"Now, too much of nothing
Can make a man feel ill at ease"
"Too Much Of Nothing"
Bob Dylan
But it's nothing compared to too much of everything.
I remember going to college where there was one snowy television station, one lame college radio outlet and one movie theatre, never mind no internet or cell phones. You had to talk to people for your entertainment.
I also remember being bored in high school. With the same damn records to play.
Now I'm so busy catching up that I constantly feel left behind and to employ the old cliche I frequently want to stop the world and get off. I used to be a connoisseur, I used to be comprehensive, that's nearly impossible in today's overloaded word.
TOO MUCH:
NEWS
Used to be you could watch the 7 o'clock network report and believe you knew what was going on. Back before TV news switched to cable in the eighties and then mutated into opposing views. Yes, you need to watch MSNBC and Fox to get a fix on our country. But each do little reporting, so you've got to go to the papers. The "New York Times" has boots on the ground, but it still doesn't cover certain business stories, so you need the "Wall Street Journal." Meanwhile, online you can check out the news of the world, never mind smaller outlets and opinions, because we've learned in the internet era that the big boys are last and they often miss things, stories start in the bulrushes. And we're confronted with news everywhere we go, whenever we launch our browser, whenever we pick up our phone, and at first it's thrilling, then it becomes overwhelming, and you think you know what's going on but the truth is you might know less. And did I used to concerned if the head of Pimco jumped ship?
SOCIAL MEDIA
Some people are building shrines to themselves on Facebook, others have six figures of tweets despite having followers in the triple digits, or the low fours. What makes them keep tweeting? They want acknowledgement. But for all the people posting, reading is a full time job. The news media above keeps telling us social media is where it's at, but who's got the time to read everybody's feed?
RESTAURANTS
They're reviewed everywhere. And you can check them out in Zagat and Yelp, but our country's financial condition is teetering, most can't afford to eat out every night, and by time you check out a coupe of eateries the trends have changed and you've got to be a four hundred pound foodie to get a fix on the scene.
Then there are the food trucks, which don't even stay in the same place!
MUSIC
Radio played the best of everything, the deejay was trustworthy. Now radio has very narrow verticals and there are so many options, like Pandora and Sirius XM and iTunes Radio and... And you listen to streams that are completely different from what others listen to, so you don't feel integrated into society.
Meanwhile, you're inundated with new album releases. Here's Robert Plant! Here's Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett! Here's someone you've never heard of! And they've all got albums in the neighborhood of an hour long and your time is eaten up trying to catch up with everything else, so in most cases you don't even bother. You want music to be bite-sized, maybe you've got time for an EP, but that would require the artist to believe he's not that important, not deserving of all your time, and they feel otherwise. Just like the people posting on Facebook, since they've got the tools, they want to use them, and then tell everybody to pay attention. And if you're making you've got little time to listen, so you end up behind the curve and without influences, or you're so busy social networking your music ain't great.
E-MAIL
Maybe it's important. But oftentimes it's the ad from the corporation you interacted with once, spamming away. And then there's the dreaded cc. And it's an endless waterfall of information, and your job is to extract nuggets. And everybody tells you not to take it all too seriously, to have digital-free days, but they also tell you to pay attention and apply yourself and you're left wondering which is it?
I could say I wish I was a millennial, so I could surf all this info. But I've learned from millennials they're overwhelmed too. Then again, if information overload was all I knew, it would be easier to cope with.
And the truth is just like with income inequality, we're shifting to a world of haves and have-nots, with those at the top of the pyramid getting all the attention, but this just causes those left out to yell and kick louder, demanding our attention.
And there seems to be no center. We've got government on the loose, beholden to the fat cats who think since they're rich they know. And people don't vote because they can't grasp the issues and there are too many elections, never mind the underlying disillusionment. And really, you want me to get into my car and battle traffic to pull some levers?
I DON'T HAVE TIME!
P.S. Never mind too many TV shows and too much music at our fingertips and too many apps and...
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Saturday, 27 September 2014
Friday, 26 September 2014
Thom Yorke's BitTorrent Album
The enemy is obscurity.
Atoms For Peace didn't do so well the second time around, what makes Thom Yorke think people are waiting for his new solo album, never mind interested in paying for it?
There seems to be a canard amongst the creative class that the world is against them, that the digerati/techies want to rip them off and the labels want them to be beholden and their only option is to jet us all back to 1995.
But that is patently untrue.
Are you really gonna castigate Spotify and the rest of the streaming services when they pay 70% to rights holders, exactly like the now vaunted iTunes?
Distribution has been flattened. Everything's available. And the last thing you want to do is put a wall around your content, prohibiting people checking it out on a whim, for free, especially when radio play is a nonstarter, especially when the younger generation knows not to bitch and is all about racking up YouTube plays, which pay quite handsomely when they're in the triple digit millions, which is the definition of a hit today.
That's right, Thom Yorke's album probably won't contain a hit.
Now don't get your knickers up in a bunch. If you like Radiohead and its elements, if you're listening, if Thom's happy, I've got no problem. But Thom can't keep bitching as fewer and fewer people listen to his music and he looks more like a crybaby Luddite than a cutting edge savant.
No one's got any time anymore. But if you create something great, that people talk about, that they spread, you can make beaucoup coin today.
But you've got to admit the game is different. It's not so much that you've got to throw away recording revenue as you have to see that there are many more avenues to getting paid than there have ever been before. And they're all based upon the music, so why would you lock up the music behind a glass case? Do they do this at the Apple Store? Of course not, they keep the merchandise out in the open, where you can touch it and feel it and use it, decide if you really want it. And you don't know until you do. I thought I wanted an iPhone 6 Plus until I tried it out and then decided it was too big. If I'd bought it without touching it first, I'd have been pissed. The same way I have been for eons upon paying my hard-earned cash for albums that were crap that I only played once, even though I loved what came before.
The paradigm has shifted. It's about plays as opposed to buys. Create something great and you will be paid forever, as people listen down the ages. And of course streaming payments will go up, and to fight this is to be the lone Dutch boy with your finger in the dike, it's futile.
Your job as a musician is to create great art, not to change the business model. Because the truth is the business model has been changed not by the techies or the labels but the consumer. Sure, they were enabled by the techies, but it turns out the public doesn't want to pay a lot for an album, oftentimes they don't want the album at all. If you were a car company and it turned out no one wanted a truck-based SUV would you keep making them and yelling at the public?
Of course not. You'd shift production. In this case, to car-based SUVs.
But I don't need to push the analogy. The distribution problem has been solved in the music business. Streaming won. To fight this is to be the Grateful Dead back in the seventies, starting their own label not understanding that distribution is key, that it would hamstring them, that getting their albums into all stores was a chore, getting paid almost an impossibility.
But Thom Yorke needs to be right, having railed against streaming in the past.
For this I do not admire him. For a man who can't change his opinion is a one note blowhard. That's what life is about, changing your mind, listening to the data and continuing to evaluate, otherwise you're a politician, and check the ratings of Congresspeople, you don't want to be them.
And artists have always been about speaking truth to power.
And the power in this case is not Spotify or Capitol or any of the usual suspects, but the public. And the way you speak truth to the public is through your art, your songs, not the penumbra, not your political views or your distribution views or anything that doesn't hit them squarely in the ears. You lead with your music.
But if people can't hear it, you're lost.
"Thom Yorke Releases New Album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes Via BitTorrent": http://bit.ly/1yu7fUL
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Atoms For Peace didn't do so well the second time around, what makes Thom Yorke think people are waiting for his new solo album, never mind interested in paying for it?
There seems to be a canard amongst the creative class that the world is against them, that the digerati/techies want to rip them off and the labels want them to be beholden and their only option is to jet us all back to 1995.
But that is patently untrue.
Are you really gonna castigate Spotify and the rest of the streaming services when they pay 70% to rights holders, exactly like the now vaunted iTunes?
Distribution has been flattened. Everything's available. And the last thing you want to do is put a wall around your content, prohibiting people checking it out on a whim, for free, especially when radio play is a nonstarter, especially when the younger generation knows not to bitch and is all about racking up YouTube plays, which pay quite handsomely when they're in the triple digit millions, which is the definition of a hit today.
That's right, Thom Yorke's album probably won't contain a hit.
Now don't get your knickers up in a bunch. If you like Radiohead and its elements, if you're listening, if Thom's happy, I've got no problem. But Thom can't keep bitching as fewer and fewer people listen to his music and he looks more like a crybaby Luddite than a cutting edge savant.
No one's got any time anymore. But if you create something great, that people talk about, that they spread, you can make beaucoup coin today.
