From: Tom Rush

Bob,

Check the numbers on the Remember Song.  We seem to have hit a nerve here.  The interesting thing to me is that this is clearly Boomers, not kids.  So when do I get the check?

Tom

Tom Rush – Remember Song

Now I just woke up.  And having gone to bed so late, I feel like my head was run over by a truck.  So when I click on the link, and see the plays for this song…I just don’t BELIEVE THEM, they just don’t COMPUTE!  But could Tom Rush be using a bot?  None of his other videos have 1,852,789 plays.

Then I clicked on the video/song.  And I remembered hearing Tom Rush perform it a month back at McCabe’s.  And I realized these views were real, that viral attention had blown this video up.

This is how I responded to Tom:

The money comes out of you leveraging it.  Having your "manager"  contact TV shows for airplay…
Left field idea, Lifetime, women’s television…
Certainly the morning TV shows.

This is the promotion racket, just in a new sphere.  You use numbers to convince other people to take a chance.  One viewing of this video and you get it.  And anybody who wants to reach baby boomers should get it.  Will they take a chance?  I’m betting SOMEONE will.  And the resultant exposure could inject some adrenaline into Tom’s career.  More and better gigs, even PRIVATES!  This is the equivalent of a song in a commercial, but BETTER!

But Bob, aren’t you against selling out?

Well, there is no commercial here, and I wouldn’t recommend one.  But it’s not wrong to be on TV if no one knows who you are to begin with, or needs to be reminded, and it’s not calculated, if it’s not about selling tonnage.  John Mellencamp was swinging for the fences with Chevy, Tom Rush is just trying to get some awareness.  You root for the up and comer who gets a shot, you wince when the star is on a victory lap/selling out.

And you do things when you’re beginning, when you’re building, that you’d never do once you’ve made it, once you’re established.
A little TV traction and Tom could open for Jimmy Buffett.  And then Jimmy’s audience could embrace him, Tom could grow his concert business and then, like Jimmy, rarely, if ever, be seen on TV again.

The rules aren’t hard and fast, you’ve got to work them for your career.  It’s just that you should protect your credibility at every turn.  A song on "Grey’s Anatomy"?  I might not do it, but I’d tell just about everybody who wanted to to go for it.  A song in a Coke commercial?  Unless you’re an evanescent popster, decline.  An appearance on a morning TV show?  If you appeal to teens and twentysomethings and are all about credibility, don’t do it, they might not watch these shows, but that doesn’t mean they won’t hear about it, the fact that you went on to sell your wares/identity rubs them the wrong way, hell, THEY choose NOT to watch these shows!  But if you’re a journeyman baby boomer act, it’s fine to go on one of these programs to remind your public you’re still out there, and still great.  As for privates?  The oldsters who are fans of Tom would like to hire him THEMSELVES!  These ARE the people who put on the privates!  These aren’t privates so much as HOUSE CONCERTS!

Even Metallica gave it away in the beginning, that’s how you get STARTED!  As they say at Google, it’s knowing where to charge in the food chain!  YouTube plays might now be free, but you can make money down the line.

P.S. The manager part is a joke, Tom is his own manager, he never had any luck with someone doing this job.