Archive for July, 2009
Writers and Press
Today, I sent out an email update targeted exclusively at music writers, publications and other folks that may or may not be interested in a free copy of the record. If you’d like to be on the list please let me know. They’ll be getting more official looking press releases featuring unreleased songs, remixes, etc. Today, I did one more push to give away some copies of the new record and see if anyone’s curiosity or interest was piqued.
Streaming Beats Stealing
Fred has a post articulating that streaming beats piracy. The point is that the market (and consumers) really prize facility more than they prize the actual concept of “free”. I’m not sure how this does or doesn’t relate to Chris Anderson’s new book. I suspect it’s a further argument to the fact that Chris’s book isn’t wrong or right but, perhaps, besides the point.
At any rate, this is nice little quote from Fred:
We used to wonder if we could “untrain” a generation to steal. The answer is yes. Just make it easier to get the content they want and they’ll stop stealing. It makes my day to read that.
Of course, the problem currently is that the major labels are charging licensing rates per stream that will put any legimitate streaming company (like Lala) out of business at some point. And the other point is that streaming or no streaming, being in the thin part of the long tail won’t pay your rent, at least if you view recorded music as the end unto itself.
But, nevertheless, it’s nice evidence further to the case study of iTunes which, for me, was also about the broader point that easy beats free. There’s something in there abour reputation and authenticity as well. That part of the hassle isn’t just the time it takes to stream something but the probability that the file isn’t what you want or need, that the sound or version isn’t the correct one, or that, in general, you’re not getting the certified copy that you can put some faith in. That’s part of the hassle experience as well.
They Learn. Slowly.
I got an email from Ticketmaster today and I was rather pleased by it. It seemed like it represented the future. Here’s the email:
Here we see the grudging evolution of the music industry. Ticketmaster is telling me that if I buy tickets to the Lips at a show in the New York area, they’re going to give me 3 new songs, 3 B-sides and an official bootleg of the show. So I’ll get a probably almost 20 new tunes to listen to including a document of the live experience that I just witnessed for the sake of posterity.
All I’ve got to do is buy a ticket. I haven’t seen the cost of the ticket but nevertheless this seems to represent something good. This makes sense to me. This isn’t anything new but it does seem like we’re finally at a point where, thanks to Azoff, Live Nation, etc., the future is really represented by the promoters and the companies that are marketing the live experience and that recorded music is viewed as marketing and promotion around that live experience and, in fact, that what Tickemaster is really doing is creating a central narrative moment, anchored by the show, that they are using to create an ongoing conversation about the Lips with.
All of this makes sense to me and I applaud it. I’m not talking about the prices of the tickets, the fees associated, or anything else, I’m simply referring to the awareness that The Flaming Lips and Ticketmaster are demonstrating by integrating their marketing strategies across their experience cycle. Lots of jargon there. Simply put: You should give songs and shit away to people that come to your shows.
I remember, now, that Tickemaster did the same thing with the Dark Was The Night concert and, thanks to that, I can listen to that National tune, “So Far Around The Bend” which I rather enjoy.
Track #7: St. Marys
I remember writing this song on the train in Italy heading down the coast from Cinque Terre to Rome. I started saying “This is a love letter” over and over to myself. I thought it was just an interesting thing to say. It’s kind of mournful and it’s kind of pleading. Desperate in a way. Because in a way, it’s saying, “why don’t you love me?”. Back then the song was about a drug and it was called Vicodin.
Twitter Music Charts
Anthony and the team at Hype Machine have made another great innovation over there. They’ve added the concept of Twitter charting to popular blogged about songs. So what the thing does is look at which people are tweeting about which tunes that are blogged and then it compiles all of that into a chart based on the status of the person tweeting.
It’s pretty damn cool.
It is, of course, as all of these things are, a proprietary algorithm. But it appears principally driven by the number of followers each person has and then it must have some calculus that deducts for the number of people that they follow.
Gestation and Remixes
I have been thinking about the concept of gestation as it relates to this record and I keep coming back to it because it’s starting to manifest itself with more clarity. As I wrote, assuming time is a scarce resource, which it is for me, you can focus on recording a lot of things quickly and constantly putting out fresh new material out of context or you can focus on really exploiting the tentpole concept that you’ve been developing. In this case, it’s the record.
