The Paradox – Too Many Choices = No Decision
I read an interview with Barry Schwartz who wrote, The Paradox of Choice: How More Is Less, and I have to say he put into words a lot of what I have been feeling as a music consumer and an artist.
For the music consumer: The Paradox of Choice highlights that we have way too many options to choose from in our daily lives. More than our brains really want to handle! For example, we flip through 200 TV channels and feel like there is nothing on TV. This is exactly how I felt when I tried out a music subscription service for the first time. I suddenly had access to just about any album I could ever want to listen to, and oddly enough, I couldn’t think of one album that I wanted to hear. I honestly sat there thinking, “Why did I suddenly lose all desire to listen to something?” I don’t think I ever used the service because trying to decide on what to listen to was just too overwhelming. As new music business models emerge, I think understanding this paradox will be key to success. Sometimes giving the consumer everything can be more of a stumbling block (even if they don’t know it). What music fans are missing is active engagement with music, not musical choices. If the focus continues to be on the number of musical options, we might get to a point where the fans feel like not choosing anything at all is their best option.
For the musician: In my own musical pursuits, I have seen how having more options at my disposal actually serves to stifle my creativity. Instead of finding a creative way to make due with limited resources, I spend hours searching for the perfect keyboard or guitar sound, never truly satisfied as there is always another patch or effect that might be better than what I’m currently using. Some of my most creative moments are when I pick up a single instrument and am forced to make that sound work. Would The Beatles have been able to finish Sgt. Pepper if they had been recording with unlimited tracks and effect plugins? Would it have been a creative masterpiece? Try limiting yourself, as it will open up a whole new world of possibilities, and that’s the paradox!