Waiting to get picked

If you were a singer songwriter in the 1970’s (during the time most of us idealize as producing some of the greatest pop music in human history) you had to get picked.

• Studio time was super expensive. It usually cost $60-$150 an hour in 1970’s money ($515 to $1,218 per hour in today’s money)

• It was nearly impossible to get nationwide distribution without the help of a record label

• To reach and engage with fans meant painstakingly writing and mailing individual letters

• The only way people could find out about you was through word of mouth, seeing you perform in their town, or finding you randomly in a record store or on the radio (after you’d already gotten picked)

Then the world changed, and suddenly you could pick yourself.

• From about 1996 on, you could buy a computer and audio interface (or one of these, which my dad owned) and make as many recordings as you wanted

• From about 2001 on (the birth of iTunes) you could distribute your music worldwide with the push of a button

• Starting around 2004 with the birth of the myspace social media era, you could engage and find new fans from your computer

The really insane part of this equation? Most musicians and artists, decades after all the barriers to making music and connecting with fans came down, still are waiting to get picked before they devote themselves to making the art.