It’s easy to moan about modern life…. and a lot of people seem to do so. For me, though, modern life is amazing. I mean, here I am 59 years old and I’m doing my day job, writing books, making music, taking photographs and so much more. Not only that but I’m actually having a bit of success doing it. I wonder what other generation of humanity could boast such a feat! Most previous generations were focused on one thing – survival.
It’s not just me that is having fun with creativity. According to an article I read this morning, there are 25,000 new songs added to Spotify every day! 1 million every 6-weeks. According to another article I googled just now, there is a new book added to Amazon every 5 minutes. Let those numbers sink in. Photography has exploded in the same way. The barriers to entry have been reduced so significantly that anyone can write and publish a book and everyone can write, record and release a song. Everyone – almost everyone – has a smartphone and is taking snaps like crazy. OK, not everyone does but they could if they so desired. This level of creativity is simply unimaginable in any other era.
Ah, I hear you say, but a lot of it is substandard stuff isn’t it? Well, probably some is yes but I have to tell you, the quality of music on Spotify is pretty amazing. You see, in an effort to promote my music, I started listening to a lot of other people’s music. I started building playlists like this one for example, that are compilations of amateurs like me having a go. I can tell you this, there is some pretty good music out there being released by, your next door neighbor, or possibly – you. Same goes for books. I have read some remarkable works by all sorts of people just like you and me who thought they would take a crack at writing.
My Playlist!
Of course, it is an absolute minority that succeeds immeasurably. For every thousands of wanna be authors or musicians, there is only one or two Ed Sheerans or JK Rowling. Quite how a person manages to rise above the background noise of tens of thousands to millions of competing works, I’m still not sure but honestly, I suspect that luck plays a much larger role than you might think. For I can tell you, there is so much talent out there finding expression. It is real and life has never before been like this….
Listen to my music here.
See my books here.