I’m often asked by indie musicians how they can get a record deal.  My answer almost always begins with “Why?”

Why do you want a record deal?

Equally good questions are: Why do you want to increase your blog’s page rank?  Why do you want more myspace friends?  Why do you want to sell $X in merch at your shows?  Why do you want your single on the radio?  Why do you want it to reach #1?  Why do you want more traffic to your site?  Why do you want X number of people on your mailing list?

Why?  Are these really the goals you want to accomplish or are they the only things you can think to measure?  Are they just the things everyone else seems to care about measuring?

Seth Godin calls these measured goals “metrics” and then warns you and I about using them when they don’t truly measure what we’re really out to accomplish…

The danger is when you keep score of the wrong thing because it’s easy or precise.

Here are some common metrics (and the thing that might be the real point):

Good grades in school (the ability to solve problems in life)

Lots of raw traffic to your blog (conversations among prospects who become fans or customers)

Burning calories (feeling better and looking good)

Clickthrough rate on ads (conversion rate to customers)

High salary (long-term happiness)

Class rank (actually learning something)

Number of stock options (future prospects of your employer)

This quarter’s commission (reputation in the industry)

Technorati rank (number of RSS subscribers)

So, why do you make music?  What are you out to accomplish?  It may be that your why can’t be measured by a record deal or record sales or any of the other usual and most-watched metrics.