When you're really depressed, you don't want to hear anything, no music will work. I learned that in William Styron's account of his fall off the edge, into a mental hospital, "Darkness Visible." And that's true. It's like you can't handle the noise. And you don't want to be lifted back up, you need to wallow in the pits.
And that's just how I felt after my father died. I couldn't write, I couldn't listen. And then one day I discovered "Tangled In The Web."
Oh, I knew of George Lynch. I'd like to tell you the rest of this Lynch Mob album is as good. But I was going through all the CDs sent to my house and discovered this song and it lifted my spirits and got me back on track, it was the first thing I wrote about when I put my fingers back to the keyboard.
On my Mac Plus.
That was a long time ago. 1992. My ex had moved out three years before. I'd run out of money the following summer. I was holding on by a thread, and the 1994 earthquake pushed me over, but after my dad died I was teetering, because he was always in my corner, and now he was gone.
It's the guitar sound. The way it bends hallucinogenically, it draws you in, you can't resist it, it gumbifies your body.
And then come the horns. The whole track starts to swing.
"If you leave me lonely
And you take away the things that I love"
That's our greatest fear. Get old enough and you're reluctant to play at all. That's the worst thing about divorce, you stand up in front of friends and family, you believe it's forever and when you discover it's not it makes you question everybody's motive, every commitment, can you count on anybody?
I'm not sure.
But you can count on these records.
Despite the song having a thread of frustration, there's such swagger, such attitude, that it's emboldening. "Tangled In The Web" is the kind of track you play before you go on a date, to psyche yourself up. And just like the classics on "Back In Black," it never goes stale, it never loses its power. Sure, it veers towards power ballad land, but really "Tangled In The Web" is hard rock. And nothing kicks out the mental jams like loud, pounding rock and roll.
And the way it bends again at the end, just makes you want to play "Tangled In The Web" all over again.
Credit Keith Olsen, who both cowrote and produced it. Imagine if Fleetwood Mac veered just a bit heavier, this track doesn't sound so disconnected from the white album. It's clear. It goes straight to the heart.
"If you see me comin'
Better run and find a place to hide"
"Tangled In The Web" gave me back my gumption.
And when I've got that, WATCH OUT!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
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Saturday, 19 October 2013
Friday, 18 October 2013
Today At ADE
MILES DAVIS
Used to call Nile Rodgers on the phone every night, saying "Write me a 'Good Times.'" Nile's point being we all want mass success.
Nile used to be a jazzer, but then his mentor said "You're too good for pop?" If millions love it, it can't be bad. And Nile went home and wrote "Everybody Dance," mashing up jazz and dance.
DRUGS
Nile gave them up because he heard a recording of a live show where he thought he was killing it, and found out he sucked. He loves drugs, but he loves music more.
DAVID SMITH
You probably don't know him, I certainly didn't. But I know his products and so do you, the Juno! He's one of the original synthesizer innovators. When asked for advice, Smith said you have to have fun doing it. Too many people focus on the end goal, mass acceptance, fame and riches. But if the journey there is gonna bore you, do something different.
TIESTO
Said they were trying to turn Ibiza into St. Tropez, that there's been no innovation and the prices are too high, that's why he skipped the season and went to Vegas instead, where everybody can get in and have a good time.
CURIOSITY
It's the key to Giorgio Moroder's success. He's always wanted to try new things.
BLACK PANTHERS
Nile was one. He's friends with Bobby Seale to this day. He said the black panther was actually the Esso tiger! Just painted black! His section leader's dad had created the mascot for the oil company and the Panthers repurposed it!
BURNING MAN
That's where Mikhail takes all his potential investors. To bond as people before he pitches them. Because humanity comes first.
SALESMANSHIP
It's the hustler's currency. It's the essence of the entrepreneur. You've got to learn how to tell a good story. I was sold by some of the best today.
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Is about the beat, not the words, and therefore it's international. Shailendra said it was booming in India, where you reach your audience via social media on mobiles.
BICYCLES
Have their own special lane in Amsterdam. Keep your eyes and ears open, otherwise you'll get mowed down, cyclists brake for no one, and wear no helmets.
BAKED GOODS
Are better here than at home. Or maybe it's just the weather, everything tastes better on a gray autumn day.
TALL PEOPLE
They say it's the milk and cheese. It builds better bodies.
ROXY MUSIC
Was the inspiration for both Nile Rodgers and Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire. Nile was playing in a soul band but after seeing Roxy Music in London, he went home and started Chic. You think you want to imitate, but really you want to innovate.
PRODUCING
Musicians are generous, when it comes to skills. See something you admire and its propagator will tell you how he did it. Nile learned to be a producer by picking up tips in the studio. Luther Vandross taught him how to record vocals, Quincy Jones instructed him. To the point where when he was in the studio and somebody was doing something wrong, he'd speak up and say "No, this is how you do it..." Do that enough, and they put you in charge.
HITS
Are outnumbered by Nile's failures. People only remember the hits. And if you've got the chops, you know the failures are only momentary blips.
HEARING
Is not easy for Giorgio Moroder. Too much loud music or old age, I don't know. Protect your ears.
TWEETING
Tiesto does most of his own, because the public can tell the difference.
