1. ADAPTION
“Yesterday is history and it’s never coming back”. Trying to get back to an old “normal” isn’t going to happen. It never does. Things change. They always do. Ditch old expectations based on an outdated map. Be flexible. Gumby-level flexible. Don’t be stuck living in the past.
2. OPPORTUNITIES
There is going to be a flood of new content needing music (Disney alone is going to spend $14-$16 BILLION on streaming productions.). There is going to be a huge appetite for social contact and interaction combined with a massive desire to work and experience things remotely. Both will be true. Look at those bountiful fields of opportunity and figure out how to serve them.
3. MONETIZE
There are going to be lots of shifts in how composers earn money, because it has always been that way. From court commissions to published sheet music to live radio to recordings to sound movies to public performance income to streaming to… Follow the money to where it is going, not where it’s been.
4. DIVERSITY
The creation of media music has traditionally been done largely by white males. That is shifting and diversity is becoming a major factor in informing the future.
5. ENTREPRENEURIALISM
Flurishing in the future is going to occur from those with an entrepreneurial mindset, not those stuck in a narrow, “employee” way of thinking.
6. INGENUITY
Old farts like me will be lucky if we figure out how to navigate the new frontiers ahead of us. The future will largely be written by young folks with fresh perspectives who will come out of this post-pandemic world with whole new ways of thinking. How exciting!!!!
