Friday, October 30, 2009

Flash Sales

Alan Parsons 2006Image via Wikipedia

Felice is hooked on RueLaLa.com.

In today's "Wall Street Journal" it is revealed that Saks Fifth Avenue, arbiter and seller of first line, high-priced wares, is going into competition with RueLala, and Gilt.com and HauteLook.com. In other words, Saks is going to sell out of season, oftentimes one year old, yet fully desirable merchandise, at a deep discount one item at a time with a countdown clock. Buy now, on impulse, or experience the agony of losing a bargain.

I too am a flash site devotee. I go to Tramdock.com. Where they purvey skiing equipment, one item at a time, at a deep discount. Right this very second, they're selling Scott skis at 55% off. One color, two sizes. Buy 'em now or...

Usually, flash sites will send you a daily e-mail (opt-in, you can always check the site yourself). Telling you about the deals that will unfold in the next twenty four hours. On hot items, shoppers keep refreshing their browser, divining when that one desirable item in the size and color they want will be revealed.

Everybody loves a bargain. Everybody loves a deal on something worthwhile.

And the stuff is always good on these sites. It's not bargain basement crap. Sometimes it's overstock of a special model that turned out to have less desirability than retailers thought. Sometimes, the new model has changes and the old one has to be blown out. And if you receive your item and don't like it, you can return it for free.

In other words, shopping is fun. Addictive. You end up buying stuff you didn't even know about, never mind had a desire to acquire.

Like concert tickets.

How low does the price have to go before you take a flier?

You've heard of this band, would you check them out for ten bucks instead of the seventy five it takes a true-blue fan to sit down front?

If most of the concert tickets go unsold, why not find innovative ways to move them?

The artists and agents are standing in the way. Contracts usually forbid these momentary deep discounts. But why? Do acts really not want people to see them? And, if a casual fan comes to see them is the act so bad the newbie will laugh, or be converted on the spot?

Instead of using Goldstar, instead of papering, sell the unsold inventory at a deep discount, via a flash site.

Can you imagine concertgoers all over America checking multiple times a day for deals? Signing up for e-mail to be told what will go on sale that day? Imagine what else you can sell/inform them of in said e-mail!

And we all know, the quicker you click, the better your seat.

Felice found out about RueLaLa from her sister. I found out about Tramdock from EpicSki.com, a forum for skiers. I kept hearing retailers bitch and consumers be thrilled. I finally had to check it out for myself. I bought a waxing iron at deep discount. When I saw I pair of Smith ski goggles, the exact ones I use, at almost 70% off, I immediately contacted Felice, to tell her to log on and buy them right now!

Furthermore, the customer service is great. It was unclear which goggle lens to purchase, but the Tramdock person who e-mailed advice had used them all! These flash sites are not adversarial, they're like a giant club, everybody in it together to get a deal.

Flash sites are coming to concert ticketing.

It's just a matter of when.

Is the touring industry gonna be like the record industry, afraid of change, afraid of new technology, afraid of taking a risk? Or is it going to experiment with the hottest sales technique for unsold inventory today?

You launch it, the public will spread the word. It's not about advertising, costs are especially low, and in the concert sphere there's no issue of returns.

If you want a guaranteed good seat, log on to Ticketmaster at 10 A.M. on Saturday morning. Better yet, get an American Express card and join the fan club. But if you don't need to go to the concert, but if the deal gets attractive enough you will, shouldn't the industry cater to you too? You know you're not getting the best tickets, but you're getting a deal. And if you don't think people are into deals, you never talk to anybody. And I can't tell you how many acts I ended up loving after taking a flier on promos in the record store bin in the seventies. Shall we start with Karla Bonoff, Be Bop Deluxe, Alan Parsons...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703574604574501741691272378.html


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Felice Is Hooked on RueLaLa.com

US music market shares, according to Nielsen S...Image via Wikipedia

Felice is hooked on RueLaLa.com.

In today's "Wall Street Journal" it is revealed that Saks Fifth Avenue, arbiter and seller of first line, high-priced wares, is going into competition with RueLala, and Gilt.com and HauteLook.com. In other words, Saks is going to sell out of season, oftentimes one year old, yet fully desirable merchandise, at a deep discount one item at a time with a countdown clock. Buy now, on impulse, or experience the agony of losing a bargain.

I too am a flash site devotee. I go to Tramdock.com. Where they purvey skiing equipment, one item at a time, at a deep discount. Right this very second, they're selling Scott skis at 55% off. One color, two sizes. Buy 'em now or...

Usually, flash sites will send you a daily e-mail (opt-in, you can always check the site yourself). Telling you about the deals that will unfold in the next twenty four hours. On hot items, shoppers keep refreshing their browser, divining when that one desirable item in the size and color they want will be revealed.

Everybody loves a bargain. Everybody loves a deal on something worthwhile.

And the stuff is always good on these sites. It's not bargain basement crap. Sometimes it's overstock of a special model that turned out to have less desirability than retailers thought. Sometimes, the new model has changes and the old one has to be blown out. And if you receive your item and don't like it, you can return it for free.

In other words, shopping is fun. Addictive. You end up buying stuff you didn't even know about, never mind had a desire to acquire.

Like concert tickets.

How low does the price have to go before you take a flier?

You've heard of this band, would you check them out for ten bucks instead of the seventy five it takes a true-blue fan to sit down front?

If most of the concert tickets go unsold, why not find innovative ways to move them?

The artists and agents are standing in the way. Contracts usually forbid these momentary deep discounts. But why? Do acts really not want people to see them? And, if a casual fan comes to see them is the act so bad the newbie will laugh, or be converted on the spot?

Instead of using Goldstar, instead of papering, sell the unsold inventory at a deep discount, via a flash site.

Can you imagine concertgoers all over America checking multiple times a day for deals? Signing up for e-mail to be told what will go on sale that day? Imagine what else you can sell/inform them of in said e-mail!

And we all know, the quicker you click, the better your seat.

Felice found out about RueLaLa from her sister. I found out about Tramdock from EpicSki.com, a forum for skiers. I kept hearing retailers bitch and consumers be thrilled. I finally had to check it out for myself. I bought a waxing iron at deep discount. When I saw I pair of Smith ski goggles, the exact ones I use, at almost 70% off, I immediately contacted Felice, to tell her to log on and buy them right now!

Furthermore, the customer service is great. It was unclear which goggle lens to purchase, but the Tramdock person who e-mailed advice had used them all! These flash sites are not adversarial, they're like a giant club, everybody in it together to get a deal.

Flash sites are coming to concert ticketing.

It's just a matter of when.

Is the touring industry gonna be like the record industry, afraid of change, afraid of new technology, afraid of taking a risk? Or is it going to experiment with the hottest sales technique for unsold inventory today?

You launch it, the public will spread the word. It's not about advertising, costs are especially low, and in the concert sphere there's no issue of returns.

If you want a guaranteed good seat, log on to Ticketmaster at 10 A.M. on Saturday morning. Better yet, get an American Express card and join the fan club. But if you don't need to go to the concert, but if the deal gets attractive enough you will, shouldn't the industry cater to you too? You know you're not getting the best tickets, but you're getting a deal. And if you don't think people are into deals, you never talk to anybody. And I can't tell you how many acts I ended up loving after taking a flier on promos in the record store bin in the seventies. Shall we start with Karla Bonoff, Be Bop Deluxe, Alan Parsons...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703574604574501741691272378.html


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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Nickel & Dimin'

Mac OS X icon for a restricted AAC file from t...Image via Wikipedia

Ten cents to own the right to a permanent stream at 32kbps within cell range on your iPhone?

Why don't you charge me a nickel to see one hazy picture of a porn star clothed?

You've got to get over this per track nonsense. The money is in the bundle. Otherwise, HBO would let you buy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" by the episode instead of forcing you to subscribe to 24/7 service.

Just because in past history people bought by the track, do we have to use this paradigm in the future? Shit, ask a kid about long distance telephone charges. My dad would freak, DON'T CALL LONG DISTANCE! But on today's cell phones, long distance is FREE! And speaking of cell phones, they don't charge you by the call, they sell you buckets of minutes. And for the heavy consumer, there are all you can eat plans. But in the music business, we're doing backflips about the ability to rent one shitty track at a time?

You want people to make one big decision. To subscribe to music! To get everything!

That's the Spotify plan, the MOG plan, the Rhapsody and Napster plan.

And credit Spotify and Rhapsody for knowing it's about portability. Check landline profitability recently? People are disconnecting, you don't need a wired phone. You want to be free and easy on the cell. Just like you want your music everywhere. That's now the challenge.

And no hard drive yet available can hold the history of recorded music. Ditto on flash memory. So, it's about being able to hear what you want when you want.

The iTunes Store is a stopgap measure, a bridge between old and new, a way to legitimize the chaos. But if you think people are going to be buying by track in the future, you purchase one egg at a time, you record every TV show to VHS tape, hoarding episodes clueless that there's something called Hulu.

Music should be like water. You turn it on, you expect it to be there. Everybody has access, you don't hoard it, and you pay very little for it. Sure, you can buy bottled water, but that's like going to the concert. You can't go to see everybody you listen to, not if you're an avid music fan, but you still want to check things out, listen to new favorites.

We've got a switch to an attention economy.

Sure, rights holders should be paid.

But individual acts should be worried less about being paid than whether they're being listened to!

Spotify Premium allows you to permanently store in excess of 3,000 tracks on your iPhone. So if you're out of range, or you're bounced by AT&T's shitty service, you can still listen.

Haven't we come up with enough concepts that please rights holders that the public doesn't find interesting? Look to Sony, they SPECIALIZE IN THIS!




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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Detroit Breakdown

Photo of Dave MatthewsImage via Wikipedia

If you know where to surf on the Web, you can find downloadable concerts.

Conventional wisdom is young people don't care. Maybe that's only because they've never seen an act as vibrant as the J. Geils Band live.

Before they shortened their name to "Geils". Before they switched labels and started making MTV fodder. Before they sold their souls and went extinct.

It was a local thing. Nothin' but a party. Nothin' but a house party.

But back in the early seventies, a party wasn't enough. You needed a record. On wax, the J. Geils Band rarely triumphed. But live, they kicked ass. Would the J. Geils Band be gigantic today?

I was surfing my usual sites and I found a live recording of the J. Geils Band from April 25th in Detroit this year. This I had to check out.

I downloaded the cuts from the Who's 1969 fall tour first. Then I took all twenty four live cuts here. From the second show that evening. Which, according to the blurb, sold out in fifteen minutes.

Is this true? Who knows, Detroit was always a rockin' town, a big J. Geils market, and there's no label hype. Meanwhile, who even knew that J. Geils was on tour?

If you Google, you find a band site that hasn't been updated in a decade. Literally.

Search a bit farther, and you can see they're playing a casino on New Year's Eve. They opened a new House of Blues in Boston earlier in the year. Funny how time makes those memories fade away. Of how you hated each other, of how you disagreed. But the good memories, the good times, they remain. When it was all about the music. Before money fucked the whole thing up.

Now I know the big thing on Hollywood Boulevard these days is clubs. You overpay for drinks to bump asses to records. Huh? What would happen if the assembled multitude saw a great live band?

I'm not talking about Phish. I'm not talking about the Dave Matthews Band. I'm not talking jam. I'm talking sharkskin suits, I'm talking sunglasses, I'm talking R&B. If you were a great R&B band today, could you make it?

Used to be about the records. You needed an album and hopefully a hit single in order to make it. But if you've got a killer live show today, would that be enough?

I think so!

The energy is enough.

This is the opposite of canned music. This is pure power, pure sweat. This is the kind of event you drag your friends to. It's just that prior to the Internet, it was hard to spread the word. You had to rely on in-person conversation, the telephone, but today you can testify online and ZILLIONS can hear you. And we're all looking for something great. And when we find it, we tell everyone we know.

In other words, does the hit single NO LONGER MATTER?

Let's be clear. A hit pays dividends. But it won't get hardly anybody to come see you live. Even if you've got a string of them, people don't consider Top Forty artists to be credible. Which is why you're better off with one Michael Buble than anybody in the Top Ten. People go to see Buble to hear a crooner. He's nailed this market. How about R&B? Do you think it can't be replicated?

You can't get players who know more about technology than music. You've got to find people who live to listen, who don't know html, but can transpose keys on their instruments on the fly. People who know the history of music, not the history of Apple products. Oh, there's nothing wrong with bleeding in a bit of technological know-how, it's just that if this is done right, IT SELLS ITSELF, THE MUSIC COMES FIRST!

People want to get closer. A beautiful girl doesn't have to advertise. Boys flock around her. She may be an airhead, there may be little substance, but true greatness draws people in. And R&B is a proven genre. Mix it in with a bit of rock and roll, and you've got the J. Geils Band.

If J. Geils were starting today, they'd be monstrous. Word would spread from campus to campus. Their live business would be amazing. And who'd care about the record business...you can't make any real money selling records anymore anyway! And, this type of music doesn't get any radio play. And it's only idiots and casual music fans who listen to the radio. The hard core is on a personal adventure, a quest to find something great.

I'd love to tell you this show kills. But it's just a bit off. Could be the recording. Maybe I can't hear the organ enough, maybe J. Geils' fills aren't mixed up front. But OH THE ENERGY! You wouldn't walk out, you'd move and groove.

"They're dancing on the ceiling
They're dancing on the floor
People everywhere comin' through the door They know there's a party goin' on Do the dancin' romance all night long I know it's cold outside C'mon baby, I'll keep you satisfied All you gotta do is move Every time you feel that groove

It ain't nothing but a party
It ain't nothing but a party
It ain't nothing but a party
It ain't nothing but a house party"



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Eric Garland On The Movie (Music) Business

WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 25:  (L-R) Viacom Inter...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This is so right on, so exhaustive and prescient, that I must send it to you and you must read it.

Ostensibly about the movie business, i.e. its challenging future, Garland states that past is prologue and we look to what happened in the music business to know how things play out in the film business.

The key passage is this:

"They will have to chase legal remedies, legislative agendas, all the way to what they view as being the end of the line before they say 'OK, so this really is the landscape we're stuck with. As much as we didn't want it, this appears to be it. Now we have to just dive in and make businesses that work here.'

And that's where music has only just arrived in this country and note it hasn't even come close to arriving in a lot of European countries. If you ask Universal Music Group in the U.K. 'Are you going to win this war on piracy?' They will say 'Oh yes, swiftly and decisively and soon. The rate of peer-to-peer infringement will be down 70 percent in the U.K. in the next few months. They have specific targets. Not here. We've exhausted all of those paths. There's a big gap. If the music industry in this country just now sort of arrived at the conclusion where they say 'We just have to play on this field even through it ain't home court and there isn't a lot of advantage.' And in some territories, music hasn't even gotten there yet, then how can Hollywood be there?"

