Only one will win. There's one Amazon, one Facebook, one Twitter and there will be one streaming music service. Will it be MOG?
Spotify has problems. It sounds crummy and uptake amongst kids is close to nonexistent.
David Hyman will claim MOG sounds superior. That more tracks stream at 320 kbps, and the codec is better.
But I'm not sure any of that really matters. And I abhor the MOG interface. Intuitive it is not, whatever they claim.
You see most people still have no idea what Spotify is, never mind MOG or Rdio. And if they know the names, they can't explain them. But if Jimmy Iovine goes on "Idol" and keeps talking about MOG...
Game over.
Are you following the headphone wars? If you think Beats makes the best, you can only hear the low end, you know nothing about sound. But Beats has triumphed through advertising, through marketing, through adoption/shilling by high-visibility stars. Kids want to be like Mike. Only in this case, it's Dre. And Jimmy's unending coterie. And in addition to its staggering market share, Beats has blown up the high end headphone market, before Beats it barely existed.
Not that Spotify's toast. Spotify has done an incredible job of expanding upon its footprint. With apps and radio and Facebook integration and the Yahoo deal.
It comes down to a battle of old school versus new. Stars/marketing versus techies. And oftentimes in the new world, the latter has emerged victorious. Because it's less about placating the little girls than creating foolproof pipe. And speaking of pipe, it all comes down to the mobile handset, and although I disdain MOG's desktop usability, on the handset, both apps are very similar, MOG's might even be better, and that's where people pay, they have to, that's where the money is.
In other words, Jimmy may be able to convince kids they need streaming services. In this case, MOG. Hell, his job is to convince people they need all these musical acts.
Used to be the kids were first. But they were last on smartphones and last on Twitter. How many articles did we have to read saying Twitter was toast, that little kids wanted nothing to do with it? Well now, kids inhabit Twitter like they do school. It's where Justin Bieber started Carly Rae Jepsen. The coming fight is for the hearts and minds of the kids, who don't know they need a streaming service, but will one day adopt one.
Yes, the game is over. We're going to steaming. It's going to eviscerate piracy through convenience. Ownership, like the CD, will not die overnight, hell, not everyone uses a smartphone. But streaming will eclipse ownership the same way Netflix decimated the DVD business. Hell, are you storing your favorite programs for eternity on your DVR? No, you believe what you want will be at your fingertips forever, ownership is for pussies.
Isn't it strange that movies and TV are ahead of music. Then again, for too long music thought it could pull everybody back to the twentieth century. But not Jimmy. Sometimes you've got to buy to move forward. The cognoscenti know that was the story with iTunes, Steve Jobs bought SoundJam from Casady & Greene and brought its developers on board. "Not invented here" is a mantra Jimmy gave up on after past disasters. While his compatriots at the labels are fighting over market share, Jimmy's going for the big money. Yes, the valuation of MOG, if successful, will make Universal look puny in comparison. Hell, have you checked the value of Spotify recently?
This is all good for consumers. Just like Facebook is better than MySpace, usability is ultimately improved, the more players in the streaming wars, the better the eventual victorious product.
The only question is at what point Apple enters the game and wipes everybody else out. The Cupertino company is rarely first, but almost always best. Apple's got all the credit card numbers. It's got the hardware, the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Then again, Ping was a disaster. Is Apple missing the boat here or just waiting for someone else to create the market?
Yes, while you're bitching about Spotify payments, the ship has sailed. No one in business is paying attention. It's a fight to the finish. Which just got a hell of a lot more interesting.
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Monday, 2 July 2012
Sunday, 1 July 2012
The YouTube Article
"On YouTube, Amateur Is the New Pro": http://nyti.ms/LUJRUU
They pay.
That's the number one question I get, HOW DO I GET PAID?
Actually, that's two questions in one. How do you, the reader, get paid and secondarily, how do I, Bob Lefsetz, get paid.
I'm not gonna answer the second. But I will say power is more interesting to me than money. And fame is overrated. There are many wealthy people who have no impact on the discussion. And people like Snooki and Paris Hilton have such short shelf lives. But if money is your primary concern, go on YouTube.
