Record Label Rule Book Gets Startups No Where
We’re learning something important about music startups. If a company is cool and people like it, there’s a good chance that they’re either getting sued or working their way up the magical list. Grooveshark is a perfect example of this. More and more people are getting turned onto the site because the interface is pretty and the user experience is great. Is it the best music service? No. But it’s the best at what it does.1 Then there’s Sony’s Music Unlimited service. It’s backed by major labels which means it’s going to be and is boring. There’s nothing about it – “Qriocity”2 – to be excited about. It’s safe bet. After using it, you might blindly go and fill up your iTunes cart and go buy some CDs. There’s nothing about Music Unlimited that screams “Purple Cow” – something worth making a remark about – as marketer Seth Godin might say. It’s a brown cow in a field of brown cows. No one cares. Cows are boring. Music services that follow the record label rule book are boring. Imagine a music service that broke all the rules. No, not LimeWire. A site that threw the rule book out the window and did things so cool that no one could shut up about it. Every single publication gawked at it – like an iPod – and every tech-company wished they had thought of it. Spotify is as close to this as the music industry has gotten; it’s a remarkable service. However, if it gave up their vision and followed the record label rule book, it would be boring. No one would care. Spotify would be boring. If the musicor industry doesn’t let music startups break the rules and create conversations, the second digital decade is going to be bleak. iTunes isn’t forever. It may never supplement the money made off CDs. But once iTunes and single song downloads die off and lose interest, if all record labels have left to fall back on is a handful of startups they backed, the cliff will look prettier than the sunset. Reinventing the music industry will get you sued. Be boring or go home. There’s no room for awesome here.3 “What other failed services have shown is that if you play to the record labels’ rule book you get nowhere. These startups need to make their own rules, and not let the labels lead the conversation.” – Mark Mulligan (Read on.)
Lefsetz letter 1.11.11
THE BLACK KEYS This Greg Kot story is full of nuggets. 1. The band intentionally tried to create a radio single. In other words, you can follow your muse all you want, maybe create some great shit, but there are rules for radio, and if you follow them, you’ll have more success. A great track is not necessarily a hit. A hit is something infectious, that people need to hear again and again, usually a bite-sized nugget that tastes good but requires further consumption, like potato chips. 2. Just because the band had a hit, that doesn’t mean this new audience is going to stick with them. I’d say the odds are low. At least the Black Keys have a real fan base they can rely on. But if you think the casual listener, the Johnny-Come-Lately who likes your track, is really a fan of your band, you’re dreaming. Some people like the cut, check out more and become diehards, most people bop their heads and forget you. Unless you’ve got another hit. But then you’re in the hit game, not the career game, and it becomes what have you done for me lately and those people play clubs, not arenas, at least not for long. Hell, look at Christina Aguilera, how many real fans has she got? DMB hasn’t had hits in eons and they do 20,000 a night, Christina Aguilera had to cancel her tour because of low demand. Sure, ticket prices were high, but sometimes you can’t even get people to come for free, because it’s not really free, you’ve got parking and eating and merch and…time. 3. The Black Keys fear for hip-hop because of declining recorded music revenues and the lack of a profitable touring paradigm. This is fascinating. Especially in a field where it’s all about the Benjamins and it takes so much money to create and market a hit. 4. The Black Keys make 85% of their money on live shows. They claim they’ll make twice their record advance on New Year’s Eve. In other words, it’s about fans, not looky-loos. A looky-loo might buy a $1.29 download, but a fan will buy not only a ticket, but merch, they might even come see you more than once! 5. It took the band seven years and seven albums to sell out the Riviera in Chicago twice at the end of 2009. Talk about artist development. If you’re in the game to become rich and famous overnight, you’re sorely mistaken. Music is a hard life. You’ve got to make a lot of it. You’ve got to play to few fans. If you’re waiting for your one big hit to catch fire, you’re doing it wrong. You satiate your growing fan base year after year to the point where you may be able to have a hit which makes said fan base kvell, since they’ve been into you for so long, and gives you some added revenue. The hit is the cherry on top, not the end all and be all. Black Keys’ breakthrough year: Here’s how they did it: http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2010/12/black-keys-breakthrough-year-heres-how-they-did-it-.html
383From Lefsetz
It was on Asylum.
That’s one of the main reasons I purchased the Souther, Hillman, Furay Band’s debut. Richie Furay had been in not only Buffalo Springfield, but Poco. Stephen Stills and Neil Young had gone on to triumph in later incarnations, but Richie struggled. This supergroup was his last great hope. J.D. Souther wrote those great Eagles and Linda Ronstadt songs and Chris Hillman had been a member of the Byrds, the Burritos and Manassas. Only one problem, they hated each other. You can create a group on paper, but that doesn’t mean everybody’s gonna get along. But we didn’t know that, we only had the album. Which had no hits, but still went gold and peaked at number 11 on the chart and was filled with nuggets those who purchased it knew by heart.
In other words, what do you say about an album that was seen as a failure that everybody loves? At least everybody who bought it.
