Downloads are killing the music business.
There's enough anti-streaming venom in music to kill the industry. Whether it be artists angry at Spotify payouts or labels still holding on to CDs and trumpeting downloads to investors, neither can see that streaming has already won. With Pandora. With YouTube. It's what the customer wants, but the customer is too stupid to realize it.
Take Netflix. What killed the company's stock, driving it down from $298 to $52.81? An admission of the future. A declaration that to rent DVDs you had to pay more. That they were moving the company to streaming.
And now everybody's raving about "House of Cards." I don't know a single person who rents DVDs by mail...that's like carrying gasoline from the station when you can plug your Tesla in by your clothes dryer!
It's all about scale. Streaming payouts suck now because very few people pay. Yes, when subscribers graduate to the paid-tier, rightsholders get more. What are the rightsholders doing to implore people to upgrade? Telling them to purchase CDs and downloads! Huh?
Downloads are a flawed model, because of the bundle.
Lost in the archaic discussion about the artistic value of an album is the fact that it worked economically. You want to get someone to pay ten dollars for ten tracks instead of a dollar for one. The analogy I like to use is automobiles. You can't pick your options one by one. If you want a sunroof, you need to get upgraded wheels. You can't get heated seats without heated windshield wipers and headlight washers, they're all part of the "Winter Package." Where are the packages in the music business?
Yes, the CD was a package. But those defending the album are disconnected from those listening to music. People cherry-pick their favorites. Artists seem to believe fans listen to their records from beginning to end, over and over again. They're delusional. The key is to get people to pay for the listening experience, via a subscription.
Netflix is a subscription! You pay $7.99 every month not knowing what you'll watch and not possessing anything at the end. But the naysayers say music must be owned. Huh? That's inefficient. We want access, not ownership. Who's got a house full of VHS tapes, ready to be played? When was the last time you played a DVD? New computers come sans drive, and everybody's moving to tablets anyway, where there's no room for a drive.
We've got to charge everybody for access. And split up the cash based on what they play.
Whoa! You mean my music actually has to be successful?
That's not the model we're employing today. Today, you buy it, we forget it. We don't care if you throw it out or delete it. We're all about promotion, convincing you to pay, we're not about holding your hand after the fact. We're automobile dealers with no service department. Once you drive off the lot, we close up shop and move on to the next town.
Yes, music is so afraid of technology, so scared by the Napster episode, that it is now skeptical, now refuses to move forward, as technology mutates and our listeners gravitate to non-music entertainment, like Netflix.
Don't talk to me about the value of music, look at the price of a Netflix subscription compared to the cost of a feature film. It's bupkes.
Not that film companies are not challenged.
But he who wallows in the past is ultimately forgotten.
The music business needs a concerted campaign to drive consumers to pay for subscription services. As for YouTube, yes, it pays, but very little, and once again we've got the cherry-picking problem.
And first and foremost we need an educational program. Steve Jobs would introduce a new product and explain it for an hour. I bet most label heads still don't know how streaming services work.
Bottom line... Playlists transfer to the handset, they sync, so there are no data costs on the run. People understand that their contacts and photos will sync from their computer, it's not a big stretch to convince them that music will too, you just have to tell them! Don't forget, this is the public that was angry at Netflix that they couldn't rent DVDs, and now have forgotten about said DVDs. People can be molded, you've just got to lead them.
Notes:
A. Netflix has 36 million subscribers. Stickiness is provided by new product. It's the same in the music business, where we release a torrent of new product every week. We've got to get people in the habit of checking it out on streaming services. They may reject it, but at least they'll hear it. As always, only a few recordings will win.
B. Netflix's stock price is now $217.69, almost a complete recovery. If you're not willing to make the hard decisions and take a risk, too fearful of a momentary downturn, you're ultimately going to be left behind.
C. Read "Businessweek"'s Netflix story to be blown away by how the company is at the technological bleeding edge: http://buswk.co/18uWT7y
D. Yes, great music is still necessary, that remains the same. But isn't it interesting that recording's a cornucopia of technological breakthroughs, you can do in your home what used to cost a fortune in a big studio. Musicians make their music on the cutting edge, but cluelessly want to distribute it via an archaic model.
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Saturday 11 May 2013
Friday 10 May 2013
Rhinofy-Fields Of Gold-The Best of Sting 1984-1994
I know, I know, it's a greatest hits album.
But it's got two new cuts and a remix.
Very few artists have gone on to careers bigger than their predecessor bands. And on one hand we were rooting against Sting, because before he remade his personality in the last decade or so, he was so damn arrogant. Furthermore, we always love the original band with the original members, and the initial solo album, "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles," was not as good as any Police album. But "...Nothing Like The Sun" was better. Yes, it contains a great cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" and "Be Still My Beating Heart" and "We'll Be Together," but the closer, the piece de resistance, is "They Dance Alone." In a world where too many artists go on too long, the seven minutes of this cut are never too much, the song wanders and builds, you feel the loss Sting sings about in the lyrics, but first and foremost it's about the feel. It's not a hit single, it's an album track, and it would be just as successful today, because it's just that infectious, it makes you feel your humanity, the range of emotions from connection to loss. That's what we love about our favorite music, it keeps us warm at night, with it we're never truly alone.
And "They Dance Alone" is on this compilation album. As are three other tracks from "...Nothing Like The Sun."
But there are only two cuts from the relatively disappointing "Soul Cages," the hit "All This Time" and a remix of "Why Should I Cry For You."
It's a totally different record. Hearing the remix you think you've never heard the original. The groove is emphasized as opposed to the atmosphere. There's too much on the original, it's like Sting is broadcasting from across the river, but the remix is positively up close and personal. And you enjoy hearing the original after becoming enamored of the remix, but really, the remix is all you need to know.
It's the circular groove. You're nodding your head from the very beginning. And you realize you're hooked when the almost minute long instrumental ending finally fades out. You have to hear that guitar again! You don't want to let go of that groove, it's like eating an endless box of chocolate cookies. But, "Why Should I Cry For You" does run out and you're so frustrated you hit the rewind button on your cassette player and try and find the beginning again.
And "Ten Summoner's Tales" was a complete comeback. It was even bigger than "...Nothing Like The Sun." It was lighter, and filled with infectious tracks. That's what you want in a lead off single, something like "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You." It radiates joy without being base, it's got an intellectual bent yet it's so simple. If you don't love it, you're an unreconstructed punk.
And then there was "Fields Of Gold," completely opposite in feel and tone, but just as memorable. Sting was seemingly throwing off these masterpieces without any effort, he was totally in the groove.
And then he released this greatest hits album...WITH TWO NEW SONGS!
You know, the new stuff is supposed to be a throwaway. But the two originals are utterly fantastic! And Sting had such faith in "When We Dance," he didn't stick it at the end of the album, but put it right up front!
"When We Dance" sounds like a combination of "...Nothing Like The Sun" and "Ten Summoner's Tales." It's heavy, but it's not distant.
And the track is slinking along, and then it changes completely, Sting sings with emphasis:
"If I could break down these walls
And shout my name at heaven's gate"
He's imploring. At first he was just telling his story. But now he's frustrated, he's trying to convince.
And then there's that magical moment, when Sting is singing "When we dance, angels will run and hide their wings," but underneath his voice is singing:
"I will love you more than life
If you will only be my wife"
Whew! It's so heartfelt, so genuine!
And the other original is "This Cowboy Song," which has a circular groove akin to the one in "Why Should I Cry For You," but with a ton more energy and attitude.
"This cowboy song is all I know
To bring me back into your arms
Your distant sun, your shining light
You'll be my Dog Star shining tonight"
That's all we've got, our personalities, our intrinsic traits, to win over our desire.
Sure, possessions will get you in the door, a big house, a fancy car, but we're all looking for something positively human, we don't want to be a prisoner in the arms of another, we want to feel comfortable, we want to feel desired and alive.
It's just amazing how Sting can encapsulate so many emotions in his songs.
He was almost too good.
But then he stumbled. "Mercury Falling" had no hits. He returned with "Brand New Day," which was as infectious as "If I Ever Lose My Faith," and then tied in with Jaguar to push "Desert Rose" over the top, but it was the last hurrah, suddenly there was no room left in the landscape for Sting anymore. He didn't lose his talent, but the doors were closed at radio and now, like so many of the classic rockers, he's given up making new music, it seems nobody wants it.
And that's sad.
But that's what it's like getting old.
But the records remain.
Even if you hated him back then, give him a chance now, if for no other reason than to hear the remix and the two new songs, they're as good as anything he ever did.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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But it's got two new cuts and a remix.
Very few artists have gone on to careers bigger than their predecessor bands. And on one hand we were rooting against Sting, because before he remade his personality in the last decade or so, he was so damn arrogant. Furthermore, we always love the original band with the original members, and the initial solo album, "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles," was not as good as any Police album. But "...Nothing Like The Sun" was better. Yes, it contains a great cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" and "Be Still My Beating Heart" and "We'll Be Together," but the closer, the piece de resistance, is "They Dance Alone." In a world where too many artists go on too long, the seven minutes of this cut are never too much, the song wanders and builds, you feel the loss Sting sings about in the lyrics, but first and foremost it's about the feel. It's not a hit single, it's an album track, and it would be just as successful today, because it's just that infectious, it makes you feel your humanity, the range of emotions from connection to loss. That's what we love about our favorite music, it keeps us warm at night, with it we're never truly alone.
And "They Dance Alone" is on this compilation album. As are three other tracks from "...Nothing Like The Sun."
But there are only two cuts from the relatively disappointing "Soul Cages," the hit "All This Time" and a remix of "Why Should I Cry For You."
It's a totally different record. Hearing the remix you think you've never heard the original. The groove is emphasized as opposed to the atmosphere. There's too much on the original, it's like Sting is broadcasting from across the river, but the remix is positively up close and personal. And you enjoy hearing the original after becoming enamored of the remix, but really, the remix is all you need to know.
It's the circular groove. You're nodding your head from the very beginning. And you realize you're hooked when the almost minute long instrumental ending finally fades out. You have to hear that guitar again! You don't want to let go of that groove, it's like eating an endless box of chocolate cookies. But, "Why Should I Cry For You" does run out and you're so frustrated you hit the rewind button on your cassette player and try and find the beginning again.
And "Ten Summoner's Tales" was a complete comeback. It was even bigger than "...Nothing Like The Sun." It was lighter, and filled with infectious tracks. That's what you want in a lead off single, something like "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You." It radiates joy without being base, it's got an intellectual bent yet it's so simple. If you don't love it, you're an unreconstructed punk.
And then there was "Fields Of Gold," completely opposite in feel and tone, but just as memorable. Sting was seemingly throwing off these masterpieces without any effort, he was totally in the groove.
And then he released this greatest hits album...WITH TWO NEW SONGS!
You know, the new stuff is supposed to be a throwaway. But the two originals are utterly fantastic! And Sting had such faith in "When We Dance," he didn't stick it at the end of the album, but put it right up front!
"When We Dance" sounds like a combination of "...Nothing Like The Sun" and "Ten Summoner's Tales." It's heavy, but it's not distant.
And the track is slinking along, and then it changes completely, Sting sings with emphasis:
"If I could break down these walls
And shout my name at heaven's gate"
He's imploring. At first he was just telling his story. But now he's frustrated, he's trying to convince.
