From: Mike Caren
If Beats 1 were to work at the highest level, there would be a playlist
the next day of everything every radio show played in the streaming
service (sans commentary). The shows would essentially be the introduction
to playlists with additional context. They would make a way for radio and
playlists to co-exist in a value added format. It would essentially
learn from TV/Tivo/Netflix and understand that you have a magnitude of
different listeners that have different wants and needs.
What makes radio interesting, as does SNL and live concerts, is the show
must go on. There isn't as nearly the self imposed deadlines for recorded
music. So many artists/labels/managers take too long making albums, over
think them, and leave tons of great music sitting as 1s & 0s on hard
drives. Do you know the most popular place to record music is Hotel rooms
and AirBNB rentals? That probably exceeds the use of recording studios at
this point for some artists. Music is made differently, consumed
differently, but we still use so much structure designed long ago. I think
people are starting to figure this out. I know that the conversations I'm
having with forward thinking artists, managers, and label execs have
changed completely just in the last 6 months.
Personally I'm very interested to hear what these DJS have to say and have
been pissed ever since they took BBC Radio 1 off of SiriusXM and replaced
it with the Studio 54 Disco channel. Zane is incredible and his passion
and knowledge are amazing. He created "Hottest Record of the World." Larry
Jackson comes from radio (legendary KMEL days) but has been removed from
it long enough to see it differently. I'm very optimistic. Maybe they'll
be raiding hard drives. I know they love new music. We'll see.
Best,
Mike
________________________________________
From: Chris Douridas
Hi Bob,
I've spent most of my life thinking about what a global radio channel could sound like, and I agree with most of what you said.
And I've struggled with these same issues. I was hired early on by Steve Jobs and Eddy Cue as a creative consultant, working closely with them for the first four years of the iTunes service. My job was to think about how to program music, and create music programming concepts, for a global audience. Oddly enough, I was called on last month to consultant with them on finding the next coolest tune for their recent debut ad for Beats 1.
I've been watching their launch closely. Not only because I have a deep love and respect for the team behind the service, but also because I believe there's a place in the world for a daily resource for what's new in music that can be a shared experience among music lovers.
In many ways,Morning Becomes Eclectic was designed to be just that, eschewing genres to present what's best. Period. But it's a three hour show. KCRW doesn't have the airtime or the budget to dedicate to a 24 hour channel, or the marketing power to be ubiquitous in the way that Apple can be.
In fact, the BBC music offerings may be the closest thing to what Apple is doing with Beats 1. That's why Lowe is such an obvious and smart choice.
I would like to think that our collective work at KCRW for the last 30 years has helped to set the stage for what Lowe and team are setting out to achieve globally. Even Apple's very description of their service sounds like taglines we've drummed into our listener's head for decades:
"Zane Lowe and his handpicked team of renowned DJs create an eclectic mix of the latest and best in music."
I like the fact that Trent Reznor was inspired by curated, informed radio. Remember when Top 40, used to be wildly eclectic? Where does one go now to get a relevant, informed and entertaining view of the latest and greatest? We all have our go-to resources, but at present, there is no default answer. In the end, we may conclude there doesn't need to be one.
But we already have every conceivable niche format well-represented at any music service you can point to. What's more rare are the trusted curators.
I don't think Lowe and his team believe for a second they are some kind of cure-all. I think they just want to give the world a thoughtful alternative. That in itself is a noble goal, and i wish them the best.
Chris Douridas
KCRW-FM / School Night! / Music Supervision
Pacific Palisades, CA
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Friday 26 June 2015
Rhinofy-Top Ten-Week Ending June 26, 1965
1. "Mr. Tambourine Man"
The Byrds
Folk rock. A new sound with the old melody and lyrics of folk married to rock guitars, a hybrid that snuck up on the Brits and caught them unawares. You've got no idea what a revelation it was to hear this sound on the radio, just ask Tom Petty! Of course the song was written by Bob Dylan, but at this point most people did not know this, even though they were aware of his previously most famous composition, "Blowin' In The Wind," albeit done by Peter, Paul & Mary. But that would change soon, with the release of the iconic "Like A Rolling Stone" shortly thereafter. Dylan was suddenly front and center, both entrancing and alienating people simultaneously. Ironically, so many who hated the bard from Hibbing's voice LOVED this!
2. "I Can't Help Myself"
The Four Tops
Not my favorite Four Tops track, that would be "Reach Out I'll Be There," this was still great, in an era where the U.K. and Detroit were vying for our attention, with L.A. and New York trying to edge in too. This was akin to the modern era, except the names have changed, now it's Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook.
3. "Wooly Bully"
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
From back when Pharaohs were musicians, not horses, and they knew how to spell it!
Was this a novelty hit or was it the latest rock extension or was it just Tex-Mex, something we were almost completely unfamiliar with, although we did hear the Sir Douglas Quintet's exquisite "She's About A Mover," a track with similar genealogy, on the radio a few months before.
Who can forget... "Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro!" Certainly not U2, ha!
4. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
The Rolling Stones
Was Mick trying to make some girl pregnant or..?
Everybody talks about the lyrics of "Louie Louie," but it's these that we were mesmerized by, that we tried to figure out.
This exploded out of the speaker, it was ubiquitous in a way no record is today. You couldn't live on the planet and be unaware of this track. Taylor Swift may be able to bring Apple to its knees, but she can't make everybody listen to her music, but the Stones could.
With the help of radio, with the help of the youthquake...
We were addicted to our transistors. Radio ran the culture. The Top Ten was played in public... I remember hearing this over the PA at one in the morning at the World's Fair, it was EVERYWHERE!
5. "(What A) Wonderful World"
Herman's Hermits
Ah, the sands of time. For a long time this was the most famous rendition of this song, but it's been eclipsed by Art Garfunkel's rendition, never mind Paul Simon and James Taylor's version with the added verse, and, stunningly, the original take of this song has come back from the dead, yes, Sam Cooke's take is much more famous than Herman's Hermits' today, and Sam wrote it with Herb Alpert and Lou Adler.
6. "Crying In The Chapel"
Elvis Presley
I HATED Elvis!
Oh, I get it now, I loved going to Graceland, but there was no way I could sit through this when it came on the radio, it was slow and dirgy and representative of everything that once was that the British Invasion rubbed off the chart. That's right, there was a revolution in music, an unexpected one that wiped the decks clean and brought in a whole new sound and audience. Can we have one again?
7. "For Your Love"
The Yardbirds
An iconic song from a nearly forgotten band. That's right, we used to marvel at the three guitarists that emanated from this group, Clapton, Beck and Page, but that was back when we still cared about rock music.
This was a one listen smash that I used to see on "Where The Action Is" that summer. Brief and to the point, it was written by a 19 year old Graham Gouldman years before he had success with his group 10cc.
8. "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"
Patti Page
Top Forty radio was truly the best of the best, genre didn't matter, and Top Forty was the only thing that mattered, this was long before FM went free form. The song is from the motion picture of the same name, which played for months, back before movies opened wide and were done in weeks.
I didn't hate this as much as "Crying In The Chapel," I listened to it, afraid I might miss one of my favorites on the radio, but I never really cottoned to "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte."
9. "Help Me, Rhonda"
The Beach Boys
The iteration from "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)", not the one from "The Beach Boys Today!," which was released just months before "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" The takes are oh-so-similar, yet they're different. The earlier version is not a hit, it's close, but not there. Whereas the one from "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" is a smash, I'll include both.
However...even though "Help Me, Rhonda" went to number one, it's been eclipsed in the public consciousness by the number three single that came after, from the same album, "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)", the piece-de-resistance, the definitive statement known as..."California Girls."
I first heard "California Girls" on the radio. And then I took my transistor everywhere, in order to catch it again, I dangled my radio from my handlebars, when I was stationary it was glued to my ear. Just to hear the mellifluous sounds of that intro, and then the gallop into those lyrics that made me want to move to California.
And I did.
10. "Seventh Son"
Johnny Rivers
Talk about completely forgotten, no one under fifty knows who this dude is.
His crime was to have hit cover versions of some of the greatest records of all time. And therefore, as we gained knowledge and got hipper, we disparaged him. But I'd like to see him perform today.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1BNPbrd
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The Byrds
Folk rock. A new sound with the old melody and lyrics of folk married to rock guitars, a hybrid that snuck up on the Brits and caught them unawares. You've got no idea what a revelation it was to hear this sound on the radio, just ask Tom Petty! Of course the song was written by Bob Dylan, but at this point most people did not know this, even though they were aware of his previously most famous composition, "Blowin' In The Wind," albeit done by Peter, Paul & Mary. But that would change soon, with the release of the iconic "Like A Rolling Stone" shortly thereafter. Dylan was suddenly front and center, both entrancing and alienating people simultaneously. Ironically, so many who hated the bard from Hibbing's voice LOVED this!
2. "I Can't Help Myself"
The Four Tops
Not my favorite Four Tops track, that would be "Reach Out I'll Be There," this was still great, in an era where the U.K. and Detroit were vying for our attention, with L.A. and New York trying to edge in too. This was akin to the modern era, except the names have changed, now it's Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook.
3. "Wooly Bully"
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
From back when Pharaohs were musicians, not horses, and they knew how to spell it!
Was this a novelty hit or was it the latest rock extension or was it just Tex-Mex, something we were almost completely unfamiliar with, although we did hear the Sir Douglas Quintet's exquisite "She's About A Mover," a track with similar genealogy, on the radio a few months before.
Who can forget... "Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro!" Certainly not U2, ha!
4. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
The Rolling Stones
Was Mick trying to make some girl pregnant or..?
Everybody talks about the lyrics of "Louie Louie," but it's these that we were mesmerized by, that we tried to figure out.
This exploded out of the speaker, it was ubiquitous in a way no record is today. You couldn't live on the planet and be unaware of this track. Taylor Swift may be able to bring Apple to its knees, but she can't make everybody listen to her music, but the Stones could.
With the help of radio, with the help of the youthquake...
We were addicted to our transistors. Radio ran the culture. The Top Ten was played in public... I remember hearing this over the PA at one in the morning at the World's Fair, it was EVERYWHERE!
5. "(What A) Wonderful World"
Herman's Hermits
Ah, the sands of time. For a long time this was the most famous rendition of this song, but it's been eclipsed by Art Garfunkel's rendition, never mind Paul Simon and James Taylor's version with the added verse, and, stunningly, the original take of this song has come back from the dead, yes, Sam Cooke's take is much more famous than Herman's Hermits' today, and Sam wrote it with Herb Alpert and Lou Adler.
6. "Crying In The Chapel"
Elvis Presley
I HATED Elvis!
Oh, I get it now, I loved going to Graceland, but there was no way I could sit through this when it came on the radio, it was slow and dirgy and representative of everything that once was that the British Invasion rubbed off the chart. That's right, there was a revolution in music, an unexpected one that wiped the decks clean and brought in a whole new sound and audience. Can we have one again?
7. "For Your Love"
The Yardbirds
An iconic song from a nearly forgotten band. That's right, we used to marvel at the three guitarists that emanated from this group, Clapton, Beck and Page, but that was back when we still cared about rock music.
This was a one listen smash that I used to see on "Where The Action Is" that summer. Brief and to the point, it was written by a 19 year old Graham Gouldman years before he had success with his group 10cc.
8. "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"
Patti Page
Top Forty radio was truly the best of the best, genre didn't matter, and Top Forty was the only thing that mattered, this was long before FM went free form. The song is from the motion picture of the same name, which played for months, back before movies opened wide and were done in weeks.
I didn't hate this as much as "Crying In The Chapel," I listened to it, afraid I might miss one of my favorites on the radio, but I never really cottoned to "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte."
9. "Help Me, Rhonda"
The Beach Boys
The iteration from "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)", not the one from "The Beach Boys Today!," which was released just months before "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" The takes are oh-so-similar, yet they're different. The earlier version is not a hit, it's close, but not there. Whereas the one from "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" is a smash, I'll include both.
However...even though "Help Me, Rhonda" went to number one, it's been eclipsed in the public consciousness by the number three single that came after, from the same album, "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)", the piece-de-resistance, the definitive statement known as..."California Girls."
I first heard "California Girls" on the radio. And then I took my transistor everywhere, in order to catch it again, I dangled my radio from my handlebars, when I was stationary it was glued to my ear. Just to hear the mellifluous sounds of that intro, and then the gallop into those lyrics that made me want to move to California.
And I did.
10. "Seventh Son"
Johnny Rivers
Talk about completely forgotten, no one under fifty knows who this dude is.
His crime was to have hit cover versions of some of the greatest records of all time. And therefore, as we gained knowledge and got hipper, we disparaged him. But I'd like to see him perform today.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1BNPbrd
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Beats 1
MTV died when videos became an on demand item online. What makes Apple believe the future of music consumption is radio?
I'd like Beats 1 to be successful. It would be great to add a bit of coherence to the music scene, to have international tastemakers leading us to the best stuff. But I don't think it's going to happen. Like the streaming service, Beats 1 will get some traction, it will have some effect, but it will not rule, because it's based on a failed paradigm, that we want to wait to be served the same thing.
Pandora rules because each station is different.
SiriusXM offers a plethora of radio stations. As any devoted listener will tell you, the satellite's a button-pushing paradise. It's hard to stay locked in to one outlet, you hear something you don't like, or don't love, and you see what's playing somewhere else. Now we're gonna be locked in to one person's taste? Sounds positively awful.
As does the concept of celebrity deejays. Credit Apple for hiring Zane Lowe, he's a professional. But to believe Elton John and the rest of the rockers can create good radio is to believe Cousin Brucie should have number one records. Scott Muni too. And while we're at it, Big Boy. Turns out deejaying is a skill, one honed over time. And if you think it's easy to enrapture the audience, you've never attempted it.
As for the power of Mr. Lowe... He's completely unknown in most markets. To believe he can take his audience away from the BBC and triumph elsewhere is to believe the host of "Morning Becomes Eclectic" can rule elsewhere. But this has never happened. Tom Schnabel, the progenitor of the show, has been forgotten to the sands of time. One can argue that Chris Douridas blew himself up, but he's meaningless today. And Nic Harcourt, arguably once the most powerful deejay in adult music, is a footnote at best. Turns out the platform was more powerful than the deejay. Which doesn't bode well for Mr. Lowe.
Then, of course, there's Howard Stern. But the difference between Howard and the rest is Howard invented his own show, there was nothing like it previously, he was truly selling his own personality, still is, the records were irrelevant and then banished. So, Howard could take his audience from terrestrial to satellite, from free to behind a paywall. But, even Howard was marginalized until he started judging on "America's Got Talent." The platform is key.
As for Trent Reznor dreaming up the idea of an international radio station... That's what's wrong with the music business, aged people who remember how it once was. Sure, I was addicted to the radio back in the last century, but that was before I had options.
So what Beats 1 is asking for here is for you to throw away your remote and watch the same TV channel 24/7. It might be HBO (well, actually something more like Starz, at best), but if you want to live in a world with only HBO, you're a zombie. I love Bill Maher, but I don't want to watch "True Blood" or even "Game of Thrones." So when I hear a tuneout on Beats 1...that's exactly what I'm going to do, tune out.
As much as I deplore the techies' lack of musical sophistication, all the advances of the last fifteen years can be laid at their feet, starting with Napster, evolving to Pandora. None of the usual suspects was responsible for the revolution. And now we've got oldsters trying to bring us back to the past?
Nearly laughable.
I mean if they got better-looking hosts on MTV and played just the best videos would you want to tune in?
Of course not.
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I'd like Beats 1 to be successful. It would be great to add a bit of coherence to the music scene, to have international tastemakers leading us to the best stuff. But I don't think it's going to happen. Like the streaming service, Beats 1 will get some traction, it will have some effect, but it will not rule, because it's based on a failed paradigm, that we want to wait to be served the same thing.
Pandora rules because each station is different.
SiriusXM offers a plethora of radio stations. As any devoted listener will tell you, the satellite's a button-pushing paradise. It's hard to stay locked in to one outlet, you hear something you don't like, or don't love, and you see what's playing somewhere else. Now we're gonna be locked in to one person's taste? Sounds positively awful.
As does the concept of celebrity deejays. Credit Apple for hiring Zane Lowe, he's a professional. But to believe Elton John and the rest of the rockers can create good radio is to believe Cousin Brucie should have number one records. Scott Muni too. And while we're at it, Big Boy. Turns out deejaying is a skill, one honed over time. And if you think it's easy to enrapture the audience, you've never attempted it.
