"People spend $300 on crazy things all the time, things like handbags. So work all year, scrape the money together, and come to my show. I’m worth it."

Madonna on Lady Gaga, ‘W.E.,’ Her New Album

It’s not the eighties anymore.

But don’t tell that to an ultra-rich woman living in a London inhabited by wealthy oil sheiks that appears to be oblivious to the recession, never mind the plight of those in the Midlands or the United States.

This is how we know Madonna is toast. Ahmet always kept up with the trends, that’s how he stayed relevant. And Madonna tried, albeit a beat behind the hipsters, distilling their fads for the masses, but now she’s lost her way.

You’re supposed to be in bed with your fans. Or at least give that illusion. She’s supposed to say she wants to charge less, but the scalpers won’t let her, she wants to make sure fans get the tickets. Or, if she really cared about the fans getting tickets, she’d lower the price and go paperless.

But Madonna never cared about her fans. Certainly not after she got rich and started living a better life hanging with the upper class.

And this worked in the go-go eighties, even the dot com nineties, when seemingly everybody had money and was living the high life.

But now, when those same fans who lined up as teenagers are mothers balancing the books to put food on the table, Madonna insults them?

As for the comment re handbags, isn’t this what’s wrong with America? Empty, soulless gratification, like too much of Madonna’s recent music? People are hungering for truth. Sure, they want to party, but not at these prices.

Not that I believe Madonna will do poor business. But I’d be stunned if her album’s a success in America. She’s too old, too unhip, and without Top Forty success, you’re done.

It’s a brand new music business and Madonna’s not part of it.

The saturation marketing of yore, where we had to endure her, is gone. We can ignore Madonna pretty easily these days. And that’s what she hates most. She wants that attention. But rather than remake herself for a modern era, she’s gonna go on the road and sing those old hits.

She’s incredibly smart. If only she let her face fall and sang about the travails of the middle age woman, then she could truly be a leader, an icon, she’d have a chance of regaining her previous status.

But she blinked. She spends more time in the gym than on charitable issues and has had fat injected in her cheeks when her fan base is riddled with cellulite. Once upon a time she was a chubby everywoman, now she’s a Terminator, a veritable computer, made of metal and plastic as opposed to flesh and blood.

But she mirrors society quite well. The rich and famous have lost touch with the hoi polloi. Not realizing, that without them they’re nothing. She can take her money and go home, like David Bowie, but if she goes on the road who does she think is paying for all those tickets? Certainly not Citibank or Goldman Sachs.

Watch this Elizabeth Warren video, it gets the essence straight:

Elizabeth Warren on Fair Taxation

So Madonna is just like Mitt Romney. Living off the grid for so long that she’s lost touch with it. Mitt thinks a casual bet is 10k and says he doesn’t worry about the poor, that the safety net will take care of them at the same time wanting to get rid of national health and continue to cut welfare payments.

Madonna, wanna make a difference? Stand up for the little people!

But she’s not from the sixties or seventies, she never learned that lesson.

She screwed everybody known to man. Where was her outrage when the Susan G. Komen foundation took away funding from Planned Parenthood? Madonna moved to NYC broke, I’d be stunned if she didn’t use Planned Parenthood for birth control. Furthermore, isn’t birth control all about empowering women?

But Madonna doesn’t care about you, only herself.

And since she got away being sassy in the Reagan eighties, she thinks the same behavior works today.

If she thinks she’s worth $300 a ticket, she’s dreaming. Nobody’s worth that. And if they can get it, it doesn’t last forever, nothing does.

Speaking of which, do you think we’ll be hearing "Like A Virgin" next to "I Want To Hold Your Hand" on oldies radio fifty years from now?

Don’t make me laugh.

I know Madonna’s answer. It’s everybody’s answer today. I sold out, so shut up. Money trumps everything, ends every conversation. Like we should revere these bankers just because they’re rich.

Well, the rich and powerful media companies got trumped by the online masses on SOPA.

And the blowback caused the Susan G. Komen foundation to reverse course.

That’s the power of the people. You want to be on their side if you want to win.

Madonna is not.

Spotify link – Electric Landlady

"we’ve grown accustomed to treating ‘the music industry’ as synonymous with a handful of large recording companies."

Why We Shouldn’t Worry About The (Alleged) Decline Of The Music Industry

That’s from Timothy B. Lee’s report about Mike Masnick’s Midem presentation:

The Sky Is Rising: The Entertainment Industry Is Large & Growing… Not Shrinking

We need new glasses. Imagine if all you had were reading specs. You wouldn’t be able to see far away, you’d be oblivious to the big picture.

That’s what’s happened in music. Since the four soon to be three major labels have been complaining, as well as the stars their machine built, conventional wisdom is that music is screwed, going down the drain. But more people are recording than ever before and it’s easier to hear their music and more ways to pay them if people like it.

I heard this Kila track, "Electric Landlady", on Sirius XM’s Spectrum last night. Now Sirius XM is a service that not only charges listeners, but pays copyright holders and performers. That’s all good. But without Spotify, without YouTube, that track would have gone into the ether, I probably never would have heard it again.

