It's a ROCK format!
So, are those heirloom or cherry tomatoes?
Today it even made the L.A. "Times," the statement by country music consultant Keith Hill that he advises stations not to play two women in a row, that males are the lettuce and women are the tomatoes in the salad.
And the women are up in arms.
And on the surface I get it, artificial rules are anathema. You play what's good. And good reacts. But the truth is country radio is not your dad's format, it's something totally new, it's the AOR of the twenty first century, it's all about ROCK!
And how often do you hear Joni Mitchell on KLOS?
Now I'm not saying Joni doesn't deserve to be heard. In almost all cases, she's better than the rockers being played on KLOS. But KLOS is appealing to a certain demo, which wants to rock out. Do you want to rock out?
If you want to hear new music you do it on the COUNTRY station!
That's right, Active Rock drove itself right off the cliff. If you're not deep into that scene you don't want to go there, it's too hard-edged and atonal.
As for Adult Alternative and Americana... Those are NICHE formats. If that's what people wanted, if the masses wanted to tune in, they would. But they never have, not in prodigious numbers. AAA got a good chance in major markets, but ratings were bad and the stations flipped format.
And now everybody's listening to country. Where there may be big hats, even trucker caps, but there are even bigger guitars. And you don't put a Loretta Lynn track in the mix, or if you do you do it sparingly.
Which means if you want to get on country radio you're better off sounding like Pat Benatar than Patsy Cline. You want to belt.
Even worse, the data says that women want the harder-edged rock country acts, they would rather hear Jason Aldean. And one thing we know about radio, it never goes against the data.
So that's the world we live in. For fifteen years musicians rail against "American Idol," not knowing it's a television show and except for a few instances it affected music not a whit.
Now they're bitching that women aren't getting a fair shake on country radio.
All I'm saying is everything you read in the press is wrong. We don't live in a hip-hop nation, we live in a COUNTRY ROCK NATION!
I ain't gonna defend what the format plays. Tom Petty says it's the rock of the seventies, which to a great degree it is, good call Tom. But it's also influenced by everything that's happened outside country for the last fifteen years, like pop and electronica.
That's right, we thought EDM was gonna take over the country. But COUNTRY took the country.
If you want to break big, if you want to have a sustained career, forgo your turntable and pick up a guitar. Write songs with hooks and changes. Sure, pop has a huge radio presence, but country is even bigger, and country trumps pop live every day of the week. That's the story of this summer, the inroads country festivals have made in the marketplace.
Because everywhere we go, the kids wanna rock.
As do their older siblings and oftentimes their parents.
If you were addicted to classic rock and want new music you can get into tune in to the country station, go to the country festival. You'll feel right at home.
That's right, it's the country artists who have tattoos and wear jeans, who reflect the America we live in. There's more honesty in the average country record than there is in the deepest inner city hip-hop track. But those in the media don't like the narrative. They even get sidetracked into this non-story about women being kept down.
Women run this world, you should never forget it. It's they who want to rock down hard. And if you wanna get laid...you know where to go, what station to play.
P.S. Don't read the reports, go straight to the source, read Keith Hill's comments in "Country Aircheck" by going to: https://www.countryaircheck.com and clicking on "Click here to download" on the left-hand side, under "Country Aircheck Weekly (5/26)". Keith Hill is a blowhard who takes his business way too seriously, but give the guy credit for saying what no one else will and sticking to his guns, and for having an opinion. Isn't it strange that those with sharp edges rule in this world, every tech titan is prickly, but in entertainment we think it's B2B and we put on a suit and go all nice as if not offending anybody is the key to success. Wanna know the truth? If you're not offending people, you're not saying anything worthwhile. Maybe country radio isn't for soft female music, maybe country radio isn't for you, but country radio is America's number one radio format, it's where the bucks are, and when money's involved risk is reduced. Which means you can combat those who play
it safe by risking, but you've got to be great, you just can't be a crybaby, and if you're making music it had better be ROCK!
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Saturday, 30 May 2015
Friday, 29 May 2015
More ReCode
It had a lousy name, a dot net address and a terrible website.
Sure, Mossberg and Swisher were starting all over, but they could have given themselves a fighting chance!
"AllThingsD" was a brand, never underestimate the difficulty in building one and the power in an established one. Scott Weiland was in Velvet Revolver, what acts did he populate thereafter? Velvet Revolver got some recognition, because it had multiple stars and united their individual fanbases, but after that... You'd need a chart to know who Weiland played with. As for Bill Simmons, how dumb to name the site "Grantland"! It had to be SIMMONSLAND! And he needed to own it. Instead, he built brand equity for ESPN and walked without it!
Let's start with the number one deal-killer, ReCode's site.
It's like they never surfed the net before.
It wasn't only me, everybody hated it. It was unfathomable. Didn't Steve Jobs say design was paramount? That usability was key? Didn't Walt and Kara interview him? Did none of his message penetrate? ReCode's site is so busy, you can't get the grasp without scrolling, and the headline, which was never big, was rarely important. That's what the HuffPo has right, design. The big headline is right up front and clear. The site may not have been updated in years, but it works.
As for the name... What does it mean? Either your moniker has to indicate what you're about, like Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram, or it must relate to nothing, like Shazam or Corolla. ReCode, what is that? A place where you rewrite C++? And what's with the forward slash in the middle...yes, technically it's Re/Code. Most people don't even know where that key is to type, so you're inherently limiting discussion. Hell, even the press doesn't get it right, every story about the sale to Vox calls it "ReCode"!
And dot net? Is it Amazon.net? Google.net? Type recode into Safari and you'll get Google results, you won't automatically go to the site, as you will with Amazon and the rest of the .coms.
And if you're on mobile, and you'd prefer not to use your browser, you've got to remember it's dot net. Do you know any other significant site that's a dot net?
And speaking of mobile... ReCode's site works a bit better there. And mobile rules. But the truth is the people into this kind of info are sitting in front of their desktops all day and want to go to the regular site. And regular surfers go back multiple times a day, to see if there's breaking news. But nothing is emphasized, there's nothing you can see at a glance on ReCode's homepage.
Which brings us to another question... Are you a breaking news site or an analysis site? If it's the former, you've got to have more stickiness, a reason to return. If it's the latter... You've got to deliver the goods, feature something that is forwarded. But since the site's creation I don't ever remember forwarding a link.
Hmm...
The truth is ReCode was hampered by its need to start from scratch, albeit with two stars.
But that's not the whole story. A lot of little things go into making a successful site. Why did AOL triumph? IT WAS EASY!
You've got to make it easy. You've got to make it forwardable. You've got to make it accessible. You've got to either break news or explain it or both.
But the truth is Walt and Kara were so busy establishing relationships with the insiders they want to appear at their conferences that they lost touch with the rank and file who had to visit their site to make it work. Once again, in the internet age there's rarely a middleman. The customer is the hoi polloi, the regular users. Play to them, not to the big swinging dicks you're trading favors with who never break news at your conferences anyway.
Our planet is addicted to tech. Everybody's wired. We want tech news. Tech drives the culture today, like music did in the sixties.
But ReCode couldn't see that the game had changed. They were playing to the same people they always did, instead of broadening their game to appeal to EVERYBODY!
In other words, it was never gonna scale.
And scale is everything.
And scale is not only built on a good idea, executed properly, but delivery is also key. Isn't that what those truly in the know always say, that distribution is king?
Well, being with the WSJ solved that problem.
But going alone Walt and Kara were completely unaware of the challenge, I'd say they punted, but they didn't even understand the game. It'd be like leaving the major label, sacrificing radio, putting out an album with no hit singles and expecting to be successful.
