News.  That you want to know about when it happens.  But art?  Can one only appreciate the Mona Lisa if you were around during Leonardo da Vinci’s era?

In the last century, in the era of broadcasting, it was all about getting the message out.  Now, most people ignore the message. Or there’s a weak link between the message and the ultimate consumer.

In other words, if you’re making fun of people for being late to the party you’re evidencing you’re not really living in the twenty first century, you like it the way it used to be, when there was little art and you could see every movie and know every record on the "Billboard" chart, when the world was instantly comprehensible to those paying attention.

Now most are paying attention.  Just to different things.

An album enters the chart at number one and is then forgotten.  In the old days, the cultural impact would produce a long tail that would last for months.  Now, it only lasts for a week.

In other words, when your album comes out, the work is just beginning.  It’s not about the first week’s sales, but how you can spread the word.

And it all happens slowly.

Until suddenly, in some cases, it happens quickly.  That’s the power of the Web, if something catches fire, it can be turned into a conflagration overnight, just about everyone can truly know about it.  But then it is usually forgotten, like the movies that opened last weekend.  In other words, if you’re creating art for maximum instant impact, you’re playing it wrong.  You’ve got to create art that lasts for the long haul, that sounds as good three years from now as it does today, because that’s when much of the audience may finally hear it.

Old media, mainstream media, the movie studios and major labels, are all about creating impact today, deriving revenues today. And most of what they sell only generates revenue today.  And all of it reaches fewer people.  The reason albums no longer go ten times platinum isn’t primarily because of theft, but because there are too many options, and this you cannot change.

So, if you’re one of these options…  Second to creating your art doesn’t come marketing, but perseverance.  Can you create something so good that people will still be discovering it years out?  Can you hang in there, forgo graduate school, still create until a mass of fans catch up with you?

Even though fiber optics allow us to send messages around the globe instantly, most are ignored, or the target audience is unaware of them.  But when you’re at a friend’s house for dinner, or when a trusted source sends you a link, you might finally come on board, you might finally get it.

Just like I finally got Amy Winehouse on a boat ride in Ibiza.  I was relaxed enough, the sun was shining, the album was playing and I got it.  Criticize me, but you’re missing the point.  It’s not about my lack of cool, it’s about something so good that it still has life years later so I can finally get it!

I constantly get e-mailed articles and videos that in some cases I’ve read or seen YEARS before.  But rather than criticize the sender, I marvel at the quality that has allowed the work to sustain.  We’ve entered a new era, where it’s not about dropping a bomb, getting in and out, but percolation.  Almost everything great takes time to find an audience.  Everybody’s overloaded with input.  But everybody’s constantly telling their friends what they like.  And the great stuff lives on and ultimately triumphs.