Content project management lessons from The Beatles
Photo Source: The Beatles
Today I’d like to tell you the story of a massive content creation project that didn't have a clear goal. It was disorganized, dysfunctional, and full of constraints and obstacles at every turn.
That mess of a project went down in history as one of the most consequential events in the history of rock and roll. I’m talking about the sessions for The Beatles’ “Let it Be,” and what would ultimately be the final live performance of the band - upon a London Savile Row rooftop.
This story is documented in the 8-hour Disney+ documentary, “The Beatles: Get Back”! If you don't know the story, Director Peter Jackson took hundreds of hours of film and tape from the sessions that would eventually become “Let It Be”, and painstakingly built a compelling look into what happened during that important moment in Beatles, and music, history.
Content marketing project management takeaways
After it ended I thought about it in great detail, considering pivotal moments and my favorite parts. It became clear that The Beatles were project managers in this context, and their plan to perform their new music live on television, which would then become the basis for an upcoming live album, resembles a content project in a lot of ways. This brought me to several conclusions that I believe can help all of us as we manage content projects.
Lean on your roots to create better content
In The Beatles: Get Back, the band was often seen to delve back into their roots - noodling on an old blues or rock and roll tune, or even revisiting one of their early tunes, to get in the right frame of mind to create something new. I think that's a powerful lesson when thinking about content creation, or even tactics like content repurposing. It can also be very inspiring - building on the old to create something new.
Managing content marketing projects is hard
The next thing wasn't as inspiring as it was relieving. The greatest band in the world, The Beatles, also sucked at content project management. This film is not a best practice for what the content production process should be. Director Peter Jackson's visual of the X's on the calendar ticking off days until their self-imposed deadline, an on-screen version of a planning or editorial calendar or that many of us might use for project management, illustrated something that I think we've all felt if we've worked on big content projects. There are never enough days.
Revise your workflow to create realistic expectations and outcomes
Quite often, the result doesn't turn out as originally intended. For example, from starting with a plan for a televised concert on a soundstage, or perhaps at ruins in Libya, before finally just shooting footage on the roof of the Apple Records corporate office building in London, The Beatles revised their plan, and their work leading up to it, multiple times before they were finished. It's not always a bad thing to take a look at your progress, revise goals and exceptions based on reality, then update your project's workflow to match.
Leadership is key in content project management
The Beatles were hindered by obstacles that most of us who manage content projects know well, like lack of focus, scope creep, procrastination, interpersonal relationship issues, negative external forces, and a general lack of clear leadership to make critical decisions and keep things moving along. Their manager, Brian Epstein, had died a year earlier and left the band in disarray from an organizational and project management standpoint. It showed.
Paul McCartney did his best to keep things moving along, but he was (and is) an influential creative force, not a dedicated project manager. There were just too many voices in that big room. Unless you’re Paul McCartney, consistent leadership can be key in managing large content projects.
But also, don't beat yourself up about it if your content project suffers from one or two of these problems. We're all in the same boat (or perhaps Yellow Submarine, but that’s a different album). Do the best you can.
Bring in an outsider to improve the creative process
Somewhat connected is another lesson that I'm intrigued by. Sometimes it helps to have a friendly outsider come in and contribute to your project. Maybe they will add something that works perfectly, or see something that you had missed. Talented keyboardist Billy Preston was that person for The Beatles in this instance.
He had the musical skills to make them better. Not only did Preston add amazing keyboard parts that completed their music, but they also tended to be on better behavior in his presence. They liked him. They respected him. They didn't want to appear in disarray while he was there. They needed him at that moment, and he delivered.
Here’s the lesson: access every person and resource you have to do a better job creating content.
Teamwork is crucial to managing successful content projects
This may be obvious, but it’s real: teamwork is important. Despite their troubles and turmoil, the members of The Beatles, and their supporting cast like producer George Martin and engineer Glyn Johns, seemed willing to help and be helped by, one another (well, most of the time).
Case-in-point: the very helpful feedback and advice that George Harrison gave Ringo Starr on song structure as he was developing “Octopus's Garden” (which eventually ended up on “Abbey Road”). If you haven’t seen the movie you can hear a bit of this interaction on the 2021 release of Let It Be (Super Deluxe), which is on most streaming music services.
Improve your content by trying new things
They weren't afraid to try new stuff. From new musical instruments to state-of-the-art recording equipment, they seemed to be always looking for something else to use or something new to try - some other sound or technique to bring something new to their record. This was a staple of The Beatles' work from Revolver (1966) onward, but it's very evident in this documentary.
For digital marketers and content creators, you may not be able to use a different musical instrument, but maybe you can use new marketing tools, or employ new tactics to save time or eliminate bottlenecks. Don't be afraid to try new stuff.
