Finding Out
I just found out there’s a Bruce Hornsby boxed set. Oh, you might not care, but that’s exactly the point.
Been reading Lee Gomes in the "Wall Street Journal"? Refuting "The Long Tail"? He had some interesting statistics last week
It May Be a Long Time Before the Long Tail Is Wagging the WebÂ
but this week he’s just missing the point
Sure, the most money can be made on blockbusters, BUT HOW MANY ARE THERE? And what does it cost you to compete in this marketplace? Wouldn’t it be like funding a new OS since Microsoft makes so much damn money selling Windows?
If you don’t think niche will eat away at the dominance of hits, you’ve just never turned on a TV set. Wherein the five (it is five this week, right?) networks garner 31% of the audience today whereas the THREE networks of yore, of the sixties, had NINETY PLUS percent of the TV eyeballs. All those cable channels? They may not be pulling in many viewers, but they can be OH SO PROFITABLE, with low production costs and high advertising rates to reach their customer base.
Bruce Hornsby hasn’t had a hit in years. But unlike all the MTV wonders, he’s got a CAREER! He’s sustained this by playing with the Dead, who have always been about music rather than hits (well, about joining the carnival too, but let’s not muddy the main point). Bruce doesn’t hole up with Diane Warren trying to concoct a Top Forty hit that he’ll never have and if he does his audience will never hear. Rather he constantly tours, works with other players, lives the life of a MUSICIAN, and people adore him for that. He’s got fans. He can work.
And maybe the hard core knows he’s got this new boxed set Intersections 1985-2005, maybe they’ve found out through his Website or an e-mail list, but I’m a believer and I just found out from a squib on livedaily.com, a site I never would have visited if Ticketmaster President Sean Moriarty hadn’t told me to take a look.
How in the hell are you supposed to be plugged in anymore? How in the hell are you supposed to be a fan? How in the hell are you supposed to believe in music, feel a member of the fabric?
Despite Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera, you’d be surprised how many people have tuned out the major label circle jerk. Do you think anybody really cares about the VMAs anymore? Didn’t they cease being about music the FIRST TIME they were in Miami? And nobody listens to terrestrial radio (and not many are tuned into satellite either!) Sure, it’s the easiest way to reach the most people, but doesn’t the network television example above prove that most people are LEFT OUT?
We used to rely on FM radio. Then MTV. Not to mention "Rolling Stone". Now none of those outlets count. And no monolith has reared its head to replace them.
We need a club. A SERIES of clubs maybe. Where fans can rally.
Oh, I’m not talking about physical spaces. I’m talking about WEBSITES! Where you can find out what’s coming out, what’s going on, FEEL PLUGGED IN!
It ain’t hitsdailydouble.com, inured to the machine. And it’s not the Velvet Rope, miscreants angry with the machine. And it’s not mtv.com, playing to a theoretical teenager who doesn’t even exist.
It’s someplace cool. With a wider net. Where if you don’t live and breathe music, if you’re not an insider, you still feel you belong.
Hell, it’s not amazon.com, with its ratings system. And it’s not pandora or lastfm.
Can we stop lamenting the decline of the old system and start focusing on the building of the new?
You start with free music. Hell, I know a TEENAGER, a MALE, who got turned on to Corinne Bailey Rae by the iTunes Music Store free download. You’ve got to give people a TASTE, especially when there’s nowhere else to listen.
But it’s bigger than that. You’ve got to establish something people believe in.
People believe in craigslist.org. And google.com. They’re simple, they’re usable, they contain NO HYPE!
AOL Music? I can’t go there without getting the feeling they’re trying to sell me something. That they’re on the side of the fat cats, not ME!
Yahoo? Shit, AOL with even less hipness. The Wal-Mart of the Web. Terry Semel has fucked it up completely.
Where’s the online buzz in music?
MySpace ain’t bad, but it ain’t about music.
The buzz still lives in P2P, but the RIAA has scared away everybody but the most tech-inclined. Ridiculous. Sales were at their peak during the height of Napster. Where’s the EXCITEMENT!
Somebody’s gonna get this right. Someone who’s on the side of the people as opposed to the side of the labels/industry infrastructure. Somebody who doesn’t say EVERYTHING is good, but wades through the crap to reveal the gems.
Oh, you’ll be able to look up EVERY new release, but the site will tell you what’s good.
In the Information Age, there’s no good information on music. There’s a TON OF IT, but you’ve got to visit a zillion Mom & Pop shops/Websites to garner it. And who’s got that much time.
Meanwhile, as an owner of EVERY Bruce Hornsby album, and in excess of a HUNDRED bootleg MP3s (including my favorite P2P download of all time, Bruce and Bela Fleck’s cover of "Tangled Up In Blue" from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival), I should have known he had a new boxed set.
Someone, seemingly EVERYONE, is fucking up.
