Mailbag

From: Russ Titelman
Subject: Re: Mailbag

Bob,

One more thing about Back in the High Life and Jimmy Bralower. After we had been recording for about a month Will Jennings, who wrote the lyrics to about half of the album, kept asking me to get Steve to play me "Back in the High Life Again". After a couple of requests he finally did. We were in studio C at Power Station and he went to the piano and played me the song but in a rather upbeat Ska meets Willie and the Hand Jive style. I was incredulous and said, "Why didn't you play me this song before? It's just the best." So that weekend Steve and Jimmy got together at Steve's apartment in the 60's just off Madison avenue and they came up with the slower more soulful version of the song. And you can hear the little loop that Jimmy came up with which is sort of the central rhythm of the record with that cool 808 conga pattern. Mournful little thing and very effective. Then we added the rest. Mandolin, piano, synth bass, the fiddle/string solo sound (all played by Steve) and the amazing JR drums. We asked James Taylor to come in to sing the harmonies. Unique and magical record.

______________________________________

From: Andrew Thompson
Subject: An experiment that may be of interest?

Hi Bob

Always enjoy your emails and agree with a lot of what you say, so I thought you may be interested in this little experiment that we ran.

We spent a few weeks visiting new music blogs and hand-picked a list of 504 that we thought would be a good match for our music.

We then emailed them:
___

FROM: The Khanz

SUBJECT: Hey Bob, got time for a quick listen?

Hey Bob

"Kinda like Vampire Weekend - if you shoved a kettle cord up their ass, plugged it into the wall and flicked the power switch."

OK, we didn't write that and we have no idea what it means, but if you want to hear what it sounds like, try "Roll Around" - the new single from Australian indie upstarts, The Khanz.

A tale of grappling with life's slings and arrows, and not always succeeding, "Roll Around" continues a tradition of songs that tackle the more tangled issues young people face, in a spirit of exuberance and joy at being alive.

You can listen to an mp3 or a WAV version.

And you can download some info.

Hope you dig! Release date is 22 July.

Cheers?
Themba, Nick, Harrison and Kat?xxx
www.thekhanz.com.au
___

Here are the results:

Sent: 504
Bounced: 21
Unsubscribes: 1
Read: 34
Listens: 7
Replies: 1

The guy who unsubscribed did so without listening to the track.

Keeping in mind that this is not a random list, but a list of people who are interested enough in new music to put some fairly hefty work in to set up and maintain blogs, when you say "no-one cares", you're right!

Cheers
Andrew

______________________________________

From: Justin Erdman
Subject: Re: Re-Uber

Hey Bob

The Uber Toronto situation is not what that last writer led you to believe. They didn't raise rates on standard taxis - only black cars and SUVs which are much more expensive and in shorter supply even in regular demand times.

But a lot of people believe whatever they read and it seems everyone today has an itchy social media finger...

http://bit.ly/12ZSxTJ
______________________________________

From: Jim Gelcer
Subject: Re: Re-Uber

More on Uber:

You may have heard that Toronto just experienced one of the worst "flash floods" in the city's history -- on this past Monday, July 8th we got as much rain in 2 hours as we normally get in a month.

Anyway, I posted an Uber promo on my facebook feed today and immediately got comments that during the flood, Uber was price gouging. The following blog post was referenced:

http://gigaom.com/2013/07/09/a-tip-for-uber-sometimes-the-best-pr-strategy-is-to-do-something-that-isnt-rational/

So I sent the comments to the Uber Toronto Community Manager and within minutes got the following reply, with a reference to an eloquent blog response written by Uber Toronto GM Billy Guernier:

"Hey Jim,

I'd recommend you read our follow up blog post: http://blog.uber.com/2013/07/10/stormto-follow-up/

Ultimately, it'll be up to you to come to your own conclusion.

Offering services during what turned out to be a freak flash food was an insanely difficult position to be in, we did what we thought was best, we got more cars online (double the usual number) so more people could take rides and get where they needed to be.

Thanks so much.

Lucas,
Uber Toronto Community Manager"
______________________________________

From: Ben Erickson
Subject: Uber Fantastic!

On our tour bus the crew now says "uber" in front of anything awesome using the SNL Hans and Frans voice. I love them because they respond back to you immediately when something gets f****d up. I've had a couple bad experiences and every time they've refunded my money.

In NYC we stopped paying $200 an hour x 2 vans for all day van service when we're in town doing press or TV. It's literally saved thousands per day. At one point before you could pick whether you wanted an SUV or a car I emailed them saying "it'd be awesome for tour mgrs to be able to select SUV vs. car so that we could make sure our gear could fit in the back on the way to press/airports" and they responded within the hour saying it was coming.

SF uber is by far the most efficient and has the best drivers. NYC can be tough, you lose them sometimes and I find there's a lot of non-English speaking drivers. An AWESOME ninja uber trick - if you like your driver, or if you get a brand new bad ass Mercedes that you want to use all day...is you take down the driver's personal cell when he drops you off...then text him the address you want to be picked up at next time you need him and he just drives to that location and texts you....then you sign onto uber and that driver is the closest car and you automatically get him...it's a way to trick the system and make sure you keep a good driver around.

No longer do I have to try to convince a cab to wait for the band out back behind the venue while I've got fans waiting too...I just uber 10 mins before I need them and have the driver standby. It's a tour manager wet dream....

______________________________________

From: Cashis Kling
Subject: Re: Uber

Uber nights are the best nights. And I love that I can send an uber to pick someone up without having to be there or make a call. I've even sent multiple people Ubers simultaneously.

______________________________________

From: Kristi Allain
Subject: Re: Re-Uber

Hey Bob,

Just read all of your Uber stories and felt inclined to share mine. I've been a regular user of Uber for almost a year now. On the way out to vacation for the 4th last week I realized my car was towed just as the Uber picked me up. While I was on the phone with the tow company repeating all the costs, my Uber driver had been adding then up in his head and gave me the total. Then, hearing me say I need to mail my car key back so someone can get my car from impound to avoid $500 of storage fees, and then realizing I couldn't because of the holiday, my driver offered to bring my car key back to my apartment and meet my friend outside with it. He totally saved my life and he did it without even being asked! No LA cab driver would do that in a million years.

______________________________________

From: Bob Ezrin
Subject: Re: Re-Uber

Here's one for you:

On my way home from Ireland, I passed through Newark airport the day before Sandy was about to hit (Sunday). My connection to Nashville was cancelled. My travel agent got me a flight out of LaGuardia for that evening so I headed into Manhattan for an early dinner with friends and expected to head out to LGA for my flight. In the car from Newark, I got texted that my flight was cancelled. She got me a later flight out of JFK...cancelled. I was looking for connections through ANYWHERE: take me to Santiago and fly me to Nashville...cancelled.

You already know the rest of that story. Also, I was staying at the Parker Meridien when they evacuated it because that pesky crane was hanging from the 80th floor of the building next door. I went to stay with friends in Tribeca (the dumbest move a human could have made under the circumstances) two hours before the lights went out and southern Manhattan was marooned.

No planes, no trains...so f*** it: automobiles. I'll drive home! I called and rented (or thought I did) a car from Hertz who even texted me the license plate number of the car I was to pick up uptown the following morning. By now it's Wednesday. I get to Hertz and as I walk in I can see from the 15 or 16 dour looking people sitting outside the rental office that there might be an issue. At the counter they tell me there are no cars on the entire island. I try a limo company we all use, and another. Nada.

And then it hits me: UBER! So far, they have ALWAYS come through. So I hit the app and get told that an SUV is just 10 minutes away from me. They ask if I want to text the driver. I do and I warn him that I want to go to Philly International. So my guy pulls up in a shiny new Escalade. I say "how much to drive me to Philly international?". There's a flight to Nashville from there that is leaving that afternoon and I have the LAST SEAT on it. He says "I have no idea". I say "can we phone them and find out?". So he does and he gets what is essentially a dispatch office. They say they don't know either, they just book the cars and nobody knows who UBER really is or how to reach them. They're an app and live somewhere in the ether. They say "go on the website - the rates are there". So, I go there and calculate using the approximate mileage and and a guesstimation of waiting time that I'm probably looking at $300-350 to get to Philly to get home. By now I've been away a long time and I'm frankly ready to ride a horse to Tennessee if I have to. So I say to my guy "let's do it!" and off we go.

While en route, I get a ping from UBER informing that due to the unusual demand some sort of peak rates are in effect but they use a funny term and honestly I'm not really paying attention. After 3 1/2 days as a bag person I am just thrilled and delighted as Mel Brooks would say to be on my way home.

We get to Philly International and the ride is over and I get that instant "ping" from UBER informing me that my trip cost $925. $925????? WTF! I followed their rules and calculated perfectly and this is three times what I expected. The driver agrees that this just isn't right. Something must be wrong. SO - when the pay up or you can't leave the car screen comes up, I click on "go ahead and try to charge it to my old, expired credit card" and leave a comment with my phone number basically saying I challenge this charge and if you wish to discuss, call me.

It turns out that my calculations didn't account for the surcharges for the size of the car, for riding like a Cholo while being Jewish, for being in an Escalade WITHOUT a posse, for crossing the state line and for it being Wednesday which all added up to $462. I'm joking of course, but they have a complicated formula that helps them to ensure that every trip is profitable for them. BUT I am also being charged what they call "Surge Pricing" which is a new term to me entirely but which means DOUBLE. What???

Anyway, I leave a note expressing my extreme displeasure at the size of the bill and the fact that they are exploiting a natural disaster to gouge long term customers, and know that once they try to process the payment on that old card they will immediately be incentivized to reach out to me. And so they do. But in the most open, personal and satisfying way possible. A very nice man writes me the following explanation based on which I decide that I will bite the bullet and pay the base charge because that's what it costs to take a short hop conveyance on a multi state adventure. It hurts but not NEARLY as much as the original bill - and the driver gets paid which is the most important thing. He was great. The message read:

"Hey Robert,

Sorry for the delay. Much of our team has been without power over the last few days, and it's been a slow process getting back online.

This was quite the trip and I'm sorry for the sticker shock.

What you experienced was actually our "surge pricing", a time where we expect demand to be so extreme we can't possibly have enough supply to fill it all and if we do nothing, getting a ride will be near-impossible.

For more info definitely check out our blog:

http://blog,uber.com/2012/03/14/clear-and-straight-forward-surge-pricing/

Uber was originally built with only short trips in the city in ming, so I apologize for this experience, I would like to refund the surge portion of this trip in full ($462), but I'll need to process the original payment first before I am able to void it and create a new payment.

If you can notify me when the credit card is updated, I would be happy to help!"

Ok - so instead of using market forces to regulate the supply and demand they just go from being an affordable convenience to being out of reach for regular folk whenever the traffic is heavy. That's not so nice. But aside from that, I find his explanation to be rational, personal and matter of fact. I buy it...I feel relieved to be on my way home 2-3 days earlier than most people so I saved more money than that in not being stuck in a hotel and eating in Manhattan, and I accept that I wittingly chose a very expensive way of getting out of Dodge. But what I didn't feel was ripped off. I felt served and valued as a customer.

I am an UBER frequent flyer. I hope it gets to Nashville before too long.

B


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