Archive for the 'Music Business' Category


Poker

It’s a game of statistics. Last night on Radiolab I heard Annie Duke say you couldn’t rely on tells. Because some people were too inexperienced to know whether they had a good hand or a bad one. Your only hope was to do the math. I don’t play cards. But it’s been the rage for […]

Zach Braff’s Kickstarter

kickstarter – wish-i-was-here Remember when all the bands were selling albums at Wal-Mart? That was five years ago. And nobody does it anymore. The paradigm’s toast. Just like name your own price, the Radiohead “In Rainbows” promotion. The reason the Wal-Mart scheme worked is because it was the EAGLES! Who hadn’t released an album in […]

Constant Creation

Here today, gone tomorrow. That’s the modern paradigm. When what you want to do is stay in the public eye, in people’s minds, you don’t want to be forgotten. That is why the album format is working against you. 1. If you’re making an album-length statement, a story, a concept, go for it. But twelve […]

Neal Preston

“I probably partied harder with REO Speedwagon.” That’s what Neal Preston, photographer extraordinaire, said when I asked him what it was like riding on the Starship, Led Zeppelin’s legendary private jet. He said there were no groupies, very little coke, the main activity on the plane was SLEEP! That was another of Mr. Preston’s aphorisms, […]