But you've got to admit the game is different. It's not so much that you've got to throw away recording revenue as you have to see that there are many more avenues to getting paid than there have ever been before. And they're all based upon the music, so why would you lock up the music behind a glass case? Do they do this at the Apple Store? Of course not, they keep the merchandise out in the open, where you can touch it and feel it and use it, decide if you really want it. And you don't know until you do. I thought I wanted an iPhone 6 Plus until I tried it out and then decided it was too big. If I'd bought it without touching it first, I'd have been pissed. The same way I have been for eons upon paying my hard-earned cash for albums that were crap that I only played once, even though I loved what came before.
The paradigm has shifted. It's about plays as opposed to buys. Create something great and you will be paid forever, as people listen down the ages. And of course streaming payments will go up, and to fight this is to be the lone Dutch boy with your finger in the dike, it's futile.
Your job as a musician is to create great art, not to change the business model. Because the truth is the business model has been changed not by the techies or the labels but the consumer. Sure, they were enabled by the techies, but it turns out the public doesn't want to pay a lot for an album, oftentimes they don't want the album at all. If you were a car company and it turned out no one wanted a truck-based SUV would you keep making them and yelling at the public?
Of course not. You'd shift production. In this case, to car-based SUVs.
But I don't need to push the analogy. The distribution problem has been solved in the music business. Streaming won. To fight this is to be the Grateful Dead back in the seventies, starting their own label not understanding that distribution is key, that it would hamstring them, that getting their albums into all stores was a chore, getting paid almost an impossibility.
But Thom Yorke needs to be right, having railed against streaming in the past.
For this I do not admire him. For a man who can't change his opinion is a one note blowhard. That's what life is about, changing your mind, listening to the data and continuing to evaluate, otherwise you're a politician, and check the ratings of Congresspeople, you don't want to be them.
And artists have always been about speaking truth to power.
And the power in this case is not Spotify or Capitol or any of the usual suspects, but the public. And the way you speak truth to the public is through your art, your songs, not the penumbra, not your political views or your distribution views or anything that doesn't hit them squarely in the ears. You lead with your music.
But if people can't hear it, you're lost.
"Thom Yorke Releases New Album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes Via BitTorrent": http://bit.ly/1yu7fUL
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Rhinofy-Palookaville Primer
You're not gonna listen to this record. But it's the best Todd Rundgren album you've never heard.
That's the scourge of the Internet, of the modern era, we've got so much information at our fingertips that we don't bother to partake, hell, some people forward links without listening or reading what they're sending on!
So I'm wary you won't listen to "Palookaville." But I love it. And if you remember Todd's run, from that initial LP all the way through let's say "Todd," when "Palookaville" plays you'll smile.
Not that it's imitative. It's just that it's a blend of pop and rock and hooks that seem to be dripping off Burtnik's fingers.
Yes, Glen Burtnik. Who was in "Beatlemania" with Marshall Crenshaw and put out a couple of solo albums on A&M and ultimately joined Styx and a reunited ELO, writing a few hits that keep his bank account flowing along the way, like Patty Smyth and Don Henley's "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough."
You see I got a call to go to dinner with him, and Dave Frey and Jim Lewi, who'd just formed a new record company with Hollywood Records, the Disney entity. Jim sent the CD, to listen to before eating.
And I didn't bother to play it until I got in the car to drive across town. And from the initial notes I was enthralled. And this is so rare, everything everybody gives you is junk and you get so disillusioned and you've got to hold your tongue and...
I couldn't stop telling Glen how much I liked it.
But Dave and Jim didn't pick it up. It sank like a stone. Burtnik changed directions, he stopped releasing music. And...
I wonder if that's the life experience for most of us. We dig down deep, burrow in our hole, and deliver what thrills us and we believe is our best work and then the reaction is...nothing.
It's hard to keep soldiering on. But the truth is if you're good, you've got fans who believe. It may not be enough, but just because you don't break through that does not mean you should change direction. Oftentimes it takes a while for the marketplace to catch up with you.
LEARNING TO CRAWL
It starts off with nonsense and then becomes so hooky in fifteen seconds you immediately start to smile.
I wish everybody spamming me with YouTube clips and social media metrics would listen to this first. Burtnik may not sound like Steve Perry, but he can most certainly sing, but even more he can write, and play! The changes, the lyrics...and this is not even the best thing on the album!
But it starts off the experience with sunniness, it's like someone opening a door, and you want to go inside.
SPIRIT OF A BOY, WISDOM OF A MAN
This ended up being covered by country artists twice, Mark Collie and Randy Travis, the latter had a number two hit with it.
That's the power of a song, it can work in multiple genres.
"Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man," sounds nothing like country in this iteration, it's quiet like something off the initial McCartney solo album, and it's got an exquisite break, it's damn good.
LITTLE LUCY'S BLUES
A rocker. One of Burtnik's favorites, what he saw as a single. Reminds me of nothing so much as the full out numbers on Rundgren's 1974 double LP "Todd." It's the counterbalance to the intimacy of "Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man." Used to be acts didn't live solely in narrow categories, they could jump around the spectrum.
MY CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT
One of my favorites on "Palookaville." It's so honest, so sincere, it's what had us transfixed in front of our record players. You could sing along, but even more you wanted to jump inside the speaker and hang with the singer, you felt he understood you.
WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY
A White Album moment. Yup, Burtnik's cast aside the electric axe and has sat down on his stool and is picking his acoustic and singing a heartfelt missive from deep on the inside. Back before the days of bad voice shoegazers white suburban boys loved this sound, they could own their wimpy, intimate side. As did girls. How could something this good go by unnoticed?
DON'T GIVE UP ON YOUR LOVE
Listen to that guitar sound!
Talk about being energized. This track will have you jumping from your seat eager to enter the action, it's inspiring, not only in message, but song. Some tracks are just a beat ahead of you, you want to chase them and hang on, to get where they're going.
ENTRANCE TO THE CLUB
Only 33 seconds long, "Palookaville" is filled with this interstitial material. But unlike the brief numbers that come before, "Entrance to the Club" does not stand alone, it's of a piece, the introduction to the album's piece-de-resistance, "The Liars Club."
THE LIARS CLUB
A tour-de-force. Akin to Todd's "Just One Victory" at the end of "A Wizard/A True Star."
It's got movements and breaks, it's a roller coaster that's thrilling but not scary. You'll listen to this number and it will become your new favorite, you'll spin it a few times and then tell your best friends about it, you won't be able to help yourself.
Back when pop did not mean dumb, when rock could be catchy, when the best music was anthemic without being lowest common denominator.
"And the women are beautiful
With hearts of pure gold
Their bodies are perfect
And the men are made of steel
The fixtures are shiny, groomed and manicured
And everybody comes to say exactly how they feel"
If only it were that way. But the sadness of true life is nowhere in the tone of this track. It's almost difficult to comprehend the underlying message...if there's music this irresistible in the world, there is only truth.
"Meet me tonight at the liars club
A room full of kindness, more than enough
Everyone's faithful, everyone's loved
Meet me tonight at the liars club"
Don't worry about putting on your look, just get in your car and go. Come and join me. Where music changes not only your mood, but your life. Where artists heard the Beatles and couldn't help but play and tell their stories, when genres were made to be crossed, when rules were made to be broken, when if you could write, play and sing, you were entitled to our attention.
I rarely hear from Burtnik anymore. I just saw online he's going out with ELO II. I've got no idea if he's financially struggling or smiling all the while.
All I do know is it's records like this that are the bedrock of my life. That make me feel like life is worth living.
And there's a good chance you'll feel that way too, so LISTEN!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1DxO7VG
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That's the scourge of the Internet, of the modern era, we've got so much information at our fingertips that we don't bother to partake, hell, some people forward links without listening or reading what they're sending on!
So I'm wary you won't listen to "Palookaville." But I love it. And if you remember Todd's run, from that initial LP all the way through let's say "Todd," when "Palookaville" plays you'll smile.
Not that it's imitative. It's just that it's a blend of pop and rock and hooks that seem to be dripping off Burtnik's fingers.
Yes, Glen Burtnik. Who was in "Beatlemania" with Marshall Crenshaw and put out a couple of solo albums on A&M and ultimately joined Styx and a reunited ELO, writing a few hits that keep his bank account flowing along the way, like Patty Smyth and Don Henley's "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough."
You see I got a call to go to dinner with him, and Dave Frey and Jim Lewi, who'd just formed a new record company with Hollywood Records, the Disney entity. Jim sent the CD, to listen to before eating.
And I didn't bother to play it until I got in the car to drive across town. And from the initial notes I was enthralled. And this is so rare, everything everybody gives you is junk and you get so disillusioned and you've got to hold your tongue and...
I couldn't stop telling Glen how much I liked it.
But Dave and Jim didn't pick it up. It sank like a stone. Burtnik changed directions, he stopped releasing music. And...
