I started reading “Sonic Boom” – the story of Warner Brothers Music’s incredible thirty year run where they shaped the music industry via artists like Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, and Prince.
I don’t know much about the music industry – certainly not much about the industry in the 70s and 80s. I also can’t remember how this book ended up in my collection. But I love scrappy origin stories – so maybe that explains it.
I’m in the part of the book where Warner Brother’s Music is still the scrappy upstart hustling to prove viability. And one of my favorite anecdotes about the ethos of the group was their insistence that their focus was to not make hits.
Instead, they were run top-down by an ethos of trying to make great music. Even when they failed commercially, the question the team was asked was – “Was it good?”
As simple as this sounds, it is so hard to do consistently – especially when you’re under pressure to prove viability or to drive growth. The typical path is to just over-optimize your way to mediocrity. But, if like Warner Bros, you’re focused on making great products, the hits will follow.
Good outcomes follow good process in the long run. It is definitely one of those ideas that is easier to preach than practice.