MOANING
Donna Summer said she couldn't, didn't wanna try. But Moroder sent her husband out of the studio, turned down the lights, and she got into it for ten minutes, which Giorgio cut up and inserted into "Love To Love You Baby."
THE OHIO EXPRESS
Inspired Giorgio Moroder, he sang a few bars of "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy."
COCAINE
Made Giorgio's studio musicians blow out the monitors on a regular basis, not when they were recording, but when they were playing back after hours, when they were high and Giorgio was home eating and sleeping.
COCAINE 2
Refused to allow Nile Rodgers's heart to keep beating. They had to restart it eight times in the hospital before it would keep going. Nile swore off the marching powder...for two weeks.
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Used to call Nile Rodgers on the phone every night, saying "Write me a 'Good Times.'" Nile's point being we all want mass success.
Nile used to be a jazzer, but then his mentor said "You're too good for pop?" If millions love it, it can't be bad. And Nile went home and wrote "Everybody Dance," mashing up jazz and dance.
DRUGS
Nile gave them up because he heard a recording of a live show where he thought he was killing it, and found out he sucked. He loves drugs, but he loves music more.
DAVID SMITH
You probably don't know him, I certainly didn't. But I know his products and so do you, the Juno! He's one of the original synthesizer innovators. When asked for advice, Smith said you have to have fun doing it. Too many people focus on the end goal, mass acceptance, fame and riches. But if the journey there is gonna bore you, do something different.
TIESTO
Said they were trying to turn Ibiza into St. Tropez, that there's been no innovation and the prices are too high, that's why he skipped the season and went to Vegas instead, where everybody can get in and have a good time.
CURIOSITY
It's the key to Giorgio Moroder's success. He's always wanted to try new things.
BLACK PANTHERS
Nile was one. He's friends with Bobby Seale to this day. He said the black panther was actually the Esso tiger! Just painted black! His section leader's dad had created the mascot for the oil company and the Panthers repurposed it!
BURNING MAN
That's where Mikhail takes all his potential investors. To bond as people before he pitches them. Because humanity comes first.
SALESMANSHIP
It's the hustler's currency. It's the essence of the entrepreneur. You've got to learn how to tell a good story. I was sold by some of the best today.
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Is about the beat, not the words, and therefore it's international. Shailendra said it was booming in India, where you reach your audience via social media on mobiles.
BICYCLES
Have their own special lane in Amsterdam. Keep your eyes and ears open, otherwise you'll get mowed down, cyclists brake for no one, and wear no helmets.
BAKED GOODS
Are better here than at home. Or maybe it's just the weather, everything tastes better on a gray autumn day.
TALL PEOPLE
They say it's the milk and cheese. It builds better bodies.
ROXY MUSIC
Was the inspiration for both Nile Rodgers and Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire. Nile was playing in a soul band but after seeing Roxy Music in London, he went home and started Chic. You think you want to imitate, but really you want to innovate.
PRODUCING
Musicians are generous, when it comes to skills. See something you admire and its propagator will tell you how he did it. Nile learned to be a producer by picking up tips in the studio. Luther Vandross taught him how to record vocals, Quincy Jones instructed him. To the point where when he was in the studio and somebody was doing something wrong, he'd speak up and say "No, this is how you do it..." Do that enough, and they put you in charge.
HITS
Are outnumbered by Nile's failures. People only remember the hits. And if you've got the chops, you know the failures are only momentary blips.
HEARING
Is not easy for Giorgio Moroder. Too much loud music or old age, I don't know. Protect your ears.
TWEETING
Tiesto does most of his own, because the public can tell the difference.
MOANING
Donna Summer said she couldn't, didn't wanna try. But Moroder sent her husband out of the studio, turned down the lights, and she got into it for ten minutes, which Giorgio cut up and inserted into "Love To Love You Baby."
THE OHIO EXPRESS
Inspired Giorgio Moroder, he sang a few bars of "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy."
COCAINE
Made Giorgio's studio musicians blow out the monitors on a regular basis, not when they were recording, but when they were playing back after hours, when they were high and Giorgio was home eating and sleeping.
COCAINE 2
Refused to allow Nile Rodgers's heart to keep beating. They had to restart it eight times in the hospital before it would keep going. Nile swore off the marching powder...for two weeks.
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Thursday, 17 October 2013
Amsterdam/Giorgio Moroder At ADE
That's where I am, home of the world's tallest people.
Everybody could play in the NBA...or the WNBA! I'm in the rest room tonight and I'm urinating UP! It reminded me of nothing so much as elementary school, when my third grade class was in the junior high wing and the bathroom seemed to be made for Brobdingnagians.
But it's warmer than Minneapolis!
I left Tuesday night, after speaking at MIMA, the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association confab, Nate Silver opened and I closed. I ran into Nate on the sidewalk. And he was oh so nice, funny how these people with Asperger's learn to cope, he was overly interested (at least that's the legend, he's an Aspie) and for a moment there the notion passed through my brain that I should shoot a photo. I never do this, but today we memorialize all events with a pic, which we spam all over the Internet, showing our exalted position, but then I thought better of it.
And the highlight of my exit from the Land of 10,000 Lakes was the TSA pre-check. Are you hip to this? It comes free with Global Entry. You don't have to take off your shoes, your belt, remove your computer, hell, you can even keep change in your pocket while you go through security, in a line that usually doesn't even exist! Of course I had to cough up my fingerprints to qualify, but I've lost so much privacy to the Internet I'm not worried, I just don't want to wait in immigration anymore.
And from the Twin Cities, it's only 8 hours to Amsterdam, as opposed to the 11 from L.A. And that's not long enough! Took them almost three hours to serve dinner, so I couldn't get enough sleep, but it was a great ride. And after finishing the day's newspapers I dug into the Amazon/Bezos cover story in "Bloomberg Businessweek," a great magazine you should subscribe to, far superior to its previous iteration. Some people are confronted with the advertising slowdown and cut back, BB invested, and it makes a difference. This was an excerpt from the new book, and it was fascinating to be exposed to the real Jeff Bezos, not the laughing doofus on TV. He's just like Steve Jobs. He's a prick. But with a college degree, from Princeton. Read this story and you'll feel inadequate. But you'll also realize that one individual can make a difference. Without Bezos the company's not the same, he's mercurial, he bends the company to his will, and that's why it's so great.
Then again, excellence always triumphs. I was in the Rijksmuseum today and it's stunning how Rembrandt is just a little bit better than everybody else, and that makes all the difference. And I was never a huge fan, but I am now, because of the shadow! Yup, in his most famous painting, "The Night Watch." You don't recognize it at first, but they've got these cards that explain all the nuances, this is a museum that cares, and once it's pointed out your jaw drops.
And they also pointed out the last remaining scar from the 1975 knifing, it's above the dog, but otherwise the painting is perfect, except for the fact that a sixth or so is missing, cut off a few hundred years back so it would fit in a new space. This is REMBRANDT! Didn't anybody know, didn't anybody respect history? I guess not.
And I saw "Dutch Masters," you know, the painting from the cigar box (aka "The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild.") It killed Rembrandt's portraiture commissions. Because they didn't like his new style, with fuzzy images, verging on Impressionism. Did he no longer want to make the effort, or was he just mercurial like Bezos? We'll never know, but we do know Rembrandt went broke. The story is always the same, great artists are terrible money men.
Kinda like Giorgio Moroder. Who invested untold sums in a 16 cylinder automobile, he said we could look it up online.
Yes, the father of disco, at today's number one gathering of the electronic music elite. Days of talking and nights of spinning. And for those who think "EDM" is a johnny-come-lately, you should have gone to last night's presentation of "25 Years Of Dance In The Netherlands." Yup, it's been that long. Impressive, even though I left in the middle, I didn't understand the language and I couldn't see over the heads of those in front of me!
So we're in a low-ceilinged basement akin to the Cavern Club and Giorgio Moroder is telling his story.
It's always amazing to me that these people are both alive and normal. Because you expect icons to be gone and gods.
He started out singing cover songs.
Starved playing music in Amsterdam.
Moved to Munich, employed Donna Summer on a track and then trying to imitate "Je t'aime," he called her back to sing on "Love To Love You Baby."
Seventy three year old Giorgio is getting a victory lap. But he's frustrated with today's record making. Because it's so much more expensive and it takes so much more time.
Huh?
Used to be there was one writer, who was the act, and the albums were knocked out in the studio in a matter of weeks. Today it takes in excess of a year. Every album has multiple producers, tracks are composed bit by bit in camps, and the A&R man meddles.
This didn't happen in the seventies. They made the record and delivered it, the label had no input whatsoever in the creative process. Neil Bogart only weighed in on a track ONCE! Oh, how different it is today. But who would you rather trust, the suit at the label or the creative people themselves? Then again, today there's so much more money involved, the companies are public and the acts are willing to bend over for a chance to become rich and famous. And you wonder why the sixties and the seventies were a golden era.
And Giorgio remembers it all.
He loves tech, but can't talk it. He mentioned the only three synths he used, a Mini Moog and two Jupiter keyboards. Oh, and the two Revox machines he used to learn recording at home.
Not that Giorgio laments the new era. He loves the power of the deejay. He just did a gig in Mexico City for 40,000 and when the audience lifts its hands in the air...Giorgio tingles. Not that he can understand how these guys and gals can endure the travel from gig to gig. He did a night in Tokyo and then flew back to L.A. and he needed to recover!
And I asked him how it felt to be benched, replaced by Quincy Jones as Donna Summer's producer. Not good, but there was poetic justice when the man paid a million dollars to produce couldn't have a hit either.
Not that Giorgio stopped. He wrote music for the Olympics. He composed soundtracks. He said directors always move the music around. The supervisor places it and then it ends up somewhere completely different, like the opening of "Blade Runner," which was supposed to be deep in the movie.
And it's so weird, because he's coming across so nice and he's just walking the planet, seemingly well-adjusted, despite having his finger on the pulse of the culture for a good long time, making Academy Award-winning music.
Maybe he should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, certainly before KISS, even before the influential Paul Butterfield Blues Band, definitely before Patti Smith. How come we decry the popular? If you have mainstream success you get no insider respect. And that's just b.s. Hell, Giorgio and his cronies invented a whole genre of music, but unlike the Ramones they had a slew of hits, changed the whole world.
