So I’m hiking in the mountains and it’s long past midnight, since I got hung up downloading the entire Doobie Brothers catalog after hearing a song on Slacker, and I’m listening to Radiolab thinking about virality, how it’s no longer about highfalutin’ gatekeepers telling us what to listen to but a bunch of sneezers, regular folks, passing the word and I hear a story…

Virality is a fascinating concept.  That’s the goal today.  To make something so good a listener or a reader or a viewer will tell somebody else about it.  Don’t think about whether radio likes it, whether it’s well-executed, well-done, but whether someone will experience it and NEED to tell someone else about it.

I need to tell you about this Radiolab episode.

It wasn’t new.  From back in January.  That’s another thing the old guard doesn’t realize.  It’s no longer about a marketing campaign for one project.  It’s about constantly leaving crumbs, for years, so that when someone uncovers one and eats it and likes it there’s a zillion more to consume.  You go on this satisfying journey, deeper and deeper.  And you get frustrated if there are no more crumbs.  There are no more Rebecca Black tracks, "Friday" was enough.  Have we had enough Lady GaGa? We’ll find out.  But it’s acts that have been honing their chops for years, with a plethora of material, maybe undiscovered heretofore, who are going to triumph tomorrow.  Assuming their music is good enough that someone needs to tell somebody else about it.

So they’re talking about this woman who gets turned around 90 degrees.  Turns out it’s a rare problem with the hippocampus, even though she believed for decades what her mother told her, that she was a witch.

And there was another story that was a bit less satisfying.

And then…pay dirt.

Yes, after the advertisements for Valentine’s Day flowers, after the constant repetition of Foundation sponsors, rich people with guilt who leave their money so others can do good work, undoing the bad they foisted upon society, I hear a story…

I can’t see a damn thing.  I’ve got a flashlight, but the fog is so dense I’m wondering if I’m lost.  It’s just me and the elements. And the story doesn’t sound that interesting in the advent.

But then…

You see his girlfriend was riding her bike and had an accident…

And she’s in Bellevue and he calls her parents, who don’t really like him, and tells them they’ve got to come from New Orleans immediately.  Their daughter is not dead yet, but…

And her life has been so hard to begin with.  She lost her hearing, she wears hearing aids and now she’s lost her sight.

That’s what her parents think, she’s blind.

But the doctors believe she’s a vegetable.  Moving her body, but with no brain activity.

They’re gonna donate her organs, but then she moves enough they’re gonna put her in a nursing home and then…

The boyfriend reads up on Helen Keller on the Web.  And he decides to write questions on his girlfriend’s arm.  And in the middle of the night, Emilie answers them.

He records the exchange on his cell phone.  They play it on the show.  And it’s not like television, a triumph against incredible odds back to perfection.  Not all stories on Radiolab end with answers, not all loose ends are tied up perfectly.

She is blind.

And she kicks and fights so much that they can’t insert her hearing aids.

But the boyfriend writes it out on her arm, asks her if they can put the hearing aids in.

And they do.

And she speaks…

She’s back…

I’m not doing this justice.  You’ve got to hear it yourself.

This is not a matter of taste.  Not hip-hop versus rock.  This is about humanity.  Everyone gets it.

Finding Emilie

Sometimes they’re hiding in plain sight.

Sometimes you have to break all the rules.

Corey Smith is working a new single at radio.  Slinking from station to station, trying to convince the gatekeepers.

GIVE UP!

Go to radio last.

Go directly to the people.  They get it.

I’ve known Corey’s manager for years, even skied with him.  Love that he’s given Corey’s music away for free.  Listened to the grass roots development.  But I never got it until I saw Corey Smith live last night.

WOW!

Going to the gig is an obligation.  You check your BlackBerry and your watch and wonder when you can leave.

So when you experience someone with unfamiliar material who rivets you, you take notice, because it happens…NEVER!

Corey sat across from Felice at dinner.  He barely spoke.  Looked like the social studies teacher he used to be, only nerdier.

But when he put on his sunglasses and took the stage, he was a STAR!

Not like Katy Perry, more like Jimmy Buffett.  A man of the people.

He was so good it was jaw-dropping.  I found myself singing along even though it was the first time through.  I laughed.  I got it.

This guy needs to be on Leno TOMORROW!

