How long until it's free?
I haven't tried the new Beats music service. I'd be stunned if it's not well-designed and utilitarian, I applaud their focus on mobile, but isn't this really just PressPlay ten years later?
I know we want people to pay for music. The only problem is they are not. And we can either eradicate music on YouTube or rethink where we're going.
We tried stamping out trading, that didn't work so well. We're already getting advertising monies from YouTube... The appropriate cliche here is "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," which is what the music industry has done with YouTube, to its credit and benefit.
However, if Warner Music had only authorized Spotify in the U.S. earlier, we might not be in this pickle. Timing is everything online. The Palm phone employing WebOS was a technical marvel, it was just too late, is Beats Music too late?
Curation...
We do live in the information age, and the more the better, to a point. But what we've learned in the past few years is it's all about social. It's less important that a track be best than everybody be listening to it. Come on, you excoriate the Top Ten on a regular basis, but the point is that's where the ears are, those are the acts that attract people to the show. Do you really want to go to the show alone? Think about that... Just you and your favorite act. Sounds like fun to begin with, but if you can't share it with anyone, the good feeling dissipates.
And it's not an issue of exclusivity, all these streaming services have essentially the same music.
As for people being interested in what you're listening to... No one cares, otherwise everybody would have 100,000 Twitter followers and the ability to break an act. We want to know what stars are listening to, tastemakers are listening to, and we want to know that everybody else is listening too, at least a modicum of like-minded people.
As for serving up songs...
I personally find it one of the most frustrating experiences in my lifetime. Radio is real time, you don't know what's next. But from Slacker to Pandora to iTunes Radio to Songza...I'm more interested in what's coming next than what's playing now. I keep hitting the skip button. It's like looking at porn, it's hard to concentrate on one visage when there's an endless supply just a click away.
And speaking of iTunes Radio... Wow, that's a nonstarter. Turns out we did not need another Internet radio service, one was enough. That's how it always is with tech. There will be only one streaming giant. Because that's where everybody will be! If you're investing in a me-too streaming service, why don't you just save your money and go to Vegas and play roulette.
As for getting people to pay for Beats...
Let me see, I don't pay for Facebook, I don't pay for Instagram, I don't pay for Snapchat, I don't pay for Twitter. Each and every one of these services may be fads, their essence might be incorporated into a new bundled entity the way standalone spellcheckers were incorporated into word processors, but one thing we know is they're free. Hell, the word processor and spreadsheet and presentation software are now free with all new Mac and iOS devices!
So to believe that Beats is going to rewrite the history of payment...I don't think so.
But they do have an amazing publicity campaign. And never underestimate the power of stars. But hate to tell Jimmy, Trent and Dre are passe, their fans are not gonna pony up, you need younger stars, Miley and Pitbull and...Jimmy might employ them, but really, you want me to pay for what I already get for free?
As for AT&T's family plan...
Tying up with AT&T is like buying a ticket for the Titanic. AT&T's lunch is being eaten by T-Mobile, a more nimble service that's rewriting the rules of wireless. That's right, soon we'll all buy our handsets outright, we'll all pay less for international calls. John Legere is cutting edge. Hell, he's more rock and roll than Iovine, he wears a t-shirt, shows up where he's uninvited, gets ejected and keeps on kicking the powers that be. He understands you position yourself as anti, as the underdog, and that you make inroads by being cheap. Hell, Legere even admits his service sucks in the boonies, but do you live in the boonies? Are you willing to have lousy service in the hinterlands if you pay a whole hell of a lot less?
So what we've learned here is the music business was caught flat-footed, it didn't see the power of YouTube rearing its huge head. Not the first time the industry's been left out, and not the last.
But YouTube isn't forever, nothing is, otherwise we'd all be listening to 78s.
It's a battle between Spotify and YouTube. Spotify's in multiple countries and now even has a free service on mobile handsets. Furthermore, most people still don't know how Spotify works. Are they gonna understands Beats?
Maybe, Jimmy's a master marketer.
But no one was asleep in the streaming sphere, this is not headphones, run by ancient, nearly moribund companies, no matter how good their products were.
Marketing only goes so far.
And in the modern era it doesn't last.
So today's story is Beats Music, will it be tomorrow's?
P.S. Making a deal with AT&T only is so 2007, so imitation Jobs. In this era of cacophony if you're not everywhere, you'll never make it. Furthermore, who can change their mobile phone plan on a whim? Except to go to T-Mobile, where they'll pay you to do so! Hell, Beats would have been better off making a deal with Legere!
P.P.S. We live in a streaming era. If you want higher quality, lobby your congressperson, it's all about bandwidth. As for Pono...if musicians were such good business people they wouldn't be ripped off by their labels and their accountants. Be proud you can do one thing well, most people can't even do that. But don't assume since you won once, you'll win tomorrow. Jimmy Iovine's got a lot of pluck, but unless he's willing to knock on everybody's door, text them personally, he doesn't have the power to move the masses when it comes to streaming services.
P.P.P.S. Enough with this curation fantasy. I don't want a playlist for every hour of the day, for sex and swimming and cycling. I want certified, no tune-out tracks that I can tell everybody else about. With the noise cycle prevalent, it's about fewer tracks, not more. Do you really think I want to waste time discovering music via your endless playlist? Just give me the hits, now. And I'll listen to them ad infinitum. Hell, I've got tracks in my iTunes library I've listened to hundreds of times, but most only once. I don't need more one-spinners, but more hundred players.
"David Pogue Talks To Mischievous T-Mobile CEO John Legere: The Full Interview": http://yhoo.it/1fipCmj
It's all about the individual. One person is shaking up mobile. One TRACK could shake up the music business, we don't want playlists with a plethora.
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Saturday 11 January 2014
Day Of Change
I haven't been able to hear.
That's a bit of an overstatement, but not by much, and it's lasted almost a complete week.
You see a cold was going around the condo, and just when I thought I'd escaped, it bit me in the ass.
But you've got to know my personality, nothing's gonna stop me from hitting the slopes. Not because I want to, but because it's my job. There's so much we don't want to do, but if we just put one foot in front of the other we discover unforeseen rewards.