Not that Giorgio's bitter. He tries to stay positive. Worrying about the money Bogart stole from him is just gonna hurt his life, you've got to let some stuff go.
Oh, and one more thing. Even though the Casablanca building was coated in white powder, Giorgio Moroder never ever did a line. You think you're so cool, with your tattoos and drug talk, but the true greats are so busy walking the razor's edge of creativity they can't afford to lose a moment, to be less than fully present.
And from there, to the Red Light district. And the famous New King Chinese restaurant. Past the canal that was the end of the city four hundred years back.
Yup, there's history here. Did you know that Belgium used to be part of the Netherlands? And then there was that war with the Spanish and religious differences and...
That's what you gain when you travel. Not only information, but perspective.
Leave home.
P.S. This was written to "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)," I forgot Giorgio worked with Bowie. And I haven't heard this cut in decades. Wasn't worth buying the whole album just for this track when it was released in 1982, but on the Internet it now comes back alive, I searched on Giorgio in Spotify and it came right up! And if you're bitching about Spotify, know that it's readily available on YouTube, the world's premier music service, where if you get paid anything, it's positively bupkes.
MusicTalks with Giorgio Moroder at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE): http://bit.ly/1euKmmC
TSA Pre-Check: http://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck
Global Entry: http://www.globalentry.gov
"The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store": http://buswk.co/18PINgR
"The Night Watch" shadow cast by the captain's hand on the lieutenant’s coat: http://bit.ly/123o7X
New King restaurant; http://www.newking.nl
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" Spotify: http://spoti.fi/H0vKzN
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" YouTube: http://bit.ly/HkycK7
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Everybody could play in the NBA...or the WNBA! I'm in the rest room tonight and I'm urinating UP! It reminded me of nothing so much as elementary school, when my third grade class was in the junior high wing and the bathroom seemed to be made for Brobdingnagians.
But it's warmer than Minneapolis!
I left Tuesday night, after speaking at MIMA, the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association confab, Nate Silver opened and I closed. I ran into Nate on the sidewalk. And he was oh so nice, funny how these people with Asperger's learn to cope, he was overly interested (at least that's the legend, he's an Aspie) and for a moment there the notion passed through my brain that I should shoot a photo. I never do this, but today we memorialize all events with a pic, which we spam all over the Internet, showing our exalted position, but then I thought better of it.
And the highlight of my exit from the Land of 10,000 Lakes was the TSA pre-check. Are you hip to this? It comes free with Global Entry. You don't have to take off your shoes, your belt, remove your computer, hell, you can even keep change in your pocket while you go through security, in a line that usually doesn't even exist! Of course I had to cough up my fingerprints to qualify, but I've lost so much privacy to the Internet I'm not worried, I just don't want to wait in immigration anymore.
And from the Twin Cities, it's only 8 hours to Amsterdam, as opposed to the 11 from L.A. And that's not long enough! Took them almost three hours to serve dinner, so I couldn't get enough sleep, but it was a great ride. And after finishing the day's newspapers I dug into the Amazon/Bezos cover story in "Bloomberg Businessweek," a great magazine you should subscribe to, far superior to its previous iteration. Some people are confronted with the advertising slowdown and cut back, BB invested, and it makes a difference. This was an excerpt from the new book, and it was fascinating to be exposed to the real Jeff Bezos, not the laughing doofus on TV. He's just like Steve Jobs. He's a prick. But with a college degree, from Princeton. Read this story and you'll feel inadequate. But you'll also realize that one individual can make a difference. Without Bezos the company's not the same, he's mercurial, he bends the company to his will, and that's why it's so great.
Then again, excellence always triumphs. I was in the Rijksmuseum today and it's stunning how Rembrandt is just a little bit better than everybody else, and that makes all the difference. And I was never a huge fan, but I am now, because of the shadow! Yup, in his most famous painting, "The Night Watch." You don't recognize it at first, but they've got these cards that explain all the nuances, this is a museum that cares, and once it's pointed out your jaw drops.
And they also pointed out the last remaining scar from the 1975 knifing, it's above the dog, but otherwise the painting is perfect, except for the fact that a sixth or so is missing, cut off a few hundred years back so it would fit in a new space. This is REMBRANDT! Didn't anybody know, didn't anybody respect history? I guess not.
And I saw "Dutch Masters," you know, the painting from the cigar box (aka "The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild.") It killed Rembrandt's portraiture commissions. Because they didn't like his new style, with fuzzy images, verging on Impressionism. Did he no longer want to make the effort, or was he just mercurial like Bezos? We'll never know, but we do know Rembrandt went broke. The story is always the same, great artists are terrible money men.
Kinda like Giorgio Moroder. Who invested untold sums in a 16 cylinder automobile, he said we could look it up online.
Yes, the father of disco, at today's number one gathering of the electronic music elite. Days of talking and nights of spinning. And for those who think "EDM" is a johnny-come-lately, you should have gone to last night's presentation of "25 Years Of Dance In The Netherlands." Yup, it's been that long. Impressive, even though I left in the middle, I didn't understand the language and I couldn't see over the heads of those in front of me!