My understanding is they find you. It's all mysterious, how much YouTubers receive from parent company Google. It seems to be the way of the Web, why we hate Spotify so much and root for Google to fail. Despite its "Don't Be Evil" mantra, Google is an odious empire with all our data that cares not a whit about anyone but itself, and, for the record, contrary to what Mitt Romney may claim, corporations are not people.
But if you've got more desire than talent, if you believe in ingenuity and hard work, if you don't know how to code, if you've got no uncle in the entertainment business, your best option is to build up your YouTube count.
YouTube is harsh. That's where you find out if someone has any followers or not. Sure, you can game the system, but most of these wannabes don't have the money to pay for that. You see they live outside the system. That's their calling card. That's why people flock to them.
It's an intimate medium. It's just you and the viewer. Which is why so many YouTube clips are about speaking directly to the viewer. Who is lonely, despite the sunniness on TV, and wants a friend, someone to believe in.
And the YouTubers are accessible. They're the opposite of superstars. Post a comment and they'll get back to you.
Not that I expect any of these YouTubers to become household names...
You see now we live in a two-tiered system, professional and wannabe. And it's harder than ever to fly up the ranks, but today wannabe isn't what it once was. Used to be if you weren't signed to a label you were toast, you had no impact. Now you can get your music on iTunes via Tunecore, rally your troops via Facebook and sing your songs on YouTube.
Yes, YouTube is the new radio. That's where kids go to hear tunes. That's why Spotify is failing. Spotify is so busy trying to placate the old guard, the labels and the ancient artists, that they've been completely ignored by kids. Kids don't need Spotify, they've got all the music, for free, at their fingertips, on YouTube.
YouTube is more powerful than any network, bigger than any newspaper... It may all be niches, but in the aggregate..!
And the biggest clips have hundreds of millions of views. They've got greater penetration than any TV show, most songs...
You want to get in on the action.
Anybody can play. Video gear is cheap and posting is free.
The 'Tubers in this article first and foremost want to work for themselves, they desire freedom. And art is secondary to views. They need views.
They're smarter than almost every musician who e-mails me.
If you're truly great, all you've got to do is put your wares online. People will find you and spread the word, there's very little phenomenal stuff and we're trolling for it all the time. We want to tell people about great stuff, it makes us feel good.
And we want to tell people about Rebecca Black's "Friday", because sometimes train-wreck is great. But those are one hit wonders... How do you get people to continue to pay attention?
One of these 'Tubers had been on "Ellen". I've never heard of her, or was it him, I've already forgotten. You see it's not about being on TV or in the paper, there's too much info, it all goes by too fast, but building your tribe.
Get your tribe to follow you on YouTube, then you'll get paid.
And if you've got no tribe, you're screwed. Because the pros find people to invest in by scouring the Internet for those with tribes. It's not about knocking on their doors, but waiting for them to find you because you're so damn big. Hell, isn't that how Perez Hilton made it?
And Perez is just the point. He's talentless. But a brilliant self-promoter. He's the poster boy for the age! He's something the boomers can't understand, they can just profit off of him after he's already made a dent.
And will those who make a dent in the future sell out or stay independent?
I don't know.
A great artist wants to be rescued. He wants someone else to do the heavy lifting. He just wants to stay home and create.
But despite all the carping about the need to do social networking, very few of these "artists" are great. Sure, we want to follow McCartney and Gaga, but all the middling artists have been dragged down by the wannabes. They were never that good, they were just the only thing available. Now, with diversions, we just don't care.
These 'Tubers have money, fans, they've built what the rock stars of yore desired, independence, albeit on a very small scale.
The big YouTube channels are gonna fail. Because the people YouTube gave the money to don't understand the medium. It would be like giving classical musicians money to make rock records.
Everything's up for grabs.
But a guy who interviews metal musicians can make $4,000 a month. Wow, if people were making this much, they'd stop e-mailing me!
And corporations will pay you six figures to create commercials. Because they want your audience.
My head is spinning. Do you sell out, tie in with the professionals, or just go your own way and invent it as you go along?
I'm not sure.
But I can tell you despite all the press hoopla nobody wants to see Neil Young's movie or buy his album of American standards. What a cheap shot. Even he's desperate.
You see it's almost impossible to get traction.
Which is why these 'Tubers are starting at the bottom, working 'round the clock, trying to build something, which is so hard to sustain even if you erect it.
It's like a Firesign Theatre record come to life. Everything you know is wrong.
You've got to read this article. It will leave you with so many more questions than answers.
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They pay.
That's the number one question I get, HOW DO I GET PAID?
Actually, that's two questions in one. How do you, the reader, get paid and secondarily, how do I, Bob Lefsetz, get paid.
I'm not gonna answer the second. But I will say power is more interesting to me than money. And fame is overrated. There are many wealthy people who have no impact on the discussion. And people like Snooki and Paris Hilton have such short shelf lives. But if money is your primary concern, go on YouTube.
My understanding is they find you. It's all mysterious, how much YouTubers receive from parent company Google. It seems to be the way of the Web, why we hate Spotify so much and root for Google to fail. Despite its "Don't Be Evil" mantra, Google is an odious empire with all our data that cares not a whit about anyone but itself, and, for the record, contrary to what Mitt Romney may claim, corporations are not people.
But if you've got more desire than talent, if you believe in ingenuity and hard work, if you don't know how to code, if you've got no uncle in the entertainment business, your best option is to build up your YouTube count.
YouTube is harsh. That's where you find out if someone has any followers or not. Sure, you can game the system, but most of these wannabes don't have the money to pay for that. You see they live outside the system. That's their calling card. That's why people flock to them.
It's an intimate medium. It's just you and the viewer. Which is why so many YouTube clips are about speaking directly to the viewer. Who is lonely, despite the sunniness on TV, and wants a friend, someone to believe in.
And the YouTubers are accessible. They're the opposite of superstars. Post a comment and they'll get back to you.
Not that I expect any of these YouTubers to become household names...
You see now we live in a two-tiered system, professional and wannabe. And it's harder than ever to fly up the ranks, but today wannabe isn't what it once was. Used to be if you weren't signed to a label you were toast, you had no impact. Now you can get your music on iTunes via Tunecore, rally your troops via Facebook and sing your songs on YouTube.
Yes, YouTube is the new radio. That's where kids go to hear tunes. That's why Spotify is failing. Spotify is so busy trying to placate the old guard, the labels and the ancient artists, that they've been completely ignored by kids. Kids don't need Spotify, they've got all the music, for free, at their fingertips, on YouTube.
YouTube is more powerful than any network, bigger than any newspaper... It may all be niches, but in the aggregate..!
And the biggest clips have hundreds of millions of views. They've got greater penetration than any TV show, most songs...
You want to get in on the action.
Anybody can play. Video gear is cheap and posting is free.
The 'Tubers in this article first and foremost want to work for themselves, they desire freedom. And art is secondary to views. They need views.
They're smarter than almost every musician who e-mails me.
If you're truly great, all you've got to do is put your wares online. People will find you and spread the word, there's very little phenomenal stuff and we're trolling for it all the time. We want to tell people about great stuff, it makes us feel good.
And we want to tell people about Rebecca Black's "Friday", because sometimes train-wreck is great. But those are one hit wonders... How do you get people to continue to pay attention?
One of these 'Tubers had been on "Ellen". I've never heard of her, or was it him, I've already forgotten. You see it's not about being on TV or in the paper, there's too much info, it all goes by too fast, but building your tribe.
Get your tribe to follow you on YouTube, then you'll get paid.
And if you've got no tribe, you're screwed. Because the pros find people to invest in by scouring the Internet for those with tribes. It's not about knocking on their doors, but waiting for them to find you because you're so damn big. Hell, isn't that how Perez Hilton made it?
And Perez is just the point. He's talentless. But a brilliant self-promoter. He's the poster boy for the age! He's something the boomers can't understand, they can just profit off of him after he's already made a dent.
And will those who make a dent in the future sell out or stay independent?
I don't know.
A great artist wants to be rescued. He wants someone else to do the heavy lifting. He just wants to stay home and create.
