The Real Crisis

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The biggest crisis facing the music business isn't pricing, of either music or concerts, but the lack of a filter telling people what to listen to.

You may decry "American Idol", but at least it assembles a mass of eyeballs to pay attention to new performers. Yes, the music is well-known, but the performers are not. How can we get people to pay attention to new music?

Not via record reviews. That paradigm is shot. There are no trusted reviewers. And there's so much product. Hyped to high heaven because the purveyors want to get rich. And it costs so much to listen to it.

Yes, in time. Time is very expensive. Who wants to spend it looking for a needle in a haystack? And how much new music can one listen to anyway?

Actually, the original concept of Top Forty was not beat-infused, genre-specific mindless tripe. It was akin to what Gene Simmons says Kiss delivers, but we laugh about. What does the painted band begin its shows by saying..."You wanted the best, you got the best?" Or maybe it's "deserve the best"... The point isn't to laud Kiss, which needs no benefits, its hard core keeping the band alive, but to point out that if there was a radio station, Website or TV show that truly played/delineated/showcased the best music, people would be attracted to it and new music would flourish. Hell, that's what happened with Top Forty twice...in the sixties and early eighties.

But this would require leaving most music out. And refusing to play games with those with deep pockets, i.e. labels or rich individuals like Sam Adams. The same great cuts would have to be banged again and again. And if there was no good new music, then the old would have to be continued to be featured.

Don't tell me radio is dead. Don't tell me everyone's got their favorite Website. Don't tell me it's solely about word of mouth. I AGREE, I'm just pointing out an opportunity, for an entrepreneur who truly cares about music and wants to make a fortune.

It's not about the iPhone app. It's not about the ads on the Website. It's not about technology at all. That's what's been wrong with the past decade, it's been about science and marketing, not music. Everybody wants to get rich. From the wannabe acts to Tim Westergren and Pandora to the endless purveyors of music distribution platforms. No one's focusing on the music! And that's why we're hurting.

Sure, there's good music out there. But how do you get people to pay attention? Certainly not by allowing makers to spam, with endless unsolicited notices, and even MP3s, clogging up your inbox. It's about culling the best. And letting people know about it.

And it's got to be very good. Because few have the time.

But so many have the desire.

Ask people where they find out about new music. Baby boomers will be dumbfounded, college students will talk about friends and a small universe of acts and the prepubescent will rave about the hits on today's radio and in gossip columns, but what happens when they reach adolescence and want something meatier?

This is a huge crisis. And it's not unsolvable. But it does require a lot of thinking. And a lot of listening. The solution is less about building infrastructure than analysis. We all want great music, who's gonna serve it to us?

Ratings

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We're in the midst of a cultural shift.

A few years back, I became addicted to a Discovery Channel show about climbing Mt. Everest. Discovery is channel 3 on my Time Warner system. In fact, Discovery's got great placement on all viewing systems. Still, I could not find a single soul who'd seen the show until I talked about it on the radio and someone called in.

This was frustrating. The danger, the personalities. Mt. Everest is not an abstract concept. Was I the only one who could relate?

No. But maybe I was the only one who knew about it. Or had time to see it.

We've been living in a Tower of Babel society. Sure, we all speak English, but that's just about our only common bond. Hell, we don't even utilize the same news sources. The right watches Fox News, the left MSNBC. Even online... The right's got Drudge, the left's got the Huffington Post. And when it comes to popular culture, it's worse. "The Hurt Locker" won Best Picture and almost no one had seen it. But still, the Oscar ratings went up. They're the best they've been in five years. Not because of ten nominated pictures, not because of youngster presenters, not because of the quality of the show, everyone agreed it was sub-par, but because suddenly, everybody wanted to feel included, a member of the tribe.

This is vitally important. This is a 180 from where we've been going the last decade. Suddenly, the ratings for all these awards shows have gone up. Does this mean everyone tuned into the Grammy's was a Taylor Swift fan? Did everybody watch the Olympics because they favored Lindsey Vonn? No, everybody watched because they wanted to be a member of the group.

Call it Long Tail backlash. After diving incredibly deep into our own niches, we're now resurfacing. We want a community feel.

And it's funny how politicians and culture-perpetrators just don't get it.

The story isn't that we've got the Tea Party on the right and the disillusioned Netroots on the left, but that everybody wants a better economy and we want someone to lead us to it. In other words, ignore the hysteria at the fringes and play to the middle, it's VAST!

Just like in popular culture. Hip-hop/beats appeal to a minority of the population. Let's not judge this sound, let's just say that many people dislike it. And if you want to appeal to many, you've got to purvey something different.

Radio, after the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is all about niches. But we're niched out. We want one station we can all believe in, a few acts we all like.

Let's be clear. Not everybody watched the Oscars or the Olympics. The key isn't to appeal to everybody, but MOST people. And never forget that the fringes are the most vocal. If you pay attention to them, you're screwed.

Maybe it's time for more stadium concerts. Maybe that's why U2's trek is so successful. Sure, the music appeals, but it's a TRIBAL RITE! You can talk about the show in advance and with your buddies thereafter. And those who weren't included feel left out and will attend next time.

In other words, we may be on the brink of an explosion of mass culture. We might be ready for the next Beatles. Something that isn't calculated like "American Idol" that blows up overnight because of the ease of spreading the story online.

Think of this as Kardashians with talent. We all know who these nitwits are, but there's no real reason to pay attention. What if there were? Hell, we're paying attention to Snooki and Tiger because it gives us something to talk about, to connect with, both online and at the water cooler.

It appears to be human nature. We want to belong.

That's the story of the future. Not how we can rip off our concert customers, but how we can make them feel like members of a club. That grows and grows. Not how can we create something just like everything else, but something outside the niches that appeals to all. That was Lou Pearlman's genius. To create boy bands that could perform material that was catchy and appealed to all. Sure, the explosion was aided by MTV and CDs sold because it was pre-Napster, but isn't it funny that the idea came from the outside, not the usual suspects, and that the underpinnings, looks, harmonies, singable material, were so basic!

People go to see "Avatar" to belong, to be a member of the group, to get a chip so they can express their opinion. This is VERY important! Now's the time for mass, not niche. Now's the time to create something of quality, that is not dumbed down, that the public can rally around. Niches will never die. But the public hungers for mass appeal. Whether it be TV shows, music or anything which they can dissect and have an opinion about.

It's not about the winter. It's not about Twitter. It's not about texting. It's about a hunger for commonality. Pay attention.