Like on this day, New Year's Day...when it was snowing and blowing and you couldn't see a thing and I ended up on the front side skiing untracked bump runs I hadn't been down in eons, it reminded me of years ago, and that's why we do it, for the memories, for the inspiration, for the contact...oftentimes with ourselves.
And I'm flying home on the airplane and when we descend into Los Angeles (without a couple of keys, it was Colorado after all), my ears started to feel like they had sharp spikes being inserted into them from the inside and it lasted fifteen minutes and if I'd been under ten I would have been wailing.
Instead I internalized the pain. That's what I do. They teach us to do this, and then...we get old enough and we realize no one's listening anyway.
That's what I've discovered. I'm the repository of people's hopes and dreams and anxieties. Maybe that's why I love writing so much, it's only me, but I'm still worried...are people listening?
Do you think I don't know what you want? Make it short, make it pithy, make it a list of how to make it in the music business, what's good, make it optimistic, include pointers, be a cheerleader for your inner spirit. But one thing I've learned is giving the people what they want may be profitable but it kills your insides dead. Just ask Neil Young and Bob Dylan, who've killed their careers multiple times, because they just couldn't fulfill expectations, and now we love them for it...but it was hard for them at the time.
Or it is for me. Because I'm a people pleaser. And a rock thrower. And if you think that's a tough dichotomy, try living inside MY body.
And the longer I don't write the harder it is to do it.
I know my game. If I'm inspired, it could be about anything. If I'm not, I might be working against myself, like now...three things in a day, do you know how many sign-offs I'm gonna get, on principle alone? But I'm frustrated... Because I want to reach you. That's the screwed up part of the equation, I need you.
So I've got to squeeze out a Rhinofy last night and I just can't do it, I normally only write on inspiration, and I wasn't...inspired, that is. Oh, the tracks started to sound better and better, it's just that I had nothing to say about them, nothing I wanted to share, I was feeling vulnerable. That's the problem with gaining an audience, you second guess yourself, I try not to, but...
And I was so frustrated, surfing the net as the music played, that I got in touch with what had been bothering me for twenty four hours, the Christie thing, the disability thing, so I decided to write about it.
And once I started, I had so much to say, all the frustration of the previous week was flowing through my fingers. But would anybody be interested?
I knew the right wing would excoriate me, kind of like Reagan in that debate..."there you go again."
But you can't kowtow to the right wing, that's their game, to get you to blink, to get you not to react, not to play. That's our entire nation. The self-conscious, even the acts. Everything's filtered, massaged, as if we rehearse sex and conversations.
But we don't.
And the most painful part of writing is not putting words on the screen, but going through the bends after I hit send. Will people love it or hate it, be indifferent, will I get a lot of reaction or...
And then I got truly inspired.
Every song I listened to begat a story.
But it was too late. I'd already blown my wad. To write again would mean I'd never get to bed, because that's another downside of writing, it takes six or eight hours to come down.
So I didn't.
And then, I woke up in a good mood.
I'd gone to bed angry.
Isn't life incredible?
And when I started to read the voluminous e-mail that flowed into my inbox I got inspired again, I needed to hear a track, Lee Michaels's "Day Of Change."
Only, in reality, it's not about politics, it's about relationships, unlike "What Now America," from the same album, "Barrel."
So here's the point...
I went to college, and I heard "What Now America," and had to buy "Barrel" and I know every note and now...
I've written too much to tell that story.
So I'm gonna tell you this story...
"Yesterday I saw her
Now she don't see me"
I know some people are in control. They love 'em and leave 'em. Not me. I'm not saying I've never left, but that was after she threatened to first!
But I kind of feel like that guy in the Paul Simon song...when something goes wrong, I'm the first to admit it, but the last one to know."
"Yesterday I knew her
Now she don't know me"
They never do, you share your secrets and then you're strangers.
All you can do is listen to a record.
And there's nothing more satisfying...other than personal interaction.
But we were addicted to the sound, I was addicted to the sound, because I felt left out.
And my original point, when I didn't write this, nine hours ago, was that Lee Michaels could write good music that was about politics, that meant something.
But now...
It's a cry to all hold hands.
Now it's an explanation when nothing of the sort is necessary.
I'm as confused by this world we live in as you are, if not more. I'm constantly reevaluating, wondering if I'm on the right path, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I am, and since turning sixty I'm aware the sand is running out of the hourglass.
Yes, I'm sixty. My dick might not work as well, but I'm oh so much wiser.
But still gun-shy.
I want to write truth.
I want to be together.
And separate.
I'm angry.
And sometimes exuberantly happy.
So I don't know if it's a day of change or not. Because I'm bad with change, I'm afraid of loss in the process.
What now America?
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1da5787
"Day Of Change" on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1lLizmj
"What Now America" on YouTube: http://bit.ly/JOTOaj
P.S. Ask Irving Azoff about accompanying Lee Michaels to a gig in his Ferrari (that's Lee's, Irving was just a management lackey).
P.P.S. I still have to write about discovering "Barrel" at Middlebury.
P.P.P.S. I still have to write about taking _______ to see Lee Michaels with me at the Fillmore, mere weeks before the venue closed. Taking the train into the city...
P.P.P.P.S. This still isn't what I wanted it to be. I got caught up in the lead-in and ran out of gas with the main story, which is... I'm dazed and confused and scared to play but I'm trying to anyway.
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That's a bit of an overstatement, but not by much, and it's lasted almost a complete week.
You see a cold was going around the condo, and just when I thought I'd escaped, it bit me in the ass.
But you've got to know my personality, nothing's gonna stop me from hitting the slopes. Not because I want to, but because it's my job. There's so much we don't want to do, but if we just put one foot in front of the other we discover unforeseen rewards.
Like on this day, New Year's Day...when it was snowing and blowing and you couldn't see a thing and I ended up on the front side skiing untracked bump runs I hadn't been down in eons, it reminded me of years ago, and that's why we do it, for the memories, for the inspiration, for the contact...oftentimes with ourselves.
And I'm flying home on the airplane and when we descend into Los Angeles (without a couple of keys, it was Colorado after all), my ears started to feel like they had sharp spikes being inserted into them from the inside and it lasted fifteen minutes and if I'd been under ten I would have been wailing.
