Job Woes or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Constant Threat of Layoffs

It happened again last week just as it's happened every year for the last 13. I didn't have to worry about layoffs when I worked at Rosatti's pizza.

Actually, it's happened every year except one. That was the year they announced the super merger of Sony and BMG. Which, as you've probably guessed, didn't relive any tensions or fears about layoffs.

I'm starting to think I'm not one of the lucky ones.

This music industry thing is in the shitter. Do I have the answers to save it? No. Well, I have some ideas, but who would listen to a graphic designer (in a fly over state) about future business models?

Let me first draw a distinction between me and the evil (perceived or real) that is the music industry. I love music. 13 years ago (Today! It's actually 13 years exactly today!) I was baffled with excitement. You mean I get to work with music, and design things all day. Cool. Wait a second ... I get paid too?

I listen to music all day, search for new stuff regularly and go to shows several times a month. Not because I have to, but as a super obsessed hyper-hobby with an insatiable appetite music fan. Does this buy me membership into the "I'm one of the cool ones" academy? Am I guilty by association?

Indulge me through this excerpt from Clerks:

Randal: So they build another Death Star, right?
Dante: Yeah.
Randal: Now the first one they built was completed and fully operational before the Rebels destroyed it.
Dante: Luke blew it up. Give credit where it's due.
Randal:And the second one was still being built when they blew it up.
Dante: Compliments of Lando Calrissian.
Randal: Something just never sat right with me the second time they destroyed it. I could never put my finger on it-something just wasn't right.
Dante: And you figured it out?
Randal: Well, the thing is, the first Death Star was manned by the Imperial army-storm troopers, dignitaries- the only people onboard were Imperials.
Dante: Basically.
Randal: So when they blew it up, no prob. Evil is punished.
Dante: And the second time around...?
Randal: The second time around, it wasn't even finished yet. They were still under construction.
Dante: So?
Randal: A construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I'll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers.
Dante: Not just Imperials, is what you're getting at.
Randal: Exactly. In order to get it built quickly and quietly they'd hire anybody who could do the job. Do you think the average storm trooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and white uniforms.
Dante: All right, so even if independent contractors are working on the Death Star, why are you uneasy with its destruction?
Randal: All those innocent contractors hired to do a job were killed- casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. (notices Dante's confusion) All right, look-you're a roofer, and some juicy government contract comes your way; you got the wife and kids and the two-story in suburbia-this is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn't ask for that. You have no personal politics. You're just trying to scrape out a living.
(The Blue-Collar Man (Thomas Burke) joins them.)
Blue-Collar Man: Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt, but what were you talking about?
Randal: The ending of Return of the Jedi.
Dante: My friend is trying to convince me that any contractors working on the uncompleted Death Star were innocent victims when the space station was destroyed by the rebels.
Blue-Collar Man: Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer... (digs into pocket and produces business card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play when choosing jobs.
Randal: Like when?
Blue-Collar Man: Three months ago I was offered a job up in the hills. A beautiful house with tons of property. It was a simple reshingling job, but I was told that if it was finished within a day, my price would be doubled. Then I realized whose house it was.
Dante: Whose house was it?
Blue-Collar Man: Dominick Bambino's.
Randal: "Babyface" Bambino? The gangster?
Blue-Collar Man: The same. The money was right, but the risk was too big. I knew who he was, and based on that, I passed the job on to a friend of mine.
Dante: Based on personal politics.
Blue-Collar Man: Right. And that week, the Foresci family put a hit on Babyface's house. My friend was shot and killed. He wasn't even finished shingling.
Randal: No way!
Blue-Collar Man: (paying for coffee) I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. (pauses to reflect) You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... (taps his heart) not his wallet.

I knew the risks of working for the man, going in. What are the risks? Well, for one, I knew I didn't like all the music we were putting out. As a matter of fact there are very few of our releases that I lovingly place into my CD player.

Our main goal as a company is to separate kids from their allowance. The same kids that choose to steal music now. Ha!

So I knew the risks. But are we the most evil company out there? No. Our business isn't killing anybody. Did we lose track of what this business is about. Yes. 100% yes.

We don't sell beef jerky. And while there is nothing wrong with the sweetest of all road-trip snacks, we sell something more important, in the scheme of things. Every song / album / artist you like is dear to you. You like it because you can relate, because the lyrics hit you like a bolt of that bright white stuff from the sky, because the beat makes you set down your drink and boogey. Yes I said boogey.

Music produces such an emotional feeling, that charging for it (and ripping someone off for it, ie one good song a release, special editions, I could go on for years ...) is a very bad / sad thing.

I remember Aha's "Take on Me" vividly. It was a pretty cool video, for it's time. Second, it's kind of a sappy, yet up-beat, song that someone could easily self apply as a love song. I'm not sure I ever took those lyrics and said: "Yeah, that's me and what's her name." But I remember seeing that video, in a movie theater, while I was on my first date ever.

Her name was Jenny. Or maybe that was her best friend's name, whom I also liked. Regardless, I can picture her face, that video, and holding her hand. There was never a second date, but the moment remains. And it's marked by a song.

So I might not have liked most of the tunes we produced, but I was still enjoying myself; I was surrounded by people who also loved their jobs. These same people who have slowly been discarded, over the years, and replaced with nothing. The work remains, the body doesn't. I still work with some cool people, but there are not many left.

As low-level peons, we can't make the big changes. Sometimes we are even stifled when we try to make the small ones. It's not going to matter when someone picks your name from a hat and hands you that pink slip.

The decision makers are driving and killing this company. None of them have iPods, none of them are under 30, and none of them want any trouble. They just want to retire, their ginormous paycheck intact till the end.

Music companies, over the last 20 years, have lost site of what our product is. We sell an emotionally charged product that, once absorbed, becomes a priceless emotional part of people and can not be taken away. By losing site of what our responsibility was, we lost control of our business, and our future. If this company remained just about the music, I think the guys steering the boat would have realized what to do, when the downloading came.

In general, people hate the music industry. We have had a bad rap for a long time. We charge too much, we pay radio stations to bludgeon listeners with the same song (over and over) and now we sue people for embracing technology. A technology that the big guys barely understand. I think it's fairly obvious what we think about our customers, we just want to snake every dollar we can out of their wallets.

Are we doing enough to change? No. Should I have my job? Probably not. Do I want it? Yes, but not how it is now. I don't like working like a dog AND having to worry about being laid off.

It's going to change, whether we like it or not. No matter what we try to do. All the FYE's will go under, and the Best Buy's and Borders or the world will stop devoting valuable floor space to antiquated technology.

What to do? I've heard this plenty of places: give people what they want. And no, it's not a Ringle. What they want is iTunes with no DRM and cheaper (yes I said cheaper) prices. What they want is a subscription service. What they want is an ad based FREE service.

Give it to them. Give them every choice they could possibly want. Give them options, not restrictions.

Lastly, it's time to abandon the brick and mortar, instead of tip toeing around them, in an attempt to spare their feelings. What do they care if we create an online portal with all our music with cheaper prices than that physcial CD in their store? They are shrinking space for music in their stores, and have been sending out muffled smoke signals about removing CDs completely, for years now.

I could go on, but just having this out there makes it better. For me, at least.