I’d never heard of the act, never mind the track, but I liked it.

I typed the title on my hand-set, sent myself an e-mail and just checked out the cut on Spotify, then looked up the band on Wikipedia.

It was all news to me.

And it ain’t exactly rock and roll, but I like it. And I’ve played "Electric Landlady" five times already on Spotify.

Today, it’s easy to spread the word. Sure, there’s more information than ever, but with so many people listening, a certain amount rises up. Maybe not to the top, but to the point where the creators can get paid. Maybe not as much as in yesteryear, but in the old days those stars were the only ones getting paid. Now the wealth is shared.

Furthermore, read this article from the "Financial Times":

Spotify hits 3m subscribers to improve conversion rate

Spotify conversion is going up.

Only one online music service will win. And Spotify has traction and now apps, which should not be underestimated, they could kill Pandora.

But now when you can check out everything you’re not going to listen to the same spoon-fed stuff over and over again.

Kila is never going to be on Top Forty radio. It’s never going to be a priority at Sony. But "Electric Landlady" is damn good.

YouTube link -Kíla- Electric Landlady

1. Apple

iPhone 4S is a smash, holding back the Android tide, but as great as the numbers are, you miss Steve. Individuals matter. It was hard to get excited about their education presentation and it’s hard to be optimistic about the future. One man can make all the difference.

But they could maintain their momentum, they could continue to matter, but I wouldn’t bet on it. No one replaced John Lennon after he was shot and even though the Beatles had already broken up, once Ronnie Van Zant was gone, Skynyrd was never the same.

As for the Kindle Fire, ignore it. A flawed device that in no way impinges on the iPad. Expect more for less as the iPad matures, as was done with the iPod. The iPod dominated for its entire useful run (now over as a result of the iPhone), right now the iPhone and iPad don’t dominate. They’re very profitable, but they don’t own the sphere. They could, but it’s all about pricing.

2. Google

Owns search the way Apple owned the portable music player sphere with the iPod. The only way to beat Google is to wait for conventional search to fade, that’s how Microsoft got beaten, not by a better OS or better productivity apps, but by new Internet offerings, from Google to Facebook to handsets.

Search throws off so much cash that Google can lumber into other spheres and wreak havoc. Android is riddled with security issues, but the fact that it’s free allows for inroads.

Don’t compete with Google on search. Microsoft did this with Bing and lost billions. Google is good enough. Until the next product comes along.

3. Amazon

Despite the negative statements above re the Kindle Fire, Bezos knows that you invest or die. If you play to Wall Street, you’re already history. Ignore yesterday’s reaction to the numbers, Amazon is only gaining in dominance. They’ve got the secret weapon of Amazon Prime and authors are wondering why they’re giving up the lion’s share of their revenue to publishers and are making deals directly with Amazon. Amazon may not have the cachet of Apple, but it’s incredibly disruptive, just check out its cloud offerings, which aren’t sexy but power so many websites. As for the coming need to pay tax…I’d rather buy from Amazon anyway. The product comes right to your door and the customer service is great. They lean over backwards re returns whereas brick and mortar makes you feel guilty for bringing something back.

4. Facebook

It’s all about convincing other companies to sell on Facebook. People hate advertising, so initiatives there are flawed. Furthermore, the social graph is overrated, people will burn out on knowing everything about everybody. But if it’s where you go to get the information you used to get on Google and it’s easy to buy there too, Facebook has a way out.

5. YouTube

Yes, it’s part of Google, but it deserves its own ranking because of its move into channels. The problem with conventional media companies is they don’t want online access, or, if they do, they want it windowed after other more profitable exploitation schemes. But this isn’t a problem if you’re producing on YouTube, you’re already in the online game. This is a very long term play, but it just might win.

Read this "New Yorker" article to open your eyes:

Streaming Dreams

6. "New York Times"

In a world of cutbacks, almost no one does any reporting, that is the NYT’s backbone. NYT could own news online if it were only more aggressive. Fox might be a news channel, but there’s very little reporting. As for local news…forget about it.

Whether it be video or text, right wing or left, we have a lot of bloviators and very few organizations with feet on the ground.

If the NYT could reimagine itself, stop being a newspaper and start being a news outlet, stop worrying about people stealing content and start making deals to power the news on all websites, the way Google made inroads in search, it could dominate and end up being investigated for antitrust.

But no one there is thinking that big.

It’s what you don’t know, what you don’t see that kills you.

7. Ticketmaster

It’s one of the foremost e-commerce sites, traffic is incredible.

But Ticketmaster missed out on the Amazon lesson, it’s thinking too small.

Remember when Amazon just sold books?

With this amount of traffic, Ticketmaster should expand into selling items beyond tickets and dispensing all kinds of information.

You can’t think small when you’re an e-commerce company.

Ticketmaster has to own the ticketing sphere and build upon it.