Richie Furay gave up. He went into the ministry.
Chris Hillman went solo then went into another failed trio with his old buddies from the Byrds and then found a niche in country.
And J.D. Souther went on to record one of the greatest SoCal albums that nobody heard.
I know, I know, J.D. had a hit single. With “You’re Only Lonely” in 1979. Not bad, but that track from the uneven album of the same name was eclipsed by so many cuts on 1976’s “Black Rose”. The record produced by Peter Asher in the classic Southern California style that barely made a ripple.
But I love it. It’s got his version of “Faithless Love”, sung like someone who’s experienced the heartbreak of a failed relationship. Linda Ronstadt knocks it out of the park, whereas hearing J.D. sing it is like stumbling upon your best friend in a room alone, after you’ve convinced him to unlock his door. He tells the story wearily, just the facts. But you can hear the pain in each and every word.
And also included is a version of “Simple Man, Simple Dream”.
But what will kill you is the two unknown originals. They’re hiding in plain sight for you to discover them today, “Your Turn Now” and “Baby Come Home”.
“Your Turn Now” is a masterpiece.
“The moon was yellow And the sky was cool The night can make a promise of love Or it can make you a fool”
Ain’t that every Friday night when you’re single. You put on your clothes and your attitude, use your best material and sometimes you come home drunk and sometimes you wake up in someone else’s bed.
“How would anybody know it If the real thing shined You’ve seen so many movies You’d probably think it was a line”
Everything I know about sex I learned from the movies. That’s what we judge our lives against, the movies. Soul mates? All that other crap? We get it from entertainment, we don’t really know what love is.
“Let me tell you I can fight like a man And cry like a little boy”
This is why we loved the Eagles, lyrics like this. The honesty, the immaturity, the incompleteness under the swagger. We like our heroes vulnerable.
And almost as good is “Baby Come Home”.
Ever been left?
Whew!
You can employ a bunch of strategies. You can go out and get drunk. You can go out and get laid. You can ring their phone off the hook. But none of it ever works. You just can’t forget, you can’t get them out of your mind. You’re waiting for them to come back home. Even though they never do. Maybe for a night or two. But when they leave in the morning you never know when you’re gonna see them again.
And the strings evidence the misery. J.D. starts out telling his story. Then he begins to plead.
“If you could trust me Try to believe me Listen to me when I say When I say that love is a burning fire And it will not fade away”
Love never evaporates. It’s like carbon. It’s got a half-life. You’ve just got to wait until the pain fades and you can start all over again, with someone new.
But until then…
“Some people pray, most every day Some people wait and see Ah, but deep in the night When nearly nothing’s going right You can hear him cryin’ Baby come home Sighin’ Baby come home Dyin’ Baby come home”
Sleepless nights. Of torture.
But it wasn’t like J.D. Souther emerged fully-formed on “Black Rose”. He had moments of genius before that. And some of them are on that Souther, Hillman, Furay debut.
The single was supposed to be Richie’s “Fallin’ In Love”. But it was too generic to hit.
The surprise was the Hillman tracks, “Heavenly Fire” and “Safe At Home” are rollicking cuts that have you raising your beer glass and singing along.
And then there’s J.D.’s “The Heartbreaker”. An Eagles track on a different album. This is the kind of stuff Glenn Frey sings about.
And the final cut, “Deep, Dark And Dreamless”, is the sensitive work J.D. made his name with.
But the best J.D. track on the album is “Border Town”.
I had a cassette. Taped from the vinyl record. I listened to it as I drove cross-country, back and forth, alone. It was my constant companion. Part of my DNA.
And lo and behold, I ask Kevin yesterday about his kid in the Air Force and he says he’s down in Texas, in Laredo, in a border town. And he starts singing these lyrics:
“Life ain’t so easy in this border town Too much dope and too much runnin’ around”
The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band: http://www.myspace.com/556248702/music/albums/the-souther-hillman-furay-band-8526174
J.D. Souther “Black Rose”: http://www.myspace.com/jdsouthermusic/music/albums/black-rose-9569430
FW: Captain Beefheart
4 Ways to Find Legal Music for Your YouTube Videos
Peter VanRysdam is the CMO of web design company 352 Media Group and the author of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. Connect with him on Twitter @Peter352.
A good soundtrack can make or break a movie. The same holds true for your YouTube videos. The right song can help convey emotion or add humor. However, you can’t simply pluck a song from your iTunes library. Using a song you don’t own the rights to can leave your video looking more like a silent film. YouTube’s Audio ID technology automatically scans and detects copyrighted songs inside videos and, depending on who owns the rights, disables the audio or serves additional advertising on the video that is paid back to the rights holder.
So where does that leave the budding filmmaker? For most, jumping through the record companies’ hoops of acquiring rights isn’t realistic, especially for a video of your kid’s birthday party. YouTube’s enforcement means torrents are no longer the answer, and independent artists are looking for new ways to get their work heard.
Consequently, a host of options have popped up for users looking to integrate original music into their memes-to-be. Here’s a look at a few of them.
