Time is Money, Money is Time, etc. - Resource Management and Multiple Economies for the Independent Artist
Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing two people whom I admire for their resourcefulness and willingness to put their hand to anything that is needed for the best outcome for their projects. One of them was artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Ethan Heaselden, whose main music project is called Croissant. A fair disclaimer to make - I play drums in Croissant, and I also manage the band’s bookings, as well as running backing tracks for live performances. Ethan is a good friend of mine, and we’ll talk about what that means for his project in just a moment. We spoke about what it’s like being a self-produced artist and how that affects his project overall.
The other interviewee was Alan Denyer, a pioneer of the grassroots arts scene in Coventry, UK and owner/managing director of LTB Showrooms, an independent art gallery, music venue and multipurpose community space that is focussed towards being a resource to creative people. He is fiercely independent, and he can talk for England! He is full of knowledge and wisdom on how to effectively manage a project on a razor-thin budget. Both of those interviews are available to listen to on Spotify here:
Ethan Interview | Alan Interview
So, with both of those interviews and their topics in mind, let’s talk about the world of budget and resourcefulness, and why it is important to have a broad skillset and awareness of how that skillset can save you money.
Firstly, I want to show you a simple concept called ‘The Iron Triangle’. Usually, this imposing-sounding shape is used in business project management to assist in making crucial decisions on how to assign a business’ available resources efficiently to achieve a desired outcome. It does contain a painful truth that applies to the independent artist too. Here it is in two different forms:
1. Venn Diagram
The Iron Triangle Venn Diagram
2. The Triangle
The Iron Triangle
Now you know what it looks like, let’s talk about what it is. Distilled down to its simplest function, it states that you cannot do anything quickly, cheaply and with a high level of quality. You can apply any two of those things, but it’ll always cost you the third. Scope refers to the whole project and the possibilities within it, as they pertain to the balance of these three variables:
1. If you do something cheaply and quickly, it will not be high in quality.
2. If you do something cheaply and with high quality, it will not be quick.
3. If you do something quickly and with high quality, it will not be cheap.
I wanted to bring this concept to your attention mainly because I want to acknowledge that whilst most of us can’t spend loads of money on our projects, we do want to create as high-quality music as we can, therefore we most often must choose option 2 from the above selection. However, there is no correct way to do this. If you have money as a resource but don’t have time as one, then you know what you must do. In most cases, I don’t imagine artists being willing to sacrifice any level of quality, if possible, though I do appreciate how subjective that is, and that the quality of something in the absence of money does hinge on the individual’s ability. Ultimately the point is that money, time, and the ability to produce quality are all important for making fulfilling music. This is just an exercise we can use to establish the level of compromise we will have to make, and what that looks like.
When money is lacking, we need to adapt by applying more creativity and effort to the equation. If we refer back to the Human Function Curve from a previous blog (read this article for context), we see that if we overwork ourselves, we run the risk of losing our passion for what we love and burning out. We don’t want that! That is why time is a key factor here. I’m so guilty of getting super inspired to do something, and spending as much time as I can on getting it done so that it’s done as soon as possible, and then crashing because I haven’t paced myself. If I’m honest, it happened with FELT. a couple of times this year. I love what I do, but the difficulty is accepting and realising that it is a part-time endeavour and a passion project at this time, so I physically cannot commit more than part-time hours to it, otherwise, everything else gets thrown out of balance. That is to say, it is a good thing to pace ourselves in these projects! In the interview with Alan Denyer, he alluded to the fact that he wouldn’t want to run LTB full-time, for this reason and others.
So, what are the pros and cons of being a fully DIY artist? We’ll go through three pros and then 3 cons, then we’ll wrap up.
Pro Number 1: Things Get Done Quicker.
Nice and simple, and a concept we’ve already talked about with the Iron Triangle. I have a friend who works in a music studio, and I can attest to the fact that he is a staggeringly talented artist in his own right, but he has a brilliant ear for detail that can bring an artist’s visions to life. He has been working with quite a business-savvy artist recently, and this artist has some serious writing chops! Lots of great earworm melodies and he writes around concepts and subjects in a way that makes them accessible and easy to relate to. Time is one of the things that this artist simply doesn’t have. He has a demanding job and a full-on lifestyle that prevents him from spending time on music creation.