Instead I internalized the pain. That's what I do. They teach us to do this, and then...we get old enough and we realize no one's listening anyway.
That's what I've discovered. I'm the repository of people's hopes and dreams and anxieties. Maybe that's why I love writing so much, it's only me, but I'm still worried...are people listening?
Do you think I don't know what you want? Make it short, make it pithy, make it a list of how to make it in the music business, what's good, make it optimistic, include pointers, be a cheerleader for your inner spirit. But one thing I've learned is giving the people what they want may be profitable but it kills your insides dead. Just ask Neil Young and Bob Dylan, who've killed their careers multiple times, because they just couldn't fulfill expectations, and now we love them for it...but it was hard for them at the time.
Or it is for me. Because I'm a people pleaser. And a rock thrower. And if you think that's a tough dichotomy, try living inside MY body.
And the longer I don't write the harder it is to do it.
I know my game. If I'm inspired, it could be about anything. If I'm not, I might be working against myself, like now...three things in a day, do you know how many sign-offs I'm gonna get, on principle alone? But I'm frustrated... Because I want to reach you. That's the screwed up part of the equation, I need you.
So I've got to squeeze out a Rhinofy last night and I just can't do it, I normally only write on inspiration, and I wasn't...inspired, that is. Oh, the tracks started to sound better and better, it's just that I had nothing to say about them, nothing I wanted to share, I was feeling vulnerable. That's the problem with gaining an audience, you second guess yourself, I try not to, but...
And I was so frustrated, surfing the net as the music played, that I got in touch with what had been bothering me for twenty four hours, the Christie thing, the disability thing, so I decided to write about it.
And once I started, I had so much to say, all the frustration of the previous week was flowing through my fingers. But would anybody be interested?
I knew the right wing would excoriate me, kind of like Reagan in that debate..."there you go again."
But you can't kowtow to the right wing, that's their game, to get you to blink, to get you not to react, not to play. That's our entire nation. The self-conscious, even the acts. Everything's filtered, massaged, as if we rehearse sex and conversations.
But we don't.
And the most painful part of writing is not putting words on the screen, but going through the bends after I hit send. Will people love it or hate it, be indifferent, will I get a lot of reaction or...
And then I got truly inspired.
Every song I listened to begat a story.
But it was too late. I'd already blown my wad. To write again would mean I'd never get to bed, because that's another downside of writing, it takes six or eight hours to come down.
So I didn't.
And then, I woke up in a good mood.
I'd gone to bed angry.
Isn't life incredible?
And when I started to read the voluminous e-mail that flowed into my inbox I got inspired again, I needed to hear a track, Lee Michaels's "Day Of Change."
Only, in reality, it's not about politics, it's about relationships, unlike "What Now America," from the same album, "Barrel."
So here's the point...
I went to college, and I heard "What Now America," and had to buy "Barrel" and I know every note and now...
I've written too much to tell that story.
So I'm gonna tell you this story...
"Yesterday I saw her
Now she don't see me"
I know some people are in control. They love 'em and leave 'em. Not me. I'm not saying I've never left, but that was after she threatened to first!
But I kind of feel like that guy in the Paul Simon song...when something goes wrong, I'm the first to admit it, but the last one to know."
"Yesterday I knew her
Now she don't know me"
They never do, you share your secrets and then you're strangers.
All you can do is listen to a record.
And there's nothing more satisfying...other than personal interaction.
But we were addicted to the sound, I was addicted to the sound, because I felt left out.
And my original point, when I didn't write this, nine hours ago, was that Lee Michaels could write good music that was about politics, that meant something.
But now...
It's a cry to all hold hands.
Now it's an explanation when nothing of the sort is necessary.
I'm as confused by this world we live in as you are, if not more. I'm constantly reevaluating, wondering if I'm on the right path, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I am, and since turning sixty I'm aware the sand is running out of the hourglass.
Yes, I'm sixty. My dick might not work as well, but I'm oh so much wiser.
But still gun-shy.
I want to write truth.
I want to be together.
And separate.
I'm angry.
And sometimes exuberantly happy.
So I don't know if it's a day of change or not. Because I'm bad with change, I'm afraid of loss in the process.
What now America?
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1da5787
"Day Of Change" on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1lLizmj
"What Now America" on YouTube: http://bit.ly/JOTOaj
P.S. Ask Irving Azoff about accompanying Lee Michaels to a gig in his Ferrari (that's Lee's, Irving was just a management lackey).
P.P.S. I still have to write about discovering "Barrel" at Middlebury.
P.P.P.S. I still have to write about taking _______ to see Lee Michaels with me at the Fillmore, mere weeks before the venue closed. Taking the train into the city...
P.P.P.P.S. This still isn't what I wanted it to be. I got caught up in the lead-in and ran out of gas with the main story, which is... I'm dazed and confused and scared to play but I'm trying to anyway.
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Friday 10 January 2014
Map Of Success
1. People Want To Belong
We're tribal, we abhor a vacuum, how can you make us believe in you?
The lesson of the Internet age is that traditional media may not reach the target audience. In other words, just because it's in the newspaper, that does not mean everybody knows about it. Even worse, just because it's on TV, that does not mean everybody's seen it. Individual television rankings have been tanking ever since the advent of cable television, your jaw would drop if you knew how lousy the ratings for "Breaking Bad" were, despite all the press plaudits. Furthermore, it took years to achieve this level of press success. Bottom line, most people don't want to dedicate the time. Because we've got little of it. How do you convince someone to spend time on what you're creating, especially when the big boys are having trouble getting people to pay attention to their stuff?
