DATA
Has been underutilized in the music business. SoundScan was a revolution, but then the Internet happened and everybody was caught flat-footed and was so flabbergasted at the evisceration of the business model that the only actions taken were rearguard ones, and those were executed late.
Don't confuse the product with the sell.
The key is to see if the product has traction. If it doesn't, don't expect anybody to invest in it. If you want money, if you want human effort, you must show growth and attention. That's the data focus of the artist.
As for the seller...
We're only at the advent of knowing what does and does not work. Does TV work, both ads and appearances? Web ads? YouTube play? No one is correlating cause and effect, they're just going by their gut. In other words, an appearance on Letterman or Leno might feel good, but is it actually helping an act's career?
Emotionally, I'd say no.
But emotion will not rule the record business in the future. Labels will look at the effect of activities and then judge whether to pursue them. Waste will be siphoned out of the system. A revolution is brewing. And he who has hit acts and employs data to further success will win. Because that person will generate the most success and money for acts, and hit creators will gravitate to them.
We're seeing it already in publishing. Kobalt has made its old line competitors very afraid, because the company is data-based, it provides information to its customers on a regular basis and utilizes data to generate more cash.
As for concert tickets... Soon prices will not be determined by hunch, but data. This is a much bigger issue than scalping and StubHub and all the bloviating about the secondary market.
In other words, what is a ticket worth?
Furthermore, regular customers will be courted. A regular customer will be given discount tickets to shows they might not otherwise choose to attend. A regular customer is much more valuable than an inactive one. Right now, no true differentiation is made.
It's not so much about all the revenue going to the secondary market, as the primary market not knowing how to price effectively. The Stones tried to capture all the revenue and it blew up in their face. The question is how do you price so the arena goes clean, you don't pull a number out of thin air and see if the public is willing to pay it, discounting after the fact and alienating all involved.
Also, the concept of bidding war guarantees will fade. Promoters will model what an act is worth. It won't be about the upfront payment so much as sharing in the revenue. Data will drive the sell. This will require promoters to be upfront about costs. Despite what you hear, those days are coming. Every ticket is going to return to the manifest. The big acts will insist upon it.
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Acts will replicate the web model, wherein only monoliths succeed. There's one Apple, one Amazon, one Google. They each have imitators, but the replicas have a tiny share of the marketplace.
In other words, if you invent a new type of music, you will rule. Others will horn in on your action, and you will fight back by continuing to record and release, i.e. innovating, and you will continue to get the lion's share of the revenues...unless someone who built upon your base leapfrogs you with innovation.
It's the sixties all over again. The Beatles put out records constantly. Each one was different. That's why they dominated.
It just looks right now like there's endless repetition of the formula. But the cracks are already showing. Top Forty, which is responsible for tonnage, used to be solely rhythmic. Then came Gotye, now comes Lorde. The new and the different is undeniable, the public demands it.
RADIO
Give Clear Channel credit. It sees the future.
Despite all the hoopla by entrenched players that terrestrial radio is burgeoning and forever, Clear Channel realizes this is untrue. So the company is expanding online. As for its iHeart Radio Festival, it's burnishing the company's image. Furthermore, unlike radio in general, which is anti-innovation and anti-spending, Clear Channel has invested in its own studio in Los Angeles.
So Clear Channel is better prepared for the future than other radio groups.
But will Clear Channel win?
Only if it is willing to kill its terrestrial model and super-serve its customers. That's the "Innovator's Dilemma" in a nutshell. What's killing terrestrial is the commercials. If you're beholden to twenty minutes of commercials per hour, you're going to lose in the future, which is so much more an on demand world. Digital advertising looks different, it's embedded, it consumes less time. Newspapers were dependent upon advertising, it moved away and newspapers died. Radio and television are just a couple of changes behind, the public will not tolerate this commercial load.
CONCERTS
Humanity will be king. Kanye cancels tour dates because his screen is broken, he's putting on an extravaganza when more and more people will be looking for honest performance in an increasingly digital world.
He who can play and perform live and write will win in the future. It's a return to basics. A reaction to today's overprocessed/fake world.
MAJOR LABELS
He who controls talent wins. It doesn't have to be the major labels. But since no one else was willing to put their money into artist development, the labels have sustained, they've been pulled slowly into the future, but they're here.
Artist development...don't equate it with multiple albums, which is an admirable quality, equate it with the spend. Managers are loath to spend. Institutions are loath to spend on art, where you can easily lose it all.
If you want to dominate in the artistic field in the future, you've got to spend.
That's what makes a successful concert promoter. Someone who's willing to lay their money on the line.
First you start with the money.
Then it's about insight and inefficiencies.
If you've got no money to spend, you're not in the game.
If you control no major talent, your opinion is not listened to, no matter how brilliant it might be.
CUSTOMERS
Demand full access 24/7 at a low price. Scarcity is history. As are high prices for content. Wireless companies drove down the price of access, content companies were swept along the way. Stop agitating for higher prices. Just try to get a larger piece of the pie.
Music a huge pie. Don't complain, dive in.
CUSTOMERS 2
Want to bring their digital lifestyle to music.
Which means they want to do everything on their handheld. They want to listen to music, buy concert tickets and interact with acts. And they want to employ their mobiles at the show. Expect wireless in all venues (it's already penetrated the NFL), and gamification.
You will earn points for going to the show. There will be a competition with rewards. He who goes most will get a free pass, stuff like that.
It's all about loyalty. Something the industry has done a poor job of leveraging.
Acts will know who their fans are. They will be incentivized to remain loyal. He who controls the customer data wins.
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Saturday, 2 November 2013
Friday, 1 November 2013
Rhinofy-The Telephone Hour
"Hello Mr. Henkel, this is Harvey Johnson
Can I speak to Penelope Ann?"
That's what happened. Right around seven pm. Long before the Internet, long before social networks, teenagers burned up the telephone lines. It was a rite of passage, before we started our homework, we dialed in to catch up on our day.
But first you had to get through the parents.
Everybody didn't have his or her own phone, calls were expensive! Instead a household shared one line, sometimes only one telephone, and therefore endless arguments ensued. That's a cry you'd hear throughout America...CAN YOU GET OFF THE PHONE??!!
Before the Beatles, after Elvis Presley, there was a Broadway musical so big every baby boomer knows the songs by heart.
And that musical was entitled "Bye Bye Birdie."
Original Cast Albums already burned up the chart, but this was the first one written especially for kids. And unlike modern musicals, the score was memorable.
"Have you heard about Hugo and Kim?"
DID THEY REALLY GET PINNED?
Try it tomorrow. Go up to a boomer and ask that question. And you'll instantly get the above response!
I had to ask my mother what getting pinned was. I was still in single digits. I knew I was going to college, but I was unfamiliar with fraternities, which have made a comeback amongst boomers' children, even though by time their parents made it to college they were too cool to join.
But they weren't too cool to buy this album. And participate in high school and summer camp productions of "Bye Bye Birdie."
At first we just called our friends about the homework, then we started to gossip, then we started calling girls.
That's the way it was. Boys made the initial effort. There were no forward girls back then, propriety dictated they wait until a boy showed interest. But then it was open season, and every time your crush called your parents needled you...IT'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND ON THE LINE!
We'd get that thrill, we couldn't believe they rang! But we hated getting grilled.
We were infatuated. You know what a school crush is like. There's just something about them. You'd get up all your gumption, look up their number in the white pages, back when every home had a phonebook, and dial.
The goal was to keep them on the line. You always started off with a ruse. Something you needed to know about school. Your goal was to get off subject, to get to know them. Then again, if you were really good at this, you'd be confronted with their personage the next day, and how to follow up?
But really, the telephone was the tool of the fairer sex. Girls hung on the line for hours. Asking just these questions. The same ones they do on social networks today. Because social capital is everything to a teenager.
"It won't last
Not at all
He's too thin
She's too tall"
Information. The world ran on it long before the Internet. It's the currency of life.
"Penelope, about the prom?"
The embarrassment of asking and being turned down.
But the goal was to go steady!
By time "Bye Bye Birdie" hit the boards it was already dated, but isn't that always the case with Broadway. But we couldn't get over the fact this musical was made for US! It was one of the first indications we were gonna rule in the future. After all, we already controlled the telephone!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
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Can I speak to Penelope Ann?"
That's what happened. Right around seven pm. Long before the Internet, long before social networks, teenagers burned up the telephone lines. It was a rite of passage, before we started our homework, we dialed in to catch up on our day.
But first you had to get through the parents.
Everybody didn't have his or her own phone, calls were expensive! Instead a household shared one line, sometimes only one telephone, and therefore endless arguments ensued. That's a cry you'd hear throughout America...CAN YOU GET OFF THE PHONE??!!
Before the Beatles, after Elvis Presley, there was a Broadway musical so big every baby boomer knows the songs by heart.
And that musical was entitled "Bye Bye Birdie."
Original Cast Albums already burned up the chart, but this was the first one written especially for kids. And unlike modern musicals, the score was memorable.
"Have you heard about Hugo and Kim?"
DID THEY REALLY GET PINNED?
Try it tomorrow. Go up to a boomer and ask that question. And you'll instantly get the above response!
I had to ask my mother what getting pinned was. I was still in single digits. I knew I was going to college, but I was unfamiliar with fraternities, which have made a comeback amongst boomers' children, even though by time their parents made it to college they were too cool to join.
But they weren't too cool to buy this album. And participate in high school and summer camp productions of "Bye Bye Birdie."
At first we just called our friends about the homework, then we started to gossip, then we started calling girls.
That's the way it was. Boys made the initial effort. There were no forward girls back then, propriety dictated they wait until a boy showed interest. But then it was open season, and every time your crush called your parents needled you...IT'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND ON THE LINE!
We'd get that thrill, we couldn't believe they rang! But we hated getting grilled.
We were infatuated. You know what a school crush is like. There's just something about them. You'd get up all your gumption, look up their number in the white pages, back when every home had a phonebook, and dial.
The goal was to keep them on the line. You always started off with a ruse. Something you needed to know about school. Your goal was to get off subject, to get to know them. Then again, if you were really good at this, you'd be confronted with their personage the next day, and how to follow up?
But really, the telephone was the tool of the fairer sex. Girls hung on the line for hours. Asking just these questions. The same ones they do on social networks today. Because social capital is everything to a teenager.
"It won't last
Not at all
He's too thin
She's too tall"
Information. The world ran on it long before the Internet. It's the currency of life.
"Penelope, about the prom?"
The embarrassment of asking and being turned down.
But the goal was to go steady!
By time "Bye Bye Birdie" hit the boards it was already dated, but isn't that always the case with Broadway. But we couldn't get over the fact this musical was made for US! It was one of the first indications we were gonna rule in the future. After all, we already controlled the telephone!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Prism
The album is dying in front of our very eyes.
In other words, what kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where Katy Perry's new album "Prism" only sells 287,000 copies in its debut?
One in which everybody's interested in the single, and no one's got time to sit and hear your hour plus statement.
This is not emotion, this is statistics. The shelf life of news is shorter than ever. The shelf life of art... You blink and it's done.
I'm fine with you preaching to the choir, making an album for your fans. You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whomever...
But if your plan is to increase your audience, spread the word and make money, suddenly the album just isn't working. The youngsters are streaming singles and the oldsters are staying home. How do I know? Elton's album isn't even in the Top Fifty and McCartney's album barely broke 20,000 this week, and there wasn't a better oldster hype than for these two projects. People just don't want 'em.
So what's the industry to do?
Have a rethink.
In other words, hype doesn't work.
No one had more hype than Miley Cyrus, but "Bangerz" didn't even sell 45,000 copies this week. She can go on SNL, tweet her life away, but it's not moving the needle. Lorde is selling as much as her without the benefit of scorched earth, proving that quality music is as good as hype, but...she's not burning up the chart either.
We've turned into a nation of grazers. And the artist's job is to constantly be at the smorgasbord. Not to deliver one big meal that is picked at and thrown away, but a constant presence in the public's face.
Media cannot be limited to the album release date. It must be a 24/7, 365 day a year effort. Same with creativity. If your track gets traction, more power to you. If it doesn't, go back in the studio and make more.
In other words, if you're sitting at home bitching that you're not making any money because the Internet stole your business you're RIGHT! There are so many diversions that no one's got time for mediocre anymore. They just want superior. As for piracy... If you think "Prism"'s sales are low then you believe people are leaving AT&T Wireless because of Skype.
Yes, AT&T's subscriber numbers are declining. Oh, they've got some new iPad accounts, but contract subscribers are moving on to the cheaper T-Mobile and the better Verizon. Castigate me all you want, but the statistics don't lie.
Just like these album numbers.
If you've got a concept album, go ahead and record it. If you're only interested in selling a little, be my guest. But if you want to penetrate the consciousness of a large group of people and grow the pie, an album isn't working. Hell, it's not even working as a revenue model!
Labels are no longer in the record business, they're in the star business. How to maximize the revenue of an individual or band in as many media as possible, in as many ways as possible. Yes, while you were bitching about piracy your whole business model disappeared.
If music were the government it'd need a new hit. What I mean is the debt ceiling debate is history, the government needs a new hit single to stay in the public eye. But if it was run by musicians, they'd keep imploring people to read about the debt ceiling debate and the government shutdown. But the public has moved on.
You put out these albums and in almost every case, the public moves on in a matter of WEEKS! A few bought it, they heard it, and they're satisfied, and left waiting for years until you grace them with a new release. The rest of the public is just waiting for a hit single to burble, and if it does, they'll tap their toes and snap their fingers and ask WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOT?
And what you've got had better be just as good as the hit.
No one wants album tracks anymore. Not unless they're every bit as satisfying as the hit.
So it's not only classic rock acts who are no longer putting out albums, soon no one will do it. Oh, it won't be soon, because artists think making albums is part of their DNA, going into the studio and making a ten track "statement."
But that's like saying typewriters have to be an office fixture. And you can't post online unless you write in multiple paragraphs. And texting must be abandoned because it's not in depth enough.
The goal of a musician is to be AHEAD of the audience.
Right now everybody's behind.
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In other words, what kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where Katy Perry's new album "Prism" only sells 287,000 copies in its debut?
One in which everybody's interested in the single, and no one's got time to sit and hear your hour plus statement.
This is not emotion, this is statistics. The shelf life of news is shorter than ever. The shelf life of art... You blink and it's done.
I'm fine with you preaching to the choir, making an album for your fans. You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whomever...
But if your plan is to increase your audience, spread the word and make money, suddenly the album just isn't working. The youngsters are streaming singles and the oldsters are staying home. How do I know? Elton's album isn't even in the Top Fifty and McCartney's album barely broke 20,000 this week, and there wasn't a better oldster hype than for these two projects. People just don't want 'em.
So what's the industry to do?
Have a rethink.
In other words, hype doesn't work.
No one had more hype than Miley Cyrus, but "Bangerz" didn't even sell 45,000 copies this week. She can go on SNL, tweet her life away, but it's not moving the needle. Lorde is selling as much as her without the benefit of scorched earth, proving that quality music is as good as hype, but...she's not burning up the chart either.
We've turned into a nation of grazers. And the artist's job is to constantly be at the smorgasbord. Not to deliver one big meal that is picked at and thrown away, but a constant presence in the public's face.
Media cannot be limited to the album release date. It must be a 24/7, 365 day a year effort. Same with creativity. If your track gets traction, more power to you. If it doesn't, go back in the studio and make more.
In other words, if you're sitting at home bitching that you're not making any money because the Internet stole your business you're RIGHT! There are so many diversions that no one's got time for mediocre anymore. They just want superior. As for piracy... If you think "Prism"'s sales are low then you believe people are leaving AT&T Wireless because of Skype.
Yes, AT&T's subscriber numbers are declining. Oh, they've got some new iPad accounts, but contract subscribers are moving on to the cheaper T-Mobile and the better Verizon. Castigate me all you want, but the statistics don't lie.
Just like these album numbers.
If you've got a concept album, go ahead and record it. If you're only interested in selling a little, be my guest. But if you want to penetrate the consciousness of a large group of people and grow the pie, an album isn't working. Hell, it's not even working as a revenue model!
Labels are no longer in the record business, they're in the star business. How to maximize the revenue of an individual or band in as many media as possible, in as many ways as possible. Yes, while you were bitching about piracy your whole business model disappeared.
If music were the government it'd need a new hit. What I mean is the debt ceiling debate is history, the government needs a new hit single to stay in the public eye. But if it was run by musicians, they'd keep imploring people to read about the debt ceiling debate and the government shutdown. But the public has moved on.
You put out these albums and in almost every case, the public moves on in a matter of WEEKS! A few bought it, they heard it, and they're satisfied, and left waiting for years until you grace them with a new release. The rest of the public is just waiting for a hit single to burble, and if it does, they'll tap their toes and snap their fingers and ask WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOT?
And what you've got had better be just as good as the hit.
No one wants album tracks anymore. Not unless they're every bit as satisfying as the hit.
So it's not only classic rock acts who are no longer putting out albums, soon no one will do it. Oh, it won't be soon, because artists think making albums is part of their DNA, going into the studio and making a ten track "statement."
But that's like saying typewriters have to be an office fixture. And you can't post online unless you write in multiple paragraphs. And texting must be abandoned because it's not in depth enough.
The goal of a musician is to be AHEAD of the audience.
Right now everybody's behind.
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Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Re-Lou Reed
Subject: Lou Reed
I worked with Lou for four years on tour in the mid eighties and continues a distant but friendly relationship with him for the rest of his life. Lou had very high expectations from everyone around him from performance to punctuality, but those expectations were placed upon himself as much or more then anyone else. He taught me a lot about myself and what I could accomplish if I was focused and persistent and demanded more of myself. He appreciated a job well done, with a curt thank you.
Lou and I bonded on tour late night playing pinball in hotel children's game rooms to the point that I carried $50 in quarters where ever we went. I was mandated to book hotels that had pinball machines. He was a master of the slanted table and each players turn could take 10 or 15 minutes while the other remained a spectator and we chatted about life. Lou introduced me to Laurie Anderson as the man who saved his life, as I was the rescuer at Torrance Hospital that came to pick up the pieces following a late night car accident, with Lou as one of four passengers on the 405. He had been asleep, woke up to a car careening across the road, twisting his ankle under the seat, slamming his chest and head into the front seat in spite of a seat belt. He was and in physical pain and an emotional wreck seeing the injuries to the other passengers as well. The next day he recorded his vocal duet with Sam Moore on "Soulman" for a movie soundtrack followed by a video shoot the following day for the movie song video. That afternoon we caught the Peoples Express flight back to Laguardia and I dropped Lou at his apartment on the upper westside. As I helped him out of the car, he said in his patented drone, "Thank You, I cannot believe the past 48 hours are over", as he shut the door and sauntered with a limp into the building as if nothing had happened."
Lou was a student of sound and had a huge collection of guitars, amps, and effects pedals. He was forever pulling out new pieces on tour in search of that sound, which when he found it within days was not what he was looking for completely and the hunt would continue. His "No Money Down" albums theme was that each song sounded sonically different as each used a different guitar amp pedal combination but the player, Lou Reed remained the same.
I continued to run into Lou over the years, NYC restaurants, and an occasional show I would attend, SIR on 25th St. Sometimes he was warm and embracing others cold and distant. We last spoke in the bathroom at SIR, he smiled as we exchange greetings and as he went out the door said, "See Ya on the Streets."
Many fans cite different songs of Lou's as their favorites , Sweet Jane, Waiting for the Man,I Love you Susan, Vicious, Street Hassle, Coney Island Baby among them.
To me Satellite of Love was the one, the arrangement and tempo kept changing, but the grit, power and the lyrics did it all for me, it describes Lou a satellite in space spewing out his love as he sees fit. My heart goes out to Laurie Anderson, in her Lou found an artistic soulmate that allowed each of them to follow their muse with support and on their own.
A true loss of an acerbic wit, social commentator, curmudgeon, who was proud of the title "godfather of punk" although loath to admit. I can still hear that piercing laugh and see the occasional smile from beneath the scowl. A very complex person to say the least, one of kind.
See ya on the streets Lou, maybe at the pinball arcade.
Bert Holman - Allman Brothers Band
_______________________________________
Subject: RE: Lou Reed
Lou Reed.
Bob, I co-Produced and played drums on Lou's "New York". I did some half assed engineering too. I met Lou (Prior to "New York") through Bob Quine. I played drums on a couple of his albums, Legendary Hearts & New Sensations,
did a bit or touring with him and, then I went off to be in a POP Band called Scritti Politti.
After the 18 month rush of Scritti Politti I came back home to NYC and Lou called me to ask if I would play drums on his next record that would become "New York". I told him that I would be happy to. I was all of 23 or 24 at that time and was looking to become a record producer. I never thought I would end up Producing "New York" with Lou. It was going to be another gig with someone I knew and felt comfortable with. He liked my playing because it was simple. I was NOT a prodigy. I was just a guy with a decent sense of what was needed from a drummer.
So, Lou starts asking me (the young guy) "Who should I get to produce this
record?" I blurted out the usual suspects of that that era, Bob Clearmountain, Scott Litt and so on but, no one was interested. NO ONE. The thing that is important here is that Lou had just been signed by Seymour Stein to SIRE / Warner Bros. And he essentially had, as usual in those days of WB, total artistic
control!
After several weeks of Lou searching for someone to produce, I (brass balled twenty something year old) suggested that I produce the record. He said "What the fuck do you know about recording guitars?... All you've done is "synth pop" crap. My response was "Lou, book ONE day in a studio and let's see what happens"
He did, and that ONE day at the legendary Media Sound on 57th street changed everything. I was so cocky, I didn't even hire an engineer... I would just do it myself! Long story short, we recorded and mixed the opening track of New York, "Romeo Had Juliette" in that single day.
He called me the next morning and said "I sound like Lou Reed again for the
first time in years... Let's do this". What we did that day ("Romeo Had Juliette") IS the first cut on "New York". He did not want to change a single thing about it. No remix, no overdubs, nothing.
Although I was a child and fan of technology, I knew that this record would best be served by using NO modern appliances. No drum machines, no automation assisted mixing, nothing. My main inspiration was the recently release Leonard Cohen record, "I'm Your Man". It was my first time hearing ANY Leonard Cohen but, what struck me was the level of the vocal. It was LOUD. soaring above the music. Yes, the underpinning "score" of "I'm You Man" was synthetic but, The song, The Lyrics were the thing.
Having been "just the young drummer" on two previous Lou records, I suffered through and producers and engineers trying to get Lou to "sing". Observing the relentless desire of those producers and engineers to DELIVER a new Lou Reed hit. Lou was not a singer per se. He was a Pre-Punk Punk. Spoken, half sung words and "sort of" melodies were his strength. Raw, in your face story telling was the conceptual lynch pin of New York.
I suggested that we take it one step further and have no piano, organ or any other kind of keyboards on the record. I'm not sure how long it was from his initially contacting me to play on "his next record" to actually starting in the studio but, the whole thing took Six weeks. The funny thing about that time was that while we were recording New York, I was having my first major radio and sales success with a record I had produced a year earlier, Information Society. So, from that moment on, my fate was sealed. I would never be "That Producer" with that "Go To" Sound. I didn't get many gigs from the "Big Time" Success of Information Society but, I did get lots of work and respect from Lou's New York.
Lou Believed in me. Lou gave me one of the biggest breaks I ever had and will always be grateful.
Rest in peace Lou.
Cheers - Fred Maher
_______________________________________
Subject: Re: Lou Reed
Hi Bob
I played with Lou on his last two European tours as violinist, guitarist and backing vocalist. Once I heard the news I spoke with my friend who had been playing with him for some time and who actually got me the "audition" with him and recounted how strange the process was getting the gig.
Lou needed a guitar player and my friend was in great confidence with him. He told me I could audition for the spot but that I should really bring my violin. I didn't want to as I hadn't been practicing much at the time, but he insisted. So after some cajoling I brought the violin with the guitar to the audition at Lou's studio which was just a couple blocks from my apartment. I had to learn 3 songs: Dirty Blvd, Halloween Parade and another I can't remember. It didn't matter anyway because the only song we played was Sweet Jane. The guitar audition was pretty easy considering Sweet Jane is 4 chords (not 3), but he got really excited about the violin. I was completely terrified and totally in awe. When I left I felt better than if I had won the lottery. Lou Reed just hired me!! To play!!! I would take that gig over the lottery any day.
The audition was so stress free that I thought there had to be a catch. I didn't play very hard or show off any. The second gig on the tour was at the Hop Farm festival in England. We played after Patti Smith and before The Stooges. There were 25,000 people there. I'd never seen anything like it from a stage. And during the song, Ecstasy, he walked over to me and said "play a solo". I was on violin at the time and I just took off. Hard. He came over again and said "play fast". So I did. Then he yelled "play fast!" so I fucking did. I believe that was the audition.
I think what's interesting is that Lou took a chance on me. A lot of people spend a lot of time hoping the industry will take notice, and at some point you need someone to take a chance on you. Put themselves on the line and believe enough in you to give you a shot. It's rare. And Lou did that for me. I'll be forever grateful.
It's a terrible day.
Thanks for the newsletters Bob. I read them on the way to work in the morning.
And thanks Lou. Thanks.
Tony Diodore
_______________________________________
Subject: rock an roll animal
The rock n roll animal is gone, but his songs live on through his recordings. I was happy to read that Rock n Roll Animal was an album you liked. I take personal pride in having been the principal leader of the band, co-lead guitarist and live performance arranger for songs like "Heroin". The band managed to take Lou to his first gold record and create a greater awareness of his prodigious talents to a wider audience than before. Lou was not an easy man to know, and as a consequence, I never got to really know him except in band matters and through his incredible songs. The songs from BERLIN are particularly genius. I miss those days of the Rock n Roll Animal band, on the road with Lou, and later, with Alice Cooper.
Dick Wagner
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I worked with Lou for four years on tour in the mid eighties and continues a distant but friendly relationship with him for the rest of his life. Lou had very high expectations from everyone around him from performance to punctuality, but those expectations were placed upon himself as much or more then anyone else. He taught me a lot about myself and what I could accomplish if I was focused and persistent and demanded more of myself. He appreciated a job well done, with a curt thank you.
Lou and I bonded on tour late night playing pinball in hotel children's game rooms to the point that I carried $50 in quarters where ever we went. I was mandated to book hotels that had pinball machines. He was a master of the slanted table and each players turn could take 10 or 15 minutes while the other remained a spectator and we chatted about life. Lou introduced me to Laurie Anderson as the man who saved his life, as I was the rescuer at Torrance Hospital that came to pick up the pieces following a late night car accident, with Lou as one of four passengers on the 405. He had been asleep, woke up to a car careening across the road, twisting his ankle under the seat, slamming his chest and head into the front seat in spite of a seat belt. He was and in physical pain and an emotional wreck seeing the injuries to the other passengers as well. The next day he recorded his vocal duet with Sam Moore on "Soulman" for a movie soundtrack followed by a video shoot the following day for the movie song video. That afternoon we caught the Peoples Express flight back to Laguardia and I dropped Lou at his apartment on the upper westside. As I helped him out of the car, he said in his patented drone, "Thank You, I cannot believe the past 48 hours are over", as he shut the door and sauntered with a limp into the building as if nothing had happened."
Lou was a student of sound and had a huge collection of guitars, amps, and effects pedals. He was forever pulling out new pieces on tour in search of that sound, which when he found it within days was not what he was looking for completely and the hunt would continue. His "No Money Down" albums theme was that each song sounded sonically different as each used a different guitar amp pedal combination but the player, Lou Reed remained the same.
I continued to run into Lou over the years, NYC restaurants, and an occasional show I would attend, SIR on 25th St. Sometimes he was warm and embracing others cold and distant. We last spoke in the bathroom at SIR, he smiled as we exchange greetings and as he went out the door said, "See Ya on the Streets."
Many fans cite different songs of Lou's as their favorites , Sweet Jane, Waiting for the Man,I Love you Susan, Vicious, Street Hassle, Coney Island Baby among them.
To me Satellite of Love was the one, the arrangement and tempo kept changing, but the grit, power and the lyrics did it all for me, it describes Lou a satellite in space spewing out his love as he sees fit. My heart goes out to Laurie Anderson, in her Lou found an artistic soulmate that allowed each of them to follow their muse with support and on their own.
A true loss of an acerbic wit, social commentator, curmudgeon, who was proud of the title "godfather of punk" although loath to admit. I can still hear that piercing laugh and see the occasional smile from beneath the scowl. A very complex person to say the least, one of kind.
See ya on the streets Lou, maybe at the pinball arcade.
Bert Holman - Allman Brothers Band
_______________________________________
Subject: RE: Lou Reed
Lou Reed.
Bob, I co-Produced and played drums on Lou's "New York". I did some half assed engineering too. I met Lou (Prior to "New York") through Bob Quine. I played drums on a couple of his albums, Legendary Hearts & New Sensations,
did a bit or touring with him and, then I went off to be in a POP Band called Scritti Politti.
After the 18 month rush of Scritti Politti I came back home to NYC and Lou called me to ask if I would play drums on his next record that would become "New York". I told him that I would be happy to. I was all of 23 or 24 at that time and was looking to become a record producer. I never thought I would end up Producing "New York" with Lou. It was going to be another gig with someone I knew and felt comfortable with. He liked my playing because it was simple. I was NOT a prodigy. I was just a guy with a decent sense of what was needed from a drummer.
So, Lou starts asking me (the young guy) "Who should I get to produce this
record?" I blurted out the usual suspects of that that era, Bob Clearmountain, Scott Litt and so on but, no one was interested. NO ONE. The thing that is important here is that Lou had just been signed by Seymour Stein to SIRE / Warner Bros. And he essentially had, as usual in those days of WB, total artistic
control!
After several weeks of Lou searching for someone to produce, I (brass balled twenty something year old) suggested that I produce the record. He said "What the fuck do you know about recording guitars?... All you've done is "synth pop" crap. My response was "Lou, book ONE day in a studio and let's see what happens"
He did, and that ONE day at the legendary Media Sound on 57th street changed everything. I was so cocky, I didn't even hire an engineer... I would just do it myself! Long story short, we recorded and mixed the opening track of New York, "Romeo Had Juliette" in that single day.
He called me the next morning and said "I sound like Lou Reed again for the
first time in years... Let's do this". What we did that day ("Romeo Had Juliette") IS the first cut on "New York". He did not want to change a single thing about it. No remix, no overdubs, nothing.
Although I was a child and fan of technology, I knew that this record would best be served by using NO modern appliances. No drum machines, no automation assisted mixing, nothing. My main inspiration was the recently release Leonard Cohen record, "I'm Your Man". It was my first time hearing ANY Leonard Cohen but, what struck me was the level of the vocal. It was LOUD. soaring above the music. Yes, the underpinning "score" of "I'm You Man" was synthetic but, The song, The Lyrics were the thing.
Having been "just the young drummer" on two previous Lou records, I suffered through and producers and engineers trying to get Lou to "sing". Observing the relentless desire of those producers and engineers to DELIVER a new Lou Reed hit. Lou was not a singer per se. He was a Pre-Punk Punk. Spoken, half sung words and "sort of" melodies were his strength. Raw, in your face story telling was the conceptual lynch pin of New York.
I suggested that we take it one step further and have no piano, organ or any other kind of keyboards on the record. I'm not sure how long it was from his initially contacting me to play on "his next record" to actually starting in the studio but, the whole thing took Six weeks. The funny thing about that time was that while we were recording New York, I was having my first major radio and sales success with a record I had produced a year earlier, Information Society. So, from that moment on, my fate was sealed. I would never be "That Producer" with that "Go To" Sound. I didn't get many gigs from the "Big Time" Success of Information Society but, I did get lots of work and respect from Lou's New York.
Lou Believed in me. Lou gave me one of the biggest breaks I ever had and will always be grateful.
Rest in peace Lou.
Cheers - Fred Maher
_______________________________________
Subject: Re: Lou Reed
Hi Bob
I played with Lou on his last two European tours as violinist, guitarist and backing vocalist. Once I heard the news I spoke with my friend who had been playing with him for some time and who actually got me the "audition" with him and recounted how strange the process was getting the gig.
Lou needed a guitar player and my friend was in great confidence with him. He told me I could audition for the spot but that I should really bring my violin. I didn't want to as I hadn't been practicing much at the time, but he insisted. So after some cajoling I brought the violin with the guitar to the audition at Lou's studio which was just a couple blocks from my apartment. I had to learn 3 songs: Dirty Blvd, Halloween Parade and another I can't remember. It didn't matter anyway because the only song we played was Sweet Jane. The guitar audition was pretty easy considering Sweet Jane is 4 chords (not 3), but he got really excited about the violin. I was completely terrified and totally in awe. When I left I felt better than if I had won the lottery. Lou Reed just hired me!! To play!!! I would take that gig over the lottery any day.
The audition was so stress free that I thought there had to be a catch. I didn't play very hard or show off any. The second gig on the tour was at the Hop Farm festival in England. We played after Patti Smith and before The Stooges. There were 25,000 people there. I'd never seen anything like it from a stage. And during the song, Ecstasy, he walked over to me and said "play a solo". I was on violin at the time and I just took off. Hard. He came over again and said "play fast". So I did. Then he yelled "play fast!" so I fucking did. I believe that was the audition.
I think what's interesting is that Lou took a chance on me. A lot of people spend a lot of time hoping the industry will take notice, and at some point you need someone to take a chance on you. Put themselves on the line and believe enough in you to give you a shot. It's rare. And Lou did that for me. I'll be forever grateful.
It's a terrible day.
Thanks for the newsletters Bob. I read them on the way to work in the morning.
And thanks Lou. Thanks.
Tony Diodore
_______________________________________
Subject: rock an roll animal
The rock n roll animal is gone, but his songs live on through his recordings. I was happy to read that Rock n Roll Animal was an album you liked. I take personal pride in having been the principal leader of the band, co-lead guitarist and live performance arranger for songs like "Heroin". The band managed to take Lou to his first gold record and create a greater awareness of his prodigious talents to a wider audience than before. Lou was not an easy man to know, and as a consequence, I never got to really know him except in band matters and through his incredible songs. The songs from BERLIN are particularly genius. I miss those days of the Rock n Roll Animal band, on the road with Lou, and later, with Alice Cooper.
Dick Wagner
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The Amazon Book
I'm only twenty percent in (yes, I'm reading it on a Kindle), but I can't recommend it heartily enough.
Because first and foremost it's readable. Content is not king if you can't understand it, if you're not called to it in the middle of the night. If someone doesn't want to hear your record when they can't, it's not a hit.
It starts at the beginning, Bezos's education. It was alternative. Stimulating gifted students to challenge preconceptions and think for themselves. I'll posit our educational system is America's Achilles heel, along with the veneration of empty suits like Kim Kardashian instead of teachers and knowledge workers who contribute, because we treat school as a sentence as opposed to inspiration. Sure, you've got to do the hard work, memorize the multiplication tables and get up to speed on grammar, but it's when you learn to analyze and think for yourself, when you see information is a building block, that you truly become inspired by learning. Blame teachers, blame parents, blame the government focusing on statistics, but until school stops being a sentence, this country is in trouble. But not for the elite. Which is pulling away from the middle and lower classes so fast that our country is turning into a self-perpetuating have and have-not system from the get-go. You can't make it at a good college if you didn't go to a good high school, or most probably prep school.
And Bezos went to Princeton. And worked at a hedge fund. And then struck off in search of riches in the newfound landscape of the Internet.
And made a ton of mistakes. Not initially, but once he gained headway. He bought one loser company after another, he built warehouses he had to close. He was on a learning curve, making it up as he went. Because...
"It's easier to invent the future than to predict it."
Alan Key
How cool is that, how accurate is that. That's why industries/businesses fall by the wayside. They hire people to tell them what's going to happen instead of creating it themselves. And anybody can have an idea, but can you execute?
Then there's "the narrative fallacy."
"The narrative fallacy, Bezos explained, was a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book 'The Black Swan' to describe how humans are biologically inclined to turn complex realities into soothing but simplified stories. Taleb argued that the limitations of the human brain resulted in our species' tendency to squeeze unrelated facts and events into cause-and-effect equations and then convert them into easily understandable narratives. These stories, Taleb wrote, shield humanity from the true randomness of the world, the chaos of human experience, and, to some extent, the unnerving element of luck that plays into all successes and failures."
In other words, if you're looking for answers, don't. Donald Trump may have had success. So many famous people writing books did too. But if you think you can glean a path from their story you're wrong. Because not only are there hidden factors, like Trump's rich real estate father, but most businesses are misadventures, made up on the fly, adjusting when hitting blind corners, with the intelligence and perseverance of the progenitor the only common thread.
And when you get to the pinnacle of business, you experience bullying far greater than that on the playground. Barnes & Noble tried to intimidate Amazon. But once the playing field has changed, newbies are more nimble. It happens all the time in music, young acts are hungry and break the paradigm while old acts so busy cleaning up on the road and living a heady lifestyle are pushed aside.
But this is the story of our time. Amazon dominates in a way no musician can. Illustrating that publicity and fame are overrated. Because there's not a person alive who wouldn't rather run Amazon than be Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus. Rich and powerful people have no problem getting laid, they always fly private, and they're not dependent upon the hit single.
Well, maybe Apple is. Apple needs another hit.
But Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" book is no match for Brad Stone's Amazon one. Because you can tell he's excited by the story. You're deposited deep in the jungle, figuring it all out as he does. How this wily pipsqueak built an empire that nearly collapsed but is playing for all the marbles.
It's a story better than the "Fantastic Four."
How people worked on both Saturday and Sunday, and Bezos refused to offer bus passes because he didn't want people leaving work for a ride.
It's exciting.
And brutal.
It's not entertainment, where everybody's overpaid and overspends.
It's hard fought nickel by nickel warfare.
As a result, no one lasts long.
Except the company. The company endures. Because unlike the titans of today's music industry, there's not a personal ethos wherein ripping off the enterprise is de rigueur, but a can-do spirit wherein the captain has something to prove, and won't give up until he achieves his goal.
Read it.
"The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon: http://amzn.to/1cpoCes
Read an excerpt here: http://buswk.co/18PINgR
P.S. One more quote:
"Naturally, some of the reviews were negative. In speeches, Bezos later recalled getting an angry letter from an executive at a book publisher implying that Bezos didn't understand that his business was to sell books, not trash them. 'We saw it very differently,' Bezos said. 'When I read that letter, I thought, we don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions.'"
In a world where every record is good, every movie a hit, the customer is left out. He's baffled by this tsunami of hype, and unable to make a decision, frequently opts out. People want information. They want aid in figuring it out. He who helps wins.
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Because first and foremost it's readable. Content is not king if you can't understand it, if you're not called to it in the middle of the night. If someone doesn't want to hear your record when they can't, it's not a hit.
It starts at the beginning, Bezos's education. It was alternative. Stimulating gifted students to challenge preconceptions and think for themselves. I'll posit our educational system is America's Achilles heel, along with the veneration of empty suits like Kim Kardashian instead of teachers and knowledge workers who contribute, because we treat school as a sentence as opposed to inspiration. Sure, you've got to do the hard work, memorize the multiplication tables and get up to speed on grammar, but it's when you learn to analyze and think for yourself, when you see information is a building block, that you truly become inspired by learning. Blame teachers, blame parents, blame the government focusing on statistics, but until school stops being a sentence, this country is in trouble. But not for the elite. Which is pulling away from the middle and lower classes so fast that our country is turning into a self-perpetuating have and have-not system from the get-go. You can't make it at a good college if you didn't go to a good high school, or most probably prep school.
And Bezos went to Princeton. And worked at a hedge fund. And then struck off in search of riches in the newfound landscape of the Internet.
And made a ton of mistakes. Not initially, but once he gained headway. He bought one loser company after another, he built warehouses he had to close. He was on a learning curve, making it up as he went. Because...
"It's easier to invent the future than to predict it."
Alan Key
How cool is that, how accurate is that. That's why industries/businesses fall by the wayside. They hire people to tell them what's going to happen instead of creating it themselves. And anybody can have an idea, but can you execute?
Then there's "the narrative fallacy."
"The narrative fallacy, Bezos explained, was a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book 'The Black Swan' to describe how humans are biologically inclined to turn complex realities into soothing but simplified stories. Taleb argued that the limitations of the human brain resulted in our species' tendency to squeeze unrelated facts and events into cause-and-effect equations and then convert them into easily understandable narratives. These stories, Taleb wrote, shield humanity from the true randomness of the world, the chaos of human experience, and, to some extent, the unnerving element of luck that plays into all successes and failures."
In other words, if you're looking for answers, don't. Donald Trump may have had success. So many famous people writing books did too. But if you think you can glean a path from their story you're wrong. Because not only are there hidden factors, like Trump's rich real estate father, but most businesses are misadventures, made up on the fly, adjusting when hitting blind corners, with the intelligence and perseverance of the progenitor the only common thread.
And when you get to the pinnacle of business, you experience bullying far greater than that on the playground. Barnes & Noble tried to intimidate Amazon. But once the playing field has changed, newbies are more nimble. It happens all the time in music, young acts are hungry and break the paradigm while old acts so busy cleaning up on the road and living a heady lifestyle are pushed aside.
But this is the story of our time. Amazon dominates in a way no musician can. Illustrating that publicity and fame are overrated. Because there's not a person alive who wouldn't rather run Amazon than be Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus. Rich and powerful people have no problem getting laid, they always fly private, and they're not dependent upon the hit single.
Well, maybe Apple is. Apple needs another hit.
But Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" book is no match for Brad Stone's Amazon one. Because you can tell he's excited by the story. You're deposited deep in the jungle, figuring it all out as he does. How this wily pipsqueak built an empire that nearly collapsed but is playing for all the marbles.
It's a story better than the "Fantastic Four."
How people worked on both Saturday and Sunday, and Bezos refused to offer bus passes because he didn't want people leaving work for a ride.
It's exciting.
And brutal.
It's not entertainment, where everybody's overpaid and overspends.
It's hard fought nickel by nickel warfare.
As a result, no one lasts long.
Except the company. The company endures. Because unlike the titans of today's music industry, there's not a personal ethos wherein ripping off the enterprise is de rigueur, but a can-do spirit wherein the captain has something to prove, and won't give up until he achieves his goal.
Read it.
"The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon: http://amzn.to/1cpoCes
Read an excerpt here: http://buswk.co/18PINgR
P.S. One more quote:
"Naturally, some of the reviews were negative. In speeches, Bezos later recalled getting an angry letter from an executive at a book publisher implying that Bezos didn't understand that his business was to sell books, not trash them. 'We saw it very differently,' Bezos said. 'When I read that letter, I thought, we don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions.'"
In a world where every record is good, every movie a hit, the customer is left out. He's baffled by this tsunami of hype, and unable to make a decision, frequently opts out. People want information. They want aid in figuring it out. He who helps wins.
--
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Monday, 28 October 2013
Scorecard
CROWDFUNDING
Peaked. You hardly even hear about it anymore. Another Internet fad that didn't live up to its promise.
It all depends on the excitement of benefactors. Right now, they're elsewhere, and too many are disappointed what they funded did not come to be, or did not meet their standards. Furthermore, those who raised money found out they could fund their project, but could not increase their visibility.
GOOGLE
We have no need for another search engine unless it's demonstrably better. So far, no one's done search better than Google, there's no need to go to Bing. This war's been fought.
TWITTER
Illustrates how Wall Street is out of touch. Dropouts galore, but the Street can only talk about money. Tweeting is akin to calling for your mommy at Yankee Stadium.
As for the Stadium, we're all interested in stars. So the most popular on Twitter have an audience, no one wants to hear the musings of the wannabe.
FACEBOOK
Is populated by those who post incessantly and grazers...and dropouts. It's somewhere you used to go that you occasionally visit, fearful you're missing out on something, but you've got no allegiance.
SAMSUNG
Is about manufacturing efficiencies. It killed Sony and put a dent in Apple's handset business. Samsung is where products go to be commoditized. It never successfully leads, only follows. He who follows must have the best systems. Right now, Samsung does.
iPADs
Is it all about software?
Read this story by Farhad Manjoo, "iPad is Poised to Rule the World."
Oh, that's right, it's behind a paywall, and you don't have a subscription!
Don't feel superior, it just means you've got no access to the best information. Everybody you aspire to be subscribes to the "Journal," by refusing to do so you're just perpetuating your ignorance.
But I'll make Manjoo's point simple. The iPad may dominate in the future because apps work on all of them, since the vast majority of people upgrade to the latest OS, whereas there's a veritable cornucopia of OS'es in the Android world, and phone apps blown up to tablet size are not acceptable.
Read it, it's the buzz of the cognoscenti:
http://on.wsj.com/1a1yy6f
SPOTIFY
Could be too entrenched for Beats/MOG/Daisy to supersede it. He who doesn't grow is busy shrinking.
LORDE/ROYALS
This year's "Rolling In The Deep," only more so, because unlike "Rolling In The Deep," "Royals" is not derivative, it doesn't sound anything like what came before.
Despite all the Miley and Katy hype, the biggest track of the year belongs to Lorde.
And deservedly so.
1. Make it instantly hooky.
2. Lyrics come last, but if you have something to say it decreases a track's burn. The fact that Lorde is decrying the phony totems pop, hip-hop stars and the money-grubbing rich are searching for makes her the anti-star, who is always the biggest in the game, just ask John Lennon.
However, "Royals" never would have been this big without a major label. You can't cut through the noise without one. Even Macklemore got major label radio promotion. In the age of information clutter, you need a powerhouse to get your message through.
JACK CONTE
Of Pomplamoose. Has shifted to a patronage model since the act's YouTube revenue is down. In the nascent days of YouTube something left field could rise to the top and stay there. Conte says today's algorithms prevent this. I'll just say you can't rise above the noise.
AMAZON
Is evil. Read Brad Stone's book for further education. Oh, that's right, you don't read, you'd rather bloviate, just like the content industries who served their business up to Amazon not knowing the company's business model, which is to engulf and devour, to dominate and then extract price and billing concessions and raise prices to users.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
And stop talking about competition on the web, there is none. Just a dominant player who eats all comers, who can lower prices to put others out of business, and raise them when they dominate.
"Mr. Stone writes that Randy Miller, an Amazon executive in charge of a similar program in Europe, 'took an almost sadistic delight in pressuring book publishers to give Amazon more favorable financial terms.' Mr. Miller would move their books to full price, take them off the recommendation engine or promote competing titles until he got better terms out of them, the book says.
'I did everything I could to screw with their performance,' Mr. Miller told the writer. The program was called Pay to Play until the Amazon lawyers changed it to Vendor Realignment."
http://nyti.ms/16pg6cP
"The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon": http://amzn.to/1ceBGzm
LUDDITES
Are holding on for dear life, they're ignorantly embracing the musings of David Byrne and the writings of Dave Eggers in order to feel they're superior, that the old way was better and modern technology is a scourge upon society. Then they use their iPhones to text their friends to meet them at the movie, having already purchased seats online.
UNIVERSAL MUSIC
Understands the blockbuster mentality. As in he who has the most blockbusters wins today. Warner is finding this out to its detriment.
DOUG MORRIS
Thinks it's about records, but now more than ever it's about careers.
Records are short-term thinking, careers are long. And all the money's in long.
CLEAR CHANNEL
Has an online problem. iHeart Radio is no competition for Pandora, iTunes Radio and Spotify. Our problem isn't being able to listen to lame terrestrial radio online, but our inability to escape the plethora of commercials to hear what must be heard. Clear Channel is doomed unless it changes its name. People will love it as soon as they love Ticketmaster, which is never.
INFORMATION IS KING
He who knows the most wins.
Ignorance is rampant. Don't side with those with the biggest bullhorn, research and make your own decisions.
THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AKA OBAMACARE
Forget that the website doesn't work well, the Administration has done an awful job of explaining exactly what it is and how it works. Porn sites have better FAQs than the Affordable Care Act. The Administration should stop fighting Republicans and try reaching out to the public/customers. As for the press...it too is complicit in this fiasco. It's like arguing over whether airplanes should have escape slides, citing the dangers of those who utilize them, without explaining to passengers why they need them and how to use them.
SPOTIFY 2
20% of the tracks have never been played.
BLOCKBUSTERS
Anita Elberse has been writing on this topic for half a decade, but she's only getting traction now.
Yes, the blockbuster book is not a blockbuster, because it was not sold in a blockbuster fashion.
If Ms. Elberse wanted a blockbuster book she would have negotiated a huge advance and a substantial marketing budget and made an appearance on every TV show and done a tie-in with McDonald's (well, just kidding about that.)
Ideas take eons to get traction, irrelevant of their veracity. Spotify can't combat those who believe they're being screwed by a service that pays 70% of its revenues in royalties. The company is doing a bad job of selling its story. As a result, young 'uns use YouTube.
But YouTube probably won't win the mobile music subscription game, because Google has got a terrible track record of winning at anything but search. In tech, if you don't play to win, don't even bother to start.
MILEY CYRUS
Stop marketing and start making music, it's the only way you'll survive. Now you're famous for being famous, that doesn't last long.
LADY GAGA
Needs a hit record. Soon. Or will become an also-ran.
You don't rest on your laurels today, you don't go on a worldwide victory lap, you go back in the studio and make more hit music.
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Peaked. You hardly even hear about it anymore. Another Internet fad that didn't live up to its promise.
It all depends on the excitement of benefactors. Right now, they're elsewhere, and too many are disappointed what they funded did not come to be, or did not meet their standards. Furthermore, those who raised money found out they could fund their project, but could not increase their visibility.
We have no need for another search engine unless it's demonstrably better. So far, no one's done search better than Google, there's no need to go to Bing. This war's been fought.
Illustrates how Wall Street is out of touch. Dropouts galore, but the Street can only talk about money. Tweeting is akin to calling for your mommy at Yankee Stadium.
As for the Stadium, we're all interested in stars. So the most popular on Twitter have an audience, no one wants to hear the musings of the wannabe.
Is populated by those who post incessantly and grazers...and dropouts. It's somewhere you used to go that you occasionally visit, fearful you're missing out on something, but you've got no allegiance.
SAMSUNG
Is about manufacturing efficiencies. It killed Sony and put a dent in Apple's handset business. Samsung is where products go to be commoditized. It never successfully leads, only follows. He who follows must have the best systems. Right now, Samsung does.
iPADs
Is it all about software?
Read this story by Farhad Manjoo, "iPad is Poised to Rule the World."
Oh, that's right, it's behind a paywall, and you don't have a subscription!
Don't feel superior, it just means you've got no access to the best information. Everybody you aspire to be subscribes to the "Journal," by refusing to do so you're just perpetuating your ignorance.
But I'll make Manjoo's point simple. The iPad may dominate in the future because apps work on all of them, since the vast majority of people upgrade to the latest OS, whereas there's a veritable cornucopia of OS'es in the Android world, and phone apps blown up to tablet size are not acceptable.
Read it, it's the buzz of the cognoscenti:
http://on.wsj.com/1a1yy6f
SPOTIFY
Could be too entrenched for Beats/MOG/Daisy to supersede it. He who doesn't grow is busy shrinking.
LORDE/ROYALS
This year's "Rolling In The Deep," only more so, because unlike "Rolling In The Deep," "Royals" is not derivative, it doesn't sound anything like what came before.
Despite all the Miley and Katy hype, the biggest track of the year belongs to Lorde.
And deservedly so.
1. Make it instantly hooky.
2. Lyrics come last, but if you have something to say it decreases a track's burn. The fact that Lorde is decrying the phony totems pop, hip-hop stars and the money-grubbing rich are searching for makes her the anti-star, who is always the biggest in the game, just ask John Lennon.
However, "Royals" never would have been this big without a major label. You can't cut through the noise without one. Even Macklemore got major label radio promotion. In the age of information clutter, you need a powerhouse to get your message through.
JACK CONTE
Of Pomplamoose. Has shifted to a patronage model since the act's YouTube revenue is down. In the nascent days of YouTube something left field could rise to the top and stay there. Conte says today's algorithms prevent this. I'll just say you can't rise above the noise.
AMAZON
Is evil. Read Brad Stone's book for further education. Oh, that's right, you don't read, you'd rather bloviate, just like the content industries who served their business up to Amazon not knowing the company's business model, which is to engulf and devour, to dominate and then extract price and billing concessions and raise prices to users.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
And stop talking about competition on the web, there is none. Just a dominant player who eats all comers, who can lower prices to put others out of business, and raise them when they dominate.
"Mr. Stone writes that Randy Miller, an Amazon executive in charge of a similar program in Europe, 'took an almost sadistic delight in pressuring book publishers to give Amazon more favorable financial terms.' Mr. Miller would move their books to full price, take them off the recommendation engine or promote competing titles until he got better terms out of them, the book says.
'I did everything I could to screw with their performance,' Mr. Miller told the writer. The program was called Pay to Play until the Amazon lawyers changed it to Vendor Realignment."
http://nyti.ms/16pg6cP
"The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon": http://amzn.to/1ceBGzm
LUDDITES
Are holding on for dear life, they're ignorantly embracing the musings of David Byrne and the writings of Dave Eggers in order to feel they're superior, that the old way was better and modern technology is a scourge upon society. Then they use their iPhones to text their friends to meet them at the movie, having already purchased seats online.
UNIVERSAL MUSIC
Understands the blockbuster mentality. As in he who has the most blockbusters wins today. Warner is finding this out to its detriment.
DOUG MORRIS
Thinks it's about records, but now more than ever it's about careers.
