DISCOVER YOUR REAL POTENTIAL
In 1977, the great computer scientist Donald Knuth published a paper called The Complexity of Songs, which is basically one long joke about the repetitive lyrics of newfangled music (example quote: “the advent of modern drugs has led to demands for still less memory, and the ultimate improvement of Theorem 1 has consequently just been announced”).
Check the analysis of the repetitiveness of a dataset of 15,000 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1958 and 2017 here.
The Met celebrated the 50th anniversary of its enormous Lincoln Center home with a starry gala this month. But as its 2016-17 season ended, the challenge of filling a theater that holds 4,000 came into stark relief: The Met said it had taken in 67 percent of its potential box-office revenue this season — up only very slightly from last year, its worst showing ever.
In the 2015-16 season, the Met took in 66 percent of its potential capacity. Some numbers are improving a bit more substantially: The company’s paid attendance rate, which includes discounted tickets, rose to 75 percent this season from 72 percent in 2015-16. And the company said it attracted 80,000 new ticket buyers this season, up from 74,000 the year before. The challenge is turning those newcomers into regulars.
(via)
Nina Düvel and her colleagues at the Hanover Music Lab asked four experts in the fields of the neuroscience of music or the neuroscience of music education to agree on seven music-related brain facts, and seven music-related brain myths. Among the facts: the idea that music education can benefit language skills and that the anatomy of the brain can change in response to musical training. Among the myths: that right handers process music in the right hemisphere and that musical education boosts children’s intelligence.
(via)
Of course as a songwriter you want to appeal to the masses. You want a ton of people hearing, sharing and loving your music. I get that. But one thing you have to realize when you’re marketing yourself is it’s best to address a single person to increase the odds of getting their attention.
Another big mistake a lot of songwriters make is they don’t make their promotions all about their fans.
One of the best ways to market your music is to build relationships. This applies not only to people who can help advance your career, like club owners and bigger bands, but with your fans as well.
(via)
