Steve Jobs announced Apple’s forthcoming iCloud service today. A lot of the functionality already exists in other applications (Dropbox, Google Docs, etc) and the music service is similarly unspectacular.
Basically, music purchased from the iTunes store will be able to be synced from the “cloud” across multiple devices. But what of the music that I ripped from CDs I own that is now in my iTunes library? Sadly the iCloud music “service” is barely that.
UPDATE: iTunes Match delivers this functionality. The recorded music biz is now officially a nickel and dime game. Good for owners of aggregated content, bad news for creators.
Seth Godin writes:
How much are you paying for the privilege of having someone else tell you what to do? … We happily give up our freedom and our income in exchange for having someone else take responsibility for telling us what to do next.
Seth forgets (or at least doesn’t mention) that most give up their freedom and income potentially earned in exchange for some income definitely earned. That’s really the exchange taking place.
Our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate, where strength is born. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Next to Resistance, rational thought is the artist or entrepreneurs worst enemy. Bad things happen when we employ rational thought, because rational thought comes from the ego. Instead, we want to work from the Self, that is, from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious.
A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. Its only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” – Steven Pressfield, Do the Work
The idea of “being realistic” holds all of us back. From starting a business or quitting a job to dating someone who may not be our type or moving to a new place – getting “real” often means putting your dreams on hold.
Today, let’s take a step away from rational thought and dare to be bold. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to accomplish but have been afraid to pursue? Write it down. Also write down the obstacles in your way of reaching your goal. Finally, write down a tangible plan to overcome each obstacle.
The only thing left is to, you know, actually go make it happen. What are you waiting for?
That’s complete nonsense. Rational thought may well be an artist’s worst enemy (and I know because I work exclusively with artists), but an entrepreneurs? Hardly. The entrepreneur must simultaneously use both the power within his or her Self and rational thought. We find inspiration within ourselves but we must always test our ideas rationally.
This does not mean an entrepreneur must not take risks. There is always an element of stepping into the unknown when launching a new idea. Who really knows how a market is going to respond after all? Certainly not market researchers!
But by being rationale and seeking truth deeply within one’s Self, we are able to see the multitude futures we each own.
Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.
Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?
I’ve got a neat little trick on this one. It’s called the Born Genius process. One of my businesses, Red Hill Publishing, published a book about the idea. Written by a life coach, Peter Barr. I’ve got another book on the subject on the way and I’ll tell you more about that when it’s ready to publish.
The answer to the question: we all need to learn to be happy with what we have, wherever we happen to be. In obtaining our goals we need to be focused on the process as much as the outcome. In doing that our focus moves from “better” to the present.
If we live truly, we shall see truly. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there?
I’d love to travel more, full stop. Fortunately I have realised that I don’t need to be chained to a desk to work. And my return to artist management means I’ll probably get the chance to travel for work. So that’s the plan.
That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? . . . Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (ie I don’t feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (ie How can I do work I’m passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them.
Bonus: tweet or blog a photo of your post-it.
A: write down all the shit I have to do, execute and cross it off the list! Ignore the incessant opportunities that distract me. It’s like being continuously hit on, day in, day out …
Here’s the post-it. It’s still stuck to my phone.
Head over to my Tumblr page to check out some of the weekend’s cooking. Makes me happy.
Apple’s rumoured iCloud is supposedly landing soon, for not a lot more than $25 per annum. If true, it’s a good deal for users: possibly all the music they could want to stream, where ever they are, whenever they want.
But as I’ve said and written before, this turns recording into a nickel and dime game. That’s fine for aggregated rights owners, like the major recording and publishing houses, where billions of dimes becomes serious cash. It’s why Blavatnik is smart in buying WMG and why he should buy EMI.
But for the creators, they’re about to get seriously fucked over. There needs to be another way to monetize recorded tunes. (More on that another time.)
I’ve turned commenting off. Not because I don’t want to engage, but because no-one is engaging in this space. You’ll find me on Twitter @robertcollings.
