Sent today after I read this post:
Great advice in the Shannon Labrie email. Thanks for getting back to music. Although I don't really mind the digressions. This newsletter/ blog is your world, and we're just living in it. People forget sometimes that if you don't like something, you can CHANGE THE CHANNEL.
Not sure if you listen to sports radio at all, but Colin Cowherd had some interesting thoughts on his ESPN radio show this morning (AM710 from 7-10am if you're curious). He said there might be a direct connection between socially vicious personalities like Steve Jobs, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant and achieving success. That the reason people perceive them as so brutal is because they are. Brutally honest. Brutally motivated. Brutally SUCCESSFUL. There's a reason Kobe has 5 rings and Lebron doesn't have any. A reason Tiger Woods was number 1 in the world for 9 out of 11 years and Phil Mickelson is often relegated to an afterthought. A reason Steve Jobs will be remembered as one of the most pioneering minds in history and Bill Gates will be remembered as... well... he's really rich, right? All three men have a refusal to compromise and brutal natures when it comes to delivering.
What he was saying reminded me of stuff you've said about rockstars. They live their lives beholden to nothing and no one. They live for their music to the point of alienating everyone and everything. It's not a popularity contest. It's about delivering what they hear in their heads no matter the cost. Go big or go home. If you want a balanced life, you shoulda gone into customer service (interestingly enough, where I am right now), but you wouldn't be playing to those sold out houses if you'd gone that route, now would you?
So many parallels between sports and music. I guess that's why I love both so much.
A lot of parallels between you and Seth Godin, too. And Derek Sivers. And Austin Kleon. Guess that's why I follow all of you on Twitter.
Damn... is there anything more pathetic than a newsletter subscriber name dropping people he only knows through their newsletters...?
And... scene...
Showing posts with label Bob Lefsetz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob Lefsetz. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
DUH... Music should be free... And the rules are changing
Chris Knab is a music industry insider with a blog focused on the music biz: http://miyb.blogspot.com/. His insight is extremely helpful for the working musician, and he covers a whole slew of topics from knowing your typical fan to how the music biz is changing. A must read for anyone serious about making money with their music.
My favorite part of Chris's blog is his DUH series: a collection of statements that make you slap your forehead and go, "Duh! It's so simple! Why didn't I think of that?" A collection of DUH statements can be found here.
He also occasionally posts DUHs on his Twitter.
One recent DUH caught my eye more than others. It relates to one of the biggest developments for not only the music business, but the newspaper business, the book publishing business, the television business, the movie renta... you get the idea...
DUH:157:“Digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet. “.Bruce Schneier
Simple enough. A digital file can never be fully protected from copying. There will be a genius out there that can get past the safeguards and bypass the protections and get through the encryption... and the digital file will become fair game to anyone with a computer, smartphone, iphone...
Daunting for the music business to say the least. Once it's out there, it is out there for the taking. Songs get passed around from user to user, from hard drive to hard drive, using flash drives or portable hard drives or email or ftp servers or torrent or p2p or... and nothing is protected, everything is free, all the money the label and the promoters and the publicists and the marketing companies, all of their money spent on pushing a product to be sold... all of that money is never recouped because less and less people are actually spending money on the product.
You might think that I've been brainwashed by Bob Lefsetz, and you wouldn't be completely wrong. But it's not a brainwashing, it's a realization, and an acceptance that the rules are changing. Hell, it's a completely different game. The physical album is a thing of the past. The Smashing Pumpkins are embracing it. They'll be releasing a 44 track album, one track at a time, all for FREE. Yep, free. Gratis. No charge. Put your wallet away.
This means two things:
- The Smashing Pumpkins are counting on their fans to compensate them in other ways (touring, merchandise, collector's editions of the album)
- The music had better not suck otherwise there's the "the only way they could get people to listen is by giving it away for free" joke that will get driven into the ground
Well, it also means that more and more bands are going to have to adapt to the new business model that will be evolving over the next couple years. Your music had better be free and it better be amazing and it better make people want to come see you live and buy a t-shirt and a hoodie and a special physical edition of the FREE music they already have. Because if the music sucks, you're going to be up shit creek without an income.