And then there's that magical moment, when Sting is singing "When we dance, angels will run and hide their wings," but underneath his voice is singing:
"I will love you more than life
If you will only be my wife"
Whew! It's so heartfelt, so genuine!
And the other original is "This Cowboy Song," which has a circular groove akin to the one in "Why Should I Cry For You," but with a ton more energy and attitude.
"This cowboy song is all I know
To bring me back into your arms
Your distant sun, your shining light
You'll be my Dog Star shining tonight"
That's all we've got, our personalities, our intrinsic traits, to win over our desire.
Sure, possessions will get you in the door, a big house, a fancy car, but we're all looking for something positively human, we don't want to be a prisoner in the arms of another, we want to feel comfortable, we want to feel desired and alive.
It's just amazing how Sting can encapsulate so many emotions in his songs.
He was almost too good.
But then he stumbled. "Mercury Falling" had no hits. He returned with "Brand New Day," which was as infectious as "If I Ever Lose My Faith," and then tied in with Jaguar to push "Desert Rose" over the top, but it was the last hurrah, suddenly there was no room left in the landscape for Sting anymore. He didn't lose his talent, but the doors were closed at radio and now, like so many of the classic rockers, he's given up making new music, it seems nobody wants it.
And that's sad.
But that's what it's like getting old.
But the records remain.
Even if you hated him back then, give him a chance now, if for no other reason than to hear the remix and the two new songs, they're as good as anything he ever did.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Are Foodies Quietly Killing Rock-And-Roll?
Fantastic article in today's "Washington Post": http://wapo.st/18yYYiK
Normally I'd just tweet this, but it's too important to flow down the rabbit hole of digital effluence, yes, that's the dirty little secret of Twitter, very few people see your tweets and none of them last.
There's a belief in the world of music that we're still living in 1964 or 1984, when music ruled the world via the Beatles and Michael Jackson, via radio and MTV. I'm sick and tired of people saying it's just like it used to be, because it's not. Music is rarely cutting edge and almost never drives the conversation and the culture, it's just a placeholder to be consumed like milk. Sure, some people are passionate about acts, but the rest of us go to festivals where we look at each other and eat food.
Food, it's everything music once was.
Take the TV channels... MTV is a dying enterprise which is not based on music, but lowest common denominator losers in reality shows. The Food Network had to split in two, there was that much demand. They're mixing ingredients we thought didn't go together, and everybody in music is playing in their own niche ghetto, complaining that it's not bigger.
Going to the show is expensive. But food has gone downmarket. You can eat gourmet at a food truck for under ten bucks. Try seeing a music star live for that price.
Musicians are trying to sell out, get in bed with the Fortune 500, whereas food doesn't scale that way, it's an end unto itself. It used to be that way in music, before everybody got a scent and a clothing line.
But we all are still listening, just like we all are still eating, how can the game be changed?
1. STOP COMPLAINING!
That's all musicmakers and industry titans seem to do anymore. Lament the passage of the good old days and blame the techies and the public for ruining their business. This is like a friend bitching a decade out about being dumped by his ex. GET OVER IT!
2. INNOVATE
You're always looking for new tastes in the food world. But somehow, we believe in selling the same old thing in music. Just listen to the Top Forty. But when something is different, it triumphs in unforeseen ways. Mumford & Sons becomes one of the biggest bands in the land by employing a banjo and making folk music. Everybody on the inside said no, everybody on the outside said yes. Kind of like PSY... The video was as jaw-dropping and innovative as the classics of the eighties. But it was less about special effects than humanity. That's what we're looking for in food and music, humanity!
3. CHEAP OPTIONS
Most restaurants don't scale. You're in it for the love of the experience. Where is it written that musicians must be rich? Sure, some people establish chains, Danny Meyer has a string of restaurants, but there are always superstars and in reality a string is what the label is supposed to do. And isn't it interesting that Meyer's restaurants are all different yet the label's music all sounds the same!
4. EXCELLENCE
Music is all about lowest common denominator, hitting the target as opposed to exceeding expectations. Danny Meyer's Shake Shack was better than the competition, it delivered the unexpected treat, at a fair price. In other words, if you can play your guitar and sing and write, people notice, you'll gain a following!
5. PAY YOUR DUES
Although there are always stories of teenage chefs, they're anomalies. The greats have all been trained, at culinary institutes or in restaurants. How come in music you need no background, no skill, no underpinnings?
6. SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY
There's not only McDonald's, there's not only Chez Panisse. In food, there are tastes and styles and prices for everybody. And everybody's searching for excellence, just watch Triple-D if you doubt me. Those dive owners are honing their craft, making their reputation on their food.
7. LET THE MUSIC DO THE TALKING!
The chef rarely comes out of the kitchen. What sells restaurants is the food. Whereas in music, it's all about the hype.
8. NEW BLOOD
They don't continue to sell us Emeril. They add Iron Chefs. But in music, we think it's the film business, that we want tent poles we can sell to the people again and again. But the movie business is stale and stagnant, everybody's moved to television. We need new blood not only on the performance side, but the business side too.
9 SCHOOLS
There are no restaurant business schools that I'm aware of. They all focus on the cooking, the establishment is secondary. Why is America populated with music business schools and we pooh-pooh performance schools, and too many of those don't focus on popular music? Don't forget, Adele was trained in a school. Music is not a god-given talent, you need to work at it!
10. EXCITEMENT
It comes from the food, not the atmosphere. Beautiful restaurants with lousy food don't last. All the excitement in music is about the penumbra, who's wearing what, where they've been, how much money they've got. Deliver music that wows people and watch a star be born overnight.
Unlike the above-linked article, I don't think food has taken money from the musical sphere, but I do say I've lived long enough to know that trends and opportunities change. In other words, as Bob Dylan sang, "He not busy being born is busy dying." Quote me some lyrics from today's artists.
Point proven.
P.S. If you got this far and you still haven't clicked the link to read the WaPo story I'm disappointed, because the writer did a better job than I did. Dig deep, that's where the nuggets are (and I don't mean chicken!)
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Normally I'd just tweet this, but it's too important to flow down the rabbit hole of digital effluence, yes, that's the dirty little secret of Twitter, very few people see your tweets and none of them last.
There's a belief in the world of music that we're still living in 1964 or 1984, when music ruled the world via the Beatles and Michael Jackson, via radio and MTV. I'm sick and tired of people saying it's just like it used to be, because it's not. Music is rarely cutting edge and almost never drives the conversation and the culture, it's just a placeholder to be consumed like milk. Sure, some people are passionate about acts, but the rest of us go to festivals where we look at each other and eat food.
Food, it's everything music once was.
Take the TV channels... MTV is a dying enterprise which is not based on music, but lowest common denominator losers in reality shows. The Food Network had to split in two, there was that much demand. They're mixing ingredients we thought didn't go together, and everybody in music is playing in their own niche ghetto, complaining that it's not bigger.
Going to the show is expensive. But food has gone downmarket. You can eat gourmet at a food truck for under ten bucks. Try seeing a music star live for that price.
Musicians are trying to sell out, get in bed with the Fortune 500, whereas food doesn't scale that way, it's an end unto itself. It used to be that way in music, before everybody got a scent and a clothing line.
But we all are still listening, just like we all are still eating, how can the game be changed?
1. STOP COMPLAINING!
That's all musicmakers and industry titans seem to do anymore. Lament the passage of the good old days and blame the techies and the public for ruining their business. This is like a friend bitching a decade out about being dumped by his ex. GET OVER IT!
2. INNOVATE
You're always looking for new tastes in the food world. But somehow, we believe in selling the same old thing in music. Just listen to the Top Forty. But when something is different, it triumphs in unforeseen ways. Mumford & Sons becomes one of the biggest bands in the land by employing a banjo and making folk music. Everybody on the inside said no, everybody on the outside said yes. Kind of like PSY... The video was as jaw-dropping and innovative as the classics of the eighties. But it was less about special effects than humanity. That's what we're looking for in food and music, humanity!
3. CHEAP OPTIONS
Most restaurants don't scale. You're in it for the love of the experience. Where is it written that musicians must be rich? Sure, some people establish chains, Danny Meyer has a string of restaurants, but there are always superstars and in reality a string is what the label is supposed to do. And isn't it interesting that Meyer's restaurants are all different yet the label's music all sounds the same!
4. EXCELLENCE
Music is all about lowest common denominator, hitting the target as opposed to exceeding expectations. Danny Meyer's Shake Shack was better than the competition, it delivered the unexpected treat, at a fair price. In other words, if you can play your guitar and sing and write, people notice, you'll gain a following!
5. PAY YOUR DUES
Although there are always stories of teenage chefs, they're anomalies. The greats have all been trained, at culinary institutes or in restaurants. How come in music you need no background, no skill, no underpinnings?
6. SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY
There's not only McDonald's, there's not only Chez Panisse. In food, there are tastes and styles and prices for everybody. And everybody's searching for excellence, just watch Triple-D if you doubt me. Those dive owners are honing their craft, making their reputation on their food.
7. LET THE MUSIC DO THE TALKING!
The chef rarely comes out of the kitchen. What sells restaurants is the food. Whereas in music, it's all about the hype.
8. NEW BLOOD
They don't continue to sell us Emeril. They add Iron Chefs. But in music, we think it's the film business, that we want tent poles we can sell to the people again and again. But the movie business is stale and stagnant, everybody's moved to television. We need new blood not only on the performance side, but the business side too.
9 SCHOOLS
There are no restaurant business schools that I'm aware of. They all focus on the cooking, the establishment is secondary. Why is America populated with music business schools and we pooh-pooh performance schools, and too many of those don't focus on popular music? Don't forget, Adele was trained in a school. Music is not a god-given talent, you need to work at it!
10. EXCITEMENT
It comes from the food, not the atmosphere. Beautiful restaurants with lousy food don't last. All the excitement in music is about the penumbra, who's wearing what, where they've been, how much money they've got. Deliver music that wows people and watch a star be born overnight.
Unlike the above-linked article, I don't think food has taken money from the musical sphere, but I do say I've lived long enough to know that trends and opportunities change. In other words, as Bob Dylan sang, "He not busy being born is busy dying." Quote me some lyrics from today's artists.
Point proven.
P.S. If you got this far and you still haven't clicked the link to read the WaPo story I'm disappointed, because the writer did a better job than I did. Dig deep, that's where the nuggets are (and I don't mean chicken!)
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MacBook Pro Advice
Since so many enjoyed my Buyer's Guide...
I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine:
"My computer is dead, dead. Luckily everything is backed up. The bad news is I don't have the time and money for this...
I need to go buy a computer first thing in the morning. No more PC's. Which Mac would you recommend? I don't need the fancy displays...I use my computer for Microsoft office, Internet, blogging and social...which is also Internet...I'm thinking that's it..except Skyping, and crap like that.
Thoughts please. Going to bust a move as soon as they open.
Sorry for typos...sent from mobile device."
This is what I said in response. You might find it useful:
(Note: I'm giving you ALL the information below. Don't get overwhelmed, I give you an easy conclusion at the end...)
1. I assume you want a laptop, something you can travel with, otherwise buy a 27" iMac, which will blow your mind. Don't buy the smaller one...that'd be a mistake.
2. But, you want a laptop.
For the record, I'm one of the few people who travel with a laptop anymore, everybody else travels with an iPad...this is the way the world is going. You'll be traveling with an iPad soon, you just don't know it yet.
