Overall, it was a good year for the sales side of the industry. Album sales were up and soulful trumped poppy. If you pay any attention to music, that’s no real surprise. People are leaning towards a more organic sound nowadays. Sure, you’ve got the teeny boppers keeping the over processed cra…music on the air and up the charts but a lot of buyers want some sort of a connection with the artist. That’s happening in many industries, though. It’s one good thing that come from the economic downturn in ’08.

The main reason I wanted to share this was – along with (possibly due in part to) Miss Spalding’s Grammy win last year- jazz as a whole saw an increase in sales. Not just a couple percent, either! The genre was up 26% in total sales with Michael Bublė’s Christmas album beating out Beiber’s by almost double (2.45 million to 1.25 million). This is a big deal… Here’s why I think so…

If you think about it, the majority of Bublė’s sales probably weren’t from  jazz heads. I would say at least half were people who have a limited amount of exposure to the genre. That means, conservatively, 1.2 million people who don’t listen to or purchase jazz regularly now have a big band jazz album in their library. Just say 5% of those are even remotely interested in finding something similar to listen to… That’s 60,000 people who might find themselves perusing previous Bublė or old Sinatra albums.

Whatever you think about their music, cats like Bublė, and Harry Connick Jr make jazz reachable to the masses. It gives a large group of people a starting point from which to delve into our music. They’ll never get to Vijay, Allison, or Redman if they don’t get started.

Anyhow, that’s my take. Feel free to leave yours.

I know some super talented people (in several areas) who sit at home and wish for a better life… Is that God’s desire for them? No. God’s desire is for them is to exploit and leverage their talents and live a fulfilled life.

Now that we’ve covered the religious factor from not following your dreams, let’s talk about the human aspect. Namely, other humans.

It is human nature to pass judgements on people and situations based on our own experiences. Whether you think you do it or not, you do. We all do. It’s one of the things that has helped our species progress. Just think – what if the first cat that learned to use a rock to kill an animal for food had not shared his knowledge with a starving neighbor…Sure, he may have figured it out in time to eat but then…maybe not… Anyhow, the point is, it’s not a bad thing. Most of the time, drawing from other people’s experiences and knowledge is the wise thing to do. Even if you don’t agree with it or implement their advice, it’s something to reference.

The problem comes when that information is not conveyed in a proper way. When the person behind it is biased.

Allow me to expound…

Several years ago, I was a Music Education major. Everybody assured me that there would be no steady income that I could count on without that degree. The problem was, I had gotten to the point where my skin would literally crawl when I saw a school bus. I HATED the idea of teaching. I knew it wasn’t for me. About three weeks into my umpteenth semester, I dropped all my Ed related classes and my instructors seemed to take it personally. One even told me that the “new” car I recently bought (which was not new… in fact, it was almost four years old) would be an unbearable expense as a musician without that degree.

At the time, I didn’t have an exact plan. I just knew I would rather take off each of my toes with a cigar cutter than teach a single week in a public (or private) school. After a while in the Music Industry program (a so-called worthless degree by one professor), I started to put things together. I eventually figured it out.

You know what I do for a living? You know what pays my bills? Music and production. By the way, I do alright. I play jazz, rock, country, classical, and anything else someone hires me to play. I have a day job, too, and it jus happens to be working with music, videos, lights, etc…I love it. It’s what I am supposed to be doing and it’s what that “worthless degree” taught me to do.

Please don’t misunderstand, I have nothing against teachers (a lot of my friends teach) but it’s not what I want or need to be doing.

My point is (yes, I have one) that you can’t let people keep you from your dreams and you shouldn’t blame dreams not coming true on God. You gifts are just that- gifts and they are yours to enjoy.

The thing is, we never stop to think about why things are the way they are. It’s not law-abiding people that cause nasty security procedures at airports; it’s the cats that do stupid things with a plane. It IS the law-abiding people who want the concerned agencies to stop the crazies. It’s not people like me that caused stores to check I.D. when someone uses a debit card but rather the crooks who steal identities. It’s not the illegal immigrant that comes to the U.S. and goes to work that makes the government make laws against them (though taxes are a concern). It’s the ones who come here and commit crimes and can’t be traced.

Do the printed warnings on the lids of coffee cups saying ‘content may be hot’ bother you? Then blame the opportunists who spilled it on themselves and decided to sue for the damages. Hate being video recorded at a store? Blame the klepto who went “shopping” before you. Are you mad at immigrants or are you upset with the way the government deals with the situation as a whole?

Next time you are held up or inconvenienced, stop and think about who you should thank for it. A lot of times the trail will lead you far, far away from the person you are about to take it out on.

We want freedom and not to be bothered when we are minding our own business but we want security. We want jobs to stay in the U.S. but we want to maintain our wages and not compromise our lifestyle. We want our food and service to be just right but we don’t want the manager of the restaurant to bother us or fill out that silly card on the table. We want to be fit but we don’t intend on putting down that soda. We want the guy that runs the red light to get a ticket but we don’t want those cameras taking our pictures.

What we really want is to have things our own way; for people to read our minds. Then, however, we would hate the fact that people could see our thoughts.

We want rules to keep everybody in line but we don’t want the enforcing of those rules to touch us. Believe me, I am not excluding myself from this. While typing the second paragraph, I was drinking a Pepsi. Sad, but true. I think, though, that if we keep this in mind, we may just become a little more understanding towards some of these social malfunctions.

What I am most thankful for is sometimes confused with religion. It is looked at like a weakness by some and a threat by others. Fact is, it’s neither of those. Not in it’s truest form, anyway.

Over the last couple of years, I have been exposed to teachers, mentors, literature, and people that have completely changed my life. I have learned about myself, my past and my future. And, I have discovered how to treat people, how to respect different opinions and views, and how to leverage my strengths and delegate my weaknesses. I have realized that things I perceived as commands were actually guidelines (common sense ones at that!) for life. Guidelines for every single aspect of life. From finances to nutrition to life goals- it’s all represented. This one thing that has made my life better is an intimate- and I mean an intimate – relationship with Jesus Christ. Not religion, a relationship. No rules or regulations. Those rules that everyone forces on a religion is crap. The only thing you need is to believe and the rest will come. I thought the exact opposite my entire life. And because of that, I fell away -way away- and my life was falling apart. My marriage suffered, my financial situation suffered (I thought keeping up with the Jones’ actually meant something) which fueled a thought process that led me away from what really does matter, my family.

So, from a blogger who tries not to get too “Christian” on my readers comes a post for which there are no appologies and no regrets. I’m not trying to convert anyone or anything like that. This is just an article on what I am most thankful for.

Thank you guys for reading and I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

Photograph by Steven Hromnak

If you can’t tell by posts like this, I have a habit of dissecting marketing campaigns. You see, there is never a time when an organization does anything for the public that is not intended to either pull in new clients or solidify the patronage of existing ones. No matter the façade attached to it, that’s what it’s for. The psychology of it all is to get a person to do something they don’t have to do. It’s manipulation. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing but that’s what it is. As musicians and, essentially, self-employed small business owners, we can learn from this. We can use the information it took a firm months to figure out to increase our own sales and fan bases. All we have to do is pay attention to what is being used on us and what works and what doesn’t.

Here’s a good one.

Along with the advent of pay-at-the-pump (yes, youngsters, there was a time when you couldn’t use plastic at the pump) came the decline in convenience store profit. Why? Well, all those nonessential products (sodas, candy bars, bags of chips, cigarettes, and other items that can be purchased for much less at grocery and dollar stores) that people often grabbed while they paid for their gas were no longer in the equation. In fact, unless someone stops at the store for a drink or other non-petroleum product, chances are, they won’t go in. So, the sales generated by that impulsive “while I’m in here” part of each of us has greatly diminished. While this has saved me a lot of money, it can’t be good for the guy (or gal) that owns the store.

Stores combat this with things like loyalty cards which keep people coming to the store but those don’t really encourage people to come inside when they get gas. There is one tactic that a local store has that I think helps revitalize that impulse generated income.

It’s called a cash card and all it does is decrease the fuel price when you use it at the pump. Now, I’m sure that a bazillion places use this but I had to think about it for a bit before I was sold on it.  It’s a great way to increase traffic to the inside of the store. Let’s look at what it does… 1) It takes a product that people have to have and makes it cheaper. Granted this decreases the profit with that product but it offers it at a lower price than everywhere else in town. 2) It makes people come into the store. What do people do when they go into the store? They smell or see something that they think they need to have. So the result is increased fuel sales and increased traffic inside the store. It’s beautiful!

So, you’re probably saying -what the crap is your point?

My point is this – You have some people who will initiate a connection with no action on your part. There are a whole lot of them, however, that need to be enticed. That doesn’t mean they won’t like you work, it just means they may not have the greatest attention span or maybe they are in a hurry and plan to come back later (which may or may not happen). Whatever the reason, if they don’t get involved right then, you may lose them.

Come up with your own version of a cash card. Find something that makes you go deeper in a website and adapt it suit your own product. Poll your followers/fans and see what catches their attention. Don’t let them pay at the pump- give them a reason to come into the store.