Greetings from Vail, Colorado, where it’s dumping!

Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, then again, that hot chocolate might have helped!

I just wanted to flesh out a bit more about Rapino’s interview yesterday. By me, as a matter of fact. At Aspen Live. Which I want to tell you is worth ten times the price because of the relationships you form. You can get information anywhere, but you cannot develop friends who’ll not only watch your back, but help you in this crazy business of music. Half my social life is peopled with Aspen veterans. We bonded at 8,000 feet. I can rely on them.

Anyway, Rapino talked about “the complex.”

No, he was not referring to an edifice featuring superstar concerts, rather he was talking about the landscape. That’s what we find too little of in music. People who cannot only see what’s going on today, but what’s going to happen tomorrow. Anybody can book bands, anybody can count receipts. The old guard specialized in this. The new guard knows it’s a veritable land rush in music and you’ve got to run!

That’s when I know you’re clueless. When you give me the knee-jerk reaction. Usually toting out bare bones facts. Yes, the gig sold out…but did the act do two shows the previous time through? Was the building smaller? Did tickets sell fast or slow? Is this genre on the way up or down?

Everything is intertwined, and if you don’t know how to think, you’re not gonna be a kingpin in the new music business. Bullying and intimidation are history. Don’t forget, Live Nation is a public company. Used to be acts insisted on being paid in cash, they didn’t trust promoters. Are we really worried that Live Nation or AEG are gonna stiff us?

I get tons of e-mail from people every day imploring me to get them to the next stop. As if I were a bus or a train and you could get on my back and I’d carry you on to success. I don’t have that power and it no longer works that way. The era of the gatekeeper is fading. If you’re blasting e-mail, you might be making yourself feel good, but you’re making no progress whatsoever.

You start small.

You build big.

Michael Rapino didn’t knock on Frank Barsalona’s door and tell him to give him a gig. Even if he got inside the building, Frank would have thrown him out on his ass. You’ve got to pay your dues, you’ve got to find your own way. And there’s nothing holding you back but yourself.

That’s the essence of Rapino’s story.

First there’s the hard work far off the radar screen. Becoming the number one Labatt’s rep. Impress those around you first. If you’re good, you’ll get promoted. There was no beer chart that Rapino was trying to climb. He was in a backwater, just like you. Just because the Internet allows you to reach everybody, that doesn’t mean anybody cares.

And then there’s following your dream.

If your dream comes true overnight, you’re shooting too low. Or your success is temporary. And if you’re dreaming big there are steps in the ladder. Not just the bottom and the top rungs. If you haven’t been working hard, feeling that you’ve made no progress, wondering if you should give up, then I’m laughing…because you’re not working at all.

If you’re bitching that you can’t afford it, I’m disgusted with you. Get a job. Buy a computer. Get an iPhone. It’s not like you need to buy an apartment at the Dakota to play in music. Yup, too many are sour grapes. You’re building a business. Would you try to open a store with no money? Then what makes you believe you can make it in music with no money?

If you’re holier than thou, proving that you’re poorer than everybody else, the world is ignoring you. Have fun in your pity party, because you ain’t goin’ nowhere.

Then there’s the trigger. Labatt was intertwined with CPI, Cohl’s company. Rapino got the bug. And it’s the bug that sustains you.

Rapino also talked about lanes to the top. There are only a few. And most don’t take you to the zenith. Rapino figured out being a brand manager was one of the three ways to the top at Labatt’s. So he shot for that job, got it, and did better than everybody else, so he could get promoted.

As he was investing in himself.

You might be drinking beer and watching television. There’s nothing wrong with either of these pursuits. But those who triumph have no time to waste, all their time is eaten up with getting ahead on their path. If you’re relaxing, you’re shooting for the middle. And the middle is shrinking.

Then Michael left Labatt’s to form his own concert company. He raised the money. Instantly lost nearly half a million dollars. You know what that feels like?

First, can you convince someone else to invest in you? It doesn’t happen by begging, but proving yourself. Having a track record and a plan.

Second, when things go wrong can you make them right? Perseverance is out the window in today’s society. But that’s what it takes to succeed.

And once in Europe with SFX/Clear Channel, Rapino took on all the work no one else wanted. Other territories. And suddenly, he was a monolith, his accomplishments could not be denied.

