Derek Sivers

The other day my friend Derek Sivers wrote a blog post called, "My Heroes." It was inspirational. I started to write a blog post about a year ago about my heroes but never finished it. I'm not sure exactly why, I think I just got distracted. I also think it was because I didn't want to leave anyone out. See I have a lot of heroes. Some of which have been mentors and helped guide my career and some are just people I respect and wish I could sit at a dinner table and listen to them speak.

If I had posted that list when I started writing it, I would have left Derek off that list. And that would have been a huge mistake.

Derek and I met about a decade ago when I was just starting Fanscape. I was in a weird stage in my life where I was making a transition from a record company executive to a new media entrepreneur. I wasn't yet comfortable with the fact that I was no longer a VP at a record company. Sure I was a CEO of a technology company but when you print your business cards on thick paper from your own printer it feels like anyone can call themself a CEO.

Derek started a company called CDBaby.com. Derek was a talented musician who was having trouble getting his albums into people's hands. Best Buy, Target, and Walmart basically controlled the physical CD market (and still do) and Amazon controlled the eCommerce sector. So Derek had a crazy idea. He would start a virtual store. A place for musicians like himself to sell their CDs.

I could go on forever about what Derek did with CDbaby.com. It was truly a fantastic experience for all involved. The consumer was able to find music from the act they'd seen the night before at a local club, sample music, and learn about that artist. Meanwhile the artist is who truly benefited. Not only did Derek provide a great platform for distributing their CDs, but Derek also constantly improved his service so that the musician could get a credit card machine to sell CDs at shows, get their CDs into stores like Tower Records, and get valuable marketing information to help them sell their product. To top it off, Derek created one of the easiest solutions for an artist to get their music into digital delivery stores like iTunes and Amazon.

Derek taught me some extremely valuable lessons. I can't say I've followed them all, but he is a great teacher and I'm not sure he even knows it.

Derek set CDbaby.com up in Portland, Oregon. He had a warehouse that stocked literally hundreds of thousands of CDs. He had a crew of people to pick, pack, and ship that product. He had great people run the entire operation. And what did Derek do? He moved to Santa Monica, California, got himself a little house and sat at a computer and programmed. He left the day-to-day business to others that he trusted and he programmed. He did the thing he loved most. He made the user experience at CD Baby better. And better. And better.

And his business grew.

And Derek went from being that strange guy with the interesting hair cut who spoke at music conferences to one of the most successful web music entrepreneurs. He is quoted by Chris Anderson in the new book "Free." He is mentioned by Seth Godin at the TED conference.

Derek is a leader.

And Derek sold his company. On top. And now he gets to play. And by play I mean that Derek gets to do what he wants, when he wants, all the time. He is flying around the world and having experiences one can only dream about. And he's writing. He's sharing those experiences. He's teaching others. Like he did for musicians on CD Baby, but on a grander scale.

And for that, I look up to Derek and call him a hero. An inspiration. And a friend. And for that, I'm very lucky.

Do yourself a favor and read and sign up for Derek's blog. His daily musings are continually inspirational. Like this one...

Unlearning

When I would speak on panels at music conferences, I'd always find it funny how all of the panelists' opinions were completely tainted by their own self-interest.

Someone would always ask us, “What's the future of the music business?”

The guy whose company sells MP3s would say, “MP3s are the future. No DRM. Unencumbered. The public has spoken and they want MP3s.”

The guy whose company sells subscriptions would say, “Subscription services are the future. Anything, anytime, anywhere. No need to keep a huge music collection.”

The guy whose company sells CDs would say, “People still want something tangible they can hold in their hand. CDs are going to be around a long time.”

I would just say, “Nobody knows the future. Anyone who pretends to is full of shit and not to be trusted.” (Which would of course get a weird look from my fellow panelists, but oh well.)

I still get asked to talk about the future of the music industry, but I just can't. My answer to everything is, “I don't know.”

For the last 11 years, I spent most waking hours thinking about how to sell and distribute music. I'm completely unobjective. I don't have fresh eyes about it anymore. I know my opinion is not to be trusted.

You'd be better off to ask a young music fan or musician, unencumbered by too much knowledge of the past.

I love musicians. I love the creative process. I love the art and craft of learning, writing and playing music.

But the “industry” around it? Eh. No interest. Sorry. I'm burnt-out on that subject. I need to spend a couple years unlearning before I can think about it again.