The above comes from the answer to the final question of the interview, you can scroll down to there for full context, but you should really take the time to read from beginning to end.

In other words, who you gonna trust, the media titans or a guy who makes his living on the computer, detailing how people actually use the Internet?

Mr. Garland is not histrionic. He has no agenda, other than making BigChampagne profitable, selling data. Please don't shoot the messenger, pay attention to him!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10383572-261.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0



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Empowerring Your Audience

What Google thinks of Twitter and GoogleImage by aulia.m via Flickr

Go to a gig and you'll see a plethora of attendees filming the event. Not only taking photos, but literally recording the gig.

Old acts want to employ a no-camera policy. They want to ban the users. Newbies tolerate it. Why not EMBRACE the audience's activity?

Why doesn't every band have a page for audience uploads? Pics AND clips? Allowing the fans themselves to vote on which ones are the best, which ones are worth viewing?

Of course, you host on YouTube and you embed on the artist's page. If Google can sway L.A. to host its e-mail in the cloud, why can't bands utilize the company's free services to their advantage? Flickr is a great resource too!

The point is we've got it all wrong. We're trying to tell the fans what to do, when they should be telling US what to do!

Did you read the story on Twitter in yesterday's "New York Times"? All its good ideas come from outside. Like search, hash tags and referencing people by using the @ symbol. The company decried some of these innovations, they didn't even want messages to be called "tweets". Then they realized they had it wrong, that they should be embracing third party innovation, not stifling it!

People want to share music. Rather than trying to stop this, copyright owners should make it easier. You want to e-mail someone the track? Let the band's site do it for you! And if the person you send the music to clicks a button on the e-mail, saying he actually likes the new cut, you get points, allowing you better seats at the gig or some other swag.

What, do we think we're going to prevent people from swapping music? If you believe this, you must not have any USB keys, which even come in credit card-sized promotional form these days. It's not about stopping trading, but INCREASING trading!

Eventful has got it right. An act should go where its fans want them to.

Fans want more access, not less. Where is fan access to music business executives? Ashton Kutcher and every musician known to man can tweet, but Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine can't? No wonder the business gets such a bad rap. If it's all about relationships, how about doing a spot of work, helping the cause? Believe me, hiding behind Mitch Bainwol will pay no dividends.

Speaking of Twitter, people like to tweet about tracks. Why not create a service easier than Blip, that allows people to hear what others tweet about? I should be able to tweet about a track, and if you want to check it out, all you've got to do is click the link. And I get the URL for the track from one central, easy to use database. Plug the name into a Google-type search engine and you IMMEDIATELY get a bit.ly shortened url for someone to hear the entire thing. This is better than radio promotion. You're getting people truly interested in the music checking it out right away. They're pulling it, you're not pushing it. And pull is where all the money is. It's just like Google AdWords. The people who click WANT TO BUY!

The fans want to hook up at the gig. Can't you make this easier? A special meeting station, with free wi-fi for iPhones. Believe me, you can get a sponsor to cough up the free wi-fi.

We've got it all wrong. We've been FIGHTING the customer instead of EMBRACING HIM! So worried about losing money, being unable to sustain the nineties model, we're closing the door to the future. The more you can get people excited about music, the more you can increase their access, the more money you ultimately make.

Sure, Twitter itself may not yet be profitable, but the tweets are evanescent. Music is not. Get someone hooked on an act, and they'll go see them live, buy merch, buy the music, whether it be the track outright or listening on a paid streaming service.

For over a decade, the technology's been more interesting than the music. Because music has been putting up barriers, refusing to play in the new world. This makes no sense. Instead of telling people how to use the music, let them tell US!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html




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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

U2 At The Rose Bowl

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 27:  Rock band U2 p...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Have you seen "U23D"? You should! Can't think of a better concert film. But the vibe is even better. Shot in South America, in soccer stadiums, you get the feeling of danger, of being outside the law, of being in a nation built by rock and roll.

That's how it felt last night.

If one person had yelled FIRE, many would have been trampled. You not only had to wait in line to get into the gate, you had to wait in line to enter the tunnel to your seat. And when you got there, the sea of humanity was both inspiring and frightening. All colors, not every age. Even though the Black Eyed Peas opened, the younger, bump your hips in the club to get laid and the barely pubescent I want to be like Fergie crowd was not in attendance. This was the last bastion of the population that believed rock and roll could truly save your life. A bunch of baby boomers, but really fortysomethings. They caught on with "Boy", and "Joshua Tree" was the soundtrack to their college years.

So why did U2 begin with the new album?

The Claw is far from impressive in real life. After all the hype, it seemed like something created on a whim as opposed to a military operation conceived and erected by the greatest minds in the business.

Let me be clear. It was the Claw itself that was the problem. What was beneath it, the stage, the ring, the video screen, the rotating ramps, they were MESMERIZING!

But the music was not.

Until "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".

"I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you"

Tell someone under twenty one that you sat at home with the TV on all day, waiting to see your favorite video, and they'll look at you dumbfounded. We live in an on demand world. There may be community online, but it's inherently niche. Whereas everyone with ears, everyone who grew up with the Beatles and younger was addicted to MTV.

And sure, there were notable transcendent moments, breakthroughs that changed the business forever.

First came the Duran Duran videos. A fortune spent on them, the band became a household world.

U2 came next. With "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from Red Rocks. If the air had been clear, would the video have been as classic? To see Bono run around with that flag, in the mist, was to believe that rock and roll could triumph.

Michael Jackson danced his way into America's heart.

But there was a parallel story. It was great that MTV became a big tent, but rock and roll did not die. We had U2 marching the streets of Las Vegas, singing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". An exquisite concoction of electric and acoustic elements, who can forget Edge walking amongst the neon lights strumming his guitar? This was the joy, the triumph, the power that allows Bono to talk to heads of state. U2 led an army of listeners, all based upon these records, these tracks. They believed that via music we could have a better life, a better world.

Is this still possible?

Music is not leading the way. Steve Jobs and Sergey Brin are bigger rock stars than anybody on the hit parade. Still, U2 soldiers on. And we follow, because we want to believe.

That's what last night was. A celebration of who we used to be. With the hope that we could still be something more.

But the new album has not connected with fans. Most people in attendance seemed to be clueless. Instead of physical writhing, when U2 hit the stage to a slew of new tunes, the audience stood stock still. I was grooving during "Magnificent", I love that track, but with a million copies of "No Line On The Horizon" sold in the U.S., how many of this 100,000 in attendance had bought it?

We live in an attention economy. And U2 screwed up. They didn't get their audience's attention. The album should have come free with the ticket. Doesn't matter if you make new music, you're a has-been in the eye of the public if your new tracks don't catch on.

So, last night the set progressed in fits and starts.

And, picking and choosing from almost every era of the band as opposed to just playing greatest hits, the audience never completely caught fire.

Let's be clear. They were playing to 100,000. Manipulating that many is difficult. Is Bono up to the task? Absolutely! But when Paul McCartney wants to work in new material, he starts off with "Drive My Car", he gets heads exploding first.

Don't get the wrong idea. There were peaks. "Mysterious Ways". And the ultimate crowd triumph was "Where The Streets Have No Name". But the rising hands, the unity of the audience during that number, the feeling that you were part of one large, writhing ocean, was absent for most of the rest of the show.

But you could see just fine. Bono was in fine voice. And when the ramps swung around seemingly with a mind of their own, your jaw dropped. And when the video screen expanded, dropped, you said to yourself I'VE SEEN NOTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE!

But it still comes down to the music.

I LOVED hearing "Until The End Of The World". "Achtung Baby" is my favorite U2 album.

"Get On Your Boots" had a different feel live. Less experimental, more straight ahead rock. But if you didn't love it already, you wouldn't be closed.

And we had the recent hit "Vertigo", but we wanted to hear "Pride (In The Name Of Love)". "New Year's Day". Maybe even "I Will Follow". Last night should not have been an exhibition demonstrating that U2 is still relevant, it should have been a celebration of their career, a restatement of the bond between band and audience, a few more classics and no one would have gone out for a beer, everybody would have sung along, there would have been momentum, the whole Rose Bowl would have levitated.

They've got a chance. They can use innovative new ways to get the new music to the live audience. They can restructure the set so there are fewer dead spots, so the audience is riveted, along for the ride the whole time. Playing a stadium is different from doing your act in an arena. Even with 20,000, you can have everybody in the palm of your hand. But once you start singing to forty or fifty thousand plus, you've got to throw out the old rules, you're working with a different paradigm. In other words, the stage was not enough. It all depended upon the music.

But when the music was right...

"I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone"

Live rock and roll, when done right, strips away your regular life, school, work, even relationships. The band is on stage, you're in the audience, and the music hovers between you, an oil, a lubricant, that allows a certain freedom, a movement that you heretofore did not know you possessed. You're standing, moving like Gumby, not caring what others think of your moves, even if you're as bad a dancer as Elaine on "Seinfeld".

"But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for But I still haven't found what I'm looking for"

I was looking for transcendence.

We can't get it from sold out politicians.

We can't get it from tools of the corporate music trade like the Black Eyed Peas.

We depend on a certain breed of artist, not beholden to anyone but themselves. Either so poor or so rich that they just don't care.

I want Bono to lead us out of the wilderness. I want to tell you that I saw God last night.

I saw God at the Fillmore East, when the Who performed "Tommy" from start to finish.

I saw God at Flipper's roller disco, when Prince performed "Dirty Mind".

I saw God at the Sports Arena in 1992, when U2 toured "Achtung Baby" indoors. The visual assault, with lights in Trabants, with TV screens blasting more information than our brains could process, set the stage for the music. It was a band on stage. They were a cohesive unit. Too many times last night, band members were almost furlongs away from each other. Playing to a last row that they just couldn't seem to reach emotionally.

Good attempt.

Imperfect execution.

I want to believe.

Make me a believer.


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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Garth BrooksGarth Brooks via last.fm


I guess they don't have Internet down in Oklahoma.

Or maybe Garth Brooks is still on dialup, or is too busy taking his kids to school to know what's really going on.

Apple destroyed the music business. Apple must be stopped.

Isn't that like fighting in Afghanistan when Al-Qaeda is in Pakistan?

Oops!

But this is the same government Mr. Brooks wants to protect and save the music business.

That damn Apple, allowing people to BUY single tracks! Things were much better prior to the iTunes Store, when listeners just STOLE THEM! Hell, why don't we wipe out not only iTunes, but Amazon, let's forgo licensing any Internet distribution, that'll solve the problem! I hate this crap. I write for a living and I think I am entitled to be paid for that.

As for half a day of silence... Only an old fart residing in the nineties would believe that radio still has that kind of power, that everybody's still listening. Under the first sale doctrine, we own our music, and we're listening on our iPods without worrying about what the broadcasters are purveying in between the twenty two minutes of commercials per hour.

Well, we've got to ban the iPod too!

But didn't the RIAA already try that? Suing to stop its predecessor, the Diamond Rio? They didn't win that one...

I sympathize with where Mr. Brooks is coming from. Creators should be compensated. Then again, how much? Just because you're a musician, are you entitled to be rich, to fly on a private jet?

Tell that to every other industry that's been mauled by the Internet...

No more online travel booking! You can't use Orbitz, you must go to a travel agent!

And while you're at it, no more Internet news. You've got to buy the aged news in the newspaper every morning. Or worse, listen to the inane talking heads on TV. Less information is better!

Funny how those who used to have power don't like the Internet flashlight, that sends a beam into the nooks and crannies of the power elite's business.

While we're at it, why don't we bring back Tommy Mottola! And J. Lo! You can't watch videos online, you've got to sit endlessly in front of the television, waiting for them to come up on MTV! And if you like a niche act, not a superstar like Mr. Brooks, if you like Steve Earle more than Brad Paisley, you never get to see him at all! Tough noogies!

Vegas is the right place for you Garth. It's where all the has-beens go.

I don't mind a conflicting opinion. It's ignorance I abhor.

You've got to start with the facts. People can steal music at will. How do you create a better mousetrap, that allows everyone to partake whilst paying? That's the Spotify model, that's the MOG model, that's the future we're working towards.

But you'd rather jet us back to the past.

It's like Michael J. Fox sitting at home watching reruns of "Family Ties", doomed to endure the terrible effects of Parkinson's disease. Mr. Fox didn't ask to get sick. Just like the Internet was not founded to allow people to steal music. But rather than accept his fate and stay in the past, Mr. Fox has established a foundation, he's fighting Parkinson's, he wants to go back to the FUTURE! Where he's no longer twenty, but he's older and disease free.

You get to a better place not by quelling rebellions, by denying technology, but by starting in the present and working towards the future. Isn't that the model you employed Garth? Seeing KISS and recasting their success in country music?

I've seen you perform. You're phenomenal.

But like the progenitors, your inspiration, the men in make-up, you're a has-been. And few want your new music. The way you earn our trust is making it less about you, and more about us. Hey, isn't that what the Net's about? Stop talking horseshit about retirement and truly get in the game. Create some great new material. Start tweeting, employ Facebook to get the message out. See what it's really like out there before you start running your mouth, commenting when you're clueless.

http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1624496/nashville-skyline-garth-brooks-goes-back-to-work.jhtml


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Friday, October 23, 2009

Soupy Sales

I saw him live.

Must've been the summer of '69. He was already on the downward slope. But for a year or so there, he was the sixties "South Park", the hippest show amongst the barely pubescent.

Oh, Mr. Sales had been on TV for years. But it was a children's show. Until he got kicked off the air for asking his viewers to go into their parents' wallets and send him "all the green pieces of paper with the pictures of guys in beards".

There was no TiVo, no Internet to see if it was true. Word passed in the classroom. Was the story to be believed?

All we knew is he was off the air. For a week. And when he came back, there was not a kid in junior high who was not tuned in, to see the dancing girls kicking it up to "Happy Days Are Here Again"! It HAD to be real! Soupy was winking at us!

They beat the irreverence out of adults. We depend on children to challenge convention. A child can't understand injustice. An adult can explain away the lack of health care reform by talking about self-reliance, the political process...all a kid knows is he's got an owiee and he wants it fixed!

That's kind of what killed the music business. Outsiders ruled in the sixties and seventies, then there was so much money involved, especially after the advent of MTV, that wannabe stars asked "where do I sign?" They were willing to do anything and everything to make it. They lost touch with their audience. Oh, they paid lip service to their fans, but truly they were in bed with their advertisers.

Not Soupy. With a collection of barely physically there characters, Soupy was akin to radio. It was theatre of the mind, on an incredibly stupid level. And kids love stupid.

But stupid with a twist. When Bon Vivant recalled cans of vichyssoise for botulism I knew what the potato soup was because of Charles Vichyssoise, who appeared on Soupy Sales' show.

You went to school every day and imitated White Fang.

It didn't last for long, but longer than the hula-hoop. Soupy Sales was our hero. Maybe because our parents hated him so much, they couldn't see the brilliance underneath the idiocy.

Soupy was so big, he recorded a record. Entitled "The Mouse", we performed it faithfully. Didn't take much. Hey, do the mouse, you can do it in your HOUSE!

And we did.

But that's not what brought me to Columbia that late summer day. No, I rode my Raleigh down the hill to see Simon & Garfunkel.

They'd already had a number of hits, a veritable catalog, but it was before "Bookends", they were in a bit of a lull, they could be seen as an evanescent pop act.

I locked my bike to a fence. And Simon & Garfunkel blew my mind. Paul Simon was not yet precious. And they could already sing and play. I thought of leaving after their performance. I wanted to maintain the high. But I stayed. To relive my junior high school days.

Soupy was frenetic. It was entertainment more then music. But when he did the Mouse, I did too.

Eventually Soupy's sons migrated from the pages of "Tiger Beat" to play with Todd Rundgren. We paid attention to their careers because of their legendary father.

But Soupy had peaked.

But he's never been forgotten.

Watching clips today I'm jetted back to an era when TV meant black and white. When an aged hipster, a living "Mad" magazine character, could be the leader of millions.

That's what stardom is. When your fans are like putty in your hands.

It's not about exposure, it's about creativity.

Soupy may have aired a stupid show, but the creativity positively beamed from the screen. It was not hip to be dumb, you wanted to be smart. So smart, you could be stupid. Not so media would trumpet your successes, but so insiders would feel like members of a club.

Soupy Sales had a huge club. We graduated from "Mickey Mouse" to him. Long live the inanity!










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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Am I a rich person or a poor person?

AURORA, CO - JULY 22:  Jessica Tello, age 6, i...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Am I a rich person or a poor person?

I've been having ongoing pain when I bite. But the dentist couldn't figure out exactly which tooth it was. Until it got so bad fifteen months ago that it was clear it was the rear molar and he put a crown on it and voila!, the pain was gone.

Not going away, and me going away, across the ocean, I made an emergency appointment with the dentist. Who was going on a trip himself, to Alaska, for three months, imminently. Thank god I caught him.

It wasn't clear. He gave me the name of the endodontist, or I could tough it out.

I come from the tough it out school. I learned from my father. It's illegal to be sick. But what if you actually are?

The pain subsided, then returned, but not with a vengeance. At my regular cleaning stop, which I delayed until the dentist returned from his trip, I asked him. I figured he'd say to continue to wait. Alas, he did not. He said to see the endodontist, right away. The pain had gone on too long.

So I drove to a low-slung building in downtown Santa Monica where a doctor without a tie probed with what looked like dry ice, it was smoking, and when I jumped at the cold he told me I needed a root canal.

Welcome to the club, as Joe Walsh would say.

And today was the day.

Actually, yesterday was the day. But the doctor had to cancel, he had to go to a funeral. Today's appointment was much too early, but I didn't want to delay, I wanted to get it over with.

What I hate about shit like this is they think everybody's an expert, like everybody's been through it before. Ever been stopped for drunk driving? They speak in code. FST means "Field Sobriety Test". But that's just the tip of the iceberg. You might be sober, but locked up anyway, because you couldn't comprehend the acronyms.

Bottom line, they build a construction site in your mouth. Truly. They put up structural reinforcements and then erect a tarp, so the debris doesn't go down your throat. I'm a mouth-breather. So, of course, I start to gag.

This wasn't surprising to the assembled multitude, happens on a regular basis. Maybe they needed to call in an anesthesiologist.

Huh?

You said I could walk out in ninety minutes as good as new. Maybe a little numb. Now you're telling me it would be like my colonoscopy, and I'll be screwed up all day? How am I gonna drive home? What about that appointment later in the day?

With me flummoxed, the doctor bridged the silence by saying he'd reconstruct, and leave me a little space to breathe. Operational word "little". Could I sit for an hour like this?

Turns out I didn't have to.

After poking and drilling for ten minutes, the doctor stopped. Houston, we've got a problem.

There's a severe crack in the tooth. He didn't use the word "severe", but whatever he said it was clear that this was about as bad as it could get. He was issuing no guarantees. I could buy maybe two to five years at best with a root canal. But maybe the root canal wouldn't fix the problem at all!

So, being the methodical patient with OCD, I start asking questions. calculating the odds.

Here's the story. I can risk the root canal, or I can have the tooth pulled, MAYBE THIS AFTERNOON! And then an implant installed.

Not that the implant goes in quite that fast. It's almost a year-long process. And it costs $5,000 by time you're done.

Do you need that rear molar? My regular dentist said many have it pulled and leave the space blank.

The endodontist said in this neighborhood, people have "discretionary income", and tend to replace it.

So, who am I? Am I the guy with discretionary income or the guy who lives in a rent-controlled house?

Worse, I'm a guy who's got to get it right. What's the right decision here?

Meanwhile, I'm trying to talk through the tarp. And the doctor complains it's starting to rip.

And I can tell he's getting frustrated, because I'm messing up his schedule, he's gonna be behind all day.

But this isn't a minor question for me.

He says it's not his fault. That he couldn't see the crack until he removed the crown.

I can think about it while he does a bit more drilling.

And I'm sitting there thinking. I don't want to be stupid. But the doctor says personally, he'd try and save the tooth, but then he says his view is skewed, because he's an endodontist.

Well...

Meanwhile, he keeps drilling. How much is THIS gonna cost me? To abort the procedure?

Then I think of my father. A self-made man who knew where every dollar was. He'd skimp here, and save there, but when it counted, he'd lay down his money, it was important to get it right. I decided on the root canal.

But I didn't tell the doctor this. Hell, I couldn't speak. But when he removed the tarp one more time, I asked him one more question. If we stopped now, how much was I in for?

Four hundred bucks.

Four hundred versus $1550 for the finished procedure. Basically, I'm making a thousand dollar bet.

LET'S GO!

Not so fast buddy. Now the guy tells me he's not sure he can do it today. I'm gonna have to come back one more time. He blames it on me not keeping my mouth open wide enough, but I know it's a timing issue.

Fuck, DO YOU THINK I'M GONNA COME BACK?

And he's discouraged. But I tell him to just tell me what he wants, and I'll give him what he needs.

So I've got my mouth open so wide and it hurts so much that I know I can never be a girl, because there's no way I could give head. And I'm hoping and praying we can finish today. But I'm also worried he's gonna rush and fuck it up. Although he said he needed to do a professional job, he needed to get it right.

And it doesn't hurt as much as the rep. He loaded me up with novocaine. Still, I'm clutching my knees to my chest, but I will not complain, because I don't want to come back.

Then the doctor kicks back and says we're making "good progress".

Ultimately, he told me I was "wonderful".

Great, where's my check?

So we finish up. After x-rays and a discussion about world music with the hygienist, I lay down my credit card and walk out feeling...defeated.

I thought I'd emerge triumphant. But did I make the right decision?

At least I made A decision. Which can be quite difficult for me.

But if you don't live in Santa Monica, if, like me, you don't have dental insurance, are you really gonna have an implant or are you just going to go for extraction?

Is health care a right or a privilege, based on your bank account.

You need a heart transplant, do you need a dental implant?



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Song Of The Day "Wild Girl"

Rickie Lee Jones performing at the Three River...Image via Wikipedia

Somewhere back there Rickie Lee Jones lost her way.

I'll vote for the second album. Sure, the first was great, I loved "Weasel and the White Boys Cool", but the second, "Pirates", begins with a one-two punch that's undeniable, it knocks you out cold, you wake up on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

We belong together.

Have you ever laid in bed, wondering about the distance between the two of you, deciding whether to break it off or try and continue and you suddenly decide "we belong together"?

The operative word is "we". That's when relationships are on fire, when it's no longer about you and her, but when you can't imagine life without your other half, when you think the cosmos has determined you belong together.

I actually called up a girl and told her this. We'd had a hard time docking, we were unable to make it fit, frustrated, it looked like it was best to return to our respective corners, permanently. But this night I determined we belonged together.

She didn't see it the same way.

And, in retrospect, she was right. We didn't belong together. But that doesn't mean I don't remember that feeling. Just like Rickie Lee Jones sings it in this song. It's a private moment, not a diva onstage singing for everybody, but a private symphony playing in your own head.

The follow-up, "Living It Up", has got a completely different vibe. But it's no less touching, no less meaningful. You may think you're living it up, you might put a sunny face on the situation, but is that the truth?

Then Rickie lost the plot. She stopped working with Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman. She did a great cover of "Walk Away Renee", but the albums no longer hit you in the same way. She was Rickie Lee Jones once. Now?

It's a beautiful day in L.A.

And I'm driving west on Wilshire and I hear the new Rickie Lee Jones song for the second time, "Wild Girl".

On Sirius XM's Loft. Meg Griffin was spinning it from her perch on the coast of Massachusetts.

And the song speaks for itself. But you can't hear it. I found it nowhere online.

You can hear a snippet at http://www.rickieleejones.com/ It's not the first track, still the first track works too.

How did Rickie Lee come back twenty years later?

By finishing twenty year old songs.

Her Website has too much Flash, you'd never go back. But the TV-type images are fascinating. They've got the feel of the music. This is not some babe of the moment in a video clip, this is meaning. We're all lonely at heart, but we're yearning to feel connected. Music, when done right, brings us together.

The second track on the Website player is "Wild Girl". You'll get a taste. Longer than thirty seconds, but not long enough. It's snappy, yet not mindless. It's visceral, it opens your skin and tucks itself inside.

But you can check out this live YouTube clip from last May.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBBJ2yBn_BU

The sound is not perfect, but Rickie Lee's voice is. She's aged, but her voice has lost nothing. It's stunning, you look at the image and you can't believe anyone can sound this good without some kind of aural trick.

Concord also has a clip, but although the audio is better than the YouTube video, it doesn't have quite the same punch and it stutters, still, it's great.

http://concordmusicgroup.com/newmedia/video/rickieleejones/rickie_lee_jones_wild_girl_clip.html

I don't think Rickie Lee Jones will return to her seventies perch. Where she was the hipster who dominated the country. But if you listen to "Wild Girl", not only will you believe she's still got it, you'll be blown away that she blows all the poseurs away.




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Monday, October 19, 2009

Can Classical Music Make Your Kids Smarter?

Philip GlassPhilip Glass via last.fm

CLASSICAL SPICECan Classical Music Make Your Kids Smarter?

The buzzword, "Mozart Effect", has renewed the interest in classical music and caused educators to take renewed interest in music education. How does classical music affect the brain? Some sources say it has quite an effect. In fact, so much of an effect as to make former Georgia Governor Zell Miller give a free compact disc or cassette tape of classical music to the parents of all babies born in his state's 100 hospitals in 1998. Miller, an avowed country-music lover, is convinced that music can stimulate brain development in young children. "Listening to music at a very early age affects the spatial, temporal reasoning that underlies math, engineering, and even chess," he says. "And having an infant listen to soothing music helps trillions of brain connections to develop."

So, does listening to Mozart Affect Spatial IQ? In a previous well publicized experiment published in 1993, Rauscher and colleagues, of the University of California Irvine, reported that listening to Mozart (compared to relaxation instructions or silence) produced a brief but significant increase in performance of a spatial IQ task. More recently, Rauscher et al have replicated and extended their findings (Neurosci. Letters, 1995, 185, 44-47). In this study, they used the same task as in their first experiment but extended the types of listening experienced. Seventy-nine college students were divided into three groups: silence, Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos, K448, (the same piece that produced the positive results in the 1993 study) and a group that heard a minimalist work by Phillip Glass. Only the Mozart group showed a significant increased spatial IQ score. Rauscher stressed that all classical music that is highly structured and complex has the same effect. "What we think music is doing is stabilizing the neural connections necessary for this kind of spatial-temporal ability," says Ms. Rauscher, who is now an assistant professor of cognitive development at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

In fact, it is now theorized that listening to classical music stimulates the entire brain; the left hemisphere processes information in more sequential, analytical ways the the right hemisphere in more visual, non-linear, and imaginative ways. Anecdotal evidence supports the thesis that the greatest scientists are those who have had extensive exposure to music. It is believed that Einstein, a devoted amateur violinist, was able to understand the deepest implications of his theory of relativity by imagining himself riding a light beam.

Exposure to classical music is an important element of a well-rounded education. Having it in the home is just as important as having it in the schools. And exposing children and adults at any age can be beneficial, as well as enjoyable. Classical music is timeless and reaches across generations with some of the greatest melodies ever written.



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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Rouge le Fou (220.365 9.11.08)Image by midnightglory via Flickr

That's why I'm here. In Nashville. I'm speaking at the International Entertainment Buyers Association. Or, I just did. You missed it!

What a fascinating crew. So many of the buyers are from fairs.

I just got a long lecture on the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. A bunch of 'ropin and 'tyin and then live entertainment, twenty nights straight! They've had Rascal Flatts, ZZ Top, the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift...

In other words, there's a whole 'nother world out there between L.A. and New York. Which might want to see people like Phil Vassar. Who performed just before me in the ballroom. I'm a fan. But he looks like a guy you'd be sippin' a beer with down on the dock. No harm meant, it's just that I expected some wiry guy who barely ever saw daylight. Or maybe it's just that it's a disconnect to experience someone so talented, who can sing and write, who looks completely normal. It's a beautiful thing.

The way the band plays. The way Phil works the audience.

You see in country music, being able to play is not enough. You've got to entertain! You've got to sing for your supper. Or, as Chubby Checker said last night, it's all about the audience. Yes, he was angling for gigs, but it was fascinating to see him work this inside crowd. He got 'em up on stage twisting, singing along, laughing, having a good time. And a good time is what it's all about, right?

Well, I'm not sure it's about a good time anymore.

Is it a good time buying a car? It's so expensive. You're afraid of being ripped off. If you make a mistake, you're not going to be back in the market for years. Kind of like buying concert tickets. Huh?