3. If you had another computer, I'd tell you to buy a MacBook Air. Instant on, very fast because of the solid state memory, but it can't be your only machine.
4. So you want a MacBook Pro.
Although some buy the 13", since it's your only machine, I wouldn't. I'd buy a 15". Don't skimp, it's not worth it when you're at home, squinting, with so little screen real estate.
The best MacBook Pro 15" is the one with the Retina Display. Unbelievably sharp, but you pay for it. I'll let you make your own decision here, based on what you think when you look at it and how much cash you want to spend.
5. Caveat...
Rumor is they're going to be updating the MacBooks at next month's Worldwide Developer Conference... If you buy, you can return at no cost, usually within 14 days, sometimes they let you stretch...no new breakthroughs, but computers just get faster and cheaper, it's supposed to look the same, but with the newer chip, which you probably won't notice, since you're just surfing and e-mailing as opposed to crunching movies/video.
6. So, having said all that, buy the 15" MacBook Pro with the 2.3 GHz chip. I'd really recommend against getting the 13", but if for some reason you must, they're blowing out the 13" MacBook Pros with Retina Displays at other companies.
I see they're now blowing out the 15" MacBook Pros with Retina Displays too.
One company doing it is Mac Mall, they've got a retail outlet on Wilshire in Santa Monica, as well as mail order, check prices here:
http://www.macmall.com/n/MacBook-Pro/macNavLinks-macNavLinks.222
BUT DON'T BUY ANY OTHER MACHINE AT MAC MALL OTHER THAN THE HEAVILY DISCOUNTED RETINA DISPLAY MACBOOK PROS!!
It's worth it to pay a hundred dollars more at the Apple Store, because if anything goes wrong, they treat you right, like if you get home and in a couple of days you realize you bought the wrong machine, the Apple Store will make the exchange no questions asked.
But Mac Mall is selling some of these machines at $500 off. I'd go for that offer if that's the machine you want.
7. The machines at the Apple Store can be custom ordered. If you were doing this, I'd say to pay an extra $150 for a 7200 RPM drive and I'd pay $100 for 8 gigs of RAM too...I would not pay extra for a faster chip.
8. DON'T BUY A DISCONTINUED MACHINE! They've got some at Mac Mall, not at the Apple Store. With Apple, you always want the latest, because they supersede these machines after a few years and you can't update/upgrade them.
9. Just to make you crazier, the Retina Display models come with a faster chip, 8 Gigs of RAM and flash storage, which is light years faster, although smaller in size, but you store so much in the cloud these days.
10. P.S. Get the educational discount, buy in one of your child's names and you'll get approximately 10% off. Very simple to do.
I always buy AppleCare. But it's very expensive. Laptops break, but the one I have now has not, but on my previous machine I got the screen replaced twice, in two days, via AppleCare. Also, you get 3 years of phone support as opposed to 90 days. Then again, you can always make an appt. at the Genius Bar for free...
BOTTOM LINE!
Buy the best MacBook Pro you can afford.
if it were me, I'd buy one with a Retina Display, since you get the screen, more RAM and flash storage, but you will do fine with one with a regular screen. A faster hard drive and more RAM help, but they're not dealbreakers, if you want to save money, you can go with 4 gigs and a 5400 RPM hard drive.
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I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine:
"My computer is dead, dead. Luckily everything is backed up. The bad news is I don't have the time and money for this...
I need to go buy a computer first thing in the morning. No more PC's. Which Mac would you recommend? I don't need the fancy displays...I use my computer for Microsoft office, Internet, blogging and social...which is also Internet...I'm thinking that's it..except Skyping, and crap like that.
Thoughts please. Going to bust a move as soon as they open.
Sorry for typos...sent from mobile device."
This is what I said in response. You might find it useful:
(Note: I'm giving you ALL the information below. Don't get overwhelmed, I give you an easy conclusion at the end...)
1. I assume you want a laptop, something you can travel with, otherwise buy a 27" iMac, which will blow your mind. Don't buy the smaller one...that'd be a mistake.
2. But, you want a laptop.
For the record, I'm one of the few people who travel with a laptop anymore, everybody else travels with an iPad...this is the way the world is going. You'll be traveling with an iPad soon, you just don't know it yet.
3. If you had another computer, I'd tell you to buy a MacBook Air. Instant on, very fast because of the solid state memory, but it can't be your only machine.
4. So you want a MacBook Pro.
Although some buy the 13", since it's your only machine, I wouldn't. I'd buy a 15". Don't skimp, it's not worth it when you're at home, squinting, with so little screen real estate.
The best MacBook Pro 15" is the one with the Retina Display. Unbelievably sharp, but you pay for it. I'll let you make your own decision here, based on what you think when you look at it and how much cash you want to spend.
5. Caveat...
Rumor is they're going to be updating the MacBooks at next month's Worldwide Developer Conference... If you buy, you can return at no cost, usually within 14 days, sometimes they let you stretch...no new breakthroughs, but computers just get faster and cheaper, it's supposed to look the same, but with the newer chip, which you probably won't notice, since you're just surfing and e-mailing as opposed to crunching movies/video.
6. So, having said all that, buy the 15" MacBook Pro with the 2.3 GHz chip. I'd really recommend against getting the 13", but if for some reason you must, they're blowing out the 13" MacBook Pros with Retina Displays at other companies.
I see they're now blowing out the 15" MacBook Pros with Retina Displays too.
One company doing it is Mac Mall, they've got a retail outlet on Wilshire in Santa Monica, as well as mail order, check prices here:
http://www.macmall.com/n/MacBook-Pro/macNavLinks-macNavLinks.222
BUT DON'T BUY ANY OTHER MACHINE AT MAC MALL OTHER THAN THE HEAVILY DISCOUNTED RETINA DISPLAY MACBOOK PROS!!
It's worth it to pay a hundred dollars more at the Apple Store, because if anything goes wrong, they treat you right, like if you get home and in a couple of days you realize you bought the wrong machine, the Apple Store will make the exchange no questions asked.
But Mac Mall is selling some of these machines at $500 off. I'd go for that offer if that's the machine you want.
7. The machines at the Apple Store can be custom ordered. If you were doing this, I'd say to pay an extra $150 for a 7200 RPM drive and I'd pay $100 for 8 gigs of RAM too...I would not pay extra for a faster chip.
8. DON'T BUY A DISCONTINUED MACHINE! They've got some at Mac Mall, not at the Apple Store. With Apple, you always want the latest, because they supersede these machines after a few years and you can't update/upgrade them.
9. Just to make you crazier, the Retina Display models come with a faster chip, 8 Gigs of RAM and flash storage, which is light years faster, although smaller in size, but you store so much in the cloud these days.
10. P.S. Get the educational discount, buy in one of your child's names and you'll get approximately 10% off. Very simple to do.
I always buy AppleCare. But it's very expensive. Laptops break, but the one I have now has not, but on my previous machine I got the screen replaced twice, in two days, via AppleCare. Also, you get 3 years of phone support as opposed to 90 days. Then again, you can always make an appt. at the Genius Bar for free...
BOTTOM LINE!
Buy the best MacBook Pro you can afford.
if it were me, I'd buy one with a Retina Display, since you get the screen, more RAM and flash storage, but you will do fine with one with a regular screen. A faster hard drive and more RAM help, but they're not dealbreakers, if you want to save money, you can go with 4 gigs and a 5400 RPM hard drive.
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Thursday 9 May 2013
Earthquake
Twitter is a news service.
It's been shaking intermittently on the Westside for a month now. And if you were here during the '94 big one, and it was pretty big, let me tell you, you're afraid.
We like to feel in control. But during a quake, we're at the mercy of the world, there's nothing we can do but hang on for the ride. And there's no confidence, like at Disneyland or the ski area, that the government has tested the experience and no matter how fearful you might be, you'll be o.k.
But when something happens in today's world and you need to connect with other human beings, you need to know what's going on, you need to have your anxiety assuaged, you don't go to TV or radio or even the newspaper site, you go to Twitter.
Twitter got a bad rap. That's where you went to find out about people farting and eating dinner, minutiae we just didn't care about.
But that is untrue. Twitter is where you go to find out about what the mainstream media doesn't report, immediately.
That's the dirty little secret of the media, it's limited. With sinking financials and ever fewer people working there, they only report what is pitched. It's a veritable cornucopia of press releases. Old wave publicists pitching stories that most don't care about. Along with some big time disasters everybody's anointed as important.
Now stories break online and then cross over to the mainstream media.
And the mainstream media is not an independent reporter of reality, but gloms on to trends like a prepubescent follows a boy band. Kids get shot in Newtown and suddenly the mainstream media reports on every school and child shooting. And it's not that there are more, just that the media is now reporting them. Is this any world to live in?
And the oldsters don't get it. They pat themselves on the back and call themselves gatekeepers. But there are no gates, they were torn down years ago, when the Internet took hold and everybody got broadband. Just ask the music business. Trying to put its finger in the dike it was overrun by a rush of water before it realized it wasn't a hole, but the whole damn wall had come down.
You don't try to mold the future to your past, you adapt.
Streaming services are already putting a dent in piracy. But the RIAA's disinformation campaign would have you believe otherwise. Innovative solutions are the way out, not a giant megaphone imploring everybody to return to the past.
Not that the titans of yore will be victorious in the future. Otherwise, we'd all be driving Oldsmobiles, and typing our missives to each other on Smith-Coronas.
Crowdsourcing not only works on Kickstarter, but in news too. Now we've got a reporter on every street corner, in every home, nothing goes unexperienced. And nobody's interested in all of it, but in case we are, there's a permanent record, a trail of information that we can pick through and decipher. Instead of a clueless reporter calling the usual suspects to spin the story, we've got citizens with no skin in the game calling it as they see it.
And maybe Twitter fails. Maybe we want more than 140 characters.
That's not the point.
The point is something has changed. The public is now in charge of the story. You go to the people to learn what went on.
And this is good. Because the more facts the better.
And sure, it's incomprehensible if you grew up in the old world of scarcity. But you've got to adapt, no one can read everything, no one can know everything, but you can know what you need to, there are no blackouts. And ignorance of trending subjects is no longer an excuse. He who knows most wins.
Remember that!
P.S. It shook, I e-mailed my girlfriend, I tweeted, I searched on Twitter to find out I was not alone, everybody else was shook up too. I no longer bother to turn on the TV, there's no one there other than the talking heads, assuming it's a news show, otherwise they just wait for someone to phone in the story so they can run a crawl, eons late. I went to the L.A. "Times" website, nothing, but on my Twitter feed people were weighing in with their experience. As for radio, it's taken itself out of the loop, I've given up checking, I'm now all Twitter all the time for breaking news, just like kids have cut the cable cord and have gone to the Internet. You can deny the future, but it's gonna happen anyway.
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It's been shaking intermittently on the Westside for a month now. And if you were here during the '94 big one, and it was pretty big, let me tell you, you're afraid.
We like to feel in control. But during a quake, we're at the mercy of the world, there's nothing we can do but hang on for the ride. And there's no confidence, like at Disneyland or the ski area, that the government has tested the experience and no matter how fearful you might be, you'll be o.k.