I wonder if that's the life experience for most of us. We dig down deep, burrow in our hole, and deliver what thrills us and we believe is our best work and then the reaction is...nothing.
It's hard to keep soldiering on. But the truth is if you're good, you've got fans who believe. It may not be enough, but just because you don't break through that does not mean you should change direction. Oftentimes it takes a while for the marketplace to catch up with you.
LEARNING TO CRAWL
It starts off with nonsense and then becomes so hooky in fifteen seconds you immediately start to smile.
I wish everybody spamming me with YouTube clips and social media metrics would listen to this first. Burtnik may not sound like Steve Perry, but he can most certainly sing, but even more he can write, and play! The changes, the lyrics...and this is not even the best thing on the album!
But it starts off the experience with sunniness, it's like someone opening a door, and you want to go inside.
SPIRIT OF A BOY, WISDOM OF A MAN
This ended up being covered by country artists twice, Mark Collie and Randy Travis, the latter had a number two hit with it.
That's the power of a song, it can work in multiple genres.
"Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man," sounds nothing like country in this iteration, it's quiet like something off the initial McCartney solo album, and it's got an exquisite break, it's damn good.
LITTLE LUCY'S BLUES
A rocker. One of Burtnik's favorites, what he saw as a single. Reminds me of nothing so much as the full out numbers on Rundgren's 1974 double LP "Todd." It's the counterbalance to the intimacy of "Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man." Used to be acts didn't live solely in narrow categories, they could jump around the spectrum.
MY CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT
One of my favorites on "Palookaville." It's so honest, so sincere, it's what had us transfixed in front of our record players. You could sing along, but even more you wanted to jump inside the speaker and hang with the singer, you felt he understood you.
WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY
A White Album moment. Yup, Burtnik's cast aside the electric axe and has sat down on his stool and is picking his acoustic and singing a heartfelt missive from deep on the inside. Back before the days of bad voice shoegazers white suburban boys loved this sound, they could own their wimpy, intimate side. As did girls. How could something this good go by unnoticed?
DON'T GIVE UP ON YOUR LOVE
Listen to that guitar sound!
Talk about being energized. This track will have you jumping from your seat eager to enter the action, it's inspiring, not only in message, but song. Some tracks are just a beat ahead of you, you want to chase them and hang on, to get where they're going.
ENTRANCE TO THE CLUB
Only 33 seconds long, "Palookaville" is filled with this interstitial material. But unlike the brief numbers that come before, "Entrance to the Club" does not stand alone, it's of a piece, the introduction to the album's piece-de-resistance, "The Liars Club."
THE LIARS CLUB
A tour-de-force. Akin to Todd's "Just One Victory" at the end of "A Wizard/A True Star."
It's got movements and breaks, it's a roller coaster that's thrilling but not scary. You'll listen to this number and it will become your new favorite, you'll spin it a few times and then tell your best friends about it, you won't be able to help yourself.
Back when pop did not mean dumb, when rock could be catchy, when the best music was anthemic without being lowest common denominator.
"And the women are beautiful
With hearts of pure gold
Their bodies are perfect
And the men are made of steel
The fixtures are shiny, groomed and manicured
And everybody comes to say exactly how they feel"
If only it were that way. But the sadness of true life is nowhere in the tone of this track. It's almost difficult to comprehend the underlying message...if there's music this irresistible in the world, there is only truth.
"Meet me tonight at the liars club
A room full of kindness, more than enough
Everyone's faithful, everyone's loved
Meet me tonight at the liars club"
Don't worry about putting on your look, just get in your car and go. Come and join me. Where music changes not only your mood, but your life. Where artists heard the Beatles and couldn't help but play and tell their stories, when genres were made to be crossed, when rules were made to be broken, when if you could write, play and sing, you were entitled to our attention.
I rarely hear from Burtnik anymore. I just saw online he's going out with ELO II. I've got no idea if he's financially struggling or smiling all the while.
All I do know is it's records like this that are the bedrock of my life. That make me feel like life is worth living.
And there's a good chance you'll feel that way too, so LISTEN!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1DxO7VG
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Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Ignorance
1. If you've got a contract and you're using an aged handset, the joke's on you.
Built into every cellphone contract is payment for the device. Just like there's no such thing as a free lunch, there's no such thing as a free cellphone. Get a new one every two years. And now, if you're upgrading to a new iPhone, you can get $200 credit for anything back to a 4, so don't delay. And don't be holier-than-thou telling us you don't need one. You do need LTE. And you do need to wake up and realize you're paying for a new phone every two years whether you're getting one or not.
2. Record contracts are bad because of leverage.
That's the American way, you bargain for a result. Gain leverage and your terms improve. How do you gain leverage when dealing with a record company? Bring in results...sales/streams of music and videos, ticket counts and merch numbers. Because odds of success are so low, the label spreads risk over many. If everybody hit, you'd get better terms. Have success and you can renegotiate, or refuse to work, or play out the contract and sign on better terms with someone else. Or, if you believe in yourself that much, you can start your own label. But if you're bitching about leverage you're no different from a homeless man decrying he can't date supermodels, you're delusional.
As for labels' refusal to live up to contract terms and account properly, that's a whole 'nother issue.
3. Streaming services are the solution, not the enemy.
This has me tearing what little hair I have left from my head. Talk to Daniel Ek, hell, just read some of his interviews. The main goal of Spotify was to fight piracy, and it and YouTube have done a good job of doing this. They both pay, prior to them you were getting nothing. As for downloads...they were always dwarfed by piracy. To make streaming services the enemy is to be ignorant of Internet history. As for better songwriter royalties at Pandora and payment on pre-1972 recordings, those are different issues.
4. All fees don't go to Ticketmaster.
No matter how much I say this, people still can't comprehend it. Sure, TM takes a cut, but so do the building, the promoter and sometimes even the act. It's a system to defraud you and keep the usual suspects in power while protecting the image of the acts.
5. Sprint and T-Mobile service is inferior, that's why they're cheaper.
For a generation supposedly immune to advertising I'm stunned that people believe they can pay less and get just as much. Sure, in some markets one service might triumph, but Google will tell you the dominant carrier in America is Verizon, which is usually the most expensive, and therefore the company doesn't lower its rates, because customers clamor for usability and dependability. If you're happy with slower speeds and dropped calls by all means sign up with Sprint or T-Mobile, but please don't point to the ads to say their service is just as good. And don't e-mail me and tell me your mileage is different, ain't that America where everybody testifies what they own is the best. Reminds me of skiing, where everybody on the lift says they love their skis...that's right, they paid for them!
6. Japan builds the most reliable automobiles.
Doubt me? Just check the "Consumer Reports" ratings. You may think you're saving a few bucks on an American car, but just compare residual values, never mind repair costs. If you're broke, I have sympathy for you, but if you're cheap, I don't. You get what you pay for, and sure, luxury items may be overpriced, but frequently a deal is anything but.
7. Most people are not power users.
Those are the primary consumers of Android phones, the techies and the cheap. Sure, some iPhone customers buy for fashion, but most Apple acolytes are adherents to the ecosystem because their devices integrate seamlessly and just work. Some people soup up their cars, most people are satisfied with stock.
8. BlackBerry is history.
My inbox is populated with BlackBerry owners testifying about the new Passport. Well, it finally came out and the reviews are not good. The primary complaint is the keyboard sucks! If you think BlackBerry handsets can come back, you probably believe Gerardo and Jimmy Ray can have another hit.
9. Samsung is being challenged at both ends.
iPhone is distinguishing itself at the top and cheap Chinese Android phones are squeezing it at the bottom. To survive you've got to have your own software as well as hardware, your car not only has to look good, but drive well. Samsung is the new Sony. At least in mobile devices. A premium player who became an also-ran when the products it manufactured became commodities.
10. Google before you ask.
When someone e-mails the most basic of questions I laugh, have they never heard of the Google Machine? Which will not only tell you all about your ex-girlfriend, but how to fix your device and link you to all the information you'll ever need. Google first, ask questions later.
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Built into every cellphone contract is payment for the device. Just like there's no such thing as a free lunch, there's no such thing as a free cellphone. Get a new one every two years. And now, if you're upgrading to a new iPhone, you can get $200 credit for anything back to a 4, so don't delay. And don't be holier-than-thou telling us you don't need one. You do need LTE. And you do need to wake up and realize you're paying for a new phone every two years whether you're getting one or not.
2. Record contracts are bad because of leverage.
That's the American way, you bargain for a result. Gain leverage and your terms improve. How do you gain leverage when dealing with a record company? Bring in results...sales/streams of music and videos, ticket counts and merch numbers. Because odds of success are so low, the label spreads risk over many. If everybody hit, you'd get better terms. Have success and you can renegotiate, or refuse to work, or play out the contract and sign on better terms with someone else. Or, if you believe in yourself that much, you can start your own label. But if you're bitching about leverage you're no different from a homeless man decrying he can't date supermodels, you're delusional.
As for labels' refusal to live up to contract terms and account properly, that's a whole 'nother issue.
3. Streaming services are the solution, not the enemy.
This has me tearing what little hair I have left from my head. Talk to Daniel Ek, hell, just read some of his interviews. The main goal of Spotify was to fight piracy, and it and YouTube have done a good job of doing this. They both pay, prior to them you were getting nothing. As for downloads...they were always dwarfed by piracy. To make streaming services the enemy is to be ignorant of Internet history. As for better songwriter royalties at Pandora and payment on pre-1972 recordings, those are different issues.
4. All fees don't go to Ticketmaster.
No matter how much I say this, people still can't comprehend it. Sure, TM takes a cut, but so do the building, the promoter and sometimes even the act. It's a system to defraud you and keep the usual suspects in power while protecting the image of the acts.
5. Sprint and T-Mobile service is inferior, that's why they're cheaper.
For a generation supposedly immune to advertising I'm stunned that people believe they can pay less and get just as much. Sure, in some markets one service might triumph, but Google will tell you the dominant carrier in America is Verizon, which is usually the most expensive, and therefore the company doesn't lower its rates, because customers clamor for usability and dependability. If you're happy with slower speeds and dropped calls by all means sign up with Sprint or T-Mobile, but please don't point to the ads to say their service is just as good. And don't e-mail me and tell me your mileage is different, ain't that America where everybody testifies what they own is the best. Reminds me of skiing, where everybody on the lift says they love their skis...that's right, they paid for them!
6. Japan builds the most reliable automobiles.
Doubt me? Just check the "Consumer Reports" ratings. You may think you're saving a few bucks on an American car, but just compare residual values, never mind repair costs. If you're broke, I have sympathy for you, but if you're cheap, I don't. You get what you pay for, and sure, luxury items may be overpriced, but frequently a deal is anything but.
7. Most people are not power users.
Those are the primary consumers of Android phones, the techies and the cheap. Sure, some iPhone customers buy for fashion, but most Apple acolytes are adherents to the ecosystem because their devices integrate seamlessly and just work. Some people soup up their cars, most people are satisfied with stock.
8. BlackBerry is history.
My inbox is populated with BlackBerry owners testifying about the new Passport. Well, it finally came out and the reviews are not good. The primary complaint is the keyboard sucks! If you think BlackBerry handsets can come back, you probably believe Gerardo and Jimmy Ray can have another hit.
9. Samsung is being challenged at both ends.
iPhone is distinguishing itself at the top and cheap Chinese Android phones are squeezing it at the bottom. To survive you've got to have your own software as well as hardware, your car not only has to look good, but drive well. Samsung is the new Sony. At least in mobile devices. A premium player who became an also-ran when the products it manufactured became commodities.
10. Google before you ask.
When someone e-mails the most basic of questions I laugh, have they never heard of the Google Machine? Which will not only tell you all about your ex-girlfriend, but how to fix your device and link you to all the information you'll ever need. Google first, ask questions later.
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Tuesday, 23 September 2014
The Bendable iPhone 6
GM recalls a plethora of cars, will it only be minutes until Apple recalls the complete run of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus?
Corporations... That's why you can't trust 'em, they're only in it for the money. Where's Frank Zappa when you need him? We bend over backward to lionize these enterprises with no center and no morals and are then surprised when they abuse us?
Let me put this more simply, should I buy an iPhone 6?
Call it a first world problem. While you're at it, call our entire lives first world problems, I hate that knee-jerk reaction. It's a way of showing your superiority when the truth is we're all in it together and the way we connect is with our mobile devices and this is especially true in third world nations, where there is no wired infrastructure. If you don't think defective phones would screw up India, you've never ventured outside our borders.
Now Apple has not weighed in on this yet, but the company will.
I was ignoring it until someone linked me to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znK652H6yQM#t=116
Turns out you can just bend the iPhone 6 Plus with your hands!
I'll be clear, I keep my mobile phone in my front pocket. I've been wary of back pocket storage ever since my wallet fell out back in high school, never mind the warnings about rear end theft. And I've wondered forever if I could damage my mobile device by putting it up front, but I had faith in the manufacturer and alas, I've yet to have a problem.
Until now.
This is what happens when you put designers in charge. Yup, Jony Ive has been elevated to guru savant by not only Apple, but the country at large. As if looks trumped usability. As if we were all complaining that our phones just weren't thin enough. In search of cool, Ive has now literally broken our phones.
Now what?
The speed with which this story has ricocheted off the web is truly astounding. As for conspiracy theories, I think those are now toast. Everybody talks and everybody listens, nothing goes unaired.
And sure, the Android people are out to get Apple.
But come on, I can bend my iPhone via regular use? An item that costs close to a grand, even though I may be putting no money down?
Yup, the carriers want to lock us into contracts. They love when you don't upgrade, they're just skimming more money from you. But I'm not that stupid, I want to get a new phone. But now I'm not so sure.
So after the public comes the media vultures. This story will be all over the straight news soon. That's how it works today, it goes from us to them, from the internet to the news behemoths who do no reporting but insist we listen to them.
And then the financial universe will get ahold of this. And shenanigans will ensue. Not only outcry, but stock volatility.
And what exactly is Apple supposed to do here?
Stop production, stop selling. That's what Fitbit did with its Force, when it turned out the device irritated skin. That's what Lululemon did when it found out you could see through its clothing.
I don't want to hear no namby-pamby admonishments to be careful with my device. Why don't we just keep our cars in garages so they don't get damaged. Why don't we live in hotel rooms so our houses have no wear and tear. Why don't we stay out of the sun so we get no skin cancer.
That's the society we live in today. You get no tech help and if you raise your hand and complain everybody says it's your fault and you should adjust your behavior.
And sometimes this is true. There are professional complainers. And others that believe buying a product guarantees perfection ad infinitum.
But is it reasonable to believe your phone shouldn't bend with normal use?
I'd say so.
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Corporations... That's why you can't trust 'em, they're only in it for the money. Where's Frank Zappa when you need him? We bend over backward to lionize these enterprises with no center and no morals and are then surprised when they abuse us?
Let me put this more simply, should I buy an iPhone 6?
Call it a first world problem. While you're at it, call our entire lives first world problems, I hate that knee-jerk reaction. It's a way of showing your superiority when the truth is we're all in it together and the way we connect is with our mobile devices and this is especially true in third world nations, where there is no wired infrastructure. If you don't think defective phones would screw up India, you've never ventured outside our borders.
Now Apple has not weighed in on this yet, but the company will.
I was ignoring it until someone linked me to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znK652H6yQM#t=116
Turns out you can just bend the iPhone 6 Plus with your hands!
I'll be clear, I keep my mobile phone in my front pocket. I've been wary of back pocket storage ever since my wallet fell out back in high school, never mind the warnings about rear end theft. And I've wondered forever if I could damage my mobile device by putting it up front, but I had faith in the manufacturer and alas, I've yet to have a problem.
Until now.
This is what happens when you put designers in charge. Yup, Jony Ive has been elevated to guru savant by not only Apple, but the country at large. As if looks trumped usability. As if we were all complaining that our phones just weren't thin enough. In search of cool, Ive has now literally broken our phones.
Now what?
The speed with which this story has ricocheted off the web is truly astounding. As for conspiracy theories, I think those are now toast. Everybody talks and everybody listens, nothing goes unaired.
And sure, the Android people are out to get Apple.
But come on, I can bend my iPhone via regular use? An item that costs close to a grand, even though I may be putting no money down?
Yup, the carriers want to lock us into contracts. They love when you don't upgrade, they're just skimming more money from you. But I'm not that stupid, I want to get a new phone. But now I'm not so sure.
So after the public comes the media vultures. This story will be all over the straight news soon. That's how it works today, it goes from us to them, from the internet to the news behemoths who do no reporting but insist we listen to them.
And then the financial universe will get ahold of this. And shenanigans will ensue. Not only outcry, but stock volatility.
And what exactly is Apple supposed to do here?
Stop production, stop selling. That's what Fitbit did with its Force, when it turned out the device irritated skin. That's what Lululemon did when it found out you could see through its clothing.
I don't want to hear no namby-pamby admonishments to be careful with my device. Why don't we just keep our cars in garages so they don't get damaged. Why don't we live in hotel rooms so our houses have no wear and tear. Why don't we stay out of the sun so we get no skin cancer.
That's the society we live in today. You get no tech help and if you raise your hand and complain everybody says it's your fault and you should adjust your behavior.
