If I were a musician today, I’d be Jim Brickman. Who? I said, Jim Brickman.
I met dude on one of my long flights… Sat next to each other and chopped it up for about 3 or 4 hours.
J started out in the advertising industry producing and writing music (mostly instrumentals)for TV spots and radio commercials. It turns out we actually knew some of the same biz folks. Anyway, he did that for years, made some loot but hated the hustle so much he had to get out.
He’d developed a nice little rep and sound and started recording full-length joints. Next thing you know, he’s got 5 Gold Albums, a couple Platinum joints, is a known composer and is sitting in first-class between gigs.
But what got me saying, "I wanna be like him when I grow up" is J's marketing style.
Simply put: pure genius.
Visit JimBrickman.com and you’ll see what I mean. Every musician should be getting down like this.
It’s not just smooth, it’s smart.
Number One: He’s made an experience out of what his music. Two: He’s made himself a purveyor of a mood. He’s connected his music (something esoteric and intangible) with specific places and things that are very tangible (vacations, romantic getaways, gifts, etc). it’s specific as hell and you need some partnerships here and there to pull it off on this level; but that he as an artist running his own show was even thinking on this level is pretty wild.
I this is what folks like Ani DiFranco, The Roots and even Prince have tried to do for the lastdecade or so—become that self-contained entity who offers a gateway to not only a musical vibe but something tangible for their audiences… Come to think of it, the Grateful Dead and some of their hell-spawned self-indulgent talent-lacking jamband chill’ren semi-mastered in the 70s, 80s and early 90s with that whole neo-hippie college crowd/festival circuit thing. (Sorry for the hell-spawn tangent, but 99% of those bands just suck, musically.)
But from what I’m seeing, Brickman’s not only going to his audience,but he’s also got his audience coming to him: I'm talking vacation packages built around his music and vibe. Gift packages, and pre-sold VIP pakages for his tour dates... real tangible stuff that makes the music and the artist feel more ownable to the consumer. It’s almost like a yuppied-up Jimmy Buffet trip… Brie and wine in paradise, anyone?
Now granted, Brickman’s holding it down for the Adult Contemporary crowd—a much slept-on/much hated genre, to be sure. But in the end, music is music (the ogg stuff, at least); and the cream rises, sooner or later. Dude’s worked with everyone from Blind Boys of Alabama to Gerald Levert. And don’t sleep on the A/C genre—there's major loot (3/4ths of Madison Ave's heavy hitters love this stuff.) There's a bunch of talent in this category, too. (Norah Jones, Michael Bublè, Streisand, Yanni, Tesh, Bolton, John Mayer, anyone?)
By the way: dude owns his own publishing (what?!), works his craft (we talking about 'practice'), knows his audience and gives 'em what they want. He's knockin' the hustle in his own little way. Ownership, artisanship, self-determination, doing what you love...
Smart stuff. Really, really smart stuff. So smart in fact, you can almost forgive him for this:
