Brown M&Ms from Van Halen on Vimeo.
Source: Wonkblog
Source: The Big Picture
Tag Archives: Music
What You Need To Know
1. Fame is fleeting.
Used to be very few could get through the sieve, now with fame up for grabs, from reality TV to YouTube, it’s easy to break through, but nearly impossible to sustain.
2. Quality counts.
If you want to have longevity. It’s too hard to game the system, too hard to stay on top, in the public eye, your best bet is to focus on the work.
3. Talent is not god-given.
You have to do the work, there’s no way around it.
You can spearhead the production of the usual suspects, in other words, Max Martin and Dr. Luke can make you a star, but they can’t keep you there, hell, they’re doing their best to stay on top themselves, because almost no one does, from Giorgio Moroder to Mike Chapman to Scott Storch hitmakers have their time and then it ends. Fashion changes, tastes change, generations change. Instead of getting plastic surgery and playing to the young ‘uns, it’s best to cater to your core audience, which will spread the word for you. Yes, parents turn their kids on to their favorite acts, and these are never one hit wonders, but those who have longevity.
4. Spamming is irrelevant.
It makes you feel good to get the message out, but no one is paying attention.
It is not a numbers game. It’s all about being personal. One personal e-mail to a tastemaker is more important than a generic press release sent to a hundred people from a list you found online. The personal touch is everything. And in this era, the written word is everything. First, know how to type. Second, know how to spell. Third, know grammar. Fourth, be able to tell a story. Fifth, don’t get frustrated when you get no response. People remember personal e-mails, they can pay dividends down the line. But it’s always best to focus on the work more than the marketing. And if you don’t know how to use spellcheck, if you haven’t got the time for spellcheck, tastemakers have no time for you. Hell, I know people who pick online dates based on the spelling errors. Yup, you can have a great picture, but if you don’t know how to spell, these women want nothing to do with you. In other words, school is not for pussies. And if your educational institution isn’t living up to your needs,
switch. Every elite educational institution has scholarships, it’s your duty to find out about them, it’s your duty to lift yourself up.
5. Don’t chase trends.
What’s here today may be gone tomorrow.
6. Ignore the haters.
Easier said than done. But you know when criticism resonates. None of us are perfect, we can all improve, we all make mistakes. But let me be clear, ignore the haters, ignore advice unless you’re asking for it. If you ask for someone’s time and you hate on them because they don’t love your production, you’re missing the point. If you don’t have enough confidence in your work to ignore the critics, you’re going to have a very rough road. This does not mean your stuff is good. I’m just saying breakthrough work is usually rejected at first. But there’s very little mainstream breakthrough work out there.
7. The news cycle is 24/7.
You’ve got one shot at publicity, then you’re history. So if you’re relying on publicity, your odds are low. You want to bubble up from the bottom, not float down from the top.
8. True fans are worth more than news coverage.
You can show your mother you’re in the paper, but most people reading about you, if they do at all, just don’t care. You want active users, not passive people. You want fans who embrace and champion you.
9. Just because you made it, don’t assume anyone is interested in it.
Don’t be a child showing his parent his feces. Your work is not that important, we’re all on the planet trying to get along. Push is dead, you want pull. You want to create something so good it sells itself. Which I know is almost impossible, but those are the odds you’re up against.
10. Money comes late.
Success is slow. And when you get it, if you overcharge, you shorten your career. There’s plenty of money to be made in the long run if you don’t make money your number one priority.
11. Major labels want radio hits.
They want the easy sell. Unless you can get on radio, immediately, the major label doesn’t want you. Period.
12. You need hits.
A hit is something so entrancing, so catchy, it ripples through the public. Just because your music does not fit the format, that does not mean it can’t go viral. That’s the essence of PSY’s “Gangnam Style.”
13. Me-too.
There’s an audience for me-too, but you want to be me-first. That’s why the classic rock era was so classic, none of the bands sounded alike. That’s one thing wrong with the younger generation, they date in groups, they want to be a member of the club, individuality is shunned. But when it comes to lasting art, individuality is key.
Source: The Big Picture
Every Genre of Music. Graphed and Sampled
Crazy cool interactive graph of all musical genres, including samples for every example. Looks like it required a Herculean amount of labor.
(note it worked better on IE/Safari than Firefox)
click for interactive site
Source: Furia via boingboing
Source: The Big Picture
Stones Tickets? Disaster
It’s a disaster.
And it’s hiding in plain sight. All you’ve got to do is go to their site and see what’s available, your jaw will drop.
Enthralled with the ancient British rockers, the mainstream press has completely dropped the ball on this story. So busy reporting last weekend’s club gig, the sycophantic reporters refuse to do any…reporting. To see that the bottom just dropped out of the Stones business.
Yes, go to Rolling Stones
And click to “Get Tickets.”
Then pull up May 3rd’s gig at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, America’s number two market, home to more poseurs than anywhere but the Cote d’Azur.
First you’ll be stunned how seamlessly AXS works. We’ve been told for eons that Ticketmaster is an unbeatable champion. But AXS is faster, easier and just an all-around better experience.
So pick the May 3rd gig. If you can’t navigate to this page, stop reading this now, you’re too ignorant to get the points I’m going to be making anyway.
Select 2 seats. Don’t allow for splits. There are frequently single seats available in good sections for the most desirable gigs.
Select “Best seat at any price level.”
Then click on “Find Tickets.”
Whew!
You can sit right down front!
But it gets better!
You can still get 8 seats together in desirable sections!
Which means…
Sales are horrific.
It’s even worse for the May 20th gig. You can still get 8 seats together right down front!
How did this happen?
GREED!
Let me tell you how this works. AEG pays the Stones whether they sell out or they don’t, whether anybody shows up or the hall is empty.
This is a far cry from the way business was done in the years the Stones became the “World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band.”
Used to be there was a guarantee, and then a split after break even.
But then Michael Cohl revolutionized the business.
And then Bob Sillerman rolled up the promoters and the acts had a field day, raping big time promoters for huge guarantees.
And the small shows got squeezed out, only the big ones counted in the mind of the public. And the Internet burgeoned. And suddenly, scalping became rampant. Even via the eBay company StubHub, never mind by individuals speculating.
And the game was rigged. There were so many pre-sales and holdbacks that demand seemed to outstrip supply in all cases. So resale prices went through the roof!
And until 2008, everybody was loaded with cash, the rich still are, they want to go to the show not to see it, but to say they were there.
And Mick Jagger is pissed these people have more money than he does. He wants to fly private and vacation without the hoi polloi, so he needs to rip you off, he needs to get all that money!
That’s what the inflated ticket prices are all about. Making sure scalpers don’t get the markup.
But this time around, prices are so damn high the public is balking, which surprises even me, because this truly looks like the last tour. But what we’ve learned here is the mania surrounding recent Stones shows has been created by the press, there’s just not that much demand, people cared more about Miley Cyrus and Beanie Babies. Yes, parents care more about their kids than decrepit rockers.
The initial shows last fall did well. Because of the mainstream press around the marketing angle of fifty years…
But just like the Cream comeback was an event in London and a dud in New York City, the bloom is off the rose, there’s no story, people just don’t care.
Do they care for $100?
A lot more.
Then again, the Stones have been doing weak business for eons. You could always get a ticket.
So where does this leave us?
In the land of Kid Rock. Where everybody scales back, where we have a reset, where even the execs take less.
Because what once was is no longer.
The Stones have jumped the shark.
And that means most of the other classic rock acts have too.
Furthermore, if you think the Stones are phenomenal in concert, you haven’t seen them, or are used to the Grateful Dead. They lock on occasionally, otherwise, it’s rough.
So if you’re against paperless ticketing, you’re a weasel. That’s what delivered $600 tickets, fear that the scalpers would take too much of the profit.
And if you’re against airline style variable pricing, you’re part of the problem too. Because if we had such a system, AEG could lower the price and sell out. But now they can’t.
Oh, they’ll find some way to fill the hall. The biggest stars paper, from Springsteen to Kenny Chesney.
And a loss is in the offing, unless the Stones give back.
But they won’t.
But maybe they will. Dainty dropped out because he couldn’t come up with the money. Maybe if AEG does a great job they’ll get a better, profitable deal in the rest of the world.
Yes, at some point, everybody drops out. The deal becomes too expensive. Not only for the promoters, but the public.
But this is what income inequality has wrought. Acts pissed that record sales have dropped have raised ticket prices so high the public has now cried UNCLE!
Source: The Big Picture
Constant Creation
Here today, gone tomorrow. That’s the modern paradigm. When what you want to do is stay in the public eye, in people’s minds, you don’t want to be forgotten. That is why the album format is working against you.
1. If you’re making an album-length statement, a story, a concept, go for it. But twelve tracks strung together is not a concept.
2. If you’re an itinerant musician and you want something to sell at shows, a CD fits the bill. But you could always assemble ten or twelve songs into a CD for this purpose.
There’s just too much information. And no matter how big a story you’ve got, you can be trumped by somebody else or just plowed under by the detritus coming down the pike. Your album is in the rearview mirror only moments after it’s been released. Look at the top of the SoundScan chart, it’s new product all the time. Illustrating that that’s what the public wants, new stuff! And you keep peddling the old!
Don’t blame the old men at the labels. They’re beholden to the artists. Just like the artists are responsible for ticket fees, they’re responsible for the inane album format. Because they’ve got no vision. Toting out their long-playing favorites, from “Sgt. Pepper” to “Dark Side Of The Moon,” they say they’re just following in a long tradition. I’m saying they’re just making music a second-class citizen, by being so lost in the past.
You’ve got to create constantly now. That’s they only way you can stay in the public eye!
Radio is Las Vegas. A few people get lucky, a few win the jackpot.
But most don’t.
Hone your track with its twelve writers, spoon-feed it to radio, be part of the dying game.
Or release music constantly in order to maintain your presence in your audience’s brain.
Look at the public. Used to be mail came once a day. You got it when you arrived home. Then, you could only check e-mail with a wired connection. Now, you go to dinner and everybody’s on their phone, constantly. They just cannot stand being disconnected.
But that’s what you are. Disconnected from your audience.
They’re not tweeting about your latest release, because it was MONTHS AGO!
It’s almost like you’re making a movie. You know, something that plays in the theatre for a week or two, and just when word of mouth gets you interested, it’s gone!
But let’s forget about the movie business, which is challenged so greatly and doesn’t realize it. Let’s focus on music.
The number one thing a fan wants is more music by his favorite act. But rather than deliver said music, today’s bands put out an album and then lay low for a few years, while their functionaries try to convince everybody who doesn’t care that they should. Forget about the new audience, focus on the old. The old will sell you to the new. If you satiate them.
And the way you do this is via new music.
But it’s not only music. It’s connection.
You think you’re gaining traction by hanging with the program director?
IDIOT!
You’re better off answering e-mail, responding on Facebook, making news on Twitter. There’s no thrill like getting a Twitter response from your hero. You tell everybody you know. Virality is rampant. But the old farts would rather get a story about a tour in the newspaper. Forget the newspaper, that’s where news goes to die, it’s there last. News is for today, tomorrow is for brand new news.
And perfection is history.
How do we know?
Because Reese Witherspoon acted out in Georgia and we all knew in hours, if not minutes. She’s too stupid to come out and say, HEY, I WAS DRUNK! But actors are phonies and musicians are real. Cop to the facts. State the truth. That’s what bonds you to your fans. You’ve got the ability to connect directly, but you keep complaining the new way is not like the old way and you just can’t get paid.
I’ve got news for you, it’s gonna get worse.
There’s gonna be nowhere to buy a CD. And the world is gonna go to streaming. And people are gonna cherry-pick their favorites. And there’s nothing you can do about it other than make phenomenal music, which your album is not, there hasn’t been an album playable throughout since Cat Stevens became Yusuf Islam.
Oh, you get the point.
There’s a giant disconnect!
It’s not the media’s job to keep you in the public eye, it’s yours!
They call it the NEWSPAPER, and despite my complaint that so much of what’s inside is old, it’s not old by months, that’s right, they don’t call it the OLDPAPER, so the odds of them writing about your album months after release are essentially nil.
We live in a direct to consumer society.
Amazon knows it.
Google knows it.
Apple knows it.
But somehow musicians don’t know it. They want someone else to do the work for them. They don’t want to take risks, they don’t want to fail, they don’t want to try new ways.
The new way is you bond to your fan. If he or she doesn’t think you’re living in their house, you’re doing it wrong.
Source: The Big Picture
The Making of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon
The most phenomenal recording in rock & roll history is thoroughly examined in Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon. The Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece remained on bestseller charts for nearly 14 years, and its enduring importance is honored here by all four members of Pink Floyd and key personnel (engineer Alan Parsons, mixing supervisor Chris Thomas, sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson, and others) who played essential roles in the landmark album’s creation. Produced for the Classic Albums series that originally aired on VH-1, this thorough and thought-provoking study highlights a track-by-track dissection of the LP’s master tapes (including the spoken-word passages that bookend the album), superbly interlaced with archival footage, early demo tapes, concert animations, and latter-day acoustic performances by David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright to demonstrate each track’s contribution to the final mix–a sonic exploration that extends to the illuminating bonus features
Source: The Big Picture
Pink Floyd: Money in Studio
This morning I read that Storm Thorgerson, the graphic artist who did a lot of album cover designs, had passed away at 69 (from the Pink Floyd fansite Brain damage via NYT).
Storm was probably best known for his work with Pink Floyd, and the iconic design of Dark Side of the Moon, as well as Wish You Were Here and Animals. He also designed covers for Led Zeppelin (Houses of the Holy), Peter Gabriel, Styx, Phish and others. (See Pitchfork for more details)
Perhaps a fitting way to mark the occassion is with this clip from Classic Albums: The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon (2003)
Source: The Big Picture
Pink Floyd: Money in Studio
This morning I read that Storm Thorgerson, the graphic artist who did a lot of album cover designs, had passed away at 69 (from the Pink Floyd fansite Brain damage via NYT).
Storm was probably best known for his work with Pink Floyd, and the iconic design of Dark Side of the Moon, as well as Wish You Were Here and Animals. He also designed covers for Led Zeppelin (Houses of the Holy), Peter Gabriel, Styx, Phish and others. (See Pitchfork for more details)
Perhaps a fitting way to mark the occassion is with this clip from Classic Albums: The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon (2003)
Source: The Big Picture
Friday Night Jazz R&B: Miguel Adorn
Take 4 parts Prince, 2 parts In Living Color, add a dash of James Brown– and what you get is Miguel.
He may be that rare young artist who comes along once a decade with the chops, vision, and creative conviction to give you a glimpse of his entire career over 40 years as soon as you hear him sing.
For me, that moment was his live version of Adorn on SNL last week.
Miguel crushed it the way very few artists ever do.
His “raw honey falsetto” is a thing of beauty, painting aural portraits of his loves, heartbreaks and fantasies.
I have yet to hear all of Kaleidoscope Dream, but on the strength of this song, plus Sure Thing and Do You, it looks to be worth a throw. (I am unfamiliar with All I Want Is You, and I am curious if any readers know it).
~~~
I don ‘t know what it is with this song, but the whole thing just comes together so well:
Adorn:
Live on SNL, April 13, 2013
Source: The Big Picture
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