But that ain't the way it happens.
Give yourself a fighting chance.
Maybe Walt and Kara can pivot. Maybe they will realize you don't reinvent the wheel. Just like you rent server power from Amazon instead of owning it yourself (even Netflix!) Walt and Kara spent too much time trying to replicate what others do better.
Like design a usable site.
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Sure, Mossberg and Swisher were starting all over, but they could have given themselves a fighting chance!
"AllThingsD" was a brand, never underestimate the difficulty in building one and the power in an established one. Scott Weiland was in Velvet Revolver, what acts did he populate thereafter? Velvet Revolver got some recognition, because it had multiple stars and united their individual fanbases, but after that... You'd need a chart to know who Weiland played with. As for Bill Simmons, how dumb to name the site "Grantland"! It had to be SIMMONSLAND! And he needed to own it. Instead, he built brand equity for ESPN and walked without it!
Let's start with the number one deal-killer, ReCode's site.
It's like they never surfed the net before.
It wasn't only me, everybody hated it. It was unfathomable. Didn't Steve Jobs say design was paramount? That usability was key? Didn't Walt and Kara interview him? Did none of his message penetrate? ReCode's site is so busy, you can't get the grasp without scrolling, and the headline, which was never big, was rarely important. That's what the HuffPo has right, design. The big headline is right up front and clear. The site may not have been updated in years, but it works.
As for the name... What does it mean? Either your moniker has to indicate what you're about, like Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram, or it must relate to nothing, like Shazam or Corolla. ReCode, what is that? A place where you rewrite C++? And what's with the forward slash in the middle...yes, technically it's Re/Code. Most people don't even know where that key is to type, so you're inherently limiting discussion. Hell, even the press doesn't get it right, every story about the sale to Vox calls it "ReCode"!
And dot net? Is it Amazon.net? Google.net? Type recode into Safari and you'll get Google results, you won't automatically go to the site, as you will with Amazon and the rest of the .coms.
And if you're on mobile, and you'd prefer not to use your browser, you've got to remember it's dot net. Do you know any other significant site that's a dot net?
And speaking of mobile... ReCode's site works a bit better there. And mobile rules. But the truth is the people into this kind of info are sitting in front of their desktops all day and want to go to the regular site. And regular surfers go back multiple times a day, to see if there's breaking news. But nothing is emphasized, there's nothing you can see at a glance on ReCode's homepage.
Which brings us to another question... Are you a breaking news site or an analysis site? If it's the former, you've got to have more stickiness, a reason to return. If it's the latter... You've got to deliver the goods, feature something that is forwarded. But since the site's creation I don't ever remember forwarding a link.
Hmm...
The truth is ReCode was hampered by its need to start from scratch, albeit with two stars.
But that's not the whole story. A lot of little things go into making a successful site. Why did AOL triumph? IT WAS EASY!
You've got to make it easy. You've got to make it forwardable. You've got to make it accessible. You've got to either break news or explain it or both.
But the truth is Walt and Kara were so busy establishing relationships with the insiders they want to appear at their conferences that they lost touch with the rank and file who had to visit their site to make it work. Once again, in the internet age there's rarely a middleman. The customer is the hoi polloi, the regular users. Play to them, not to the big swinging dicks you're trading favors with who never break news at your conferences anyway.
Our planet is addicted to tech. Everybody's wired. We want tech news. Tech drives the culture today, like music did in the sixties.
But ReCode couldn't see that the game had changed. They were playing to the same people they always did, instead of broadening their game to appeal to EVERYBODY!
In other words, it was never gonna scale.
And scale is everything.
And scale is not only built on a good idea, executed properly, but delivery is also key. Isn't that what those truly in the know always say, that distribution is king?
Well, being with the WSJ solved that problem.
But going alone Walt and Kara were completely unaware of the challenge, I'd say they punted, but they didn't even understand the game. It'd be like leaving the major label, sacrificing radio, putting out an album with no hit singles and expecting to be successful.
But that ain't the way it happens.
Give yourself a fighting chance.
Maybe Walt and Kara can pivot. Maybe they will realize you don't reinvent the wheel. Just like you rent server power from Amazon instead of owning it yourself (even Netflix!) Walt and Kara spent too much time trying to replicate what others do better.
Like design a usable site.
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Rhinofy-Yer' Album
I love this record!
"Rides Again" got all the attention, maybe because of "Funk #49," there was no hit on "Yer' Album," but "Yer' Album," the James Gang's first, is the best!
I discovered this record through Steph.
Oh, our initial crushes.
Actually, she found me. I was skiing in goop on the last weekend of the season at Stratton and she called out from the chairlift. I figured it couldn't be me, except there was nobody else on the slope!
And there began...
A multi-year adventure. I wish I still had all those letters, smelling of perfume, but I threw them out in a moment of pique, maybe not long after she turned me on to this LP.
You see it was fading. It was already years on. We skied together at Bromley, but she just wasn't as into it, wasn't paying me quite the mind. So, I pushed it a bit, which is so unlike me, maybe because of the result of this effort.
Her family was renting a house in Dorset. Maybe my friend Ronnie and I could stop by?
She was somewhat reluctant. But I ultimately got a yes and I can say this was a total mistake, except for "Yer' Album."
We got there, feeling the freedom of my newfound driver's license, steering my dad's VistaCruiser through the snow, this was long before every teenager had his own wheels, and we went upstairs to her lair where we were promptly ignored.
Do you leave?
We should have.
Instead Ronnie and I ended up playing mini-pool and listening to "Yer' Album."
That's right, miniature pool tables were all the rage in the sixties, this was long before the economy improved and middle class citizens could afford a full-sized one. And at least we had this distraction, as the mellifluous notes of Joe Walsh and the Gang pierced my ears.
TAKE A LOOK AROUND
There's an irreverent, orchestrated tune-up intro for forty one seconds and then the album segues into this.
Joe Walsh is famous for his guitar playing, but on "Take A Look Around" it's his organ work that is featured.
How come no one believes in a riff anymore? You're hooked right away.
And then the whole thing changes and...
"You will never see me
Walking 'round feeling low
You will never hear there
Goes a man who doesn't know"
The music was empowering me, helping me see the light...
That it was over with Steph.
FUNK #48
Yes, there was a "Funk #48," that preceded "#49"! Maybe not quite as memorable, but still good.
BLUEBIRD
Yes, Stephen Still's Buffalo Springfield track, which most of us only knew from buying "Retrospective," after becoming enraptured by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
The take here is slowed down, but the only cover as good is Bonnie Raitt's, from her debut.
They make it heavier. It's the same song, but a different record.
LOST WOMAN
A Yardbirds cover. Pretty faithful, although extended. Evidencing the James Gang's roots, everybody needs roots.
But many who purchased "Yer' Album" had never heard the original. That was the sixties, when unless it was on the radio, chances are you didn't know it, not unless it was in your collection, and the Yardbirds' LPs were never big sellers in the USA.
COLLAGE
After another short intro, opening the second side, "Stone Rap," Joe Walsh evidences his soft side, which became more famous with "Ashes The Rain And I" on "Rides Again," which is spectacular, but "Collage" is just about as good.
It used to be different. Our music was made to soothe us. A record we could play in the dark with the headphones on, that made us feel all right in the world, that was something we were looking for. Hits have always been important, but "Collage" is the essence of the appeal of album rock.
I DON'T HAVE THE TIME
A rocker composed by Joe Walsh and drummer Jim Fox, it's not as good as the other tracks on the album, but it's still very good! Especially the spacy interlude... And your head will nod to the electric guitar riff.
WRAPCITY IN ENGLISH
An orchestral interlude that you hoped would go on longer, but it served as a mood-setting, magical intro to "Fred"...a bombastic stoner cut that you could listen to in your basement ad infinitum.
FRED
"And it's strange, strange"
If you were there, you'll get it immediately. If you weren't, if you want to know what listening to music was like at the turn of the decade, from '69 to '70, check this out, with its groovy heaviness and changes, into almost jazz, and then back again. Fantastic. This is why I love this album, it was a whole world, that took me away, made me feel good, about myself.
STOP
A twelve minute tour-de-force to end the album.
Composed by Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman, this iteration sounded completely different from the one on Al Kooper's "Super Session" LP. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was a James Gang original.
And there you have it, an exquisite LP with no clunkers, all wheat, no chaff, that's been completely forgotten.
Welcome to the twenty first century, where if it was never on classic rock radio it's fallen by the wayside.
But "Take A Look Around" plays in my head all the time. I pull up the LP on a regular basis.
Joe ultimately left the band and soldiered in the wilderness until he hit with "Rocky Mountain Way," and then he and his producer, Bill Szymczyk, hooked up with the Eagles and the rest is history.
Like my relationship with Steph.
"Good things must end
They never last
Look to tomorrow
Forget the past"
EXCEPT FOR THIS RECORD!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1FEnfUX
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"Rides Again" got all the attention, maybe because of "Funk #49," there was no hit on "Yer' Album," but "Yer' Album," the James Gang's first, is the best!
I discovered this record through Steph.
Oh, our initial crushes.
Actually, she found me. I was skiing in goop on the last weekend of the season at Stratton and she called out from the chairlift. I figured it couldn't be me, except there was nobody else on the slope!
And there began...
A multi-year adventure. I wish I still had all those letters, smelling of perfume, but I threw them out in a moment of pique, maybe not long after she turned me on to this LP.
You see it was fading. It was already years on. We skied together at Bromley, but she just wasn't as into it, wasn't paying me quite the mind. So, I pushed it a bit, which is so unlike me, maybe because of the result of this effort.
Her family was renting a house in Dorset. Maybe my friend Ronnie and I could stop by?
She was somewhat reluctant. But I ultimately got a yes and I can say this was a total mistake, except for "Yer' Album."
We got there, feeling the freedom of my newfound driver's license, steering my dad's VistaCruiser through the snow, this was long before every teenager had his own wheels, and we went upstairs to her lair where we were promptly ignored.
Do you leave?
We should have.
Instead Ronnie and I ended up playing mini-pool and listening to "Yer' Album."
That's right, miniature pool tables were all the rage in the sixties, this was long before the economy improved and middle class citizens could afford a full-sized one. And at least we had this distraction, as the mellifluous notes of Joe Walsh and the Gang pierced my ears.
TAKE A LOOK AROUND
There's an irreverent, orchestrated tune-up intro for forty one seconds and then the album segues into this.
Joe Walsh is famous for his guitar playing, but on "Take A Look Around" it's his organ work that is featured.
How come no one believes in a riff anymore? You're hooked right away.
And then the whole thing changes and...
"You will never see me
Walking 'round feeling low
You will never hear there
Goes a man who doesn't know"
The music was empowering me, helping me see the light...
That it was over with Steph.
FUNK #48
Yes, there was a "Funk #48," that preceded "#49"! Maybe not quite as memorable, but still good.
BLUEBIRD
Yes, Stephen Still's Buffalo Springfield track, which most of us only knew from buying "Retrospective," after becoming enraptured by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
The take here is slowed down, but the only cover as good is Bonnie Raitt's, from her debut.
They make it heavier. It's the same song, but a different record.
LOST WOMAN
A Yardbirds cover. Pretty faithful, although extended. Evidencing the James Gang's roots, everybody needs roots.
But many who purchased "Yer' Album" had never heard the original. That was the sixties, when unless it was on the radio, chances are you didn't know it, not unless it was in your collection, and the Yardbirds' LPs were never big sellers in the USA.
COLLAGE
After another short intro, opening the second side, "Stone Rap," Joe Walsh evidences his soft side, which became more famous with "Ashes The Rain And I" on "Rides Again," which is spectacular, but "Collage" is just about as good.
It used to be different. Our music was made to soothe us. A record we could play in the dark with the headphones on, that made us feel all right in the world, that was something we were looking for. Hits have always been important, but "Collage" is the essence of the appeal of album rock.
I DON'T HAVE THE TIME
A rocker composed by Joe Walsh and drummer Jim Fox, it's not as good as the other tracks on the album, but it's still very good! Especially the spacy interlude... And your head will nod to the electric guitar riff.
WRAPCITY IN ENGLISH
An orchestral interlude that you hoped would go on longer, but it served as a mood-setting, magical intro to "Fred"...a bombastic stoner cut that you could listen to in your basement ad infinitum.
FRED
"And it's strange, strange"
If you were there, you'll get it immediately. If you weren't, if you want to know what listening to music was like at the turn of the decade, from '69 to '70, check this out, with its groovy heaviness and changes, into almost jazz, and then back again. Fantastic. This is why I love this album, it was a whole world, that took me away, made me feel good, about myself.
STOP
A twelve minute tour-de-force to end the album.
Composed by Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman, this iteration sounded completely different from the one on Al Kooper's "Super Session" LP. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was a James Gang original.
And there you have it, an exquisite LP with no clunkers, all wheat, no chaff, that's been completely forgotten.
Welcome to the twenty first century, where if it was never on classic rock radio it's fallen by the wayside.
But "Take A Look Around" plays in my head all the time. I pull up the LP on a regular basis.
Joe ultimately left the band and soldiered in the wilderness until he hit with "Rocky Mountain Way," and then he and his producer, Bill Szymczyk, hooked up with the Eagles and the rest is history.
Like my relationship with Steph.
"Good things must end
They never last
Look to tomorrow
Forget the past"
EXCEPT FOR THIS RECORD!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1FEnfUX
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Thursday, 28 May 2015
Lou Adler
I ran into him at the Sonos studio.
I'd like to tell you what I learned about the company but it was all off the record. But I can tell you they want to bring hi-fi back. And I had a long conversation with Giles Martin, who's been hired to help them achieve this. As for a silver spoon in his mouth...papa George sold out his royalties long ago, Giles has been on his own. And we had a fascinating discussion about sound, hi-res, vinyl, CDs, streaming... And Giles said every format sounds different. And he may prefer one song in one and another in something else. And that oftentimes we prefer vinyl because of its limitations. It's all in the tweaking. And first and foremost comes enjoyment, do you like what you're hearing?
And we're sitting in the back room, surrounded by equipment. I can soak up knowledge from a guy like Giles all day long. What was it like having a famous father, listening to stories of mixing George Harrison's music for Martin Scorsese, revamping "Love."
But we reached a natural stopping point and I had to drive all the way across town and back again so I got up, went out the door, and there was Lou Adler.
Famous these days for sitting on the Lakers' sideline, Lou is one of the engines of rock and roll, the modern music business, he was there from Jan & Dean through the Mamas & the Papas to Spirit to Carole King to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show." And he wasn't just the executive, he was the producer! How did this happen?
Famous people... How do you act?
If you're a rube from out of town you gush and ask for an autograph.
Live long enough in Los Angeles and you respect their privacy, you keep your distance.
But in this case I was introduced.
