The skies have cleared and it’s absolutely beautiful right now. Looking out the window I see the sun setting in the west, over a cluster of small ships. It’s exotic and intriguing, like Asia itself.

As for the first day of Music Matters… The best thing I heard came from Rob McDermott, manager of Linkin Park… He said "Where there’s artistry, there’s commerce!" Frustrated with the bitching of Calvin, the Warner guy in China, who he professed to love, Rob said they should package the album with the ticket, maybe include a t-shirt, that it was all about the consumer experience.

Actually, the big advertising guy said never to use that word. That we must refer to them as people. People who have contempt for us, trying to sell them shit they don’t want, pulling the wool over their eyes. He was like Seth Godin with an English accent. Expanding upon Bob Dylan’s old saw from the sixties, "There’s something happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" What is happening is the public is informed, only wants to hear from its peers and has an aversion to manipulation. Trying to sell the old way, trying to fake buzz in social networks, just won’t work, people are only listening to their buds.

Furthermore, this chap said that songs in ads benefit the composers/writers/performers more than the brands. That after the campaign has ended and time has gone by, the artist may get a bounce from a commercial, but the brand sinks back, there’s no lasting effect. This was perceived as heresy in the crowd. We’re entitled to our sponsorship dollars! But what if the big brands realize they’re not getting the worth of their expenditures? What if we have to rely on the music itself, and the bond with the fan?

Which is what Terry McBride was all about. My only problem with Terry is that the more you listen, you believe Nettwerk is a cult, that he’s purveying religion. But there are nuggets in his words. Most tellingly, he said that revenue from copyrights is at most twenty percent of an artist’s income. And, if this is the case, how bad is the problem of piracy? Shouldn’t the issue be addressed differently? How can we get the fan involved, and listen to him, to create new revenue opportunities.

Most fascinating story? Arista wanted to do a remix of a track from Sarah McLachlan’s Christmas album…and wanted to spend $30,000-$40,000 doing it. Rather than lay out the cash for an idea he thought specious, Terry released the naked vocal track onto the Net and let people create mixes themselves. The result was tens of thousands of takes, and using social filtering, a winner was picked, the creator of which was paid a modest sum, and the end product was purveyed, successfully. Kind of like with Avril Lavigne t-shirts. He let the fans come up with the designs, and the end result? They outsold the ones Avril approved, the ones she liked. Begging the question, who is king, the label, the artist or the fan?

Terry knows it’s the fan. He knows to fight the fan is ridiculous. That as soon as the CD hits Wal-Mart, if not before, the music is free. You’ve got to add value. Now tracks are worth a nickel at most, since the theft rate online is twenty to one…

And Terry talked about research, how by killing Napster, we lost a chance to track what everybody wanted, how they behaved. He’s a believer in data.

And there I go again, singing Terry’s praises. It’s hard not to be convinced. He’s a salesman in the league of Steve Jobs.

But no matter how good your pitch, the product must be great. Which brings us to that four piece band from Ireland. That’s where we’re going tonight, for dinner with Paul McGuinness and John Kennedy.

And now the sun has sunk over the horizon, only a haze of light remains… It’s like being in Tahiti, yet the island isn’t deserted, but inhabited, by millions of people, executing the financial transactions of the new world, China, and its surroundings.

They don’t quite understand why we don’t come over here and get our piece. They think it’s because we aren’t willing to work, aren’t willing to make so little on our initial investment. They don’t know we’re ignorant. That we westerners, more specifically, we Americans, are caught up in a PerezHilton culture with a disinformation campaign equivalent to that of a Communist country perpetrated by the mainstream media. They don’t understand that we’re in disarray. That FM may be nascent in India, that most people may be watching television in black and white, but they’re on the upswing, whereas we’re living in chaos, oldsters clinging to the way it’s been, newbies looking for traction…what can I say, I’m stuck in the middle with you!

I don’t want to be threatened by fat cats worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Certainly not ones who’ve moved their assets from their homeland in order to avoid paying taxes.

And I don’t want to hear about the future from any fucking asshole who has not spent more time surfing the Internet than flying on a private jet.

Paul McGuinness’ heart is certainly in the right place, rights holders should be paid, but his message is delivered in such a ham-fisted, back alley, contemptuous way as to undermine his complete argument. The music business has historically been one of intimidation, where a gun is a more important asset than a lawyer, what the technological revolution promises is a transparency the old guard hates.

If the old guard really wanted to illustrate it had come up to speed, was truly living in 2008, it would make the ISPs AN OFFER!

But Universal can’t make a public offer, it’s too busy ripping people off. That’s the major label business model. Onerous contracts containing terms they don’t live up to. Mr. McGuinness himself stated he had never done an audit where the artist came out ahead. So why in the hell is he defending these assholes? Telling us they’ve come up to speed, that they’re now ready for the future, that it’s the pundits who are the dinosaurs.

Reminds me of being lectured on Napster by Metallica. Look how well that worked out for the band. Hurt their image so bad, and their karma, they’ll be lucky to shed the stink in heaven, if they ever get there, if they emerge from their living hell. You can’t prognosticate about the future, can’t criticize what’s going on, UNLESS YOU LIVE THERE!

What I want first and foremost from the old guard is an admission that the Internet is the best thing that has ever happened not only for music, but THE AUDIENCE! What could be better than having everybody able to experience your wares, having their lives enriched? This can be done for a low price. The days of eighteen bucks an album, even ten, are gone forever. The goal is to get ten bucks from every person every month, or an even smaller amount, that in the aggregate is larger than what we made in the CD era. How come the mobile companies have figured this out and the content industries have not? Only when the price goes down and everybody partakes will we truly live in the future. Actually, we’re living there now, it’s just that the rights holders are not getting paid, because they only want to be paid in the old way.

When a candidate runs for President, he’s got a platform. What is the record company platform? Where is the ten dollars a month for all you can eat with fifty percent going to the record company and fifty percent of that going to the artist? Everybody knows the label rips off the talent, this is further incentive to steal. If you want the public on your side, you’ve got to show that you don’t have criminal intent, that you’re fair.

McGuinness referenced this fairness, after defending the major label model. Why? Did Smith Corona survive? Is IBM the biggest purveyor of personal computers? They missed the moment. And newbies usurped the market from them. Newbies are going to steal the majors’ thunder and business. And I wish to hell some of them were making these pronouncements instead of Paul McGuinness, he just looks silly. Like your grandma lecturing you on hip-hop.

He says he doesn’t want an Internet tax, but then asks for the government to establish ISP liability. Which way do you want it Paul? Free market, business to business, or Lord/Senator to corporation?

He quotes the French people as saying they’d be afraid to trade if the three strikes your out law is enacted. I doubt if that law comes to be revenue will be completely restored. How about sending files via IM? Or e-mailing them? Or hard-drive swapping? The future is not restriction, but ease of use! Come up with an offering that is enticing, that is more efficient, more thrilling than stealing. But it’s got to be cheap.

The average person can’t even avoid viruses and phishing scams, do you think he’s trading P2P? He’s just been scared away, fearful of getting sued. The key is to bring this person back and to make the trader realize legal is better than illegal. Not by making illegal harder, but the business proposition so good!

ISPs should offer music. But if we wait for the government to bring them to their knees, it will never happen.

In the U.S., the Universal Music controlled RIAA is suing people. Until this stops, you’re never going to get the public to pay.

Where’s the licensing at the college level? Instead of trying to make the administration the police?

It’s a brand new era. The meek have inherited the earth. Music will not die, will not cease to be created if it is not paid for in its recorded form. All that will happen is the old guard will give up. If the label can adjust to a 360 degree model, theoretically it could adjust to new business models, but it doesn’t want to! It just wants the old way perpetuated, ad infinitum.

All that free music. Do you think it had anything to do with Zeppelin mania? The collection of millions of e-mail addresses? Do you think that every kid would know "Stairway To Heaven" if it weren’t for P2P, the free transferability of music?

How about Pink Floyd? And AC/DC?

And all those people paying a fortune for concert tickets. Are you sure the Internet has nothing to do with that demand?

The music industry, still reeling from not getting the lion’s share of profits from MTV, wants to make sure it doesn’t get suckered in the future. Therefore, it moves so slowly, on such onerous terms, that it essentially turns the industry over to those young and industrious, who don’t rely on recorded music revenues to make their nut. As for getting in bed with pirates… Isn’t that what YouTube and MySpace were? Pirates? Seems like you can’t make any progress with getting rights licensed unless you steal the music to begin with.

I don’t know whose idea it was to make Paul McGuinness the new statesman for the music industry. He doesn’t fit the part. He comes across as a boring schoolteacher, the one all the students hate, snicker about behind his back. If we’ve got to have a spokesman, can’t it be someone under thirty? Who’s acknowledged how much the Internet has helped him? John Mayer attributes his success to file-trading… Get him to make these speeches. But he won’t. Because he knows first and foremost, you’ve got to have the audience on your side, without hearts and minds, you’ll have no progress, you can’t fight the North Vietnamese… Maybe not the Iraqis either. Some battles shouldn’t be entered into without a foolproof plan. I don’t see a plan here other than GIVE ME MY MONEY!

You can’t beg and you can’t cajole. You can’t urge people to come back to the past. You’ve got to cut them off at the pass, in the future.

Paul McGuinness has modified his stance a bit since MIDEM. He’s now speaking of ISP deals more than shutting trading down. That’s progress. But why did it take six months? How much more will his posture have to change before any true progress can be made?

This morning, John Kennedy told me there’s been no real progress, the ISP don’t want to make deals. I think they will. If they stop being told they’re guilty and legal services are proffered to them, that they can charge for and profit from.

