You’re an independent artist, or a business, and you’re planning to produce a physical media product. First you should figure out which format is best. Don’t necessarily assume that a CD is the right format!

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume you’ve decided on CD. Let’s also assume that you’re going to work with a producer to help manage the entire project. Here’s a basic overview of some key details in producing a commercial CD.

Think of a CD project as having four management areas:
1.) content
2.) packaging
3.) promotion
4.) distribution

There are many different types of producers and some offer a broad scope of services. One of the roles a producer may take on is to make effective design decisions regarding the project’s narrative in all four areas listed above. In other words, the story of the content should be reflected in the packaging art, in the choice of packaging materials, the the types and location of promotion, in the sources of distribution, and so on.

Some producers will go so far as to match the sonic qualities of the recording with the style graphics (album art, web art, band publicity images, etc.) For example, they are aware that a certain microphone matched with a certain pre-amp will allow them to create a specific texture in the mix. That texture will translate through mastering as a design motif - and that motif or idea can be repeated in other management decisions across the full scope of the project. This may seem extreme, but repetition is a great storytelling technique, and great stories out-perform mediocre ones.

It’s usually not difficult to create a consistent set of aesthetics and related marketing decisions. Many artists enjoy making the decisions that most directly impact their creative vision. In the scheme of production obstacles, some producers will facilitate decision making, and if needed they can be called upon to make good decisions.

Other producers will join a project with the explicit understanding that they have creative direction over all areas. In this latter case, you entrust the producer to do a good job turning the vision into an product. You’ll likely have plenty of opportunities to provide input, but the contract will be structured around the understanding that the producer has decision making authority.

From my experience, the larger challenges with packaging, promotion and distribution have to do with market familiarity. Do you know the market? Meaning, the producer will probably have more and better information about the what, where, and with whom to get things done.

With manufacturing, for example, there are a wide range of vendors, near and far. A label will traditional be involved in that decision. But in the case of an independent act, you can either learn for yourself or search out someone who knows.

Another timely issue, one that’s difficult for artists and professional producers alike, is to stay current with the constantly changing state of online promotion and distribution. Questions to consider:

• Blog outreach?
• If so, which ones?
• Partner with an online distribution company?
• If so, which one?
• Partner with a label?
• If so, which one?

Some of the most technical questions have to do the bands web presence. Not every producer has first hand experience with social media, or web development project management. Nor should they! My point should be clear - different producers bring different skills to the project.

The point that I’m working towards is to establish narrative integrity in all aspects of the project.

Please remember too that you can and should handle as many of the production tasks as you’re comfortable doing. Do it yourself and you’ll have a great learning experience. Alternately, you can hire an independent producer with the skills you’re looking for.

The right producer will do much more than help you write, rehearse, refine and record your content. She’ll have a strong sense for all major decisions in the four key areas listed above (content, packaging, promotion, and distribution). This style of producer will bring a diverse set of skills and experience - ranging from songwriting, to engineering, to budgeting, to emerging technologies.

As distribution and production costs continue to change, I expect this style of producer to become increasingly common. It’s what I’ve done on the last three projects I’ve produced; not by choice (the creative process is often more fun), but by necessity. Artists have limited budgets and now more than ever they can use good advice for making the most of their ideas.

The Jomox “Resonator Neuronium”. Obnoxious name and I enjoy obnoxious names.

The Youtube comments are as funny as you’d expect - ranging from “This is bar-none the coolest thing on youtube…” to “very bored piece of hardware[...]”

There are other ways to generate atmospheric loops and I’ve never seen any that can be as dynamically and organically modulated; it has the potential for highly expressive if inherently unpredictable performances in the hands of a skilled tweaker. The video gives a quick impression of how the Resonator interacts with sequenced midi data and heavy delay. I believe it has 1/4 inch stereo inputs too.

In 1990, environmental economist Herman E. Daly published a work in the journal of the Society for International Development titled “Sustainable Growth: An Impossibility Theorem”.

The premise of this short article is straight forward; in a world of finite resources, indefinite economic growth is not a viable option.

In Daly’s words:

Impossibility statements are the very foundation of science. It is impossible to: travel faster than the speed of light; create or destroy matter-energy; build a perpetual motion machine, etc. By respecting impossibility theorems we avoid wasting resources on projects that are bound to fail. Therefore economists should be very interested in impossibility theorems, especially the one to be demonstrated here, namely that it is impossible for the world economy to grow its way out of poverty and environmental degradation. In other words, sustainable growth is impossible.

It’s unavoidable - the economy relies on a massive but not limitless quantity of natural resources and life supporting services. Common wisdom has been slow to catch on to this fact.