Pro Number 2: With More Money Comes More Quality (Usually!)
There are some things, other than time, that this artist lacks (by his own admission), which are high-level instrument and vocal skills and the ability to produce well. My producer friend fills all those gaps beautifully, for a price. The artist pays him to add a level of quality and listenability to his songs that would have been impossible before! A win-win, because he has money to spend, and he gets the product that he wants. Simple!
Pro Number 3: More Money, More Visibility!
With all the time this artist saves, he can spend more time (and budget) on promoting those tracks as they come out! He uploads two or three videos on TikTok per DAY. I can read your mind right now. You’re probably like me in my hatred of posting that often on social media because of the drain on my creativity and time. Yes, that may be a problem for those of us who don’t have loads of money but think of this in multiple economies for a second. Imagine that the product you are paying for is a great song; Well-written, well-produced, well-marketed and well-promoted. Imagine all the different ‘currencies’ you can pay for this great song with. Money, yes, but also time and creativity. The song is worth a certain amount of each ‘currency’, but you can pay for it with different balances of all three. This artist pays for his songs with a little bit of initial creativity as a deposit, then pays the rest with money. That means he has loads of creativity and most of the time he sets aside for his music, ready to be spent on promoting the music. The best part about it for him is his brand image as an artist (more about brand image in the following blog) is a friendly, relatable guy just going through everyday life. That means that his promotional videos can just be a video of him in his kitchen, miming along to his song that’s playing in the background with some semi-related text over the top. That takes minimal creative energy outside of quickly whipping a bunch of videos together on CapCut, which means his output can be high, and we know that TikTok likes quantity! He can also pay for ads on social and streaming platforms that will get his music to new listeners. He has figured out how to maximise the efficiency of his combination of resources, which is commendable.
That all sounds great, right? Money is the only good way to do it. Well, no, that isn’t the full story. Here are the cons of having lots of money and using it.
Con Number 1: If you Pay Someone Else to do it, You Aren’t Doing it!
State the obvious, Jacob. Yeah, I know, but hear me out! I love being creative. It’s what fulfils me, keeps me grounded, and brings me a huge amount of satisfaction when I achieve something because I know that everything I’ve achieved is because of the work that I put in. There is something to be said for the sense of pride and satisfaction you gain from knowing that. The more people you pay to do things, the less of the overall creative work you get to do! Which also means the less creative control you have over the final product! At the end of the day, the only person who knows the exact desired outcome of a song is the person who wrote it. Again, that sounds obvious, but the more people involved, the further you as the artist are from the creative steering wheel. You become somewhat of a creative backseat driver, which is not ideal at all if you’re precious about the specifics.
Con Number 2: If it’s Not Your Money, it’s Not Your Song!
Money splits, song writing, performance and production royalties aside, sometimes if you’re under a label and they’re funding your record, you may end up as not much more than the face of the project, whilst everything else gets handled in-house. If fame is your goal, then by all means, let the pros handle that journey to the top for you. As I said at the beginning, there are no wrong ways to do it, so long as you feel fulfilled and satisfied with the result! If your aims are not for fame, but instead for creative fulfilment, then giving up all that control may not sit well with you, but you may have no choice, depending on the deal you strike. It is important to be aware of that.
Con Number 3: If You Pay Someone to Do It, You Won’t Learn the Skills!
Again, not everybody is concerned with being able to produce music or direct, film and edit a music video for example. Fair enough. If the necessity to learn the skill is removed from the equation, then not only will you never have an excuse to explore that creative avenue, but if the need for those skills ever arises, you won’t have them. Nor will you have much of an idea of the steps in a given creative process, so you’ll have less scope for guiding the creative direction of it. Maybe I’m just a control freak, but I’d like to have some idea of what is happening in every aspect of my music!