But when something happens in today's world and you need to connect with other human beings, you need to know what's going on, you need to have your anxiety assuaged, you don't go to TV or radio or even the newspaper site, you go to Twitter.
Twitter got a bad rap. That's where you went to find out about people farting and eating dinner, minutiae we just didn't care about.
But that is untrue. Twitter is where you go to find out about what the mainstream media doesn't report, immediately.
That's the dirty little secret of the media, it's limited. With sinking financials and ever fewer people working there, they only report what is pitched. It's a veritable cornucopia of press releases. Old wave publicists pitching stories that most don't care about. Along with some big time disasters everybody's anointed as important.
Now stories break online and then cross over to the mainstream media.
And the mainstream media is not an independent reporter of reality, but gloms on to trends like a prepubescent follows a boy band. Kids get shot in Newtown and suddenly the mainstream media reports on every school and child shooting. And it's not that there are more, just that the media is now reporting them. Is this any world to live in?
And the oldsters don't get it. They pat themselves on the back and call themselves gatekeepers. But there are no gates, they were torn down years ago, when the Internet took hold and everybody got broadband. Just ask the music business. Trying to put its finger in the dike it was overrun by a rush of water before it realized it wasn't a hole, but the whole damn wall had come down.
You don't try to mold the future to your past, you adapt.
Streaming services are already putting a dent in piracy. But the RIAA's disinformation campaign would have you believe otherwise. Innovative solutions are the way out, not a giant megaphone imploring everybody to return to the past.
Not that the titans of yore will be victorious in the future. Otherwise, we'd all be driving Oldsmobiles, and typing our missives to each other on Smith-Coronas.
Crowdsourcing not only works on Kickstarter, but in news too. Now we've got a reporter on every street corner, in every home, nothing goes unexperienced. And nobody's interested in all of it, but in case we are, there's a permanent record, a trail of information that we can pick through and decipher. Instead of a clueless reporter calling the usual suspects to spin the story, we've got citizens with no skin in the game calling it as they see it.
And maybe Twitter fails. Maybe we want more than 140 characters.
That's not the point.
The point is something has changed. The public is now in charge of the story. You go to the people to learn what went on.
And this is good. Because the more facts the better.
And sure, it's incomprehensible if you grew up in the old world of scarcity. But you've got to adapt, no one can read everything, no one can know everything, but you can know what you need to, there are no blackouts. And ignorance of trending subjects is no longer an excuse. He who knows most wins.
Remember that!
P.S. It shook, I e-mailed my girlfriend, I tweeted, I searched on Twitter to find out I was not alone, everybody else was shook up too. I no longer bother to turn on the TV, there's no one there other than the talking heads, assuming it's a news show, otherwise they just wait for someone to phone in the story so they can run a crawl, eons late. I went to the L.A. "Times" website, nothing, but on my Twitter feed people were weighing in with their experience. As for radio, it's taken itself out of the loop, I've given up checking, I'm now all Twitter all the time for breaking news, just like kids have cut the cable cord and have gone to the Internet. You can deny the future, but it's gonna happen anyway.
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Daniel Glass
He runs his business like a family. With Daniel Glass you're either in or you're out. You don't want to get on his bad side, he's got a very long memory, but if you're in the family, there are no limits to what Daniel will do for you.
Tuesday I went to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to see Daniel Glass honored as the International Music Person of the Year at Musexpo. Interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel, Daniel kept telling stories of his relations, from his supportive parents to his wife to his children. There was no separation between work and downtime. Because there are no vacations in the music business, you're working 24/7.
And Daniel's been working for a very long time. Since his days at the college radio station in Brooklyn.
You never know where your passion will lead you. It was by championing an obscure record that Daniel got a call from its writer, inviting him into her lair, offering him his first gig, as a publisher.
Don't be so worried about where you're going next, do a good job where you are, people will notice. And what they notice most is not your ability to market yourself, but your depth of knowledge and your passion. Getting in the front door, getting the job, is the easy part, sticking is a whole 'nother matter.
So Daniel parlays this gig into a job at Chrysalis. After pitching the writer's songs to Vic Damone and other geriatric performers in the Catskills. No job is too small to do right. You're learning all the while. And while at Chrysalis, Daniel pitched Spandau Ballet's "True" to Frankie Crocker, who played it multiple times during his shift, and the song went on to become a smash, because Crocker was a tastemaker, people paid attention to him, not only his listeners, but other professionals. That's the way the business works, there are always leaders. Right now, Daniel is one. But he's doing it differently from everybody else. Sure, he's got hit records. But everybody can discover talent these days, nothing is hidden, but can you sign it, can you make it hit, especially if it's left of center? That's Daniel's specialty.
And that's when I met Daniel. In the waning days of Chrysalis. Which was sold by its founders, leaving Daniel pondering his next move. Which ended up being with SBK.
Daniel wasn't a pop guy. He liked rock and dance, hell, he was the DJ at Regine's. But when he heard Wilson Phillips he knew he had a smash, and he executed, he made it a hit.
And what's fascinating is the team Daniel employed was never stolen from another label, it was always home grown. He hired green people and taught them his method, and always gave them credit.
And after SBK blew up, Daniel had a long time in the wilderness, working for Doug Morris at Rising Tide, going indie, working with Danny Goldberg at the hedge-funded Artemis. He was king of the world at SBK, but now he was starting over. Most people don't have the wherewithal, they certainly don't want to invest in themselves.
Who implored Daniel Glass to start the hugely successful Glassnote?
His wife, Deborah.
We're all unsure. We all need someone in our corner. We need validation, we need to be pushed, we need to be comforted when things go wrong, we need to be told to soldier on.
And suddenly, thirty years later, when everybody else is out of the business, Daniel is at his peak.
But he's doing it the same way. Hiring a bunch of passionate nobodies who he molds to his system. This is the opposite of the major label model. The majors are all about the kingpin. Who works for Lucian Grainge? Doug Morris? They're all about being king, taking all the credit. Whereas the great bosses give their charges leeway, and let them get the kudos. I learned this from Tom Freston, when he ran MTV. Tom too ran his business like a family. And he would never tell his people what to do. Freston wasn't about trading favors, he'd link you up with the appropriate person, but it was their decision whether to play ball or not.
In the corporatization of the music business something has been lost. Homage is paid to the "team," but really it's every man for himself. Just like America. We're not in it together, I'll step on you to get ahead. And then I won't respond to your e-mail once I've left you behind. It's funny money. No one is an owner. So everybody's playing an endless game of Monopoly, trying to win. And when the board is wiped clean and put away, then what?
Mmm...
It's more than being in it for the long haul. It's about people, relationships. Doing right so right will be returned unto you. And those who don't play this game have very short shelf lives, when they hit a bump in the road, no one's there to rescue them.
So the reason Glassnote is so successful is not because of the acts, but because of Daniel Glass. If you take a meeting with him, you're gonna sign, because he's so different from everyone else. Everyone else tells you how much money they're gonna give you, send a limo, try to dazzle you. Whereas Daniel exudes passion for your work, tells you how long a road it's gonna be, and then has his team of no-names work hard on your behalf. You can either buy a BMW with no gas, or a Prius that won't break down and will get you there. Flashy and shiny went out with the nineties, today it's all about the work.
It used to be about muscle.
Now it's about smarts.
That was the majors' ace in the hole. The ability to squeeze radio, where records were broken, and retail, where they were sold. But now radio, although important, means less than ever before. And iTunes is not about shipments and dating and all the other shenanigans of the past. Anybody can play. But everybody's afraid. Or not interested, since the amount of money in music pales in comparison to finance and tech.
But it's about the artists. Imperfect yet transcendent. That's what Daniel told Jimmy, it's the only reason to be in this business, to shepherd great talent to its deserved audience. And so many say they want to do this, but they don't have the patience, never mind the skill, to deal with these impossible acts who can make great music but are frequently thorns in your side.
But it's much easier if there's trust.
A family is not without arguments. It's not without a father. But it contains a bond transcending any business relationship. You know your back is covered. You know if you get in trouble there's someone to bail you out.
It's no wonder Daniel Glass is successful. He's there for you.
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Tuesday I went to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to see Daniel Glass honored as the International Music Person of the Year at Musexpo. Interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel, Daniel kept telling stories of his relations, from his supportive parents to his wife to his children. There was no separation between work and downtime. Because there are no vacations in the music business, you're working 24/7.
And Daniel's been working for a very long time. Since his days at the college radio station in Brooklyn.
You never know where your passion will lead you. It was by championing an obscure record that Daniel got a call from its writer, inviting him into her lair, offering him his first gig, as a publisher.
Don't be so worried about where you're going next, do a good job where you are, people will notice. And what they notice most is not your ability to market yourself, but your depth of knowledge and your passion. Getting in the front door, getting the job, is the easy part, sticking is a whole 'nother matter.
So Daniel parlays this gig into a job at Chrysalis. After pitching the writer's songs to Vic Damone and other geriatric performers in the Catskills. No job is too small to do right. You're learning all the while. And while at Chrysalis, Daniel pitched Spandau Ballet's "True" to Frankie Crocker, who played it multiple times during his shift, and the song went on to become a smash, because Crocker was a tastemaker, people paid attention to him, not only his listeners, but other professionals. That's the way the business works, there are always leaders. Right now, Daniel is one. But he's doing it differently from everybody else. Sure, he's got hit records. But everybody can discover talent these days, nothing is hidden, but can you sign it, can you make it hit, especially if it's left of center? That's Daniel's specialty.
And that's when I met Daniel. In the waning days of Chrysalis. Which was sold by its founders, leaving Daniel pondering his next move. Which ended up being with SBK.
Daniel wasn't a pop guy. He liked rock and dance, hell, he was the DJ at Regine's. But when he heard Wilson Phillips he knew he had a smash, and he executed, he made it a hit.
And what's fascinating is the team Daniel employed was never stolen from another label, it was always home grown. He hired green people and taught them his method, and always gave them credit.
And after SBK blew up, Daniel had a long time in the wilderness, working for Doug Morris at Rising Tide, going indie, working with Danny Goldberg at the hedge-funded Artemis. He was king of the world at SBK, but now he was starting over. Most people don't have the wherewithal, they certainly don't want to invest in themselves.
Who implored Daniel Glass to start the hugely successful Glassnote?
His wife, Deborah.
We're all unsure. We all need someone in our corner. We need validation, we need to be pushed, we need to be comforted when things go wrong, we need to be told to soldier on.
And suddenly, thirty years later, when everybody else is out of the business, Daniel is at his peak.
But he's doing it the same way. Hiring a bunch of passionate nobodies who he molds to his system. This is the opposite of the major label model. The majors are all about the kingpin. Who works for Lucian Grainge? Doug Morris? They're all about being king, taking all the credit. Whereas the great bosses give their charges leeway, and let them get the kudos. I learned this from Tom Freston, when he ran MTV. Tom too ran his business like a family. And he would never tell his people what to do. Freston wasn't about trading favors, he'd link you up with the appropriate person, but it was their decision whether to play ball or not.
In the corporatization of the music business something has been lost. Homage is paid to the "team," but really it's every man for himself. Just like America. We're not in it together, I'll step on you to get ahead. And then I won't respond to your e-mail once I've left you behind. It's funny money. No one is an owner. So everybody's playing an endless game of Monopoly, trying to win. And when the board is wiped clean and put away, then what?
Mmm...
