The music industry is probably not your Ikigai

The majority of my audience is either trying to become a successful musician, or become a successful music executive, in the music industry.

My predominant topic of contemplation in the last 6 months has been about why we develop music industry ambitions, how we come to identify with them and subsequently how we become attached to those identities.

It is my belief that this latter attachment becomes the source of great dissatisfaction that distracts us from our art, makes us feel inadequate and, I have seen many times, leads to resentment of the joy of creating art that we love.

As somebody who’s worked in the music industry for 10 years, I have watched my love of music and producing for other artists develop into an ambition to be a leading music industry executive, whilst still wanting to produce music. I turned around 10 years later asking why I spent so much stress and mental energy on being a music executive when I set out wanting to be a music producer.

My focus now is to help artists stay separate from the business to keep their artistic focus, as well as help them stay mindful of the important parts of the music business and be effective at outsourcing things that could become distractions.

Entry and mid-level workers should delegate stress to their managers. Artists should do the same.

We often talk about an “artist career” in the music industry. This sets the precedence artists should follow the same “journey to success” as an employee in the corporate realm.

However, a career path nearly always leads to management positions in corporations, so it’s quite bizarre to think of artists wanting to develop their artist careers to become artist managers or executives. Surely they want to stay artists and doing the thing that brought them joy in the first place?

Business leadership and management is basically about the effective delegation of tasks across the company, whilst minimising expenditure and maximising profit. You’re aiming to delegate all tasks to focus on management and strategy. This post could easily go in the direction of discussing how artists should delegate non-musical tasks to their “team”, but I think there’s something even deeper at play worth surfacing..

I’ve been thinking a bit about life in feudalism and pre-capitalism. Back then, the majority of people were farming peasants. Your home, some basic food and a modest monetary income was provided by the lord of the land in exchange for your daily hard work on their farms. Many aspects of life must have been more simple, and ambition must not have had so much of a place in society. I’m not saying life would have been better then, there are plenty of debates around that on the forums surrounding Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind if you care to read. I’m just highlighting how we’ve evolved to believe that ambition is important hasn’t always been innate. Maybe a taste for adventure is arguably innate, but that’s different in my opinion.

So, most of human history was very long days of hard physical work for most people.

In the progress after the industrial revolution, possibly in the “50s boomer era”, there must have been a sweet spot where people were able to remember times when work was exceptionally hard with most of the waking hours filled with work, and what became the relatively easy white collar 40 hour work week for so many people. It must have felt like life was a blast, with so much time for leisure.

With more people working at corporations and more roles and skills arising in industries, corporations developed tiers of management hierarchies to delegate, organise and motivate workers.

Higher pay for higher level management roles are usually justifiable by those managers having to expend more mental energy systemising the work of their lower level workers, whilst the lower level workers do more structured low-skill work. Such strategy, organisation and communication skills would have required more education, or at least more experience. Experience would probably mean loyalty, which would be another reason for managers to be paid more.

What I’m describing here is the way different workers are valued, and thus paid, differently in capitalism. It’s different company to company, but ultimately there’s some quasi-concept of value between different tiers of workers.

In any case, the brain uses the most energy of all the organs in the body, so taxing the brain is technically more expensive than other types of work. Until the digital revolution, sub-management workers didn’t have to expend so much mental energy because their jobs quickly became part-autonomous. But now we’re in an age where all white collar work is basically knowledge work. We’re all needing to pump a high amount of energy towards our brains, and we’re all as stressed as the managers who get paid more to be stressed. So why exactly are they being paid more? Shouldn’t lower paid workers be able to delegate more of their stress up the chain so that they can focus on the tasks they’re paid to do?

We’ve increasingly lost the ability to be content in our jobs and be happy doing our 40 hours per week and then spend the remaining time doing leisurely things we love. The reason for this is because we’re fed stories of ambition and how this ambition will lead to a less stressful, better paid job. Artists are being fed the same story. Nobody is happy with their lot, and artists can’t be artists because they’re always trying to be something else.

Now, if this story of a better future through ambition and money is a lie and, in fact, we’re just in a cartwheel of never-ending discontent towards management positions that are still as stressful and demanding as the other jobs, then why are we continuing to blindly follow that ambition? For money? Can you not see how that’s not helping you get back to the wholesomeness you hoped for before you got so deep into your career ambitions?

If we were able to find contentment with a 40 hour work situation, and be in alignment with maximising wholesomeness, seeking the path of least resistance, and stopping to smell the roses, we’d probably focus on delegating as much stress and responsibilities as possible onto managers. Thus, the well-paid, ambitious managers could justify their higher pay because their jobs are more stressful and filled with responsibilities.