Okay, how do I start.
"I'm friends with your son."
WHICH ONE, I HAVE SEVEN!
I didn't anticipate this, I figured the door would open wide. And after telling Lou it was Nic, he said he'd just spoken with him.
So now is where you have to prove you really know the person, that you're just not dropping names and making it up. So I decided to reference Nic's hospital stay as a result of overdoing it at the CrossFit studio. It's a known syndrome, you piss a fluid that looks like Coke.
Lou acknowledged this so I figured I could start asking questions. I've got so many questions.
How did you hook up with Jan & Dean?
THROUGH KIM FOWLEY!
The story is true. Kim came in with a briefcase, with none of Kim's music inside it, and told Lou about the University high school students, just after Arnie had departed (yes, it was Jan & Arnie first.)
And in telling this story, Lou referenced "Herbie," who I knew had to be Herb Alpert. So I asked that next... How did Lou know Herbie?
They were introduced by their girlfriends!
Serendipity, it's key to so much success.
So that's how Lou's Ode ended up with A&M...
Actually, it was after Lou's contract lapsed with Epic. His old friend Herbie said they should form an alliance.
It's personal, all business is.
And now I'm at that point where...
The story with famous people is you don't want to ask too many questions, they start putting up their guard, they start to pull back, if you run into them again they retreat. So my thoughts are ping-ponging around my brain, how many questions can I proffer?
Every time I've seen Lou previously he hasn't given me the time of day. But after referencing Nic, I told him I was friends with Andrew Loog Oldham, who I knew stayed at Lou's house. This is when I found out Lou knew who I was, he said Andrew was a big fan of my writing.
Oh, that's another thing when meeting famous people, never ever tell them your story, who you are. Don't pitch. That's anathema to them. How are they gonna respect you if they're clueless as to who you are? There's the conundrum, welcome to Hollywood.
And since we had a link on Andrew, I decided to go deeper, referencing Oldham's residence in Bogota, had Lou been down there?
Talk about anything but business, be a person first.
And then we started talking about how it was back then and how it is now and Lou told me one of his sons was deep into history and I was thinking how I wanted to sit on the couch all afternoon and hear stories, soak it up from a man who was not only there, but steered!
But you can't do this. Where's the endpoint.
The slight body movement. The way his frame leaned to the side, the way his head tilted towards his next destination. It was time to end it.
And you can't plead and you can't be abrupt, you've got to make it like a passing thing, that you're both on campus and will run into one another again soon.
But will we?
I don't know, but I do know that despite the internet linking us all together, there's nothing like living in L.A. where all these people are out and about.
It's living history.
They witnessed it.
I want to record it.
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I'd like to tell you what I learned about the company but it was all off the record. But I can tell you they want to bring hi-fi back. And I had a long conversation with Giles Martin, who's been hired to help them achieve this. As for a silver spoon in his mouth...papa George sold out his royalties long ago, Giles has been on his own. And we had a fascinating discussion about sound, hi-res, vinyl, CDs, streaming... And Giles said every format sounds different. And he may prefer one song in one and another in something else. And that oftentimes we prefer vinyl because of its limitations. It's all in the tweaking. And first and foremost comes enjoyment, do you like what you're hearing?
And we're sitting in the back room, surrounded by equipment. I can soak up knowledge from a guy like Giles all day long. What was it like having a famous father, listening to stories of mixing George Harrison's music for Martin Scorsese, revamping "Love."
But we reached a natural stopping point and I had to drive all the way across town and back again so I got up, went out the door, and there was Lou Adler.
Famous these days for sitting on the Lakers' sideline, Lou is one of the engines of rock and roll, the modern music business, he was there from Jan & Dean through the Mamas & the Papas to Spirit to Carole King to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show." And he wasn't just the executive, he was the producer! How did this happen?
Famous people... How do you act?
If you're a rube from out of town you gush and ask for an autograph.
Live long enough in Los Angeles and you respect their privacy, you keep your distance.
But in this case I was introduced.
Okay, how do I start.
"I'm friends with your son."
WHICH ONE, I HAVE SEVEN!
I didn't anticipate this, I figured the door would open wide. And after telling Lou it was Nic, he said he'd just spoken with him.
So now is where you have to prove you really know the person, that you're just not dropping names and making it up. So I decided to reference Nic's hospital stay as a result of overdoing it at the CrossFit studio. It's a known syndrome, you piss a fluid that looks like Coke.
Lou acknowledged this so I figured I could start asking questions. I've got so many questions.
How did you hook up with Jan & Dean?
THROUGH KIM FOWLEY!
The story is true. Kim came in with a briefcase, with none of Kim's music inside it, and told Lou about the University high school students, just after Arnie had departed (yes, it was Jan & Arnie first.)
And in telling this story, Lou referenced "Herbie," who I knew had to be Herb Alpert. So I asked that next... How did Lou know Herbie?
They were introduced by their girlfriends!
Serendipity, it's key to so much success.
So that's how Lou's Ode ended up with A&M...
Actually, it was after Lou's contract lapsed with Epic. His old friend Herbie said they should form an alliance.
It's personal, all business is.
And now I'm at that point where...
The story with famous people is you don't want to ask too many questions, they start putting up their guard, they start to pull back, if you run into them again they retreat. So my thoughts are ping-ponging around my brain, how many questions can I proffer?
Every time I've seen Lou previously he hasn't given me the time of day. But after referencing Nic, I told him I was friends with Andrew Loog Oldham, who I knew stayed at Lou's house. This is when I found out Lou knew who I was, he said Andrew was a big fan of my writing.
Oh, that's another thing when meeting famous people, never ever tell them your story, who you are. Don't pitch. That's anathema to them. How are they gonna respect you if they're clueless as to who you are? There's the conundrum, welcome to Hollywood.
And since we had a link on Andrew, I decided to go deeper, referencing Oldham's residence in Bogota, had Lou been down there?
Talk about anything but business, be a person first.
And then we started talking about how it was back then and how it is now and Lou told me one of his sons was deep into history and I was thinking how I wanted to sit on the couch all afternoon and hear stories, soak it up from a man who was not only there, but steered!
But you can't do this. Where's the endpoint.
The slight body movement. The way his frame leaned to the side, the way his head tilted towards his next destination. It was time to end it.
And you can't plead and you can't be abrupt, you've got to make it like a passing thing, that you're both on campus and will run into one another again soon.
But will we?
I don't know, but I do know that despite the internet linking us all together, there's nothing like living in L.A. where all these people are out and about.
It's living history.
They witnessed it.
I want to record it.
--
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Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Brands
Don't think of corporations, the term has been bastardized to the point where it means anybody or anything that has risen above and solidified an audience. That's who and what rules in the internet age. And it's harder than ever to get there.
That's the untold story of the past five internet years. How we went from a free-for-all to solidification, how barriers to entry have been established that you may not be able to codify or see, but that are there nonetheless.
The audience is overwhelmed with choice/input. Just think of TV. You've got the five hundred channels on cable plus Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. You can't see everything, you can't even try. It's overwhelming. So we gravitate to that which everybody else does. He or she who rises above becomes ever more popular.
So a curator can be a brand. That's what's wrong with the playlists on Beats and Spotify. We have no idea who created them, and until we do, it's hard to pay attention. A curator we believe in will take us places we didn't previously choose to go, because we have faith in them. You know, a friend whose taste you trust who tells you to listen to something, which you don't like at first, but you slog through, because they said so.
When a newspaper tells you to do something, you don't. That's what papers have lost, their credibility when it comes to the arts. They're in bed with the purveyors and have blown our trust.
