It’s okay to admit that you might be sick of hearing the word ‘collab’ at this point. Admittedly, it does get thrown around an awful, awful lot these days. It has for a while now, actually.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but unless and until a synonym replaces it, you’re going to have to simply accept that that is one word that is not going to go away any time soon. Although I have to tack onto that, nor should it!
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Yes, I know, there are outliers. Call them stubborn. Call them Lone Wolf McQuaid. Call them vampires. Call them introverts. Call them whatever you want, but I do know that there are some people who insist on working entirely alone. It kind of conjures up images of the late actor Dudley Moore sitting in the bathtub in the 1981 film “Arthur” and saying to his butler, “Bathing is a lonely business.”
Right out of the gate, one could argue in favor of collaborations strictly based on that, meaning, the opportunity to avoid loneliness. But that’s just the beginning because the opposite of that – getting out and being with others – is what leads to the payoff that collaborations provide.
A good number of times on my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast I am heard asking a guest if they songwrite alone or if they do co-writes, and sometimes I’ll even ask them to give a percentage breakdown of each approach. Spoiler alert: most of them predominantly do co-writing.
Not only does an environment like that put you among like-minded people, but they can be your solution to writer’s block. Just imagine that sigh of relief when someone is able to help you come up with the missing piece that was stopping you from finishing a song. But there’s far more to it than that.
If there are three writers on a song, there are three times as many people out performing it at a writers night and/or talking it up, shopping it around, and possibly getting it cut.
And whether you’re a songwriter, a podcaster, a filmmaker or some other creative, it’s not only learning from your colleagues (you don’t know what you don’t know) but immediately your contacts will grow. They will introduce you to someone and now you’ve got a connection that you wouldn’t have had if you’d insisted on staying home and doing everything alone.
Imagine when a song comes out that’s a collaboration. If an artist releases a track that you were the feature on, now you’re both promoting it. For that matter, you might be in the audience at his/her show and they call you up on stage to sing it and now you get the chance to be in front of their fans and get exposed to a whole new group of potential followers.
Heck, the episode of my podcast that comes out the day after tomorrow features an interview with a singer, songwriter, guitar player who – among other projects – talks about having co-authored a book! It’s not easy to sell books, but when you’ve got a co-author who’s just as invested in getting yours out there as you are, you just doubled your marketing team.
For podcasters, you might decide to start a show with someone, and they turn out to have the perfect recording space that you otherwise would have had to stress about if you were going to do a show by yourself. And yup, you guessed it. Every time an episode of that show comes out, you’re both promoting it.
Let’s face it, we all have different talents. Some performers can really sing but even though their voice is their instrument, it’s tougher to get booked for gigs without a guitar or piano as part of the show. You team up with someone who’s the opposite – they can crush it on guitar or piano but can’t sing – and voila!
I also see people doing YouTube shows in a co-host format. That adds a different wrinkle as compared to what so many of us have grown accustomed to seeing on our viewing devices when we watch an interview style show. And if it’s someone who you have a terrific relationship with – finish each other's sentences, straight man/funny man balance, even expertise in the same subject matter – now it stands a better chance of drawing people in. Plus, if people watch and it’s just you and they don’t like you, goodbye. But maybe they watch and really like your co-host and now you’ve retained an audience member.
Complementary skills will also help a collaboration be more fruitful. Someone might really like writing everything down while the other just riffs. One person might be really skilled technologically while the other brings an entirely different skill set that provides nice balance.
Suffice it to say, we’ve come this far and yet I know there are other benefits that you’ll probably chime in on social media with that I missed. I guess we could almost even consider that collaborative, in that we will have come together on a common topic, and others could benefit from it!
A Member of the Recording Academy, I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more for over twenty years. What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to? Connect with me so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.