I just had a fascinating conversation with gentlemen who run an amphitheatre in Virginia. They spoke of the problems outside the metropolis.

They have a deal with Ticketmaster because so many of their customers pay cash. Ticketmaster has outlets, where they take cash. Yup, you may hate the ticket fees, but Ticketmaster is not always the bastard.

Then again, like Live Nation in New Jersey, these promoters charge a parking fee on every ticket. A buck. It's a pass through, goes straight to the city, for cops, other infrastructure. So when customers arrive, they don't have to pay, they just park.

But getting customers is not that easy. Because people just don't know about the gig!

That's their number one problem, getting the word out.

And they said that radio, newspapers and TV don't work.

In other words, they've got a marketing budget, they just don't know where to spend the money!

The days of tying in with a radio station and having the word get out are done. Now we're in the murky land of social media.

Yup, these guys have been FORCED to employ Facebook and Twitter. Because that's where the people are. No one's paying attention to old media.

You've got to have someone under twenty five working all these angles. He could be your number one employee!

And then there's pricing.

They talked about a Coldplay show, not theirs, where lawn tickets were ultimately blown out cheaply. People complained. Sure, they were mad at Live Nation, but they were really mad at the act!

Ticketmaster may have shielded the artists for a while, the public may have been too stupid to know performers have been scalping their own tickets, but the artists are now taking the hit for discount tickets. If you paid thirty dollars to sit on the lawn and somebody else paid ten, you're pissed! You may never want to see Coldplay again.

So who's going to fix this problem?

It's got to start with the acts. The days of exorbitant guarantees are done. The acts can't afford the blowback. I can't get the tickets I want, they never went on sale, and now someone paying less than me is sitting closer than me? Huh?

So far, promoters have been taking the hit. Live Nation is selling discounted tickets to fill their buildings while the artist has sat on the sideline and laughed. No longer.

That's the story of 2009. How the act suddenly has less power.

Kind of like the movie business. The $20 million paydays are through. There's just not enough money left. DVD sales have tanked. If Live Nation, if no promoter can survive, who is going to pay all these acts?

We don't have a promoter crisis, we've got an act crisis!

Sure, the promoters have issues, but the acts are not immune. They've got to give promoters tools to work with. Like lower guarantees and a share of the upside.

The major problem is getting people in the building.

Some day there might be a site telling everybody who's in town. But so far, no Internet location has broken through. Because every listing site is about money first and the customer last. Too much advertising, too much focus on profit. The Google way used to be the music business way. Build it first, figure out how to monetize it last. Be a great band first, figure out how to make all the dough last.

Speaking of dough, these Virginia promoters had multiple jobs. The days of grand slams in concert promotion are done. The margins are too thin. One of these guys is both a promoter and a manager!

The glory days of the music business are history. They'll only return when the glory days of music come back. That's in process. But it's going to take a very long time, especially if the usual suspects have their way...baby boomers who focus on getting rich first and care about the consumer last, if at all.



The Grand Finale of the Industrial Age

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, the beginning o...Image via Wikipedia

Another great depression? Or the greatest-ever buying opportunity? Here's why...this economic mess is nothing like the 1930's, why it's time to start buying, NOW and what stocks will out-perform the coming rebound.

Don't let media's short-term, micro-view blind you to what's really going on in the world. Put aside fear and negativity and get ready to rake in unimaginably-huge profits as you cash in on the...3 unstoppable macro trends about to reshape the world.

In the next 15 years, we will gobble up more of the Earth's last remaining natural resources, than we did in any period in the past. This great natural resource binge will turn Wall Street on its head.

Rising commodity prices will start to bear down on every aspect of our lives...from the costs of our tomatoes to the price we pay to heat and cool our homes...from the value of our blue chips to the income we receive on our CD's...$2,700 gold...$9 gas...plummeting indices...soaring inflation...and plenty of bear markets.

But also, expect a commodity bull market, the likes of which we have never seen before, one that will dwarf every other that has come before it.

Last century we had three commodity bull markets. They were from 1906-23, 1933-53 and 1968-82. Each one was bigger, and wreaked more havoc, than the one that came before it. This final one promises to outdo them all. By the end of it, many things will be different.

Most paper assets will be shredded. Millions of American retirees will find themselves on the breadline. Vital commodities like oil, gas, uranium, cobalt, molybdenum will be greatly depleted. But almost all commodities whether abundant or not, wil no longer be cheap. In fact, their costs will become more prohibitive, that it will finally force industry to seriously develop new alternatives, like renewable fuels, and new industrial materials made from bio and nano-materials. But until that time comes, commodities will rule the day.

Commodities will inpact almost every area of your life. Whether you want to be invested in them or not, they are going to affect your assets...your lifestyle...your costs of living...the kind of car you drive...what kind of house you live in...your investments. They'll determine the fate and fortunes of companies, countries and individuals everywhere!

Commodities will make you rich. Or they'll make you poor. It's your choice.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

5 Simple Steps To Copyrighting Your Music

5 Must Do, Simple Steps to Properly Copyrighting
Your Music and Keeping Others From Stealing It!

Step 1:

Record your music (this can also include beats and productions work), whether by writing it down as sheet music or making a recording of it. Remember registering your work with the Copyright Office has lots of advantages, versus simply choosing not to copyright. Its always better to be safe then sorry, especially nowadays with the Internet and file sharing going rampant.

Step 2:

Register your copyright by submitting together in one envelope, your completed application, filing fee and copy of the music you wish to copyright either in the form of sheet music or a recording to the Library of Congress Copyright Office. The copy of your music will be stored as a matter of public record.

Step 3:

Learn that by copyrighting your music through the Copyright Office, you gain the protection of the United States Customs Department from your work being imported illegally for someone else's gain.
This falls under Intellectual Property Rights protection. The copyright owner must register their copyright with the U.S. Customs service.

Step 4:

Know that if you choose not to register your music, and you find someone else is profiting from it, you must register it with the Copyright Office before you can file a lawsuit. However, having your work registered before an infringement occurs entitles you to collect lawyer's fees and statutory damages, instead of just actual losses, which can mean more money for you.

Step 5:

To make the entire process of copyrighting your music, easy, secure and 100% mistake proof visit http://www.CopyrightYourMusicInMinutes.com/main to get a full copy of the new, step-by-step music copyrighting course "Copyright Your Music in Minutes".

Note: Visit the site listed above within 48 hours of receiving this notice and you can get the entire "Copyright Your Music in Minutes" course, including all of the step-by-step audios, videos and forms that you'll use to properly copyright your music for only $9.97 (Instead of the regular cost of $97.00, instantly saving you nearly $100.00!!!)



As always, much success and enjoy your weekend!

The Spotify Guys

They're Swedish!

Martin Lorentzon couldn't stop saying how much he loves L.A. Because in the winter in Stockholm, it gets light just before nine and dark again around three, and that's just too little daylight, for too little time. If only winter were a couple of months shorter, it would be tolerable.

Then again, Sweden's got better cell service. You don't get the dropouts we do in America. And the tech companies are more open.

Speaking of tech companies, Martin made a mint. After working for Alta Vista in San Francisco back in the nineties, he started a company in Sweden that...let's just say it counted data. I'm afraid most people reading this wouldn't understand it if I explained it. And there's your digital divide right there. People who like to win on intimidation and those whose educations allow them a superior vantage point, enable them to move mountains, change worlds, make tons of money.

