Today, while listening to a song from the music-group Ace of Base, and thinking about NullSoft, I realized that small software companies are a lot like small music-groups.
Music-groups produce songs, while software companies produce software. But essentially both songs and software are works of art. Knowing how to play a guitar, flute, drums, etc. is like knowing about the concepts of multi-threading, dynamically typed languages, and other technologies.
Using DJ and mixer software in music, is like using RAD (Rapid Application Development) tools in software.
You may go to schools and learn about the concepts and the tools, but you need creativity, skills, and experience (practise), to put them together into a great composition -- a song, or a software product.
Also, each member of a small software company, may have a visibility like each member of a music-group. But it is only great software that can make a software company succeed, like a music-group can only succeed by virtue of having great songs.
Both music-groups and software companies may dislike it, but they also need great marketing to reach out to listers, and users. And then, while music-groups need great fans to succeed, software companies also need dedicated users to succeed.
However, there's another interesting similarity. Great software may help compose some great music, like great music may go a long way in helping to get into a mental state of flow and create great software!