So we're in a low-ceilinged basement akin to the Cavern Club and Giorgio Moroder is telling his story.
It's always amazing to me that these people are both alive and normal. Because you expect icons to be gone and gods.
He started out singing cover songs.
Starved playing music in Amsterdam.
Moved to Munich, employed Donna Summer on a track and then trying to imitate "Je t'aime," he called her back to sing on "Love To Love You Baby."
Seventy three year old Giorgio is getting a victory lap. But he's frustrated with today's record making. Because it's so much more expensive and it takes so much more time.
Huh?
Used to be there was one writer, who was the act, and the albums were knocked out in the studio in a matter of weeks. Today it takes in excess of a year. Every album has multiple producers, tracks are composed bit by bit in camps, and the A&R man meddles.
This didn't happen in the seventies. They made the record and delivered it, the label had no input whatsoever in the creative process. Neil Bogart only weighed in on a track ONCE! Oh, how different it is today. But who would you rather trust, the suit at the label or the creative people themselves? Then again, today there's so much more money involved, the companies are public and the acts are willing to bend over for a chance to become rich and famous. And you wonder why the sixties and the seventies were a golden era.
And Giorgio remembers it all.
He loves tech, but can't talk it. He mentioned the only three synths he used, a Mini Moog and two Jupiter keyboards. Oh, and the two Revox machines he used to learn recording at home.
Not that Giorgio laments the new era. He loves the power of the deejay. He just did a gig in Mexico City for 40,000 and when the audience lifts its hands in the air...Giorgio tingles. Not that he can understand how these guys and gals can endure the travel from gig to gig. He did a night in Tokyo and then flew back to L.A. and he needed to recover!
And I asked him how it felt to be benched, replaced by Quincy Jones as Donna Summer's producer. Not good, but there was poetic justice when the man paid a million dollars to produce couldn't have a hit either.
Not that Giorgio stopped. He wrote music for the Olympics. He composed soundtracks. He said directors always move the music around. The supervisor places it and then it ends up somewhere completely different, like the opening of "Blade Runner," which was supposed to be deep in the movie.
And it's so weird, because he's coming across so nice and he's just walking the planet, seemingly well-adjusted, despite having his finger on the pulse of the culture for a good long time, making Academy Award-winning music.
Maybe he should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, certainly before KISS, even before the influential Paul Butterfield Blues Band, definitely before Patti Smith. How come we decry the popular? If you have mainstream success you get no insider respect. And that's just b.s. Hell, Giorgio and his cronies invented a whole genre of music, but unlike the Ramones they had a slew of hits, changed the whole world.
Not that Giorgio's bitter. He tries to stay positive. Worrying about the money Bogart stole from him is just gonna hurt his life, you've got to let some stuff go.
Oh, and one more thing. Even though the Casablanca building was coated in white powder, Giorgio Moroder never ever did a line. You think you're so cool, with your tattoos and drug talk, but the true greats are so busy walking the razor's edge of creativity they can't afford to lose a moment, to be less than fully present.
And from there, to the Red Light district. And the famous New King Chinese restaurant. Past the canal that was the end of the city four hundred years back.
Yup, there's history here. Did you know that Belgium used to be part of the Netherlands? And then there was that war with the Spanish and religious differences and...
That's what you gain when you travel. Not only information, but perspective.
Leave home.
P.S. This was written to "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)," I forgot Giorgio worked with Bowie. And I haven't heard this cut in decades. Wasn't worth buying the whole album just for this track when it was released in 1982, but on the Internet it now comes back alive, I searched on Giorgio in Spotify and it came right up! And if you're bitching about Spotify, know that it's readily available on YouTube, the world's premier music service, where if you get paid anything, it's positively bupkes.
MusicTalks with Giorgio Moroder at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE): http://bit.ly/1euKmmC
TSA Pre-Check: http://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck
Global Entry: http://www.globalentry.gov
"The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store": http://buswk.co/18PINgR
"The Night Watch" shadow cast by the captain's hand on the lieutenant’s coat: http://bit.ly/123o7X
New King restaurant; http://www.newking.nl
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" Spotify: http://spoti.fi/H0vKzN
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" YouTube: http://bit.ly/HkycK7
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Wednesday, 16 October 2013
The Most Important Thing You Will Read All Day
"According to Nielsen, from data provided by managers at Nielsen SoundScan, which collects recorded-music sales information, of the eight million unique digital tracks sold in 2011 (the large majority for $0.99 or $1.29 through the iTunes Store), 94 percent - 7.5 million tracks - sold fewer than one hundred units, and an astonishing 32 percent sold only one copy. Yes, that's right: of all the tracks that sold at least one copy, about a third sold EXACTLY one copy. (One has to wonder how many of those songs were purchased by the artists themselves, just to test the technology, or perhaps by their moms out of a sense of loyalty.) And the trend is the opposite of what Anderson (Chris Anderson, author of 'The Long Tail') predicted: the recorded music tail is getting thinner and thinner over time. Two years earlier, in 2009, 6.4 million unique tracks were sold; of those, 93 percent sold fewer than one hundred copies and 27 percent sold only one copy. Two years earlier still, of the 3.9 million tracks that were sold, 91 percent sold fewer than one hundred units and 24 percent sold only one copy. The trend is clear: as the market for digital tracks grow, the share of titles that sell far too few copies to be lucrative investments is growing as well. More and more tracks sell next to nothing.
