and was selling John Mayer
on Twitter, it wasn't about the music anymore.

Which is kind of hard to stop doing, because its what the majority of the
internet audience wants. Jeri Ellsworth made an interesting statement about
the electronics/hacks she creates, the audience likes the simple ones, and
don't care much about the much more technical and in depth videos she creates.
The audience to some effect seems to be only interested in the short and
simple. Which I would imagine, if John Mayer spent all his social media time,
talking about music, and music theory, and the kind of things you would think
someone would want to know from a talented artist, I doubt he'd have the
followers. Where as, if he sticks to the one liners, and small talk, its
vastly more popular.

As for the mental changes is causes, I fully understand this. I've read a bit
about how the human brain changes according to how it is use. And also, when I
was still blogging, I noticed an interesting change in myself. I started
consuming the world in a "how can I blog this" sort of way. Anything even
remotely interesting that happened, instead of me enjoying the life
experience, quickly turned to, how can I phrase this on my blog? The short
time I was on Twitter, I found I spent more mental capacity, sorting through
my thoughts to Twitterize them, than on the actual thoughts. If you're famous
for social media, that is great. If your a musician, author, electrical
engineer, etc, it has the side effect of changing how you think, and then how
you create, if you focus on it too much.

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golfstrom
You have to remember the audience is a college of music. In a venue like this,
the primary question is not how to become a commercial success, it's how to
become better at your craft as a musician.

Mayer is also speaking from the unique perspective of being a serious
commercial success, wanting to nurture it, but still having the "burden" of
creating music to (his) high standards. I don't think most normal people need
to create such a black and white line between posting on Twitter and writing a
song, but Mayer needs to, and it's at least somewhat interesting to hear his
reasons.

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wccrawford
I get what he's saying about it destroying his creative process, but he's
clearly forgotten what it's like not to be popular. Advertising yourself is
the ONLY way to get fans. They do not just come to you automatically.

~~~
smharris65
Really? I don't think for musicians that "Advertising yourself is the ONLY way
to get fans". That's the fallacy of modern celebrity. For musicians the music
should attract fans, not the musician talking about himself and his work.

~~~
wccrawford
He specifically talks against advertising your music on social networks, and
not just your talking about it.

Getting a gig somewhere local without having fans isn't much fun. Anything you
can do to jumpstart that is probably a good thing.

It's almost like telling programmers not to put code on Github and share it
because it takes time away from the coding itself.

The truth is, sharing the music is beneficial in itself, and it's not really
like you can only do 1 or the other.

He had a Twitter addiction and took it to extremes. It was ruining him. That's
a lot different than simply using it to create a fanbase or interact with your
fans.

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jschuur
Some context: Jennifer Aniston dumped him over his Twitter addiction:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/5038203/Jennif...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/5038203/Jennifer-
Aniston-ended-relationship-with-John-Mayer-because-of-his-Twitter-
obsession.html)

------
treetrouble
_Mayer shared that he found himself asking himself questions like “Is this a
good blog? Is this a good tweet? Which used to be is this a good song title?
Is this a good bridge?_

As much as I disdain this guy's style sometimes, he makes some excellent
points. I take issue with this particular quote though. Perhaps his true
calling is to be both a musician and commentator. There's nothing inherently
wrong with letting oneself evolve and change focus. It's not like music is a
dying art form or something