Fuck YouTube.  Like I said, sometimes you’ve got to break all the rules.

And if Leno says no, I’d tell him he’s missing out and go to Letterman.  And Fallon.

But Leno is a perfect start.  Because there’s nothing edgy about Corey Smith, unless you consider yourself edgy.  Have you ever said "fuck" to a cop?  Corey did, and wrote a song about it, "Fuck the Po-Po".  It expresses exactly how we feel, the frustrated everyman.

If you’re good, it doesn’t stop growing.  All Corey Smith had to do was play and word spread, he played further and further from home, to bigger and bigger audiences.  People came back.  Because it was so much FUN!

The songs are there.  As is the patter.  It’s all done.

And now he’s got the song.  "Drugs".  It mixes alcohol and Ambien and health care and it’s got you laughing, because it’s honest in a way the Top Forty is dishonest.  There’s no gloss, just reality.

All Corey’s got to do is play the song on Leno, and he’s made.

Every other TV station is gonna call.  And he should go and play.  Because you don’t have to hold back when you’re real.  You can’t burn out on what’s real.  I can’t burn out on James McMurtry’s "We Can’t Make It Here", I can’t burn out on Don McLean’s "American Pie".  Corey’s great stuff is just like that.

Then he’s got to open.  Maybe for the Eagles.

Then again, they’ve got too old an audience.

Someone younger.  Who appeals to thirtysomethings.  People locked in their lives, married to their wives and their jobs and their kids.  But still twenty one on the inside.

And the twenty one year olds get it too.  Because isn’t that what college is about, DRINKING?

Come on, you know the drill.  You’re going to bars looking to get laid and then suddenly you’re the oldest guy in the bar and you’ll never get laid.  That’s how fast life goes by.  Who writes songs about that?  That aren’t sugarcoated, that touch your heart?  COREY SMITH!

If you don’t get this, you never went to college, you’re straight edge and never took a drink, you’re so busy being hip, denying who you are inside, appealing to those who don’t really care, that you’re an empty vessel on a meaningless cruise through life.

This guy has got it.

Who’s going to own him?  Which TV host is gonna let him play on their show first?

The raps, the delivery, Corey Smith is fully-formed, he’s ready.

He’s paid his dues.

Sometimes something is so mainstream, that’s where you go!  Bring it straight to the heartland.

If this guy were doing this act in New York or L.A., he’d already be a star.  But those media centers ignore the south.  They just don’t get it.

But just like Republicans embraced the southern strategy and won, he who embraces Corey Smith is going to win too.

Country radio is thinking too hard.  Nashville is a club that excludes that which is truly honest and forthright, it’s the opposite of the roots of country music.

Not that Corey’s exactly country.

He’s American.

And so are we.

He’s a natural.

I’m just the latest rider on the bandwagon.  You should get on too.  IT’S A BLAST!

Maybe the music business needs to hire Tony Soprano, or his real life Mafia counterpart, to teach it how to conduct business in SECRECY!

In case you’ve been out of wireless range, in case you haven’t been in front of a computer, I’m here to tell you the big story online today is Katy Perry’s tour rider.

Wherein she not only delineates the insane demands of an evanescent diva, she reserves the right to scalp her own tickets.

Yes, it’s very clear, and it’s right here:

Drivers Beware: Don’t Stare At Katy Perry

If the legalese bores you, you can get an overview here:

Drivers Beware: Don’t Stare At Katy Perry – Rider

Huh?  You put this in writing?  Have you never heard of the Internet?  Where all your flaws and bad behavior will not only be revealed, but analyzed?

You’re building your reputation every single day.

And speaking of said reputation, if you’ve got the time, watch Chris Sacca’s commencement address at the Carlson School of Management:

Chris Sacca’s commencement address
at the Carlson School of Management

I know Chris a little bit.  We’ve butted heads.  I think he’s a bit too self-confident and self-impressed.  But he is smart.  And he knows what’s going on in the online world.

And what I love best about his speech is where he says he never hires from a resume.  He Googles you, sees what you’re into, checks out your last few years of behavior.

That’s right.  You’re leaving digital crumbs.  You’re building a history.  And you’d better start now.

It’s only old farts and dishonest pricks who are afraid of the Internet.