We can argue all day long whether Michael Rapino is doing a good job at Live Nation. But one thing we can all agree on is he earned the gig. Just because he didn’t come up as a backstage runner who worked for a famous concert promoter after interning at a label that does not mean he isn’t qualified, that he hasn’t paid his dues. You think it’s important that someone’s watching. But you build your resume on the inside! Come on, we all know friends with LinkedIn pages that make them look like a CEO, but in reality they’re losers. They can’t keep a job, they piss people off, self-promotion is what they do best. Most true winners do the work, the promotion comes after the fact.

So now we’re in an era where Live Nation is a pure concert play and the upside is in ticketing, online, with ticketmaster.com. What we’re seeing is whether Michael Rapino can execute. Whether he can generate bigger margins and make the stock go up.

Unlike the old fat cats, lifestyle is not as important to him as the mission. And he’s got decades left in the game, he’s not nearing retirement.

You can sit at home and talk shit about Michael Rapino all day long.

But he’s not listening.

That’s what you don’t understand. You can have someone’s e-mail address, their Twitter handle, you think you can reach out and touch them. But you can’t. They’re ignoring you. Because you’re not in the game, you don’t count.

But you can if you want to.

From: Mike Caren
Re: Recordings Not Live

You hit it on the head here but you probably missed something important here.

We have a new generation and recording at home on your iPad doesn’t require collaboration. Forget finding four great musicians (let alone four great musicians who all can write/contribute), try to find four musicians/artists who can get along long enough as a group to survive. Rap groups, very few. R&B groups, there’s nothing better but where are they? Rock bands…forget the ones that reunite when they’re broke, how many good ones stay together with their original line up long enough to be spectacular? In the “me” generation, the easiest way to get along with the rest of your band is to be the rest of your band. That’s recording. With free, downloadable multi-track recording, as long as you can play a keyboard, sample, or program, you don’t need anyone else. Or you can bring in day players and get rid of them as you see fit. Most hip hop/r&b/pop artists cherry pick the tracks. Few stay loyal to their producers (who are essentially their backing band on record) in any significant way. Hell, I hear LMFAO broke up after two albums and they (A) are a duo and (B) are relatives!

I’m not saying anything wrong with recording first. I was always personally into artists on record first, live second. Also, theoretically, who wants to duplicate the process of another era? With the speed in innovation in recording software, people are going to do incredible things. There are geniuses out there that otherwise would have never had access to instruments, let alone a studio. They’re making music on every continent, in every community, and we’re going to see some really incredible recordings. Just make sure you read about their live show before you go unless you’re ok with someone just standing behind a laptop for an hour or worse, standing with four strangers who barely know their instruments that will never find a groove. Of course there can always be a LiveBand-Yelp to solve that issue…

From: Mark Cuban
Re: Concert Streaming

Right idea, wrong platform.

900k views of Coldplay would be a bad night for them on AXS.TV. That’s more than 900k viewers in one night, not 60 days, which is exactly why bands are coming to us left and right.  So are advertisers.  They love reaching an audience. They love reaching people who otherwise might not have seen their concert. I doubt people are going to channel surf to a live online concert. They will and do channel surf their TV guide and sample our concerts.  And we are getting better at this by the day

Not only do the bands get an audience, they also get the video master to release a DVD (multiple top selling concert DVDs came from our live broadcasts).

I’ve known that streaming live concerts is a great way to make people aware since we streamed the first live concerts online more than FIFTEEN years ago.  No question the online viewing experience is better today, but it’s kind of ironic how the mobile viewing experience is back to the little screens of streaming back in the day.

But wasn’t going online supposed to be all about freedom from the gatekeepers?  How is YouTube not the same as any other entertainment distributor ? They control the bandwidth. They control placement. yadda yadda.

Enter AXS.TV

We will broadcast your concerts.  We will reach an audience for you. And it will sound great coming through the speakers on your HDTV or the speakers you connected. And it will look beautiful. Looks great, sounds great.  Compare that to the experience on your phone, laptop or the ever disappearing desktop. Run it through your Roku or Boxee. We still kick their butt and btw, it kind of sucks when you try to watch the concert online and someone else in the house wants to watch Netflix or it crushes you mobile data limits

As far as the business of TV, Music used to rate too low when it was shown on analog tvs. Sounded bad, looked worse.

Those days are gone and our partners and advertisers know it too. Amex, Budweiser, Monster Cable, Nokia and more. All are on board with long term deals.  Why?

Because Live Live, our slogan is not just about concerts it’s about activation.  You think people might get excited when they tweet to their friends who are watching a live stream ? They definitely get excited when they tweet /tumblr/FB to their friends watching on TV.
Our sponsors are all using music and sponsoring concerts. Which creates more value for that branding, online exclusively or online and AXS.TV? Or exclusive AXS.TV vs an online concert ?

AXS.TV loves music, we love showing concerts. We love talking music.  We love having artists come on and perform. We want them to come on and promote. We will talk about new music and tell viewers that a single/album is being released that night and tell them to go watch. We will show artists doing great things on the stage and off.  And we will put some Lefsetz attitude out there as well. We will have people with opinions come on the shows we produce and let them speak their minds.

And yes we are going to be at festivals. Whether we broadcast them or not.

We also are not stupid. You aren’t going to see us doing weekly video countdown shows. No 100 best bodies of hip hop.  No take overs. We know the role of YouTube and Vevo and we are going to let them to continue to do their job of presenting videos in response to searches. We don’t believe they create awareness or are a discovery engine. People find or hear their music elsewhere and then search and watch on YouTube.  Vevo does discovery, YouTube doesn’t.

AXS.TV is going to be a platform for live music. As much of it as we can get.

We are going to try a lot of different things. Some will work, some won’t.

If you are a band that wants to reach an audience and activate them, we want to broadcast your concerts live.  We want to have your artists in our studio, on our shows, being interviewed, on panels, guest hosting our shows.

Send me an email Mark@AXS.TV  Let’s do this !

m

Are you a winner?

Everybody wants the glory, but few want to do the hard work.

So Michael Rapino grows up in Thunder Bay. That’s closer to Winnipeg than Toronto. For those not Canada-savvy, that’s NOWHERE!

And his friend at the Beer Store, that’s what they call it, that’s the only place to buy beer in Canada, tells him a job is open as a college rep at Labatt’s.

So not only does Rapino track down the appropriate party, he develops a whole marketing plan, writes it down, before he shows up for the interview.

Are you willing to go the extra mile? Do you need it?

Getting a Labatt gig after college graduation, yes, Michael studied to become an accountant, worked at that for two weeks and gave up, he ended up becoming the number one rep. He read every book in the company library. He went for every educational weekend. He got promoted. He knew everything about the brand.

And then he decided one drunken night he wanted to be head of a concert company before he was forty.

Do you have that vision? He wrote it down on a napkin. He made it long before.

He was in beer for a decade. Although Labatt had a nexus with CPI, the concert company. He started his own concert company. He sold it to SFX. He took a pay cut to work in New York instead of going back to Labatt.  Do you believe in yourself?

Then he was sent to Europe, where he shot sponsorship through the roof and got more and more territories and ultimately became the worldwide bigwig.

He not only wanted it, he NEEDED IT!

And don’t forget he even defeated Michael Cohl in the process.

Oh, we learned that Live Nation is a pure concert play. And they don’t want to sell tchotchkes with tickets, just more tickets. Artist fees are not going down, and it’s all about the data.

Walls are done. That’s what killed the record business. You’re in it with your customers and the acts. And if you don’t think Michael Rapino plays to win, you just don’t know him.

This ain’t the old music business. Where you get a few acts and win on intimidation. Saying you know everything when you know very little.

Rapino straddles the generations. He sees tomorrow and is not holding on to yesterday.

There are challenges ahead.

But now I know why he got the gig. You can smell the desire, the hard work, see both the charm and the sharp elbows.

It was fascinating to experience the man behind the image.

Furthermore, today it SNOWED!

The last good Ozzy.

He was lost after the untimely death of Randy Rhoads.

Then again, I’d be lying if I said I loved those albums when they came out. But after hearing “Flying High Again” every Saturday night on FM radio I suddenly realized I was a fan. That’s how I came to love Foghat. The incessant airplay of those tracks you thought you hated to the point where you realized you loved them! Kind of like Journey’s “Wheel In The Sky” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'”.

I actually threw out Ozzy’s initial double live album. I didn’t want anybody to see it in my collection. But when Jeff Laufer called me back in the fall of ’91 to get tickets to see the Ozzman at what was then called the Universal Amphitheatre, I decided to spin Ozzy’s latest offering, “No More Tears.” I was blown away. On this record alone Ozzy deserves to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. There’s not a single bum track. There are so many winners you just spin it in amazement.