This is what has the music business (and the newspaper business and the book publishing busine... you get the idea) so scared shitless. How are they going to make money? How are the majors going to maintain their bottom line? Where are the platinum selling albums going to come from? These questions suck for the majors, but don't suck as much for the indies. Because indies are agile. Indies don't need to go platinum. Indies need to serve their niche, need to connect with the true fans that bleed for the music, the fans that know all the lyrics and read the liner notes and put up flyers and tweet about tour dates and post pics from the show straight to facebook from their iphones.
I'm an indie. Albeit an indie barely out of the womb, as helpless as a newborn, incapable of supporting my head and barely able to suck on my mom's boob. But it's okay. Because I'll be learning at a prodigious rate while the old, old dinosaur majors will be struggling to play the old game, with their walkers and hearing aids.
I'm looking forward to it. I hope you are, too.
My favorite part of Chris's blog is his DUH series: a collection of statements that make you slap your forehead and go, "Duh! It's so simple! Why didn't I think of that?" A collection of DUH statements can be found here.
He also occasionally posts DUHs on his Twitter.
One recent DUH caught my eye more than others. It relates to one of the biggest developments for not only the music business, but the newspaper business, the book publishing business, the television business, the movie renta... you get the idea...
DUH:157:“Digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet. “.Bruce Schneier
Simple enough. A digital file can never be fully protected from copying. There will be a genius out there that can get past the safeguards and bypass the protections and get through the encryption... and the digital file will become fair game to anyone with a computer, smartphone, iphone...
Daunting for the music business to say the least. Once it's out there, it is out there for the taking. Songs get passed around from user to user, from hard drive to hard drive, using flash drives or portable hard drives or email or ftp servers or torrent or p2p or... and nothing is protected, everything is free, all the money the label and the promoters and the publicists and the marketing companies, all of their money spent on pushing a product to be sold... all of that money is never recouped because less and less people are actually spending money on the product.
You might think that I've been brainwashed by Bob Lefsetz, and you wouldn't be completely wrong. But it's not a brainwashing, it's a realization, and an acceptance that the rules are changing. Hell, it's a completely different game. The physical album is a thing of the past. The Smashing Pumpkins are embracing it. They'll be releasing a 44 track album, one track at a time, all for FREE. Yep, free. Gratis. No charge. Put your wallet away.
This means two things:
- The Smashing Pumpkins are counting on their fans to compensate them in other ways (touring, merchandise, collector's editions of the album)
- The music had better not suck otherwise there's the "the only way they could get people to listen is by giving it away for free" joke that will get driven into the ground
Well, it also means that more and more bands are going to have to adapt to the new business model that will be evolving over the next couple years. Your music had better be free and it better be amazing and it better make people want to come see you live and buy a t-shirt and a hoodie and a special physical edition of the FREE music they already have. Because if the music sucks, you're going to be up shit creek without an income.
This is what has the music business (and the newspaper business and the book publishing busine... you get the idea) so scared shitless. How are they going to make money? How are the majors going to maintain their bottom line? Where are the platinum selling albums going to come from? These questions suck for the majors, but don't suck as much for the indies. Because indies are agile. Indies don't need to go platinum. Indies need to serve their niche, need to connect with the true fans that bleed for the music, the fans that know all the lyrics and read the liner notes and put up flyers and tweet about tour dates and post pics from the show straight to facebook from their iphones.
I'm an indie. Albeit an indie barely out of the womb, as helpless as a newborn, incapable of supporting my head and barely able to suck on my mom's boob. But it's okay. Because I'll be learning at a prodigious rate while the old, old dinosaur majors will be struggling to play the old game, with their walkers and hearing aids.
I'm looking forward to it. I hope you are, too.
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