Why artists should love their 9-5, once they take ownership of sacking bad jobs and only doing ones that pay per input (not output)

This, in my opinion, is part of the key to ultimate happiness for artists. It starts with concepts outlined in Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Work Week, which I recommend everybody reads, but goes further for artists. – It’s about radically accepting the 9-5 as long as it’s needed, but taking ownership in setting boundaries of exactly what you’re willing to do in exchange for your salary.

You should never be letting any manager demand more than your outlined job responsibilities – your input at work. These need to be tasks that can be measured as completed. Never let a manager expect you to pull a white rabbit out of thin air in a black hat every week. This means never get involved in a sales job or something that expects some sort of result that is out of your control beyond measurable input -> output tasks.

Surely it’s plain to see how artists should not absorb more business responsibilities, when even businesses can’t get their hierarchy of value exchange right these days.

Artists, like savvy workers, should turn up and do a job for 40 hours, not adopting any of the stress (outsourcing that stress to their better paid managers), and focusing on the other hours of their leisure time for music.

When the results of that leisure time start to pay extra money that can be used in exchange for working hours out of their 40 hours 9-5, artists can then drop to part-time work outside of music, and so on, until they can think about what other aspects of stress they can delegate, eventually making their working time full time music-making.

Navigating the momentum of “luck” you build in a career

When I lost my ambition to be somebody successful in the music industry, it also started to feel like the world stopped serving me. I felt like my luck had run out. My purpose had faded, ego had deflated, my energy had gone and therefore I couldn’t force a smile and create new business opportunities for myself.

The reason we develop egos is because our survival (in societies) depends upon them. Egos are inherently linked to our “success” via development of a growth mindset, how we learn, and how we communicate with our peers (which translates to confidence).

When we abandon our striving for success, we stop telling the world we really want something. So, it feels as though society abandons us.

Society praises the ambitious because of a mixture of a remanence of protestant work ethic, neoliberal philosophy around the self-made man and a sprinkle of New Thought idealisms that the world is on your side if your mind is directed towards a goal (“The Law of Attraction“).

This is relevant to the self-determination theory in psychology, but mainly it’s about neoliberalism and capitalism manipulating people into believing that success comes from hard work + mental determination in the “right” direction (which can never be properly defined, thus the failure of 98% of startups).

Most people spend their lives on the self-determination cartwheel; developing more “skills”, “CV entries” and “financial security”, hoping that one day they’ll reach a point of wealth or job security that will liberate them from their problems. Every artist looking towards the music industry for this sense of liberation is just jumping on the cartwheel.

As a segue; no longer does fortune favour the brave. We’ve lost all concept of virtue of those ancient principles in modern society. So, we’re left with the [false] concept of fortune favouring the ambitious, which fuels neoliberal philosophy. Consider all the advice we receive about “luck being largely about creating our own opportunities”. We can’t create our own opportunities without self-confidence and tenacity, which are only possible via development of ego.

If you want to be lucky, you have to have ego and you have to know how to communicate that ego well in society. If you want to live authentically then your ego has to operate almost in opposition to society, which will make you unlucky.

No matter what when it comes to “success”, one needs a healthy dose of ego. Artists must decide whether they want to follow the advice of creating a successful music business around their art, which will lead to development of one type of ego, or focus on being a better artist, which will develop another kind of ego. Don’t confuse the needs of being an artist with the needs of getting paid – that is ego and identification with the music business that I see so many artists get wrapped up in and lose their way (and their art in the process).

Note: any ego can be healthy and humble. Ego is not inherently bad. It’s completely necessary to live in within society.

Wait, but why should I give up my ambition and what are you even getting at with your resentment for the music industry?

The music industry has nothing to do with music or artists. It’s all about commerce, profit and marketing. This may seem obvious, or this may not seem so obvious if you’ve brought into the spin that the whole idea of the music industry is there to reinvest its profits and trickle down to help you as an artist, but it’s undeniable that the music industry has only one care and that’s the financial performance of companies.

You’ve been told that you need an audience to be a great artist. You’ve been told that you need to follow music industry best-practices to be noticed as an artist. But I’m telling you that your music and your need to “make a living” can exist on completely different plains and you absolutely do not need to combine the two.

I’m actually saying it’s better not to.

Fear of giving up your music-industry-related identity

When I studied music production at college and university there was this paradigm amongst students that “tutors are people who failed in the music industry so they teach instead”. I don’t know how much that paradigm has changed since I graduated in 2011, but there’s definitely still a noticeable disregard for anybody who worked in the music industry but doesn’t anymore. It’s like you automatically get a “failed” print stuck on your forehead.

I’m leaving behind my days of music industry jobs, and no longer identify with working with the industry. So, will people trust me or see me as experienced when I still want to work with artists on my terms, detached from the corrupt industry? Largely the answer is no. Once you step away from convention, you’re penalised for that. You’ve retired, and you’re no longer going to be considered for business opportunities.

I’m cool with that though. I want to get back focused on my music. I’ll do any 9-5 job to pay the bills. One that doesn’t involve anything to do with the music industry, so I can clear my head of its bullshit and just enjoy music without any financial or business connotations washing around my mind.

I’ll create an AI online identity and automate funnelling music industry advice through YouTube videos and ads to digital product sales as some other mysterious music industry executive. (Joookes.)

When you decide you don’t want to do something anymore, you fall out of love with it, it feels like a breakup. You definitely try to cling to parts of it you received a whole lot of joy from, whilst accepting that you need to breakaway from the toxic parts that don’t serve you.

I never got into music to do half of the shit I did over the past 10 years. I just went on this journey because I could see I was getting good at things and so it felt natural to follow that path.

I also wanted to learn the things I did so I knew I could come back out of the industry knowing how to navigate it as a producer myself and to support other artists I work with.

I did those 10 years, and deciding to stop now doesn’t take anything away. I’ll still be writing and telling my stories and keeping up to date with my friends in the industry.

Here’s an egoic but true thing I can say: I haven’t seen anything new in the music industry for years, and seldom learn anything new. It couldn’t offer me anything more except more corporate jobs. I completed it.

I’m showing the world that taking a left turn is painful but you should do it if you feel that some sort of phoenix will rise eventually. My initial phoenix is my book. And again, I’m not thinking about its success. It’s my closure on 10 years of music industry experience.

Ikigai lied to us

Ikigai is a Japanese concept about finding purpose, or joy, from elements of your life. Supposedly, where they overlap is the “Ikigai” or “joy” spot.

Ikigai puts “profession” between what you’re good at and what you’re paid for. Following this principle can lead to rabbit holes of unhappiness if “what you love” is disconnected.

So, it can’t be Ikigai if it ignores all of the other elements. But people, artists, seem to forget that they can and probably do love other things outside of making music.

There are too many things you can love in this world for Ikigai to make any real sense…

For example, something I’ve always enjoyed and always committed to unconditionally for 13+ years is martial arts training. I’ve also always enjoyed gym training. I enjoy hiking. I enjoy being outdoors. I enjoy producing music. I enjoy working with artists to help them however I possibly can based on my experience and skills. I realised again in the last couple of years that I actually enjoy a certain amount of gaming. I enjoy playing around on Photoshop. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy gardening. I enjoy drinking alcohol (emphasised by 3+ months of not having done so). I enjoy a soak in a warm bath. Laughing with friends, or even strangers. Etc. These can’t all fit into my Ikigai circle, but why should I neglect any of them?

Things I don’t really like, but I’m good at and have been paid for thus far, are hunching over a computer, filling my brain with stress and anxiety and working on the parameters of control thinking about big problems and how to solve them, intense logic, too much regulation and centralisation, serving the business world, serving corruption, politics, technological manipulation, psychological manipulation, industry changes, dopamine manipulation, leadership & management, profit optimisation – the list goes on. I get a kick out of these things because something about my brain and personality works well with these sorts of interests. But I don’t fully “wow I had a great day” enjoy them like I do other things.

“Wow I had a great day” things are wholesome – and I want as many of those in each day as possible. That’s much more easy with a 9-5 of non-music related work than it is either working in a distasteful industry that distorts your passion, or striving to reach extremely difficult goals like going from minimal paid music work to full time.

Musicians will look at Ikigai and think:

• “What I love” – making music
• “What the world needs” – more music, my music because xyz
• “What you are good at” – making music
• “What you can be paid for” – Uhh, if I work this one out then I’ve found my Ikigai!

Thus will begin your cartwheel of pursuit of getting paid, which will become the expense of all of the other elements of Ikigai, and all your other areas of joy. The music industry will get its teeth into your brain and you’ll follow a path like mine of the past 10 years, where you have to come up for air and remember to get back to your music.

I believe we will serve ourselves better by surgically removing the “what you can be paid for” circle and not considering it a part of our joy matrix.

The phoenix

Edit (21/03/2024): I’d like to update this article to state that I outlined Ikigai from the general Western understanding of Ikigai. As somebody very interested in Japanese culture, history and philosophy, I found it quite surprising that a philosophy that combines life meaning with careers and income would be deeply embedded. However, I did doubt myself, knowing there is a big corporate culture there and that there is also an epidemic of meaning, especially in certain age groups. I’m pleased that Ness Labs released an article covering Ikigai today that describes Ikigai from the Japanese perspective, that compliments my sentiment in this article, and I thoroughly recommend reading it for further insight.