As for the power of Mr. Lowe... He's completely unknown in most markets. To believe he can take his audience away from the BBC and triumph elsewhere is to believe the host of "Morning Becomes Eclectic" can rule elsewhere. But this has never happened. Tom Schnabel, the progenitor of the show, has been forgotten to the sands of time. One can argue that Chris Douridas blew himself up, but he's meaningless today. And Nic Harcourt, arguably once the most powerful deejay in adult music, is a footnote at best. Turns out the platform was more powerful than the deejay. Which doesn't bode well for Mr. Lowe.
Then, of course, there's Howard Stern. But the difference between Howard and the rest is Howard invented his own show, there was nothing like it previously, he was truly selling his own personality, still is, the records were irrelevant and then banished. So, Howard could take his audience from terrestrial to satellite, from free to behind a paywall. But, even Howard was marginalized until he started judging on "America's Got Talent." The platform is key.
As for Trent Reznor dreaming up the idea of an international radio station... That's what's wrong with the music business, aged people who remember how it once was. Sure, I was addicted to the radio back in the last century, but that was before I had options.
So what Beats 1 is asking for here is for you to throw away your remote and watch the same TV channel 24/7. It might be HBO (well, actually something more like Starz, at best), but if you want to live in a world with only HBO, you're a zombie. I love Bill Maher, but I don't want to watch "True Blood" or even "Game of Thrones." So when I hear a tuneout on Beats 1...that's exactly what I'm going to do, tune out.
As much as I deplore the techies' lack of musical sophistication, all the advances of the last fifteen years can be laid at their feet, starting with Napster, evolving to Pandora. None of the usual suspects was responsible for the revolution. And now we've got oldsters trying to bring us back to the past?
Nearly laughable.
I mean if they got better-looking hosts on MTV and played just the best videos would you want to tune in?
Of course not.
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Thursday 25 June 2015
Failures
AMAZON FIRE PHONE
We thought Jeff Bezos might be the new Steve Jobs. The Fire Phone proved otherwise.
Amazon throws half-baked products at the consumer, just like Google, but Google doesn't usually charge for them. Furthermore, everybody knows mobile is not about the handset, but the service. And that in the U.S. you're usually locked in for two years. So you want me to pay as much as I do for an iPhone just so I can give you more money via shopping?
The gimmicks didn't work. It was not a quantum leap in quality. It's history.
Proving that you don't want to be in every market, that you're better off creating new ones and owning them. That's the story of Apple, it's the story of Snapchat... Bezos could be too old to get the modern paradigm. People love the efficiency and honesty of Amazon, there's no love for its products. The Kindle Paperwhite is the greatest advertisement for an iPad in existence. I know, because I own both. I love the non-backlit Kindle for reading, but its touch screen is unresponsive and the machine locks up, sometimes I want to throw it against the wall to wake it up.
And now we have the imperfect Echo.
Today it's about releasing fully-formed products, that work from the get-go. Amazon fails to do this again and again, and this haunts its image. It's hard to be everything to everyone.
GARTH BROOKS'S ONLINE STORE
I could Google the name of it, but the fact I can't remember its moniker half proves the point, it was an abject failure. You can't reinvent the wheel if it doesn't need reinventing. And star power is overrated, just ask the principals in Tidal. We have enough ways to acquire music, we don't need one more, especially when it just replicates what we've already got with the iTunes Store. And people don't want to give one more entity their credit card info, what they're looking for is a universal repository, one place that can store all their data that other sites can link to. If Target can't keep your data safe, what are the odds Garth can?
You've got to take risks, but you can't appear tone-deaf. That's what we keep seeing over and over again in the music sphere. With Brooks, Tidal, Madonna... So eager for publicity and cash they're out of tune with the public. You've got to have a great idea, and it's got to push the envelope, it can't be me-too, and it's spread by word of mouth. Sans word of mouth, you're nothing. James Taylor had the number one album in America this week, next week it'll be somebody else, the album's over unless his fans spread the word, and with so much cacophony in the marketplace the odds are low. So, the old media empire heralds the works of those who are famous while the youngsters reinvent the wheel... It's a fascinating world we live in.
PONO
An unmitigated disaster.
First there's the threshold issue. Do we need better sound? No, let me put it more succinctly, can we hear better sound?
Try this test, it's fascinating:
"How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?": http://n.pr/1ALMuFQ
We had to listen to the ravings of Mr. Young for months as he trumpeted a product that almost no one wanted, other than the early adopters who purchased it on Kickstarter, and there weren't many. If, like with Garth Brooks, the business had been a success, we would have heard about it, these stars love to get their flacks to crow about their wins, and the press eats it up, but we haven't heard a peep since the launch. And we can criticize the dearth of available material, i.e. how much can be gotten in hi-res, but come on...
You've got a misshapen box playing overpriced files in a world where everything goes through your smartphone and access is key, ownership is fading away. Furthermore, people expect it all for one low price a month. Introducing Pono and its store is like selling premium gasoline to Tesla drivers, assuming everybody has a Tesla, and anybody with cash has a smartphone.
GARTH BROOKS'S ALBUM
What he needed was a hit single. Instead he sold us a long player, an album, requiring too much of our time. Only diehard fans have that much time, and even they have competing interests. If you're a has-been trying to come back, you need a hit single, an undeniable smash. This hobbled not only Garth, but U2 too. You lead with your single, only the hardest core wants more. If we like the single, we'll partake of a couple more tracks. Don't forget, you're competing with the history of recorded music, we can flip the switch to Sinatra or Led Zeppelin instantly...as well as your old hits!
TIDAL
Dead and buried. History. A complete flop. Only this time, everybody but the principals knew this immediately. The proprietors tried to spin it otherwise, but they had no tools in their arsenal with which to do combat. You want to give us exclusives, you want us to pay for exclusives, when we haven't got enough time to view what we want to, and we're all about access for one low price? Exclusives are like buying an iPhone only to find out that certain installed apps don't work, and only will if you buy an Android phone too. Does anybody need two phones?
LESSONS
1. Past success is no guarantee of future success. Society is fluid, especially when it comes to new products. And if you're selling something old, based purely on your brand name, good luck! This is what haunts Apple Music. There's not enough new there to convince people to switch, and there's not enough new there to convince people who weren't paying before to pay now.
2. Don't pay attention to the hype, but the follow-up. We've got an antiquated media out of touch with consumers. Sure, awareness helps, we need an introduction. But new products and services are hyped for months, and then are dead after a week. But it scares purveyors to know that success or failure is in the hands of customers, not the media, not retail... How many people will buy the Apple Watch once early adopters have got theirs and supply is plentiful? I doubt many, and the Watch will either be vastly improved or fade away, yet we had to hear about it for the better part of a year.
3. Interior, not exterior. Functionality, not design. Quality, not star power. Alicia Keys couldn't save BlackBerry, but she put a world of hurt on the credibility of artists. The proletariat knows that artists are beholden to those with the fattest wallet, therefore star endorsements mean less. A star might get you attention, but that's all it'll get. Fans will kick the tires, but they'll only sign up and purchase if they like the underlying product.
4. Stay in your wheelhouse. You're a musician, not a tech entrepreneur. You're a service provider, not a gadget maker. The barrier to entry is high. And those who win have spent a long time in the trenches, and hire those who can help them. Good ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is everything. Which is why Friendster and MySpace failed and Facebook succeeded.
5. We want what everybody else has. To be unique today is to be completely off the radar screen. We're all about standards. So either create a new standard...OR GET OUT OF THE WAY!
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We thought Jeff Bezos might be the new Steve Jobs. The Fire Phone proved otherwise.
Amazon throws half-baked products at the consumer, just like Google, but Google doesn't usually charge for them. Furthermore, everybody knows mobile is not about the handset, but the service. And that in the U.S. you're usually locked in for two years. So you want me to pay as much as I do for an iPhone just so I can give you more money via shopping?
The gimmicks didn't work. It was not a quantum leap in quality. It's history.
Proving that you don't want to be in every market, that you're better off creating new ones and owning them. That's the story of Apple, it's the story of Snapchat... Bezos could be too old to get the modern paradigm. People love the efficiency and honesty of Amazon, there's no love for its products. The Kindle Paperwhite is the greatest advertisement for an iPad in existence. I know, because I own both. I love the non-backlit Kindle for reading, but its touch screen is unresponsive and the machine locks up, sometimes I want to throw it against the wall to wake it up.
And now we have the imperfect Echo.
Today it's about releasing fully-formed products, that work from the get-go. Amazon fails to do this again and again, and this haunts its image. It's hard to be everything to everyone.
GARTH BROOKS'S ONLINE STORE
I could Google the name of it, but the fact I can't remember its moniker half proves the point, it was an abject failure. You can't reinvent the wheel if it doesn't need reinventing. And star power is overrated, just ask the principals in Tidal. We have enough ways to acquire music, we don't need one more, especially when it just replicates what we've already got with the iTunes Store. And people don't want to give one more entity their credit card info, what they're looking for is a universal repository, one place that can store all their data that other sites can link to. If Target can't keep your data safe, what are the odds Garth can?
You've got to take risks, but you can't appear tone-deaf. That's what we keep seeing over and over again in the music sphere. With Brooks, Tidal, Madonna... So eager for publicity and cash they're out of tune with the public. You've got to have a great idea, and it's got to push the envelope, it can't be me-too, and it's spread by word of mouth. Sans word of mouth, you're nothing. James Taylor had the number one album in America this week, next week it'll be somebody else, the album's over unless his fans spread the word, and with so much cacophony in the marketplace the odds are low. So, the old media empire heralds the works of those who are famous while the youngsters reinvent the wheel... It's a fascinating world we live in.
PONO
An unmitigated disaster.
First there's the threshold issue. Do we need better sound? No, let me put it more succinctly, can we hear better sound?
Try this test, it's fascinating:
"How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality?": http://n.pr/1ALMuFQ
We had to listen to the ravings of Mr. Young for months as he trumpeted a product that almost no one wanted, other than the early adopters who purchased it on Kickstarter, and there weren't many. If, like with Garth Brooks, the business had been a success, we would have heard about it, these stars love to get their flacks to crow about their wins, and the press eats it up, but we haven't heard a peep since the launch. And we can criticize the dearth of available material, i.e. how much can be gotten in hi-res, but come on...
You've got a misshapen box playing overpriced files in a world where everything goes through your smartphone and access is key, ownership is fading away. Furthermore, people expect it all for one low price a month. Introducing Pono and its store is like selling premium gasoline to Tesla drivers, assuming everybody has a Tesla, and anybody with cash has a smartphone.
GARTH BROOKS'S ALBUM
What he needed was a hit single. Instead he sold us a long player, an album, requiring too much of our time. Only diehard fans have that much time, and even they have competing interests. If you're a has-been trying to come back, you need a hit single, an undeniable smash. This hobbled not only Garth, but U2 too. You lead with your single, only the hardest core wants more. If we like the single, we'll partake of a couple more tracks. Don't forget, you're competing with the history of recorded music, we can flip the switch to Sinatra or Led Zeppelin instantly...as well as your old hits!
TIDAL
Dead and buried. History. A complete flop. Only this time, everybody but the principals knew this immediately. The proprietors tried to spin it otherwise, but they had no tools in their arsenal with which to do combat. You want to give us exclusives, you want us to pay for exclusives, when we haven't got enough time to view what we want to, and we're all about access for one low price? Exclusives are like buying an iPhone only to find out that certain installed apps don't work, and only will if you buy an Android phone too. Does anybody need two phones?
LESSONS
1. Past success is no guarantee of future success. Society is fluid, especially when it comes to new products. And if you're selling something old, based purely on your brand name, good luck! This is what haunts Apple Music. There's not enough new there to convince people to switch, and there's not enough new there to convince people who weren't paying before to pay now.
2. Don't pay attention to the hype, but the follow-up. We've got an antiquated media out of touch with consumers. Sure, awareness helps, we need an introduction. But new products and services are hyped for months, and then are dead after a week. But it scares purveyors to know that success or failure is in the hands of customers, not the media, not retail... How many people will buy the Apple Watch once early adopters have got theirs and supply is plentiful? I doubt many, and the Watch will either be vastly improved or fade away, yet we had to hear about it for the better part of a year.
3. Interior, not exterior. Functionality, not design. Quality, not star power. Alicia Keys couldn't save BlackBerry, but she put a world of hurt on the credibility of artists. The proletariat knows that artists are beholden to those with the fattest wallet, therefore star endorsements mean less. A star might get you attention, but that's all it'll get. Fans will kick the tires, but they'll only sign up and purchase if they like the underlying product.
4. Stay in your wheelhouse. You're a musician, not a tech entrepreneur. You're a service provider, not a gadget maker. The barrier to entry is high. And those who win have spent a long time in the trenches, and hire those who can help them. Good ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is everything. Which is why Friendster and MySpace failed and Facebook succeeded.
5. We want what everybody else has. To be unique today is to be completely off the radar screen. We're all about standards. So either create a new standard...OR GET OUT OF THE WAY!
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Wednesday 24 June 2015
Mailbag
From: John Legere
Subject: Legere in Lefsetz Letter!
Hey Bob –
Thanks for mentioning me in your blog again! Obviously we agree on a number of things, and I was really struck by your comments on execs in the music industry who are so set in their ways that they won't even try to better connect or appeal to younger generations. It sounds just like the big carriers in the wireless industry!!
You're right, I am always reading whatever is out there about T-Mobile. I always want feedback from customers – directly! Seriously, how can anyone satisfy an audience (in any industry) if you don't listen or don't really care what they want or how they want it? Social media is my direct line to customers and it shapes my business every single day!
I do agree that the music industry is facing an uphill battle as social media, digital distribution and viral marketing continue to expand. It is so clear that younger generations expect a different level of engagement and transparency!
I hope you can shake things up over there & we'll keep doing our part with Music Freedom, letting our customers stream music without any data usage fees -- I think it helps artists of all levels reach more of their fans, and our customers just love it!
We'll have to agree to disagree on your "crappy product" comments. Our network isn't what it used to be, it is amazing now - and this isn't a rebellion just for sport! We have to deliver for our customers and we live up to our commitments every day. So trust me - if you have not tried T-Mobile's network recently, you haven't tried it at all!
Keep the conversation going Bob!
Best –
John Legere
CEO
T-Mobile USA
____________________________________________
From: Tim Grayson
Subject: Re: Rock Star CEOs
Hello Bob,
Just wanted to shoot you a quick note - I used to have the same perception of T-Mobile that it seems you currently have. I was a long time Verizon subscriber and was adamant that I wouldn't ever switch, until I did... My co-worker came in one day with his new phone and said he decided to try T-Mobile for $30 a month. We did a speed test on his phone and it completely blew away my Verizon 4G speeds, literally more than double the speed. They aren't joking when they say they have more data capacity and higher speeds. Our bill was in the hundreds of dollars before but is now just $60 total for my girlfriend and I, no hidden fees or taxes, just $60 out the door! It is seriously the best service I've ever had and I'm saving a ton of money. Oh also I'm an IT professional so data is very important to me, but really I am just as happy with T-Mobile as I was with Verizon, actually happier!
Thanks for always having interesting things to read,
Tim
____________________________________________
From: tourswag
Subject: T -mo
Twice the service- 1/2 the cost
Super responsive customer service from well trained people who answer 611 calls in minutes
I know you like your carrier and think them tops
I like mine too
I am on tour in Europe, no surcharges for texting ( unlimited) or 3G internet ( unlimited) calls are 20 cents
How's your bill after your recent trip to France?
My coverage in the USA is always good
Far and away a better experience in all facets over the other carriers
The public face of the CEO or the advertising doesn't affect my perception of greater value with this carrier
TS
____________________________________________
From: Bob Helm
Subject: RE: Eddy Cue Caves
I think you're right about people remembering Taylor Swift for standing up to Apple. I still remember Tom Petty standing up to MCA regarding their list price hike on his new LP, and that was what, 1979?
____________________________________________
From: Charles Kennedy
Subject: Re: Eddy Cue Caves
Just a nudge cos I'm not sure Americans are as aware of this, that Beggars was a hobby label run out of the back of a record shop in Richmond, a suburb of west London, until their act Gary Numan wedded electronics to new wave and art rock and had three British number one albums in the space of two years as a result (and two consecutive number one singles). Beggars is the house that Gary Numan built (and Mills' willingness to indulge GN's untested, unproven new musical formula is just one example of Mills' genius and vision).