I hate LinkedIn, because I can’t stop the constant invitations, even though I’m not a member.  I hate a company that’s built on being a scumbag.

But I’ve run into person after person who says they won’t hire anyone without a LinkedIn profile.  They want to know who you ARE!

And speaking of who you are, hang in there long enough in Sacca’s speech where he says the financial rapists have trouble sleeping at night. They’re constantly trying to justify their behavior, but we’re not buying it.

Sacca didn’t fall into success.  He created a hedge fund when he was twenty five and made $12 million but soon found himself $4 million underwater during the dot com crash.

That takes cojones.

Funny how Chris is risking and no one in music, on either side of the stage is.

You want to make it?

Don’t e-mail me your track.  Let me Google you and find out I’ve missed something great.

Be different.

Take chances.

Don’t be like Katy Perry.  All about the money.  Hell, if only she were more concerned about getting tickets into the hands of fans instead of making money.

Be happy, be equitable, be a leader.

And then you’ll have followers.

"Netflix Beats BitTorrent’s Bandwidth"

And who says the public doesn’t want subscription services…

Who wants some Blockbuster stock?

The public doesn’t know what it wants in the future.  It’s the obligation of technologists and content providers to bring them there.

Streaming movies on your iPad…it’s a beautiful thing.

Maybe music subscription streaming services were too early.  Maybe they were crippled by an industry that refused to actively license them.  That doesn’t mean they won’t win in the future.  The public rented videotapes, then bought DVDs, then rented DVDs and are now streaming movies.  The public is malleable.

But music services have an advantage over Netflix.  You don’t have to stream all the content, 2,000+ tracks live on the handheld, just like you own them, with no dropouts, no cloud connection necessary.

Netflix needed broadband and the ability to stream to your TV to break through.  iPad streaming is just icing on the cake.

Rhapsody started before broadband was ubiquitous.  Now high speed connections are de rigueur.  Stream music to people. And know that it’s not about streaming on the desktop, music is free on the desktop, via YouTube (however unauthorized), it’s about streaming to the handheld.  Is the music industry gonna screw up once again, and allow sideloading and cloud delivery of what you have already purchased to its economic detriment?

Looks like it.

Idiots.

"Amazon.com selling more e-books than printed books"

Wanna know why?

Price and convenience.

Although the publishers stupidly insisted on an agency model, driving up prices, e-books are still almost always cheaper than physical books.  And one Kindle is lighter than one book.  And it can hold tons of books and runs for eons.

Outsiders drive innovation.  Amazon built the e-book business, not the publishers.  The future of the music industry will be driven by outsiders.

And despite all the carping that people love books, the smell, the heft, the collection, it appears more people, at least those buying at Amazon, want price and convenience.

Meanwhile, Amazon keeps driving down the price of the device.  As did Apple.  But the music industry insisted Apple raise prices at the iTunes Store.  How stupid.  You want to make everybody a customer.  Tell me again about the value of music when I can get unlimited streaming of movies via Netflix for less $7.99 a month?  (Sure, it’s not every movie, but it will be, and the price will probably go up, after people have been hooked.  That’s how you do it, like a dope dealer, you start cheap, get people addicted, then they continue to pay at an increased price, they’ve got no choice, they need the hit.)

Roseanne on fame, TV and feminism

This is SO good, you should drop everything you’re doing and read it right now.

Doesn’t matter if you hate Roseanne.  Doesn’t matter if you watched her show.

She’s talking about fame.  And control.  And both issues are important in music.

In the late sixties and early seventies, the musicians gained control from the labels.  The labels took this back in the last twenty years, to their ultimate detriment.  If you think a label knows creativity, you probably think Paris Hilton can sing.

Artists are insane, but they know best.  And you mess with them at your peril.

And if you think fame solves your problems, and that it’s not fleeting, read about Roseanne and the Palm…

In other words, Charlie Sheen may have been insane, but he was right.

More Netflix

It’s not about eradicating P2P, it’s about providing a better solution.  People will pay for convenience.  So you need a seamless service that makes stealing look like a pain in the ass.

More Roseanne

There’s limited bandwidth in TV, i.e. only 500 channels.

And TV is expensive to produce.

There’s no limit on distribution in music.  And it’s cheap to produce.

Which is why the major labels are ceding market share, the future of the business, to indies.

And the book business isn’t far behind…