Equally remarkable is what is happening in the head of industry's demand curve. In 2011, 102 tracks sold more than a million units each, accounting for 15 percent of total sales. That is not a typo: 0.00001 percent of the eight million tracks sold that year generated almost a sixth of all sales. It is hard to overstate the importance of those few blockbusters in the head of the curve. And the trend suggests that hits are gaining in relevance. In 2007, 36 tracks each sold more than a million copies, together these tracks accounted for 7 percent of total market volume. In 2009, 79 tracks reached that milestone; together they make up 12 percent of the sales volume.
The level of concentration in these markets is so astounding, in fact, that it is nearly impossible to depict the demand curve: it disappears entirely into the axes... It is staggering to see how few titles at the top contribute to a significant portion of sales, and how many titles at the bottom fail to do the same. Those are the realities of digital markets. Assortments may become more and more expansive, but the importance of the few titles at the very top keeps growing, while average sales for the lowest sellers are going down.
The same patterns are visible in album sales. ...out of a total of 870,000 albums that sold at least one copy in 2011, 13 album titles sold more than a million copies each, together accounting for 19 million copies sold. That's 0.001 percent of all titles accounting for 7 percent of sales. The top 1,000 albums generated about half of all the sales, and the top 10,000 albums around 80 percent of sales. Deep in the tail, 513,000 titles or nearly 60 percent of the assortment, sold fewer than 10 copies each, together making up half a percent of total sales.
The numbers certainly do not come close to the trusted '80/20 rule' that many managers live by, which supposes that 80 percent of the sales tend to come from 20 percent of the products on offer. For music albums, it is close to an 80/1 rule - if we can speak about a rule at all. Even if we take a conservative estimate of what would be on offer in a bricks-and-mortar store at any given point in time, Anderson's predictions that long-tail sales will rival those in the head are far off.
Of course the goods in the long tail include not just true niche content but former hits as well. Sales of a blockbuster - even one on the scale of Lady Gaga's 'The Fame' or Maroon 5's 'Songs About Jane' - will eventually dwindle. Such products can now live forever online, even if they have long been cleared from the physical shelves. For old hits, then, digital channels may present a real opportunity. But the large majority of products in the tail were not very successful to begin with. Most of them, in fact, never met the bar for a release through traditional distribution channels. Or, in the case of individual music tracks, they are orphans of unbundling activity: now that online consumers can cherry-pick the most popular tracks on an album, the rest shoot quickly into the long tail."
Chart 1:
"In the recorded-music industry in 2011, more than 8 million unique digital-track titles together sold 1.271 billion copies... For instance, nearly 6 million titles - 74 percent of all unique titles - each sold fewer than 10 copies, accounting for only 1 percent of sales.
102 titles selling 1,000,000 copies or more/189,758,000 copies sold/15%
1,412 titles selling 100,000-999,999 copies/318,473,000 sold/25%
13,492 titles selling 10,000-99,999 copies/374,827,000 copies sold/29%
74,246 titles selling 1,000-9,999 copies/212,571,000 copies sold/17%
382,720 titles selling 100-999 copies/111,117,000 copies sold/9%
1,620,959 titles selling 10-99 copies/48,687,000 copies sold/4%
5,927,729 titles selling fewer than 10 copies/15,722,000 sold/1%"
Chart 2:
"In the recorded music industry in 2011, more than 800,000 unique album titles together sold more than 330 million copies (including both physical and digital copies)... For instance, 513,000 titles - 58% of all unique titles - each sold fewer than 10 copies, accounting for only 0.5 percent of sales.
13 titles selling 1,000,000 copies or more/23,287,000 copies sold/7%
387 titles selling 100,000-999,999 copies/93,992,000 copies sold/28%
4,229 titles selling 10,000-99,999 copies/114,949,000 copies sold/35%
21,042 titles selling 1,000-9,999 copies/61,493,000 copies sold/19%
87,986 titles selling 100-999 copies/27,032,000 copies sold/8%
251,566 titles selling 10-99 copies/8,261,000 copies sold/2%
513,146 titles selling fewer than 10 copies/1,558,000 copies sold/0.5%"
From Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse's book "Blockbusters: Hit-Making, Risk-Taking, And The Big Business Of Entertainment": http://us.macmillan.com/blockbusters/AnitaElberse
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Equally remarkable is what is happening in the head of industry's demand curve. In 2011, 102 tracks sold more than a million units each, accounting for 15 percent of total sales. That is not a typo: 0.00001 percent of the eight million tracks sold that year generated almost a sixth of all sales. It is hard to overstate the importance of those few blockbusters in the head of the curve. And the trend suggests that hits are gaining in relevance. In 2007, 36 tracks each sold more than a million copies, together these tracks accounted for 7 percent of total market volume. In 2009, 79 tracks reached that milestone; together they make up 12 percent of the sales volume.
The level of concentration in these markets is so astounding, in fact, that it is nearly impossible to depict the demand curve: it disappears entirely into the axes... It is staggering to see how few titles at the top contribute to a significant portion of sales, and how many titles at the bottom fail to do the same. Those are the realities of digital markets. Assortments may become more and more expansive, but the importance of the few titles at the very top keeps growing, while average sales for the lowest sellers are going down.
The same patterns are visible in album sales. ...out of a total of 870,000 albums that sold at least one copy in 2011, 13 album titles sold more than a million copies each, together accounting for 19 million copies sold. That's 0.001 percent of all titles accounting for 7 percent of sales. The top 1,000 albums generated about half of all the sales, and the top 10,000 albums around 80 percent of sales. Deep in the tail, 513,000 titles or nearly 60 percent of the assortment, sold fewer than 10 copies each, together making up half a percent of total sales.
The numbers certainly do not come close to the trusted '80/20 rule' that many managers live by, which supposes that 80 percent of the sales tend to come from 20 percent of the products on offer. For music albums, it is close to an 80/1 rule - if we can speak about a rule at all. Even if we take a conservative estimate of what would be on offer in a bricks-and-mortar store at any given point in time, Anderson's predictions that long-tail sales will rival those in the head are far off.
Of course the goods in the long tail include not just true niche content but former hits as well. Sales of a blockbuster - even one on the scale of Lady Gaga's 'The Fame' or Maroon 5's 'Songs About Jane' - will eventually dwindle. Such products can now live forever online, even if they have long been cleared from the physical shelves. For old hits, then, digital channels may present a real opportunity. But the large majority of products in the tail were not very successful to begin with. Most of them, in fact, never met the bar for a release through traditional distribution channels. Or, in the case of individual music tracks, they are orphans of unbundling activity: now that online consumers can cherry-pick the most popular tracks on an album, the rest shoot quickly into the long tail."
Chart 1:
"In the recorded-music industry in 2011, more than 8 million unique digital-track titles together sold 1.271 billion copies... For instance, nearly 6 million titles - 74 percent of all unique titles - each sold fewer than 10 copies, accounting for only 1 percent of sales.
102 titles selling 1,000,000 copies or more/189,758,000 copies sold/15%
1,412 titles selling 100,000-999,999 copies/318,473,000 sold/25%
13,492 titles selling 10,000-99,999 copies/374,827,000 copies sold/29%
74,246 titles selling 1,000-9,999 copies/212,571,000 copies sold/17%
382,720 titles selling 100-999 copies/111,117,000 copies sold/9%
1,620,959 titles selling 10-99 copies/48,687,000 copies sold/4%
5,927,729 titles selling fewer than 10 copies/15,722,000 sold/1%"
Chart 2:
"In the recorded music industry in 2011, more than 800,000 unique album titles together sold more than 330 million copies (including both physical and digital copies)... For instance, 513,000 titles - 58% of all unique titles - each sold fewer than 10 copies, accounting for only 0.5 percent of sales.
13 titles selling 1,000,000 copies or more/23,287,000 copies sold/7%
387 titles selling 100,000-999,999 copies/93,992,000 copies sold/28%
4,229 titles selling 10,000-99,999 copies/114,949,000 copies sold/35%
21,042 titles selling 1,000-9,999 copies/61,493,000 copies sold/19%
87,986 titles selling 100-999 copies/27,032,000 copies sold/8%
251,566 titles selling 10-99 copies/8,261,000 copies sold/2%
513,146 titles selling fewer than 10 copies/1,558,000 copies sold/0.5%"
From Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse's book "Blockbusters: Hit-Making, Risk-Taking, And The Big Business Of Entertainment": http://us.macmillan.com/blockbusters/AnitaElberse
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Tuesday, 15 October 2013
David Byrne
Old fart hates change, what else is new?
So I went to the Mill City Museum. Once upon a time they had sawmills on the Mississippi. Back before they cut down all the Minnesota timber and other states got into the lumber act. But if Luddites like Byrne were in charge, we'd still be sawing timber with water power, got to keep those jobs.
And then came the flour mills. But they disappeared too. Because with the advent of electricity, the mill didn't have to be on the water.
Change. It's constant.
The only people who don't get this are the musicians.
What do we know about musicians? They couldn't work at the 7-11, they wouldn't be able to show up on time. I liked it better in the old days too, when without the Internet we didn't know so many of our heroes were doofuses.
Byrne is right about income inequality. That is changing the arts scene. But that's not about the Internet, that's not about technology, that's about taxes and...so many other non-digital things.
But when you start railing against the Internet and Spotify and asking how a musician can get paid, you lose me completely. Hey, why don't we go back to dial telephones! While we're at it, why don't we go back to TALKING on the telephone! At least the providers were hip to this and started making money on data. If Verizon were Byrne it'd be lamenting the loss of landlines, and have us pledging to actually pick up the phone and call our mother and sister and spend at least ten hours a week talking, the same amount of time it's going to take me to listen to your lame album to the point where you say I will get it.
Why does every industry accept the fact that change is inevitable except entertainment? Especially music. Because it can be made alone for next to nothing and everybody who records believes we should pay attention.
Yup, give up that laptop. Give up iTunes. Let's go back to the dark ages when you had to have a record deal to record, never mind get distributed. Want that?
As for consumers... You had to buy the album to find out it was terrible. Or purchase a seventy minute CD to hear one good track. But Byrne would say you were keeping the artist alive! I'd say they're better off dead.
No one above the fray is complaining they can't get paid. Is Jay-Z bitching? No, he ADAPTED!
I don't hear Lady Gaga or Katy Perry ranting that they just can't make it in the new world. Then again, their YouTube videos get millions of plays. Hey David Byrne! No one is holding the audience back! Why don't your new clips get 10 million views? Could it be that most people are not interested?
Just because you make it that does not mean we've got to pay attention.
As for those who don't get Spotify, you're completely stupid.
Here's how it works.
First and foremost...IT STOPS PIRACY DEAD! It doesn't make sense to steal.
And it only pays when your music gets played. What a concept. So different from selling an album with the aforementioned one good track. And it pays FOREVER! Even into your old age, when they no longer have turntables to play your vinyl records, never mind the software to play your MP3s.
But I could rant forever and Byrne still wouldn't get it.
But Byrne gets ink because news outlets know the Internet loves a controversy. Fellow Luddites e-mail people like me, pounding their chests, claiming another has-been is on their side!
Or Thom Yorke... Can he really keep his finger in the dike, stopping progress?
You want people to make more money off recorded music? Stop watching YouTube and get everybody to pay for Spotify Premium.
But this isn't about Spotify. It's not even about recorded music. It's about old people who don't like that the world changes faster than ever. What next, should we bring back MySpace, return to AOL dial-up?
I'm overwhelmed too. I'm trying to figure it out too.
But if you don't think we're in a golden age of music access, if you're not thrilled that the history of recorded music is at everybody's fingertips and there's a monetization plan, you're positively ignorant.
Mill City Museum: http://www.millcitymuseum.org
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So I went to the Mill City Museum. Once upon a time they had sawmills on the Mississippi. Back before they cut down all the Minnesota timber and other states got into the lumber act. But if Luddites like Byrne were in charge, we'd still be sawing timber with water power, got to keep those jobs.
And then came the flour mills. But they disappeared too. Because with the advent of electricity, the mill didn't have to be on the water.
Change. It's constant.
The only people who don't get this are the musicians.
What do we know about musicians? They couldn't work at the 7-11, they wouldn't be able to show up on time. I liked it better in the old days too, when without the Internet we didn't know so many of our heroes were doofuses.
Byrne is right about income inequality. That is changing the arts scene. But that's not about the Internet, that's not about technology, that's about taxes and...so many other non-digital things.
But when you start railing against the Internet and Spotify and asking how a musician can get paid, you lose me completely. Hey, why don't we go back to dial telephones! While we're at it, why don't we go back to TALKING on the telephone! At least the providers were hip to this and started making money on data. If Verizon were Byrne it'd be lamenting the loss of landlines, and have us pledging to actually pick up the phone and call our mother and sister and spend at least ten hours a week talking, the same amount of time it's going to take me to listen to your lame album to the point where you say I will get it.
Why does every industry accept the fact that change is inevitable except entertainment? Especially music. Because it can be made alone for next to nothing and everybody who records believes we should pay attention.
Yup, give up that laptop. Give up iTunes. Let's go back to the dark ages when you had to have a record deal to record, never mind get distributed. Want that?
As for consumers... You had to buy the album to find out it was terrible. Or purchase a seventy minute CD to hear one good track. But Byrne would say you were keeping the artist alive! I'd say they're better off dead.
No one above the fray is complaining they can't get paid. Is Jay-Z bitching? No, he ADAPTED!
I don't hear Lady Gaga or Katy Perry ranting that they just can't make it in the new world. Then again, their YouTube videos get millions of plays. Hey David Byrne! No one is holding the audience back! Why don't your new clips get 10 million views? Could it be that most people are not interested?
Just because you make it that does not mean we've got to pay attention.
As for those who don't get Spotify, you're completely stupid.
Here's how it works.
First and foremost...IT STOPS PIRACY DEAD! It doesn't make sense to steal.
And it only pays when your music gets played. What a concept. So different from selling an album with the aforementioned one good track. And it pays FOREVER! Even into your old age, when they no longer have turntables to play your vinyl records, never mind the software to play your MP3s.
But I could rant forever and Byrne still wouldn't get it.
But Byrne gets ink because news outlets know the Internet loves a controversy. Fellow Luddites e-mail people like me, pounding their chests, claiming another has-been is on their side!
Or Thom Yorke... Can he really keep his finger in the dike, stopping progress?
You want people to make more money off recorded music? Stop watching YouTube and get everybody to pay for Spotify Premium.
But this isn't about Spotify. It's not even about recorded music. It's about old people who don't like that the world changes faster than ever. What next, should we bring back MySpace, return to AOL dial-up?
I'm overwhelmed too. I'm trying to figure it out too.
But if you don't think we're in a golden age of music access, if you're not thrilled that the history of recorded music is at everybody's fingertips and there's a monetization plan, you're positively ignorant.
Mill City Museum: http://www.millcitymuseum.org
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