It's more than being in it for the long haul. It's about people, relationships. Doing right so right will be returned unto you. And those who don't play this game have very short shelf lives, when they hit a bump in the road, no one's there to rescue them.
So the reason Glassnote is so successful is not because of the acts, but because of Daniel Glass. If you take a meeting with him, you're gonna sign, because he's so different from everyone else. Everyone else tells you how much money they're gonna give you, send a limo, try to dazzle you. Whereas Daniel exudes passion for your work, tells you how long a road it's gonna be, and then has his team of no-names work hard on your behalf. You can either buy a BMW with no gas, or a Prius that won't break down and will get you there. Flashy and shiny went out with the nineties, today it's all about the work.
It used to be about muscle.
Now it's about smarts.
That was the majors' ace in the hole. The ability to squeeze radio, where records were broken, and retail, where they were sold. But now radio, although important, means less than ever before. And iTunes is not about shipments and dating and all the other shenanigans of the past. Anybody can play. But everybody's afraid. Or not interested, since the amount of money in music pales in comparison to finance and tech.
But it's about the artists. Imperfect yet transcendent. That's what Daniel told Jimmy, it's the only reason to be in this business, to shepherd great talent to its deserved audience. And so many say they want to do this, but they don't have the patience, never mind the skill, to deal with these impossible acts who can make great music but are frequently thorns in your side.
But it's much easier if there's trust.
A family is not without arguments. It's not without a father. But it contains a bond transcending any business relationship. You know your back is covered. You know if you get in trouble there's someone to bail you out.
It's no wonder Daniel Glass is successful. He's there for you.
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Wednesday 8 May 2013
Success Is Elusive
Seven weeks. That's how long David Bowie's "The Next Day" has been on the chart. It's perched at number 99, having moved 4,060 copies in its latest week, putting it right above Matt Maher's debut and four spots below Darlene Zschech's "Revealing Jesus." Never heard of them? That makes two of us, I don't know who they are either.
What were the two biggest musical stories of this not so nascent year? Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" and "The Next Day." Timberlake sold his album via endless television appearances. He believed if we never lost sight of him, we'd be forced to purchase his LP, just to find out what the hoopla was all about. And Timberlake's endeavor succeeded. Because he got traction at Top Forty radio.
Bowie got no such gift.
In other words, Bowie's record was like a spaceship hurtling towards Earth, with news accounts trumpeting its imminent arrival, the danger, the hysteria, but at the last minute the flight path was altered, it didn't enter our atmosphere, it sped on by and we all forgot about it and moved on to the next thing.
Some things last. Like Timberlake's album and the Boston tragedy. But everything else in our society seems to get a fraction of time, a mere smidgen, and then it's history.
It didn't used to be this way. Used to be it was hard to get noticed, and if you broke through it was like walking into the backstage area of a classic rock superstar, with tapestries and gorgeous women and an endless buffet of caviar and alcohol. But today all those stars, at least the ones who survive, are sober. They don't waste money on accoutrements. It's all about the bottom line. They don't tour to satiate their artistic urges, but to pay the bills.
When Andy Warhol said in the future everyone was going to be famous for fifteen minutes, we laughed, we didn't know that it would literally come true. Last week's viral video might as well be sealed in a time capsule. We've got a nation of endless grazers, always on the hunt for the next new thing, getting something to stick is nearly impossible.
But that's what the music business is based upon.
It's too expensive to have a momentary hit. What you want is something that lasts, that will generate ticket sales, that will sell catalog years out. But today that's a rarity.
But it's not only the purveyors who are clueless, but the consumers too. A fan wonders why his favorite act hasn't gone nuclear, why everybody doesn't like it, because he does. That's like a stamp collector wondering why everyone doesn't embrace his hobby. In other words, the paradigm, the structure, the fly by night world has been firmly established, but no one will acknowledge it.
Instead, we've got backlash.
CDs are better than downloads.
Vinyl is best, and it's making a comeback.
Physical books are much better than digital versions.
Video entertainment is best consumed via cable, on a flat screen television.
But statistics tell us that whatever emotions are attached to the above beliefs, the trends are just the opposite. CD sales keep tanking. Vinyl is an almost imperceptible fraction of the market. Digital book sales soar as physical bookstores go out of business. Cable cord-cutting is real.
And you can read all of this, but very few embrace reality, because it scares them, it makes them feel inadequate, like they're rootless and are unsure what's coming down the pike.
First of all, we're human. We don't like anxiety, we hate not knowing what the future looks like, so we tell ourselves lies to establish order, to make ourselves feel better.
The truth is the media landscape is mirroring the economic landscape. It's winner take all. Timberlake is victorious, he's rich. Bowie loses, he's broke. And you may not like this, but it's the truth.
In order to last today you've got to be better than ever before. If you break through immediately, you must follow up just as good. Remember that guy with the contagious hit "Fireflies"? What came next wasn't as good and most people have forgotten Owl City. Radio will play another one of his tracks, assuming it's spectacular and it fits the format.
And radio is not immune to the game. All we hear from terrestrial services is a disinformation campaign, how radio is necessary and forever. Tell that to the television networks, which saw their market share plunge from 90% to less than 30%. Or Kodak, which was eclipsed by digital photography. The future is in your rearview mirror, and then it whips by you and obliterates you. Terrestrial radio will be a sliver of the future market. Its dominance is near its end. Not so much because stations were mishandled, which they were, but because no matter how good your horse and buggy are, you can't compete with the automobile.
So you keep shoving your stuff down the pipeline, expecting a result from 1987, when MTV ruled and if the outlet played your video radio did too and you became rich and famous. But MTV sliced "Music" from its moniker and is financially challenged itself. And just like Apple and Google have all the money and you lost your job at the factory, the gap between winners and losers keeps growing.
Kind of like Brooklyn. If you read the press, you'd believe it's a hotbed of cutting edge creativity that the rest of the nation will embrace when it pulls its head out of its rear end. But that's the old game, where if the media says it's true, it is. But now, the media has less power than ever before. We all gravitate to our respective niches and live in an echo chamber. In other words, the only people who listen to Brooklyn music are the ones who live there, who've been enraptured by the scene, the rest of us are turned off by the hype or are completely out of the loop. Furthermore, Brooklyn has never revealed its "Crazy" or "Gangnam Style." Somehow, the hipsters believe the rest of the nation is going to work hard to embrace that which doesn't grab them immediately, but the real story is we're only interested in that which is easy to consume. Which doesn't mean it's bad, easy is not necessarily lowest common denominator, oftentimes it's superior. But those left out of the equation don't like this.
So what's a creator to do?
Embrace your backwater. And realize it might be all you ever know, all you ever achieve. Yes, you can put in your 10,000 hours and not have 10,000 fans.
But the most important thing is not to embrace the old game, the one of desired ubiquity via hype. Because if it doesn't work for David Bowie, it certainly isn't going to work for you.
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What were the two biggest musical stories of this not so nascent year? Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" and "The Next Day." Timberlake sold his album via endless television appearances. He believed if we never lost sight of him, we'd be forced to purchase his LP, just to find out what the hoopla was all about. And Timberlake's endeavor succeeded. Because he got traction at Top Forty radio.
Bowie got no such gift.
In other words, Bowie's record was like a spaceship hurtling towards Earth, with news accounts trumpeting its imminent arrival, the danger, the hysteria, but at the last minute the flight path was altered, it didn't enter our atmosphere, it sped on by and we all forgot about it and moved on to the next thing.
Some things last. Like Timberlake's album and the Boston tragedy. But everything else in our society seems to get a fraction of time, a mere smidgen, and then it's history.
It didn't used to be this way. Used to be it was hard to get noticed, and if you broke through it was like walking into the backstage area of a classic rock superstar, with tapestries and gorgeous women and an endless buffet of caviar and alcohol. But today all those stars, at least the ones who survive, are sober. They don't waste money on accoutrements. It's all about the bottom line. They don't tour to satiate their artistic urges, but to pay the bills.
When Andy Warhol said in the future everyone was going to be famous for fifteen minutes, we laughed, we didn't know that it would literally come true. Last week's viral video might as well be sealed in a time capsule. We've got a nation of endless grazers, always on the hunt for the next new thing, getting something to stick is nearly impossible.
But that's what the music business is based upon.
It's too expensive to have a momentary hit. What you want is something that lasts, that will generate ticket sales, that will sell catalog years out. But today that's a rarity.
But it's not only the purveyors who are clueless, but the consumers too. A fan wonders why his favorite act hasn't gone nuclear, why everybody doesn't like it, because he does. That's like a stamp collector wondering why everyone doesn't embrace his hobby. In other words, the paradigm, the structure, the fly by night world has been firmly established, but no one will acknowledge it.
Instead, we've got backlash.
CDs are better than downloads.
Vinyl is best, and it's making a comeback.
Physical books are much better than digital versions.
Video entertainment is best consumed via cable, on a flat screen television.
But statistics tell us that whatever emotions are attached to the above beliefs, the trends are just the opposite. CD sales keep tanking. Vinyl is an almost imperceptible fraction of the market. Digital book sales soar as physical bookstores go out of business. Cable cord-cutting is real.
And you can read all of this, but very few embrace reality, because it scares them, it makes them feel inadequate, like they're rootless and are unsure what's coming down the pike.
First of all, we're human. We don't like anxiety, we hate not knowing what the future looks like, so we tell ourselves lies to establish order, to make ourselves feel better.
The truth is the media landscape is mirroring the economic landscape. It's winner take all. Timberlake is victorious, he's rich. Bowie loses, he's broke. And you may not like this, but it's the truth.
In order to last today you've got to be better than ever before. If you break through immediately, you must follow up just as good. Remember that guy with the contagious hit "Fireflies"? What came next wasn't as good and most people have forgotten Owl City. Radio will play another one of his tracks, assuming it's spectacular and it fits the format.
And radio is not immune to the game. All we hear from terrestrial services is a disinformation campaign, how radio is necessary and forever. Tell that to the television networks, which saw their market share plunge from 90% to less than 30%. Or Kodak, which was eclipsed by digital photography. The future is in your rearview mirror, and then it whips by you and obliterates you. Terrestrial radio will be a sliver of the future market. Its dominance is near its end. Not so much because stations were mishandled, which they were, but because no matter how good your horse and buggy are, you can't compete with the automobile.
So you keep shoving your stuff down the pipeline, expecting a result from 1987, when MTV ruled and if the outlet played your video radio did too and you became rich and famous. But MTV sliced "Music" from its moniker and is financially challenged itself. And just like Apple and Google have all the money and you lost your job at the factory, the gap between winners and losers keeps growing.
Kind of like Brooklyn. If you read the press, you'd believe it's a hotbed of cutting edge creativity that the rest of the nation will embrace when it pulls its head out of its rear end. But that's the old game, where if the media says it's true, it is. But now, the media has less power than ever before. We all gravitate to our respective niches and live in an echo chamber. In other words, the only people who listen to Brooklyn music are the ones who live there, who've been enraptured by the scene, the rest of us are turned off by the hype or are completely out of the loop. Furthermore, Brooklyn has never revealed its "Crazy" or "Gangnam Style." Somehow, the hipsters believe the rest of the nation is going to work hard to embrace that which doesn't grab them immediately, but the real story is we're only interested in that which is easy to consume. Which doesn't mean it's bad, easy is not necessarily lowest common denominator, oftentimes it's superior. But those left out of the equation don't like this.
