The Value of A Three Minute Single ...

There's an old adage, "Time waits for no man"...

In this morning's blog readings I came across the well known poem about the value of time. I was unfortunately unable to get it to post here, but here is the gist of it...

The poem lays out the value of time in different scenarios and people's lifes. For instance, If you want to know the value of a month - ask the mother of a premature child, etc. The poem states, again, If you want to know the value of a minute - ask a man who just missed his train, and, If you want to know the value of a second - ask someone who has been injured in an accident.

This poem culminates in the value of a millisecond to an Olympic athlete who has won a silver, rather than a gold medal.

This idea applies dramatically to the value of music in the commercial realm. A simple three minute single can change the life of an artist and his producer - forever. There are many people who had just one hit single 40 years ago who are still reaping the benefits from those three minutes they contributed to in their teens. Now, more than ever, this notion is true where the music business is concerned in a culture of celebrity worship. Just three minutes of music can change your life when you are the writer, artist, or producer. Yet, so often, we in the music business experience great difficulty managing our time with so much media to participate in and filter out. In the information age, our ability to discriminate the value of information is critical if we are to get anything of value accomplished. Yet, we are constantly called upon and expected to operate everything from a Twitter, to a Facebook, to various blogs and then some...

The power of time management in the music industry still lies mostly in the power of those three little minutes it takes for the listener to hear that hit single. So, the next time you are caught up in Twitter, Facebook, manuals, events and all matter of duties on the order of being a successful artist or producer, remember that the most important three minutes are those musical minutes and not - calling on a telephone, waiting on your Twitter, at a party, or on your Facebook.

Those three minutes are what its really all about !