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Apple Music
I haven't heard much news mentioned anywhere about the $0.99 for three months Premium subscription that Spotify offered a few months ago. Like many fans, I was fine with the free version because I didn't know how bad it sucked on mobile compared to Spotify Premium. I paid $0.99 for iTunes downloads all the time, so I was happy (and trusted) Spotify was offering such a cheap trial of the Premium, so I gave them my credit card number knowing I had to cancel the service after the $0.99 trial period ended to avoid the regular monthly subscription fee. I've been Spotify loyal, and haven't downloaded a song on iTunes for $0.99 since. Once the music customer tries Spotify Premium, the $9.99 per month is a bargain! Apple whiffed by not adapting the same customer acquisition model.
Aaron Pitcock
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Taylor Swift On Apple Music
Let's get real, Bob
When record companies started, the split at MOST was 10% to the artist and 90% to the label.
It really hasn't changed that much in almost a century. Sure the Springsteens & Stones make out but certainly not the rest of us.
And if your debut album does great, they wait to see how your next album does and cross collateralize the costs of both against the alleged profit. If you're a staff producer, your salary replaces any royalties at all. Think about that.
George Martin was a staff producer for Brit label Parlophone when he produced most of the Fab Four product.
He was exempt from royalties!!!I could go on & on. I am in an unearned position at the label I recorded for to the tune of approximately a quarter of a mil and it keeps rising each statement.
I've had a song I cowrote log in at least 5 million airplays and after the publishing company takes 50% off the top and the three of us split the rest we get 16 2/3 % each. I have been dealing with this math for 56 years.
iTunes pays all the money to the record companies and THEY decide how much to send the artist. Paltry is a good word to describe what they decided to send.
It's the worst continuing crime I know of and no one has been able to correct it much since the dawn of recording.
Al Kooper
____________________________________________
From: Richard Griffiths
Re: The Chunnel
Talent,work ethic, ambition,management,luck!
(Re-What is required for a an artist to be successful.)
____________________________________________
From: chris stein
Subject: Re: The Chunnel
My twelve year old daughter is fascinated by the dude getting blown up at the show, amazing you were there... Years ago we were touring in Europe. For whatever reason we had flash pots at stage front. Right before our show our lighting guy Eddie Gile was attending to one which proceeded to go off in his face in full view of the audience. He got fairly singed and had to be shipped back stateside. Needless to say this was a hard act to follow and the audience sat there open mouthed during our first several songs.
____________________________________________
From: Calvin Flegal
Subject: Re: The Code Issue
Bob,
I've emailed you a few times but you should know that I'm a young person who went to Berklee instead of Northwestern, Tufts, etc. I studied music production at Berklee but after moving to Brooklyn I realized that wasn't my path. I went back to BU for a program meant for career changers into engineering. I got a master's in computer engineering and now work for a startup in Boston as a software engineer.
I've got a small ear training app in the App Store, working on others...
I think you are right about so many who wanted to be in music "pivoting" into tech.
I would've loved to have stayed in music but this is just too much better. They used to tell me to mop studio floors. Now they ask for my opinion at work.
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: The Code Issue from Former drummer for Sponge
Great post Bob had to stop reading the Paul Ford article (It's long) to get back to my Java homework.
I am in a Java Bootcamp now in Detroit called Grand Circus (This is not a shameless plug for them btw but they have a great bootcamp.).
Also am a one time professional musician in the band Sponge ( drummer from 1994 to 2000). We were on Columbia records, have a gold record blah blah blah.
Have been a tech guy since those days when I got into Pro Tools back then.
Now I am learning to code as a way to stay relevant. This story couldn't have came at a better time!
Keep up the good work I always look forward to your posts.
Sincerely,
Charlie Grover
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Yer' Album
Re: Stop by The James Gang
The original is by Howard Tate produced by Jerry Ragavoy and is a stone cold R&B great. I was Michael Bloomfield's roadie and we loved the record. It was only available on a 45 for many years. It's a record loved by musicians but unknown by the public.
Listen to it sometime. It's wonderful.
Phil Brown
____________________________________________
From: Michael McDonald
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-White Ladder
cc: Chris Tetzeli
Thanks the reminder of an amazing time in my life. We were so naive we were fearless.....we didn't know who NOT to call so we called everyone and asked them to spin the song, play the video, come out and see the show, experience the music however possible.
David's manager said we should have named the label 'Two Guys And A Van' because Tetz & I were not only the label, we also tour managed, delivered merch, housed the band, stuffed gear in our carry ons, etc.
Failure simply wasn't an option so we did whatever it took. Kudos to David and his manager for believing in us. It was terrifying but totally exhilarating. We were all in it for the right reasons. It was a beautiful thing.
Best,
Michael
____________________________________________
From: Vito Iaia
Subject: RE: The Stones At The Fonda
btw that guy offering $4k to everyone walking by was the guy on Shark Tank who sold his company (Groovebook) to Shutterfly... took me a minute to place him... can't blame him at all for trying, but would be surprised if he found a taker in that industry-laden crowd... for his son's sake I hope I'm wrong.
____________________________________________
From: Trevor Risk
Subject: Re: Today At The Tower
I DJ three nights a week to under 30s and they all go bananas for "All She Want To Do Is Dance". Only Gen x'ers who worship the Dude think Henley sucks.
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Playlist Of The Year!
cool...
Your email confirms what I was wondering.
That absolutely none of us knows what the is going on in the music business. You've got your ear to the ground and you're raving about a playlist with 72,000 followers. The ones I belong to have hundreds of thousands of followers.
I sit on the sideline and listen to folks condemn every aspect of every aspect of this crazy business - while I'm collecting money from Spotify every 5 weeks. No label, agent, or consultant ever gave me money. Ever. Spotify does. The people following these playlists dig it. I dig it. Spotify digs it.
If I duplicate this process (which I am feverishly working on), I could make 40 - 60 grand a year from playlists alone. Maybe more! That is not including playing out, selling shirts & merch, and any other opportunity to make money. (Notice I did not include album sales in that lot).
A very exciting time indeed....the new and improved gold rush if you will..
Thanks for your passion. Thanks for your emails.
Please do not print my name if you should post this email..... I like making money in the music business and don't want anything to potentially mess it up.
Cheers!
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill
Bob
One of my 2 favorite Steely Dan albums. Katy Lied also had that same mood for me.
Intelligent lyrics with a twist. The lyric quality was always something a listener could count on. I would always be excited when they released a new album - not only for their skilled musicianship, but for Fagen's incredible take on life. That band had a huge influence on seventies musicians in Toronto, including myself. I saw Steely Dan for the first time in Orange County in 1995 and I was blown away with their live performance. I told myself on the drive home that I had to free up as a writer because the music I heard in the show was bold and unrestricted.
the next day I composed "Birmingham"
(Amanda Marshall).
Cheers
Dave Tyson
____________________________________________
Re: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill
Bob,
Couldn't second the Steely Dan rave any louder. I played this for my band in David Geffen's office the week it came out. I told Gary Mallaber and Ned Doheny that this was the album of the year and something to aspire to. I still feel the same way.
Keep it comin
JD Souther
P.S. Loved the piece on Elliot Murphy in Paris. The more things change…..
My first encounter with the Mona Lisa was also in 72 (pre I. M. Pei) and though the cameras were slower (and the mysterious smile was muted under a truly hideous plastic shield), folks are folks and enjoy verification of events. I wonder if time will be as kind to the pyramid entrance as it has been to Leonardo who once wrote; "As far as possible avoid the costumes of your own day…". Hmmm. Too soon to tell.
____________________________________________
From: BERTON AVERRE
Subject: Re: Deflategate
Every time I hear someone trumpet the now-accepted truism "Americans believe in second chances" I get queasy. Firstly because it's become one of those cliches that people parrot rather than using their own words and thoughts ("heart and soul of the ball club"). Secondly because it's true relative to the situation, and dictated by self-interest.
Michael Vick did two years for running an illegal dog-fighting ring (contrary to popular belief he didn't serve a single day for torturing and killing dogs for fun and profit: the federal bust was for the non-regulated, tax-avoiding business, like bookmaking). Tony Dungy waved a magic Jesus wand over his head in his cell, and everyone started parroting one of those blasted cliches: "Paid his debt to society, deserves a second chance". As a bone-deep civil libertarian, I really do believe that an ex-con should be allowed the opportunity to make an honest life for him or herself. But I was rankled by the suspicion that the people who were standing up for Vick's right to rehabilitation wouldn't give two s___s for that of a guy who used to rob liquor stores: they just wanted to see Vick scramble out of the pocket again. It was relatively easy to keep oneself from thinking of the brutality of dog fighting if doing so meant you couldn't enjoy the Eagles-Cowboys game as much.
Americans believe in the right to a second chance when it suits them, when it serves their interest. Conservatives wouldn't believe in a second chance if a Democratic president screwed up. I wouldn't believe in a second chance for any Boston Celtic, or any Wall Street criminal. "Enlightened Self Interest": they got it right, except for the "enlightened" part.
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: willie perkins: gregg allman
i too saw gregg play last weekend. gary gersh and i walked over to see him on the secondary stage at stagecoach and were mesmerized by his voice and his band. the arrangements of the old songs were stunning and we both walked back after the show fairly blown away. the truth about gregg being at epic is michael caplan's passion for the allman brothers. besides being an amazing promotion man, he was first a lunatic for all music but really mad about tower of power and the allman bros. i was in los angeles on a road trip and saw the demo tapes with gregg's name on it sitting on an A&R desk in our west coast office and pocketed it for the flight back. when i shared it with michael he went ballistic. if my memory serves me it was michael's first signing and yes i did promise willie and alex and gregg we would lock the panel on the first track. that is what we did back then. weeks later harvey leeds, michael and i arrived in palm springs for a burkhart abrams convention with gregg,
ozzy and stevie ray in tow to play their music and say hello. i could write a book on that week alone.
Bill Bennett
____________________________________________
From: Jean-Pierre Weiller
Subject: Lou Maglia
Lou was my boss at the best record company of the time: Island Records Inc. Boss as in the movies: good to his people but I would not want to be on the other side.
Late 80's: Robert Palmer, U2, Steve Winwood (on Warner), Melissa, Marianne, Bob's Legend, Tone Loc & Delicious Vinyl …and so many more: I will not accept any contradiction: we were the best!
Roughly 50 employees, we were a team, Lou our guide and mentor. We had fun coming to work.
Lou had a big boat, everything about him was big: himself, his car, house, and his sense of humor.
Traditionally on Wednesday we had lunch all together: Pizzas were brought from one of these delicious pizzerias in Little Italy, nearby our offices on East 4th Street. Just above the landmark Tower Records, flagship of all record stores at the time.
And in our building, on higher floors, Keith Richards and other Rock royalties used to live.
Hence why we were happy at Island.
During the hot New York City summers Lou would take us on his boat, docked on the East River a few street away, and we would sail toward the Statue of Liberty; there the boat would quietly moor and we would eat our delicious pizzas, listening to all the brilliant new music coming from the Island artists.??I remember thinking, "I am sitting on top of the world" on Lou's big boat, nicely positioned in the shade of the historical statue. I was.
But it was not only fun, we were all hard working, obsessed to reach the top of the Billboard charts, and once there, stay!
Lou, but also all the other working there, Bill, Bob, Jim, Kathy...were my inspirations when I started Island Record France a few years later. I told everybody I was hiring: I want to pay you to have fun! For most of them, this was definitely a new concept
Island Records France was doing very well but (too) rapidly the company was sold to Polygram and shortly after its chairman Alain Levy closed a very young and successful company. In retrospect it makes sense: all about Alain Levy was small, so small
Good Bye Lou
JP
Paris
____________________________________________
Re: Lou Maglia and the expense account.
Before I spent 15 years at Warner Bros / Reprise (I just wrote you about how we had to take "Urge For Going" from a vinyl 45 because no master tape could be found) I spent a number of years at Elektra in the promotion department. Lou Maglia was head of sales. I had a very similar expense account experience with the head of promotion at the time - Jerry Sharell. I was never the "live by expense account" kind of guy, so unless I traveled it didn't get used much. In those days radio was king and at the top of the heap was KIIS-FM who had an unheard of (certainly now) ten share in ratings. The music director was a long time friend - Mike Schaefer - who I'd known long before he came to Los Angeles. When we went out together - our favorite hangout was The Apple Pan. One week - our $12.42 check was the only expense on my weekly report. After I finished filling it out - I walked it down the hall and dropped it on Jerry's assistant's desk. By the time I got back to my desk my phone was
ringing. It was Jerry and he said - and I remember it as clear as a bell all these years later - "Don't you ever turn in an expense report for $12.42 again - you make me look like f...ing J. Paul Getty."
And he hung up the phone.
It was a different world back then. Lou and Jerry were the best of the best. From there I spent 15 years at Warner Bros / Reprise with Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker and Russ Thyret...and followed Mo and Lenny to DreamWorks for another 6 years.
After working with those wonderful people for all those years I couldn't seriously consider the other labels after DreamWorks was sold off to Interscope, (That's another great story for another time). I moved to Maine and have a wonderful small company working with artists I like and music I love. I'm not in it for the money and don't care that I'm not. Either did Lou, Jerry, Mo, Lenny or Russ.
Marc Ratner
____________________________________________
From: Ted Myers
Subject: RE: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill
Hey Bob,
Here's my Steely Dan story, ripped straight from the pages of my forthcoming memoir, Making It: Music, Sex and Drugs in the Golden Age of Rock...
One night in 1972 V and I were leaving the Mayfair Market on Santa Monica Blvd. As we walked though the darkened parking lot the door on an old VW bus slid open and an arm appeared holding a Gibson Melody Maker electric guitar. It was proffered majestically, like the Lady of the Lake bearing Excalibur, and it had about it the same portent of destiny. "Psst! Wanna buy a guitar?" a voice whispered from within the van. "Fifteen dollars." The whole thing reeked of "hot," but I didn't hesitate. I really needed an electric guitar, and this one fit nicely into my pathetic budget. I never even saw the face of the guy I bought it from. I thrust the money into the van, grabbed the guitar and off we went.
When I got it home, I saw that the neck had been broken and reset badly. This would throw off the intonation and make the guitar impossible to tune. I took it to Valley Sound on Sunset, the most prestigious instrument repair shop in Hollywood, and who should appear behind the counter to take my order? None other than my old friend and lead guitarist from Ultimate Spinach, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. He looked pretty much the same as he had in Spinach: shoulder-length brown hair, but his beard was gone and his mustache was bigger and fuller. He generally wore glasses, except when he was performing, and he was wearing them now. Jeff had always been good with fixing stuff and being up on all the latest gear, so it made sense to see him working here.
"Whazzhapnin'!" he slurred in his trademark hipster voice.
"Wow, fancy meetin' you here," I said. "I didn't know you were in L.A."
"Yeah, been here a few months. I've been doing some studio work with some guys over at ABC Dunhill on Beverly Blvd."
He looked at my guitar and deemed it fixable. He showed it to the guy who specialized in guitar building and they gave me an estimate I could afford, so I dropped off the guitar. Before leaving we exchanged numbers.
When my 1959 Gibson Melody Maker came back from Valley Sound it was perfect! Before I was through, I would buy two Humbucking pickups and have them installed, making it a Les Paul Jr. My guitar arsenal was once again complete.
It was maybe two or three weeks later that Baxter phoned and told me he had formed a band with these guys he had met at Dunhill Studios, Don Fagen and Walter Becker, plus a couple of other guys. They were going to call it Steely Dan after a strap-on dildo in William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch.
"Fagen and Becker are writing all the songs," he said, "but Fagen is very uptight about his voice, so we need a lead singer. Would you be interested in auditioning?"
Well, frankly, I wasn't sure. I was primarily a songwriter myself and a singer second. I'd have to really, really love these guys' songs to give up my songwriting at this point, especially right after my first flush of success.
"Can I hear some of their music?" I asked.
"Yeah, we've got one song on tape. You wanna come over and hear it?"
I agreed to come over to Baxter's apartment and listen to the tape.
Chez Skunk was a nondescript modern apartment in a nondescript apartment building near Valley Sound, which was located at Gardner and Sunset in Hollywood. It was devoid of furniture, except for a mattress on the floor, a dining table and a couple of chairs. And amps, keyboards, guitars and a pedal steel guitar. Jeff put the tape on for me. It was a song called "Bye Bye Dallas," which sounded distinctly country. Jeff played pedal steel on it, which was his latest passion.
"Well," I said, trying to be tactful, "the band sounds great - all the players are excellent - but it sounds very country to me. I don't wanna waste your time. I don't think I'd be the right guy for this band."
A month later, Jeff invited me to Steely Dan's debut performance at Under the Ice House in Pasadena. Their songs knocked me out. "Bye Bye Dallas" was not in the set, and never appeared on any of their albums. Two weeks later, their debut single, "Do It Again," hit the charts and wound up going to #6. The guy they hired as lead singer, David Palmer, sounded a lot like Donald Fagen, and once Fagen got his vocal chops up to speed, Palmer was gone. There but for fortune…
____________________________________________
From: John Paul Roney
Subject: The edge of Google
Bob-
I found myself in your shoes. A guy from the WI music scene hit me up, he's the guy that every scene has, a bunch of bands, always throwing shows, talking about upcoming tours, kick starters... all with violently mediocre music. He just couldn't figure out why nothing was sticking. He asked for my input and immediately tuned me out when I told him he needed to drop everything and work ten times harder on the craft.
I heard your voice in my head, "what the hell is with all these wannabes?"
So I decided to ponder. He grew up in the Google era, so when there's some art he loves he Googles everything he can to learn about it. In the 70's he might have used that energy to play his guitar until it sounded like Jimmy Page's and accidentally created his own sound, instead he's trying to recreate their videos with him in their place.
That's when I realized there's an end to what Google knows, it stops where the real artistry begins, the private hours of anguish. I watched a great documentary on the large hadron collider in France and a physicist who worked on it said "jumping from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm is the secret to success".
That's what Google can't tell you. It can tell you where Katy Perry is from and how her singles charted, but it can't tell you how she was when she was just my manager's girlfriend in LA in 2005. She was trying to be a hipster then, but she was always working. We asked if he could stop inviting her over because she never stopped talking about work.
When you finally arrive at greatness it ruins the myth to talk about all the hours of work you put in, it's more compelling to say nothing of it and allow other people to spin the myth for you. That's when a curtain comes down and your Googleable era begins - where you become known as the amalgamation of your video views, ticket sales, who you date, if you go to rehab.. whatever. The next generation is looking for answers in all of that information and that's precisely where the answers aren't.
//JP
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Paris Songs
Every Picture Tells A Story Indeed...
Rod never played that song live with his solo bands until the third night of a three night run of sold out shows we were playing at the LA Forum in 1988.
LA Radio giant KLOS had been requesting that we play the song all week talking about it on air but despite all their power over rock playlists Rod refused to play it saying he had never done it live ( I believe the Faces might have done it).
After the second night with no results KLOS turned up the heat and started to play Every Picture Tells A Story once every hour trying to persuade Rod to play the song live on our third and final night.
In the dressing room before the show we all talked about it but still didn't think to much about it. Towards the end of the show I remember this like it was yesterday, Rod looked at us and said Lets Do It then he sang me the guitar intro because I had heard the song a million times as a kid but I had never played it. Understand I had just been in the band about a month and the last band I had played live with was my high school band in San Diego. Needless to say I screwed up the intro but when Tony Brock counted it off 1-2-3 and cracked that snare drum we all dropped in on that big D chord and Rod with head cocked back sang out...
I've spent too much time feeling inferior
the crowd went nuts as if all Eighteen Thousand were in the band with us!
I will never forget that moment and this amazing song...a song with no chorus and endless verses but a song with a story....Unlike so many songs today
Stevie Salas
____________________________________________
From: Rupert Hine
Subject: Re: Today In Paris
Hi Bob
Finally, after all these years of keeping an eye on you and your thoughts - it takes me until today to respond passionately but without pause…
Of the 130+ albums I've recorded and produced, a good chunk of them in the 90s were made whilst living in France. That is this sudden connection. Immediately after my 10 years in France I relocated to Los Angeles where I lived until finally returning to the UK just 5 years ago (or Europe, as I think of it now).
The initially inspirational tech disruption of the turn of this century that promised so much, yet delivered so little of real lasting meaning, has vaporized and imploded leaving the world's global culture bankrupt and decimated.
Here in the 3rd millennium the cultural path so clearly documented over the last 10,000 years is coming to a close.
We, collectively, have allowed the magician's patter of the world's largest monopoly to seduce us with driverless cars, aerial views of our neighbours backyard, magic glasses and 'play-area' work-environments, whilst raping and pillaging our planet's culture. Taking it from those same museums you are visiting now in Paris, Bob, and pretty much everywhere else of cultural significance on our planet; allowing it to be displayed for all to see in some 'altruistic' display that, in fact, is just a means of collecting advertising revenue on content they do not own, whilst removing any potential livelihood for all those involved in finding, nurturing and commissioning works of art, culture and entertainment. Not least the artists themselves. And insulting throwing a few crumbs on the creators floor.
Nobody voted Eric Schmidt into the top seat on Planet Earth - in charge of Earth's culture. No one country, no one Nation. The monopoly that is Google is the work of pure evil cunningly disguised as a user-friendly 'convenience' for finding everything online. The everything is of course expertly collated to be 'The Everything' (as in N.E.Story's "The Nothing")… And all this from the monopoly whose strap-line is "Don't be Evil".
No government is more powerful. No monopoly's reach more ubiquitous. No marketing powerhouse more in tune with the culture of excess. No ideology more finely tuned to maximise the emphasis on the top top 2% of earth's inhabitants with absolutely no financially-rewarding trickle-down effect on the rest of humanity. None.
Our job, all of us on this not-to-be-given-up-on-just-yet planet, is to be truly aware of what is going on all around us, right under our noses... and say no to these mesmerizing, apparently holistic yet ultimately patter-ridden, panaceas. Google will be undone, not by the Americans - whose political system allows lobbying at a totally undemocratic level - but in Europe where the multi-cultural interests in a life-story many centuries older, ensures that a deeply vested interest is not going to be trampled under foot at the start of this millennium. The EC will pull Google apart as it did with Microsoft.
And the will of the people is finally beginning to homogenize in real support - realizing that they have been sold down the river with the tech community's 'Economy of Scale' illusion. The very same one that has already shown us how it leads to melt-downs in the financial world - each time the foundations are revealed to be built of air. Just another variant of the pyramid schemes and other hoodwinks that momentarily entrance the needy.
Having spent 10 difficult years in California trying to interest people in truly new ideas (with no obvious money-trail) that need some cud-chewing and wide-eyed ideological inspiration, in Europe there is a more readily available open-mind that just doesn't need to smell the filthy lucre - at least not before the nexus of the 'thing' has been discovered and birthed. Everything is about to change. There is always a fresh disruptor for the established disruptors.
In the meantime 'watch your backs' there's still a Google in the room… (and a Facebook). Be much more careful. Unattach from the juggernauts.
Just be aware and non-compliant.
Rupert Hine
____________________________________________
Subject: My Joe Cocker story....40 countries...half a dozen albums...and one great
Bob-
I had the extreme pleasure and honor of arranging and playing keyboards on half a dozen of Joe Cocker's records from 1994-2004, finally producing one, "Heart & Soul." In that time we did two world tours, hitting almost forty countries, and also three world promo tours, where it was mostly Joe and me doing radio shows LIVE, sometimes with guitarist Gene Black.
That gave us a hell of a lot of time to get close and discuss music, politics, the world and beyond. Joe was a brilliant man, extremely well read, and like me he loved non-fiction. We compared notes on Zulu history, and shared fascination with the Shackleton voyage, along with all other exploration and such. Joe was always up on the latest news, and I was too. Therefore from the moment we met in the morning to take a car to a radio station, to the hours in airplanes, we'd compare notes on what had happened in the world since we'd seen each other. We shared a love for growing tomatoes and especially for our dogs.
I wanted to share a story that happened when we were recording "Heart & Soul."
Heart & Soul was a record of cover songs, and we tried dozens of them at my studio, just the two of us, to see what fit. Joe's manager, Roger Davies was instrumental in picking some of the great songs that made the final album.
Anyway, I suggested to the label that we cover a James Taylor song...not too "range-ey," so Joe could be Joe. Chris Briggs at EMI told me "good luck with that, we've been trying to get him to do a James Taylor song for twenty years."
Joe came in that day, and the two of us sat at the piano, with his music stand to my left, him belting away in my ear (which would ring at night from having his enormous voice hitting me from little more than a foot away).
Anyway, we had some successes, and also some duds.
At the end I asked Joe "hey what about a James Taylor song, like "Don't Let me Be Lonely Tonight?"
Joe wore glasses sometimes when he was reading lyrics and I always made fun of them 'cause they'd slip down his nose when he sweat.
"Well I don't know about all that CJ...and besides I don't know the lyrics."
So I pulled out the lyrics I had secretly prepared, in the nice 24 point Helvetica that Joe preferred, and said "well now you don't have any excuses. Let's try this, it's just the two of us here."
I got up a nylon guitar sound on my keyboard, had already figured out Joe's key (I knew his voice like the back of my hand at this point).
We started up, he got as far as "do me wrong....do me right....," and I STOPPED.
"Get the hell out in the vocal booth NOW, MAN!" Joe sounded fucking amazing. Goosebumps were crawling up my spine.
I had the mic warmed up and his favorite setting all dialed in on my Universal 6176 with his favorite 'verb.
I hit record in Logic and did an intro, then counted him in...he always waited for me to count him in...and there he was with the goofy glasses drooping down his nose.
"Do me wrong...do me right....tell me lies....but hold me tight....."
There was magic in the room.
We kept playing together, as we had done hundreds and hundreds of times together.
Joe was absolutely TESTIFYING. Killing it. As only Joe could.
We got to the middle and I decided to throw in an instrumental part. I held up my left hand to him, saying "hang on" while I played a "scratch" solo on the nylon patch.
At the end of my "solo," I mouthed the word "B-R-I-D-G-E!" and counted three-four with my hand.
Joe came in again, we dove back into the song, until the end, when I stopped him again for a little interlude.
Then I nodded "go ahead," and he finished the song off.
No click, no band, no engineer, no big studio, no arrangement, just the two of us making music together.
I was now completely teared up. I knew something amazing had just happened.
I hit the talkback and said "c'mon in Joe..."
As I waited for him I hit COMMAND "S" to save the magic that had just occurred.
When I turned around, there was Joe, with the goofy glasses, covered in sweat.
"Well I don't quite know that one yet CJ...."
Fuck OFF Joe!!! That was MAGIC!
I grabbed him and hugged his sweaty body. Then I grabbed him by both shoulders and said "You don't even know what you just did my man."
We played it back and Joe agreed...we had captured a special take.
The problem was that now I had a track with no click and a keyboard guitar. I decided to figure out the logistics of this later.
I overdubbed a bass part, a steel string guitar on the left side, and then an organ part. It sounded like a finished record.
Everyone that heard this flipped. Such a brilliant, boiled down, distilled, in the moment performance by both of us. Two buddies making music alone.
Then we tried to go into the big studio and re-create it. I called THE cats to play on it. THE cats. Nobody better.
We dicked around for a few hours, and everyone sounded amazing, but it was obvious: we were re-making a record that was already DONE. Joe and I talked in the vocal booth and agreed.
It was a difficult choice to put this "DEMO" on the record for some people, but not for me, and not for Joe. This was a beautiful moment. Just Joe and me doing our thing. Nothing more, nothing less.
The entire process had taken less than an hour; from proposing the song to doing a rough mix (which is what ended up on the record).
I can't listen to this song now without breaking down inside. I knew we had a special moment together, but little did I know how special.
Here is a link to the song with a cheesy video that I have no connection to. If you don't get choked up at the end, you're not human.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTzAuEuC95k
Joe was a beautiful, humble giant and reluctant genius and I miss him dearly. Thankfully the music will live on.
CJ Vanston
____________________________________________
From: Paul Rappaport
Subject: Re: The Stones At The Fonda
The Rolling Stones have been my all time favorite band since I was 17 years old. I learned how to play electric guitar listening to Keith Richards on all the early records. I was going steady with Sharon in high school then, and "Every Body Needs Somebody To Love" was our song.
In 1966 we went to see The Stones at the Hollywood Bowl. We stood up, danced around, and generally went crazy like you see on the old black and white newsreels. Fast forward 20 years later, Sharon and I are married, have moved to New York, we have kids, and I'm sitting on a couch next to Mick Jagger at Columbia Records' headquarters telling him his promotion and marketing plans. The two most amazing things are, one, I actually know what I'm talking about, and two, he's actually listening to ME!! If you would have told me when I was 18 years old at the Hollywood Bowl that one day,….well, you get the idea.
So now, I'm in heaven—the Stones are on Columbia. I have stories for days, the kind that I will remember forever, but I want to share just one now, because it illustrates what you witnessed Bob.
The Rolling Stones are a real band that lives and breathes as one organism and can change its personality whenever it likes to suit the mood—no click tracks here babe. And, they ARE STILL the worlds' greatest rock and roll band—even at these ages. Think about that statement for a second.
Mick Jagger's work ethic is something to be admired and I've only seen a few artists driven like that—Bruce Springsteen and Tony Bennett come to mind. It's why the Stones are the last band from that era not only still standing but pouring it on.
I had met Keith and Woody during the "New Barbarians" tour. I'm lucky to have survived that—it was like better living through chemistry. Ha, ha—stayed awake for days on end, sleeping very odd hours, etc., etc.. Everyone was out of it on that tour so I didn't get to have a real conversation with my all time rock hero, Keef.
But when the Stones came to Columbia, it was different—not over the top partying and I could have those kinds of conversations, especially the music ones. Mick was blown away that I knew about the two versions of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and that the European album version was superior. I told him I ordered it before imports were even a thing—cost me $8.00 at the time (a lot of money for a blue collar kid to spend on just a record) and it came by boat and took 3 months to show up, all the from England to Downey California.
Fast forward to the "Steel Wheels" tour. Like all before the band opened at a small club—Toad's Place in New Haven. That's when I saw what you just saw—how great this band truly is. No big light show, no grand staging to hide behind—no larger than life sound where you can make a mistake but no one will hear it in an arena setting. It's all out there for everyone to see and hear. The stage was so small the band could barely fit, and there was no room for Mick to even show off all of his dance moves. It was the vocals and how he presented each word that just drew you in, like Frank Sinatra.
That band, in that room, set the record straight—pinned people's ears back, the incredible precision of the "weaving of guitars" all around Charlie Watts' back beat--yet played loosely like the Stones are meant to be. They don't need all the bells and whistles if they don't want—THEY ARE A GREAT FUCKING BAND, and in full flight can take you anywhere!
And, while they love being the Stones and all the stuff that goes with it, they are players first. It's the real thing.
During this time I got to have the talk I always wanted to have with the rock hero who inspired me to play the electric guitar. I tried not to gush and just told Keith the facts. He was so happy to hear that whatever he was doing as a guitar player he had "passed it on." He talked to me like a fellow player, not like a rock God to a record guy. He said, that he had it passed down to him from people like Chuck Berry and that his job, and all our jobs as musicians, was to pass it on—this wonderful way of expressing oneself on this intimate instrument, the guitar.
He went on to give me a bit of a guitar lesson. He insisted I try G tuning which is one of his secrets. He told me the reason why the exact sound of The Stones eluded my high school cover band was, that we were trying to play Stones' hits without being in G tuning. He got very excited about passing this on to me. He said, "Go home, take the top (E) string off the guitar, it just gets in the way. Then tune the A string to G and so on. Use a simple bar chord position with only two fingers and see what happens!--then report back."
So, I go home thinking, "take the top string off the guitar, it gets in the way??" But I do as the master suggests and low and behold—EVERY GREAT ROLLING STONES SIGNATURE RIFF AND SONGS ARE IN G TUNING!!! You name it, "Start Me Up," "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk" and on and on and on. And once you begin to play rhythm guitar like this, you even see how that signature Keith Richards arm movement evolved.
So, I report back and we have another great conversation. When the Stones left the label (for more money—quote Keith, "Don't take it personal, it's just business") I asked if he'd sign something for me as a memory. He said of course, and I sent him a photo I had of him back stage years ago warming up for the Barbarians. It's a great photo because it shows him as just a player with his eyes closed trying to grab a great chord—in G tuning!
The captioned photo is my prized possession, above every gold or platinum record, or plaque I've ever received. It hangs on the wall right across from my desk. It's Keith's description of the photo. It reads "To Paul, 5 strings, 3 notes, 2 fingers, 1 ass-hole, Love, Keith Richards"!
In this one photo, it says everything about Keith and The Rolling Stones. He and they are real players above and beyond anything else and that's why the music affects us so. And, while they are very proud of their achievements they know deep inside—It's only rock and roll.
But we like it. No, WE LOVE IT!
Paul Rappaport
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Subject: Legere in Lefsetz Letter!
Hey Bob –
Thanks for mentioning me in your blog again! Obviously we agree on a number of things, and I was really struck by your comments on execs in the music industry who are so set in their ways that they won't even try to better connect or appeal to younger generations. It sounds just like the big carriers in the wireless industry!!
You're right, I am always reading whatever is out there about T-Mobile. I always want feedback from customers – directly! Seriously, how can anyone satisfy an audience (in any industry) if you don't listen or don't really care what they want or how they want it? Social media is my direct line to customers and it shapes my business every single day!
I do agree that the music industry is facing an uphill battle as social media, digital distribution and viral marketing continue to expand. It is so clear that younger generations expect a different level of engagement and transparency!
I hope you can shake things up over there & we'll keep doing our part with Music Freedom, letting our customers stream music without any data usage fees -- I think it helps artists of all levels reach more of their fans, and our customers just love it!
We'll have to agree to disagree on your "crappy product" comments. Our network isn't what it used to be, it is amazing now - and this isn't a rebellion just for sport! We have to deliver for our customers and we live up to our commitments every day. So trust me - if you have not tried T-Mobile's network recently, you haven't tried it at all!
Keep the conversation going Bob!
Best –
John Legere
CEO
T-Mobile USA
____________________________________________
From: Tim Grayson
Subject: Re: Rock Star CEOs
Hello Bob,
Just wanted to shoot you a quick note - I used to have the same perception of T-Mobile that it seems you currently have. I was a long time Verizon subscriber and was adamant that I wouldn't ever switch, until I did... My co-worker came in one day with his new phone and said he decided to try T-Mobile for $30 a month. We did a speed test on his phone and it completely blew away my Verizon 4G speeds, literally more than double the speed. They aren't joking when they say they have more data capacity and higher speeds. Our bill was in the hundreds of dollars before but is now just $60 total for my girlfriend and I, no hidden fees or taxes, just $60 out the door! It is seriously the best service I've ever had and I'm saving a ton of money. Oh also I'm an IT professional so data is very important to me, but really I am just as happy with T-Mobile as I was with Verizon, actually happier!
Thanks for always having interesting things to read,
Tim
____________________________________________
From: tourswag
Subject: T -mo
Twice the service- 1/2 the cost
Super responsive customer service from well trained people who answer 611 calls in minutes
I know you like your carrier and think them tops
I like mine too
I am on tour in Europe, no surcharges for texting ( unlimited) or 3G internet ( unlimited) calls are 20 cents
How's your bill after your recent trip to France?
My coverage in the USA is always good
Far and away a better experience in all facets over the other carriers
The public face of the CEO or the advertising doesn't affect my perception of greater value with this carrier
TS
____________________________________________
From: Bob Helm
Subject: RE: Eddy Cue Caves
I think you're right about people remembering Taylor Swift for standing up to Apple. I still remember Tom Petty standing up to MCA regarding their list price hike on his new LP, and that was what, 1979?
____________________________________________
From: Charles Kennedy
Subject: Re: Eddy Cue Caves
Just a nudge cos I'm not sure Americans are as aware of this, that Beggars was a hobby label run out of the back of a record shop in Richmond, a suburb of west London, until their act Gary Numan wedded electronics to new wave and art rock and had three British number one albums in the space of two years as a result (and two consecutive number one singles). Beggars is the house that Gary Numan built (and Mills' willingness to indulge GN's untested, unproven new musical formula is just one example of Mills' genius and vision).
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Apple Music
I haven't heard much news mentioned anywhere about the $0.99 for three months Premium subscription that Spotify offered a few months ago. Like many fans, I was fine with the free version because I didn't know how bad it sucked on mobile compared to Spotify Premium. I paid $0.99 for iTunes downloads all the time, so I was happy (and trusted) Spotify was offering such a cheap trial of the Premium, so I gave them my credit card number knowing I had to cancel the service after the $0.99 trial period ended to avoid the regular monthly subscription fee. I've been Spotify loyal, and haven't downloaded a song on iTunes for $0.99 since. Once the music customer tries Spotify Premium, the $9.99 per month is a bargain! Apple whiffed by not adapting the same customer acquisition model.
Aaron Pitcock
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Taylor Swift On Apple Music
Let's get real, Bob
When record companies started, the split at MOST was 10% to the artist and 90% to the label.
It really hasn't changed that much in almost a century. Sure the Springsteens & Stones make out but certainly not the rest of us.
And if your debut album does great, they wait to see how your next album does and cross collateralize the costs of both against the alleged profit. If you're a staff producer, your salary replaces any royalties at all. Think about that.
George Martin was a staff producer for Brit label Parlophone when he produced most of the Fab Four product.
He was exempt from royalties!!!I could go on & on. I am in an unearned position at the label I recorded for to the tune of approximately a quarter of a mil and it keeps rising each statement.
I've had a song I cowrote log in at least 5 million airplays and after the publishing company takes 50% off the top and the three of us split the rest we get 16 2/3 % each. I have been dealing with this math for 56 years.
iTunes pays all the money to the record companies and THEY decide how much to send the artist. Paltry is a good word to describe what they decided to send.
It's the worst continuing crime I know of and no one has been able to correct it much since the dawn of recording.
Al Kooper
____________________________________________
From: Richard Griffiths
Re: The Chunnel
Talent,work ethic, ambition,management,luck!
(Re-What is required for a an artist to be successful.)
____________________________________________
From: chris stein
Subject: Re: The Chunnel
My twelve year old daughter is fascinated by the dude getting blown up at the show, amazing you were there... Years ago we were touring in Europe. For whatever reason we had flash pots at stage front. Right before our show our lighting guy Eddie Gile was attending to one which proceeded to go off in his face in full view of the audience. He got fairly singed and had to be shipped back stateside. Needless to say this was a hard act to follow and the audience sat there open mouthed during our first several songs.
____________________________________________
From: Calvin Flegal
Subject: Re: The Code Issue
Bob,
I've emailed you a few times but you should know that I'm a young person who went to Berklee instead of Northwestern, Tufts, etc. I studied music production at Berklee but after moving to Brooklyn I realized that wasn't my path. I went back to BU for a program meant for career changers into engineering. I got a master's in computer engineering and now work for a startup in Boston as a software engineer.
I've got a small ear training app in the App Store, working on others...
I think you are right about so many who wanted to be in music "pivoting" into tech.
I would've loved to have stayed in music but this is just too much better. They used to tell me to mop studio floors. Now they ask for my opinion at work.
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: The Code Issue from Former drummer for Sponge
Great post Bob had to stop reading the Paul Ford article (It's long) to get back to my Java homework.
I am in a Java Bootcamp now in Detroit called Grand Circus (This is not a shameless plug for them btw but they have a great bootcamp.).
Also am a one time professional musician in the band Sponge ( drummer from 1994 to 2000). We were on Columbia records, have a gold record blah blah blah.
Have been a tech guy since those days when I got into Pro Tools back then.
Now I am learning to code as a way to stay relevant. This story couldn't have came at a better time!
Keep up the good work I always look forward to your posts.
Sincerely,
Charlie Grover
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Yer' Album
Re: Stop by The James Gang
The original is by Howard Tate produced by Jerry Ragavoy and is a stone cold R&B great. I was Michael Bloomfield's roadie and we loved the record. It was only available on a 45 for many years. It's a record loved by musicians but unknown by the public.
Listen to it sometime. It's wonderful.
Phil Brown
____________________________________________
From: Michael McDonald
Subject: Re: Rhinofy-White Ladder
cc: Chris Tetzeli
Thanks the reminder of an amazing time in my life. We were so naive we were fearless.....we didn't know who NOT to call so we called everyone and asked them to spin the song, play the video, come out and see the show, experience the music however possible.
David's manager said we should have named the label 'Two Guys And A Van' because Tetz & I were not only the label, we also tour managed, delivered merch, housed the band, stuffed gear in our carry ons, etc.
Failure simply wasn't an option so we did whatever it took. Kudos to David and his manager for believing in us. It was terrifying but totally exhilarating. We were all in it for the right reasons. It was a beautiful thing.
Best,
Michael
____________________________________________
From: Vito Iaia
Subject: RE: The Stones At The Fonda
btw that guy offering $4k to everyone walking by was the guy on Shark Tank who sold his company (Groovebook) to Shutterfly... took me a minute to place him... can't blame him at all for trying, but would be surprised if he found a taker in that industry-laden crowd... for his son's sake I hope I'm wrong.
____________________________________________
From: Trevor Risk
Subject: Re: Today At The Tower
I DJ three nights a week to under 30s and they all go bananas for "All She Want To Do Is Dance". Only Gen x'ers who worship the Dude think Henley sucks.
____________________________________________
Subject: Re: Playlist Of The Year!
cool...
Your email confirms what I was wondering.
That absolutely none of us knows what the is going on in the music business. You've got your ear to the ground and you're raving about a playlist with 72,000 followers. The ones I belong to have hundreds of thousands of followers.
I sit on the sideline and listen to folks condemn every aspect of every aspect of this crazy business - while I'm collecting money from Spotify every 5 weeks. No label, agent, or consultant ever gave me money. Ever. Spotify does. The people following these playlists dig it. I dig it. Spotify digs it.
If I duplicate this process (which I am feverishly working on), I could make 40 - 60 grand a year from playlists alone. Maybe more! That is not including playing out, selling shirts & merch, and any other opportunity to make money. (Notice I did not include album sales in that lot).
A very exciting time indeed....the new and improved gold rush if you will..
Thanks for your passion. Thanks for your emails.
Please do not print my name if you should post this email..... I like making money in the music business and don't want anything to potentially mess it up.
Cheers!
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Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill
Bob
One of my 2 favorite Steely Dan albums. Katy Lied also had that same mood for me.
Intelligent lyrics with a twist. The lyric quality was always something a listener could count on. I would always be excited when they released a new album - not only for their skilled musicianship, but for Fagen's incredible take on life. That band had a huge influence on seventies musicians in Toronto, including myself. I saw Steely Dan for the first time in Orange County in 1995 and I was blown away with their live performance. I told myself on the drive home that I had to free up as a writer because the music I heard in the show was bold and unrestricted.
the next day I composed "Birmingham"
(Amanda Marshall).
Cheers
Dave Tyson
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Re: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill
Bob,
Couldn't second the Steely Dan rave any louder. I played this for my band in David Geffen's office the week it came out. I told Gary Mallaber and Ned Doheny that this was the album of the year and something to aspire to. I still feel the same way.
Keep it comin
JD Souther
P.S. Loved the piece on Elliot Murphy in Paris. The more things change…..
My first encounter with the Mona Lisa was also in 72 (pre I. M. Pei) and though the cameras were slower (and the mysterious smile was muted under a truly hideous plastic shield), folks are folks and enjoy verification of events. I wonder if time will be as kind to the pyramid entrance as it has been to Leonardo who once wrote; "As far as possible avoid the costumes of your own day…". Hmmm. Too soon to tell.
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From: BERTON AVERRE
Subject: Re: Deflategate
Every time I hear someone trumpet the now-accepted truism "Americans believe in second chances" I get queasy. Firstly because it's become one of those cliches that people parrot rather than using their own words and thoughts ("heart and soul of the ball club"). Secondly because it's true relative to the situation, and dictated by self-interest.
Michael Vick did two years for running an illegal dog-fighting ring (contrary to popular belief he didn't serve a single day for torturing and killing dogs for fun and profit: the federal bust was for the non-regulated, tax-avoiding business, like bookmaking). Tony Dungy waved a magic Jesus wand over his head in his cell, and everyone started parroting one of those blasted cliches: "Paid his debt to society, deserves a second chance". As a bone-deep civil libertarian, I really do believe that an ex-con should be allowed the opportunity to make an honest life for him or herself. But I was rankled by the suspicion that the people who were standing up for Vick's right to rehabilitation wouldn't give two s___s for that of a guy who used to rob liquor stores: they just wanted to see Vick scramble out of the pocket again. It was relatively easy to keep oneself from thinking of the brutality of dog fighting if doing so meant you couldn't enjoy the Eagles-Cowboys game as much.
Americans believe in the right to a second chance when it suits them, when it serves their interest. Conservatives wouldn't believe in a second chance if a Democratic president screwed up. I wouldn't believe in a second chance for any Boston Celtic, or any Wall Street criminal. "Enlightened Self Interest": they got it right, except for the "enlightened" part.
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Subject: Re: willie perkins: gregg allman
i too saw gregg play last weekend. gary gersh and i walked over to see him on the secondary stage at stagecoach and were mesmerized by his voice and his band. the arrangements of the old songs were stunning and we both walked back after the show fairly blown away. the truth about gregg being at epic is michael caplan's passion for the allman brothers. besides being an amazing promotion man, he was first a lunatic for all music but really mad about tower of power and the allman bros. i was in los angeles on a road trip and saw the demo tapes with gregg's name on it sitting on an A&R desk in our west coast office and pocketed it for the flight back. when i shared it with michael he went ballistic. if my memory serves me it was michael's first signing and yes i did promise willie and alex and gregg we would lock the panel on the first track. that is what we did back then. weeks later harvey leeds, michael and i arrived in palm springs for a burkhart abrams convention with gregg,
ozzy and stevie ray in tow to play their music and say hello. i could write a book on that week alone.
Bill Bennett
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From: Jean-Pierre Weiller
Subject: Lou Maglia
Lou was my boss at the best record company of the time: Island Records Inc. Boss as in the movies: good to his people but I would not want to be on the other side.
Late 80's: Robert Palmer, U2, Steve Winwood (on Warner), Melissa, Marianne, Bob's Legend, Tone Loc & Delicious Vinyl …and so many more: I will not accept any contradiction: we were the best!
Roughly 50 employees, we were a team, Lou our guide and mentor. We had fun coming to work.
Lou had a big boat, everything about him was big: himself, his car, house, and his sense of humor.
Traditionally on Wednesday we had lunch all together: Pizzas were brought from one of these delicious pizzerias in Little Italy, nearby our offices on East 4th Street. Just above the landmark Tower Records, flagship of all record stores at the time.
And in our building, on higher floors, Keith Richards and other Rock royalties used to live.
Hence why we were happy at Island.
During the hot New York City summers Lou would take us on his boat, docked on the East River a few street away, and we would sail toward the Statue of Liberty; there the boat would quietly moor and we would eat our delicious pizzas, listening to all the brilliant new music coming from the Island artists.??I remember thinking, "I am sitting on top of the world" on Lou's big boat, nicely positioned in the shade of the historical statue. I was.
But it was not only fun, we were all hard working, obsessed to reach the top of the Billboard charts, and once there, stay!
Lou, but also all the other working there, Bill, Bob, Jim, Kathy...were my inspirations when I started Island Record France a few years later. I told everybody I was hiring: I want to pay you to have fun! For most of them, this was definitely a new concept
Island Records France was doing very well but (too) rapidly the company was sold to Polygram and shortly after its chairman Alain Levy closed a very young and successful company. In retrospect it makes sense: all about Alain Levy was small, so small
Good Bye Lou
JP
Paris
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Re: Lou Maglia and the expense account.
Before I spent 15 years at Warner Bros / Reprise (I just wrote you about how we had to take "Urge For Going" from a vinyl 45 because no master tape could be found) I spent a number of years at Elektra in the promotion department. Lou Maglia was head of sales. I had a very similar expense account experience with the head of promotion at the time - Jerry Sharell. I was never the "live by expense account" kind of guy, so unless I traveled it didn't get used much. In those days radio was king and at the top of the heap was KIIS-FM who had an unheard of (certainly now) ten share in ratings. The music director was a long time friend - Mike Schaefer - who I'd known long before he came to Los Angeles. When we went out together - our favorite hangout was The Apple Pan. One week - our $12.42 check was the only expense on my weekly report. After I finished filling it out - I walked it down the hall and dropped it on Jerry's assistant's desk. By the time I got back to my desk my phone was
ringing. It was Jerry and he said - and I remember it as clear as a bell all these years later - "Don't you ever turn in an expense report for $12.42 again - you make me look like f...ing J. Paul Getty."
And he hung up the phone.
It was a different world back then. Lou and Jerry were the best of the best. From there I spent 15 years at Warner Bros / Reprise with Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker and Russ Thyret...and followed Mo and Lenny to DreamWorks for another 6 years.
After working with those wonderful people for all those years I couldn't seriously consider the other labels after DreamWorks was sold off to Interscope, (That's another great story for another time). I moved to Maine and have a wonderful small company working with artists I like and music I love. I'm not in it for the money and don't care that I'm not. Either did Lou, Jerry, Mo, Lenny or Russ.
Marc Ratner
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From: Ted Myers
Subject: RE: Rhinofy-Can't Buy A Thrill
Hey Bob,
Here's my Steely Dan story, ripped straight from the pages of my forthcoming memoir, Making It: Music, Sex and Drugs in the Golden Age of Rock...
One night in 1972 V and I were leaving the Mayfair Market on Santa Monica Blvd. As we walked though the darkened parking lot the door on an old VW bus slid open and an arm appeared holding a Gibson Melody Maker electric guitar. It was proffered majestically, like the Lady of the Lake bearing Excalibur, and it had about it the same portent of destiny. "Psst! Wanna buy a guitar?" a voice whispered from within the van. "Fifteen dollars." The whole thing reeked of "hot," but I didn't hesitate. I really needed an electric guitar, and this one fit nicely into my pathetic budget. I never even saw the face of the guy I bought it from. I thrust the money into the van, grabbed the guitar and off we went.
When I got it home, I saw that the neck had been broken and reset badly. This would throw off the intonation and make the guitar impossible to tune. I took it to Valley Sound on Sunset, the most prestigious instrument repair shop in Hollywood, and who should appear behind the counter to take my order? None other than my old friend and lead guitarist from Ultimate Spinach, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. He looked pretty much the same as he had in Spinach: shoulder-length brown hair, but his beard was gone and his mustache was bigger and fuller. He generally wore glasses, except when he was performing, and he was wearing them now. Jeff had always been good with fixing stuff and being up on all the latest gear, so it made sense to see him working here.
"Whazzhapnin'!" he slurred in his trademark hipster voice.
"Wow, fancy meetin' you here," I said. "I didn't know you were in L.A."
"Yeah, been here a few months. I've been doing some studio work with some guys over at ABC Dunhill on Beverly Blvd."
He looked at my guitar and deemed it fixable. He showed it to the guy who specialized in guitar building and they gave me an estimate I could afford, so I dropped off the guitar. Before leaving we exchanged numbers.
When my 1959 Gibson Melody Maker came back from Valley Sound it was perfect! Before I was through, I would buy two Humbucking pickups and have them installed, making it a Les Paul Jr. My guitar arsenal was once again complete.
It was maybe two or three weeks later that Baxter phoned and told me he had formed a band with these guys he had met at Dunhill Studios, Don Fagen and Walter Becker, plus a couple of other guys. They were going to call it Steely Dan after a strap-on dildo in William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch.
"Fagen and Becker are writing all the songs," he said, "but Fagen is very uptight about his voice, so we need a lead singer. Would you be interested in auditioning?"
Well, frankly, I wasn't sure. I was primarily a songwriter myself and a singer second. I'd have to really, really love these guys' songs to give up my songwriting at this point, especially right after my first flush of success.
"Can I hear some of their music?" I asked.
"Yeah, we've got one song on tape. You wanna come over and hear it?"
I agreed to come over to Baxter's apartment and listen to the tape.
Chez Skunk was a nondescript modern apartment in a nondescript apartment building near Valley Sound, which was located at Gardner and Sunset in Hollywood. It was devoid of furniture, except for a mattress on the floor, a dining table and a couple of chairs. And amps, keyboards, guitars and a pedal steel guitar. Jeff put the tape on for me. It was a song called "Bye Bye Dallas," which sounded distinctly country. Jeff played pedal steel on it, which was his latest passion.
"Well," I said, trying to be tactful, "the band sounds great - all the players are excellent - but it sounds very country to me. I don't wanna waste your time. I don't think I'd be the right guy for this band."
A month later, Jeff invited me to Steely Dan's debut performance at Under the Ice House in Pasadena. Their songs knocked me out. "Bye Bye Dallas" was not in the set, and never appeared on any of their albums. Two weeks later, their debut single, "Do It Again," hit the charts and wound up going to #6. The guy they hired as lead singer, David Palmer, sounded a lot like Donald Fagen, and once Fagen got his vocal chops up to speed, Palmer was gone. There but for fortune…
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From: John Paul Roney
Subject: The edge of Google
Bob-
I found myself in your shoes. A guy from the WI music scene hit me up, he's the guy that every scene has, a bunch of bands, always throwing shows, talking about upcoming tours, kick starters... all with violently mediocre music. He just couldn't figure out why nothing was sticking. He asked for my input and immediately tuned me out when I told him he needed to drop everything and work ten times harder on the craft.
I heard your voice in my head, "what the hell is with all these wannabes?"
So I decided to ponder. He grew up in the Google era, so when there's some art he loves he Googles everything he can to learn about it. In the 70's he might have used that energy to play his guitar until it sounded like Jimmy Page's and accidentally created his own sound, instead he's trying to recreate their videos with him in their place.
That's when I realized there's an end to what Google knows, it stops where the real artistry begins, the private hours of anguish. I watched a great documentary on the large hadron collider in France and a physicist who worked on it said "jumping from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm is the secret to success".
That's what Google can't tell you. It can tell you where Katy Perry is from and how her singles charted, but it can't tell you how she was when she was just my manager's girlfriend in LA in 2005. She was trying to be a hipster then, but she was always working. We asked if he could stop inviting her over because she never stopped talking about work.
When you finally arrive at greatness it ruins the myth to talk about all the hours of work you put in, it's more compelling to say nothing of it and allow other people to spin the myth for you. That's when a curtain comes down and your Googleable era begins - where you become known as the amalgamation of your video views, ticket sales, who you date, if you go to rehab.. whatever. The next generation is looking for answers in all of that information and that's precisely where the answers aren't.
//JP
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Subject: Re: Rhinofy-Paris Songs
Every Picture Tells A Story Indeed...
Rod never played that song live with his solo bands until the third night of a three night run of sold out shows we were playing at the LA Forum in 1988.
LA Radio giant KLOS had been requesting that we play the song all week talking about it on air but despite all their power over rock playlists Rod refused to play it saying he had never done it live ( I believe the Faces might have done it).
After the second night with no results KLOS turned up the heat and started to play Every Picture Tells A Story once every hour trying to persuade Rod to play the song live on our third and final night.
In the dressing room before the show we all talked about it but still didn't think to much about it. Towards the end of the show I remember this like it was yesterday, Rod looked at us and said Lets Do It then he sang me the guitar intro because I had heard the song a million times as a kid but I had never played it. Understand I had just been in the band about a month and the last band I had played live with was my high school band in San Diego. Needless to say I screwed up the intro but when Tony Brock counted it off 1-2-3 and cracked that snare drum we all dropped in on that big D chord and Rod with head cocked back sang out...
I've spent too much time feeling inferior
the crowd went nuts as if all Eighteen Thousand were in the band with us!
I will never forget that moment and this amazing song...a song with no chorus and endless verses but a song with a story....Unlike so many songs today
Stevie Salas
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From: Rupert Hine
Subject: Re: Today In Paris
Hi Bob
Finally, after all these years of keeping an eye on you and your thoughts - it takes me until today to respond passionately but without pause…
Of the 130+ albums I've recorded and produced, a good chunk of them in the 90s were made whilst living in France. That is this sudden connection. Immediately after my 10 years in France I relocated to Los Angeles where I lived until finally returning to the UK just 5 years ago (or Europe, as I think of it now).
The initially inspirational tech disruption of the turn of this century that promised so much, yet delivered so little of real lasting meaning, has vaporized and imploded leaving the world's global culture bankrupt and decimated.
Here in the 3rd millennium the cultural path so clearly documented over the last 10,000 years is coming to a close.
We, collectively, have allowed the magician's patter of the world's largest monopoly to seduce us with driverless cars, aerial views of our neighbours backyard, magic glasses and 'play-area' work-environments, whilst raping and pillaging our planet's culture. Taking it from those same museums you are visiting now in Paris, Bob, and pretty much everywhere else of cultural significance on our planet; allowing it to be displayed for all to see in some 'altruistic' display that, in fact, is just a means of collecting advertising revenue on content they do not own, whilst removing any potential livelihood for all those involved in finding, nurturing and commissioning works of art, culture and entertainment. Not least the artists themselves. And insulting throwing a few crumbs on the creators floor.
Nobody voted Eric Schmidt into the top seat on Planet Earth - in charge of Earth's culture. No one country, no one Nation. The monopoly that is Google is the work of pure evil cunningly disguised as a user-friendly 'convenience' for finding everything online. The everything is of course expertly collated to be 'The Everything' (as in N.E.Story's "The Nothing")… And all this from the monopoly whose strap-line is "Don't be Evil".
No government is more powerful. No monopoly's reach more ubiquitous. No marketing powerhouse more in tune with the culture of excess. No ideology more finely tuned to maximise the emphasis on the top top 2% of earth's inhabitants with absolutely no financially-rewarding trickle-down effect on the rest of humanity. None.
Our job, all of us on this not-to-be-given-up-on-just-yet planet, is to be truly aware of what is going on all around us, right under our noses... and say no to these mesmerizing, apparently holistic yet ultimately patter-ridden, panaceas. Google will be undone, not by the Americans - whose political system allows lobbying at a totally undemocratic level - but in Europe where the multi-cultural interests in a life-story many centuries older, ensures that a deeply vested interest is not going to be trampled under foot at the start of this millennium. The EC will pull Google apart as it did with Microsoft.
And the will of the people is finally beginning to homogenize in real support - realizing that they have been sold down the river with the tech community's 'Economy of Scale' illusion. The very same one that has already shown us how it leads to melt-downs in the financial world - each time the foundations are revealed to be built of air. Just another variant of the pyramid schemes and other hoodwinks that momentarily entrance the needy.
Having spent 10 difficult years in California trying to interest people in truly new ideas (with no obvious money-trail) that need some cud-chewing and wide-eyed ideological inspiration, in Europe there is a more readily available open-mind that just doesn't need to smell the filthy lucre - at least not before the nexus of the 'thing' has been discovered and birthed. Everything is about to change. There is always a fresh disruptor for the established disruptors.
In the meantime 'watch your backs' there's still a Google in the room… (and a Facebook). Be much more careful. Unattach from the juggernauts.
Just be aware and non-compliant.
Rupert Hine
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Subject: My Joe Cocker story....40 countries...half a dozen albums...and one great
Bob-
I had the extreme pleasure and honor of arranging and playing keyboards on half a dozen of Joe Cocker's records from 1994-2004, finally producing one, "Heart & Soul." In that time we did two world tours, hitting almost forty countries, and also three world promo tours, where it was mostly Joe and me doing radio shows LIVE, sometimes with guitarist Gene Black.
That gave us a hell of a lot of time to get close and discuss music, politics, the world and beyond. Joe was a brilliant man, extremely well read, and like me he loved non-fiction. We compared notes on Zulu history, and shared fascination with the Shackleton voyage, along with all other exploration and such. Joe was always up on the latest news, and I was too. Therefore from the moment we met in the morning to take a car to a radio station, to the hours in airplanes, we'd compare notes on what had happened in the world since we'd seen each other. We shared a love for growing tomatoes and especially for our dogs.
I wanted to share a story that happened when we were recording "Heart & Soul."
Heart & Soul was a record of cover songs, and we tried dozens of them at my studio, just the two of us, to see what fit. Joe's manager, Roger Davies was instrumental in picking some of the great songs that made the final album.
Anyway, I suggested to the label that we cover a James Taylor song...not too "range-ey," so Joe could be Joe. Chris Briggs at EMI told me "good luck with that, we've been trying to get him to do a James Taylor song for twenty years."
Joe came in that day, and the two of us sat at the piano, with his music stand to my left, him belting away in my ear (which would ring at night from having his enormous voice hitting me from little more than a foot away).
Anyway, we had some successes, and also some duds.
At the end I asked Joe "hey what about a James Taylor song, like "Don't Let me Be Lonely Tonight?"
Joe wore glasses sometimes when he was reading lyrics and I always made fun of them 'cause they'd slip down his nose when he sweat.
"Well I don't know about all that CJ...and besides I don't know the lyrics."
So I pulled out the lyrics I had secretly prepared, in the nice 24 point Helvetica that Joe preferred, and said "well now you don't have any excuses. Let's try this, it's just the two of us here."
I got up a nylon guitar sound on my keyboard, had already figured out Joe's key (I knew his voice like the back of my hand at this point).
We started up, he got as far as "do me wrong....do me right....," and I STOPPED.
"Get the hell out in the vocal booth NOW, MAN!" Joe sounded fucking amazing. Goosebumps were crawling up my spine.
I had the mic warmed up and his favorite setting all dialed in on my Universal 6176 with his favorite 'verb.
I hit record in Logic and did an intro, then counted him in...he always waited for me to count him in...and there he was with the goofy glasses drooping down his nose.
"Do me wrong...do me right....tell me lies....but hold me tight....."
There was magic in the room.
We kept playing together, as we had done hundreds and hundreds of times together.
Joe was absolutely TESTIFYING. Killing it. As only Joe could.
We got to the middle and I decided to throw in an instrumental part. I held up my left hand to him, saying "hang on" while I played a "scratch" solo on the nylon patch.
At the end of my "solo," I mouthed the word "B-R-I-D-G-E!" and counted three-four with my hand.
Joe came in again, we dove back into the song, until the end, when I stopped him again for a little interlude.
Then I nodded "go ahead," and he finished the song off.
No click, no band, no engineer, no big studio, no arrangement, just the two of us making music together.
I was now completely teared up. I knew something amazing had just happened.
I hit the talkback and said "c'mon in Joe..."
As I waited for him I hit COMMAND "S" to save the magic that had just occurred.
When I turned around, there was Joe, with the goofy glasses, covered in sweat.
"Well I don't quite know that one yet CJ...."
Fuck OFF Joe!!! That was MAGIC!
I grabbed him and hugged his sweaty body. Then I grabbed him by both shoulders and said "You don't even know what you just did my man."
We played it back and Joe agreed...we had captured a special take.
The problem was that now I had a track with no click and a keyboard guitar. I decided to figure out the logistics of this later.
I overdubbed a bass part, a steel string guitar on the left side, and then an organ part. It sounded like a finished record.
Everyone that heard this flipped. Such a brilliant, boiled down, distilled, in the moment performance by both of us. Two buddies making music alone.
Then we tried to go into the big studio and re-create it. I called THE cats to play on it. THE cats. Nobody better.
We dicked around for a few hours, and everyone sounded amazing, but it was obvious: we were re-making a record that was already DONE. Joe and I talked in the vocal booth and agreed.
It was a difficult choice to put this "DEMO" on the record for some people, but not for me, and not for Joe. This was a beautiful moment. Just Joe and me doing our thing. Nothing more, nothing less.
The entire process had taken less than an hour; from proposing the song to doing a rough mix (which is what ended up on the record).
I can't listen to this song now without breaking down inside. I knew we had a special moment together, but little did I know how special.
Here is a link to the song with a cheesy video that I have no connection to. If you don't get choked up at the end, you're not human.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTzAuEuC95k
Joe was a beautiful, humble giant and reluctant genius and I miss him dearly. Thankfully the music will live on.
CJ Vanston
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From: Paul Rappaport
Subject: Re: The Stones At The Fonda
The Rolling Stones have been my all time favorite band since I was 17 years old. I learned how to play electric guitar listening to Keith Richards on all the early records. I was going steady with Sharon in high school then, and "Every Body Needs Somebody To Love" was our song.
In 1966 we went to see The Stones at the Hollywood Bowl. We stood up, danced around, and generally went crazy like you see on the old black and white newsreels. Fast forward 20 years later, Sharon and I are married, have moved to New York, we have kids, and I'm sitting on a couch next to Mick Jagger at Columbia Records' headquarters telling him his promotion and marketing plans. The two most amazing things are, one, I actually know what I'm talking about, and two, he's actually listening to ME!! If you would have told me when I was 18 years old at the Hollywood Bowl that one day,….well, you get the idea.
So now, I'm in heaven—the Stones are on Columbia. I have stories for days, the kind that I will remember forever, but I want to share just one now, because it illustrates what you witnessed Bob.
The Rolling Stones are a real band that lives and breathes as one organism and can change its personality whenever it likes to suit the mood—no click tracks here babe. And, they ARE STILL the worlds' greatest rock and roll band—even at these ages. Think about that statement for a second.
Mick Jagger's work ethic is something to be admired and I've only seen a few artists driven like that—Bruce Springsteen and Tony Bennett come to mind. It's why the Stones are the last band from that era not only still standing but pouring it on.
I had met Keith and Woody during the "New Barbarians" tour. I'm lucky to have survived that—it was like better living through chemistry. Ha, ha—stayed awake for days on end, sleeping very odd hours, etc., etc.. Everyone was out of it on that tour so I didn't get to have a real conversation with my all time rock hero, Keef.
But when the Stones came to Columbia, it was different—not over the top partying and I could have those kinds of conversations, especially the music ones. Mick was blown away that I knew about the two versions of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and that the European album version was superior. I told him I ordered it before imports were even a thing—cost me $8.00 at the time (a lot of money for a blue collar kid to spend on just a record) and it came by boat and took 3 months to show up, all the from England to Downey California.
Fast forward to the "Steel Wheels" tour. Like all before the band opened at a small club—Toad's Place in New Haven. That's when I saw what you just saw—how great this band truly is. No big light show, no grand staging to hide behind—no larger than life sound where you can make a mistake but no one will hear it in an arena setting. It's all out there for everyone to see and hear. The stage was so small the band could barely fit, and there was no room for Mick to even show off all of his dance moves. It was the vocals and how he presented each word that just drew you in, like Frank Sinatra.
That band, in that room, set the record straight—pinned people's ears back, the incredible precision of the "weaving of guitars" all around Charlie Watts' back beat--yet played loosely like the Stones are meant to be. They don't need all the bells and whistles if they don't want—THEY ARE A GREAT FUCKING BAND, and in full flight can take you anywhere!
And, while they love being the Stones and all the stuff that goes with it, they are players first. It's the real thing.
During this time I got to have the talk I always wanted to have with the rock hero who inspired me to play the electric guitar. I tried not to gush and just told Keith the facts. He was so happy to hear that whatever he was doing as a guitar player he had "passed it on." He talked to me like a fellow player, not like a rock God to a record guy. He said, that he had it passed down to him from people like Chuck Berry and that his job, and all our jobs as musicians, was to pass it on—this wonderful way of expressing oneself on this intimate instrument, the guitar.
He went on to give me a bit of a guitar lesson. He insisted I try G tuning which is one of his secrets. He told me the reason why the exact sound of The Stones eluded my high school cover band was, that we were trying to play Stones' hits without being in G tuning. He got very excited about passing this on to me. He said, "Go home, take the top (E) string off the guitar, it just gets in the way. Then tune the A string to G and so on. Use a simple bar chord position with only two fingers and see what happens!--then report back."
So, I go home thinking, "take the top string off the guitar, it gets in the way??" But I do as the master suggests and low and behold—EVERY GREAT ROLLING STONES SIGNATURE RIFF AND SONGS ARE IN G TUNING!!! You name it, "Start Me Up," "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk" and on and on and on. And once you begin to play rhythm guitar like this, you even see how that signature Keith Richards arm movement evolved.
So, I report back and we have another great conversation. When the Stones left the label (for more money—quote Keith, "Don't take it personal, it's just business") I asked if he'd sign something for me as a memory. He said of course, and I sent him a photo I had of him back stage years ago warming up for the Barbarians. It's a great photo because it shows him as just a player with his eyes closed trying to grab a great chord—in G tuning!
The captioned photo is my prized possession, above every gold or platinum record, or plaque I've ever received. It hangs on the wall right across from my desk. It's Keith's description of the photo. It reads "To Paul, 5 strings, 3 notes, 2 fingers, 1 ass-hole, Love, Keith Richards"!
In this one photo, it says everything about Keith and The Rolling Stones. He and they are real players above and beyond anything else and that's why the music affects us so. And, while they are very proud of their achievements they know deep inside—It's only rock and roll.
But we like it. No, WE LOVE IT!
Paul Rappaport
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Tuesday 23 June 2015
Rock Star CEOs
John Legere is selling a crappy product in a new way and winning all the while. He's a rock star CEO.
Kind of like Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, the cofounder of Flickr, who went ballistic on the "Wall Street Journal" today (http://read.bi/1dbwMsi)
Used to be you kept your head down and played to the Street, stayed unknown so you could keep your career. But today's CEOs, those who win, mostly from the younger generation, have a public profile, just like their audience. Every American is reachable online, except for the rich and famous, and this has got to change.
In case you're unaware of who John Legere is, he's the CEO of T-Mobile, the perennially fourth-ranked mobile service in America, which is suddenly stealing subscribers from Verizon and AT&T, not by providing a better service, but one that is aligned with customers, that purveys an image of rebellion and fairness, all embodied by the CEO.
In other words, we know who Shawn Fanning is. Sean Parker too. But ask the average person who the music business titans are and they draw a blank, to the industry's detriment.
Except for Jimmy Iovine. Who wove a course of self-promotion that didn't seem to be about him. Jimmy won the same way Legere is, by taking a staid marketplace and selling a second-rate product in a new way and taking market share from competitors. That's the story of Beats. You can't find a single person with anything good to say about their fidelity. But fidelity doesn't matter, the same way T-Mobile's second-rate coverage doesn't matter.
Imagine if Lucian Grainge was a public figure. Imagine if Doug Morris were accessible. Michael Rapino too. It would aid the entire industry.
The story of the modern music business is the acts can't get traction. In a cluttered space, it's hard to gain notice, especially if you don't have Top Forty hits. Rather than cheerleading, we get complaining. To the point where the public tunes out. A public that is so overwhelmed it consumes new music at festivals, where they're captive and can graze, tuning in to see what you're like. That's the story of the teens, how you put out an album and it's over in a week, once your fans have bought it you're dead in the water. Acts don't realize you lead with your live show, the record comes later, kind of like the Grateful Dead. You make fans on the road who then dial you up on Spotify. To try to convince people otherwise is fruitless, especially since you can't make any money with a hit single, because you have no career and that's the only money you're going to get, and we all know the big money in music is on the road.
So we need someone to mix it up.
In a world where rich CEOs dominate the culture, we need music's rich CEOs to steer the public. To have personalities and turn fans on to new sounds.
In the music business everybody is great and everybody is a star.
Only they're not.
Imagine if Lucian tweeted about his new favorite act. People would check it out. As long as he didn't tweet everybody on his roster, especially if he tweeted an act that WASN'T on his roster!
When the baby boomers die, the music business will look completely different. The old farts are only in charge because of catalog, which is leveraged to keep them in power, the barrier to entry for young 'uns is too high, so they stay away and music is poorer for it.
Of course you can say that execs should stay out of the way and let the stars shine. But that's old school thinking. Back when the stars were really such. Neil Young takes on Monsanto and the young 'uns ask how they can sell out to the corporation. If a CEO were outrageous, it would be a beacon to his roster.
It's not hard.
It starts on Twitter. That's right, that's what the service is good for. As long as you speak the truth.
No one's got time for the rantings of nobodies on Twitter, but that's where you get access to the somebodies, especially the real bigwigs. And you can tweet and the CEOs get back to you, I know, I wrote about Legere and he instantly responded. I didn't think I flew on that guy's radar. But he's reading everything about his company.
There's so much to say about music. The tunes themselves, the acts, the grosses, the financial shenanigans. In an era of transparency driven by tech music is all about keeping it under wraps, it's out of touch with the times, which is very sad, because music used to lead.
This is coming. Because competitors in cutthroat battlefields need an edge, and the socially-connected kids know this.
1. Who should I sign? Tweet and ask the public to weigh in, engage people.
2. Give away tickets online. Or graduate people from the peanut gallery to the front row. Sure, bands do this. But Michael Rapino is selling tickets every day of the year.
3. Complain and explain. Why you can't get a good ticket, what the best strategy is.
4. What kind of private jet you're flying on. Everybody knows you fly private, don't try to hide it, fans eat up this information. And tweet pictures of who is with you, whether known or unknown.
5. What you're eating. Food rules, even more than music. Food trucks broke on Twitter, CEOs can use the service to the same advantage.
6. Go off topic, everybody's three-dimensional. When you only talk about your own business in glowing terms people tune out.
7. Be negative, be edgy, complain and compete. This is Legere's strength, he's not ready to play nice, and you shouldn't be either.
P.S. To learn more about Legere, read this imperfect story in "Fast Company": http://bit.ly/1JhDjji Or follow him on Twitter, where he's got 1.38 million followers exposed to his twenty tweets a day: @JohnLegere
P.P.S. Even more interesting in "Fast Company" is the story on Shake Shack: http://bit.ly/1KbtZOl Keys to its success? High quality and slow growth. Millennials are all about natural. Pat LaFrieda is the Beatles of meat and that's what Shake Shack uses. The music industry is McDonald's, literally. It's trying to stuff an old paradigm down a younger generation's throat. Millennials want authentic and honest. More credits, illustrating the artists involved actually did the work. And those who become instant stars rarely last. You have to grow slowly, learn from your mistakes, adjust, wait for the public to embrace you and spread the word. Anything jammed is ultimately rejected by the masses. Don't start with backlash.
P.P.P.S. Twitter is not the only forum. Certainly use Instagram, but also do interviews, make news, something music CEOs rarely do, unless they're bitching.
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Kind of like Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, the cofounder of Flickr, who went ballistic on the "Wall Street Journal" today (http://read.bi/1dbwMsi)
Used to be you kept your head down and played to the Street, stayed unknown so you could keep your career. But today's CEOs, those who win, mostly from the younger generation, have a public profile, just like their audience. Every American is reachable online, except for the rich and famous, and this has got to change.
In case you're unaware of who John Legere is, he's the CEO of T-Mobile, the perennially fourth-ranked mobile service in America, which is suddenly stealing subscribers from Verizon and AT&T, not by providing a better service, but one that is aligned with customers, that purveys an image of rebellion and fairness, all embodied by the CEO.
In other words, we know who Shawn Fanning is. Sean Parker too. But ask the average person who the music business titans are and they draw a blank, to the industry's detriment.
Except for Jimmy Iovine. Who wove a course of self-promotion that didn't seem to be about him. Jimmy won the same way Legere is, by taking a staid marketplace and selling a second-rate product in a new way and taking market share from competitors. That's the story of Beats. You can't find a single person with anything good to say about their fidelity. But fidelity doesn't matter, the same way T-Mobile's second-rate coverage doesn't matter.
Imagine if Lucian Grainge was a public figure. Imagine if Doug Morris were accessible. Michael Rapino too. It would aid the entire industry.
The story of the modern music business is the acts can't get traction. In a cluttered space, it's hard to gain notice, especially if you don't have Top Forty hits. Rather than cheerleading, we get complaining. To the point where the public tunes out. A public that is so overwhelmed it consumes new music at festivals, where they're captive and can graze, tuning in to see what you're like. That's the story of the teens, how you put out an album and it's over in a week, once your fans have bought it you're dead in the water. Acts don't realize you lead with your live show, the record comes later, kind of like the Grateful Dead. You make fans on the road who then dial you up on Spotify. To try to convince people otherwise is fruitless, especially since you can't make any money with a hit single, because you have no career and that's the only money you're going to get, and we all know the big money in music is on the road.
So we need someone to mix it up.
In a world where rich CEOs dominate the culture, we need music's rich CEOs to steer the public. To have personalities and turn fans on to new sounds.
In the music business everybody is great and everybody is a star.
Only they're not.
Imagine if Lucian tweeted about his new favorite act. People would check it out. As long as he didn't tweet everybody on his roster, especially if he tweeted an act that WASN'T on his roster!
When the baby boomers die, the music business will look completely different. The old farts are only in charge because of catalog, which is leveraged to keep them in power, the barrier to entry for young 'uns is too high, so they stay away and music is poorer for it.
Of course you can say that execs should stay out of the way and let the stars shine. But that's old school thinking. Back when the stars were really such. Neil Young takes on Monsanto and the young 'uns ask how they can sell out to the corporation. If a CEO were outrageous, it would be a beacon to his roster.
It's not hard.
It starts on Twitter. That's right, that's what the service is good for. As long as you speak the truth.
No one's got time for the rantings of nobodies on Twitter, but that's where you get access to the somebodies, especially the real bigwigs. And you can tweet and the CEOs get back to you, I know, I wrote about Legere and he instantly responded. I didn't think I flew on that guy's radar. But he's reading everything about his company.
There's so much to say about music. The tunes themselves, the acts, the grosses, the financial shenanigans. In an era of transparency driven by tech music is all about keeping it under wraps, it's out of touch with the times, which is very sad, because music used to lead.
This is coming. Because competitors in cutthroat battlefields need an edge, and the socially-connected kids know this.
1. Who should I sign? Tweet and ask the public to weigh in, engage people.
2. Give away tickets online. Or graduate people from the peanut gallery to the front row. Sure, bands do this. But Michael Rapino is selling tickets every day of the year.
3. Complain and explain. Why you can't get a good ticket, what the best strategy is.
4. What kind of private jet you're flying on. Everybody knows you fly private, don't try to hide it, fans eat up this information. And tweet pictures of who is with you, whether known or unknown.
5. What you're eating. Food rules, even more than music. Food trucks broke on Twitter, CEOs can use the service to the same advantage.
6. Go off topic, everybody's three-dimensional. When you only talk about your own business in glowing terms people tune out.
7. Be negative, be edgy, complain and compete. This is Legere's strength, he's not ready to play nice, and you shouldn't be either.
P.S. To learn more about Legere, read this imperfect story in "Fast Company": http://bit.ly/1JhDjji Or follow him on Twitter, where he's got 1.38 million followers exposed to his twenty tweets a day: @JohnLegere
P.P.S. Even more interesting in "Fast Company" is the story on Shake Shack: http://bit.ly/1KbtZOl Keys to its success? High quality and slow growth. Millennials are all about natural. Pat LaFrieda is the Beatles of meat and that's what Shake Shack uses. The music industry is McDonald's, literally. It's trying to stuff an old paradigm down a younger generation's throat. Millennials want authentic and honest. More credits, illustrating the artists involved actually did the work. And those who become instant stars rarely last. You have to grow slowly, learn from your mistakes, adjust, wait for the public to embrace you and spread the word. Anything jammed is ultimately rejected by the masses. Don't start with backlash.
P.P.P.S. Twitter is not the only forum. Certainly use Instagram, but also do interviews, make news, something music CEOs rarely do, unless they're bitching.
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Monday 22 June 2015
More Apple Music
It's gonna go freemium.
Just like Apple pivoted when the indies and Taylor Swift complained about the three month no pay plan, when customers abandon Apple Music en masse after their initial trial, Apple's gonna pivot again.
Just like Spotify.
Remember when Spotify was gonna be free for only six months? When you had to pay to get mobile? Spotify changed course when it realized it would be dead in the water without the freemium element and that the free tier generated paid subscribers.
We already know Apple Music won't work. Because of Beats. Come on, with every NBA player in existence wearing the headphones, with every star having his or her own personal model, people should have subscribed to Beats Music in droves. But they didn't. Because they're not inured to pay for music, they have to be taught to pay for music, via convenience and price. The moral argument fails. There's not enough innovation in Apple Music to make people give up YouTube, never mind switch from Spotify.
And speaking of YouTube, I had a conversation with Robert Kyncl wherein he quoted Steve Jobs, who said that you don't mess with something that's working. The record companies wanted to raise iTunes prices, Jobs said no. For a very long time. And Kyncl's point is YouTube pays money for its streams, and it's only going to get better, because of their advertising infrastructure.
The truth is companies need to spend dollars to reach consumers. And with the decline of network television they've got no choice but to go to the web. So YouTube sells against their best inventory. The selling is key! YouTube has sales departments around the world, working with advertisers, explaining how to extract the greatest benefit from YouTube clips. In other words, the reason you see so few ads on the free tier of Spotify, the reason the free tier pays so poorly, is because the company is doing a poor job of selling said ads. But, like YouTube, they will only get better and revenue will only go up.
So, come the fall, when Apple makes all of its product introductions, expect to hear that Apple Music will maintain its free tier. Of course, this isn't simple, the company will have to sell ads too, it will have to cripple usability on mobile, but it will be the only way to save face. Come on, these are not hidden numbers. Apple can't afford to have its service fail. And if artists and analysts trumpet paltry payments there will be a stink in Cupertino smelled around the world. All those billions in the bank can't counter negative publicity.
And speaking of publicity, my inbox is filled with people who think the Taylor Swift/Apple kerfuffle was planned, it was a hoax, all to publicize Apple Music. Based on my conversation with one of the players I don't believe this, but it's fascinating that our country has evolved to the point where no one trusts anyone in power. Credit the government. Wherein people say one thing and do another, politicians lie all the time, as do corporations, as do today's artists. You can seemingly trust no one but yourself.