Records are short-term thinking, careers are long. And all the money's in long.
CLEAR CHANNEL
Has an online problem. iHeart Radio is no competition for Pandora, iTunes Radio and Spotify. Our problem isn't being able to listen to lame terrestrial radio online, but our inability to escape the plethora of commercials to hear what must be heard. Clear Channel is doomed unless it changes its name. People will love it as soon as they love Ticketmaster, which is never.
INFORMATION IS KING
He who knows the most wins.
Ignorance is rampant. Don't side with those with the biggest bullhorn, research and make your own decisions.
THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AKA OBAMACARE
Forget that the website doesn't work well, the Administration has done an awful job of explaining exactly what it is and how it works. Porn sites have better FAQs than the Affordable Care Act. The Administration should stop fighting Republicans and try reaching out to the public/customers. As for the press...it too is complicit in this fiasco. It's like arguing over whether airplanes should have escape slides, citing the dangers of those who utilize them, without explaining to passengers why they need them and how to use them.
SPOTIFY 2
20% of the tracks have never been played.
BLOCKBUSTERS
Anita Elberse has been writing on this topic for half a decade, but she's only getting traction now.
Yes, the blockbuster book is not a blockbuster, because it was not sold in a blockbuster fashion.
If Ms. Elberse wanted a blockbuster book she would have negotiated a huge advance and a substantial marketing budget and made an appearance on every TV show and done a tie-in with McDonald's (well, just kidding about that.)
Ideas take eons to get traction, irrelevant of their veracity. Spotify can't combat those who believe they're being screwed by a service that pays 70% of its revenues in royalties. The company is doing a bad job of selling its story. As a result, young 'uns use YouTube.
But YouTube probably won't win the mobile music subscription game, because Google has got a terrible track record of winning at anything but search. In tech, if you don't play to win, don't even bother to start.
MILEY CYRUS
Stop marketing and start making music, it's the only way you'll survive. Now you're famous for being famous, that doesn't last long.
LADY GAGA
Needs a hit record. Soon. Or will become an also-ran.
You don't rest on your laurels today, you don't go on a worldwide victory lap, you go back in the studio and make more hit music.
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The Internet
You're gonna pay in the future.
Yesterday there was a piece in the "New York Times" lamenting the write for free mentality of the Internet. The truth is there are two classes, those who get paid and those who don't. And those who do would never work for free, they're professionals.
I'm not saying people won't give away their wares for free online in the future, I'm just saying this whining that you can't make any money, that everyone expects everything to be free online...those days are just about through. Sure, you can read posts free on Facebook and Twitter, but those sites were built on the public's back. And they've peaked too.
How do I know?
Because I didn't post a photo last night because I knew nobody was interested. At least not enough to make the effort.
You see the Net has been built on cool. It's been about the new new thing. But those days are through, it's solidifying. Now we've got winners and losers, and the odds of going from the underclass to the ruling class online are about similar to those doing the same thing in real life, essentially nil. Yes, the American Dream is dying online too. A few people make it through, but it's like winning the lottery, the odds are low.
Prior to the Internet, did you sit at home watching television saying I CAN DO THAT?
Maybe, but you rarely took action. Videocams have been around since the late seventies, they were cheap in the eighties, was MTV inundated with home made tapes? Of course not, especially when videos became slick, expensive productions in the late eighties and nineties.
We've been sold a fiction. That the Internet has leveled the playing field. That all are welcome and respected. Hell, you can't even get people to read your tweets, what makes you think you can get them to watch your YouTube clips?
Sharing has peaked. At least your own personal stuff. Sharing will be limited to sending along what has already broken through. Because no one has the interest or time for the wannabe.
So we're returning to the old era. Just when you believed we were on the cusp of a new.
There's no tech breakthrough on the horizon, no new Website paradigm. We've already got mobile phones, maybe we'll get watches... As for Google Glass and other wearable computers, other than specific items like Fitbits/trackers, that help us individually, they're niche, because they don't do something we want them to.
As for paying... For all the hoopla over piracy, unless you're HBO making your shows unavailable without a cable subscription, it's no longer an issue. Ten percent of the people will never pay. The rest crumble to convenience. Kids don't bother to steal music anymore, they just go to YouTube, where the artists do get paid.
The "Wall Street Journal" is behind a paywall. The "New York Times" has got a soft paywall. They no longer care about dominance, they want to survive. There are micropayments on iTunes. Figure out a universal payment system that's friction free and suddenly you're paying for everything.
That's the online trend. Not freemium, not give it away and hope to make it up on the road, but raw payment. And it might not be much now, but it'll grow. It might not be what it once was, but what will be what it once was is the culture of winners and losers. It's the culture of curation. When people are overloaded, they gravitate to the known, or abandon altogether.
The Internet has been taken over by the man.
And that includes everybody who went to Silicon Valley to get rich. As for Google saying to do no harm, they're gonna use your identity in ads without permission, unless you're sharp enough to opt out.
Apple was never free. Sure, its OS is now free, but only if you own an expensive computer. The company's goal is to lock you into their system.
So we're giving you your life back. Same as it ever was. Just you and your family and buddies, no one else is interested.
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Yesterday there was a piece in the "New York Times" lamenting the write for free mentality of the Internet. The truth is there are two classes, those who get paid and those who don't. And those who do would never work for free, they're professionals.
I'm not saying people won't give away their wares for free online in the future, I'm just saying this whining that you can't make any money, that everyone expects everything to be free online...those days are just about through. Sure, you can read posts free on Facebook and Twitter, but those sites were built on the public's back. And they've peaked too.
How do I know?
Because I didn't post a photo last night because I knew nobody was interested. At least not enough to make the effort.
You see the Net has been built on cool. It's been about the new new thing. But those days are through, it's solidifying. Now we've got winners and losers, and the odds of going from the underclass to the ruling class online are about similar to those doing the same thing in real life, essentially nil. Yes, the American Dream is dying online too. A few people make it through, but it's like winning the lottery, the odds are low.
Prior to the Internet, did you sit at home watching television saying I CAN DO THAT?
Maybe, but you rarely took action. Videocams have been around since the late seventies, they were cheap in the eighties, was MTV inundated with home made tapes? Of course not, especially when videos became slick, expensive productions in the late eighties and nineties.
We've been sold a fiction. That the Internet has leveled the playing field. That all are welcome and respected. Hell, you can't even get people to read your tweets, what makes you think you can get them to watch your YouTube clips?
Sharing has peaked. At least your own personal stuff. Sharing will be limited to sending along what has already broken through. Because no one has the interest or time for the wannabe.
So we're returning to the old era. Just when you believed we were on the cusp of a new.
There's no tech breakthrough on the horizon, no new Website paradigm. We've already got mobile phones, maybe we'll get watches... As for Google Glass and other wearable computers, other than specific items like Fitbits/trackers, that help us individually, they're niche, because they don't do something we want them to.
As for paying... For all the hoopla over piracy, unless you're HBO making your shows unavailable without a cable subscription, it's no longer an issue. Ten percent of the people will never pay. The rest crumble to convenience. Kids don't bother to steal music anymore, they just go to YouTube, where the artists do get paid.
The "Wall Street Journal" is behind a paywall. The "New York Times" has got a soft paywall. They no longer care about dominance, they want to survive. There are micropayments on iTunes. Figure out a universal payment system that's friction free and suddenly you're paying for everything.
That's the online trend. Not freemium, not give it away and hope to make it up on the road, but raw payment. And it might not be much now, but it'll grow. It might not be what it once was, but what will be what it once was is the culture of winners and losers. It's the culture of curation. When people are overloaded, they gravitate to the known, or abandon altogether.
The Internet has been taken over by the man.
And that includes everybody who went to Silicon Valley to get rich. As for Google saying to do no harm, they're gonna use your identity in ads without permission, unless you're sharp enough to opt out.
Apple was never free. Sure, its OS is now free, but only if you own an expensive computer. The company's goal is to lock you into their system.
So we're giving you your life back. Same as it ever was. Just you and your family and buddies, no one else is interested.
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Sunday, 27 October 2013
Lou Reed
Our rockers, they don't last long.
I came to the Velvet Underground late. I didn't listen to their first LP and start a band. A friend played me "Sister Ray" back in '68, but I saw no need to buy the album, same deal with the Mothers of Invention, I had to come to them on my own time.
Which was in 1972, with Lou's initial solo album, which no one I knew ever bought, but I loved.
"I Can't Stand It" was the hook. But "Ocean" was the closer. Literally and figuratively. It had this majestic quality, that was especially compelling because it seemed made only for me.
And then came the hit.
Doesn't happen the same way anymore. Left field hits are by unknowns, crashing the Top Forty chart with something that sounds just like the rest of what's on the radio, just marginally different.
But that was not "Walk On The Wild Side."
"And the colored girls go..."
Can you even say that? I didn't think so, back in '72, yes, Lou released two albums in one year, the appellation was now "black," this was before "African-American," everybody enlightened had cast aside "colored" before the close of the sixties. But here it was. Everywhere.
That's what's strange about popular culture. It takes a while for the outside to be assimilated. You have to hang in there long enough until you get your turn, getting better all the while.