And sometimes this is true. There are professional complainers. And others that believe buying a product guarantees perfection ad infinitum.
But is it reasonable to believe your phone shouldn't bend with normal use?
I'd say so.
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Today
iPhone 6 or 6 Plus?
What did John Lennon sing? "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"? I'd like to add an analogue to that. You can make plans, but they're going to be disrupted.
Why is everybody incompetent?
When last we left my tire saga Pep Boys was going to get in touch with Michelin and decide on a discount for replacement tires. Ultimately I received 45%, which is a pretty good deal. But when I showed up yesterday to get them installed, they were the wrong ones, 87V instead of 91W. V and W are speed ratings, for the uninitiated. And actually, V is enough, and the salesman tried to get me to accept them, but the Michelin website said my car needed W's and aren't I entitled to get what I want?
That's another frustration of society. Distribution is imperfect. Salesmen don't have relationships. Their goal is to get you out the door lighter in the wallet knowing that either you'll never come back or they'll be gone when you do.
Which is why I'm uptight about standing my ground. Oh, I know that's a conundrum. I want what I want but I'm afraid to insist upon it. Maybe because of my OCD, maybe because of so many anxious interactions previously. That's how life has gotten, if you want to make a stand, if you want to get it right, god forbid you want to get it perfect, you become the target of derision, everybody laughs at you. And it takes a strong personality to be able to endure this. And I'm not always so strong.
So I went back today and they blamed it on the warehouse. The Pep Boys outlet had ordered the right tires, but had been shipped the wrong ones. They've got to special order mine, they'll be in at the end of the week.
And I felt relieved. That the clerk didn't excoriate my personality.
And from there I went to Santa Monica Place.
Once upon a time it was a Frank Gehry structure filled with failing businesses. But now they've reconstructed it to be hip, and it has me wondering, is shopping now just entertainment? I mean why leave your home when you can order online and return so easily.
But I still hate to shop. I was on a mission to the Apple Store. I wanted to decide on a new iPhone.
You see Verizon has offered me an early upgrade. In case you missed it, the carriers are in a war to get you to stick, they're all offering $200 off a new iPhone, yup, you get credit for your old one in that amount, even if it's really old, like a 4.
But the question is which one to get?
Used to be you wanted your mobile device to be smaller, now you want it to be bigger. But how big?
And I haven't been to the Apple Store on the Promenade since it moved. Since I go nowhere, especially if parking is challenging.
And what made me aware of its location was the line.
Was I really going to have to wait in line just to evaluate the new iPhones?
Turned out I didn't.
As the Rooftop Singers sang, I walked right in.
And was confronted with the decision of the fall. Big or small. iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.
I want the Plus. I want to be cool. But fiddling with it my thumb started to ache, it was hard to reach the corners.
But when I'm stuck in the airport or waiting for an appointment and I want to read the "New Yorker" won't I enjoy the larger size? Even more importantly, if I get the small one will I be judged?
Yes, I'm just that shallow. Like SUVs before them, mobile phones are now status items. It's not only functionality you're interested in, but how you look.
And speaking of look, I was stunned by those in attendance.
You see in the modern world I rarely leave my abode. Because it's just too challenging, and all the entertainment is home on the screen.
But after being in Utah I've got the urge to disconnect, to let go of the tether and venture out into the world. I used to do this on a regular basis, the movies were my passion, but when I walked past the Cineplex Odeon on the way to the Apple Store I only recognized one of the films on the marquee.
And why exactly is everybody out here? Are they tourists or locals or all interested in the iPhone?
And did they look in the mirror before they left home?
I'll admit I almost wore my shorts with the stain. But the prominent bellies and visible bra straps and the plethora of flip-flops had me wondering exactly what was going on in the brains of these patrons.
You see society has flipped. Used to be the stars were admired, now they're torn down, because the individual is important. And the longer you live the less looks matter. You try to see through the countenance to who the person really is. Despite our fixation on our devices it's we who really count. We fill them up. With texts and photos documenting our lives. We connect in ways previously unfathomable.
And it's all so fascinating. Millions of unique identities. All with their own friends and families, their own hopes and desires. Yearning to be known.
I think I'm gonna get the 6.
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What did John Lennon sing? "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"? I'd like to add an analogue to that. You can make plans, but they're going to be disrupted.
Why is everybody incompetent?
When last we left my tire saga Pep Boys was going to get in touch with Michelin and decide on a discount for replacement tires. Ultimately I received 45%, which is a pretty good deal. But when I showed up yesterday to get them installed, they were the wrong ones, 87V instead of 91W. V and W are speed ratings, for the uninitiated. And actually, V is enough, and the salesman tried to get me to accept them, but the Michelin website said my car needed W's and aren't I entitled to get what I want?
That's another frustration of society. Distribution is imperfect. Salesmen don't have relationships. Their goal is to get you out the door lighter in the wallet knowing that either you'll never come back or they'll be gone when you do.
Which is why I'm uptight about standing my ground. Oh, I know that's a conundrum. I want what I want but I'm afraid to insist upon it. Maybe because of my OCD, maybe because of so many anxious interactions previously. That's how life has gotten, if you want to make a stand, if you want to get it right, god forbid you want to get it perfect, you become the target of derision, everybody laughs at you. And it takes a strong personality to be able to endure this. And I'm not always so strong.
So I went back today and they blamed it on the warehouse. The Pep Boys outlet had ordered the right tires, but had been shipped the wrong ones. They've got to special order mine, they'll be in at the end of the week.
And I felt relieved. That the clerk didn't excoriate my personality.
And from there I went to Santa Monica Place.
Once upon a time it was a Frank Gehry structure filled with failing businesses. But now they've reconstructed it to be hip, and it has me wondering, is shopping now just entertainment? I mean why leave your home when you can order online and return so easily.
But I still hate to shop. I was on a mission to the Apple Store. I wanted to decide on a new iPhone.
You see Verizon has offered me an early upgrade. In case you missed it, the carriers are in a war to get you to stick, they're all offering $200 off a new iPhone, yup, you get credit for your old one in that amount, even if it's really old, like a 4.
But the question is which one to get?
Used to be you wanted your mobile device to be smaller, now you want it to be bigger. But how big?
And I haven't been to the Apple Store on the Promenade since it moved. Since I go nowhere, especially if parking is challenging.
And what made me aware of its location was the line.
Was I really going to have to wait in line just to evaluate the new iPhones?
Turned out I didn't.
As the Rooftop Singers sang, I walked right in.
And was confronted with the decision of the fall. Big or small. iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.
I want the Plus. I want to be cool. But fiddling with it my thumb started to ache, it was hard to reach the corners.
But when I'm stuck in the airport or waiting for an appointment and I want to read the "New Yorker" won't I enjoy the larger size? Even more importantly, if I get the small one will I be judged?
Yes, I'm just that shallow. Like SUVs before them, mobile phones are now status items. It's not only functionality you're interested in, but how you look.
And speaking of look, I was stunned by those in attendance.
You see in the modern world I rarely leave my abode. Because it's just too challenging, and all the entertainment is home on the screen.
But after being in Utah I've got the urge to disconnect, to let go of the tether and venture out into the world. I used to do this on a regular basis, the movies were my passion, but when I walked past the Cineplex Odeon on the way to the Apple Store I only recognized one of the films on the marquee.
And why exactly is everybody out here? Are they tourists or locals or all interested in the iPhone?
And did they look in the mirror before they left home?
I'll admit I almost wore my shorts with the stain. But the prominent bellies and visible bra straps and the plethora of flip-flops had me wondering exactly what was going on in the brains of these patrons.
You see society has flipped. Used to be the stars were admired, now they're torn down, because the individual is important. And the longer you live the less looks matter. You try to see through the countenance to who the person really is. Despite our fixation on our devices it's we who really count. We fill them up. With texts and photos documenting our lives. We connect in ways previously unfathomable.
And it's all so fascinating. Millions of unique identities. All with their own friends and families, their own hopes and desires. Yearning to be known.
I think I'm gonna get the 6.
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Myths
NAPSTER WOULD KILL CREATION AND NO ONE WOULD MAKE MUSIC
Just the opposite has happened. With new tools for production and distribution that bring the cost of creating and getting your work out at close to zero it seems like everybody's got a song in them. More people are making more music than ever before, leaving the audience overwhelmed with productions.
MUSIC IS FREE
It just feels that way.
America's #1 music service, YouTube, pays rights holders, as does Spotify. Can we stop the mantra that music is free? Sure, piracy exists, but it always did. If you think kids are busy stealing instead of streaming you probably went to the Apple Store to stock up on the discontinued iPod.
MAJOR LABELS ARE DEAD
They're more powerful than they've been in a decade, because they have the relationships and cash to get their productions heard.
