Hi,

I’m incredibly late to the party on Atomic Habits but I finally got around to reading it over the last few weeks and now I understand the hype.

I’ve already started implementing small changes in my day to day life based on the book’s suggestions and have already started seeing growth.

I thought it was particularly interesting how the book’s concepts can be applied to artists and creators.

This newsletter highlights:

• 4 ways Atomic Habits applies to music and creators

• 10 music industry job roles

Let’s dive in ⬇️

Here are 4 ideas that really stuck out to me and how they apply to music.

1) Focusing on systems, not just goals

The author, James Clear, explains how easy it is to become fixated on achieving specific goals while completely ignoring the systems that help lead to the results of those goals.

“Goals are about the results you want to achieve.

Systems are about the processes that lead to those results”.

Clear shares different examples in the book and one of them includes a musician:

“If you’re a musician”, your goal might be to play a new piece. Your system of how often you practice, how often you break down and tackle different measures, and your method for receiving feedback from your instructor.”

It’s something I see with so many artists and their teams - their efforts are entirely goal focused.

“I want to go viral on TikTok”.

“I hope this song becomes a hit”

“My goal is to play a sold out show.”

“I want to go on tour”.

Having goals is important but equally as important (and sometimes more important) is answering the question of ‘what are the systems that can help achieve those goals?’

For example, a system for an emerging musician might be:

• Writing every single day (regardless of what comes from it)

• Performing at an open mic night 2x per month (as opposed to only practicing when there’s a big show)

• Dedicating 1 day per month to shoot content (as opposed to random days)

It also applies to creative - I see so many artists who try and go “big” on individual pieces of creative that it affects the time, energy, and resources that can be applied to other creative pieces.

For example, there’s many artists paying thousands of dollars to mix and master just 1 song. They are attached to the goal of that song gaining traction and hopefully “blowing up”. While having a mix and master that you’re happy with and is up to par quality wise is important, what is also important is having a system that allows you to mix and master other songs at scale, especially if you’re taking a volume approach.

If you’re an artist and plan on releasing 12 songs per year let’s say, and each song costs $1500-$2000 to mix and master, how does that scale that across 12 songs? Just as important as the music sounding up to par is finding a system for you to scale the number of songs you can mix and master.

The more music you can create and release, the more at bats you have. Maybe it’s finding a cheaper engineer, trying to work out a bulk rate, or trying to find someone in your network who can give you a discount even if it’s slightly less quality.

Another example is content -

Goal: “I hope I go viral on social media.”

System: Post 5 pieces of short form content per week, regardless of something taking off or not. Sticking through it over a long period of time and not getting discouraged.

The same concept applies to those getting into the industry.

Goal: find a job in the music industry.

System: scour LinkedIn and music industry job boards each morning, provide value to 10 people each week on LinkedIn by sharing something they might find interesting and asking them for coffee, attending 1 networking event per week, etc.

While goals are important, they are momentary changes or wins. Systems last forever.

2) 1% changes compound over time

The early part of Atomic Habits shares an interesting story about how powerful compounding efforts are over time. It references how lackluster the British Cycling team was at professional cycling and at one point in the 1900s, for 110 years no British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France.

It was so bad that “one of the top Bike manufacturers in Europe refused to sell bikes to the team because they were afraid that it would hurt sales if other professionals saw them in their gear.”

In 2003, a new performance director was hired and started making 1% improvements to every aspect of the cycling team:

• Bike seats were redesigned to become more comfortable

• Outdoor riders wore indoor racing suits which were lighter and allowed them to cycle faster

• Different massage gels were tested to see which led to the fastest recovery

• A surgeon was hired to teach riders how to wash their hands to avoid getting sick

• Pillows and mattresses were evaluated for what would provide the best night’s sleep, allowing riders to feel most rested

• Tires were adjusted to have a better grip

Hundreds of small improvements were made over the course of a few years, leading to a massive turn around with the British Cycling team going on to win 5 Tour De France victories in 6 years.

Would any of these small changes by themselves have accounted for such a big turn around? Probably not, but tons of small changes made together compounded over time can lead to big results.

What would this look like for artists? Let’s take live performance shows for example. Imagine a bunch of 1% tweaks to a live show over the course of years:

• Testing performances with different microphones

• Vocal training to strengthen your vocal chords and avoid losing one’s voice

• Breathing exercises to be able to hold your breath longer when performing

• Getting into shape to increase one’s stamina

• Testing different night time routines the night before a show for optimal sleep - different bed times, wake up times, etc

• Trying different pre-show meals to see what gives you the most energy on stage

• How much water should be on stage to satiate you but not take up too much room

• Can anything be improved or tightened up in the transitions between songs to make it sound smoother?