"Walk On The Wild Side" was the story of Warhol's sixties.
But it dominated the airwaves in the seventies, and unlike so much music, it hasn't faded away, it continues to radiate.
"Transformer," produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson before they had their date with destiny in the USA, but were already stars in the UK, was uneven. But a hit doth make an album desirable.
"Perfect Day" was probably the next best track. Because yes, a day can be perfect for those not perfectly ensconced in mainstream culture, it was an alternative anthem. And "Satellite Of Love" was hooky and brought back to life by U2 during its Zoo TV tour, but the rest of the album's been forgotten. Almost like Lou Reed himself. He became representative of what once was, instead of what still is.
That's what happens. You're cutting edge until you're co-opted and then confused as to what to do next. Lou Reed kept making albums and I kept buying them but then despite the press, the public and I kind of gave up. It's hard to wear black as you get older.
But not before he put out the concept album "Berlin," which has been critically resurrected, "Sally Can't Dance," deplored but known by heart by me, and "Rock 'n' Roll Animal."
They say that "Live At Leeds" is the best live album ever. But that's an assault, a raw power hit to the brain, "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" is a mellifluous compendium of what came before and what was done now and to listen to it was to believe that Lou Reed was emblematic of a mainstream star, even though in truth he was anything but.
I knew the Velvet Underground's material at this point. I'd purchased "1969: The Velvet Underground Live," with an earlier version of "Ocean," I'd been turned on to "Loaded," with "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll," but "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" was the piece de resistance.
Credit the twin guitars of Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, I purchased the latter's solo album upon release as a result of his exquisite playing here.
The album started with an instrumental flourish, akin to a Broadway musical or an Alice Cooper show, in which Wagner and Hunter participated. And then the riff of "Sweet Jane" sliced and diced and Lou Reed was our rock and roll hero.
Next up came "Heroin"... "It's my wife and it's my life." Deep and dark, at this point the audience had caught up with the scene. Not only New Yorkers knew about drugs. But it was the closer, "Rock and Roll," that truly summed it all up.
"Jenny said when she was just five years old
There was nothin' happenin' at all"
It was the fifties. We were living in cookie cutter houses in the suburbs. Our parents will still recovering from the war, buckling down and making a better life for their children, with barbecues and trips to the beach and...
"Every time she puts on a radio
There was nothin' goin' down at all
Not at all"
The radio was primarily for baseball. They played music, but it did not change our lives and then...
"Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station
You know, she don't believe what she heard at all"
It happened overnight. Sports became secondary. The music, the politics, suddenly life was full of opportunities and children were the leaders, not their parents.
"She started shakin' to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by rock 'n' roll"
Imagine that. Not an iPhone. Not an iPad. The greatest exponent of technology was the transistor radio, almost no one had a color television set, never mind a flat screen. But that rock and roll music coming out of the tiny speaker or earphone...was enough.
And Lou Reed was not much different from the rest of us. With the suburban upbringing, the tenure at Syracuse, and then...his life was changed by rock and roll. He followed his muse to the city, hooked up with Andy Warhol and Nico, but really he was just another kid infected by the sound who needed to play.
"Jenny said when she was just 'bout five years old
You know my parents are gonna be the death of us all"
The world was topsy-turvy. In the sixties, we were angry, by the seventies we'd taken over, despite Nixon being in office, we'd won.
"Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars
Well you know it ain't gonna help me at all"
And there you have it. We realized the American Dream of constant consumption was b.s. It was about what was in your mind, what you felt inside.
And when you look back on the continuum of rock and roll, Lou Reed does not raise his head as high as Lennon and McCartney or Jagger and Richards, but he was there, on the landscape. Illustrating that we could do it too. You didn't need a fine voice, just something to say.
And the reason his death means so much is because everything's so different today.
But Lou Reed did not stop being who he was. He was not corrupted by the modern era. He didn't get greedy in the eighties, he didn't go disco, he didn't try to modernize his sound. He just kept testing limits, believing the rock and roll ethos was enough.
And that's what we loved him for.
That's why his death is such a big deal.
And it is.
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I came to the Velvet Underground late. I didn't listen to their first LP and start a band. A friend played me "Sister Ray" back in '68, but I saw no need to buy the album, same deal with the Mothers of Invention, I had to come to them on my own time.
Which was in 1972, with Lou's initial solo album, which no one I knew ever bought, but I loved.
"I Can't Stand It" was the hook. But "Ocean" was the closer. Literally and figuratively. It had this majestic quality, that was especially compelling because it seemed made only for me.
And then came the hit.
Doesn't happen the same way anymore. Left field hits are by unknowns, crashing the Top Forty chart with something that sounds just like the rest of what's on the radio, just marginally different.
But that was not "Walk On The Wild Side."
"And the colored girls go..."
Can you even say that? I didn't think so, back in '72, yes, Lou released two albums in one year, the appellation was now "black," this was before "African-American," everybody enlightened had cast aside "colored" before the close of the sixties. But here it was. Everywhere.
That's what's strange about popular culture. It takes a while for the outside to be assimilated. You have to hang in there long enough until you get your turn, getting better all the while.
"Walk On The Wild Side" was the story of Warhol's sixties.
But it dominated the airwaves in the seventies, and unlike so much music, it hasn't faded away, it continues to radiate.
"Transformer," produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson before they had their date with destiny in the USA, but were already stars in the UK, was uneven. But a hit doth make an album desirable.
"Perfect Day" was probably the next best track. Because yes, a day can be perfect for those not perfectly ensconced in mainstream culture, it was an alternative anthem. And "Satellite Of Love" was hooky and brought back to life by U2 during its Zoo TV tour, but the rest of the album's been forgotten. Almost like Lou Reed himself. He became representative of what once was, instead of what still is.
That's what happens. You're cutting edge until you're co-opted and then confused as to what to do next. Lou Reed kept making albums and I kept buying them but then despite the press, the public and I kind of gave up. It's hard to wear black as you get older.
But not before he put out the concept album "Berlin," which has been critically resurrected, "Sally Can't Dance," deplored but known by heart by me, and "Rock 'n' Roll Animal."
They say that "Live At Leeds" is the best live album ever. But that's an assault, a raw power hit to the brain, "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" is a mellifluous compendium of what came before and what was done now and to listen to it was to believe that Lou Reed was emblematic of a mainstream star, even though in truth he was anything but.
I knew the Velvet Underground's material at this point. I'd purchased "1969: The Velvet Underground Live," with an earlier version of "Ocean," I'd been turned on to "Loaded," with "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll," but "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" was the piece de resistance.
Credit the twin guitars of Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, I purchased the latter's solo album upon release as a result of his exquisite playing here.
The album started with an instrumental flourish, akin to a Broadway musical or an Alice Cooper show, in which Wagner and Hunter participated. And then the riff of "Sweet Jane" sliced and diced and Lou Reed was our rock and roll hero.
Next up came "Heroin"... "It's my wife and it's my life." Deep and dark, at this point the audience had caught up with the scene. Not only New Yorkers knew about drugs. But it was the closer, "Rock and Roll," that truly summed it all up.
"Jenny said when she was just five years old
There was nothin' happenin' at all"
It was the fifties. We were living in cookie cutter houses in the suburbs. Our parents will still recovering from the war, buckling down and making a better life for their children, with barbecues and trips to the beach and...
"Every time she puts on a radio
There was nothin' goin' down at all
Not at all"
The radio was primarily for baseball. They played music, but it did not change our lives and then...
"Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station
You know, she don't believe what she heard at all"
It happened overnight. Sports became secondary. The music, the politics, suddenly life was full of opportunities and children were the leaders, not their parents.
"She started shakin' to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by rock 'n' roll"
Imagine that. Not an iPhone. Not an iPad. The greatest exponent of technology was the transistor radio, almost no one had a color television set, never mind a flat screen. But that rock and roll music coming out of the tiny speaker or earphone...was enough.
And Lou Reed was not much different from the rest of us. With the suburban upbringing, the tenure at Syracuse, and then...his life was changed by rock and roll. He followed his muse to the city, hooked up with Andy Warhol and Nico, but really he was just another kid infected by the sound who needed to play.
"Jenny said when she was just 'bout five years old
You know my parents are gonna be the death of us all"
The world was topsy-turvy. In the sixties, we were angry, by the seventies we'd taken over, despite Nixon being in office, we'd won.
"Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars
Well you know it ain't gonna help me at all"
And there you have it. We realized the American Dream of constant consumption was b.s. It was about what was in your mind, what you felt inside.
And when you look back on the continuum of rock and roll, Lou Reed does not raise his head as high as Lennon and McCartney or Jagger and Richards, but he was there, on the landscape. Illustrating that we could do it too. You didn't need a fine voice, just something to say.
And the reason his death means so much is because everything's so different today.
But Lou Reed did not stop being who he was. He was not corrupted by the modern era. He didn't get greedy in the eighties, he didn't go disco, he didn't try to modernize his sound. He just kept testing limits, believing the rock and roll ethos was enough.
And that's what we loved him for.
That's why his death is such a big deal.
And it is.
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