I hope that helps you evaluate the resources and ‘currencies’ at your disposal. There’s one more element that I’d like to cover when it comes to all of this. You could view it as another one of those currencies, or perhaps as a bonus. Creative friends are incredibly valuable to you in this journey - particularly the ones who have skills that you don’t. In Ethan’s case with Croissant, he is the judge, jury, and executioner of what happens in that project, because it’s his baby. However, myself and the bassist, Noah, have more skills than just playing drums and bass. As I mentioned earlier, I manage the live show bookings for the band and create the backing tracks that we use for live shows, as well as handle our in-ear monitors. I send Tech Specs, EPKs, and riders to venues, and advise on the best decisions to make in the best interests of growing the band’s influence in the music scene. Noah writes killer bass parts and offers advice when it comes to live performance, whether that be how we implement musical ideas in the live show, or how we move or dress on stage. We both offer value to Ethan as his regular session musicians, but also with our other skills, because we are his friends, and we’re happy to help. Plus, we believe in the project and want to see it flourish. You must accept that you can’t do it all, all the time. Yes, Ethan can play bass, he can create backing tracks, and he can contact venues, but having to do all of that plus everything he does to keep the project going is difficult due to the balance between money and time that he can commit to the project. We as his friends can bridge that gap with minimal effort, which makes his life easier and saves him from burning out and losing motivation for his project.
Alan Denyer, though he handles almost everything to do with the upkeep of the building at LTB Showrooms, acknowledges that he can’t be around all the time, and he has gaps in his skillset that a growing group of volunteers and paid freelancers fill. Through building a reputation and rapport with people who walk through the doors of LTB as guests, he has managed to build a network and community of creative individuals with diverse skill sets. These people are happy to help in whatever way they can because they believe in the soul and the aims of the project, and what it does for the local grassroots arts scene in Coventry.
Make friends with like-minded but differently skilled people, because not only can they fill gaps in your projects that you can’t, but they can also uplift and support you when you are feeling creatively exhausted. In many cases, they can alleviate the need to pay for every single skill that you don’t have.
Another inspiring individual who I had the privilege to interview was Alun Roberts from the Just Dropped In record shop in Coventry (listen to the interview here). Just Dropped In is not only an excellent independent record shop, stocking thousands of new and used records (some exceptionally rare and limited runs). It has also made a name for itself in the small-mid level touring music scene as one of the most hospitable, friendly, and non-money-driven small gig venues in the country. This is all due to Alun’s attitude towards people, and his ability to interact with anyone humbly and selflessly, wishing only for the music to be prioritised, and the people who made the music to be looked after. We talked a bit about making friends and how much more valuable a friend can be than an industry contact without a personal relationship with them. There have been several occasions where touring bands have specifically requested a return to Just Dropped In, because of course, it is a great venue with a lovely feel (and surprisingly good acoustics for the shape of the space!), but they are always treated as friends and looked after like friends. He is also aware of his shortcomings, so he has made a firm friendship with a local promoter who shares his affinity for hospitality and great music, and they make a killer team!
So, to summarise:
If you have money or not, it’s important to view your time, skills, and money, as well as friends, as resources that you can use in combination to get the best result possible for your music.
Friends can bridge the gaps in your skillset and can be valuable to you beyond basic resources!
You should listen to all three of the podcasts mentioned in this blog because all three people who feature on them are inspiring and may help to put this blog in perspective for you!
I hope you’ve found this post helpful in some way! Remember to check out the podcast here.
You can also check out the other blog posts on the website! If you have any questions about what you’ve read here or heard on the podcast, then ping an email to management@felt.live.
If you’d like to know more about a specific topic, or would generally like to chat about your musical project, then head to https://www.felt.live/consultancy and click on the sign-up form below “meet and chat” or “one-to-one coaching”, and we’ll have a chat – no topic is too big or small! With all the plugging out of the way, we’ll see you in the next one!
Here are the links to the specific podcast episodes that this blog corresponds with:
Season 1, Episode 2: The Self-Produced Artist with Ethan Heaselden of Band ‘Croissant’
Season 1, Episode 3: Are Big Budgets Better? With Alan Denyer