MICROSOFT IS AN INVINCIBLE MONOLITH THAT MUST BE STOPPED
It stopped itself by failing to innovate, by being eclipsed by others in the marketplace. This paradigm works in music as well as tech. Sure, people want to hear old tracks whereas they've got no desire to use old computers, but if you're not cutting something new and great on a regular basis you're fading in the rearview mirror.
TICKETMASTER IS THE ENEMY
Acts are the enemy. Because they won't go to all-in ticketing. Ticketmaster fees are promoter profit. As for getting all seats in the venue on the manifest...now that's a challenge.
STREAMED CONCERTS ARE THE NEXT FRONTIER
The Allman Brothers were pioneers, their revenue tanked. Turns out people want to be there. It's not so much about the sound as the experience.
TAPES/HARD DRIVES ARE ANATHEMA
ELO and Milli Vanilli were castigated, now everybody uses them.
LUCIAN GRAINGE CANNOT REPLACE DOUG MORRIS
Oh yes he can. Then again, Doug Morris single-handedly rejuvenated Sony Music. If only Doug knew something about tech.
TABLETS ARE FADING
They're just merging with phones. They are now the computing device of record. A large hand-held is many people's only device. If you don't have a mobile strategy, if your site doesn't render properly on a phablet (phone/tablet, get it?), you're losing ground. Don't forget, Facebook's stock burgeoned because they figured out mobile.
INSTITUTIONS ARE BIGGER THAN STARS
No, they're not. Nate Silver has credibility and gravitas. Anybody can write about data, that doesn't make them worth following. How come the "New York Times" knows it's about stars on the Opinion page, but not elsewhere in the paper?
THE LONG TAIL
It's out there, but no one is buying it.
THE APP ECONOMY
Turns out we're all gravitating to apps, it's inherent in the move to mobile, but everybody expects them to be free.
OBAMACARE WILL BRING DOWN THE PRESIDENT AND TURN EVERYBODY INTO A REPUBLICAN
When you lose the war, move on. The future is about new ideas, not hashing over the past. Turns out people wanted affordable health care and despite hiccups in the system, it's turning out just fine. You can argue with me, but you'd be proving the point.
IF YOU WORK HARD YOU WILL BECOME RICH
The rich start with huge advantages, in America we've got a self-perpetuating underclass.
MUSIC DRIVES THE CULTURE
We haven't had that spirit here since 1989. Tech drives the culture. But tech is not art. Art trumps business every time, but it requires true artists to accomplish this, trained people willing to color outside the lines.
NO ONE WILL PAY FOR RADIO
Sirius XM has nearly thirty million subscribers. If you don't, you're the one left out of the party. Being cheap has consequences.
YOU CAN COMPETE WITH HBO
There are a limited number of quality writers and producers. HBO gets first pick, that's where the talented want to go. Sure, there's overflow left for Showtime and Netflix, but not much.
FLATTENING DISTRIBUTION WOULD ALLOW PREVIOUSLY MARGINALIZED ARTISTS TO FLOURISH
Turns out there weren't a ton of unsung artists rejected by the major labels who did not get their chance. And now, more than ever, as a result of the Internet, quality can be found. Turns out there's just not that much quality out there.
TELEVISION COMPETITION SHOWS ARE RUINING THE MUSIC BUSINESS
Not a single star has been minted by "The Voice." "American Idol" has faded to near irrelevance. If you're focusing on the TV paradigm to explain your lack of traction and the vapid music of today, you're just wrong.
THE SPITZER AGREEMENT WOULD PAVE THE WAY FOR INDIES AT RADIO
Just the opposite has happened. Playlists are completely dominated by majors.
PUBLICITY EQUALS SUCCESS
We can ignore everything, and the more we're beaten over the head with something, the less likely we are to imbibe/check it out.
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Just the opposite has happened. With new tools for production and distribution that bring the cost of creating and getting your work out at close to zero it seems like everybody's got a song in them. More people are making more music than ever before, leaving the audience overwhelmed with productions.
MUSIC IS FREE
It just feels that way.
America's #1 music service, YouTube, pays rights holders, as does Spotify. Can we stop the mantra that music is free? Sure, piracy exists, but it always did. If you think kids are busy stealing instead of streaming you probably went to the Apple Store to stock up on the discontinued iPod.
MAJOR LABELS ARE DEAD
They're more powerful than they've been in a decade, because they have the relationships and cash to get their productions heard.
MICROSOFT IS AN INVINCIBLE MONOLITH THAT MUST BE STOPPED
It stopped itself by failing to innovate, by being eclipsed by others in the marketplace. This paradigm works in music as well as tech. Sure, people want to hear old tracks whereas they've got no desire to use old computers, but if you're not cutting something new and great on a regular basis you're fading in the rearview mirror.
TICKETMASTER IS THE ENEMY
Acts are the enemy. Because they won't go to all-in ticketing. Ticketmaster fees are promoter profit. As for getting all seats in the venue on the manifest...now that's a challenge.
STREAMED CONCERTS ARE THE NEXT FRONTIER
The Allman Brothers were pioneers, their revenue tanked. Turns out people want to be there. It's not so much about the sound as the experience.
TAPES/HARD DRIVES ARE ANATHEMA
ELO and Milli Vanilli were castigated, now everybody uses them.
LUCIAN GRAINGE CANNOT REPLACE DOUG MORRIS
Oh yes he can. Then again, Doug Morris single-handedly rejuvenated Sony Music. If only Doug knew something about tech.
TABLETS ARE FADING
They're just merging with phones. They are now the computing device of record. A large hand-held is many people's only device. If you don't have a mobile strategy, if your site doesn't render properly on a phablet (phone/tablet, get it?), you're losing ground. Don't forget, Facebook's stock burgeoned because they figured out mobile.
INSTITUTIONS ARE BIGGER THAN STARS
No, they're not. Nate Silver has credibility and gravitas. Anybody can write about data, that doesn't make them worth following. How come the "New York Times" knows it's about stars on the Opinion page, but not elsewhere in the paper?
THE LONG TAIL
It's out there, but no one is buying it.
THE APP ECONOMY
Turns out we're all gravitating to apps, it's inherent in the move to mobile, but everybody expects them to be free.
OBAMACARE WILL BRING DOWN THE PRESIDENT AND TURN EVERYBODY INTO A REPUBLICAN
When you lose the war, move on. The future is about new ideas, not hashing over the past. Turns out people wanted affordable health care and despite hiccups in the system, it's turning out just fine. You can argue with me, but you'd be proving the point.
IF YOU WORK HARD YOU WILL BECOME RICH
The rich start with huge advantages, in America we've got a self-perpetuating underclass.
MUSIC DRIVES THE CULTURE
We haven't had that spirit here since 1989. Tech drives the culture. But tech is not art. Art trumps business every time, but it requires true artists to accomplish this, trained people willing to color outside the lines.
NO ONE WILL PAY FOR RADIO
Sirius XM has nearly thirty million subscribers. If you don't, you're the one left out of the party. Being cheap has consequences.
YOU CAN COMPETE WITH HBO
There are a limited number of quality writers and producers. HBO gets first pick, that's where the talented want to go. Sure, there's overflow left for Showtime and Netflix, but not much.
FLATTENING DISTRIBUTION WOULD ALLOW PREVIOUSLY MARGINALIZED ARTISTS TO FLOURISH
Turns out there weren't a ton of unsung artists rejected by the major labels who did not get their chance. And now, more than ever, as a result of the Internet, quality can be found. Turns out there's just not that much quality out there.
TELEVISION COMPETITION SHOWS ARE RUINING THE MUSIC BUSINESS
Not a single star has been minted by "The Voice." "American Idol" has faded to near irrelevance. If you're focusing on the TV paradigm to explain your lack of traction and the vapid music of today, you're just wrong.
THE SPITZER AGREEMENT WOULD PAVE THE WAY FOR INDIES AT RADIO
Just the opposite has happened. Playlists are completely dominated by majors.
PUBLICITY EQUALS SUCCESS
We can ignore everything, and the more we're beaten over the head with something, the less likely we are to imbibe/check it out.
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Monday, 22 September 2014
Summit Weekend
The music business is going to be all right.
The number one lesson I took from the U2 kerfuffle was not you shouldn't invade people's devices without permission, but how few people knew who U2 was. In case this link eluded your inbox, check it out, it's edifying: http://www.whoisu2.com
The point being time marches forward every day, and what is big today will almost certainly be forgotten tomorrow. Even the Beatles. Certainly "Yesterday" will live on, but "For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" and the rest of "Sgt. Pepper's"? Highly dubious they'll make it into the next century.
And few of us will live that long, but baby boomers will expire and the youngsters will take over, and I hung with a bunch of those youngsters this weekend in Utah.
