The older I get, the more a year seems like a month. Sometimes I say to myself, “what did I even accomplish this year?”, expecting more of myself every year. I rarely take the time to look back and give credit to the milestones, regardless of their size. I figured I’d take a moment to give a toast to the milestones reached by 20 Minutes to Park during the last 12 months (including the tail-end of 2009).

• Mitch started paying rent for his own place for the first time (no roommates!).
• We released “Changin’ Tones,” our first full-band album. It took many months, but it was well worth it. I think it’s a great sounding record for a 2-man operation, no sound engineer and no mastering. I’m very proud of “Changin’ Tones” and I’m looking forward to doing another full-band album in the beginning of 2011.
• “Australia” was a part of the Microsoft Windows music campaign, and was downloaded over 3,000 times.
• We played our first of several shows at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville – a music venue that I grew up watching some of my favorite musicians throw down, including David Mead, Dave Barnes, The Loft, Old Union, The Wooten Brothers and numerous others I’m forgetting. This was also our first full-band show in Nashville.
• We released the single (full-band version) of “Loveless Cafe” a month after releasing “Changin’ Tones.” We were hungry to release new music, and we pushed for this to be out before Christmas 2009. We did it.
• Six months later we released “Back to Basics,” our first-ever live release. While the album wasn’t performed in front of an audience, it was performed live in-studio with no over-dubs, punch-ins or mastering magic. It was the rawest thing we’ve ever released and forced us to live with the flaws that make live music so captivating. We officially had 24 new songs released within about 8 months.
• “Loveless Cafe” and “Australia” were played on the Weather Channel throughout August of 2010, which was the first time our music has been played on national TV (that we know of). Mitch did the pitching, again taking matters into our own hands.
• We sold more music, both digitally and physically, during 2010 than any other year, despite playing less and giving away more music than ever before.
• We dissolved our old LLC, and created a new LLC – 20 Minutes to Park, LLC.
• We cleared up old lingering debts, and still ended up making a profit. 20MTP became completely debt-free.
• We created a brand new t-shirt, which was only the second one ever made over the course of our 9-year career.
• We had a good time, made music we love, and met great people.

Take a minute to look back – it’s good to note the little things that made a difference.

Cheers to accomplishing more in 2011!

Nashville: we’ll be doing an acoustic set at The Wine Loft on November 18th, 2010, this Thursday, from 8pm-8:45pm. It will be an almost entirely original set, featuring a brand new tune along with songs from each release. Come out for wine and good times!

I’m not really talking about spiders or heights. I was reading a blog the other day that mentioned this concept, which got me thinking a bit. Instead of asking, “What do you want out of life?” you ask “What do you fear will happen if you do or don’t do what you want?”. Your perspective on what you want changes, and confronts what’s holding you back. It’s easy to make a to-do list for how to succeed, but it’s a lot harder to stand face-to-face with your fears, which is inevitably what you have to do in order to get what you want out of life.

Are you scared of what people will say? Are you scared to lose the steady paycheck and insurance? Are you scared to screw up a relationship? Are you scared you’ll fail? If you can conquer your fears, or at least know what they are, I think it takes you a step further in the right direction.

I know I have a lot of fears to face, and new ones are born every day. I strive to knock out as many as I can, but I know I’ve got a ways to go. As I get older, I’m realizing how fast life goes by, and risk is also a lot scarier today than it was when I was 20. People with great talent and no motivation drive me crazy though – what are these people scared of? I know they have talent and I know they want people to see it, but they do nothing about it.

When it comes down to it, the key is to get used to facing fears, even if they are spiders or heights. If you can create a knack for standing face-to-face with your fears and getting the first punch in, success and life goals will probably fall in your lap. I guess it’s time to get outta the gym and into the ring. I’m still working up the courage, but it’s building. I challenge you to face a fear today.

So, what do you fear?

Just kidding. If you know anything about 20 Minutes to Park, we aren’t the type to call you out for stealing our music; in fact, we kind of encourage it. I bring this topic up because I was listening to NPR this morning (as an old man might do), and there was a feature on musicians STILL battling over the illegal download issue. I know, music sales are down. They are at their worst point ever since the implementation of SoundScan, which tracks record sales. It’s clear that selling music isn’t what it used to be, at least not the way it’s currently being sold. I’m sorry fellow musicians, but CDs and music downloads just aren’t worth fighting for.

We’ve been giving away a lot of music lately because we want people to have it. Of course we would love for people to buy it, and many people still do, but it’s becoming very evident that music downloads and CDs just aren’t that profitable. The realization that hundreds of people are downloading our music each month for free is far more rewarding than the small amount of money we are missing out on. In time, we believe the people that love our music will keep us afloat by coming to shows, buying merchandise, purchasing music, or helping us in some other way.

I don’t really understand why musicians and songwriters are holding onto an outdated philosophy that will inevitably fail. I suppose it’s a lot like your last days on Earth, grasping for air with the hope that a miracle will happen. Maybe it’s time to get off the ventilator and start looking for a real cure. I’m not a music doctor, so I don’t have this cure, but I know it’s there.

Imagine life without music though. It would be a really quiet world. Your home, your car, your coffee shop, your favorite bar, your favorite restaurant – all silent. Would you pay for music if your world was suddenly silenced? I think most people would in some form or another.

Music definitely has value. As I’ve said before, people just don’t value mp3s and CDs like they used to. So what? It’s the music industry’s problem now. The music industry feeds mostly garbage to a hungry audience, with no nutritional value. When it’s all about quick profit, everyone loses. The musicians are hungry, and the consumers are bloated from overeating fast food artists.

I think it’s time to leave the consumers alone and find a cure. Stop whining. Start curing.