2. The Big Boys
A self-congratulatory circle jerk. Beyonce sells a million albums and you'd think she landed on the moon. Like television, reach of music has declined with the advent of new outlets, i.e. the Internet. We used to be addicted to terrestrial radio, then everybody watched one channel, MTV. Now many people don't pay attention to anything other than their Netflix queue. There are so many outlets competing for attention that potential listeners tune out. This is a music industry problem which is not being addressed because the heads of public corporations have to congratulate themselves in order to justify their salaries and the wannabes believe they are entitled to be heard and if the hits get more mindshare that means they won't. But we need a short, approved list of tracks that are jammed down people's throats, that they will listen to, to feel included. Doesn't even matter whether they love or hate 'em, it's just that they must be aware of them. There's only one iTunes, one Amazon,
one Google, but in music we delusionally believe there are going to be multiple streaming services and that Songza can compete with Pandora and Spotify and we've got room for Beats. We've only got room for one, and that's the one everybody else is paying attention to, and since everybody's playing to Wall Street, not Main Street, they don't get it. We don't want a ton of playlists, but five, or seven. Ranked. So we can tell all our friends how much we hate or love what is on them. If it's on the "Voice," most people still have not heard it. You may hate TV singing shows, but they're essentially irrelevant, you're railing against the inconsequential, the biggest hits of the year had nothing to do with them, i.e. "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines" and "Royals." But one thing those three had was penetration. We need to promote fewer tracks that reach more people. That's the way we're going, it's already happening in news. You think that everybody gets their news from different outlets? The
truth is the only U.S. organizations with boots on the ground are the "New York Times" and the "Wall Street Journal." All the news derives from them, especially the former, with its foreign bureaus. You may see talking heads bloviating on television, on the web too, but the roots of their rantings are all based in these couple of news outlets. It's the blockbuster theory on steroids. When everybody else cut their budgets to make their numbers, the big boys reinvested and now own the sphere, the fact that most people don't know it doesn't deny that it's so. We're gonna see this consolidation in music. The Grammys should have fewer than ten categories instead of a hundred. They're pleasing the wrong people, the wankers with tiny audiences who made this music, but the organization is really about the TV show, which has the power to close those watching, turn them on to great new stuff. But the Grammys don't do this, because the Grammys are too busy being democratic when the truth is we
live in a dictatorship run by the truly talented with money behind them and if you believe this is not so, you're too busy playing sandlot baseball without a glove with no smartphone and no television set.
3. Music
Has a power no other medium possesses. It's hotter than film or TV, but it's become a backwater because those involved in making it and selling it don't respect it. If you don't believe in it, how do you expect anybody else to do so? Music is only trumped by sex, and many people have sex to music, very few want to get laid to episodic television. So stop trying to sell out to sponsors and start realizing the music is enough if it shoots for the stars and arrives there, unlike the lame Beatles tribute featuring a reunion of the Eurythmics. Huh? No one wants to see that act reunite. If you can't respect the Beatles' arrival on our shores, if you can't deliver the attendant gravitas, give up. It's kind of like the People's Choice Awards. We don't want to know what the public thinks, we want to know what the talented think. We don't want Scorsese and Spielberg to make films by committee and we don't want our musical stars to do so either. Did Jimmy Page put his finger to the public wind
to decide what kind of music Led Zeppelin should make? Of course not, because people don't know what they want, giving people what they want is artistic death, cultural bankruptcy, art is about opening eyes and ears, both reflecting the human condition and liberating people from it. We've got to head into the wilderness to regain our purchase upon the public pysche.
4. Story
That's why television is so successful these days, producers realize it's not how it looks, but what it says. Whereas in music we're so busy getting the sound right that we forgo the emotion, which is the essence of great art, after inspiration. Sure, it's great if the vocals and notes are perfect, but not if said perfection eviscerates the soul. Most of our music sounds like it's made by machines, which is why we can't relate to it. If it's gonna be machine-like, let's all listen to Kraftwerk and make the computers our servants instead of the reverse.
5. People
They make hits. They got everybody to watch "Gangnam Style," illustrating you can be ubiquitous, if you're cool enough, if you're running on the aforementioned inspiration. Screw the gatekeepers, we want something with rubberneck effect, you know, the thing you can't help but slow down and look at on the freeway. If I'm not instantly drawn to your music, you're doing it wrong. Don't ask me for more time and more dedication, I've got none, I've got a list of stuff I'm already not listening to, watching or accomplishing longer than I've got time left to live. And it's not only me.
6. Ubiquity
Everybody knew "Saturday Night Fever." Because that's how good the Bee Gees songs were. Come on, have you ever heard "Stayin' Alive"? How about "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or "Satisfaction"? All sounded completely unlike what had come before. They were novel and inspirational. With attitude. That's what made "Royals" such a hit, the attitude, as well as the sound. Same deal with the Avicii track "Wake Me Up." Music is like a Balkanized nation where we're so busy fighting in our own backyard that we can't see that there's a whole world out there. We should unite and promote the great hits of our day to those not paying attention. Instead we've got country music singing about church, babies and brands. Who in their right mind would care about that? When you shoot so low, most people shrug their shoulders and tune out. We've got to shoot higher.
7. Talent
Not everybody can play, not everybody can make it. If you're five feet tall you can't play in the NBA and if you weigh three hundred pounds you can't drive Formula One. If you can't sing, chances are you won't make it. Own it and do something else. Sure, there are exceptions, but very few. Bruno Mars made it because not only could he sing, but write and play. We're looking for triple threats, with something to say. Unfortunately, Mr. Mars doesn't possess this skill. He could develop it, but right now he's a showman. Will he close those watching him at the Super Bowl? Probably not. We need a Michael Jordan, a player so good that those not truly paying attention will have their eyes bug out and will immediately go to YouTube to watch the presentation again. Yes, can we all just own that YouTube is where music lives? Can we stop talking about iTunes and CDs? Can we stop talking about curation so much when it turns out people have no problem finding what they want to listen to on
YouTube? Sure, curation would grow the pot, but it's the cherry on top.
8. The World Is Getting Smaller
With more choice, more options, we want very little, and we want it to be the best and what everybody else is utilizing. All that press about CES. Can you name one reasonable product that was introduced? I can't, and I'm paying attention! We're ready if you've got the new iPhone, if you don't, we're not. We've got people waiting 24/7 to spread the word on what is great, assuming it truly is. But the sausage factory is so busy turning out links, that we'd rather starve than partake. We're moving to a world ever smaller with just a few winners. There will be fewer hit acts than ever before, we will want to listen to fewer of their songs, but they will be so much bigger than what came before... If we just get our heads out of our rear ends and realize this and promote that which deserves it to those who've tuned out. There are untold riches to come, but they will flow to very few, monetarily. But the public will be wealthy beyond belief. People want music, but it's got to be better
than TV, which already killed the movies. Don't try to get your song in a show, try to create something so great people will want to turn the show OFF!