Yes, I was nearly the oldest person at the Summit Series event at Powder Mountain.
Huh?
That's how the new world works. The inner circle convenes and you don't even know about it. Kind of like that Amazon convention featured in today's "New York Times": "A Writerly Chill at Jeff Bezos' Campfire": http://nyti.ms/1sM0MMi
Summit Series started as events. Then the proprietors bought a ski area and are building a community.
That's right, this gang of thirtysomethings, running on gumption and pluck, who know every highfalutin' tech person you read about online, have decided to go big. That's what the youngsters specialize in, dreaming, and then executing. You can read about it here: http://summitpowdermountain.com Or if you prefer straight news stories, check this out: "Summit To Buy Powder Mountain To Create Entrepreneur Community": http://onforb.es/XPTpea
And that's who attended, entrepreneurs.
These people used to populate the music industry, now they're all in tech. And this weekend was about the nexus of the two, but the truth is young people have been frozen out of upward mobility at the labels and to a great degree the live business. So they're focusing on apps, and data, and even though they may not realize you need rights to execute your vision, today's culture believing permission is a given, soon their peers will inherit the rights and we will get movement.
So who did I meet?
Slav. Who started Indiegogo, who can be a bull in a china shop and a puppy dog, shifting gears from one to the other in an instant. Slav Rubin believes we're wresting investment from the usual suspects, and the coming story is about how the public at large will finance innovation. Now I did not agree with every word he said, but Slav went to Wharton and used to be a futurist and you listen to him long enough and it's hard to believe he's not right.
And then there was Kendall, an agent at UTA. She didn't only mention the financials at Snapchat, but how evanescence breeds adherence. Could this be the future? That which expires draws our attention?
And Dave has an app that allows you to tip SoundCloud posters, garnering them money.
And Anthony gave up management to pursue brand relationships. That's one thing I took from the weekend, today's youngsters want to match companies with artists for profit. I believe sponsorship can eviscerate credibility, but the younger generation is unlike the hippies, they've got no problem with money, and they've got no problem protecting artists' rights.
Does the brand fit the culture? Vans is a perfect match for skateboarding, but 7-Up seems to be crashing the music party. It's not as simple as hooking up cash with concerts. And other than Red Bull, every corporation is asking for more than you want to give, and the dance of delivery is a skilled one.
And I talked to so many people and heard so many stories, but my favorite came from Jonas Tempel, who founded Beatport.
He was a deejay. Who'd started his own advertising agency. Yes, entrepreneurship is in the blood. Seems you're either born to work for others or yourself. Jonas tried to sell Beatport to Apple, since the ad agency's client, Volant skis, had Mike Markkula on its board, and Markkula was there at the Cupertino giant from the beginning.
But Apple said no. And then launched the iTunes Store shortly thereafter.
Jonas felt embarrassed, but he and his team stuck with it. And launched anyway. At steadily climbing prices, with endorsements and investments from the likes of Richie Hawtin to ensure success.
And that's what they got.
Then they made a deal with a VC. Who put in 12 mil, 8 of which was never spent, and then the bankers didn't stop meddling.
Sony came a-knocking. Jonas got the price up to 125 mil, but the VCs wanted more. The deal failed, the 2008 crash happened, Jonas got fired and then SFX bought Beatport for a third of Sony's offer.
And Jonas went to work at Beats. He was recruited to build a music service. He hired experts in Sweden, they were the only ones competent to build a new streaming system. He rode around in SUVs with Dre, he thought he'd made it. But when Jonas protested about the acquisition of MOG, he got blown out.
And he's never recovered.
Oh, he's making music, he's back to his deejay roots, but he said he's miserable, he's dying to get back into the startup game.
And listening to Jonas talk was better than any interview in "Rolling Stone," anything any musician has said this century. Because Jonas was smart, he put in his own money, he rolled the dice, he played the game, he was speaking from experience, he had expertise.
As did seemingly everybody at Summit.
Oh sure, there were a couple of oldsters, like John Boyle of Insomniac, who was just in from Asia, negotiating new shows for EDC.
But generally, most of the attendees were like Elliott and Brett and Jeff of the Summit Series. Not so much charismatic as game, and willing. And barely thirty.
So you can ignore what you read in the press. Those reporters are eating what the usual suspects are feeding them. Meanwhile, reinvention is happening all around you. More surprises like Napster are in the offing. Because the younger generation doesn't understand the word "no," and they run on passion, and passion is the elixir of success.
Maybe you don't have the money to buy a residence at the top of Powder Mountain. Who knows, maybe Summit's effort will fail.
But that won't be the end.
Because despite hearing that the millennials are crybabies who all got trophies and are in search of coddling, this is untrue. They're educated and tenacious and desirous. They want to change the world.
And they are.
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The number one lesson I took from the U2 kerfuffle was not you shouldn't invade people's devices without permission, but how few people knew who U2 was. In case this link eluded your inbox, check it out, it's edifying: http://www.whoisu2.com
The point being time marches forward every day, and what is big today will almost certainly be forgotten tomorrow. Even the Beatles. Certainly "Yesterday" will live on, but "For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" and the rest of "Sgt. Pepper's"? Highly dubious they'll make it into the next century.
And few of us will live that long, but baby boomers will expire and the youngsters will take over, and I hung with a bunch of those youngsters this weekend in Utah.
Yes, I was nearly the oldest person at the Summit Series event at Powder Mountain.
Huh?
That's how the new world works. The inner circle convenes and you don't even know about it. Kind of like that Amazon convention featured in today's "New York Times": "A Writerly Chill at Jeff Bezos' Campfire": http://nyti.ms/1sM0MMi
Summit Series started as events. Then the proprietors bought a ski area and are building a community.
That's right, this gang of thirtysomethings, running on gumption and pluck, who know every highfalutin' tech person you read about online, have decided to go big. That's what the youngsters specialize in, dreaming, and then executing. You can read about it here: http://summitpowdermountain.com Or if you prefer straight news stories, check this out: "Summit To Buy Powder Mountain To Create Entrepreneur Community": http://onforb.es/XPTpea
And that's who attended, entrepreneurs.
These people used to populate the music industry, now they're all in tech. And this weekend was about the nexus of the two, but the truth is young people have been frozen out of upward mobility at the labels and to a great degree the live business. So they're focusing on apps, and data, and even though they may not realize you need rights to execute your vision, today's culture believing permission is a given, soon their peers will inherit the rights and we will get movement.
So who did I meet?
Slav. Who started Indiegogo, who can be a bull in a china shop and a puppy dog, shifting gears from one to the other in an instant. Slav Rubin believes we're wresting investment from the usual suspects, and the coming story is about how the public at large will finance innovation. Now I did not agree with every word he said, but Slav went to Wharton and used to be a futurist and you listen to him long enough and it's hard to believe he's not right.
And then there was Kendall, an agent at UTA. She didn't only mention the financials at Snapchat, but how evanescence breeds adherence. Could this be the future? That which expires draws our attention?
And Dave has an app that allows you to tip SoundCloud posters, garnering them money.
And Anthony gave up management to pursue brand relationships. That's one thing I took from the weekend, today's youngsters want to match companies with artists for profit. I believe sponsorship can eviscerate credibility, but the younger generation is unlike the hippies, they've got no problem with money, and they've got no problem protecting artists' rights.
Does the brand fit the culture? Vans is a perfect match for skateboarding, but 7-Up seems to be crashing the music party. It's not as simple as hooking up cash with concerts. And other than Red Bull, every corporation is asking for more than you want to give, and the dance of delivery is a skilled one.
And I talked to so many people and heard so many stories, but my favorite came from Jonas Tempel, who founded Beatport.
He was a deejay. Who'd started his own advertising agency. Yes, entrepreneurship is in the blood. Seems you're either born to work for others or yourself. Jonas tried to sell Beatport to Apple, since the ad agency's client, Volant skis, had Mike Markkula on its board, and Markkula was there at the Cupertino giant from the beginning.
But Apple said no. And then launched the iTunes Store shortly thereafter.
Jonas felt embarrassed, but he and his team stuck with it. And launched anyway. At steadily climbing prices, with endorsements and investments from the likes of Richie Hawtin to ensure success.
And that's what they got.
Then they made a deal with a VC. Who put in 12 mil, 8 of which was never spent, and then the bankers didn't stop meddling.
Sony came a-knocking. Jonas got the price up to 125 mil, but the VCs wanted more. The deal failed, the 2008 crash happened, Jonas got fired and then SFX bought Beatport for a third of Sony's offer.
And Jonas went to work at Beats. He was recruited to build a music service. He hired experts in Sweden, they were the only ones competent to build a new streaming system. He rode around in SUVs with Dre, he thought he'd made it. But when Jonas protested about the acquisition of MOG, he got blown out.