But the truth is the commotion made Apple look good, it was a greater marketing campaign for the music service than the WWDC stream.
But this won't make people pay.
Life is about dealing with the hand you're dealt. And the hand Apple is dealing with on music is...
Spotify was there first, never mind the rest of the also-rans.
And YouTube is the dominant player.
And Apple is offering nothing new. If radio were attractive, iTunes Radio would have triumphed, but it didn't. As for the vaunted social network Connect...is that our problem, a dearth of social networks? In a world where Windows Phone can get no traction and BlackBerry is dead and Nokia is on life support do we really think anybody cares about Connect?
No, they just want the music.
And right now it's free.
And it's gonna be.
Until someone comes up with something so enticing and so easy to use that more people will pay for it.
We're close, but not there yet.
So freemium should survive, and it will.
P.S. When more people pay, middle class artists will still be screwed. Their income was based on scarcity. If you had a record deal and radio airplay you made money. But today everybody can play and you're competing against the greatest hits of all time. Therefore, the rich will get richer and the poor...will stay that way...as the middle class declines, just like in real life.
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Just like Apple pivoted when the indies and Taylor Swift complained about the three month no pay plan, when customers abandon Apple Music en masse after their initial trial, Apple's gonna pivot again.
Just like Spotify.
Remember when Spotify was gonna be free for only six months? When you had to pay to get mobile? Spotify changed course when it realized it would be dead in the water without the freemium element and that the free tier generated paid subscribers.
We already know Apple Music won't work. Because of Beats. Come on, with every NBA player in existence wearing the headphones, with every star having his or her own personal model, people should have subscribed to Beats Music in droves. But they didn't. Because they're not inured to pay for music, they have to be taught to pay for music, via convenience and price. The moral argument fails. There's not enough innovation in Apple Music to make people give up YouTube, never mind switch from Spotify.
And speaking of YouTube, I had a conversation with Robert Kyncl wherein he quoted Steve Jobs, who said that you don't mess with something that's working. The record companies wanted to raise iTunes prices, Jobs said no. For a very long time. And Kyncl's point is YouTube pays money for its streams, and it's only going to get better, because of their advertising infrastructure.
The truth is companies need to spend dollars to reach consumers. And with the decline of network television they've got no choice but to go to the web. So YouTube sells against their best inventory. The selling is key! YouTube has sales departments around the world, working with advertisers, explaining how to extract the greatest benefit from YouTube clips. In other words, the reason you see so few ads on the free tier of Spotify, the reason the free tier pays so poorly, is because the company is doing a poor job of selling said ads. But, like YouTube, they will only get better and revenue will only go up.
So, come the fall, when Apple makes all of its product introductions, expect to hear that Apple Music will maintain its free tier. Of course, this isn't simple, the company will have to sell ads too, it will have to cripple usability on mobile, but it will be the only way to save face. Come on, these are not hidden numbers. Apple can't afford to have its service fail. And if artists and analysts trumpet paltry payments there will be a stink in Cupertino smelled around the world. All those billions in the bank can't counter negative publicity.
And speaking of publicity, my inbox is filled with people who think the Taylor Swift/Apple kerfuffle was planned, it was a hoax, all to publicize Apple Music. Based on my conversation with one of the players I don't believe this, but it's fascinating that our country has evolved to the point where no one trusts anyone in power. Credit the government. Wherein people say one thing and do another, politicians lie all the time, as do corporations, as do today's artists. You can seemingly trust no one but yourself.
But the truth is the commotion made Apple look good, it was a greater marketing campaign for the music service than the WWDC stream.
But this won't make people pay.
Life is about dealing with the hand you're dealt. And the hand Apple is dealing with on music is...
Spotify was there first, never mind the rest of the also-rans.
And YouTube is the dominant player.
And Apple is offering nothing new. If radio were attractive, iTunes Radio would have triumphed, but it didn't. As for the vaunted social network Connect...is that our problem, a dearth of social networks? In a world where Windows Phone can get no traction and BlackBerry is dead and Nokia is on life support do we really think anybody cares about Connect?
No, they just want the music.
And right now it's free.
And it's gonna be.
Until someone comes up with something so enticing and so easy to use that more people will pay for it.
We're close, but not there yet.
So freemium should survive, and it will.
P.S. When more people pay, middle class artists will still be screwed. Their income was based on scarcity. If you had a record deal and radio airplay you made money. But today everybody can play and you're competing against the greatest hits of all time. Therefore, the rich will get richer and the poor...will stay that way...as the middle class declines, just like in real life.
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Sunday 21 June 2015
Eddy Cue Caves
@cue: Apple will always make sure that artist are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic
@cue: #AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer's free trial period
@cue: We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple
I don't know who to credit more, Eddy Cue or Taylor Swift.
Eddy responded immediately, on a Sunday, proving, once again, if you don't show up on Saturday, don't even THINK about showing up on Sunday! Thank you Jeffrey Katzenberg, you too are pivoting, albeit not as fast as Eddy Cue. And that's just the point, admit your mistakes and move on. He who digs in his heels is wrong. So Eddy gets props here.
But the truth is Taylor Swift just demonstrated the power of audience. An indie artist selling out clubs could say the same thing and have no effect. And the way Taylor Swift garnered that audience was through music. Her original tunes, sung straight from the heart, such that she bonded millions of people to her, who believe in her the way they believe in nobody else, take that Apple.
That's the power of music. That's the way it used to be done. That's why we revere the sixties. That's why the Grateful Dead can sell out stadiums fifty years on.
Or to quote the bard of the Hollywood Hills, "we haven't had that spirit here since 1969."
Notice Cue weighed in. It wasn't Jimmy Iovine. Who comes from the silent wall of the music business. Just try to get Doug Morris or Lucian Grainge to go on the record. As for Warner, it's faceless, to its detriment. But instead of standing up for artists, Morris and Grainge stood up for themselves, with their old buddy Jimmy. They have egg on their faces. Cue backed down, can Doug and Lucian? Of course not, they won't even admit guilt! But they started this thing. And isn't it interesting that the world's best records come from Martin Mills and his indie Beggars Group. The majors are a machine that excises art, that don't stand for anything so much as making money. Which is why artists must do it for themselves.
I don't know what went through Taylor Swift's mind. Notice, she didn't weigh in immediately, this indie/nonpayment for three months story has been percolating for a week. But once she digested the issues she said her piece. In other words, you don't have to shoot from the hip. But if you're waiting for every fact to come in, to test the wind to see what public opinion is, if you're more worried about your career than what's right, you're limited.
Come on, this is a bigger hit than anything on "1989." Taylor Swift just took on the biggest company in the world and WON!
So let her effort be a beacon. Let other artists fall into step. And stop being so afraid. There's plenty of money in music, Taylor Swift is making millions on the road, never mind her endorsement deals. And it's the tunes that are greasing the skids. The tour used to be the ad for the album, now it's vice versa. Taylor's album is on a downward trend, it's past its peak, it's not she who's suffering here, but...
Think of the Tidal artists. They could have done it for everybody else, but the truth is they wanted to line their own pockets.
So, kudos to Taylor Swift.
And applause for Apple. Because admitting when you're wrong is nearly as important as being right.
Onward and upward.
P.S. People will forget Apple didn't want to pay, but they'll always remember Taylor Swift standing up to the company. Apple nipped the problem in the bud, the longer you let the negativity fester, the longer the stink holds. But the truth is efforts like Taylor Swift's are career-defining moments of credibility that are trumpeted for eons, they're what cements artists' careers. It's not only hits, it's identity. Records come and go, people remain. If you stand for something, you're the hook that catches the velcro loop, and we're all loops waiting to be caught.
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@cue: #AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer's free trial period
@cue: We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple
I don't know who to credit more, Eddy Cue or Taylor Swift.
Eddy responded immediately, on a Sunday, proving, once again, if you don't show up on Saturday, don't even THINK about showing up on Sunday! Thank you Jeffrey Katzenberg, you too are pivoting, albeit not as fast as Eddy Cue. And that's just the point, admit your mistakes and move on. He who digs in his heels is wrong. So Eddy gets props here.
But the truth is Taylor Swift just demonstrated the power of audience. An indie artist selling out clubs could say the same thing and have no effect. And the way Taylor Swift garnered that audience was through music. Her original tunes, sung straight from the heart, such that she bonded millions of people to her, who believe in her the way they believe in nobody else, take that Apple.
That's the power of music. That's the way it used to be done. That's why we revere the sixties. That's why the Grateful Dead can sell out stadiums fifty years on.
Or to quote the bard of the Hollywood Hills, "we haven't had that spirit here since 1969."
Notice Cue weighed in. It wasn't Jimmy Iovine. Who comes from the silent wall of the music business. Just try to get Doug Morris or Lucian Grainge to go on the record. As for Warner, it's faceless, to its detriment. But instead of standing up for artists, Morris and Grainge stood up for themselves, with their old buddy Jimmy. They have egg on their faces. Cue backed down, can Doug and Lucian? Of course not, they won't even admit guilt! But they started this thing. And isn't it interesting that the world's best records come from Martin Mills and his indie Beggars Group. The majors are a machine that excises art, that don't stand for anything so much as making money. Which is why artists must do it for themselves.
I don't know what went through Taylor Swift's mind. Notice, she didn't weigh in immediately, this indie/nonpayment for three months story has been percolating for a week. But once she digested the issues she said her piece. In other words, you don't have to shoot from the hip. But if you're waiting for every fact to come in, to test the wind to see what public opinion is, if you're more worried about your career than what's right, you're limited.
Come on, this is a bigger hit than anything on "1989." Taylor Swift just took on the biggest company in the world and WON!
So let her effort be a beacon. Let other artists fall into step. And stop being so afraid. There's plenty of money in music, Taylor Swift is making millions on the road, never mind her endorsement deals. And it's the tunes that are greasing the skids. The tour used to be the ad for the album, now it's vice versa. Taylor's album is on a downward trend, it's past its peak, it's not she who's suffering here, but...
Think of the Tidal artists. They could have done it for everybody else, but the truth is they wanted to line their own pockets.
So, kudos to Taylor Swift.
And applause for Apple. Because admitting when you're wrong is nearly as important as being right.
Onward and upward.
P.S. People will forget Apple didn't want to pay, but they'll always remember Taylor Swift standing up to the company. Apple nipped the problem in the bud, the longer you let the negativity fester, the longer the stink holds. But the truth is efforts like Taylor Swift's are career-defining moments of credibility that are trumpeted for eons, they're what cements artists' careers. It's not only hits, it's identity. Records come and go, people remain. If you stand for something, you're the hook that catches the velcro loop, and we're all loops waiting to be caught.
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Taylor Swift On Apple Music
She's right but she's wrong.
Apple should pay, but Swift acts like she's above the rules, that she isn't involved in music business shenanigans.
In other words, while she's at it why doesn't she tackle breakage, free goods, radio shows, concert accounting...
It's a dirty business and Jimmy Iovine is too stupid to realize he's no longer working at Interscope. In other words, the transparency's killing him. And you don't want to piss off Taylor Swift's fans, believe me, I know.
This is typical music business. You help me and I help you. I'm delivering this great new service that's gonna save music, so you've got to help me out. The same way manufacturers help retailers out with fixtures and advertising.
Only Apple is the most valuable company in the world.
How stupid can it be.
Because the company should be paying. It's got the cash. And what ever money is involved pales in comparison to the bad blood stirred up by extracting this pound of flesh.
I expect movement here. I expect Apple to extend an olive branch.
Because it's pissing off the indies too. And Martin Mills has got a fraction of the power of Taylor Swift, but at least he's on the right side, as opposed to the fat cats in bed with Jimmy Iovine.
First the Watch, now this. Apple's playing a bad tune.
There seems to be a belief that Apple can save the music industry, that it can do no wrong, that with one pass of its wand it can change consumer behavior around the world. And to believe this is to ignore the history of the internet, where people find holes in the dike, however small, and then make them bigger and bigger and... People will sign up for Apple Music in droves, they like free. They like free so much that they'll cancel their subscriptions when payment is necessary, three months down the line. The same way they cancel cable. You think parents are not gonna see that charge every month? You think America's middle class, what's left of it, is awash in cash? The iPod only took off when the price was lowered. But you could never get one for free. Apple's family plan is a good start, but it's competing against YouTube.
Where Taylor Swift's music remains. Because she likes the money from the ads.
But credit Ms. Swift, she's the most powerful person in music in America, and unlike her popular brethren, she's standing up for something. But if it weren't for YouTube and iTunes, she'd be standing up for nothing at all. Apple's streaming service isn't hurting her today, but tomorrow...
It's kind of like that "Twilight Zone" episode "To Serve Man." The three majors are blindly walking in to Apple's camp. Believing the company's intentions are all good, when...
Now the truth is there tends to be one winner online. One entity with 60%+ market share. And that will happen in streaming music. And it just might be Apple Music that wins.
But not necessarily.
It might be a good idea to partner with a less powerful entity.
Then again, that's what the three majors did. They've got a piece of Spotify...
So, the question is... Who's on your side? And the truth is the labels are rarely on the side of the artists. As a matter of fact, usually only when it's in their financial favor. Kobalt revolutionizes publishing payment and you still can't get an accurate royalty statement from a label, if you can get one at all. This will change, but only when Ms. Swift and her ilk point the finger at their bosses.
So, Swift pointed the finger at Spotify and it benefited the Swedish streaming service. Because at that point the masses were still unaware of it.
But everybody knows about Apple Music. Because of streaming history, because of Swift's Spotify kerfuffle, because of the WWDC presentation. And when you piss off Swift's fans...
Well that's just mean.
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Apple should pay, but Swift acts like she's above the rules, that she isn't involved in music business shenanigans.
In other words, while she's at it why doesn't she tackle breakage, free goods, radio shows, concert accounting...
It's a dirty business and Jimmy Iovine is too stupid to realize he's no longer working at Interscope. In other words, the transparency's killing him. And you don't want to piss off Taylor Swift's fans, believe me, I know.
This is typical music business. You help me and I help you. I'm delivering this great new service that's gonna save music, so you've got to help me out. The same way manufacturers help retailers out with fixtures and advertising.
Only Apple is the most valuable company in the world.
How stupid can it be.
Because the company should be paying. It's got the cash. And what ever money is involved pales in comparison to the bad blood stirred up by extracting this pound of flesh.
I expect movement here. I expect Apple to extend an olive branch.
Because it's pissing off the indies too. And Martin Mills has got a fraction of the power of Taylor Swift, but at least he's on the right side, as opposed to the fat cats in bed with Jimmy Iovine.
First the Watch, now this. Apple's playing a bad tune.
There seems to be a belief that Apple can save the music industry, that it can do no wrong, that with one pass of its wand it can change consumer behavior around the world. And to believe this is to ignore the history of the internet, where people find holes in the dike, however small, and then make them bigger and bigger and... People will sign up for Apple Music in droves, they like free. They like free so much that they'll cancel their subscriptions when payment is necessary, three months down the line. The same way they cancel cable. You think parents are not gonna see that charge every month? You think America's middle class, what's left of it, is awash in cash? The iPod only took off when the price was lowered. But you could never get one for free. Apple's family plan is a good start, but it's competing against YouTube.
Where Taylor Swift's music remains. Because she likes the money from the ads.
But credit Ms. Swift, she's the most powerful person in music in America, and unlike her popular brethren, she's standing up for something. But if it weren't for YouTube and iTunes, she'd be standing up for nothing at all. Apple's streaming service isn't hurting her today, but tomorrow...
It's kind of like that "Twilight Zone" episode "To Serve Man." The three majors are blindly walking in to Apple's camp. Believing the company's intentions are all good, when...
Now the truth is there tends to be one winner online. One entity with 60%+ market share. And that will happen in streaming music. And it just might be Apple Music that wins.
But not necessarily.
It might be a good idea to partner with a less powerful entity.
Then again, that's what the three majors did. They've got a piece of Spotify...
So, the question is... Who's on your side? And the truth is the labels are rarely on the side of the artists. As a matter of fact, usually only when it's in their financial favor. Kobalt revolutionizes publishing payment and you still can't get an accurate royalty statement from a label, if you can get one at all. This will change, but only when Ms. Swift and her ilk point the finger at their bosses.
So, Swift pointed the finger at Spotify and it benefited the Swedish streaming service. Because at that point the masses were still unaware of it.
But everybody knows about Apple Music. Because of streaming history, because of Swift's Spotify kerfuffle, because of the WWDC presentation. And when you piss off Swift's fans...
Well that's just mean.
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