Jason Gets Tyler
That’s Flom and Steven for those scoring at home.
Jason Flom specializes in signing cartoon characters. Steven Tyler IS a cartoon character.
Only problem is, the road to riches for newbie cartoon acts is broken. You can’t make a video for MTV illustrating your excesses and end up selling ten million copies. Who cares if the music is forgettable! Isn’t that the essence of TV stardom, the evanescence? Hear anybody talking about Tim Allen recently? Or Chandler Bing? What was Chandler Bing’s real name…WHO CARES!
But Steven Tyler is a legitimate rock star with a string of hits under his belt with his band Aerosmith. Whose latest management team has garnered the band tons of dough, but has done nothing to burnish the act’s image, promote them, build them other than a cash-in with Guitar Hero.
Yes, Aerosmith was first. They made a fortune. But you can’t play the game with your friends! It’s solo mode only! That’s like being on Facebook with no friends. HUH?
Howard Kaufman may know how to extract big bucks from concert promoters, but that’s it. And eventually, you burn out the marketplace. Aerosmith ticket sales are off. Fleetwood Mac is soft. Def Leppard is past its peak. Overpriced seats for the same show year after year go unfilled. The public has moved on. How do you get the public back? BY ADDING SOME EXCITEMENT!
Where is the Web play with the Fleetwood Mac tour? You’d think the iPhone is some futuristic gadget from the "Jetsons". Where’s the special hook-up section at the gig…boomers are divorced, they need to get laid too…all triangulated via Craigslist or the band’s app. Where are the salacious messages texted by the audience on the big Verizon screen during the show. Where is the contest where an audience member gets to take the stage and sing "Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around" with Stevie Nicks? You might say this is sacrilegious, I’d say the religion’s long gone, with the band’s hits behind them. The new century is all about getting the audience involved, and Howard Kaufman is only interested in taking a check!
Believe me, Jason Flom likes a check too. But suddenly, he’s realized the old game is up. Sure, he made a deal to bring Lava to his old mentor Doug Morris’ Universal house. But what about that deal with Cherry Lane?
Jason’s trying to survive.
Is Jason twenty five, has he spent 10,000 hours online? No. But he’s tenacious, and he realizes if he’s going to continue to be a force in the music business he must change his ways. Which is why he’s suddenly gone where the action is, MANAGEMENT!
Anybody can book a superstar’s tour. That’s what an agent is for. But career direction?
Assuming he’s willing, and by signing with Flom and the guy from Nickelback’s team it appears he is, there are HUGE opportunities for Tyler in the marketplace. He’s our number one American rock icon. He’s our Mick Jagger.
Does Tyler want to whore himself out to corporations? Jason can certainly facilitate that. But what’s more interesting is what Jason did with Antigone Rising…the first new act promoted by Starbucks.
How successful the album ultimately was is irrelevant. The point is, Jason pulled off the deal! He got in touch with all the parties, wooed them and got it done. Have you seen Jason in action? He’ll call everybody he knows, not be afraid to look uninformed, and then synthesize all the data he collects into a plan that is positively today, that he wills to work.
I don’t think the future is Jason breaking new acts. Because right now, it’s hard, there’s not that much money there, it’s not where the action is. But rehabilitating old warhorses? That can be done. If you’re innovative!
Irving Azoff’s got tons of ideas over at Ticketmaster. But needing to raise Ticketmaster’s image and finalize the deal with Live Nation, Irving just can’t get into the trenches with so many of Front Line’s acts like he used to. So there are opportunities for new players, who are willing to think outside the box and deliver what some of Irving’s team just cannot come up with.
Do I know the plan?
No.
But I know that Steven Tyler must have been unhappy. And I know that Jason Flom must have pitched him. And I know that Tyler wouldn’t have jumped unless there was a true management partner involved, i.e. John Greenberg from Nickelback. And that Tyler wouldn’t have made a move unless he planned TO DO SOMETHING!
Anybody can play live. Anybody can get on TV. Anybody can release a record no one buys. But can anybody have an impact on the culture at large, can anybody make a big splash?
Odds are best with a proven name. With no negativities attached. Steven Tyler is the perfect rock star. Not only can he still sing his hits on stage, he’s smart and personable and wows you one on one. There are numerous opportunities here. Certainly greater than singing "Dream On" in sheds every summer.
But more fascinating is Jason Flom’s move. Jason can see what his contemporaries cannot. That the old game is dying. He’s not giving it up entirely, he knows there’s a process of evolution. So now he runs a record company, but is also a manager. And a publisher too. Endless pennies paid over decades are just as good as dollars paid today, but never again.
Jason, unlike his old label brethren, is not a liar.
But he is not sans ego.
Can he subvert his to truly serve Tyler? Can he come up with an innovative plan, not only execute it?
We’ll see!