So what's a creator to do?
Embrace your backwater. And realize it might be all you ever know, all you ever achieve. Yes, you can put in your 10,000 hours and not have 10,000 fans.
But the most important thing is not to embrace the old game, the one of desired ubiquity via hype. Because if it doesn't work for David Bowie, it certainly isn't going to work for you.
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Tuesday 7 May 2013
What You Need To Know
1. Fame is fleeting.
Used to be very few could get through the sieve, now with fame up for grabs, from reality TV to YouTube, it's easy to break through, but nearly impossible to sustain.
2. Quality counts.
If you want to have longevity. It's too hard to game the system, too hard to stay on top, in the public eye, your best bet is to focus on the work.
3. Talent is not god-given.
You have to do the work, there's no way around it.
You can spearhead the production of the usual suspects, in other words, Max Martin and Dr. Luke can make you a star, but they can't keep you there, hell, they're doing their best to stay on top themselves, because almost no one does, from Giorgio Moroder to Mike Chapman to Scott Storch hitmakers have their time and then it ends. Fashion changes, tastes change, generations change. Instead of getting plastic surgery and playing to the young 'uns, it's best to cater to your core audience, which will spread the word for you. Yes, parents turn their kids on to their favorite acts, and these are never one hit wonders, but those who have longevity.
4. Spamming is irrelevant.
It makes you feel good to get the message out, but no one is paying attention.
It is not a numbers game. It's all about being personal. One personal e-mail to a tastemaker is more important than a generic press release sent to a hundred people from a list you found online. The personal touch is everything. And in this era, the written word is everything. First, know how to type. Second, know how to spell. Third, know grammar. Fourth, be able to tell a story. Fifth, don't get frustrated when you get no response. People remember personal e-mails, they can pay dividends down the line. But it's always best to focus on the work more than the marketing. And if you don't know how to use spellcheck, if you haven't got the time for spellcheck, tastemakers have no time for you. Hell, I know people who pick online dates based on the spelling errors. Yup, you can have a great picture, but if you don't know how to spell, these women want nothing to do with you. In other words, school is not for pussies. And if your educational institution isn't living up to your needs, switch. Every elite educational institution has scholarships, it's your duty to find out about them, it's your duty to lift yourself up.
5. Don't chase trends.
What's here today may be gone tomorrow.
6. Ignore the haters.
Easier said than done. But you know when criticism resonates. None of us are perfect, we can all improve, we all make mistakes. But let me be clear, ignore the haters, ignore advice unless you're asking for it. If you ask for someone's time and you hate on them because they don't love your production, you're missing the point. If you don't have enough confidence in your work to ignore the critics, you're going to have a very rough road. This does not mean your stuff is good. I'm just saying breakthrough work is usually rejected at first. But there's very little mainstream breakthrough work out there.
7. The news cycle is 24/7.
You've got one shot at publicity, then you're history. So if you're relying on publicity, your odds are low. You want to bubble up from the bottom, not float down from the top.
8. True fans are worth more than news coverage.
You can show your mother you're in the paper, but most people reading about you, if they do at all, just don't care. You want active users, not passive people. You want fans who embrace and champion you.
9. Just because you made it, don't assume anyone is interested in it.
Don't be a child showing his parent his feces. Your work is not that important, we're all on the planet trying to get along. Push is dead, you want pull. You want to create something so good it sells itself. Which I know is almost impossible, but those are the odds you're up against.
10. Money comes late.
Success is slow. And when you get it, if you overcharge, you shorten your career. There's plenty of money to be made in the long run if you don't make money your number one priority.
11. Major labels want radio hits.
They want the easy sell. Unless you can get on radio, immediately, the major label doesn't want you. Period.
12. You need hits.
A hit is something so entrancing, so catchy, it ripples through the public. Just because your music does not fit the format, that does not mean it can't go viral. That's the essence of PSY's "Gangnam Style."
13. Me-too.
There's an audience for me-too, but you want to be me-first. That's why the classic rock era was so classic, none of the bands sounded alike. That's one thing wrong with the younger generation, they date in groups, they want to be a member of the club, individuality is shunned. But when it comes to lasting art, individuality is key.
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Used to be very few could get through the sieve, now with fame up for grabs, from reality TV to YouTube, it's easy to break through, but nearly impossible to sustain.
2. Quality counts.
If you want to have longevity. It's too hard to game the system, too hard to stay on top, in the public eye, your best bet is to focus on the work.
3. Talent is not god-given.
You have to do the work, there's no way around it.
You can spearhead the production of the usual suspects, in other words, Max Martin and Dr. Luke can make you a star, but they can't keep you there, hell, they're doing their best to stay on top themselves, because almost no one does, from Giorgio Moroder to Mike Chapman to Scott Storch hitmakers have their time and then it ends. Fashion changes, tastes change, generations change. Instead of getting plastic surgery and playing to the young 'uns, it's best to cater to your core audience, which will spread the word for you. Yes, parents turn their kids on to their favorite acts, and these are never one hit wonders, but those who have longevity.
4. Spamming is irrelevant.
It makes you feel good to get the message out, but no one is paying attention.
It is not a numbers game. It's all about being personal. One personal e-mail to a tastemaker is more important than a generic press release sent to a hundred people from a list you found online. The personal touch is everything. And in this era, the written word is everything. First, know how to type. Second, know how to spell. Third, know grammar. Fourth, be able to tell a story. Fifth, don't get frustrated when you get no response. People remember personal e-mails, they can pay dividends down the line. But it's always best to focus on the work more than the marketing. And if you don't know how to use spellcheck, if you haven't got the time for spellcheck, tastemakers have no time for you. Hell, I know people who pick online dates based on the spelling errors. Yup, you can have a great picture, but if you don't know how to spell, these women want nothing to do with you. In other words, school is not for pussies. And if your educational institution isn't living up to your needs, switch. Every elite educational institution has scholarships, it's your duty to find out about them, it's your duty to lift yourself up.
5. Don't chase trends.
What's here today may be gone tomorrow.
6. Ignore the haters.
Easier said than done. But you know when criticism resonates. None of us are perfect, we can all improve, we all make mistakes. But let me be clear, ignore the haters, ignore advice unless you're asking for it. If you ask for someone's time and you hate on them because they don't love your production, you're missing the point. If you don't have enough confidence in your work to ignore the critics, you're going to have a very rough road. This does not mean your stuff is good. I'm just saying breakthrough work is usually rejected at first. But there's very little mainstream breakthrough work out there.
7. The news cycle is 24/7.
You've got one shot at publicity, then you're history. So if you're relying on publicity, your odds are low. You want to bubble up from the bottom, not float down from the top.
8. True fans are worth more than news coverage.
You can show your mother you're in the paper, but most people reading about you, if they do at all, just don't care. You want active users, not passive people. You want fans who embrace and champion you.
9. Just because you made it, don't assume anyone is interested in it.
Don't be a child showing his parent his feces. Your work is not that important, we're all on the planet trying to get along. Push is dead, you want pull. You want to create something so good it sells itself. Which I know is almost impossible, but those are the odds you're up against.
10. Money comes late.
Success is slow. And when you get it, if you overcharge, you shorten your career. There's plenty of money to be made in the long run if you don't make money your number one priority.
11. Major labels want radio hits.
They want the easy sell. Unless you can get on radio, immediately, the major label doesn't want you. Period.
12. You need hits.
A hit is something so entrancing, so catchy, it ripples through the public. Just because your music does not fit the format, that does not mean it can't go viral. That's the essence of PSY's "Gangnam Style."
13. Me-too.
There's an audience for me-too, but you want to be me-first. That's why the classic rock era was so classic, none of the bands sounded alike. That's one thing wrong with the younger generation, they date in groups, they want to be a member of the club, individuality is shunned. But when it comes to lasting art, individuality is key.
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More Clueless Stones
Check this out:
"Mick's Message to the Bay Area": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1iShruBXg
It's like a bad SNL skit, a bozo politician doing an inadequate job of reading from the Teleprompter.
And how about this from the Echoplex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CRmt0JTSNc
That's the video on the Stones' official YouTube page. Listen to Keith's solo starting around :35, if you're not laughing, you're used to hearing your three year old play the guitar.
How did they get it so wrong?
You know the drill... You play the Super Bowl and you put up the shows the next morning, while the memory is still fresh in the public's brain, before people forget the hype and excitement of the moment. Hell, I can't even remember who won last year's Super Bowl, I've just about forgotten "Argo" won Best Picture. We're inundated with so much information, the news cycle is so fast, that if you don't capitalize on your fame in days, you're missing out.
So the Stones do their fiftieth anniversary shows last fall.
It's kind of like Zeppelin at the 02. There may never be another show, you've got to overpay to go now, to be part of the excitement. And then MONTHS later, when there's no buzz whatsoever, the band puts up shows at the same inflated ticket prices. Huh?
Where's the manager?
There is none.
And you need one. An act without a manager is like an attorney representing himself, he's got a fool for a client. You need a third eye, an opinion from outside the maelstrom, to give you perspective.
The entire Rolling Stones YouTube page (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRollingStones)...was an afterthought. How do I know? Because the views are so low. Remember when the Stones used to premiere videos on TV, how they used to work the public into a frenzy? Now there is no frenzy, there's no cook creating the perception that if you don't go, you're a loser. All you see is greed.
And if you're that damn greedy, do it like the rest of the superstars. Scalp your own tickets.
That's the Michael Cohl model. We pay you a lump sum, and you can't ask how we got that money.
But for prior tours, Cohl had a team of experts, a seamless machine, selling fan club memberships and merch and raking up the capital. This tour is a positively last minute venture with no vision and even poorer execution.
1. Perception Is Everything In The Music Business
Yes, the tickets could theoretically be worth $600, but if you ask for that much, you're separating yourself from your audience. Sell platinum tickets with B.S. perks, a laminate and the ability to meet Ron Wood or some other superfluous member of the band (I'd say Charlie, but I'm not sure he can speak.)
You build your fan base not on the rich who can pay anything, but the poor who can't afford much. Yes, in today's rich versus poor society, and if you don't think there's class warfare, you didn't notice that Obama got reelected, you have to appear to be one of the people if you want to sell to the people. There are not enough 1%ers to fill arenas at these prices.
2. Ticketmaster
The public hates Ticketmaster, even though everybody in the business knows it's a front for the acts. Yup, those inflated fees go to the promoter, the buildings, on previous tours even to the Stones. You need a scapegoat. But the Stones messed up here, there is no scapegoat, the blame falls squarely on their shoulders.
3. Don't Be Afraid To Share The Money
You pay professional management its commission so you can make more money. It's kind of like hiring an accountant...they don't come cheap, but they save you more than their fee, because that's what they do all day long, taxes. Mick Jagger is hobnobbing with his rich socialite buddies, he's got no idea what's going on in the music business, which seemingly changes every six months. He needed fresh, experienced eyes on this.
4. There Are No Secrets
The Stones, like Led Zeppelin, were built on mystery. But there is no mystery today. So either you can be like many old farts and restrict taping and photography, which is kind of like telling kids not to have sex, or you can embrace it. If the Stones are crappy live, they should have their official site filled with fan videos, which we all expect to be crappy. We then go to the show to hear the real deal, up close and personal. But when the official videos sound crappy...you think the band is.