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We're tribal, we abhor a vacuum, how can you make us believe in you?
The lesson of the Internet age is that traditional media may not reach the target audience. In other words, just because it's in the newspaper, that does not mean everybody knows about it. Even worse, just because it's on TV, that does not mean everybody's seen it. Individual television rankings have been tanking ever since the advent of cable television, your jaw would drop if you knew how lousy the ratings for "Breaking Bad" were, despite all the press plaudits. Furthermore, it took years to achieve this level of press success. Bottom line, most people don't want to dedicate the time. Because we've got little of it. How do you convince someone to spend time on what you're creating, especially when the big boys are having trouble getting people to pay attention to their stuff?
2. The Big Boys
A self-congratulatory circle jerk. Beyonce sells a million albums and you'd think she landed on the moon. Like television, reach of music has declined with the advent of new outlets, i.e. the Internet. We used to be addicted to terrestrial radio, then everybody watched one channel, MTV. Now many people don't pay attention to anything other than their Netflix queue. There are so many outlets competing for attention that potential listeners tune out. This is a music industry problem which is not being addressed because the heads of public corporations have to congratulate themselves in order to justify their salaries and the wannabes believe they are entitled to be heard and if the hits get more mindshare that means they won't. But we need a short, approved list of tracks that are jammed down people's throats, that they will listen to, to feel included. Doesn't even matter whether they love or hate 'em, it's just that they must be aware of them. There's only one iTunes, one Amazon,
one Google, but in music we delusionally believe there are going to be multiple streaming services and that Songza can compete with Pandora and Spotify and we've got room for Beats. We've only got room for one, and that's the one everybody else is paying attention to, and since everybody's playing to Wall Street, not Main Street, they don't get it. We don't want a ton of playlists, but five, or seven. Ranked. So we can tell all our friends how much we hate or love what is on them. If it's on the "Voice," most people still have not heard it. You may hate TV singing shows, but they're essentially irrelevant, you're railing against the inconsequential, the biggest hits of the year had nothing to do with them, i.e. "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines" and "Royals." But one thing those three had was penetration. We need to promote fewer tracks that reach more people. That's the way we're going, it's already happening in news. You think that everybody gets their news from different outlets? The
truth is the only U.S. organizations with boots on the ground are the "New York Times" and the "Wall Street Journal." All the news derives from them, especially the former, with its foreign bureaus. You may see talking heads bloviating on television, on the web too, but the roots of their rantings are all based in these couple of news outlets. It's the blockbuster theory on steroids. When everybody else cut their budgets to make their numbers, the big boys reinvested and now own the sphere, the fact that most people don't know it doesn't deny that it's so. We're gonna see this consolidation in music. The Grammys should have fewer than ten categories instead of a hundred. They're pleasing the wrong people, the wankers with tiny audiences who made this music, but the organization is really about the TV show, which has the power to close those watching, turn them on to great new stuff. But the Grammys don't do this, because the Grammys are too busy being democratic when the truth is we
live in a dictatorship run by the truly talented with money behind them and if you believe this is not so, you're too busy playing sandlot baseball without a glove with no smartphone and no television set.
3. Music
Has a power no other medium possesses. It's hotter than film or TV, but it's become a backwater because those involved in making it and selling it don't respect it. If you don't believe in it, how do you expect anybody else to do so? Music is only trumped by sex, and many people have sex to music, very few want to get laid to episodic television. So stop trying to sell out to sponsors and start realizing the music is enough if it shoots for the stars and arrives there, unlike the lame Beatles tribute featuring a reunion of the Eurythmics. Huh? No one wants to see that act reunite. If you can't respect the Beatles' arrival on our shores, if you can't deliver the attendant gravitas, give up. It's kind of like the People's Choice Awards. We don't want to know what the public thinks, we want to know what the talented think. We don't want Scorsese and Spielberg to make films by committee and we don't want our musical stars to do so either. Did Jimmy Page put his finger to the public wind
to decide what kind of music Led Zeppelin should make? Of course not, because people don't know what they want, giving people what they want is artistic death, cultural bankruptcy, art is about opening eyes and ears, both reflecting the human condition and liberating people from it. We've got to head into the wilderness to regain our purchase upon the public pysche.
4. Story
That's why television is so successful these days, producers realize it's not how it looks, but what it says. Whereas in music we're so busy getting the sound right that we forgo the emotion, which is the essence of great art, after inspiration. Sure, it's great if the vocals and notes are perfect, but not if said perfection eviscerates the soul. Most of our music sounds like it's made by machines, which is why we can't relate to it. If it's gonna be machine-like, let's all listen to Kraftwerk and make the computers our servants instead of the reverse.
5. People
They make hits. They got everybody to watch "Gangnam Style," illustrating you can be ubiquitous, if you're cool enough, if you're running on the aforementioned inspiration. Screw the gatekeepers, we want something with rubberneck effect, you know, the thing you can't help but slow down and look at on the freeway. If I'm not instantly drawn to your music, you're doing it wrong. Don't ask me for more time and more dedication, I've got none, I've got a list of stuff I'm already not listening to, watching or accomplishing longer than I've got time left to live. And it's not only me.
6. Ubiquity
Everybody knew "Saturday Night Fever." Because that's how good the Bee Gees songs were. Come on, have you ever heard "Stayin' Alive"? How about "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or "Satisfaction"? All sounded completely unlike what had come before. They were novel and inspirational. With attitude. That's what made "Royals" such a hit, the attitude, as well as the sound. Same deal with the Avicii track "Wake Me Up." Music is like a Balkanized nation where we're so busy fighting in our own backyard that we can't see that there's a whole world out there. We should unite and promote the great hits of our day to those not paying attention. Instead we've got country music singing about church, babies and brands. Who in their right mind would care about that? When you shoot so low, most people shrug their shoulders and tune out. We've got to shoot higher.
