Business Lessons from the Music Industry
I'm a big believer in interdisciplinary innovation, or, in plain English, getting new business ideas from industries and disciplines other than your own. In the past, I've featured entrepreneurial lessons from baseball, surfing, even porn.
Another great source of business lessons is the music industry, e.g., in my RSS reader last week, I came across The Kurt Cobain Guide to Startup Success. Author Brian Clark says that there are a few things we can learn from the incredible success of Cobain's band Nirvana:
- The first key is always a new and better approach, or a fresh and innovative way to do the tried and true. If the "do it the way it's done" crowd tells you you're wrong, crazy, or stupid, you may be onto something.
- You can't ignore the realities of market demand and human psychology, but often the market doesn't realize what it wants and the mind craves something new.
- Create things that people naturally want to market for you.
- Be careful who you marry.
Here's a collection of a few more entrepreneurial lessons from the music industry from around the web. Of course, sometimes the lessons aren't so much models of success, but more about what not to do!
- The Beatles Principles (PDF - parts 1, 2 and 3)
- Fab Four Marketing
- Business Lessons from the Boss (Bruce Springsteen)
- Life and Business Lessons from Bon Jovi
- Music Lessons from Seth Godin
- 50 Cent Entreprenuership: Business Lessons Learned From Hip Hop Moguls
- Lessons from the Mosh Pit
- Business Lessons from Radiohead
- The Dre-Myth Revisited
- Madonna Madness - Making Money By Staying Relevant - and Remarkably Untalented!
- What Every Leader Can Learn from Britney Spears
If you enjoy the above and hunger for ongoing lessons, check out John O'Leary's Rock and Roll Lessons blog, "designed to connect the dots between business, organizational behavior, psychology, philosophy, political science, economics, and...rock & roll."
Comments
Hey Scott, I’d love to hear what business lessons you pull from porn. It must be entertaining. You may have posted it in the past, but I am a newcomer to your blog…
I truly enjoy it!
UrCoach
Dear Scott:
All of the other About.com money and business sites steer clear of suicide victims and porn. Please do the same in the future because it tarnishes the about.com brand.
1) “Suicice victim” is an oxymoron.
UrCoach:
Follow the link in the first paragraph.
Carla:
As you can see from comment #1, people are interested in the topic, and the continued popularity of those articles confirms it. It is 1) relevant to my readership, 2) handled in a professional manner, focused on the business issues of the industry, and 3) an issue that has been covered by other major business publications.
For example, the Forbes profile of Jenna Jameson is what prompted me to write mine. Entrepreneur Magazine also profiled Hugh Hefner. Another Entrepreneur article drew parallels between Hefner and Einstein.
RE: suicide…
I don’t see what the problem is. If I were sensationalizing it the day after his death, it would be one thing, but Cobain died in 1994. Furthermore, the article has nothing to do with his death, but with his accomplishments during his life.
Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t talk about the achievements of anyone who committed suicide? Does it somehow negate the rest of their life?
Shall we burn the paintings of Van Gogh? Discard the philosophy of Socrates? Dismiss the contributions of Freud to the mental health profession? Stop reading Hemingway in high schools and universities?
You know, suicide is so common among artists that our Art History Guide actually has a list of artists who committed suicide.
I certainly don’t believe suicides should be exploited for sensationalism, but that’s not what was done in this case, by any stretch of the imagination. And I just can’t buy the idea of steering clear of suicide victims as a sweeping generalization. That’s a slippery slope.
Nice post. I need to pay more attention to what your doing… lol
Hi,
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Virginia Military Institute
Class of 2009