But now we've got a plethora of people trying to gain our trust online. And most are doing it for the money. Which turns us off, because so many of us are broke or challenged. We want like-minded people, in bed with us, to tell us what to do. This is the essence of the problem with the Tidal press conference, it was them versus us, no matter what they were trying to say.
Curation is a nascent field. It's still being sorted out. In article curation, we've got Jason Hirschhorn, Dave Pell and the Skimm women. But Pell is a one man band, can he compete against Hirschhorn and the Skimm without investment? Just watch "Shark Tank," there's a tsunami of orders after you appear on the show, can you fulfill them?
And timing is everything. You used to be able to go viral. We were all hungry for info, we loved trading music online like we did jokes back in the heady days of AOL in the nineties.
But when was the last time someone e-mailed you a joke?
And no one cares when you e-mail an MP3, god forbid, or a link to YouTube or Spotify, unless you've previously gained their trust. We've got enough music, we're overwhelmed with input.
The deejay used to be the curator in the free-form radio days. Very few got the gig, we had faith in them.
Will there be superstar curators?
Probably, let's hope so.
But just throwing a ton of playlists at us does not solve the problem. I don't want one for sleeping and peeing and farting and screwing... I want one that speaks to me uniquely, yet makes me feel part of humanity!
P.S. The rules are in flux! They're constantly changing! Don't be a politician, afraid to admit the game has changed or you're wrong for fear of gotcha ads and rearguard constituents who can't handle the truth. "Harlem Shake" killed the viral video. Because its success was manipulated and people found out about it. You cannot act like the landscape doesn't change. People had to buy CDs of full albums in the nineties, now they can pick and choose the hits they want to hear and even if you create something very good on the other nine or eleven tracks on an album, most people won't check them out. So, you've got to think of a new way of tackling the public.
P.P.S. You've also got to decide if you want to reach everyone or someone. Go for world domination or an audience that will keep you alive. Amanda Palmer has a world-dominating story, but her music is for very few. Furthermore, everything grows out of her music, so she must keep doing that and chances are her further movements in distribution and marketing won't gain as much attention.
P.P.P.S. If Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher started ReCode five years earlier it would have had a much better chance of standalone success. So, an idea might be good for today, but terrible for tomorrow. One characteristic of a winner is someone who is constantly taking the temperature, who realizes we live on shifting stands.
P.P.P.P.S. Establish who your audience is. If you've got an app you want to flip... You need VC money and a corporation to buy it. Sure, you need traffic, but you're really selling to the VC and corporation. Whereas if you're an artist, you're selling to the end consumer. The end consumer must be paramount in your plan.
P.P.P.P.P.S. We don't need you or your plan. Life is an endless river that never stops flowing, the same water never passes by again. Don't overestimate your importance, know that nothing is forever, do great work, but realize you must get in the boat and float, and that going upstream rarely pays dividends, thirteen year olds rarely want the music of septuagenarians, it's the way of the world.
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That's the untold story of the past five internet years. How we went from a free-for-all to solidification, how barriers to entry have been established that you may not be able to codify or see, but that are there nonetheless.
The audience is overwhelmed with choice/input. Just think of TV. You've got the five hundred channels on cable plus Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. You can't see everything, you can't even try. It's overwhelming. So we gravitate to that which everybody else does. He or she who rises above becomes ever more popular.
So a curator can be a brand. That's what's wrong with the playlists on Beats and Spotify. We have no idea who created them, and until we do, it's hard to pay attention. A curator we believe in will take us places we didn't previously choose to go, because we have faith in them. You know, a friend whose taste you trust who tells you to listen to something, which you don't like at first, but you slog through, because they said so.
When a newspaper tells you to do something, you don't. That's what papers have lost, their credibility when it comes to the arts. They're in bed with the purveyors and have blown our trust.
But now we've got a plethora of people trying to gain our trust online. And most are doing it for the money. Which turns us off, because so many of us are broke or challenged. We want like-minded people, in bed with us, to tell us what to do. This is the essence of the problem with the Tidal press conference, it was them versus us, no matter what they were trying to say.
Curation is a nascent field. It's still being sorted out. In article curation, we've got Jason Hirschhorn, Dave Pell and the Skimm women. But Pell is a one man band, can he compete against Hirschhorn and the Skimm without investment? Just watch "Shark Tank," there's a tsunami of orders after you appear on the show, can you fulfill them?
And timing is everything. You used to be able to go viral. We were all hungry for info, we loved trading music online like we did jokes back in the heady days of AOL in the nineties.
But when was the last time someone e-mailed you a joke?
And no one cares when you e-mail an MP3, god forbid, or a link to YouTube or Spotify, unless you've previously gained their trust. We've got enough music, we're overwhelmed with input.
The deejay used to be the curator in the free-form radio days. Very few got the gig, we had faith in them.
Will there be superstar curators?
Probably, let's hope so.
But just throwing a ton of playlists at us does not solve the problem. I don't want one for sleeping and peeing and farting and screwing... I want one that speaks to me uniquely, yet makes me feel part of humanity!
P.S. The rules are in flux! They're constantly changing! Don't be a politician, afraid to admit the game has changed or you're wrong for fear of gotcha ads and rearguard constituents who can't handle the truth. "Harlem Shake" killed the viral video. Because its success was manipulated and people found out about it. You cannot act like the landscape doesn't change. People had to buy CDs of full albums in the nineties, now they can pick and choose the hits they want to hear and even if you create something very good on the other nine or eleven tracks on an album, most people won't check them out. So, you've got to think of a new way of tackling the public.
P.P.S. You've also got to decide if you want to reach everyone or someone. Go for world domination or an audience that will keep you alive. Amanda Palmer has a world-dominating story, but her music is for very few. Furthermore, everything grows out of her music, so she must keep doing that and chances are her further movements in distribution and marketing won't gain as much attention.
P.P.P.S. If Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher started ReCode five years earlier it would have had a much better chance of standalone success. So, an idea might be good for today, but terrible for tomorrow. One characteristic of a winner is someone who is constantly taking the temperature, who realizes we live on shifting stands.
P.P.P.P.S. Establish who your audience is. If you've got an app you want to flip... You need VC money and a corporation to buy it. Sure, you need traffic, but you're really selling to the VC and corporation. Whereas if you're an artist, you're selling to the end consumer. The end consumer must be paramount in your plan.
P.P.P.P.P.S. We don't need you or your plan. Life is an endless river that never stops flowing, the same water never passes by again. Don't overestimate your importance, know that nothing is forever, do great work, but realize you must get in the boat and float, and that going upstream rarely pays dividends, thirteen year olds rarely want the music of septuagenarians, it's the way of the world.
--
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ReCode To Vox
They couldn't make it on their own.
Walt Mossberg, one of America's two most famous tech columnists, shot himself in the foot. He left the "Wall Street Journal." They're finding out in news what we already know in music, you can go it alone, the internet allows you to do this, but in a chaotic world he with the established presence wins, the major record labels figured out the internet and the big news sites still rule.
What about BuzzFeed, and the "Huffington Post"?
The HuffPo is in decline. You can read about it in the "New York Review Of Books," which no one opens except for intellectuals, but at least enough to keep the publication going. If you were gonna try and start a new printed book review today...FUHGETTABOUTIT!
But once upon a time the HuffPo was new and different. It focused on left wing news and link-bait, before link-bait littered every webpage you went to.
And BuzzFeed invented the listicle.
What did ReCode invent?
Absolutely nothing.