Business leaders are intelligent and well educated. They can conceive of the limits of growth. And then what?

Mentioned this enjoyable movie in an earlier post. The poetic true-life story treats time as a central character. Much of the footage is from the 70’s (it’s affecting to see the twin towers in their infancy). The scenes of New York are moving.

The perpetrators of the event were preparing a film from their earliest stages of planning. They spent 6 years planning the walk, and several decades producing the film.

Meanwhile, the spectacle itself is an exercise in total focus on the present, a moment which results only from a sustained vision into the distant future. Philippe Petit displays enormous organizational ability, courage, highly refined acrobatic skills and a zen like appreciation of the now moment.

“Siberiade” is a spectacular film by Andrei Konchalovsky. The four part epic story reveals many ancient and modern themes, in an ambitious effort to understand humanness in times of cultural instability.

The title of this post is in reference to Siberiade character Afanasy Ustyuzhanin, who abandons the social and economic responsibilities of his tiny village to clear a road through the woods, on course to a distant region told in folk stories as a source of great danger (”the Devil’s Mane”). His friends and family criticize this irrational pursuit. Society fears that the road will lead to spiritual ruin. The labor is backbreaking and his course is openly self-destructive.

Despite all physical and emotional obstacles, Afanasy continues until ultimately he is overcome by nature and dies on the job; pretty heavy stuff. And the question is clear - why? Why is he obsessed with this project? What drives a man to such madness?

Character Afanasy brings to mind a brush clearing fanatic down in Crawford, Texas.

Indeed, Oliver Stone paid tribute to Konchalovsky in his recent work “W.” Stone’s sequence of young W. working with a Texas oil crew invokes several scenes from Siberiade. It’s hard to not  view W’s behavior in the context of characters Aleksey Ustyuzhanin and his tree chopping grandfather Afanasy.

These two excellent films are essential viewing for anyone who seeks to understand the social, cultural, and environmental impacts of economic globalization. I encourage watching them both in succession, starting with Stone.

There’s a moment during one of the black power scenes in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Sympathy for the Devil” where the narrator speaks from the perspective of the economic elite about using drive in movies as a means to control the masses. Godard’s intent was to explore mass culture as an artsy intellectual critique of the failures of intellectualism. It’s a slow paced, abstract piece with many hidden layers of symbolism, beautiful recording studio footage and exceptional narration.

The story of the film production is interesting too. Not surprisingly there were conflicts between Godard’s original vision and the final product that went to market. It’s amusing to think that a studio would work with a known trickster like Godard, and expect the results to somehow not explode in their faces.

Unlike modern productions featuring trendy pop stars, Godard’s 1968 message was that consumers were obligated to engage in the culture. He argued that fans of the Stones shouldn’t be content with the mass produced and slickly marketed blues rock of that period. Rather fans should dig deeper and learn about the roots of blues music. What’s more, you can’t watch his footage of the Stones in rehearsal without sensing a sort of bemused amateurism in these pop art icons. It’s strong realism that brings the subjects down to earth while inspiring a different type of respect for their work and the work of their producers!

Speaking of great work, friends at the Disposable Film Festival are doing a fine job shining a light on an emerging genre of video art - video produced using non-professional equipment. Their second festival in SF a few months ago was a big success and they’re organizing screenings around the world. Currently they’re hosting a Bike in Movie screening on May 13, 2009 in downtown San Francisco. It’ll be a fun night.

You have to believe Godard would be pleased to learn of a bike in screening of cool new genre of DIY movies. Maybe someone on the internet will let him know.

Many have expressed confusion about the Banksters’ success in hustling ever greater piles of public cash.

The first Yakuza Papers film was released in 1973 by the Toei Company. “Battles Without Honor and Humanity” was so brilliantly written (Iiboshi & Kasahara), and directed (Fukasaku) that it inspired a five part series, countless filmmakers, and initiated a style of crime story that is popular still. A recent excellent example is Borrone’s 2008 “Gomorrah”.

How do otherwise well intentioned, hard working and responsible professionals become caught up in bad deals?

In the 1872 novel “Demons” (aka “The Possessed”, & “The Devils”), Dostoevsky’s character Stavrogin confronts character Pyotr Stepanovich with dangerous insight:

Here you’re counting off on your fingers what forces make up a circle? All this officialdom and sentimentality - it’s good glue, but there’s one thing better still: get four members of a circle to bump off a fifth on the pretense of his being an informer, and with this shed blood you’ll immediately tie them together in a single knot. They’ll become your slaves, they won’t dare rebel or call you to accounts.

