This might seem like a weird article to be writing about music, but hang in there. By the time you’re done reading this, you’re going to understand where I’m coming from.
Okay, first just a brief definition of what tit for tat is as applied to game theory. Tit for tat is simple. If your opponent cooperates with you (assuming some kind of alliance is needed to achieve your goals) you cooperate with him. If he lashes out, you lash back. This way, he’ll begin to see that he gets more out of the alliance if he cooperates than if he fights you.
Great, so how does this apply to writing music for clients?
You’re going to get all kinds of clients. Some will be very easy going. Either that, or they’ll be so clueless when it comes to music, they’ll simply trust your judgment when it comes to what you’re going to write for them.
Unfortunately, these are the exceptions rather than the rule. Most people have very strong opinions and feel that they need to be in charge of every situation. So you’re going to get a lot of clients who will tell you what they want and will have a problem with almost everything you put out until you finally realize that you can’t please them.
How do you figure this out BEFORE you waste a ton of time with them? Simple…by applying tit for tat game theory.
When you first get together with the client, the first thing you need to do, and this is critical, is have them map out, as clearly as possible, EXACTLY what it is that they’re looking for. When you do this, one of three things are going to happen.
1) They will give you a very specific blueprint of what they want right down to the most minute detail. They will practically write the music for you, telling you where they want the music to build and where they want it to be quiet and so on. They have a vision and they give you their vision in ridiculous detail.
2) They aren’t completely clueless. They have some idea of what they want, such as stating a specific musical genre. Maybe they’ll give you a recording of what they’d like the piece to sound like. And then they’ll finish up their request with “something like that.”
3) They have no clue.
Let’s take number 3 to start with. If your client has no idea of what they want, you simply say to them “Do you trust me?” They may not know how to answer at first but keep talking. Assure them that you’ve been doing this a long time and you know what kind of music will be good for their presentation. You then wait for them to agree to this and then when they give you the go ahead you start work on the project. At this point you should have no problems. Why?
If they come back to you after you give them their music and they say something like “this isn’t what I wanted” you simply respond with, “But you said you didn’t know what you wanted and you said you trusted me to give you the music that would be best for your project.” At this point, you will get one of two responses. Either they will realize that they agreed that they’d trust you and agree to take what you’ve written for them or they’ll continue with “Well, it’s not what I want.” If they respond with the latter then you simply say, “Well, then tell me what you do want.” If they can’t give you an answer then you simply say “Well, then there’s no point in going on.” When you do know specifically what you want, get back to me and if I have time to work on your project at that time, I will. At this point they will either realize that they’re being difficult and take what you wrote or they’ll move on and you probably won’t hear from them again. Either way, you’ve saved yourself the trouble of doing more work for somebody who doesn’t know what they want and most likely won’t be happy with anything.
Number 2 is the hardest one to handle. They have some idea but they don’t have specifics. You’re taking a big chance with this project unless you use game theory. What you say is this.
“Okay, I can give you a piece that sounds something like that. Without more specifics, I can’t be any more precise. So if you have something definite in mind please let em know now.”
At this point they will either be more specific or they’ll say “No, something like that will be fine.”
From here, after you’ve given them something like what they wanted, they will either accept it or they’ll say “It’s not what I want.” From there, you handle it just the way you handled number 3. You tell them to come back when they’re more certain what it is they want. They’ll either take what you wrote or they’ll move on.
Either way, you’re not doing more work for nothing.
Finally, we have the guy who knows exactly what he wants. He’s mapped out the whole piece for you. Maybe he’s a composer himself and just doesn’t have the time to do the piece. This should be a piece of cake. You write the piece to his specs and then you give it to him.
At this point in time, he’ll either accept it or he’ll have very specific things that he wants changed and he’ll make each spot in the piece that he wants modified. This shouldn’t take long. At least you have a definite road map for the changes. Unfortunately, as I said, these are the exceptions and not the rule.
By using tit for tat game theory in dealing with your clients, you save yourself countless numbers of modifications to the work you did that end up sucking up weeks of your time, if not longer.
Try it sometime. You might be surprised at the results.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim