I was just watching Seth Godin’s presentation at Google:

"All Marketers are Liars"

He was saying that Napster could have been successful if it launched in a nursing home.  Because it was so good, everybody would tell everybody else about it.

That’s how great the original Napster was.  Seth said it only had to reach fifty people to blow up.  And each of those fifty people told fifty people, and suddenly 2,500 knew.  The key is to create something so good, not only will people discover it on their own, they’ll tell everybody they know about it.

I didn’t want to tell you about Moogis.  I thought it was bullshit.  $125 to watch a string of Allman Brothers concerts on your computer?  I STILL think it’s a bullshit idea.  Because the reason the live business hasn’t tanked is it’s about BEING THERE!  It may be fun to watch people having sex on screen, but it’s NOTHING like having sex YOURSELF!

Being amongst the mass of people, feeling the bass, moving to the tunes as you sweat and bump into others, all on a communal high.  No, you can’t replicate that online.  But I’ve got to tell you, the sample video on the Moogis site is a GOOD FACSIMILE!

I’ve got an HD computer screen.  It’s not that exotic, it’s a standard Apple model.  Its only downside is it’s EXPENSIVE!  I like having the screen real estate, I’d like a little more, 23" is good, but imagine how great 30" would be!  But those monster monitors are just way too expensive.

Still, my screen is better than most online video.  Done in Flash at a low quality.

And I’ve got great speakers

AUX Speakers

I’m ready.  The key is to stay one step ahead of technology.  So that quality moves towards you, not away from you.  But the experience I just had, I haven’t had that yet.  The service caught up with my equipment!

Oh, not completely.  The image wasn’t perfect.  But it was closer to the real thing than anything else I’ve seen online.

Forget TV, you sit too far away.  You’re close to a computer monitor, you feel like you’re standing on stage.

Here, go to: http://www.moogis.com/  Halfway down the screen, under "Featured Music Video", click on "Watch Now". When the window comes up, click on the icon in the lower right hand corner to expand the image to fit your entire screen.

I don’t think the Allmans start out totally on it, I’ve seen them be hotter, heard Gregg sing better.  But they’re certainly performing, there are no tricks, this is further from a Britney Spears show than Rodeo Drive is from Compton.  And the sound, it’s PRISTINE!

Be sure to stay until you see Derek Trucks WAIL!  The camera angle is wrong at first, they don’t show his hands, but you can hear those slide notes, reminiscent of the master, Brother Duane.

And right after Derek is almost through soloing, the band truly locks on, they’re in a groove, you don’t want to let go!

It’s strange.  Because they’re not doing the physical histrionics of the MTV era, when it became more about how you looked than how you played.  Everybody’s concentrating on playing his part, not being a star.

Last night Eric Clapton sat in.

If this were the seventies, the story would have been all over FM radio, we would have read about it in "Rolling Stone". Radio hasn’t been the tribal drum for decades, "Rolling Stone" still exists, but you wouldn’t roll a joint in it, a person embalmed in a time capsule wouldn’t recognize it.  The gatekeepers, those in charge of the museum, they broke the system.  The pieces have scattered far and wide, but they still exist.

Don’t lament that these Beacon shows are not national triumphs fawned over by the mainstream media, those who need to know, will.

I’m telling you now.  Check this out.  I can’t imagine sitting in front of the monitor for three hours, but watching does make me want to GO!  And isn’t that where all the money is, in ticket sales?  The price to watch these shows should be low, an entire one should be free, I’d sell the MP3s, not the shows.  No one is going to take the shows with them, but you want the MP3s on your iPod.

Great technology, imperfect business plan.  Yes, you want to make as much money from those who truly care, but you don’t want to exclude people who want to get in.  The Web is where you make fans, the gig is where you convert them, where you charge them.

Furthermore, where’s the commemorative merch on this Moogis page?  Where’s all the stuff fans want to buy?

People want to be members of the club, don’t make it too expensive to join.

From: Eric Lumiere
Subject: Your blog about my song, "Anthem"
Date: March 20, 2009 3:58:17 PM PDT
To: bob@lefsetz.com

Bob,

My friend and college classmate Evan Moore (NYU Clive Davis Dept. of Recorded Music ’07)/collaborator sent me your article on my song, "Anthem", which was remixed by Filo and Peri (Bo Pericic, another classmate at the time) and made into a top 40 UK hit.  I love the randomness by which you heard it, that it caught your attention, and that you wrote such a nice blog about it.   Thank you for your honesty and reflection.

I’m not sure if you’d care to hear more about "Anthem" from my point of view, but here ya go…

One of the interesting things about the song is that it’s not just about the "girl that got away", but about many different life experiences that make us who we are.  In the chorus I tried to incorporate experiences that we all go through in our lives: relationships, wars (inner and outer), rebelliousness, and loving, which is for me, the key to all experience, the common factor.  It is a special blessing when listeners either don’t hear the lyrics correctly or I don’t sing them clearly, as many quoted "world of yesterday" instead of "war of yesterday", which is the lyric I wrote and tried to sing (haha)…..but they both are valid and meaningful.  That is why a song can have as many different meanings as there are # of listeners…just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is musical interpretation.  I’m happy if listeners enjoy my music for other reasons than I intended…if it works for them (uplifts, inspires, gives meaning to, etc), great.

As for the history of the song, I wrote it in my dorm room sophomore year of college (2 years before it was remixed by Filo and Peri), in response to a songwriting homework assignment to write an ‘Anthem’.  I was walking around the city and heard the chorus melody and when I got home and picked up my guitar, the words came easily.  

I had left my girlfriend in high school when I went to college, and then realized even more how much I appreciated and loved her.  It was hard, but experience is experience, and after I could see it clearly and the emotions had been expressed, I was grateful for it, grateful for the risk I took and the risk she took.  

But "the risk of loving you" isn’t just about relationships.  In my experience, it’s a day to day process; loving the people I come into contact with, loving myself, my experience, my faults and insecurities, and theirs too…..in whatever form of loving that may look like.  The word loving, it seems, has been popularly/socially restricted to use when talking about relationships, and yet, I tend to think most of our experiences, maybe even all, come down to that word, and whatever infinite idea it may attempt to define.

The difference between ‘love’ and ‘loving’ is that ‘loving’ is the action, and so I chose the action to express a choice that is ongoing in my life, an everyday, even every moment choice.  

I have been seeing someone for over a year now, off and on for different reasons due to life situations/circumstances rather than how much we love each other (as we do very much), and we have so far kept coming back because the loving is still present.    It’s not so much what has happened (such as breakups, mistakes, sadness, etc) that’s important, but rather, what is present.  Have we learned or not?  Do we still love each other for who we are (unconditional) rather than what we do (conditional)?  Do we love ourselves when we’re with each other?  Do we support each other in learning and growing?  

To truly love someone is to allow them to live their life, give them the freedom to choose, love and support them as best I can.  That is the true "risk of loving…"  In their freedom lies my freedom and that one of the greatest gifts I can give to them and myself.  It may be ironic that not trying to control someone else can be a gift, but until it’s commonplace in this world, I think it is.

So that’s basically what the song is about…deep deep down, beneath the lyrics and the melody…that is where I came from.

You can here the original demo version (from which the vocal was taken) played on acoustic guitar (my main instrument) at:   www.purevolume.com/ericlumiere

Thanks again Bob for reminding me how much music can make a difference and affect people and why I do it in the first place.

FYI, I’m not even a huge dance music fan, but I love writing with Filo and Peri and how it can be so ethereal and epic….it’s quite an experience being in a dance club enveloped by light and sound hearing my song’s chorus of just acoustic guitar and vocals over the loudspeakers, even without the drugs (I haven’t done any, but to each his own).

Filo and Peri and I are currently writing new tracks for their upcoming album.  I am also working on my next solo release and co-writing/producing with other artists.

-Eric Lumiere
www.purevolume.com/ericlumiere
www.myspace.com/ericlumiere
ericlumieremusic@gmail.com
Filo and Peri: www.myspace.com/filoandperi

Note, for those not purevolume savvy, and that includes me, it turns out the player scrolls.  If you want to hear the original demo of "Anthem", hit the tiny triangle at the bottom of the purevolume player on Eric’s page and scroll down until you find "Anthem w strings 2".

I think it’s great that these sites are being developed that allow musicians to share their songs with their world, but I wish the developers were more interested in utility than making money.  You succeed by creating an interface/software that is intuitive and easily used.  AOL broke cyberspace open wide because it was easily used.  CompuServe and Genie and others preceded it, but they weren’t quite easy enough for the average person to use.  But once there’s a breakthrough, everybody flocks to the result.  There were MP3 players before the iPod, it’s just that the iPod was easier to use.  You may not remember, but fast synch via FireWire was a veritable revolution, positively stunning if you’d employed a Rio prior to this.

I’m not sure why kids go to music colleges.  I’m not familiar with the curriculum at the Clive Davis school at NYU, but I don’t know a single successful person in the music business who was trained for it at an educational institution.  I think most of these colleges are stealing their students’ money.  Music is a passion, that one follows.  Maybe you can learn how to play classical music in the academy, but great pop music is not about craft, but inspiration.  No one can teach inspiration.  And most people at institutions don’t recognize breakthroughs because they’re too wedded to the past. You’re better off getting a liberal arts degree, broadening your horizons, allowing you to express yourself fully and on many topics.  If you’re a business person, you’re better off dropping out and going to work at the lowest level at a studio or a company.

Didn’t Steve Jobs drop out of college?  Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg too?  Not to mention Shawn Fanning.  But these people decided to play without a net.  They decided to go all in, to risk everything.  And you can’t make it unless you have dedication and desire and a willingness to sacrifice everything, a nice car, a good house, even having a spouse and children.

Every day I get e-mail from students looking to get jobs in the industry.  In this time of revolution, you’d be better off starting your own endeavor, you’re hipper, more in touch with cyberspace than most people running the industry.  And you must be willing to work for free, that’s the only way in.  And you get the job by being willing to work 24/7, and coming through not only by showing up on time, but executing tasks in a reasonable fashion, quickly.

We’re looking for people we can count on.

It’s scary.  But when you get it right, and it could take decades, there’s incredible satisfaction, just like listening to Eric Lumiere’s "Anthem".

Then again, there are doers and listeners.  Decide which one you are.

As for Mr. Lumiere himself, you can see what a Top Forty track did for him…  He’s still struggling.  And he wrote the song years before it was picked up and made a hit.  The old paradigm of instant fame is passe.  As for riches?  That’s tough too.  You’ve got to be doing it for the satisfaction, the thrill, the vibe.  You might get paid better looking at spreadsheets, but that will not warm your heart, and those of others.

We need artists.  We need midwives who shepherd them through the business gauntlet.  Just like we need plumbers and electricians and other basic infrastructure of our society.  We need some traders, but those who graduate from school and work in the finance industry, in search of riches…I feel sorry for you.  Life’s too short to waste your time.  If you can’t pursue your dreams, why live?

But you’re not entitled to success.  It’s a rough and tumble arts world.  But if you need to be in it, you’ll find a way.

From: Ritch Esra
Subject: Seth Godin Interview
Date: March 18, 2009 1:33:45 PM PDT
To: bob@lefsetz.com

Bob,  

Thought you’d enjoy this very recent interview with Seth Godin

Seth Godin on the Music Business

I don’t remember how I first met Ritch Esra.  I’m sure it was in e-mail, but I don’t remember the content of his missive.  But I’m sure it was nice.  Ritch is always nice, and enthusiastic and insightful.  We’ve developed a friendship.  We go out to dinner at least once a year with Michael Laskow of TAXI and Ritch forwards me exclusive information on a regular basis. Which is probably why I agreed…

Suddenly, I remember how I met Ritch, he invited me to be on his radio show, broadcast to students.  You might not be able to get me to do this today, especially the part about driving to Burbank, but we develop special relationships with people who are there for us in the beginning.  My list had a fraction of the number of subscribers it does today.  If someone was tracking me down to give me an opportunity to spread my message, I was accepting the offer.

Last year I spoke at Ritch’s class at the Musicians Institute.  Because of our history, because of the relationship.  Which is why I listened to this Seth Godin interview.  I might have skipped it if someone else had posted the link, I certainly wouldn’t have listened to the whole thing.  If Seth Godin HIMSELF had told me to listen to the interview, I wouldn’t have.  I don’t like promotion from the act itself.  Even though I know Seth a bit.  I’d say to him "Why are you working me?"  Is that our relationship, where you use me to get ahead?  My friends don’t market me, don’t hype me, don’t work me.  Maybe if Seth had sent a friendly note, explaining why he thought I’d be interested in the interview, I’d check it out.  But this is sensitive ground.  Especially when someone already has traction.  We’ll help the up and coming, if we know them personally.  Bottom line, if you’re up and coming and I don’t know you, I owe you nothing.  And if you’re working me, you’re violating our friendship, I won’t view you in the same way ever again.

Furthermore, I listened to entire clip because I figured I might run into Ritch and he’d ask me about it, or e-mail me and want to discuss it further.  Let’s be clear here, Ritch was not asking me a favor, he made an assessment of who I was, what I was interested in, and sent me a targeted link.  He doesn’t do this every day, rarely, in fact.  So, based on our friendship, I listened.

Anyway, the first half of this lengthy interview with Seth was ground I was quite familiar with.  Then, when speaking about Tribes in the latter half of the conversation, Seth spoke about permission marketing, the relationship with the fan.

How do you build that relationship?  How do you get people interested?

By doing something great.  Seth unleashed his book, "Unleashing the Ideavirus", online, for free, a decade ago, and gained fans that way.  He didn’t compile an e-mail list and spam people, he focused on the work.  And then using the distribution platform of the Web, he allowed people to pull it, for free!  To the point where people implored him to print a hard copy, that they could buy, they wanted to own it.  Is your music so great that it will draw its own followers?  If not, you’re going to have a hard time in the new universe.  Listeners have unlimited choice, they don’t care that you’re broke, went to Berklee and have invested a ton in equipment.  They’ve got no preexisting relationship.  Your calling card must be your music.  The number of friends you’ve got on MySpace, your stunting, they might garner passing interest, but a listener might wonder if you’re better at marketing than music.  And so many of today’s wannabes are.  They’re computer-savvy, they’ve grown up online.  But they haven’t practiced their chops in their bedrooms alone, they haven’t spent endless hours in the garage.  So, there’s nothing at the core.

And once you’ve got a fan, once they’ve found you, you’ve then got permission to contact them.  But here’s why I’m writing this, Seth said your tribe is people who would be DISAPPOINTED if they didn’t hear from you!

Think about that.  Kind of like a girl you met at a bar, at a friend’s house.  You exchanged phone numbers, e-mail addresses.  You sent her a note, a text and…SHE DIDN’T RESPOND?

You wouldn’t shrug your shoulders and not give it another thought.  You’d wonder, WHAT HAPPENED?  Did she lose her phone?  Does she not have computer access?  Did she get in a car accident?  When you spam me, telling me about your project I’m not interested in, I don’t wonder if your mom has grounded you, if you’ve been in a car accident, I DON’T KNOW YOU AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU!  Whereas if a week went by and I didn’t get an e-mail from Ritch Esra, I’d wonder…  Did he go out of town?  If two weeks went by and there was no e-mail from Ritch, I’d e-mail Laskow, I’d do a little research, DID SOMETHING HAPPEN?

Today’s acts dun you for notice, and then when they’ve made it, they remove themselves.  Whereas a relationship must be nurtured, and CONTINUED!  Once you’ve got the relationship, you must KEEP IT UP!  To make an album every three years is ridiculous.  You’ve got to release a track, a demo, a video, SOMETHING for your regular fans.  They’re starving, you’ve got to feed them, to keep up the relationship.  Believe me, the guy who doesn’t hear from that girl doesn’t think about her every minute of the day THREE YEARS LATER!  He’s on to something else.

The old model was limited product pushed down people’s throats.

Today’s model is endless product available to those who want it.

That’s another thing Seth said.  You can’t try to reach everybody, only your tribe, only those who are interested.  They’ve got enough money to support you.  That’s what the overpriced vinyl and books and CD packages are about.  Feeding the fan frenzy, not the casual buyer.  The true fan will pay ten bucks for the album at iTunes, he doesn’t need to buy "No Line On The Horizon" for $3.99 at Amazon.  Those sales are almost meaningless.  Not only do they cannibalize those of the fans willing to pay more, the casual buyer enticed at this price is not going to buy an exorbitantly-priced concert ticket. (The casual fan would be better off getting free access…)

Point being, are you growing fans or just another SoundScan statistic?  There are not enough album sales for the SoundScan statistic to be truly meaningful.   You’ve got to branch out, sell more to the tribe, your fans, who truly care.  If you’ve got a fan club it shouldn’t be primarily about getting good seats to the show, but providing more of what fans truly want, communication, product and access.

Your tribe is enough to support you.  As long as you have reasonable expectations.  A klezmer musician may never reach 100 million people, but can sustain a career and a life, because of the passion of klezmer fans.  He can’t complain that he doesn’t fly in a private jet, he must change his direction if he desires to do that.  Then again, he might just have a fan who’s that rich and is willing to put his Cessna at the musician’s disposal.

It’s amazing what friends/fans will do.  But they won’t do it for everybody.

Don’t collect e-mail addresses, collect FANS!  Don’t spam people, don’t give people what they don’t want, it’s hard enough navigating this world of endless media.  Instead, hope your music is good enough to infect fans who will spread the word for you.  Not because they’re getting a reward, street teams are passe, but because they love your music and they want their friends’ lives enriched.

I know, I know, this is not how the major labels do it, this is not what they taught you in business school, you’re impatient. Well, welcome to the real world.  People only need great.  You’ve got to be great.  And even if you are, you won’t be an overnight success.  But people are looking for great, and when they find it, they tell everybody they know.

This is an anthem for the girl that got away
This is an anthem for the world of yesterday
This is an anthem for the rebel of my youth
This is an anthem for the risk of loving you…

Yesterday my accountant told me her son got dumped by his girlfriend.  He’d moved to New York in search of success, they did the long distance NY/LA thing, but she found someone else.  He took it really hard.  His mother had to fly to NYC for a week to comfort him, to keep him together, to help him get through.