7. Talent
Not everybody can play, not everybody can make it. If you're five feet tall you can't play in the NBA and if you weigh three hundred pounds you can't drive Formula One. If you can't sing, chances are you won't make it. Own it and do something else. Sure, there are exceptions, but very few. Bruno Mars made it because not only could he sing, but write and play. We're looking for triple threats, with something to say. Unfortunately, Mr. Mars doesn't possess this skill. He could develop it, but right now he's a showman. Will he close those watching him at the Super Bowl? Probably not. We need a Michael Jordan, a player so good that those not truly paying attention will have their eyes bug out and will immediately go to YouTube to watch the presentation again. Yes, can we all just own that YouTube is where music lives? Can we stop talking about iTunes and CDs? Can we stop talking about curation so much when it turns out people have no problem finding what they want to listen to on
YouTube? Sure, curation would grow the pot, but it's the cherry on top.
8. The World Is Getting Smaller
With more choice, more options, we want very little, and we want it to be the best and what everybody else is utilizing. All that press about CES. Can you name one reasonable product that was introduced? I can't, and I'm paying attention! We're ready if you've got the new iPhone, if you don't, we're not. We've got people waiting 24/7 to spread the word on what is great, assuming it truly is. But the sausage factory is so busy turning out links, that we'd rather starve than partake. We're moving to a world ever smaller with just a few winners. There will be fewer hit acts than ever before, we will want to listen to fewer of their songs, but they will be so much bigger than what came before... If we just get our heads out of our rear ends and realize this and promote that which deserves it to those who've tuned out. There are untold riches to come, but they will flow to very few, monetarily. But the public will be wealthy beyond belief. People want music, but it's got to be better
than TV, which already killed the movies. Don't try to get your song in a show, try to create something so great people will want to turn the show OFF!
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Rhinofy-Brave New World
"We're driving fast
From a dream of the past
To the brave new world"
I most certainly was.
I made a deal with my parents. I'd go to the Mitzvah Corps if they'd allow me to go to summer ski camp.
You see they wanted to go to Europe, and ski camp was only ten days, and that wouldn't do.
So I did. Spent ten days in Squaw Valley at the beginning of July and then flew with a box of skis to a frat house on the campus of the University of Chicago whereupon I found four guys, five girls, a soon to be famous rabbi and some brothers and a sister living in the basement.
That's fraternity brothers. One wanted to run for governor, not sure if he ever made it, he was a Republican in an era wherein almost no one under twenty five was, and the other was a pre-med student who went on to become...a famous AIDS doctor. A friend was showing me a tape in the mideighties and I was stunned to see Paul.
Who lived in the basement with his girlfriend.
And the kind of person who goes to Mitzvah Corps is not exceptionally hip, which I believed myself to be, and I always got along with those more aged, which is how I found myself in the basement listening to Paul's copy of Steve Miller's "Brave New World."
I knew nothing about the Joker, long before he was. But this album with a typically cheap Capitol cover took off with a shot with the above lyrics and never stopped. How could something be so good with so little hype?
There was no hit.
This was long before "Space Cowboy" became a classic rock staple.
Steve Miller was still relatively unknown, but not in the U.K., where Paul McCartney played uncredited on the closing track, "My Dark Hour." Listen, you'll hear him, it could only be him.
And "My Dark Hour" is a great track, but it's a throwaway compared to "Seasons."
This is not the midseventies Steve Miller. "Seasons" is so ethereal, so right, if you're not immediately enraptured you think Johnny Rotten is the greatest rock star in history and you've got no sensitivity and I'm stunned if you've ever been laid.
That's when I knew satellite radio was here to stay, when I heard "Seasons" on XM, any outlet that could air such magic was a friend of mine.
And yes, the album does include "Space Cowboy," with its indelible riff, but my favorite cut on the album was "Kow Kow" (sometimes referred to as "Kow Kow Calqulator").
Oh, listen to that opening riff! It's an artist at work. Back when being able to play the guitar was the height of musical prowess.
And then those magical keys.
And then Steve falls into the groove.
"Kow kow calqulator
Was a very smooth operator"
Credit Ben Sidran, who gave an amazing turn on Marc Maron's podcast a couple of months ago, the keyboards make all the difference. But despite being a band effort, Lonnie Turner positively wailing on the bass, it's truly Miller who holds the track together and puts it over the top.
"Get back in your elevator
Kow kow calqulator
Turn on your love light
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Let it shine"
And that they do, in this Glyn Johns coproduction that ends like a later Stones number, with the piano at the end.
And I became an instant fan.
I went to see Steve Miller at the Fillmore East.
And "Kow Kow" is still my favorite cut.
But the best is "Seasons"...check it out.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
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From a dream of the past
To the brave new world"
I most certainly was.
I made a deal with my parents. I'd go to the Mitzvah Corps if they'd allow me to go to summer ski camp.
You see they wanted to go to Europe, and ski camp was only ten days, and that wouldn't do.
So I did. Spent ten days in Squaw Valley at the beginning of July and then flew with a box of skis to a frat house on the campus of the University of Chicago whereupon I found four guys, five girls, a soon to be famous rabbi and some brothers and a sister living in the basement.
That's fraternity brothers. One wanted to run for governor, not sure if he ever made it, he was a Republican in an era wherein almost no one under twenty five was, and the other was a pre-med student who went on to become...a famous AIDS doctor. A friend was showing me a tape in the mideighties and I was stunned to see Paul.
Who lived in the basement with his girlfriend.
And the kind of person who goes to Mitzvah Corps is not exceptionally hip, which I believed myself to be, and I always got along with those more aged, which is how I found myself in the basement listening to Paul's copy of Steve Miller's "Brave New World."
I knew nothing about the Joker, long before he was. But this album with a typically cheap Capitol cover took off with a shot with the above lyrics and never stopped. How could something be so good with so little hype?
There was no hit.
This was long before "Space Cowboy" became a classic rock staple.
Steve Miller was still relatively unknown, but not in the U.K., where Paul McCartney played uncredited on the closing track, "My Dark Hour." Listen, you'll hear him, it could only be him.
And "My Dark Hour" is a great track, but it's a throwaway compared to "Seasons."
This is not the midseventies Steve Miller. "Seasons" is so ethereal, so right, if you're not immediately enraptured you think Johnny Rotten is the greatest rock star in history and you've got no sensitivity and I'm stunned if you've ever been laid.
That's when I knew satellite radio was here to stay, when I heard "Seasons" on XM, any outlet that could air such magic was a friend of mine.
And yes, the album does include "Space Cowboy," with its indelible riff, but my favorite cut on the album was "Kow Kow" (sometimes referred to as "Kow Kow Calqulator").
Oh, listen to that opening riff! It's an artist at work. Back when being able to play the guitar was the height of musical prowess.
And then those magical keys.
And then Steve falls into the groove.
"Kow kow calqulator
Was a very smooth operator"
Credit Ben Sidran, who gave an amazing turn on Marc Maron's podcast a couple of months ago, the keyboards make all the difference. But despite being a band effort, Lonnie Turner positively wailing on the bass, it's truly Miller who holds the track together and puts it over the top.
"Get back in your elevator
Kow kow calqulator
Turn on your love light
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Let it shine"
And that they do, in this Glyn Johns coproduction that ends like a later Stones number, with the piano at the end.
And I became an instant fan.
I went to see Steve Miller at the Fillmore East.
And "Kow Kow" is still my favorite cut.
But the best is "Seasons"...check it out.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
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Thursday 9 January 2014
Christie
Is it me, or has society always been this coarse? Has a plethora of media shone a light into every nook and cranny or has America fundamentally changed, and now it's every man for himself, and if I have to climb over you to get what I want, tough noogies.
But it's not only Christie. It's those employees in New York who rigged the disability game, who said they couldn't leave the house and turned out to be sportfishing with their free time. Did this always happen, or when the President lies about getting a blow job and a previous majordomo employs voodoo economics to allow a whole slab of consumers to pull away from the rest (yes, I'm speaking of the vaunted Ronald Reagan) the rest of the populace wakes up and says...I'm gonna be a chump?
Sometimes that's what I feel like. Because I'm not a lying, cheating, scumbag.
Hate to burst your bubble, but that's what the music business is. It may be driven by tech, but theft and dishonesty and intimidation are still baked in. But the artists used to be pure, right?
I'm not so sure about that. But they used to be informed, they used to be leaders, they paid lip service in their songs to a better life wherein we were all brothers together. Now they sell VIP passes if they're not scalping their tickets outright and might have Twitter accounts but make sure to fly private and live in gated communities, because that's what the rich and powerful do today, remove themselves from the rest of us, throwing us crumbs and disinformation along the way to keep us ignorant. Kind of like the plethora of Republicans who don't believe in evolution. I mean if we can't agree on science, there's no place to start, and that's exactly my point, I'm not sure where we're starting today.
Jaron Lanier laments that when these tech companies triumph on our backs only a few get rich, we pay with our information, but we don't share in the spoils, not even a discount on a new hand-set. And I used to pooh-pooh his viewpoint but Snapchat and Instagram are worthless without our participation. In the sixties there'd be revolt. But today, all musicians want to do is complain about Spotify payouts when streaming won, did you see that track sales are down? CDs, vinyl, paper books, I wish all the Luddites would get their respective heads out of their rear ends and start looking forward so they could affect the future, but they can't, it's just too scary, they've got to stay in the past, lamenting the Zuckerbergs who came of age in the twenty first century and realize there are no rules, when bankers ruin the country and go free and taxes are low and there's no safety net if you're not busy raping and pillaging, you're busy starving.
So an honest forthright person gets no slap on the back, instead he gets a slap in the face. He loses his unemployment insurance, and state governments refuse to give him his Medicaid. And I don't want to make this a right versus left equation, Republicans versus Democrats, then again, Democrats propagated the notion that we were all in it together and had to take care of each other, before they all sold out to lobbyists.
So now we don't look to governments to solve our problems, but icons like Elon Musk. Actually, if income inequality is eviscerated it will be by one of these visionaries, not the public at large, because there are no more public movements, none with any traction. The Tea Party is a fiction run by the Kochs and other fat cats and the organizers of Occupy Wall Street were so busy saying there were no leaders that the holier-than-thou media buried them. Yup, we still live in a media-controlled world, and if you think your Tumblr makes a difference, you probably believe your Pinterest page is influencing Anna Wintour.
But it comes down to education. Most people are not smart enough to grasp the issues. That's the mark of an educated person, someone who can hold two conflicting ideas in their brain at one time. Like the value of a concert ticket is $300, but if we charge that, real fans won't be able to get in. But screw the real fans, our customer is the Fortune 500, the advertisers, right?
Right. Isn't that what it used to be about? Right and wrong? Isn't that what your parents taught you, before they went to school and argued with the teacher, telling them Little Johnny couldn't possibly be wrong? In the old days, we quaked in our boots if we brought a note home from school, now parents defend their children as if it's impossible for their progeny to do any wrong.
And they see their boss making millions and paying little taxes.
And they see the riches paraded by the Kardashian Krew.
And they say to themselves, why should I be honest, why should I have good values, why should I hunker down and study hard to make more of myself when the ruling class is dealing with this country like it's its playtoy, not caring a whit whether someone is sacrificed in the end. It's like our whole country is playing musical chairs, and if you're handicapped or sick, too bad, you're gonna end up out.
So I don't know what to believe in.
Used to be it was records. Before music turned into two camps, the ultra-rich singing about their lifestyle who want nothing to do with us, who represent nothing more than aspirational figures, and the bitching untalented, without good voices or chops who just complain that they can't make it here.
Not everybody deserves to make it.
But everybody deserves an opportunity. Everybody is entitled to food on the table and a roof over their head. As for the "winners," they can't win without us buying their products and if you don't think luck is involved in success, you've only read about it.
So I'm sitting this one out. I'm not going to listen to the bloviators. I am going to applaud the "New York Times" for doing its job. I'm not going to read the Roger Ailes bio because I already know he's a scumbag and the people who don't are never going to be convinced otherwise.
Still, if we're all looking for the edge, if we're all trying to climb the greased totem pole, what is end game?
