Connecticut
I’m here to visit my mother in rehab. She took too many drugs and…
No, she broke her hip and then her femur and she wanted me to come and here I am.
I was also going to go to the Rockefeller Estate at Pocantico for a big confab about voter registration but the money pulled out and the conference collapsed. Other people’s money… Makes you only want to work for yourself.
I read a fascinating article in the lounge, waiting for my plane. It’s entitled "Why Pay Full Price?" and it’s all about loyalty programs and you can read it here:
Did you know if you’ve got a Gap credit card you get 10% off all merchandise on Tuesday? Think about this… You’re a member of the Live Nation loyalty program and you get 10% off on all tickets and merchandise on Tuesday, or Wednesday, pick a day, any day. Why isn’t the concert giant doing this?
Because Live Nation is convinced it’s about the deal. We hear Michael Rapino rant and rave about unsold inventory, but the company doesn’t seem to take steps to address this problem. Sure they have fire sales, but this is like blowing out Christmas decorations on December 26th. You need to stick your customers to you, like American Airlines.
I only fly American. I won’t go out of my way, to Seattle to get to Canada, but if American flies directly to the city I want, I take it. Hell, even though there’s only one flight a day, whenever I go to Toronto I take American instead of Air Canada. Why? BECAUSE OF THE LOYALTY PROGRAM!
It’s not about the miles. Life is too short to manage and use them. It’s about the gold status. Got to fly 25k a year so I can get free bags and priority access and upgrades. Hell, I flew Business class today, because of the loyalty program! Do you think I’m gonna switch airlines and pay the same and fly in the back of the bus and pay for my bags to boot?
You see the concert industry thinks it’s about the deal. And heat.
And if an act has heat, it is about the deal. But if there’s heat, there’s not all that unsold inventory. The question is, how do we get people to come when there’s no heat? This is where Live Nation falters.
So either you’ve got to create heat or hire some retail strategists who know how to engage customers and boost your bottom line. Yes, what Live Nation needs is outsiders…
Let me give you an example. Match.com hired a quant. And what he found out was people didn’t want what they said they did. It was all in the data. They said they wanted blonde and never married yet they dated brunette divorcees. Read this article, it’s fascinating:
That’s what happens when you see your dating site as more than signups. People are frustrated, they log in and don’t connect, but now the data helps them. Tell me again how Live Nation is helping its customers?
And I was reading Jacob Slichter’s book on the plane ("So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer’s Life") You know, the guy from Semisonic. Actually, you don’t know. The book is a few years old. But it’s fascinating. Hearing how the band signed to Elektra and then Krasnow got blown out and then signed to MCA and Al Teller got blown out. Music is about being master of your own destiny, why would you want to be beholden to these lying, cheating, scumbags who may not even be around when your record comes out?
Speaking of which, it appears that Len Blavatnik is going to buy Warner Music. This disappoints me. I wanted an outsider to buy it, Len’s been on the company’s board. I wanted to see revolution. Now we’re gonna see evolution. Lyor won’t lose his job and it’ll be the same as it ever was except for the publishing spinoff and the merger with EMI. I’d like to see someone blow the company up. Stop putting out new music, do something different. Instead we’re going to continue to see the fade of a great institution, whose sell-by date passed long before Blavatnik offered to overpay. You see record companies still believe they’re in the recording business, they don’t realize they’re in the MUSIC business. Watch this Seth Godin video, it makes the point, sometimes you’ve got to give it away for free to blow up:
And speaking of free, the labels are too stupid to know that Apple’s cloud service is the worst thing that will ever happen to them. If someone can listen to what they’ve bought anywhere, how are you going to get them to buy a streaming subscription? A little cash from a lot of people creates a much bigger pot than a lot from a little.
And we’re flying over a landscape that looks like the Moon. Was it Arkansas, or Texas? Flying made me want to get in my car and explore this great nation of ours.
And speaking of this nation, WHY CAN’T EVERYBODY TURN OUT THE LIGHTS?
They say there’s an energy crisis, but I’m flying over the eastern seaboard and all I can see is all these unnecessary lights. Can we have a national campaign to turn them off? And don’t tell me it’s un-American, that we have to be able to burn as much juice as we want, were smog controls and airbags un-American?
And I might as well have walked from my gate to Connecticut, that’s how long the hike was to the baggage carousel.
And they’re doing construction everywhere, but when the Turnpike backed up we got off in Westport and suddenly I was…home.
I’m from Fairfield. But we ate Chinese food in Westport. I saw what used to be the old Sam Goody record shop, and even though it was dark I was surrounded by woods and I yearned to move back.
For a minute. It’ll wear off. It’s hard to leave SoCal after you’ve lived there… Not only the weather, but the lack of scrutiny and the city in a suburb feel…I’m hooked.
But there’s something about the east coast. The way everybody’s packed in together, the way they think they’ve got all the answers, the way the pizza tastes, that makes you hate the Yankees and love them all at the same time.
I’m in my mother’s apartment. Seems weird without her here. Just thought I’d check in.
