Don Ross “Crazy”
I like this. I did not at first. At the beginning, I thought it was pedestrian, just another guy looking to get famous doing a cover. Then, he hit the chorus and I started to get this feeling inside, around the :42 mark, it was like catching someone’s eye across the room, and then at :58, it was like getting into a conversation with that person. And thereafter, the connection continued. I’d been on a parallel line with the song, now I was enraptured.
The big story online today is Shirley Halperin’s interview with Scooter Braun, the manager of Justin Bieber. Â
"THR: What was the most common reason they gave you when turning him down?Braun: They all said the same thing: that he’s too young and no one’s broken from YouTube. ‘Where’s the platform? Go get a TV show, you can’t compete with Disney or Nickelodeon.’"
The Brains Behind Justin Bieber: A Conversation With Scooter Braun
That’s the way it used to be. Or as Eric Hoffer so eloquently puts it:
"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."Slide 60: Learning in a Networked World
You can break from YouTube. If you’re really good.
Sunday evening Justin Bieber won a ton of awards at the AMAs. I can’t tell you exactly which ones, because I didn’t watch. I know the AMAs are fake. A Dick Clark show created to compete with the Grammys. If you win one of these and you get a rush of blood to the head you’re sorely mistaken, consider your appearance a public relations move at best. One that pays ever fewer returns, the AMAs ratings fell precipitously, to their lowest level ever:
In other words, the mainstream game is failing. Which does not mean the indie game is going to step in and steal its thunder. Rather we’re seeing a compression, from both ends. Ubiquitous promotion yields fewer dividends and you can employ the indie tools to gain significant traction. How significant?
Well, I never ever would have heard Don Ross’s version of "Crazy" prior to the Net. I’ve never experienced a terrestrial radio station that plays this kind of music. And with no exposure, there’s no word of mouth. But now you can put your music online and if you’re good, word can spread.
But Don is still old school. Go to his site. There’s no streaming, no free downloads. My friend Marty Winsch says his client Corey Smith’s sales at iTunes go up when he gives the same music away free on his Website. In other words, you’ve got to be fully old school or new school.
Old school is sell your soul to a major label.
If you’re doing this, you must make music that can be played on the radio. You’ve got to be willing to do what the company says. You must promote the hell out of yourself in order to try and get people to pay attention to you at the same time you’re causing a backlash and make very little money all in the name of fame, which pays fewer dividends than ever before.
New school is do it yourself. With a team that you control.
You give away your music. You stay in touch with your audience. You keep giving them more and more, for free, in the hopes that the bond will get stronger and they’ll support you, buy your merch and recordings and come to see you live. But new school depends on two things:
1. Being good.
2. Having friends.
You’re building a tribe from the ground up. It’s very slow. You’ll slog for years before you find out if you’ve made it. But once you have, your fans will continue to support you, you’re not flavor of the moment, you’ve built something.
You can study and ace one test, but that won’t get you into Harvard.
You can get plastic surgery and try to look young, but that’s not gonna work when you’re in your late thirties and trying to snare a husband, when there’s a constant stream of fresh-faced twentysomethings vying for attention.
If you do it new school, you’ve got to have substance. It’s what’s on the inside that truly counts. But, like getting into Harvard, that requires a lot of hard work, over a period of years.
All the hard work at the label has got little to do with you. It’s relationships with radio and TV and songwriters and producers. Which is why they can abandon you so easily, and you end up being famous for being famous, not much more.
Who won last year’s "Dancing With The Stars"? The year before’s?
I know nothing about Don Ross. I can see by this clip that he’s not a looker. But when he plays "Crazy" I get energized, I feel alive. That’s the essence to hooking someone. Putting humanity in your music.
P.S. I believe there’s an element of self-promotion in Dave Stewart’s drunken rant, but it’s worth noting anyway:
Then again, is Mr. Stewart part of the problem or part of the solution? Because to try and rebuild the mainstream game by reconstructing the major labels/system is like trying to convince MTV to air more music videos. That ship has sailed, it’s not financially prudent in an era where clips can be played on demand online. It’s no longer about fixing the old, but keeping the kindling lit on the new. No one is in control. The music world is being reinvented as we sit here. What triumphs will be a concoction of artists, business people and fans. Artists will not be pretty faces with one hit, business people will make a lot less money for a very long time and it’s the fans, those who live for music, who will ultimately infect the general public with the great music of tomorrow. The fans are Malcolm Gladwell’s connectors. If you want to learn about the music business, you’re better off reading Gladwell’s "Tipping Point" and "Outliers" than any music business book. Because all trends are the same, it’s just that when music hits, it’s got traction nothing else possesses. Assuming it’s music with the humanity of Don Ross’s cover of "Crazy".