But despite all the carping about the need to do social networking, very few of these "artists" are great. Sure, we want to follow McCartney and Gaga, but all the middling artists have been dragged down by the wannabes. They were never that good, they were just the only thing available. Now, with diversions, we just don't care.
These 'Tubers have money, fans, they've built what the rock stars of yore desired, independence, albeit on a very small scale.
The big YouTube channels are gonna fail. Because the people YouTube gave the money to don't understand the medium. It would be like giving classical musicians money to make rock records.
Everything's up for grabs.
But a guy who interviews metal musicians can make $4,000 a month. Wow, if people were making this much, they'd stop e-mailing me!
And corporations will pay you six figures to create commercials. Because they want your audience.
My head is spinning. Do you sell out, tie in with the professionals, or just go your own way and invent it as you go along?
I'm not sure.
But I can tell you despite all the press hoopla nobody wants to see Neil Young's movie or buy his album of American standards. What a cheap shot. Even he's desperate.
You see it's almost impossible to get traction.
Which is why these 'Tubers are starting at the bottom, working 'round the clock, trying to build something, which is so hard to sustain even if you erect it.
It's like a Firesign Theatre record come to life. Everything you know is wrong.
You've got to read this article. It will leave you with so many more questions than answers.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
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The Age Of Miracles
I could not put this book down.
Do you know this album by Supertramp, "Crime Of The Century"?
This was long before they had their hits, before they started singing about having kippers for breakfast. As a matter of fact, this was only their second record, and the first was not really the same band, it was from a different oeuvre.
Maybe the best sounding record ever, it sold a million stereos in its half-speed mastered iteration, it's what made me decide to pop for a Nakamichi instead of an Akai, only the former could reproduce the wail in "Bloody Well Right". "Crime Of The Century" told the story of alienation, of school, of us versus them. This was from an era before parents were your best friends, before your goal was to go to Princeton and get a job at a bank, it was the tail end of the counterculture, before greed changed the entire fabric of our country, if not the world. That was the crime of the century, the brainwashing, the conditioning to be just like them, to sell out and be a productive member of society Jackson Browne so eloquently named "The Pretender".
Movies are dead. Soulless concoctions hyped to high heaven that are two-dimensional enough they can be comprehended by those unable to speak the language. All story, all humanity has moved to television.
It's the changes that are so fascinating. The ones the elders deny. Yes, those baby boomers who scarfed up "Crime Of The Century" now want us to believe untruths, as our government is hijacked by the rich, as bankers who create nothing roam the earth like the rock stars of yore.
But everything is different. It's not so much about Facebook and FarmVille than the underlying infrastructure. The Internet itself. The mobile devices, the iPhones and the Androids. That's what killed the BlackBerry, the lack of possibilities. Like newspapers, it just couldn't do enough.
Yes, newspapers are on their way out too. News is important. Who reports it is not. As for that thud at your doorstep, it's not going to happen in a decade. And online hype is separated from truth. Newspapers are a network of PR people and reporters. If PR died, the newspapers would lose half their heft, it's not news, it's what's placed there via relationships.
But what if those relationships died? What if everything was truly up for grabs?
"The Age Of Miracles" is a story about the slowing. Yes, the lengthening of the time it takes for the Earth to spin on its axis. And the attendant effects.
Set in a not so distant future in San Diego, it's just like today. There are cellphones and e-mail and the routine drudgery of life as well as love, hate and anger. Change one piece of the puzzle and everything's different.
That's what the Internet has begat.
But here the source is not man-made. It's what you don't expect that comes to change your life.
"The Age Of Miracles" made me think about the human condition. Not everyone is popular, not everyone is a member of the group. Who's making music for these people? You can't see their story on the big screen. But they dominate. They're us.
Once upon a time, art was a reflection of us.
I don't know about you, but I don't drive a Benz with twenty two inch rims, I don't party with a bunch of big breasted bikini babes, my life is not about making it rain at Vegas clubs. But that's what our mainstream music is about.
And that which is a bit off kilter is nowhere near as good as "Crime Of The Century". Because too many of these people can't sing or play. Those used to be criteria for making it, no longer, in a world where your best friend parents say you're a worldbeater, that you can win it all baby.
I'm not saying the end is near. I'm just saying something's changing. It's imperceptible to those in the seats of traditional power. It's got to do with the income gap, but imagine if a natural event altered your perspective.
That's what "The Age Of Miracles" is about.
http://www.theageofmiraclesbook.com/
(Ignore the stupid video, that's the clueless book business venturing outside of its purview trying to utilize new media to sell its wares. But you can read an excerpt here:
http://www.theageofmiraclesbook.com/excerpt/
The words are enough, just like the music is enough. The rest is just penumbra. It's easy to look good, make a video, social network, but all of that pales in comparison to the essence, the art.)
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Do you know this album by Supertramp, "Crime Of The Century"?
This was long before they had their hits, before they started singing about having kippers for breakfast. As a matter of fact, this was only their second record, and the first was not really the same band, it was from a different oeuvre.
Maybe the best sounding record ever, it sold a million stereos in its half-speed mastered iteration, it's what made me decide to pop for a Nakamichi instead of an Akai, only the former could reproduce the wail in "Bloody Well Right". "Crime Of The Century" told the story of alienation, of school, of us versus them. This was from an era before parents were your best friends, before your goal was to go to Princeton and get a job at a bank, it was the tail end of the counterculture, before greed changed the entire fabric of our country, if not the world. That was the crime of the century, the brainwashing, the conditioning to be just like them, to sell out and be a productive member of society Jackson Browne so eloquently named "The Pretender".
Movies are dead. Soulless concoctions hyped to high heaven that are two-dimensional enough they can be comprehended by those unable to speak the language. All story, all humanity has moved to television.
It's the changes that are so fascinating. The ones the elders deny. Yes, those baby boomers who scarfed up "Crime Of The Century" now want us to believe untruths, as our government is hijacked by the rich, as bankers who create nothing roam the earth like the rock stars of yore.
But everything is different. It's not so much about Facebook and FarmVille than the underlying infrastructure. The Internet itself. The mobile devices, the iPhones and the Androids. That's what killed the BlackBerry, the lack of possibilities. Like newspapers, it just couldn't do enough.
Yes, newspapers are on their way out too. News is important. Who reports it is not. As for that thud at your doorstep, it's not going to happen in a decade. And online hype is separated from truth. Newspapers are a network of PR people and reporters. If PR died, the newspapers would lose half their heft, it's not news, it's what's placed there via relationships.
But what if those relationships died? What if everything was truly up for grabs?
"The Age Of Miracles" is a story about the slowing. Yes, the lengthening of the time it takes for the Earth to spin on its axis. And the attendant effects.
Set in a not so distant future in San Diego, it's just like today. There are cellphones and e-mail and the routine drudgery of life as well as love, hate and anger. Change one piece of the puzzle and everything's different.
That's what the Internet has begat.
But here the source is not man-made. It's what you don't expect that comes to change your life.
"The Age Of Miracles" made me think about the human condition. Not everyone is popular, not everyone is a member of the group. Who's making music for these people? You can't see their story on the big screen. But they dominate. They're us.
Once upon a time, art was a reflection of us.
I don't know about you, but I don't drive a Benz with twenty two inch rims, I don't party with a bunch of big breasted bikini babes, my life is not about making it rain at Vegas clubs. But that's what our mainstream music is about.
And that which is a bit off kilter is nowhere near as good as "Crime Of The Century". Because too many of these people can't sing or play. Those used to be criteria for making it, no longer, in a world where your best friend parents say you're a worldbeater, that you can win it all baby.
I'm not saying the end is near. I'm just saying something's changing. It's imperceptible to those in the seats of traditional power. It's got to do with the income gap, but imagine if a natural event altered your perspective.
That's what "The Age Of Miracles" is about.
http://www.theageofmiraclesbook.com/
(Ignore the stupid video, that's the clueless book business venturing outside of its purview trying to utilize new media to sell its wares. But you can read an excerpt here:
http://www.theageofmiraclesbook.com/excerpt/
The words are enough, just like the music is enough. The rest is just penumbra. It's easy to look good, make a video, social network, but all of that pales in comparison to the essence, the art.)
--
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