The truth is the game is rigged. And until we're willing to stand back and say we're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore...
You won't be able to get an abortion.
You'll never escape your college debt.
You won't pay any income tax, but the truth is the poor never do, and the corporations don't either. We're heading straight towards bankruptcy, not because of some fictional debt issue, but because we won't fund schools, we won't fix bridges, we won't invest in the infrastructure this country needs to move forward.
Kind of like Christie. Who killed the NY/NJ tunnel. Forget bad traffic at the George Washington Bridge for a couple of days, for years after this blowhard retires ingress and egress to the city will be hampered. Oh, that's right, the rich can afford to live in Manhattan... What about their domestics? The street sweepers? The firemen? The cops?
All being driven to dishonesty by a country wherein the top is triumphing and the bottom is getting squeezed out and the only thing that matters is your bank account.
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But it's not only Christie. It's those employees in New York who rigged the disability game, who said they couldn't leave the house and turned out to be sportfishing with their free time. Did this always happen, or when the President lies about getting a blow job and a previous majordomo employs voodoo economics to allow a whole slab of consumers to pull away from the rest (yes, I'm speaking of the vaunted Ronald Reagan) the rest of the populace wakes up and says...I'm gonna be a chump?
Sometimes that's what I feel like. Because I'm not a lying, cheating, scumbag.
Hate to burst your bubble, but that's what the music business is. It may be driven by tech, but theft and dishonesty and intimidation are still baked in. But the artists used to be pure, right?
I'm not so sure about that. But they used to be informed, they used to be leaders, they paid lip service in their songs to a better life wherein we were all brothers together. Now they sell VIP passes if they're not scalping their tickets outright and might have Twitter accounts but make sure to fly private and live in gated communities, because that's what the rich and powerful do today, remove themselves from the rest of us, throwing us crumbs and disinformation along the way to keep us ignorant. Kind of like the plethora of Republicans who don't believe in evolution. I mean if we can't agree on science, there's no place to start, and that's exactly my point, I'm not sure where we're starting today.
Jaron Lanier laments that when these tech companies triumph on our backs only a few get rich, we pay with our information, but we don't share in the spoils, not even a discount on a new hand-set. And I used to pooh-pooh his viewpoint but Snapchat and Instagram are worthless without our participation. In the sixties there'd be revolt. But today, all musicians want to do is complain about Spotify payouts when streaming won, did you see that track sales are down? CDs, vinyl, paper books, I wish all the Luddites would get their respective heads out of their rear ends and start looking forward so they could affect the future, but they can't, it's just too scary, they've got to stay in the past, lamenting the Zuckerbergs who came of age in the twenty first century and realize there are no rules, when bankers ruin the country and go free and taxes are low and there's no safety net if you're not busy raping and pillaging, you're busy starving.
So an honest forthright person gets no slap on the back, instead he gets a slap in the face. He loses his unemployment insurance, and state governments refuse to give him his Medicaid. And I don't want to make this a right versus left equation, Republicans versus Democrats, then again, Democrats propagated the notion that we were all in it together and had to take care of each other, before they all sold out to lobbyists.
So now we don't look to governments to solve our problems, but icons like Elon Musk. Actually, if income inequality is eviscerated it will be by one of these visionaries, not the public at large, because there are no more public movements, none with any traction. The Tea Party is a fiction run by the Kochs and other fat cats and the organizers of Occupy Wall Street were so busy saying there were no leaders that the holier-than-thou media buried them. Yup, we still live in a media-controlled world, and if you think your Tumblr makes a difference, you probably believe your Pinterest page is influencing Anna Wintour.
But it comes down to education. Most people are not smart enough to grasp the issues. That's the mark of an educated person, someone who can hold two conflicting ideas in their brain at one time. Like the value of a concert ticket is $300, but if we charge that, real fans won't be able to get in. But screw the real fans, our customer is the Fortune 500, the advertisers, right?
Right. Isn't that what it used to be about? Right and wrong? Isn't that what your parents taught you, before they went to school and argued with the teacher, telling them Little Johnny couldn't possibly be wrong? In the old days, we quaked in our boots if we brought a note home from school, now parents defend their children as if it's impossible for their progeny to do any wrong.
And they see their boss making millions and paying little taxes.
And they see the riches paraded by the Kardashian Krew.
And they say to themselves, why should I be honest, why should I have good values, why should I hunker down and study hard to make more of myself when the ruling class is dealing with this country like it's its playtoy, not caring a whit whether someone is sacrificed in the end. It's like our whole country is playing musical chairs, and if you're handicapped or sick, too bad, you're gonna end up out.
So I don't know what to believe in.
Used to be it was records. Before music turned into two camps, the ultra-rich singing about their lifestyle who want nothing to do with us, who represent nothing more than aspirational figures, and the bitching untalented, without good voices or chops who just complain that they can't make it here.
Not everybody deserves to make it.
But everybody deserves an opportunity. Everybody is entitled to food on the table and a roof over their head. As for the "winners," they can't win without us buying their products and if you don't think luck is involved in success, you've only read about it.
So I'm sitting this one out. I'm not going to listen to the bloviators. I am going to applaud the "New York Times" for doing its job. I'm not going to read the Roger Ailes bio because I already know he's a scumbag and the people who don't are never going to be convinced otherwise.
Still, if we're all looking for the edge, if we're all trying to climb the greased totem pole, what is end game?
The truth is the game is rigged. And until we're willing to stand back and say we're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore...
You won't be able to get an abortion.
You'll never escape your college debt.
You won't pay any income tax, but the truth is the poor never do, and the corporations don't either. We're heading straight towards bankruptcy, not because of some fictional debt issue, but because we won't fund schools, we won't fix bridges, we won't invest in the infrastructure this country needs to move forward.
Kind of like Christie. Who killed the NY/NJ tunnel. Forget bad traffic at the George Washington Bridge for a couple of days, for years after this blowhard retires ingress and egress to the city will be hampered. Oh, that's right, the rich can afford to live in Manhattan... What about their domestics? The street sweepers? The firemen? The cops?
All being driven to dishonesty by a country wherein the top is triumphing and the bottom is getting squeezed out and the only thing that matters is your bank account.
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