Our industry is changing.  We have all heard the doomsday speak and the bad news.  In our travels we have met with many industry related people who have absorbed this negativity and express a sense of despair and uncertainty.  However, there is another group of people we have met who approach the current industry from a much different perspective.  This camp has a positive outlook on the current industry and the future.  They take comfort in the idea that amazing art is still being created, that it is easier than ever to create a community and that it is still possible to make a good living from music.

We all have the choice as to how we see our future.  We at The Artist Farm choose to see the positive side.  In an effort to reach out to others who share our perspective and hopefully to provide a ray of light for those trying to figure it out, we have decided to publish our guiding philosophy.  This philosophy is our core.  It guided how and why we built our company and guides us today as we run and grow our business.  This philosophy will guide the ideas you read on this blog.  You could say our philosophy relates to the Slow Movement (slow food, etc).  However, we prefer to call our perspective Deep Management for how it references the core as the source for doing.

Our Philosophy on the Music Business

Artists are at the Center of the Industry

1. We appreciate artists for their social role as creators, communicators and visionaries.
2. It is important for artists to recognize that as soon as they decide to make a living from their art, they enter into business… as a business owner. There is no way around this fact. The artist owns the brand and the business. It has always been this way.  Any artist going into business must first accept this fact.
3. You must be in this for the career, not the big pay off.  With this realization you have control over your career and the little bumps in the road are merely that.  Keep the vision alive.
4. For all of the above reasons, we see that artists sit at the center of the business ecosystem.

Business should be a Transparent Link between Art and Community

5. The purpose of the music business is to get others to hear your art, appreciate it and support you financially so that you can focus all of your time on creating that art.
6. Like any business, the public face of that business is the person the owners hire to be CEO.  In music, the CEO role is called a Manager.
7. The best businesses are ones where artist owner retains an awareness of their role as owner and creator and works together with the Manager.
8. To be successful in this business as a manager or as an artist, it must come from your core.  You are in this business because music speaks to you on a deep level and you can’t imagine the world without music.  You can’t imagine your life any other way.
9. The role of management should not be ambiguous or undefined – though it largely has been in the past.
10. Management of an artist business should be as transparent as possible so that the art as an expression remains in tact.
11. Artist businesses should have an attitude of respect and gratitude toward all customers (fans).

The Music Business Community should be Open

12. We see a bright future for musical creation and the business that surrounds it and therefore welcome all ideas in how to continue spreading great music through the world.
13. We are part of an open management community – sharing business ideas and helping each other spread amazing music throughout the world.