I told her I took breakups hard too.  You share so much, more than with any other person, then they’re gone.  Some say you can remain friends, but that’s usually the dumper speaking, not the dumpee.  As for breakups being mutual, that’s hogwash, someone always wants it more, that person is the instigator, their partner accedes to the termination, but secretly would have hung in there, maybe forever.

But you can’t have a real relationship unless you give it your all.  Makes me wonder if those couples who remain friends are truly able to connect, reveal and be honest.  You can go to dinner with a friend, but not with a lover, you can’t stop thinking about lying in bed, touching, hearing them breathe while they sleep.  You ask them how their parents are, their siblings, but you don’t want to know too much about their life today, because you’re not a part of it.

I don’t think of old loves every minute of the day.  You can only be in pain that deep for a limited time.  You end up bouncing back, or committing suicide.  But then you hear a song on the radio and you’re jetted back to yesterday, your body aches for the connection.

I was listening to Sirius late last night, pushing the button up the dial.  And once you get past 30, I’m hazy, no one knows all the satellite radio channels.  Suddenly the genre switched from rock to…dance?

Rather than working my way back down the dial, risking hearing "Free Bird" or another rock tune-out, I decided to listen, to expand my horizons.

And the synths are popping, at a very quick speed, befitting the name of the station, BPM.  I envisioned Ibiza, stoned dancers popping up and down involuntarily.  I could see myself getting caught in a trance, I understood it.

Then the track broke down and became a weird amalgamation of Spandau Ballet, Elton John and all the sensitivity of the seventies.  The key dropped and someone with a pristine voice started singing the above lyrics.  It was like the action froze at a rave, and a mindless bopper turned to the camera and started riffing on what he was truly feeling, what he was trying to escape by getting high and dancing like this.

Love is a risk.  If you’re not willing to get your heart broken, you’d better not play.

Then there are the heartbreakers, possessing some advantage the rest of us don’t, beauty or bucks, who flit from boy to boy or girl to girl, like a celebrity.

Then there are the self-conscious, who have to gin up their gumption to even speak with a member of the opposite sex.

If you want insight into the truth of this world, you’d be better off studying the imperfect, whose lives don’t follow a constant upward trajectory, their seemingly insignificant victories may seem minor to you, but they’re the tent poles of their lives.

You look backward and see your past littered with lovers.  You wonder, should you have moved on?  What would life be like if they’d stayed?  How come you never truly get over anyone, how come the older you get the more the attrition takes a toll, preventing you from playing, leaving you in the corner licking your wounds.

Research tells me Filo & Peri’s "Anthem" was a hit.  In a world most of us don’t inhabit.  But to listeners, it was everything. A hit is not something anointed by the media, but something that touches your heart, that you need to hear again and again.

You can listen to the entire original seven plus minute track here:

Filo & Peri Ft Eric Limiere – Anthem [Original Mix]

But if you’re a casual listener, I’d advise dialing up the abridged take, the official videoclip:

Filo & Peri ‘ANTHEM’ ft. Eric Lumiere (Official Videoclip)

You can watch the images if you’d like, I didn’t.  But WHATEVER you do, hang in there until 1:40 when the song changes dramatically.

This is an anthem for the girl that got away

You can research her on the Internet, even though it might be difficult to find her, because she’s changed her last name, to match that of her husband.

This is an anthem for the world of yesterday

You can make contact, but that would be a mistake.  What would you say?  You might be melancholy, you might be looking for something, but chances are they are not.  You want to marinate in your memories, you’d rather dream about what could be than be confronted with what isn’t.

This is an anthem for the rebel of my youth

I didn’t think I’d get old, I didn’t think I’d barely recognize the person staring back at me in the mirror.  I was rebelling against so much, now the school administration doesn’t care about me, the same people don’t even run the academy.

This is an anthem for the risk of loving you…

We’re all riskers in the life parade today.  We’ve been set free by the institutions, not only the educational system, but the media.  To what degree can we stray from our preconceptions, test limits and new ideas in the hope that we can not only be stimulated, but end up somewhere better?  Living in the past can be fun, but it’s not satisfying on a regular basis. Radio might want you to listen to the same old hits forever, throwing 20 plus minutes of commercials at you all the while. Or you can go on a journey, via satellite, your iPod, there are so many avenues.  You’ll hit more dead ends than open skyways, but you don’t love every person along the way, you’re looking for someone special, with a strange brew of characteristics that are just enough to hold you, hopefully forever.