THE LABEL

Used to be you wanted to work at the label, Warner Brothers/Sony/EMI, et al.

Now you want to work at Google, Amazon, Apple or Facebook.

INITIAL GIG/RETAIL

It was nearly impossible to get a job at the record store. You had to know someone and know so much.

Now you want to work at the Apple Store, which is a tough gig to get, and you must be familiar with so much.

STEREO

You saved to get the best reproduction system you could afford, upgrading your stereo along the way.

Now you want the best mobile handset you can afford. They might look cheap, being subsidized by the carrier, but a good handset retails for $600-800, and unlike with stereo there is no haggling/discount.

LINEUP

You used to line up to buy concert tickets.

Now you line up to buy gadgets, most famously at the Apple Store.

GOAL

You used to want to be a musical star.

Now you want to be a tech star.

And in both cases, the goal was similar, to sell out. Every app developer wants a deep pocket to buy them out, oftentimes quickly, the same way acts wanted a record deal. As for getting screwed by the label… In tech you’re screwed by the intermediary, the venture capitalist, who squeezes your share down.

INFO

You used to subscribe to “Crawdaddy,” “Fusion,” “Rolling Stone” and “Zoo World.” Information was limited.

Today you surf sites endlessly ferreting out the truth, and you can talk back and be heard.

FADS

Musical one hit wonders abounded. They were big for a moment and then faded into memory.

Today it’s sites rather than records. We remember AOL and Friendster and MySpace and Turntable.fm.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY

You were only as good as your last album, if you didn’t continue to deliver your career faded away.

Google and Amazon and Apple and Facebook continue to develop. If you stand still you’re toast.

INVENTORY

Your favorite record might not be in stock and prices were different at every store.

Everything online is always in stock and the price is almost rock bottom identical everywhere.

But hit hardware can be hard to find, the same way hit albums were hard to find.

SUCCESS

Was about riches and sex.

In tech it’s about riches, but everyone knows rich people exude their own attractiveness and find it easier to get laid.

SOUVENIR

Was an autograph.

Now it’s a photograph.

ACCOUNTING

Seamless and understandable in tech, it’s part of the bedrock.

Unfathomable and inequitable in music, to this day.

PROFESSIONAL

Lawyers in music, venture capitalists in tech.

PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE

From vinyl to 8-track to cassette to CD to MP3 to stream in music. You had to pay for the same thing over and over again.

Moore’s Law has us replacing our gadgets constantly in tech. If you’re broke, you cannot play.

BIG SHOW

The Stones at the arena. Tickets were expensive and hard to get.

Now it’s Tim Cook and his cronies in Cupertino, we all tune in for free from home, if you miss it you can stream it later.

But in music today, the money’s all in the show, in tech it’s all in the hardware and software.

BREAKING ACTS/APPS

Radio was king.

Today word of mouth is king.

COOL

The acts.

Now it’s the gadgets. The acts are to be made fun of. The true heroes are the smarties in the tech world, who innovate constantly and continue to dazzle us. Their goal is to disrupt and profit. The acts’ goal is to be the same and profit, and that’s much less interesting. Furthermore, in music packaging is paramount, in tech there’s almost no packaging left. All software is downloadable and instantly available.

FREE

In tech so much is free, whether it be the apps on your computer or the websites you visit. Techies realize a user can be monetized in many ways, and to charge too soon is detrimental.

In music everybody’s a street hustler who demands to get paid at every stop along the way. This short term thinking has held the business back. The key is to get everybody in the ecosystem and then upsell them, the same way iPod users bought Macs then iPhones and iPads.

ENTREPRENEURS

The barrier to entry is so low. Anybody can be a musician or a techie. But to be successful you have to be talented and smart and have a team. All three are hard to achieve.