Update: a note about AI (and “Now and Then”)
Since the time I originally wrote this post, we’ve encountered a revolution in the area of artificial intelligence. The Beatles wouldn’t mess with that stuff, would they? They’d keep their music pure and free of digital intrusion. Right?
Wrong.
If the hundreds of examples of the band and their producer George Martin tinkering with new instruments, recording techniques, layering, loops, and all kinds of other things throughout their active time as a band didn’t prove that, then it’s certainly proven by The Beatles’ release of “Now and Then” in 2023.
This impressive creative and technological achievement allowed a new Beatles song featuring all 4 members to be released in 2023. The basic story is that in the 1990s, Yoko Ono sent Paul, George, and Ringo cassette recordings of John Lennon playing new music in his New York City apartment. 1990s technology allowed them to use the best recordings, for “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love,” which were released on their “Anthology'“compilations.
But they couldn’t make anything of John’s recording of “Now and Then” because they couldn’t isolate the vocals from the piano on the low-quality recording. That recently changed, and Peter Jackson’s team (the same one who used AI to comb through the massive amounts of material for the “Get Back documentary - read more about that in the next section) were able to isolate the vocals using cutting-edge AI and machine learning (ML) technology.
Once they had that, Paul, Ringo, and producer Giles Martin (George Martin’s son) worked on recording new parts for Paul and RIngo. They incorporated guitar from those 1990s sessions with George Harrison. They also through an orchestra into the mix. Thanks to new technology, we were given a Beatles song in 2023. That’s pretty cool, right?
Creativity often stands on the shoulders of new technology. We can’t be afraid to embrace it.
Managing a massive content project about a massive content project
On another level is the documentary itself. The work that Peter Jackson and his team did with this documentary, through painstaking editing, and the use of pioneering AI technology to clean up and weave hundreds of hours of audio and video footage together into a cohesive and compelling narrative that told the real story of the (near) end of the Beatles is beyond extraordinary.
Content should be as long (or short) as it needs to be
Whether the subject is The Beatles or not, editing 8 hours of people sitting in a room and working on a somewhat-doomed project, into a compelling and accurate narrative, not only tells me that Jackson is good at making documentaries (there's another obvious statement for you). It also highlights another important lesson: content should be as short or as long as it needs to be to tell the right story.
Tell the right story
In contrast to “The Beatles: Get Back”, the “Let It Be” movie that was made in the 1970s used the same raw footage, but told a slightly different and significantly more depressing 90-minute story that made people sad about The Beatles and inspired decades of what many now believe to be misplaced hatred for Yoko Ono.
If something needs to be longer to tell the right story in the right context, then it needs to be longer. That's all there is to it.
Create human connections in your content
When you spend more than 8 hours watching people work, like we did with The Beatles in this documentary, you start to feel like you know them. You make connections. They become a part of your life in ways that are one-sided but feel absolutely real. This phenomenon is what psychologists refer to as a parasocial relationship.
Audiences build strong bonds with podcast hosts, YouTubers, social media influencers, and Twitch streamers. Serial TV dramas like Game of Thrones or interconnected movie series like the Marvel Cinematic Universe are popular because we care about the characters and are invested in what happens to them.
This can have negative impacts on both audience members and content creators when taken to the extreme. Mostly, it’s a good thing. A little bit of “I like that person and I want to listen to what they have to say,” can be really helpful to building great content.
Relatability builds connections. It builds communities of like-minded people. It builds brands. Infuse some of your humanity into your project.
More takeaways to be discovered
I'm sure if I sat here and thought about it I could come up with more lessons and takeaways from The Beatles: Get Back. Simply studying the creative process, particularly of McCartney and Lennon, could serve as inspiration for any content creator. I'll leave it there for now.
Reality check: they're The Beatles and we aren't
Ultimately, because they're the Beatles, the band managed to overcome most of their obstacles and create amazing music in this session (though most of it didn't come out until after the band had released another album. They had also broken up by then).
We aren't The Beatles. We don't possess the ability to write the greatest songs of the 20th century. We are (probably) not unbelievable musicians. We're just marketers, writers, editors, content creators, and project managers.
You don’t have to be on the level of The Beatles to draw inspiration from them. That’s been happening since 1960.
Have you watched "The Beatles: Get Back!"? What did you think of it? Are there any lessons or takeaways I missed? Let me know in the comments. What are your favorite songs from this era of The Beatles? Let me know on social media, or in the comments.
Important links
Podcast: The Incomparable Episode 593: "The Beatles Need Me!"
Podcast: The Talk Show with John Gruber Episode 331: "John Was The Problem, with Merlin Mann"
About Mark Dauner
I'm Mark and I write and create stuff on the internet, including the Super Space Robot podcast, from which this blog post was adapted. Find out more at my website, rockandrollreclaimed.com. I also create content and consult on content marketing, content strategy, and digital marketing for others from time to time. Interested? Send me a message.