And he's never recovered.
Oh, he's making music, he's back to his deejay roots, but he said he's miserable, he's dying to get back into the startup game.
And listening to Jonas talk was better than any interview in "Rolling Stone," anything any musician has said this century. Because Jonas was smart, he put in his own money, he rolled the dice, he played the game, he was speaking from experience, he had expertise.
As did seemingly everybody at Summit.
Oh sure, there were a couple of oldsters, like John Boyle of Insomniac, who was just in from Asia, negotiating new shows for EDC.
But generally, most of the attendees were like Elliott and Brett and Jeff of the Summit Series. Not so much charismatic as game, and willing. And barely thirty.
So you can ignore what you read in the press. Those reporters are eating what the usual suspects are feeding them. Meanwhile, reinvention is happening all around you. More surprises like Napster are in the offing. Because the younger generation doesn't understand the word "no," and they run on passion, and passion is the elixir of success.
Maybe you don't have the money to buy a residence at the top of Powder Mountain. Who knows, maybe Summit's effort will fail.
But that won't be the end.
Because despite hearing that the millennials are crybabies who all got trophies and are in search of coddling, this is untrue. They're educated and tenacious and desirous. They want to change the world.
And they are.
--
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Sunday, 21 September 2014
Eric the Actor
He was the most famous celebrity you don't know.
Originally saddled with the sobriquet "Eric the Midget," Eric Lynch's protestations were heard and the Stern show staff agreed to refer to him as "Eric the Actor," since he considered himself to be a thespian.
Yes, the Howard Stern show. I wasn't there when Eric originally called in to give his opinion on Kelly Clarkson's attractiveness, but over the last few years, after becoming a Stern show fanatic, I became intimately involved with Eric's personality.
He was ungrateful. But at the same time he wanted the perks of celebrity. He wanted the benefit of the doubt, he wanted airtime, he wanted unknowns to fulfill his Amazon wish list.
Like a miniature replica of the Oakland Coliseum, where the A's play.
Now in reality show culture, we make stars and discard them. Snooki is already a footnote, Paris Hilton's nearly been forgotten. But first and foremost Howard Stern is loyal. Despite being badgered by the diminutive gentleman, Howard kept putting him on the air. And he bent over backward to be nice, but not fully. Usually the handicapped are wheeled out to elicit our sympathy. But it was hard to feel sorry for Eric, because he was such a huge pain in the ass.
Leaving endless phone messages.
Getting into Twitter wars.
Using profanity to express his anger towards anybody who had a contrary opinion. Yes, you'd think that Eric would wise up and learn how to take the heat, but he never did.
Like a regular person.
That's what the Stern show is all about, regular people. Sure, we're addicted to the celebrity interviews, but the reason we are is because Howard elicits the stars' foibles, their everyday lives, things the celebrity culture media machine believes are off limits.
Nothing was off limits with Eric the Actor. Including his sanitary habits.
And you may think these behaviors are trivial and to amplify them is juvenile, but the truth is we're all just animals trying to get along, and what draws us in most is the human condition. Which is why television is burgeoning and movies are dying. It's hard to relate to a comic book star. And it's why music is in a downswing. Because the goal is to be bland and sell out and revel in your elevated status.
But Howard Stern keeps telling us he's a geeky guy who believes in his talent but is lucky to have a show, and an audience.
The Stern show got Eric TV guest shots. And then the joke became that every show Eric appeared on got canceled. And, of course, Eric would argue that point.
The Stern show got Eric laid. And I know you don't want to hear that, but if you don't believe that a 3'5" man with a club foot has desires then you're not human.
And then Eric pushed it too far. He was banned. But he called back in as a Texan named Derek and Howard played along with the charade and I still chuckle when I think of their interplay, everybody but Eric not being fooled.
There was the IQ test. There were the endless demands. Being left out of the Anniversary Show because he just couldn't be reasonable and appreciative. Ain't that life, people will bend over backwards to help you, but they've got a limit, and you don't want to reach their limit.
And Eric was just on the show. His health seemed to be deteriorating, but he said he was not near death.
And now he's history.
Ain't that life. They're here today, and then they're gone. Poof! They live on in your memory, but you never hear their voice again.
So, so long Eric the Actor. You truly were a star, even though you could never kick back and own it, revel in the huge fanbase you'd accumulated.
And hello to the second decade of the twenty first century, wherein the niches trump the mainstream.
Robin Williams was everybody's, Eric the Actor was ours.
And when I saw that he'd died I felt a well of emotions that I did not know I had for the squirrely ingrate.
But that's the nature of people. They worm their way into our consciousness and we tolerate their excesses for the entertainment and humanity.
This is a big deal. It leaves a huge hole in the Stern show, which is not some sitcom which is canceled by a fat cat exec because the ratings have sunk, but an endless, breathing juggernaut that has people from Natalie Maines to Jimmy Kimmel to Michael Rapino hooked.
That's the truth. It's a cult. That's much larger than you think. You'd be stunned who's a Stern show fanatic.
And each and every one of them is sad tonight.
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Originally saddled with the sobriquet "Eric the Midget," Eric Lynch's protestations were heard and the Stern show staff agreed to refer to him as "Eric the Actor," since he considered himself to be a thespian.
Yes, the Howard Stern show. I wasn't there when Eric originally called in to give his opinion on Kelly Clarkson's attractiveness, but over the last few years, after becoming a Stern show fanatic, I became intimately involved with Eric's personality.
He was ungrateful. But at the same time he wanted the perks of celebrity. He wanted the benefit of the doubt, he wanted airtime, he wanted unknowns to fulfill his Amazon wish list.
Like a miniature replica of the Oakland Coliseum, where the A's play.
Now in reality show culture, we make stars and discard them. Snooki is already a footnote, Paris Hilton's nearly been forgotten. But first and foremost Howard Stern is loyal. Despite being badgered by the diminutive gentleman, Howard kept putting him on the air. And he bent over backward to be nice, but not fully. Usually the handicapped are wheeled out to elicit our sympathy. But it was hard to feel sorry for Eric, because he was such a huge pain in the ass.
Leaving endless phone messages.
Getting into Twitter wars.
Using profanity to express his anger towards anybody who had a contrary opinion. Yes, you'd think that Eric would wise up and learn how to take the heat, but he never did.
Like a regular person.
That's what the Stern show is all about, regular people. Sure, we're addicted to the celebrity interviews, but the reason we are is because Howard elicits the stars' foibles, their everyday lives, things the celebrity culture media machine believes are off limits.
Nothing was off limits with Eric the Actor. Including his sanitary habits.
And you may think these behaviors are trivial and to amplify them is juvenile, but the truth is we're all just animals trying to get along, and what draws us in most is the human condition. Which is why television is burgeoning and movies are dying. It's hard to relate to a comic book star. And it's why music is in a downswing. Because the goal is to be bland and sell out and revel in your elevated status.
But Howard Stern keeps telling us he's a geeky guy who believes in his talent but is lucky to have a show, and an audience.
The Stern show got Eric TV guest shots. And then the joke became that every show Eric appeared on got canceled. And, of course, Eric would argue that point.
The Stern show got Eric laid. And I know you don't want to hear that, but if you don't believe that a 3'5" man with a club foot has desires then you're not human.
And then Eric pushed it too far. He was banned. But he called back in as a Texan named Derek and Howard played along with the charade and I still chuckle when I think of their interplay, everybody but Eric not being fooled.
There was the IQ test. There were the endless demands. Being left out of the Anniversary Show because he just couldn't be reasonable and appreciative. Ain't that life, people will bend over backwards to help you, but they've got a limit, and you don't want to reach their limit.
And Eric was just on the show. His health seemed to be deteriorating, but he said he was not near death.
And now he's history.
Ain't that life. They're here today, and then they're gone. Poof! They live on in your memory, but you never hear their voice again.
So, so long Eric the Actor. You truly were a star, even though you could never kick back and own it, revel in the huge fanbase you'd accumulated.
And hello to the second decade of the twenty first century, wherein the niches trump the mainstream.
Robin Williams was everybody's, Eric the Actor was ours.
And when I saw that he'd died I felt a well of emotions that I did not know I had for the squirrely ingrate.
But that's the nature of people. They worm their way into our consciousness and we tolerate their excesses for the entertainment and humanity.
This is a big deal. It leaves a huge hole in the Stern show, which is not some sitcom which is canceled by a fat cat exec because the ratings have sunk, but an endless, breathing juggernaut that has people from Natalie Maines to Jimmy Kimmel to Michael Rapino hooked.
That's the truth. It's a cult. That's much larger than you think. You'd be stunned who's a Stern show fanatic.
And each and every one of them is sad tonight.
--
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