Mailbag

From: Val Garay
Subject: Re: Jack Tempchin At The Grammy Museum

Hey Bob,

So I remember when I was the Clive go to repair guy.
Back in the 70s the first thing he came to me with was the Jennifer Warnes - Right Time of The Night single produced buy Jim Ed Norman.
He thought it was a hit single but something was wrong. So I took the job and re-recorded the vocal and remixed it and lo and behold her first big hit.
Then there was Eric Carmen's - Boats Against The Current album produced by Gus Dugeon of Elton fame.
Clive couldn't get that one finished either so I finished that one also.
Then there was Beth & Steve Fischel of "Honk" fame signed to Clive and he wanted me to produce them.
Then came the Funky Kings.
They had just about completed their first album with Paul Rothchild (the Doors fame) and again Clive came to me to come in and finish it and re-mix the album.
I had met Jack before at the Troubadour and didn't really know Richard Stekol or Jules Shear or the multi instrumentalist Greg Liesz or Frank Cotinola the drummer.
I remixed the record and Arista put it out.
Unfortunately Johnny Rivers with his amazing song sense covered the song "Slow Dancing" with a fairly generic version but radio knew him and so that became the hit.
So then I started the second album but that never got completed either and the band broke up with the 3 principals going their separate ways.
I do remember loving a Richard Stekol song from that album that I eventually cut with Kim Carnes on the big hit album, "Mistaken Identity" with Bette Davis Eyes.
I just loved the song "My Old Pals". One of Richards's best.
I worked with Jack many times after that on numerous projects with him as a song writer. What a lovely guy as are all the others as well.

Cheers,
Val

____________________________________________

From: Ken Kragen
Subject: Re: The Classic-Day One

Bob, I sure wish I could've been at the Doobie Brothers Eagles concert this past weekend in LA. I am out of town on vacation. I know Irving Azoff will probably never confirm this but I actually played a significant role in the Eagles getting back together the first time. My then client Travis Tritt was about to do a video for a song he recorded for the country music Eagles tribute album and I called Irving to see if somehow we could miraculously get the group together to back him. Irving said there is no way that will ever happen. Don and Glenn will never agree but he added I know you're friends with Don if you can get him I'll reach out to Glen. I called Don and he repeated the same thing Irving did that there was no way it would happen. Somehow right there on the phone I came up with an outrageously crazy video idea. Don laughed and said OK I'll do it. I went back to Irving and told him and said now you have to get Glen. Amazingly he did although Glen didn't want to do my crazy idea. So we got together at a little club on pico Boulevard in Los Angeles in the group sang "Taking It Easy" with Travis. Three weeks later they announced they were getting together and going on tour again. I never made a penny from that but I sure was proud to be involved. They're simply my favorite group of all time.

____________________________________________

Subject: The Eagles

Man they just do not fuck around. Been catching some of the youtube videos and it's just a celebration of music.

This is not a money grab. This is Love and music driving the train. What a high blessing these musicians and their songbook has been to us.

Deacon worked for us for a few months at Interscope Studios. It's really great to see him invigorating the music and honoring his Dad.

Fucking A, this is music at it's highest vibration.

--
Peter Barker
Producer A&R
Spin Move Records

____________________________________________

From: Todd Sattersten
Subject: Re: Books

Bob,

Long time listener, love the show.

I have worked in book publishing for the last 15 years and have played in just about every role of the ecosystems - author, agent, editor, publisher, bookseller, foreign rights. It's been a trip to watch all the change over that time and I don't think that change has the same effects across all media industries.

Your rant about books, digital and pricing is one near and dear to my heart. Here is my take.

Most book publishers look at the world as one of scarce attention. They use price discrimination as their mental model for how the economics of the industry should work. They think they sell a product with a limited shelf life, like a baker or cruise ship company. Release the expensive hardcover, followed by the less expensive paperback, followed by the now largely retired mass paperback. This creates high profits early in the cycle for the people who really want the book and attempts to open up other segments of demand as the price goes down. Since most books don't sell many copies, they are doing their best to maximize profit early in the sales cycle.

You and Amazon share the worldview of price elasticity - if you lower the price, more people will buy it. I have run experiments with publishing projects and found this is true. Lower prices sell more stuff. Here is the trick: Can you sell enough volume to make up for lost margin? If you are selling a Top 100 title, I think the answer is yes. For the thousands of other books in the long tail, this is the wrong answer and you can't make the margin up on your hits.

Subscription services are the end game of a world of price elasticity. Books are different animal though. I can watch an entire season of Orange Is the New Black in the same time it takes to read the latest from Stephen King. Most people read one or two books in a YEAR. True readers might read ten to twenty books in 2017. Having a thousands of books to choose from and pay a monthly fee doesn't make sense to even the one percent of readers.

And higher prices didn't kill digital books. Yes, sometimes, I like to press a button and being able to start to read a book now. Others like their books in the cloud rather than on a shelf. Turns out only 10% of the market has those needs right now. The screens that most people use (phone and laptop) are not great for reading. Research shows people read slower on devices. The 550 year old codex format is still a better device for the vast majority of people who like to read books. This is a technology problem. Maybe something like VR gives us a better way to read books.

Look for the market to move to shorter books with shorter chapters to fit better into our widely varied, time segmented media life. You already see this in YA and business.

Thanks for listening.

Todd Sattersten

____________________________________________

From: William Castiglione
Subject: RE: Books

thanks Bob, i am in the process of carting my extensive hardcover collection to a "donation" box, as i'm moving and not moving the books, i'm taking my Kindle...but I was at a loss on what to be reading lately...anyway, grabbed the kindle file for Savages for $10 and grabbed the audio for another $7, so i can read and listen when driving which i love to do...if i can get a book and the audio for that book for under $20 combined, i consider that a win...and a sale for Amazon...frankly both for $15 would get me spending a lot of money as reading and partly listening when driving has become the way i prefer to digest many books...sometimes its nice to be read to and rest the tired eyes.

but my reading habits went from 2-3 books a week to 2-3 books a year, every kindle book i want to buy last couple years, is more than i want to pay...so fuck that. also, i will never read a book on paper again, cause i have to use reading glasses with books, something the kindle has allowed me not to have to get used to, so i'd rather read a larger font which changes with light and time of day, but i can read with my 55 year old eyes without help and one handed....and i'm going to stay eye glass free as long as possible, if nothing else the Kindle has saved my eyes from reading glasses...

I agree with you that publishing has blown it big time...

Bill Cason

____________________________________________

Subject: WSJ outreach re Christian Buettner and TheFatRat

Bob, I enjoy your newsletter and was intrigued by the letter you posted from Christian Buettner about his YouTube service. I cover the videogame industry for The Wall Street Journal and would love to connect with him. Any chance you could pass along his contact info, or forward this email to him? I'd be most grateful.

Regards,

Sarah E. Needleman
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

____________________________________________

From: Sonny Rock
Subject: Re: The Defiant Ones-Episode Two

"How in the Hell did we get Here?"

Nailed it, Bob

I was 10 yrs old when I read about the US Fest, began a Fascination of Motley Crue/U2,Music itself, that lasts today.

Jimmy was/is a Genius.

Dre was/is a Genius.

Why aren't I a Genius?

Someone has to be in the crowd. Bono needs someone to sing to.

That's me, I guess.

Sonny

--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5942&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Mailbag
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5942&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Mailbag
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5942&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Mailbag

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5942&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Mailbag

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5942&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Mailbag

-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --