Why So Many Marketers Are Also Musicians
I’ve been in marketing since 2006. But I’ve been a musician even longer — since 1988.
I first experienced playing an instrument in my school orchestra, in third grade. I chose the French horn, which I played until early college. By the time I got to Drake University, my horn was too loud for my dorm room, so I left it at home, and my parents eventually sold it.
With the need for a dorm-friendly musical outlet, I picked up a classical acoustic guitar in 1999 and taught myself how to play it. I soon bought a cheap electric guitar and amp combo, and I’ve been off and running in the world of electric guitar ever since.
For the last decade plus, I’ve challenged myself to learn a wide range of hit songs from the 1950s onward. My goal for the past few years has been to join a cover band — a big hurdle in Los Angeles, where you can throw a stone and hit another guitar player.
While attending virtual networking events as part of my business marketing efforts, I noticed a pleasantly surprising trend…
Many marketing folks, including industry firm owners like me, are also musicians. Some play an instrument and/or sing just for fun, and others have anywhere from a side gig to an entire parallel career in music. I recently had a video call with a Chicago-based marketing strategy consultant who plays piano in a jazz trio and has multiple albums under his belt.
What marketing and musicianship have in common
When you step back and look at the types of people who choose to pursue both marketing and music, the links are apparent. They include:
A passion for learning new skills and putting them to work ASAP. What scales and notes are to music, strategies and tactics are to the world of marketing. If you use a marketing agency and they excel at not only meeting your goals but staying on top of fast-changing trends, keep them! Their desire to adopt emerging tactics — and to discern which tactics aren’t the best fit for your business — will help you when it comes to your sustainable growth and a successful longterm business partnership.
Commitment to delighting an audience. Marketers and musicians both want to use the knowledge and skills they gain to change audiences by stimulating their emotions. In a musical setting, it could be to bring about tears of joy, or perhaps relief from processing a personal hurdle or memory that a song helps a person get through. Likewise, in marketing everything from videos and blog posts to magazine articles and even postcards can bring a viewer or reader to an elevated emotional state.
Muscle memory. I believe the axiom that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill or field is true in both marketing and music. For my guitar journey, I passed 10,000 hours a few years ago — and it’s only been in the last few years that I feel free to jump to any note or chord variation, anywhere on the guitar neck, and have muscle memory-driven confidence (and proven past evidence) that the change will sound right. When it comes to marketing, while AI has reduced and continues to reduce the number of human-driven steps needed for campaigns and projects, a skilled in-house marketing lead or agency uses muscle memory in both brains and fingers to put the right steps in place, at the right time, to deliver the results that the CEO or client desires.
Taking comfort in wide variety and unpredictability. In music, there’s rarely a straight shot from graduating with a degree to joining an orchestra and staying in orchestras (or with bands or artists) until retirement. Your seat in an orchestra could go to a better or more flexible player, or you might need to supplement your concert income with club-size gigs and/or teaching lessons. Incredibly wide ranging variety and unpredictability are also the name of the game in marketing — much more so in the last few years with the advent of AI and companies of all sizes rethinking the size and scope of their marketing functions. People who are successful in marketing or music thrive when no two days are the same, and they relish unpredictability because it gives them the continual opportunity to reinvent (and reinvest in) themselves.
A desire for continual learning. One of my favorite books on playing guitar is Zen Guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo. A big takeaway from it is that, as you approach mastery, you need to keep your mind open to new ideas, including from beginner players and other musicians. In other words, your journey has no final destination. The same is true in marketing. The agencies that are best able to weather downturns and thrive during times of uncertainty are those that always keep ears to the ground in service to their clients’ evolving needs and desires.
If you’re looking for new marketing leadership…
Whether you’re looking to establish or replace an in-house marketing role, or outsource your marketing efforts to an agency, an uncommon yet productive question to ask your would-be employee or provider is: Do you sing or play an instrument? Given the above-mentioned links between marketing and musicianship — and the downstream benefits related to commitment and creativity that can help you attract and retain more customers or clients — you may want to give the advantage to the person or company who answers Yes to that question.
And if you need guitar-driven music for your marketing project…
I’m here for you! You can check out some of my work here. Reach out to me with your project needs here.