Chromeo - Hot Mess
Hot Mess is from the latest album Business Casual from NY and Montreal based group Chromeo. Video directed by Jeremie Rozan of Surface to Air
Photo: Todd leading the band
Photo by Heather Brogden of the Herald-Times of Bloomington, IN.
http://toddrundgrenarena.blogspot.com/2010/11/photo-todd-leading-band.html
ma boiz
A Publicity Stunt Or Viral Ad–Or Just A Band Connecting With Fans? [Voices]
By Michael Ho, Research Head, Floor64
About a week ago, a band named Atomic Tom apparently had all of its instruments stolen, but as the story goes, they still had their iPhones and the will to continue. So they filmed themselves performing one of their songs on a NYC subway-playing their iPhones, instead of their usual instruments.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
LAME alert: “Take Me Out” by Atomic Tom LIVE on NYC subway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAllFWSl998&feature=player_embedded
Who cares?
You know how you know something’s fake? When you get e-mailed about it ad infinitum from the moment of its genesis.
They used to call it viral video. Did you ever get a virus and get deathly ill in a DAY? OF COURSE NOT! Viruses sneak up on you, you’re infected and don’t know it, you start to feel worse, then suddenly, it’s clear, you’re fucked up. Same deal with viral video. It takes a while to develop. If something explodes in a day, it’s fake, it’s being worked, it’s a publicity stunt. Or it’s news. Or it’s completely irrelevant.
Why does everybody still think old school works? That getting everybody to notice you once means you will last forever?
How about those bozos who stopped the freeway. They think Top Forty rules. Yes, if your desire is to be known by the most people instantly, sign with a major label, work with Dr. Luke, be like everybody else and get on the radio so people who don’t really care about music can know about you and the rest of us can read about you tangentially and never hear your music and instantly forget about you.
It’s the sixties all over again. Top Forty radio is vapid, with the lasting effect of a lollipop, and real music takes forever to get traction, but lasts when it does. Taio Cruz… That’s a catchy single. Do you really expect Taio to have a career, to matter five years from now, five MINUTES?
When you shove something down our throat, you only incite our gag reflex. But since you suck so bad no one cares or you’re giving it one last shot before you go to college, you do it old school, the twentieth century way, when the last I checked, we’re living in the twenty first century.
Do you know that band on the freeway’s music? God, I already forgot their name. Them stopping and playing on the 101 is just like you e-mailing me an MP3. YOU PISS ME OFF! I’ve got to wait all that time to download it before I delete it. How dare you take up space in my inbox! I’m going to work, and traffic is horrendous, and I’ve got to be exposed to your stupid stunt?
Have you read the research? Most YouTube videos have a lifespan of a day. So, if you’re planning to have a career on Tuesday and then give up and be an EMT on Wednesday, go for it, pull a stunt. Otherwise, you have to do it the hard way, you’ve got to make great music.
You can’t listen to a song at double speed. You can’t fast-forward and get it. That’s the magic of music. In a new world, it’s positively old school. It takes time and dedication in a world where both are at a premium. You’ve got to make it worthwhile for us to spend three and a half minutes with your track. That may not sound like a lot of time, but if people can’t resist texting while they’re driving to the grocery store, even though it’s illegal, do you think you can force them to sit through your whole damn song?
I didn’t sit through the whole damn clip linked above. Because the song didn’t hook me. What’s worse, it looked exactly like what it was, Brooklyn hipsters trying to goose their career, accelerate themselves into the mainstream. But I thought the point of being from Brooklyn was to be outside the game, to be hip and ahead of the game, to wait until the public catches up with you!
That’s how it works with all the greats. Bob Dylan wasn’t successful with his first album and Capitol wouldn’t even put out the initial Beatles LP in America. It takes time to find your niche and time for people to find you. And even though in the modern world you can theoretically reach people instantly, it takes longer and longer to reach everybody, because everybody’s got a shit detector, and they don’t want to waste their time, and they’re waiting until their trusted filters all say you’re good.
None of my trusted filters e-mailed me about this band. The fact that inane Websites that have to fill up their pages with something wrote about it is irrelevant. It’s like a turntable hit, no one cares.
Maybe if they played a hit song on their iPhones, or used the devices’ tracking abilities to find their supposedly stolen stuff, I’d care. But now I’m just glad their stuff was pilfered, so I don’t have to listen to these third-rate bards play music, so they can go back to school and be professionals and contribute to society.
Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist, I don’t really feel that way, but I am angry that my inbox was filled up all day yesterday and today with people associated with this truly mediocre product telling me it was an amazing story, that it’s now got 200,000 views. It’s not the number of views, it’s the number of fans! It’s the number of people who will take the time out to listen to all your material, go to the show and tell their friends about it. Stunts are just that. And they mean ever less in this era where everybody’s looking for an edge and nobody’s got the time to waste.
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Digital Studios Make Tracks On the Go
Thanks to these sweet-sounding, (mostly) streamlined and lightweight machines, even amateur music makers can cut a good demo.
