A new year feels like a new start. A clean slate of 12 months. Somehow we all think that in the new year, we will be able to avoid all mistakes and to seize all opportunities, unlike previous years. Every year again, we truly believe that the new year can become different, better. Even after the hang-over on new years day we still believe in it. But how can it become better, if we think and act the same? If […]
2016 was a very loud year, especially in politics. It was loud with attacks and with rude political discussions. Last year ended with the attack in Paris, this year we had attacks in Brussels, Nice, Berlin and there was an attempted putsch in Turkey, followed by repression of everyone with a different opinion. The whole world was watching Clinton and Trump on their way to the elections. Putin was loud in bombing hospitals in Syria. We still hear the screaming […]
How do you deal with limitations? They can become a real block! This week a friend saw a post on FB. One of his friends asked to share bad jokes with him, but the jokes had to be political correct, not racist, not sexist. My friend is a good joke teller and usually has a good pile of jokes in his mind. I think that all his jokes are political correct, not racist, not sexist. But he blanked and couldn’t […]
When I was giving a guest lecture to students of music management at TAMK last month, the subject was positivism. I planned to tell a lot about research of positive psychology and how that can help artists and people working with them. When comparing people who work with art or artists with people working in other businesses, you see that people who work with art and artists follow their passion. They do what they like. They have a very positive […]
We loose more and more of our privacy. We post on Facebook what we do, what we think, where we are. Many apps have access to all contacts on our mobile devices. Google and Facebook know what sites we visit on the internet. But why bother, if we have nothing to hide? Last week I saw a very interesting documentary on TV: “Super Stream Me”. Last year, two Dutch guys, Tim den Besten and Nicolaas Veul, started the experiment to […]
Yesterday I was giving a guest lecture at TAMK in Tampere (Finland) about networking. Thanks to Skype, I didn’t have to travel. The students now know, that the music business is a people-business, they know what kind of people they need in their network, how to design their own network, how reciprocity and introductions work. At the end, one of the students asked an interesting question: “In my experience most of the people in the music business are quite shifty. […]
Are you creative? Do you see yourself as an artist? I believe that we are all creative, all of us. We are all born to be creative. It’s what makes us humans. Creativity can be expressed in all facets of life, in the dress you pick to wear today, in the dinner you prepare, in the way to do your work. And of course it shows in paintings, songs, dancing, films. If we are all creative, what makes artists more […]
The most common explanation of drug addiction is, that if you take too long a certain amount of a drug, you will become an addict. It’s the substance that makes you addicted. This theory is the basis that the US war on drugs is based on. But it doesn’t explain why so many famous musicians turn to drugs and have to go to rehab again and again. It doen’t explain why too many talented musicians die of an overdose, like […]
The phrase that the world is a village is often used when you have friends all over the world. It’s easy to travel. As musician you are touring around the world, or you are dreaming about touring around the world. In a social sense, the world is a village too. You are connected with colleagues, friends and family, wherever they are. You share your background and your believes with them. But do you know people with a different background, with […]
The Olympics 2016 in Brazil are over. And again it was all about the medals. The Dutch ‘Chef de Mission’ Maurits Hendriks is very disappointed. His task is, according to himself, to motivate the athletes. But they didn’t perform as expected. Very disappointing! What about the Olympic creed? “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The […]
I have to admit, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. After finishing a task, I always see something that could have bee done better. Do you recognize it? A big advantage is, that you keep improving yourself. Once you manage a certain task, you put the bar higher and higher. Next time you will do it better. You challenge yourself with everything you do. With this attitude, I found it difficult to relax during holiday. I not only wanted to […]
Last year I was talking to a friend about fame. She works in the music business too, with world music artists. Sometimes I wonder why conversations with colleagues from rock/pop are always so worked up, as if they have to proof themselves, all the time. Conversations with colleagues from world music or jazz are much more relaxed. You can also experience it in the atmosphere at conferences for the genres. But that’s a different subject. With a cup of coffee […]
39 years ago, on the first day of summer holiday, I bought a holiday-pass. It was the first time that my small German village had such a holiday pass. One of the offered activities was a trip to an attraction park in the Netherlands. Oh, how much was I looking forward too this, it would have been my first time abroad! With the holiday pass in my bag I was on my way home, by bicycle, when a car hit […]
Last week The Guardian published an article from Fiona McGugan, general manager of the Music Manager’s Forum, about the mental health of musicians. The article is about the role of managers in noticing and addressing mental health problems of their artists. “Maintaining an artist’s health is in the best interest of everyone – the label and the management as well as the artist themselves.” (Rumer Shirakbari) Still, short-term financial interests of the manager can be in conflict with the long-term […]
When starting something new, I often feel floating and at drift. It’s like sitting in a boat in the middle of the ocean. When looking around me, the waves don’t tell me where I am, where I come from or where I’m heading. It all looks the same. I don’t see any progress and I’m tempted to resign. Don’t panic! Thinking about it, I realized that it’s totally natural to feel like this. When you start something new, you walk […]
