How To Succeed in the Music Biz (Part 2): The Hedgehog Principle

by George Howard

The second critical foundation element you must confront is discerning your inner Hedgehog.  As mentioned, this is a concept that Jim Collins articulates in his book Good to Great. To find your Hedgehog you must determine:

• what you are passionate about
• what you can do better than anyone else
• what will be your economic driver

You must have all three of these elements defined in order to become great at what you do.  The Hedgehog Concept forces you to focus on three crucial elements, and, importantly, to be sure that you don’t focus on things outside of these three elements.  As Collins says, “The key is to understand what [you] can be the best in the world at, and equally important what [you] cannot be the best at….The Hedgehog Concept is not a goal, strategy of intention; it is an understanding.”

Consider what it is that you’re passionate about; consider what it is that you can do best or could do best; consider how you will make your money.  The Hedgehog Concept lays the foundation for three crucial management elements: mission, vision, and values. 

Certainly, your passion will revolve around music, but you need to determine precisely what your “wedge” or competitive advantage is in the music business.  If you're a performer, what precise element of performing are you most passionate about; is it writing the songs you perform, is it playing in front of the audience, etc.?  If your passion involves working with musicians in order to get the music you believe must be heard heard, you must identify precisely how you will do this: managing artists, booking artists, financing artists, producing music, or some combination of each?

Importantly, this idea of doing what you're passionate about is not as simplistic as doing what you love.  Unfortunately, many of the things we are passionate about are not things we can be the best at, nor are they things that can generate income for us.  The genius of the Hedgehog Concept is that it requires you to make some difficult choices, and even some trade-offs.  We all know people who have decidedly found their economic driver, and have made more money than they can ever spend, but who are miserable.  In essence, while they have at least one (the economic driver), and maybe two (what they can be best at), they are missing the crucial third circle (what they are passionate about). 

By not having each of the circles, they can never truly be great.  More frequently, of course, people know (or think they know) what they are passionate about, and tend to believe that they can be the best at this thing.  However, they can’t figure out a way to make a living doing this thing.  The sad consequence of this is that, because they lack the economic denominator, they are not able to truly focus on doing what they are passionate about and what they believe they can be best at, because they are too busy doing all sorts of unrelated things (“Would you like that coffee as a venti for only a dollar more?”) in order to pay the rent. 

The challenge, therefore, is to balance the three circles.  You may, for instance, find that you must re-evaluate your passion in order to make it overlap with an economic driver.  While this may seem as if you're compromising your dream, the reality is that it represents the first step towards a strategic approach of monetizing your passion.

So, briefly, before you can begin delving into actual practices/setting goals for getting your music, or the music you work with heard, you must address two essential issues.  First, you must make certain that you have the unwavering belief that your music (or the music on whose behalf you work) must be heard.  Second, you must begin reconciling the three elements of the Hedgehog Concept.  When you combine these elements you drastically increase your odds of success.

Stayed tuned for part 3 next week.

Comments

[charles Marlowe]

Hey Pro Howard
I got a lot out of this one. I've watched the videos on artist house music and I think the Hedgehog concept makes a whole lotta sense. Like you've stated before, most musicians have the first two legs of the stool, but the third one isn't as easy. Can the economic driver come last, or later? or should all three be there right from the start? I'm sure it's different with every situation,but is it ok for the money factor to come later, after the early stages of your carrier start to take shape?
Charlie

[george Howard]

@Charlie

Great point. The money can absolutely come later. The artist, at first (and often for quite some time) must commit to the attraction and retention of customers/fans/a Tribe.

Profit is a byproduct of this.

Emphasizing profit over the attraction and retention of customers is the quickest way not to make a profit.

Thank you for making this point; I should have mentioned it.

George

[George Ziemann]

Although I think this article makes a lot of sense, there are a couple of points that I disagree with.

"you need to determine precisely what your 'wedge' or competitive advantage is in the music business."

I've never seen music as a competition, unless perhaps you're playing the same songs. The success of the next guy has no bearing on mine. I think the Beatles were better than the Stones. That hasn't prevented me from liking both bands.

The other is that, while this Hedgehog philosophy sounds logical, that's not how the music business works. There is a ton of music that artists felt MUST be heard, but their record labels decided it wasn't going to be.

They gave Chuck Berry a Grammy for "My Dingaling."

I'm not saying the Hedgehog idea is wrong, I'm just saying that there are hundreds of examples of "success" that say the only sure way involves a big pile of money because all of the planning and logic in the world pales to the necessity of getting people to notice you.

Talent? Passion? Do it better than everyone else? If you're competing, Joe the Plumber is kicking your butt. His record will be out in January. People will buy it.

[Larry]

It is all irrelevant when the industry is being run by your uncle, nephew , or Aunt and that is the only help you need.

You do not need talent, or anything else, you just need to know someone, and the magic will do the rest.

If you are blond, under 25, good body, no talent, who cares, they can make a buck of you, and you are in, and then your are out.

[Brian Redfern]

I found this to be completely true. I've played guitar for 20 years, and not just simple stuff, but full blown jazz guitar.

However there are just too many good guitarists in LA.

But I found a secret you have a huge middle eastern population here, but only a small amount of oud players who play traditional maqam music. So you have jewish people, armenian people, persian people, turks, and arabs, as well as lots of sufi converts, but only a handful of musicians to service them.

But you also need a mentor. Just buying an oud wasn't enough, I had to find a successful oud teacher to mentor me, and I'm still in the learning/mentee stage, but even now I've secured a distribution deal for my first oud album.

I've also had success with csound, getting compositions played for 3 years in an Italian music festival.

Only a handful of people in the US use csound for serious composition, so again I found a better niche in electronic music than using the standard tools like Reason, because then you make standard sounding music, though I won't put down Reason because I've heard some great music people have made with it. But its genre based dance music, not serious art music.

You have to find the road less travelled. If you sing and play guitar its better to copy a Tuvan blues singer who combines Tuvan throat music and blues than to try to copy Bob Dylan.

Musicians need role models to form the basis of what will ultimately be an original sound, but first you need a starting point.

So look at where music is underserved. Maybe playing at churches these days is better than playing in clubs.

[JacksonWallace]

When I was younger, I thought the awesome song would be all it took. Unfortunately, I was very uneducated and delusional about what it took to make the perfect song, from lyrics to production. My first music was well received, beginner's luck, but then things went south the more I 'tried' while ignoring real facts.

I think the most important thing a young musician can do, even if they are Bob Dylan 2009, is to be a good listener while also realizing that you will have to take criticism of every stripe constantly. Everyone thinks its a stamina contest and it is, but acting tough and stubborn isnt going to improve bad music. You are going to need assistance and people.

I was also fooled by examples of bands that recorded hits and THEN toured, but all of these bands already had experience. I also saw bands play around town for years, and never get better in their recordings, so thats the flipside.
You have to do both, and the DIY philosophy regarding recording when you're starting is a mistake. Yes, many engineers are worthless, but they are ultimately critical to winning the game. Teen Spirit was an unexpected success in the studio. The band's and the engineer's experience gelled into gold in a moment. Van Halen I was a band in top live form recorded by a great engineer. Imagine if that record had been lost to a DIY recording. Just because its hard doesnt mean its going to work eventually.

Playing Live makes you tougher and the best songs get tested, so its a given, as much of a bitch as it may be. Besides, if you dont like it, should you be playing music really?
If you're going to treat music like painting, you maybe can make it as a songwriter, but that will take serious networking as well.

Music is not precious, it has to go out there. If your first 10 songs make people wince, then write 100 more.

Despite what I say, the song is STILL the critical part. It's the only competition you have against all the connections and money. Songs have to be natural, but there are also raw calculations involved - is the lyric comprehensible and natural, but original? Is the melody memorable? Are there enough tricks from backing vocals, to arrangements to fill the song out and give it life? Lots of young musicians think its all balls and grit, and maybe it is, but ignoring glaring defects in your song execution will only hurt you, so analyze them dispassionately, and as a group.

Also, dont think just because you have a regular audience in your hometown that you're really all that great. It's fun as hell being famous in just one town, but people like a gang, and you still have to come across to people who've never met you through recordings.

Anyway, its harder than it looks.