We don't need me-too, we need new and different. And unless you're gonna do new and different, stay where you are.
Ezra Klein left the "Washington Post." He said his Vox site was gonna be different, and it is, a bit, but not significantly enough to gain traction.
Nate Silver left the "New York Times" for obscurity. The election prognosticator, our national data interpreter, put a stake in his heart and keeled right over. He started a whole website, 538, for data-driven articles, but the "Times" just doubled down with data and created the Upshot. Even worse, Silver didn't realize if you're starting from scratch you've got to have stars. And he's the only star on his site. He's earned my attention. But the rest of the writers on his site parsing the numbers...WHO ARE THEY?
And then you've got David Pogue, Mossberg's nemesis, who left the "Times" for Yahoo and was promptly buried in the tsunami of bogus information on that site. He went from being one of the two experts to a nobody.
So what have we learned...
Just because you're a star don't think you're bigger than the enterprise.
That's what the film business has learned. They don't pay stars as handsomely as they used to. As for these same stars funding their own movies... They have the twin hurdles of raising capital and distribution. Never mind having no ongoing catalog to keep them flush. That's the movie studios' greatest asset, as it is the record labels', their historical product. It gives them guaranteed cash flow and bargaining power. That's why the labels got favorable deals with Spotify...their copyrighted material!
As for records... George Michael sat on the sidelines and sued Sony and he never had another hit record. Trent Reznor did it his way and he got artistic freedom but fewer people cared, and he had to do so much himself other than create art that he ended up going back into the system.
When the world is wild and woolly, new and exciting, pioneers fight it out for eventual dominance. But once the landscape starts to coalesce...pick another venue! This is Tidal's big mistake, not the press conference, but wading into a pool already filled with sharks.
The major labels control the modern music world. You can get started alone, you can even get some traction, but to break through big you've got to play with the established entities, they own radio and to a great degree publicity. Sure, you can do it your way, it's just gonna be expensive and long. Are you up to that?
And it gets even tougher if you've got investors. They want their money back. They'll pull the carpet out from under you when you least expect it, put heretofore unknown pressure upon you.
Bottom line... ReCode had the best tech news in the business. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher built a team of experts. But nobody cared, nobody went to the site, they thought their minions would follow them but it turned out they were aligned more with the "Wall Street Journal," their former home, than the writers themselves. It's kind of like when the lead singer leaves the band...good luck! Sure, there are exceptions, but... But now you can't even find the new sites, you can't get the word out. Furthermore, the "Journal" hired Joanna Stern, a cheeky tech writer who is not as good as Mossberg but oozes personality, and Christopher Mims, who's technically sound, albeit dry. Turns out we don't need THE expert as much as AN expert. (And the "Times" got Farhad Manjoo, who in his own way is just as good as Pogue.)
So if you're starting something new...by all means go for it, it's the essence of Silicon Valley.
But if you're an individual star, chafing under the reins of your boss, believing you can go it alone...
You probably cannot. Especially if the world you live in is solidified.
"Vox Media Adds ReCode to Its Stable of Websites" (read this for the traffic numbers): http://nyti.ms/1LH1O7y
"Digital Journalism: How Good Is It?" (The HuffPo has traffic, but is in the throes of an identity crisis that presages decline): http://bit.ly/1FaV3Zw
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Walt Mossberg, one of America's two most famous tech columnists, shot himself in the foot. He left the "Wall Street Journal." They're finding out in news what we already know in music, you can go it alone, the internet allows you to do this, but in a chaotic world he with the established presence wins, the major record labels figured out the internet and the big news sites still rule.
What about BuzzFeed, and the "Huffington Post"?
The HuffPo is in decline. You can read about it in the "New York Review Of Books," which no one opens except for intellectuals, but at least enough to keep the publication going. If you were gonna try and start a new printed book review today...FUHGETTABOUTIT!
But once upon a time the HuffPo was new and different. It focused on left wing news and link-bait, before link-bait littered every webpage you went to.
And BuzzFeed invented the listicle.
What did ReCode invent?
Absolutely nothing.
We don't need me-too, we need new and different. And unless you're gonna do new and different, stay where you are.
Ezra Klein left the "Washington Post." He said his Vox site was gonna be different, and it is, a bit, but not significantly enough to gain traction.
Nate Silver left the "New York Times" for obscurity. The election prognosticator, our national data interpreter, put a stake in his heart and keeled right over. He started a whole website, 538, for data-driven articles, but the "Times" just doubled down with data and created the Upshot. Even worse, Silver didn't realize if you're starting from scratch you've got to have stars. And he's the only star on his site. He's earned my attention. But the rest of the writers on his site parsing the numbers...WHO ARE THEY?
And then you've got David Pogue, Mossberg's nemesis, who left the "Times" for Yahoo and was promptly buried in the tsunami of bogus information on that site. He went from being one of the two experts to a nobody.
So what have we learned...
Just because you're a star don't think you're bigger than the enterprise.
That's what the film business has learned. They don't pay stars as handsomely as they used to. As for these same stars funding their own movies... They have the twin hurdles of raising capital and distribution. Never mind having no ongoing catalog to keep them flush. That's the movie studios' greatest asset, as it is the record labels', their historical product. It gives them guaranteed cash flow and bargaining power. That's why the labels got favorable deals with Spotify...their copyrighted material!
As for records... George Michael sat on the sidelines and sued Sony and he never had another hit record. Trent Reznor did it his way and he got artistic freedom but fewer people cared, and he had to do so much himself other than create art that he ended up going back into the system.
When the world is wild and woolly, new and exciting, pioneers fight it out for eventual dominance. But once the landscape starts to coalesce...pick another venue! This is Tidal's big mistake, not the press conference, but wading into a pool already filled with sharks.
The major labels control the modern music world. You can get started alone, you can even get some traction, but to break through big you've got to play with the established entities, they own radio and to a great degree publicity. Sure, you can do it your way, it's just gonna be expensive and long. Are you up to that?
And it gets even tougher if you've got investors. They want their money back. They'll pull the carpet out from under you when you least expect it, put heretofore unknown pressure upon you.
Bottom line... ReCode had the best tech news in the business. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher built a team of experts. But nobody cared, nobody went to the site, they thought their minions would follow them but it turned out they were aligned more with the "Wall Street Journal," their former home, than the writers themselves. It's kind of like when the lead singer leaves the band...good luck! Sure, there are exceptions, but... But now you can't even find the new sites, you can't get the word out. Furthermore, the "Journal" hired Joanna Stern, a cheeky tech writer who is not as good as Mossberg but oozes personality, and Christopher Mims, who's technically sound, albeit dry. Turns out we don't need THE expert as much as AN expert. (And the "Times" got Farhad Manjoo, who in his own way is just as good as Pogue.)
So if you're starting something new...by all means go for it, it's the essence of Silicon Valley.
But if you're an individual star, chafing under the reins of your boss, believing you can go it alone...
You probably cannot. Especially if the world you live in is solidified.
"Vox Media Adds ReCode to Its Stable of Websites" (read this for the traffic numbers): http://nyti.ms/1LH1O7y
"Digital Journalism: How Good Is It?" (The HuffPo has traffic, but is in the throes of an identity crisis that presages decline): http://bit.ly/1FaV3Zw
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Tuesday, 26 May 2015
The Children's Crusade
I could not put this book down, I turned out the lights at 3 AM two nights in a row.
Then again, that's not much later than my usual bedtime.
So the way I discover books is by reading the reviews and then going to Amazon and checking the ratings. I'm only interested in that which gets high ratings. I'm a believer in the wisdom of the crowd. Assuming the book gets the imprimatur of the gatekeepers.