“I Don’t Want To Change The World”

Start here. Forget that “No More Tears” was the single. “I Don’t Want To Change The World” is the metalhead’s credo…

I don’t want to change the world
I don’t want the world to change me

Whew!

Life sucks. Just leave me with my music, it gets me by.

It’s fast like Metallica, it’s got a buzzsaw guitar that only appears in hard rock records, the kind that scares away those who don’t belong. And there are multiple changes and a screaming guitar solo and there’s an interlude in the middle you were not expecting that blows your mind.

Don’t tell me stories ’cause yesterday’s glories
Have gone away, so far away

Metal isn’t about the past, it’s about the present. That’s why it works. Nothing else matters…school, work, responsibility…the music crowds all that out.

And there’s even sarcastic humor:

Tell me I’m a sinner I got news for you
I spoke to God this morning and he don’t like you

Ha! Take that!

“I Don’t Want To Change The World” draws a line. You’re either on one side or the other. You like to bang your head or you’re a wimp. If this music doesn’t energize you, channel your anger and make you feel happy…put on your Carpenters records.

“Hellraiser”

Also cowritten by Lemmy…

This is so deep in the album, you’re stunned. By time you hit track 7, the songs should lose their edge, kind of like the last half hour of SNL. Instead “Hellraiser” separates the boys from the men. Can you party all night? Do you never get worn out? GOOD, COME RIGHT IN!

I’m living on an endless road
Around the world for rock and roll

This is what we all used to want, as late as 1991, when this album was released. To travel with the band. Feel the music, feel the groupies, getting high and ragged, living the life. The bankers may have money, but they ain’t got this.

Check out Lemmy’s version. It’s not as good, but it’s still special. Ozzy sings better, but Lemmy’s voice has character.

Meanwhile, the way the track breaks down and gets heavy at 3:35…this is what we LOVE about album rock. This feeling. Which seems to be completely gone from today’s landscape.

“Mr. Tinkertrain”

Not the best song on the album, which is like saying “Come Together” is not as good as “Here Comes The Sun,” nevertheless “Mr. Tinkertrain” is a fantastic opener, as good as any the Stones have employed in decades. There’s no pussyfooting. You’re right in Ozzy’s space, almost immediately. It’s dark, it’s dangerous…AND YOU’RE SO GLAD YOU OPENED THIS DOOR!

Your heart pulses to that bottom. Ozzy’s voice is so inviting!

“Mama, I’m Coming Home”

This is the kind of stuff Kid Rock cuts that crosses over to country today. But back in the last century, something this good could get MTV airplay, and “Mama I’m Coming Home” did. This is the Ozzy to close all those who think they dislike Ozzy.

“No More Tears”

The initial single. A veritable tour de force. The intro is a vibrating tuning fork of a sound that gets your attention and draws you in. And then it’s like a choir is singing in the background, you’re at metal church and finally your pastor Ozzy arrives, Zakk Wylde playing him on with a flourish.

“No More Tears” is more than seven minutes long and not a second of it is wasted. It’s like the anthem from hell.

Ozzy dominates, the change adds flavor, but it’s the raw sound of the instruments that blows your mind.

“Time After Time” & “Road To Nowhere”

Both ballads, both just about as good as “Mama I’m Coming Home,” you’re stunned there’s so much good music on this album as “Road To Nowhere” closes it. You’re worn out, wet with sweat, drenched and tired.

So we went to that show…

It was my first Ozzy experience. With him spraying the audience with water, leading them in a standing wave back and forth to “Mr. Crowley”…it was more than a concert, it was a religious rite. I was converted on the spot. I never said a bad word about Ozzy again. I took my nine year old nephew to see him at the Forum for his first concert. And Ozzy didn’t disappoint.

That was the “Ozzmosis” tour. And although the show was great, the album disappointed. Ozzy’s never come through since. He’s tried and tried and he keeps missing the mark. It looked like the special sauce was Zakk, but he couldn’t replicate the greatness…it’s like suddenly the Ozzman lost his path.

Then he went on TV and made a lot of money and ruined his career. Because suddenly Ozzy was owned by everybody, not just his hard core fans. Everybody knew he wasn’t dangerous, that was just an image, but now the Prince of Darkness was a two-dimensional character on the box and nothing chews up and spits out talent like television.

Ozzfest ran its course. Ozzy’s now reunited with Black Sabbath. And one could count him out, but I never will.

Because of “No More Tears.”

Rhinofy-No More Tears

Previous Rhinofy playlists