I am part of a music group that is rapidly expanding its team. What began as a small group of friends playing in a basement has expanded to a nationally touring band complete with a manager, tour manager, publicist, and lawyer. In this community, trust is vitally important. How are we to know if work is getting done, or money is being properly handled? Who is reliable for what? Trust is especially important because most members of the group are remotely located. As discussed in class, it is much more difficult to trust people who are remotely located.
Desirable behaviors in this community mostly revolve around fulfilling one’s stated responsibilities. Interestingly enough, equal division of labor does not matter much in this community, but fulfilling tasks one accepts in a timely and complete matter does. For example, one builds a reputation by volunteering to complete tasks and completing them well, such as sending press kits out to labels, or driving to a show, etc etc. Eventually, these people prove that they are the “real deal” and are able to be entrusted with real responsibility.
The rewards in this community are few and far between. The music industry has very little money left in it, and until very recently we did not even break even. Monetary rewards are out of the question, but there is a level of respect given to those who do the brunt of the work. When it comes to better sleeping accommodations, or meeting with top industry folks, those who put more in are higher in the pecking order and are able to participate.
This system is so basic, it is difficult to manipulate. Since it is based on tangible, real-world results, one would have to be quite lucky to end up with a higher level of trust than they deserve. Having a results-oriented reputation system like we have ensures the success of the venture no matter the method.
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It's cool that you have such a unique opportunity to develop relationships like these. It probably gives you a lot of applicable knowledge about money management and business. However, have you considered the opportunities for manipulation that might arise in the event that the band begins to make more money? I know this is lame, but I'm thinking of Selena Quintanilla, the singer whose manager stole the money from her. Not to say that anyone in your group would steal, but I think there is still an opportunity to build false trust and then take an advantage of it. Once again, purely hypothetical.
ReplyDeleteHow would you improve the reward system if you possibly could?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that you talk about how the reward system isn't great and that the system is hard to manipulate, but don't offer up any ideas that your experiences in the business have given you.