And the "New York Times" said "The Children's Crusade" was lousy.
Hmm...
I downloaded the sample chapter. Which I did not find riveting. So I did more research. And what I was stunned to find out was the author, Ann Packer, was the brother of George Packer! When there are two famous people in a family you wonder what it was like growing up in that house, what motivated the children. And I also learned Ann's rep was built on the book "The Dive From Clausen's Pier," so I decided to check that out.
Do you want to read a book about a fiancee becoming paralyzed by diving into shallow water?
OF COURSE NOT!
But the sample cut like butter, I liked it, I bought "Clausen's Pier."
That's another thing. If I buy it, I finish it.
And I also pay for books. It incentivizes me to read them.
As for the authors making money, ain't that a laugh. Because except for a few superstars, they all have other gigs, or inherited wealth. The reason I'm paying is for me!
So what do you do if you're unsure about getting married and your significant other gets paralyzed. Do you do the right thing or jump ship?
I'm all about doing the right thing, but sometimes do you get an excuse? I've got no idea what goes on behind closed doors. Nor do the people surrounding the protagonist in this story. You're engaged, you're madly in love. But maybe this is not true.
And the descriptions of sex are so right on you're both touched and squirming. For all the online porn, we don't ever really talk about sex. And we're definitely unsure what love is.
So I read "Clausen's" and loved it. Didn't have a big, bang-up finish, but not every book is "Anna Karenina."
So knowing I had a long flight ahead, I bought "Children's Crusade," and I couldn't get into it. Until about 40% through (that's how you judge where you are on the Kindle, by percentage), that's when I got hooked.
"Children's Crusade" is about a family.
The patriarch is a doctor, and he's all about doing the right thing. That's so rare today. He's willing to sacrifice for his children, he just wants them to be happy. Are there such good souls out there?
And the four children...
The second, the girl, Rebecca, is smarter than her older brother Robert, who is plenty smart. How do you handle this? When all the attention goes to your older sibling?
And the third is a boy. Ryan is sensitive, and has a knockout, almost live-in girlfriend who... Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.
And the fourth is the unwanted, unexpected, or maybe not, James. A troublemaker, a thorn in his mother's side. The mother who...
That's the linchpin of the story, the mother. Is she just a bad egg or did the father force her to behave this way? I wonder about this all the time. It takes two to tango. You get mad someone is not behaving in a certain way...to what degree are you responsible? Then again, I'm like that guy in the Paul Simon song, when something goes wrong, I'm the first to admit it...
And there isn't a ton of drama.
Then again, the normal twists of fate are enough in a family.
But I saw myself in the book, and so much of the world I live in.
Which is why I keep reading.
And I'm unsure whether to recommend "The Children's Crusade." Because, like I said above, it doesn't start fast. And when it gets going, it never speeds along. I'd say a third of the book could have been cut, but that's not how the writer wanted to do it. And you should be able to do it your way. Because it's all about total resonance with those who do care.
And I cared.
I'm still thinking about it.
"The Children's Crusade": http://amzn.to/1F9fKlu
"The Dive From Clausen's Pier": http://amzn.to/1chcI7w
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Then again, that's not much later than my usual bedtime.
So the way I discover books is by reading the reviews and then going to Amazon and checking the ratings. I'm only interested in that which gets high ratings. I'm a believer in the wisdom of the crowd. Assuming the book gets the imprimatur of the gatekeepers.
And the "New York Times" said "The Children's Crusade" was lousy.
Hmm...
I downloaded the sample chapter. Which I did not find riveting. So I did more research. And what I was stunned to find out was the author, Ann Packer, was the brother of George Packer! When there are two famous people in a family you wonder what it was like growing up in that house, what motivated the children. And I also learned Ann's rep was built on the book "The Dive From Clausen's Pier," so I decided to check that out.
Do you want to read a book about a fiancee becoming paralyzed by diving into shallow water?
OF COURSE NOT!
But the sample cut like butter, I liked it, I bought "Clausen's Pier."
That's another thing. If I buy it, I finish it.
And I also pay for books. It incentivizes me to read them.
As for the authors making money, ain't that a laugh. Because except for a few superstars, they all have other gigs, or inherited wealth. The reason I'm paying is for me!
So what do you do if you're unsure about getting married and your significant other gets paralyzed. Do you do the right thing or jump ship?
I'm all about doing the right thing, but sometimes do you get an excuse? I've got no idea what goes on behind closed doors. Nor do the people surrounding the protagonist in this story. You're engaged, you're madly in love. But maybe this is not true.
And the descriptions of sex are so right on you're both touched and squirming. For all the online porn, we don't ever really talk about sex. And we're definitely unsure what love is.
So I read "Clausen's" and loved it. Didn't have a big, bang-up finish, but not every book is "Anna Karenina."
So knowing I had a long flight ahead, I bought "Children's Crusade," and I couldn't get into it. Until about 40% through (that's how you judge where you are on the Kindle, by percentage), that's when I got hooked.
"Children's Crusade" is about a family.
The patriarch is a doctor, and he's all about doing the right thing. That's so rare today. He's willing to sacrifice for his children, he just wants them to be happy. Are there such good souls out there?
And the four children...
The second, the girl, Rebecca, is smarter than her older brother Robert, who is plenty smart. How do you handle this? When all the attention goes to your older sibling?
And the third is a boy. Ryan is sensitive, and has a knockout, almost live-in girlfriend who... Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.
And the fourth is the unwanted, unexpected, or maybe not, James. A troublemaker, a thorn in his mother's side. The mother who...
That's the linchpin of the story, the mother. Is she just a bad egg or did the father force her to behave this way? I wonder about this all the time. It takes two to tango. You get mad someone is not behaving in a certain way...to what degree are you responsible? Then again, I'm like that guy in the Paul Simon song, when something goes wrong, I'm the first to admit it...
And there isn't a ton of drama.
Then again, the normal twists of fate are enough in a family.
But I saw myself in the book, and so much of the world I live in.
Which is why I keep reading.
And I'm unsure whether to recommend "The Children's Crusade." Because, like I said above, it doesn't start fast. And when it gets going, it never speeds along. I'd say a third of the book could have been cut, but that's not how the writer wanted to do it. And you should be able to do it your way. Because it's all about total resonance with those who do care.
And I cared.
I'm still thinking about it.
"The Children's Crusade": http://amzn.to/1F9fKlu
"The Dive From Clausen's Pier": http://amzn.to/1chcI7w
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Robert Kyncl
He thinks curation is bullshit.
That's right, we've been hearing for years that the solution to the industry's problem, what's going to save streaming, is curation. But Kyncl believes it's all about fragmentation, not curation.
Let's start at the beginning. Kyncl is a bigwig at YouTube. Google him.
And like the musicians bitching about not getting paid, he started at the bottom, and worked his way up. From the mailroom to assistant at a second-rate talent agency to film production to Netflix to YouTube. And he didn't go to an Ivy league school but he did get an MBA.
Sitting with Kyncl is like getting your balloon deflated. People in the music business always go by feel. They feel they should be making more money. But they know nothing about business. What are the margins? Is the business sustainable?
So Kyncl says entertainment used to be a B2B business. He analogizes it to Switzerland. It's clean and organized. Everybody wears a jacket and tie, you go out for an expensive lunch, because your customer is another businessman who needs to be treated right.
But now it's direct to consumer. You can wear your t-shirt and flip-flops. Because your ultimate consumer does, if you connect fact to face at all. Kyncl analogizes this modern world to India.