5. Social
If you don't embrace it, you can't energize fans.
The Stones are playing to the mainstream press. And although their audience is the last vestige of those who pay attention to it, they should be tweeting and Facebooking to humanize themselves. It speaks to perception. They need to get down in the pit with their audience.
6. Scalping
Paperless. Sure, savvy scalpers can elude the system, then again, it would require a drop in ticket prices to generate excitement, and the Stones don't seem willing to leave a single dollar on the table.
7. People Talk
Used to be everything was rumor and innuendo, and you didn't hear much more than what your neighbors had to say, but now with the Internet people can not only read reports from around the world, they can interact with others.
8. Virality
That's how you sell out a show. By getting everybody talking about it, making them fearful of missing it. There's no virality here. Hell, look at the YouTube views!
9. Desperation
It's anathema. It's the same in music as it is in dating. If you need it that bad, we're turned off. I received the following e-mails:
"Another thing that shows what a disaster this tour is/was is that they actually ANNOUNCED their previously secret/surprise special guests early in the day to try and build hype! The stones official account tweeted about Keith Urban and Gwen Stefani's appearances early in the day. Why in the world would you do this if it was supposed to be a surprise other than to try and scramble to get people to come down? They were just reaching for anything at this point. Today they announced Tom Waits guest appearance for Oakland. What a joke."
And:
"Twitter made big bucks last night. The feed was full of Twads and I mean 7-10 in a row time and time again, espousing all their special guests."
It's supposed to be a SURPRISE!
10. Flex Pricing
link:
"Rolling Stones Concert Promoter On 'Flex Pricing' Ticket Strategy: 'I Want the Brokers Pissed Off'": http://bit.ly/1426WgN
Let's assume this was AEG's plan all along, WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ANYBODY?
This is kind of like paying a grand for an airline ticket the week of and finding out if you'd booked a month in advance, it'd be $350. Don't create a game without telling us the rules.
11. Lies
If you believe there were no $85 customers sitting next to $600 customers, you probably believe everything you read in the newspaper. You can tell the press whatever you want, and the people on the music beat, those who remain, who were not downsized out of existence, will print it. Because they want the access, they want the free tickets. That's what the entire music press is built upon, access. But if you wouldn't rather speak to a tech titan than a rocker, you own no smartphone and are unable to cogitate.
12. The Press
Read the "New York Times" article wherein it's stated that Roger Ailes cut Geraldo Rivera's mic when he was defending Obama on Fox. But it gets better, Benghazi was a big story because Fox hammered it.
Read the facts here:
"Behind the Scenes at Fox": http://nyti.ms/18UX7lL
Then again, this is long after the fact. And the "Times" story is reporting on a book.
Which is why if you want to know what's going on in music, you go to the web, the one place the Stones forgot to look.
13. "Rolling Stone" Cover Story
It's supposed to come out BEFORE the tour begins. That's like letting you flip through "Playboy" before asking for payment for the magazine. No, that's like watching Internet porn, getting off, and then being asked to pay. Music is a sideshow, a carnival, which is why Colonel Tom Parker did so well for Elvis. And yes, he might have ripped Presley off, not gone to Europe for fear of being revealed to be an illegal alien, but Parker made and sustained his career. There's yet to be a superstar without a great manager. Because performing and managing are two different skills!
14. You Come Out With Both Guns Blazing And Establish Your Narrative
The Stones have lost control of their story. Meglen didn't come out and defend their ticketing practices until days after shows began.
15. Things Change
Just because you sold a ton of tickets yesterday, that does not mean you can sell a ton today. Yes, the Stones could have sold out no problem if every ticket was $85, and furthermore, scalpers for superstar shows beget tons of press about how impossible it is to get in, how expensive it is, which only burnishes an act's image.
16. We All Want What We Can't Have
We should be salivating and unable to get a ticket. Instead, everybody can attend, even up to the very last minute. It's kind of like queuing up at the Apple Store for the latest product and finding out no one else is in line. Huh? The day one of Apple's new products falls flat is the day the company's done.
Once again, it all comes down to money.
Didn't used to be that way, it used to be about music. And fame. And sex. You wanted to have sex with Mick Jagger. Do you want to have sex with that emaciated guy in the video above? Eek! Maybe, but only to be able to tell your friends!
The eighties were the height of fame, because that's what TV gives you, ubiquity. Radio can't compete.
And today it's all about music. If you're in it for the money, you're in the wrong business. Follow Bono's lead, become a venture capitalist.
And if you do decide to play music, get a great manager. Gene Simmons likes to bloviate how it's all about the money, but without Bill Aucoin, he'd have none.
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"Mick's Message to the Bay Area": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1iShruBXg
It's like a bad SNL skit, a bozo politician doing an inadequate job of reading from the Teleprompter.
And how about this from the Echoplex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CRmt0JTSNc
That's the video on the Stones' official YouTube page. Listen to Keith's solo starting around :35, if you're not laughing, you're used to hearing your three year old play the guitar.
How did they get it so wrong?
You know the drill... You play the Super Bowl and you put up the shows the next morning, while the memory is still fresh in the public's brain, before people forget the hype and excitement of the moment. Hell, I can't even remember who won last year's Super Bowl, I've just about forgotten "Argo" won Best Picture. We're inundated with so much information, the news cycle is so fast, that if you don't capitalize on your fame in days, you're missing out.
So the Stones do their fiftieth anniversary shows last fall.
It's kind of like Zeppelin at the 02. There may never be another show, you've got to overpay to go now, to be part of the excitement. And then MONTHS later, when there's no buzz whatsoever, the band puts up shows at the same inflated ticket prices. Huh?
Where's the manager?
There is none.
And you need one. An act without a manager is like an attorney representing himself, he's got a fool for a client. You need a third eye, an opinion from outside the maelstrom, to give you perspective.
The entire Rolling Stones YouTube page (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRollingStones)...was an afterthought. How do I know? Because the views are so low. Remember when the Stones used to premiere videos on TV, how they used to work the public into a frenzy? Now there is no frenzy, there's no cook creating the perception that if you don't go, you're a loser. All you see is greed.
And if you're that damn greedy, do it like the rest of the superstars. Scalp your own tickets.
That's the Michael Cohl model. We pay you a lump sum, and you can't ask how we got that money.
But for prior tours, Cohl had a team of experts, a seamless machine, selling fan club memberships and merch and raking up the capital. This tour is a positively last minute venture with no vision and even poorer execution.
1. Perception Is Everything In The Music Business
Yes, the tickets could theoretically be worth $600, but if you ask for that much, you're separating yourself from your audience. Sell platinum tickets with B.S. perks, a laminate and the ability to meet Ron Wood or some other superfluous member of the band (I'd say Charlie, but I'm not sure he can speak.)
You build your fan base not on the rich who can pay anything, but the poor who can't afford much. Yes, in today's rich versus poor society, and if you don't think there's class warfare, you didn't notice that Obama got reelected, you have to appear to be one of the people if you want to sell to the people. There are not enough 1%ers to fill arenas at these prices.
2. Ticketmaster
The public hates Ticketmaster, even though everybody in the business knows it's a front for the acts. Yup, those inflated fees go to the promoter, the buildings, on previous tours even to the Stones. You need a scapegoat. But the Stones messed up here, there is no scapegoat, the blame falls squarely on their shoulders.
3. Don't Be Afraid To Share The Money
You pay professional management its commission so you can make more money. It's kind of like hiring an accountant...they don't come cheap, but they save you more than their fee, because that's what they do all day long, taxes. Mick Jagger is hobnobbing with his rich socialite buddies, he's got no idea what's going on in the music business, which seemingly changes every six months. He needed fresh, experienced eyes on this.
4. There Are No Secrets
The Stones, like Led Zeppelin, were built on mystery. But there is no mystery today. So either you can be like many old farts and restrict taping and photography, which is kind of like telling kids not to have sex, or you can embrace it. If the Stones are crappy live, they should have their official site filled with fan videos, which we all expect to be crappy. We then go to the show to hear the real deal, up close and personal. But when the official videos sound crappy...you think the band is.
5. Social
If you don't embrace it, you can't energize fans.
The Stones are playing to the mainstream press. And although their audience is the last vestige of those who pay attention to it, they should be tweeting and Facebooking to humanize themselves. It speaks to perception. They need to get down in the pit with their audience.
6. Scalping
Paperless. Sure, savvy scalpers can elude the system, then again, it would require a drop in ticket prices to generate excitement, and the Stones don't seem willing to leave a single dollar on the table.
7. People Talk
Used to be everything was rumor and innuendo, and you didn't hear much more than what your neighbors had to say, but now with the Internet people can not only read reports from around the world, they can interact with others.
8. Virality
That's how you sell out a show. By getting everybody talking about it, making them fearful of missing it. There's no virality here. Hell, look at the YouTube views!
9. Desperation
It's anathema. It's the same in music as it is in dating. If you need it that bad, we're turned off. I received the following e-mails:
"Another thing that shows what a disaster this tour is/was is that they actually ANNOUNCED their previously secret/surprise special guests early in the day to try and build hype! The stones official account tweeted about Keith Urban and Gwen Stefani's appearances early in the day. Why in the world would you do this if it was supposed to be a surprise other than to try and scramble to get people to come down? They were just reaching for anything at this point. Today they announced Tom Waits guest appearance for Oakland. What a joke."
And:
"Twitter made big bucks last night. The feed was full of Twads and I mean 7-10 in a row time and time again, espousing all their special guests."
It's supposed to be a SURPRISE!
10. Flex Pricing
link:
"Rolling Stones Concert Promoter On 'Flex Pricing' Ticket Strategy: 'I Want the Brokers Pissed Off'": http://bit.ly/1426WgN
Let's assume this was AEG's plan all along, WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ANYBODY?
This is kind of like paying a grand for an airline ticket the week of and finding out if you'd booked a month in advance, it'd be $350. Don't create a game without telling us the rules.
11. Lies
If you believe there were no $85 customers sitting next to $600 customers, you probably believe everything you read in the newspaper. You can tell the press whatever you want, and the people on the music beat, those who remain, who were not downsized out of existence, will print it. Because they want the access, they want the free tickets. That's what the entire music press is built upon, access. But if you wouldn't rather speak to a tech titan than a rocker, you own no smartphone and are unable to cogitate.
12. The Press
Read the "New York Times" article wherein it's stated that Roger Ailes cut Geraldo Rivera's mic when he was defending Obama on Fox. But it gets better, Benghazi was a big story because Fox hammered it.
Read the facts here:
"Behind the Scenes at Fox": http://nyti.ms/18UX7lL
Then again, this is long after the fact. And the "Times" story is reporting on a book.
Which is why if you want to know what's going on in music, you go to the web, the one place the Stones forgot to look.
13. "Rolling Stone" Cover Story
It's supposed to come out BEFORE the tour begins. That's like letting you flip through "Playboy" before asking for payment for the magazine. No, that's like watching Internet porn, getting off, and then being asked to pay. Music is a sideshow, a carnival, which is why Colonel Tom Parker did so well for Elvis. And yes, he might have ripped Presley off, not gone to Europe for fear of being revealed to be an illegal alien, but Parker made and sustained his career. There's yet to be a superstar without a great manager. Because performing and managing are two different skills!