8. Samsung

Has no web presence, but rules in television and is neck and neck with Apple in phone production and is even challenging in the tablet sphere. Could it be that fast broadband and government support helped Samsung grow whereas in America the government tries to hold development back?

9. Craigslist

It’s not sexy, it gets very little press, but it killed newspaper classified advertising and it owns its sphere. If it were a public company grazing for profits you’d read about it in the news every day. Is Craig Newmark one of a kind? Someone who’s about the service as opposed to the money?

Let’s hope not.

10. Verizon

He who controls distribution wins. FiOS may be built out, but now the company is offering bundles with cable companies. It’s eating AT&T’s lunch. The real play is in wireless. Verizon’s got the cash and it’s spending it. It owns plenty of spectrum too. Verizon may be too big for its britches, but if you’re in the U.S. and you’re on a competing network, you’re ignorant. Verizon is so far ahead in LTE it’s a joke. You want fast access everywhere. Verizon delivers this best.

Once again, it’s all about investment. Verizon spent billions, the record labels cut back. If you’re not willing to spend, if you’re not willing to risk the wrath of Wall Street, you’re going to have a very brief run.

In today’s marketplace it’s about owning the sphere. You’ve got to spend to achieve this.

TOAST

Yahoo: There is no comeback. It farmed out search, without e-mail, it would collapse. And Gmail is so much better than Yahoo mail, never mind AOL mail, because Google keeps investing, Yahoo is pulling back. As for the content…is there anything on Yahoo that’s must see?

RIM: There is no comeback. Sell now, forget about it. You’ll see people using BlackBerries in the future the day everybody buys a cassette Walkman.

Sony: Is it a content company or a media company or neither?

Neither. Samsung owns TV. Movie studios are all about glamor and little profit and we all know the value of record companies… Furthermore, games are moving online, Nintendo took a hit and Sony is next.

Microsoft: It’s a long slow death. Windows doesn’t die overnight, but there’s no growth on the horizon. It was always a not invented here corporation, and without a visionary, in today’s world, you’re history.

Groupon/Living Social: It’s all bad once the heat wears off. Merchants get ripped off and users are schnorrers who don’t come back and there’s a whole segment of people embarrassed to use coupons. A fad.

Best Buy: I could beat up on them, but everyone else already has. Why waste the time to overpay at a place where the help is ignorant? Their share is being eaten by Amazon and there’s no new product on the horizon that will save them.

MySpace: Never coming back. Do you believe Plaxo can have a renaissance?

Neil Young’s Music Rescue Mission (Video)

Protecting their business model of having people pay exorbitant amounts to attend their conferences, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher and their D: Dive Into Media conference refuse to post the entire Neil Young interview online. One wonders if they too have been paying attention to what has happened in the past ten years. If they posted complete videos would it enhance their brand or destroy it? Would people refuse to pay or would they be clamoring to get inside?

I’d argue the latter. Protecting their business model, they’re stifling the brand. They’ve got a blue chip roster of interviewees, and they’d be surprised how many punters are interested in hearing them pontificate, not only hoity-toity business executives.

In case your e-mail has been down, yesterday Neil Young was interviewed at the D: Dive Into Media conference. And he made news. Talking about the lousy quality of music. Not the songs themselves, but the bits that render the sound.

This has been a pet peeve of not only oldsters, but almost everybody who makes music. But there was no traction on this front until yesterday.

That’s the power of online.

Neil Young speaks and suddenly my inbox is filled up. This is the viral sensation all newbies are looking for. And we’re immune to hype, but if there’s something we want to see, we’ll dig deep, we’ll spend an hour watching, isn’t that the Apple paradigm, the same day availability of nerdy presentations that it turns out many people are interested in that ultimately sell more product?

Neil gets it right. We’ve got good listening devices, but the underlying product is crap.

He says that piracy is the new radio. He knows more about it than Bob Pittman, who keeps on trumpeting that we’re addicted to Clear Channel when the company’s radio stations are almost as hated as Ticketmaster.

He seems to oversimplify the album thing. But I believe his ultimate message is if you want to make a long-form statement, like "Sgt. Pepper" or "Greendale", you should be able to and still can. As to whether a company can insist people buy it that way…I think piracy has eviscerated that model.

And he even takes a swing at Beats headphones. Saying they boost the bass, but…

And speaking of Beats, for all the hype Jimmy and Dre have gotten very little traction on their underlying message, that sound counts, the headphones are fashion items. Sure, they’re better than buds, and that’s good, but who’s talking about what you hear through them?

What we need most is a national broadband policy akin to South Korea’s, with lightning fast connections that allow us to download and stream at high quality. But I don’t see the content companies lobbying for this. Because it would enable more piracy!

But it would also enable a higher quality of sound, which would pay myriad benefits. Hell, you’ll have to buy a good system just to hear it!

So Neil Young was in the right place at the right time and as a result of modern technology, the message spread. He’s been talking about high quality sound forever, but there was never any traction.

This is the power of celebrity, this is the power of thinking, this is the power of online.

Watch the video.