Ever been to India?
In fact, I have not. Was scheduled to go, but the visa didn't come through in time. And we kept delaying our departure but then we missed the window and the point of my story is the people who are running the world have been places, and if you haven't, you won't get the jokes, you won't understand.
But I know enough about the country to get Kyncl's point. That India's a land of endless roadside stands, utter chaos, except for a few brands.
That's what rules the future, brands. I.e. stars. And if you're not one, you're part of the chaos, and no amount of curation will solve your problem, because people don't have enough time, they gravitate to the brands.
Whew!
Do you have enough time to listen to every song in the playlist?
Of course not!
So YouTube believes in the smorgasbord, the endless sea of product, and from that emerges the phoenixes. Anyone who is trying to control what is happening is going back to Switzerland, when we all live in India.
P.S. We live in a YouTube world. You can argue all you want about Spotify, but the enemy is YouTube. Or your savior. Because that's where your content can live for free, where others can find it and spread the word. So, what world do you want to live in? One where you have to have a major deal to record music, in $2000 a day studios, and if it's not on the radio you're dead in the water or one where the means of production are cheap, you can make a track on your laptop, and you can distribute it for free and let the public decide. Of course in the old world if you could jump the hurdle your odds were increased, but very few could get over this barrier. But we live in a modern world where radio is strictly formatted, even rock can't break through, yet you're bitching that the problem is Spotify? The problem is YOU!
P.P.S. Smart is sexy, it trumps money every day of the week. But you rarely see money without smart. The problem Jay Z has with Tidal is it's only about money, and that's not appealing to the public. Furthermore, the public has no problem with the amount of money musicians are making. And why should they, in a world where the price of concert tickets has far outpaced inflation and you can't get a good one even if you want to?
P.P.P.S. You can't expect the old paradigm to work indefinitely. In a world where we can see every star online, for free, why should we pay to see these same people lip-sync their songs in an arena? Want to move the ball in music, reinvent it! There hasn't been a new sound, never mind a new show, in eons. Facebook invests in virtual reality and musicians add lasers, which first broke through decades ago, or hi-def screens. And all of this is fine, but if you want to break big and make as much as the techies, you've got to INNOVATE!
P.P.P.P.S. "'We're going to fuckin' save the music business.' And I'm just sitting there thinking, 'You might want to write a decent chorus for a fuckin' start.'" Noel Gallagher said that, his comments bounced all over the internet. Because truth sells, more than anything. And irreverence adds spice to truth. And in this sell-out nation of ours, people are all about lying to get ahead. But art is all about truth. If only Noel could get back together with his brother, if he could get a decent singer, we might care about his music. Noel's got the attitude and publicity right, he's even writing memorable songs, but singing them himself is like Robbie Robertson being the lead singer of the Band.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Splits aren't going to get better, if anything they're going to get worse! Because it's hard to build a business on 30%. Apple can afford the loss, Google too. Jay Z and Spotify are just hoping to sell to someone else. And that's fine, but should we care?
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. The biggest story in business is the tech bubble. I ask you, Universal, WME, all of you companies with tech investments and incubators, what are you gonna do when the crash comes? Why don't you inhabit your area of expertise and focus on the art? Everybody's envious of Silicon Valley's cash. But the way you compete is not by doing what they do, badly.
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That's right, we've been hearing for years that the solution to the industry's problem, what's going to save streaming, is curation. But Kyncl believes it's all about fragmentation, not curation.
Let's start at the beginning. Kyncl is a bigwig at YouTube. Google him.
And like the musicians bitching about not getting paid, he started at the bottom, and worked his way up. From the mailroom to assistant at a second-rate talent agency to film production to Netflix to YouTube. And he didn't go to an Ivy league school but he did get an MBA.
Sitting with Kyncl is like getting your balloon deflated. People in the music business always go by feel. They feel they should be making more money. But they know nothing about business. What are the margins? Is the business sustainable?
So Kyncl says entertainment used to be a B2B business. He analogizes it to Switzerland. It's clean and organized. Everybody wears a jacket and tie, you go out for an expensive lunch, because your customer is another businessman who needs to be treated right.
But now it's direct to consumer. You can wear your t-shirt and flip-flops. Because your ultimate consumer does, if you connect fact to face at all. Kyncl analogizes this modern world to India.
Ever been to India?
In fact, I have not. Was scheduled to go, but the visa didn't come through in time. And we kept delaying our departure but then we missed the window and the point of my story is the people who are running the world have been places, and if you haven't, you won't get the jokes, you won't understand.
But I know enough about the country to get Kyncl's point. That India's a land of endless roadside stands, utter chaos, except for a few brands.
That's what rules the future, brands. I.e. stars. And if you're not one, you're part of the chaos, and no amount of curation will solve your problem, because people don't have enough time, they gravitate to the brands.
Whew!
Do you have enough time to listen to every song in the playlist?
Of course not!
So YouTube believes in the smorgasbord, the endless sea of product, and from that emerges the phoenixes. Anyone who is trying to control what is happening is going back to Switzerland, when we all live in India.
P.S. We live in a YouTube world. You can argue all you want about Spotify, but the enemy is YouTube. Or your savior. Because that's where your content can live for free, where others can find it and spread the word. So, what world do you want to live in? One where you have to have a major deal to record music, in $2000 a day studios, and if it's not on the radio you're dead in the water or one where the means of production are cheap, you can make a track on your laptop, and you can distribute it for free and let the public decide. Of course in the old world if you could jump the hurdle your odds were increased, but very few could get over this barrier. But we live in a modern world where radio is strictly formatted, even rock can't break through, yet you're bitching that the problem is Spotify? The problem is YOU!
P.P.S. Smart is sexy, it trumps money every day of the week. But you rarely see money without smart. The problem Jay Z has with Tidal is it's only about money, and that's not appealing to the public. Furthermore, the public has no problem with the amount of money musicians are making. And why should they, in a world where the price of concert tickets has far outpaced inflation and you can't get a good one even if you want to?
P.P.P.S. You can't expect the old paradigm to work indefinitely. In a world where we can see every star online, for free, why should we pay to see these same people lip-sync their songs in an arena? Want to move the ball in music, reinvent it! There hasn't been a new sound, never mind a new show, in eons. Facebook invests in virtual reality and musicians add lasers, which first broke through decades ago, or hi-def screens. And all of this is fine, but if you want to break big and make as much as the techies, you've got to INNOVATE!
P.P.P.P.S. "'We're going to fuckin' save the music business.' And I'm just sitting there thinking, 'You might want to write a decent chorus for a fuckin' start.'" Noel Gallagher said that, his comments bounced all over the internet. Because truth sells, more than anything. And irreverence adds spice to truth. And in this sell-out nation of ours, people are all about lying to get ahead. But art is all about truth. If only Noel could get back together with his brother, if he could get a decent singer, we might care about his music. Noel's got the attitude and publicity right, he's even writing memorable songs, but singing them himself is like Robbie Robertson being the lead singer of the Band.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Splits aren't going to get better, if anything they're going to get worse! Because it's hard to build a business on 30%. Apple can afford the loss, Google too. Jay Z and Spotify are just hoping to sell to someone else. And that's fine, but should we care?
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. The biggest story in business is the tech bubble. I ask you, Universal, WME, all of you companies with tech investments and incubators, what are you gonna do when the crash comes? Why don't you inhabit your area of expertise and focus on the art? Everybody's envious of Silicon Valley's cash. But the way you compete is not by doing what they do, badly.
--
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