• If you have stage visuals, can those be tightened to be more reflective and in synch of each song?

• What are you doing for crowd participation and interaction? Where in the show does it fall and how is it executed?

• When walking on stage, how many seconds does it take to get on stage before you start singing?

One individual show could have the opportunity for a hundred micro adjustments that could drastically improve the show experience over years.

The same thing applies to executives or those working in the industry - let’s say you’re an ambitious executive and looking to continue growing and improving yourself…

• Figuring out what bedtime + wake up time provides you the ample amount of rest and focus

• Waking up earlier to complete the most intensive tasks / projects of the day with uninterrupted focus

• To the best of your ability, organizing your day into time blocks and completing different types of tasks in each block of time allowing you to scale your work over days, weeks, and months

• Using a project management system to organize your work

• Using AI to help automate your work

• Subscribing to industry newsletters, podcasts, or resources to stay up to date on what’s going on

• Putting a time limit on your open ended up social media usage

• Blocking out certain times of the week to do outreach and network with others.

Small but organized and consistent habits that are part of a larger system can lead to big results over time.

3) Motion vs action

James Clear outlines the difference in creating motion vs taking action. It’s easy to create motion and think you’re taking action but it’s really just motion.

Generally speaking, motion is outlining, planning, thinking about, or strategizing something. Action is actually doing the thing.

Clear uses the example of a photography class experiment. The professor divided his class into 2 groups: quantity + quality.

The quantity group was based on the sheer volume of their work.

The quality group was based on the quality or excellence of one single image they created.

On the last day of class, he would tally the total number of photos created by the quantity group and assign a rating for how many were created.

The quality group were only able to produce one image for the entire semester and it basically had to be perfect.

While what constitutes a great photo is subjective, the results showed the quantity group produced better photos. They were constantly experimenting, trying new things, iterating, and becoming better and better.

The quality group was just fantasizing about what excellence looked like - quantity group was actually working towards it with each photo.

It’s a great analogy for music, especially artists - it’s so easy for artists to find themselves in the “quality” category.

“I’m not releasing this song until it’s perfect.”

“I’m not releasing this album until it’s a classic masterpiece.”

“I’m not posting this short form content piece until it’s a cinematic work of art.”

While it’s important to have pride in your art, it’s also important to take action.

Try things. Iterate. Learn what works and doesn’t work.

There are thinkers and then there are doers.

4) Detach from results

In a world and industry that is dependent on social media and the internet to build audiences and businesses, it’s so easy to get caught up in focusing on the results.

A social media post not performing well.

A song not streaming as much as one hoped.

A YouTube video not getting as many views.

It’s easy to get deflated when only looking at the results but it’s important to not lose focus on the action. Wins don’t just come from results - they also come from taking action.

Don’t get tripped up over 1 song not streaming well if you know you have 20 more ready to go and a system to keep making music.

That one social media post that didn’t perform well doesn’t matter as much when you’re posting consistently every single day and taking swings over time.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

Before diving into 10 entertainment industry open jobs, I’d love to get to know my audience a little better to provide as much value as possible.

_{Music industry job opportunities}

1) Director of Artist Relations - Peachtree Entertainment

Salary: $75,000 - $110,000

Location: Nashville, TN

Apply HERE

2) A&R Data Specialist - Sony Music

Salary: $65,000 - $75,000

Location: New York, NY

Apply HERE

3) On Air Talent - iHeartMedia

Salary: Unlisted

Location: San Antonio, TX

Apply HERE

4) Associate, Digital Content - Nettwerk Music Group

Salary: 38,000 - 42,000 EUR

Location: Hamburg, Germany

Apply HERE

5) LN Concerts, Special Events Logistics Manager - Live Nation

Salary - Unlisted

Location: Irving, TX

Apply HERE

6) Social Media Manager and Content Creator- Napster

Salary: Unlisted

Location: Nashville, TN

Apply HERE

7) Creative Project Coordinator - WMG

Salary: Unlisted

Location: Sydney, AU 

Apply HERE

8) Artist Relations Manager, Artist Relations - Amazon Music

Salary: $69.6K - $148.8K 

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Apply HERE

9) Social Media Manager and Content Creator- EB Media

Salary: $3K - $6k Monthly

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Apply HERE

10) VP, Marketing - BMG

Salary: $150,000 – $170,000

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Apply HERE