14. You Come Out With Both Guns Blazing And Establish Your Narrative
The Stones have lost control of their story. Meglen didn't come out and defend their ticketing practices until days after shows began.
15. Things Change
Just because you sold a ton of tickets yesterday, that does not mean you can sell a ton today. Yes, the Stones could have sold out no problem if every ticket was $85, and furthermore, scalpers for superstar shows beget tons of press about how impossible it is to get in, how expensive it is, which only burnishes an act's image.
16. We All Want What We Can't Have
We should be salivating and unable to get a ticket. Instead, everybody can attend, even up to the very last minute. It's kind of like queuing up at the Apple Store for the latest product and finding out no one else is in line. Huh? The day one of Apple's new products falls flat is the day the company's done.
Once again, it all comes down to money.
Didn't used to be that way, it used to be about music. And fame. And sex. You wanted to have sex with Mick Jagger. Do you want to have sex with that emaciated guy in the video above? Eek! Maybe, but only to be able to tell your friends!
The eighties were the height of fame, because that's what TV gives you, ubiquity. Radio can't compete.
And today it's all about music. If you're in it for the money, you're in the wrong business. Follow Bono's lead, become a venture capitalist.
And if you do decide to play music, get a great manager. Gene Simmons likes to bloviate how it's all about the money, but without Bill Aucoin, he'd have none.
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Sunday 5 May 2013
Daryl Hall
You've got to want it.
And you've got to be willing to do the work.
So I'm standing on stage at Jazz Fest watching Hall & Oates and it occurs to me the difference between them and all the acts I'd seen previously is they had hits, and the others did not. But what were the odds of Hall & Oates having a hit again?
Yes, Springsteen brought Gary U.S. Bonds back on to the chart, but then Mr. Bonds dropped right back into obscurity. Those latter day-comeback hits are creepy. And now, you can't even have them. Because radio doesn't want you, you're too damn old.
So what you do you?
Cry in your beer and play your old hits.
No one's as jaded as a baby boomer musician. Believing the good times were stolen from him by the Internet. As if oldsters always continued to top the chart.
So Hall & Oates are going through their hits.
And one thing that's staggering is it's not on hard drive. They're really playing. Remember when kids took lessons in school, practiced, studied? Now everything is instant, if you're not famous on your first track, cut moments after you picked up your instrument, you figure someone else is to blame.
But that's not the way it used to be. Wow, you should have seen Irma Thomas fronting her funk/soul unit. But no one will form a big band anymore, they're afraid they won't get paid, that if you split the money up nine ways, there'll be next to none left.
But Hall & Oates have got a big troupe. They've got a full sound. And that's all a result of those damn hits. Like "Rich Girl," "Kiss On My List," "Private Eyes"...
They go on and on.
And Daryl Hall knows he's got to play them every night. But he mixes up some of the other songs, and he says "Sara Smile" and "She's Gone" are truly fresh every performance.
So I'm talking to Daryl in his dressing room...
Yes, that's one of the perks of being me. And being me, I know this is not the best time, because he's still amped up on the energy. You've got to screw yourself up to deliver, and it takes hours to come down.
You see I'm standing on stage thinking about the unlikelihood of the band having another hit and I realize Daryl Hall found a way out. Via his TV show, "Live From Daryl's House."
How did it come about?
Daryl and T-Bone Wolk b.s.'ing. All the good ideas arise when you're relaxing, in the shower, doing something else.
And unlike most people, Daryl said LET'S DO IT!
And he paid for it himself.
If you think this is common, you know no musicians. Musicians need someone else to pay. Hopefully a label.
But Daryl laid down 40k a show...OF HIS OWN MONEY!
Are you willing to do this?
This is the number one e-mail I get, after LISTEN TO MY MUSIC AND WRITE ABOUT IT!, where can I find some money?
Look inside your wallet. Wanna steer your own career? Pay for it. And now, more than ever in the modern era, no one else is gonna pay.
Palladia's paying Daryl now, but that's years later.
Yes, today you've got to stick it out so long you don't know whether you're on the road or in the ditch to ultimately discover if what you've got is real.
But it doesn't stop there...with "Live From Daryl's House," with its new acts and food.
Yes, new acts. That's how Daryl Hall keeps current! Wasn't his intention, but if you get on the road, it's the detours, the unexpected, that will pay dividends.
Daryl didn't have a master plan. He just started.
Which is exactly what you need to do.
So, without a single new hit, without chasing the dragon, Daryl Hall made himself relevant today.
But, there's more!
He's got a show coming up on the DIY channel, wherein he restores an historic house.
Huh?
Daryl's done a bunch of these. He restored the house you see on "Live From Daryl's House." Actually, that's two put together!
But he just sold it.
Now he bought an old house in Sherman, Connecticut, and his redo is what makes the DIY show.
How does Daryl know how to do it?
His family is made up of musicians and builders.
You're all about your roots.
And he bought a club across the river in New York. Yes, Daryl Hall is going into the club business!
Huh?
That's a terrible business!
But he's got an experienced partner and he's got the acts appearing on his TV show and he's gonna go for it.
In other words, you've got to say yes as opposed to no.
And the successful never stop working.
Those hits didn't come by accident. Daryl Hall dedicated enough time to get there, do you?
P.S. I spoke with John Oates too. He just cut 18 singles in Nashville, with everyone from Vince Gill to Hot Chelle Rae. There's no need for an album. And making singles, they can all sound different. And he's playing Bonnaroo with Jim James. That's the new game, going on an adventure, not plotting it all out in advance, but just doing.
P.P.S. I told John he needed to tweet, he needed to know who his audience was. He was reluctant, but this is now part of the game. You're not an actor, you don't have to make expensive MTV-style videos, but you do have to be in contact with your audience, otherwise they won't know you have new stuff out, they won't be able to support it!
P.P.P.S. The food at Jazz Fest is cheap! Nothing's ten bucks. So you can sample. I wish the rest of the venues would follow their lead. Ate a great muffaletta!
P.P.P.P.S. Could have listened to Del McCoury being interviewed all damn day. Ellis Marsalis tickled the ivories and I was enraptured. John McHugh hipped me to the Pine Leaf Boys. Music is social. Hell, I checked out stuff mainly because it was favorited on the Jazz Fest app!
P.P.P.P.P.S. Daryl went on Stern and views for "Live From Daryl's House" jumped. Make Howard your number one stop. Assuming he'll have you. Assuming, like Daryl Hall, you're willing to be honest.
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And you've got to be willing to do the work.
So I'm standing on stage at Jazz Fest watching Hall & Oates and it occurs to me the difference between them and all the acts I'd seen previously is they had hits, and the others did not. But what were the odds of Hall & Oates having a hit again?
Yes, Springsteen brought Gary U.S. Bonds back on to the chart, but then Mr. Bonds dropped right back into obscurity. Those latter day-comeback hits are creepy. And now, you can't even have them. Because radio doesn't want you, you're too damn old.
So what you do you?
Cry in your beer and play your old hits.
No one's as jaded as a baby boomer musician. Believing the good times were stolen from him by the Internet. As if oldsters always continued to top the chart.
So Hall & Oates are going through their hits.
And one thing that's staggering is it's not on hard drive. They're really playing. Remember when kids took lessons in school, practiced, studied? Now everything is instant, if you're not famous on your first track, cut moments after you picked up your instrument, you figure someone else is to blame.
But that's not the way it used to be. Wow, you should have seen Irma Thomas fronting her funk/soul unit. But no one will form a big band anymore, they're afraid they won't get paid, that if you split the money up nine ways, there'll be next to none left.
But Hall & Oates have got a big troupe. They've got a full sound. And that's all a result of those damn hits. Like "Rich Girl," "Kiss On My List," "Private Eyes"...
They go on and on.
And Daryl Hall knows he's got to play them every night. But he mixes up some of the other songs, and he says "Sara Smile" and "She's Gone" are truly fresh every performance.
So I'm talking to Daryl in his dressing room...
Yes, that's one of the perks of being me. And being me, I know this is not the best time, because he's still amped up on the energy. You've got to screw yourself up to deliver, and it takes hours to come down.
You see I'm standing on stage thinking about the unlikelihood of the band having another hit and I realize Daryl Hall found a way out. Via his TV show, "Live From Daryl's House."
How did it come about?
Daryl and T-Bone Wolk b.s.'ing. All the good ideas arise when you're relaxing, in the shower, doing something else.
And unlike most people, Daryl said LET'S DO IT!
And he paid for it himself.
If you think this is common, you know no musicians. Musicians need someone else to pay. Hopefully a label.
But Daryl laid down 40k a show...OF HIS OWN MONEY!
Are you willing to do this?
This is the number one e-mail I get, after LISTEN TO MY MUSIC AND WRITE ABOUT IT!, where can I find some money?
Look inside your wallet. Wanna steer your own career? Pay for it. And now, more than ever in the modern era, no one else is gonna pay.
Palladia's paying Daryl now, but that's years later.
Yes, today you've got to stick it out so long you don't know whether you're on the road or in the ditch to ultimately discover if what you've got is real.
But it doesn't stop there...with "Live From Daryl's House," with its new acts and food.
Yes, new acts. That's how Daryl Hall keeps current! Wasn't his intention, but if you get on the road, it's the detours, the unexpected, that will pay dividends.
Daryl didn't have a master plan. He just started.
Which is exactly what you need to do.
So, without a single new hit, without chasing the dragon, Daryl Hall made himself relevant today.
But, there's more!
He's got a show coming up on the DIY channel, wherein he restores an historic house.
Huh?
Daryl's done a bunch of these. He restored the house you see on "Live From Daryl's House." Actually, that's two put together!
But he just sold it.
Now he bought an old house in Sherman, Connecticut, and his redo is what makes the DIY show.
How does Daryl know how to do it?
His family is made up of musicians and builders.
You're all about your roots.
And he bought a club across the river in New York. Yes, Daryl Hall is going into the club business!
Huh?
That's a terrible business!
But he's got an experienced partner and he's got the acts appearing on his TV show and he's gonna go for it.
In other words, you've got to say yes as opposed to no.
And the successful never stop working.
Those hits didn't come by accident. Daryl Hall dedicated enough time to get there, do you?
P.S. I spoke with John Oates too. He just cut 18 singles in Nashville, with everyone from Vince Gill to Hot Chelle Rae. There's no need for an album. And making singles, they can all sound different. And he's playing Bonnaroo with Jim James. That's the new game, going on an adventure, not plotting it all out in advance, but just doing.
P.P.S. I told John he needed to tweet, he needed to know who his audience was. He was reluctant, but this is now part of the game. You're not an actor, you don't have to make expensive MTV-style videos, but you do have to be in contact with your audience, otherwise they won't know you have new stuff out, they won't be able to support it!
P.P.P.S. The food at Jazz Fest is cheap! Nothing's ten bucks. So you can sample. I wish the rest of the venues would follow their lead. Ate a great muffaletta!
P.P.P.P.S. Could have listened to Del McCoury being interviewed all damn day. Ellis Marsalis tickled the ivories and I was enraptured. John McHugh hipped me to the Pine Leaf Boys. Music is social. Hell, I checked out stuff mainly because it was favorited on the Jazz Fest app!
P.P.P.P.P.S. Daryl went on Stern and views for "Live From Daryl's House" jumped. Make Howard your number one stop. Assuming he'll have you. Assuming, like Daryl Hall, you're willing to be honest.
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