It’s an extreme literary metaphor - written as dark caution against the risks of nihilism. Possibly also an oblique argument in favor of matrix management models; those where the benefits of transparency outweigh the inefficiencies/discomfort of chaos, complexity, and red tape.

Good time to consult our old friend Ira U. Cobleigh. Mr. Cobleigh wrote the cleverly titled book “How to Gain Security & Financial Independence” (Hawthorn Books, New York, 1956). Ira’s first chapter has the romantic heading “Thrift and Gracious Living”. Here are his five major goals of thrift:

(1.) an emergency rainy day fund,
(2.) life insurance coverage,
(3.) a specific sum for the purchase and furnishing of a home,
(4.) the education of children, and
(5.) a fund to create or supplement retirement income.

Ira doesn’t mention the importance of paying down high interest credit card debt. It was a different time!

UPDATE: Minutes after posting this, I searched the good Doctor’s name and found my post very high in Google results. My purpose here is to practice thinking and writing about an old book - I don’t care to insult anyone personally. I’ve removed the Doctor’s name below to hopefully avoid unwanted attention.

Today’s forgotten management book is “The Money Personality” by Dr. Fullname Obscured (Simon and Schuster, ‘79). Dr. Obscured’s central (and heavily repeated) premise is that some people have so-called “Money Personalities”, and you can too!

Skip Dr. Obscured’s main idea. Also skip kindly past the humorous front cover - adorned with a seriously gleaming gold dollar symbol money clip. Next, ignore the rear cover’s glamour shot of a navy-sport-jacketed Dr. Obscured posing with (someone’s) private plane.

We can laugh, and we should, but we shouldn’t underestimate the power of marketing genius at work. This book will not make you rich - sorry. Much of it will bore you, especially if you’re fishing for clever management ideas. And in fairness, most of Dr. Obscured’s thoughts are sympathetic, bland, and far less malicious than my introduction suggests. If you dislike mundane sycophantic rambling, you probably will not enjoy “The Money Personality”.

Perhaps, like me, you’re willing to tolerate some rambling in patient pursuit of slow knowledge. Indeed there are things we can learn from Dr. Obscured. He was a practicing psychiatrist with deep access to the hearts and minds of the moneyed elite in late ’70s Manhattan. In a way, you might read it like a cultural artifact - a reminder of the sophisticated methods used by authors and publishers to exploit the desires of eager consumers.

“The Money Personality” was sold in the early days of a media marketing wave that brought us many pop-culture classics like “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” in ‘84, and “Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Wall Street” in ‘87. Dr. Obscured’s work provides an early and clear economic anthropological view into values of New York’s much celebrated and imitated urban elite.

Enjoy this selection from Obscured’s chapter “Walking the Tightrope for Fun and Profit”:

“The key to good tightrope walking is not a rigid posture but a flexible, supple gait. When the tightrope walker initiates his treacherous act, he knows he will temporarily lose his balance many times. His mind focuses on detecting and recovering from situations where he has lost control. If he stubbornly insists on maintaining flawless control, he will tumble to oblivion. The tightrope walker must assume the existence of periodic loss of control and must be poised for a quick recovery.”

Dynamic and flexible thinking will help you anticipate and react to inherent market risks.

So what?

So nothing. And that’s the point. The tightrope paragraph wasn’t written to teach anything. It’s a subtle way to make a casual reader feel like they’ve learned something. It wasn’t chosen at random, and it exemplifies the tone, style, and substance of the book. Like most of Dr. Obscured’s stories, the tightrope story carries his assertion that bold and exciting rich people think differently than other people. Rich people think differently, and you want to think (and act) like them because it’s better.

The danger here is explicit: if we fail to think and act like rich people, we’re destined to fall, to disappear into some sort of unknown and scary abyss.

It’s trite to observe that business books are marketed toward people that care about money and their careers. People dream of becoming rich, achieving financial security, and that’s all fine. I’m more interested in the way that heavy scientific methods are employed to promote pseudo-scientific assertions; how those assertions are reinforced in all forms of pop culture; and how it’s essential to remain mindful of these historically harmful ideas when consuming media of any kind.

The inside front cover reads:

“The Money Personality is a comprehensive guide to thinking rich that will show you how to develop the personality traits, practical instincts, and optimistic outlook on life that have made thousands of people the financial successes they are today. No book yet has told you as much about the mind of the rich and how it works.”

Excellent illustration of the techniques used by skilled copywriters and professional psychiatrists to concoct and sell a fantasy lifestyle - complete with a cute mental framework and vacuous boxes for easy checking.

Incidentally, did you see that film “Man on Wire” about Philippe Petit? Beautiful story with loads of great footage of the early ’70s Manhattan skyline shot from the top of the World Trade Center.