The 2021 Online Version of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was a few months back and so I'm a bit late in getting these posts out, but as always I seriously enjoyed catching various panel discussions. One such panel discussion was about music, money and mindfulness.
Here are some bio information that I took from the LA Times website.
Jeff Brabec is Senior Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs for BMG, the fourth largest music publisher in the world. Brabec specializes in evaluating music publishing catalogue acquisitions. He is the co-author with his twin brother Todd of the book "MUSIC, MONEY, AND SUCCESS: The Insider's Guide To Making Money In The Music Business" (8th Edition).
Lynn Helding is the author of The Musician's Mind: Teaching, Learning and Performance in the Age of Brain Science. She is currently Professor of Practice in Voice and Vocal Pedagogy at USC’s Thornton School of Music and serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Singing.
Richard "Wolfie" Wolf is an Emmy Award-winning composer, multi-Platinum selling music producer, and professor at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where he teaches ever-popular classes on music and mindfulness. He is the author of In "Tune: Music as the Bridge to Mindfulness".
The following are my notes from the panel discussion:
Richard "Wolfie" Wolf
Richard "Wolfie" Wolf
Learned how to mediate as a senior in high school. He wasn't very good at it. Years later he went through a panic attack and was told to meditate 10 minutes in the morning and at night. He learned to concentrate and focus in order to meditate better.
Before COVID-19, there was a mental health problem throughout society. The distracted mind is not a happy mind. COVID-19 increased mental health problems. Mindfulness classes can help with these problems.
The music industry is filled with people feeling anxiety, depression, addiction and suicidal tendencies. COVID-19 has raised the awareness of mental health challenges. We need to help people to improve mental health. Music Cares is one entity that helps with these challenges.
There is hope that mental health is getting better awareness. For those in the music industry, mindfulness can be used by performances to go on stage with what they've practiced. It can help someone control how they respond to things. Calm and composed and compassionate responses. Also knowing what you don't know.
Lynn Helding
What happens in the brain and as humans when we learn music. Cognitive science is how we learn. How we manipulate concepts. We're always adding new things to what we've learned.
She was humbled by how exhausted she felt after performing. It was a brain workout.
Music connects us with what makes us human. COVID-19 hasn't touched her immediate family. Not a working parent as she has grown children. Due to this the solitude has been a blessing.
Think big thoughts and write them down.
For her students, she teaches voice, they've missed the ability to make music with others due to COVID-19. Yet, she believes that her students' learning has gone through the roof. COVID-19 forced them to re-commit themselves. There aren't as many distractions.
Learning is messy. If you blink, you miss it. Learning is dynamic.
Performance is not learning. One doesn't want to experiment when performing. There is no cure for music performance anxiety. Hope that post-COVID-19 will bring more collaboration vs music perfection that doesn't exist.
Jeff Brabec
Music is a business. There are now more ways to earn money.
Performances are monitored so one can get royalties.
Royalties were very simple in the past. TV has changed. There used to be 5 year licenses for TV shows, but now there are life of copyright. On the other hand, there are 500 scripted shows, which means a lot of ways to get a music license.
Performance income has gone up substantially.
A lot of changes that have been positive on how things are monitored and paid on.
One has to know the business. One needs to educate yourself when you're a new artist.
TV production was shut down during COVID-19 and income for songwriters and libraries dried up. Broadway was a total disaster.
For him, he has been working from home since March 2020. His 2 to 3 hour roundtrip drive disappeared, but he ended up working longer hours. It strengthened the collaboration at work.
Feels return to work will result in more flexible hours.
Success: Completion of something you set out to do. People who create opportunities for themselves.
He wrote his book, because he knew there was a need to let musicians know how the business works.
There needs to be a belief in yourself even if you don't initially succeed. In regards to songwriters, performers do have a leg up. But songwriters can go to showcases. Join songwriter entities. Be daring with their songwriting.
Music publishers still have people looking out for bands -- they look at performances, social media, Spotify, fan engagement.
Managers / lawyers make the connections.
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