Damn, good point about the OP’s contributions here. Thanks for checking that.
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it’s not forbidden, at least Erik creates and welcomes some conversation, there are other youtubers members of the forum that just post videos in the Media section to avoid that…
(I’m not talking about people who post music videos)
in general though, you can block users and their content will be hidden for you
Anything with Steve Jobs and “Think Different” on the cover scares me away, because that is a package for bullshit in 99% of the cases. Why this is on a video that allegedly promotes an agile mindset is beyond me, because what Apple did under Steve Jobs was the antithesis of Agile. It was basically zero fucks given about what the customer wants, no MVP, no iteration, no customer feedback.
Anyway, to save people time, here’s what he says:
- make quick sketches of tracks that nail the essentials (harmony, melody, hook, vocals, general vibe) instead of spending hours on tuning bass and base. Make those sketches in session view, and then decide if that sketch is worth pursuing
- reduce the work that you have to do over and over again, e.g. have a library of drums and bass that fit together, so you have a foundation for a track quickly
- have your mastering chain always on while writing
- use keyboard shortcuts
You can shoehorn these tricks into agile methodology if you want, but what he describes are still just common patterns for writing music that have been around long before the agile manifesto was even written.
There’s a tendency with agile coaches to evangelize about that agile stuff all the time, and try to apply it to every single situation on the planet. I must say I find that a bit annoying, and I’m not alone: one thing I learned about agile while using these principles and patterns for developing software and coaching teams in the past 25 years or so is, that most people could care less about agile. What they care about is when you help them discover stuff that works for them, and makes their life easier. Maybe then some of them they start caring about the principles and ideas behind those things. Most people who have an interest in agile are not the people who have an interest in doing the work. YMMV.
But for me, the most important insight from agile and lean is this: understand why (i.e. to what end) you are making music, and optimize for that. If you want to play your music for an audience, get feedback on your tracks early, get it often, and get if from your target audience. Early means in a state where a playing a sketch to somebody else might even be a bit embarrassing to you. But if you make music to have fun and relax, the situation is quite different, because then you might not even care about finishing tracks at all.
Ah, and for some people, this Unfinished Projects Release Forms booklet might be what the doctor ordered for getting rid of all those unfinished tracks or musical projects:
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This 100%, I’ve had too many shitty managers like that.
The video emphasises the end point, not the journey. Which isn’t how most people view & value creativity.
The more I think about this, the less I like it.
Round here most of us still use creative as an adjective, not a noun.
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My brother! I thought I was the only one who had that app on my phone. LOL
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i just hired Lumberg to ask for TPS report twice a day and my productivity is off the charts.
i’m glad you found a thing that works for your end goal but i think there’s various end goals people have and often they’re very different than what you present here. sometimes the process is itself the goal and not the track that comes from the process.
a lot of people aren’t making music that, in any way, lends itself to your process. everyone is different.
saying that… letting some corporate jargon speak and tech bro mind set into my creative life would be putting a gun to my head.
but really, when ya boil it down, i think what you’ve done is just frame the idea of having a “work ethic” and being “disciplined” in creation of art with a corporate conference room ted talk life hack type language which seems unnecessary… but probably makes for appealing content for some people… … if that’s what it takes to make the idea of being efficient and disciplined in the studio click for you then by all means… do your thing… also, i think your intentions are good but people get carried away with the mass production of art… especially some genres of commercial techno and i guess everything has its place but it rubs me the wrong way and isn’t anything i want to celebrate. it’s maximized gentrification and homogenized sound design… but again… everything has its place and maybe some of that will turn interesting at some point but usually it’s when someone decides to break the implied rules… when that happens it’s usually a reaction to what is happening in mainstream cultures.
idk… maybe i’m being a snob here. i don’t intend to come off that way… there’s just something about “mindset” content applied to art that is making my skin crawl.
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It’s cause they’re applying their own mantra here. Use as little time and effort as possible to deliver a minimally acceptable product and see how people react and adapt from there 
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great stuff - i’ve also been adopting practices from the workplace in my own music production:
- weekly retrospectives where i play all my unfinished Ableton sessions to my gf and she rates them as “mad, sad, or glad”
- kanban board with four columns: “Idea”, “Power On”, “Loop”, and “Saved”
- if i don’t finish enough tracks per month, i deliberately don’t pay my rent. just like a real workplace!
- at least 70% of my studio time is spent cultivating contacts on LinkedIn
- why must the logic of late capitalism infiltrate every innocent source of joy we have oh god i just want it to stop this is no way to live
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Logic → Apple → Steve → Tech StartUp
can only connect the dots looking backwards
time to buy 14 black turtlenecks
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This common sense all in one place. The templates, sample pools, mixing in a mastering chain,
sketches and getting feedback on which should be further developed…even if you come back to your own tracks after a week or two. It can sound totally different with a break in between listens! Excellent video. 
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Every time I tried running my studio like a tech startup I got laid off.
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you call it “creating and welcoming conversation”, i call it “bumping your thread to the top of the list so more people will click and subscribe to your youtube channel under the guise of “helpful discussion””. bonus points if you wait a few days or weeks when the thread died down to respond to an old comment
cynical rant over
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Didn’t watch video yet but this has been on my mind (plus I’m going to l use this as a way to plug my own release - I’m quite the tech startup ha ha!)
I’ve started to try to follow the tech mantra “Ship or die” - ie. put out new music at all costs. I recently put out my first release:
which had sat around for about five or six years on my hard drive.
Key point is this:
Your job:
- create the art
- get it to an acceptable place
- release.
It is up to other people to decide if they like it or not. Assuming what you’ve created is close to what your ideal is, you need to just put it out there. You are the creator. You are not the critic (other than basic critical decisions made while creating).
My new goals:
- record everything. if not worth recording, stop messing with it (don’t listen to that loop for 2 hours)
- finish everything - every recording must a full “track” even if dull and boring
- release the results often
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tired: creating art
wired: delivering value
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Dear gods.
Scrum and agile are poison words used by middle management and lackeys to try and convince technical people who have the misfortune of working under them that they are the problem for things being shit. The original agile manifesto has been bastardized to the point where it causes an immense adverse reaction to anyone who has had the misfortune of somebody trying to convince them it is the way.
I feel like taking all this business horse shit is a good way to extract any joy or humanity out of making music
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i outsourced my beat production to TaskRabbit, connect with me on LinkedIn to learn how
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I love it so much I splashed out the cash for a printed deck from Eno’s shop. It really is one of the finest resources I’ve found for injecting fresh creativity into one’s process!
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If we connect there we can synergize to innovate when stakeholders approach us with new asks!
I hate myself for typing that.
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Smart philosophy
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