MADE

You don’t have to be the most articulate guy in the room to be the smartest. That’s the thought that comes to mind when I watch 50 Cent’s interview on CNBC’s Powerlunch below. He runs circles around the MBAs in the room.

The man’s got loads of common sense. He’s got balls too. I would pay attention to what he says about what’s happening to the music industry. Especially because he’s someone who’s taken full advantage of the brand extension aspect of the new music landscape.

In fact, he says that the music business today is “…complete brand extension.” Wow. So what does that mean? It means that you don’t make money directly off of the product (ie, CDs, mp3s), but you give the product away for free to market yourself where you can. It’s similar to what publishing is becoming where content now has zero value and serves as a draw to sell other things. That’s not to say you give it all away. That’s up to each individual’s discretion and situation.

The music itself is now a loss leader. In other words, you lose money on it in order to make money in other areas. 50 says that piracy is “…part of the marketing because the people who pirate end up at the concert because they can’t help but fall in love with the material…”. I don’t know about all that…I download stuff all the time and never go to the concert. Only concert I’ve been to in the last 10 years is Sade. And that was back in 2001. But that’s just me. I’m not a concert kind of guy. There are plenty of other people who do go to concerts because they fall in love with music they’ve downloaded. It works.

The most poignant thing 50 says about music piracy is that you can’t stop it.  So you might as well get with the program. It’s like the minute you begin to realize that you’re not going to get the girl. So you start justifying the moment by making up stories in your head about why she’s no good anyway.

This all goes back to my original statement about not having to be the most articulate to be the smartest. What matters is that you’re actually smart. Being smart means understanding how today’s world works on a fundamental level. And then setting your own agenda based on that.

It means you stop complaining about music piracy because it’s actually a good thing. It means you stop trying to get a record deal because you won’t get one anyway. It means you forget that the CD era ever happened because it’s all irrelevant to where you need to go.

Check out the video.

By: Twitter Buttons