MySpace Sale
Now does Tom Freston get his job back?
Remember, Sumner Redstone was mad that MTV didn’t buy MySpace, that Rupert Murdoch/News Corp. moved so quickly and stole it from underneath their noses.
But what was the true value of MySpace?
That’s an interesting question.
You’ve got to follow this guy David Heinemeier Hansson on Twitter. He’s willing to go against the conventional wisdom, with facts.
Hansson does a brilliant analysis of the jump in LinkedIn’s stock. He says it’s a pump:
Furthermore, he eviscerates "Forbes"’s analysis of Facebook’s value:
And after you’re reading all that, take a gander at the latest news re Square, the credit card processing company:
Square’s now worth a billion. But don’t expect the company to crash overnight. Two months ago they were processing $2 million a day, today they’re doing $4 million.
What we’re learning here is you’ve got to have a real product, that makes real money, you just can’t believe if you’ve got enough eyeballs you can sell advertising.
That’s what Facebook is struggling with. What can it sell beyond advertising, how can it make you stick to the site.
Which is why musicians must find a way to get paid for personal appearances. Sure, get enough YouTube views and you can make some coin, but how can you make good enough music that people want to pay to see you live, that should be your goal, that’s where the rubber meets the road.
The music is the advertisement for the tour. We’re back to the days of vaudeville. How good are you live, do you electrify the audience?
In other words, it doesn’t matter if no one buys Grateful Dead albums if they go to the show.
That’s the Phish paradigm.
On some level it’s the Gaga paradigm. However she’s a bit like MySpace, she’s been in it for so brief a time people are not completely bonded to her. In other words, Gaga’s MTV on steroids. MTV could rocket you into space, but you’d fall back to earth pretty quickly.
But if you’re propelled into the stratosphere by fans as opposed to corporations, if you keep giving back as you take, you’ve got a better chance of sustaining.
We’re definitely in an Internet bubble era.
But we’re also in a music bubble era. People want to believe we still live in the nineties and they’re doing everything they can to get famous instantly and get paid. That’s what "American Idol" is about. That’s what "The Voice" is about.
I’m gonna hip you to something.
"American Idol" doesn’t want you. Nor does the major label. Now it’s your time to thrive, on your own terms.
TV shows only want beautiful people with big voices.
Major labels only want artists they can get on Top Forty radio.
Those two sometimes intersecting paradigms leave most of music out.
That’s where you come in, that’s where you deliver.
If you build it slow, it lasts longer.
It’s easier than ever to be known by people overnight.
But it’s harder than ever to sustain.
Start slow. Build off the radar. Base your choices on audience reaction, not that of the middleman.
Focus on the music and the show, the rest is secondary.