And Martin put his millions in with Daniel Ek's and they founded Spotify. Which the labels were glad to extract an advance from, but were surprised actually launched and was successful.

Are you following their latest products? Wherein you can download 3,000 odd tracks to your laptop or mobile device? It's just like owning them. Of course, you get this privilege only if you sign up for the premium service.

And they've got software for not only iPhone, but Android and soon BlackBerry, they're the anti-Apple, they're not a closed system, they want to play with everybody.

And they just might end up dominating. If the labels will realize that streaming is inevitable and play ball.

Oh, they're playing ball so far. That breakdown that hit the Web re Spotify's costs isn't accurate, they've got special deals with the labels, but they don't go on forever, Spotify's got to prove its mettle, it has got to generate profits.

A couple of days back, Martin Lorentzon e-mailed me, he was in town, did I want to get together?

Normally, I say no. It's a one way street. You demonstrate your wares hoping that I'll help you out. But Spotify is revolutionary. I was intrigued. But I wasn't sure of the agenda.

So I showed up at the Mondrian today to find a well-dressed man of forty, voluble, polite and excited. Not a passive manipulator, but someone intent on ingratiating himself.

And after catching up, hearing a bit of history, Martin's iPhone rang. I could see it in big block letters. It was Daniel Ek. He was coming down.

Wow.

Where to begin?

Spotify employs P2P software, that's why it's so damn good. It takes 2-5 seconds to ramp up each and every song, which has reduced bit rate during that window, but usually that's a relatively dead window and the listener isn't paying close attention anyway. Yes, there are tricks. Only seventy five percent of the song is downloaded, an algorithm provides the remaining twenty five percent. This is how they all do it, it's de rigueur. And the files don't only come from Spotify's servers, bits and pieces come from other users with the software installed on their computers. Net effect? It feels like you own the track. Usability is equal to iTunes. You can fast forward, rewind, there's no lag time.

But that's on your desktop. What about your mobile?

Well, that's a bit different. You see then Spotify depends on the network. Which is why they've limited sign-ups in the nations they've already launched in. They want the streaming experience to be perfect on your mobile device, after all, you're depending on it, their servers and their wallets cannot be strained.

But if you want to pay, you can get Spotify instantly.

And in order to use the mobile app, you've got to pay.

And when you do pay, you can download the aforementioned 3,000 tracks to your hard drive too, which truly is like owning them. Of course, if you stop paying, you don't own them. But if you start paying again, they return magically.

Daniel was focused on the rental issue. Needing to make purchase available too. I think that's bullshit. You can't listen to the hoi polloi. In America we rented movies on videotape, bought them on DVD and are now renting them again via Netflix and Redbox. Who says America is anti-rental? It's all about the user experience. And the Spotify user experience is so good, that you don't need to own once you've got it.

But what about Apple?

Martin and Daniel wonder too. Why exactly did Apple approve their app? They gave it a 50/50 shot. But Cupertino said yes. Was it because Apple was worried about the backlash or Apple just doesn't care that much about music. Better to take thirty percent of apps than the small margin in music. Then again, since the Spotify app is free, there's no gross to skim from. Then again, you can't stream music in the background on an iPhone. If you go to write an e-mail, you lose Spotify. Whereas you can listen to your iTunes library while you surf on your iPhone. All of which begs the question, will Apple compete? Will Apple suddenly roll out a streaming service? The guys at Spotify DON'T KNOW!

But someone will. Streaming is going to rule. It's just a matter of when.

So when do we get Spotify in the U.S?

At the end of this year or the beginning of next.

Oh, I get it. These guys are in way over their heads. They can't get it together. They promise, but don't deliver.

Absolutely wrong. They could launch tomorrow, they just don't have all the rights. You see a certain company doesn't believe in free. So, they won't let Spotify launch with the European model. But, without the free element, is Spotify doomed to fail?

Believe me, Spotify wants people to pay. They want to integrate so many desirable elements into the paid model that you'll want to pay. Being able to see what stars are spinning, what your friends are listening to. Yes, merging social networking elements with music, something absent from iTunes. But you can only convince people to pay if they get to try the service out. And so far, other than a handful of the connected, no one in America has Spotify, few even know what it is!

Daniel felt this was a problem. He had to convince the community, the artists and executives. I laughed. This is like MTV. Once you see it, once it launches here, word will spread like fire, people WILL WANT THEIR SPOTIFY!

Daniel feels he could have 50 million users almost instantly. But it's too soon. He doesn't want to risk messing with usability and doesn't want to burn through the company's cash that fast. Yes, it costs to stream, not only server power, but licensing fees. Also, he wants to tweak the service. They showed me some unreleased elements, but they've got tons more. They want to build it so you will come.

What a radical change from those in the music industry, and from those in tech a decade ago.

Ten years ago, the techies were arrogant. They wanted to rip off the music industry's wares. The Spotify guys are different. They want everybody to make money. But they want the time and support to make it happen. Honestly, they're not exactly sure of the business model, they're figuring it out. They want most people to pay, they want different tiers, but the customer is king, you've got to serve the customer. Which the music business has not done in eons.

These are not charlatans. These are not guys in it for the fame.

They are in it for the money. But shouldn't the music industry love them for this, feeling the same way?

They're smart. They know tech. They don't intimidate physically, they make their moves via their intelligence, which flummoxes the music industry. An industry that likes to bully and rip partners off.

But is that paradigm truly sustainable? In an era where the customer is savvy enough to steal whatever he wants? If you think free availability of music can be eradicated, you don't know dick about computers. The only answer is a better mousetrap. Spotify is the first step.

Most people bore me. It's all about them. They want to tell me how great they are, why I should endorse what they're selling. But I was positively riveted for two hours. I felt like I was at ground zero of the music industry. Right there at the source. Better than meeting Bob Dylan, who doesn't talk much anyway. Better than hanging with the rock stars of yore who feel they're entitled, never mind the underschooled and inexperienced nitwits of today. As for dealing with the label people, other rights holders, it reminds me of the sixties, there's a huge generation gap. My eyes roll back in my head, I just can't waste the time. But today, in the lobby of the Mondrian Hotel, I was excited. These guys want to deliver more music to more people and get them to pay for it! And the service is so good, it is worth paying for.

So I don't want to hear one naysayer. You can still sell tracks at iTunes as a hedge, you can even sell CDs. But streaming is the answer and these guys are the cutting edge. They wanted the conversation to be off the record, but I insisted it couldn't be, word has to GET OUT!

P.S. Let me make this perfectly clear. If you've got the premium service, you're not reliant upon a wireless connection to listen to music. You can download a little over 3,000 tracks to your mobile permanently (as long as you continue to pay, of course). So if you're in a dead zone, or camping in Timbuktu, you can listen to your music - as long as you can keep the battery of your mobile charged! (No, your music doesn't disappear if you run out of juice, the songs remain, but without power, you've got to bang on rocks, you've got to make your own music!)

P.P.S. Please read Chris Anderson's "Free". The guy's been beaten up so heavily regarding the Long Tail that his new book has been ignored. But check it out. Primarily because it explains the concept of "freemium" upon which Spotify is based. I'll reference the Wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium But Anderson does a much better job of explaining it. Giving numerous examples. As for being afraid of the future, free's been around for eons, Anderson makes this clear. Stop being afraid of losing what you've got and start figuring out how you can make it in the future by reaching so many more people!