Which is it? Is file-trading an individual problem or an ISP one? How come the music industry fought individuals for five years, and is still doing so, and is just now fighting the ISPs? Are they going to fight the government next? Who’s running this ship? And in what name? Believe me, it’s not about music, this campaign is all about the major labels. And the major labels are one of the most hated entities on the planet. Whose business has been marginalized, with most people claiming good riddance!

It’s the wild west out there. Innovators aren’t even worrying about charging for music. They’re giving it away, now that the majors have made it free. They’re not waiting for an ISP deal, they’re living in the twenty first century now. Meanwhile, the majors have laid off so many people there’s almost no one working there any longer and they want more of the artist’s pie to make their numbers. If this is the future, I want no part of it. Nor do the Eagles, Jay-Z, Madonna, Radiohead and every mid-level act with its contract coming up. If no one listens to the radio and MTV doesn’t play any music, why do I need a major label? With cunts who tell me what I can and cannot do, don’t pay me and tell me I should be grateful to have a deal. Bullshit.

I’m crying foul. I’d love it if the ISPs offered legal music. I’d pay ten bucks a month for all I can eat and keep. I already pay Time Warner $165 a month, ten dollars more is fine. But, they don’t tell me how much TV I can watch, they don’t shut my Internet down, they don’t insult me, they stay out of my way.

If only the label stayed out of my way. If only the acts they purveyed didn’t stop beating me over the head in the media, telling me how great they are. If only the "hippies" in Silicon Valley Mr. McGuinness rails about were in control of music. Then maybe we’d live in a better universe. I always loved that hippie music better than this pop crap anyway, didn’t you?

Music Matters

We took the Star Ferry across the bay.

Upstairs in the Peninsula Hotel, there’s a series of panels delineating the history of Hong Kong. They reinforced how little I knew. There was a water shortage in the fifties and sixties? I mean I remember giving Hong Kong back to the Chinese, but I wasn’t aware of the area being occupied in the Second World War… Feels like a living history lesson. Like the rest of the world had a parallel upbringing and we’ve met here, as a result of modern communications. I can get e-mail on my BlackBerry halfway around the world, but I’m clueless as to what happened here before the world got smaller.

We had lunch at the InterContinental with an ex-pat, a friend of Felice’s mother. She’s lived here for thirteen years, but is still shy on Cantonese. You don’t need to speak the language, English still dominates. Colonial days are gone, but the vestiges still remain. Hell, the Chinese dollar is tied to that of the U.S., it’s not like going to London or Paris, there’s still a level of affordability.

Maybe because there’s still an aspect of the third world in Kowloon. We saw scaffolding made of bamboo. Hell, the whole shopping district was like a movie set. Endless signs, advertising shops at a density unknown in the U.S. And every few feet there’s a barker, imploring you to come shop at his store, for watches and handbags.

Actually, Felice purchased a wallet. At an establishment her brother-in-law recommended. You went behind the Sheraton, walked into a building, up the stairs, around the corner…and there was no more than a stall, purveying knock-offs. The Indian woman working there had no idea the sun had come out, she hadn’t seen daylight for hours. The concept that an establishment could be so far from the street seemed almost unfathomable. Furthermore, this was not even a main shopping street. You had to know the store was there!

And unlike on this side of the water, a lot of the buildings were worse for wear. With endless air conditioning units puncturing their sides. And patches of plaster missing. You wondered… If there was an earthquake, would these buildings survive?

I still can’t get over the plethora of towers. What’s going on inside? Sure, some are residences, but what exactly is the commerce taking place up there on the seventy fifth floor? Makes me feel like I’m clueless when it comes to economics, the big picture, how the world really works. I understand there are skyscrapers in New York, that on Manhattan there’s a financial empire. But how many of these money-driven metropolises can there be? And with the aforementioned modern communications, do these far-flung outposts really need to exist?

Meanwhile, this is shvitz central. I’m used to the east coast, but Felice is wilting. It’s 88 degrees and seemingly two hundred percent humidity. You have to duck into the a/c every now and again just to survive.

And speaking of the a/c… Condensation is dripping on you constantly as you stride down the sidewalk. At first you feel it’s raining, then you realize it’s the a/c units shedding above you. And as you’re walking, you occasionally get blasted with cold air. Ultimately realizing that the a/c inside the open shops has been turned on to the max, and is escaping into the atmosphere. I couldn’t stop thinking of my father…who would freak if you left the fridge door open for more than an instant, and if the a/c was on and a window was left open, he’d go berserk!

We’re powerless against global warming until everybody closes his windows, until everybody keeps his front door shut when the a/c is on. But that’s easy for me to say, I live in L.A., where there is no humidity. The third world isn’t worried about snow melting on Kilimanjaro, they just want relief, from the relentless elements. Fuck rock stars jetting in to do Al Gore’s show, we need to reach the people not paying attention, and tell them to keep their doors shut when the a/c is on!

Positively MESMERIZING!

Like a living, breathing "Blade Runner".

Flew upstairs on Cathay Pacific. All day in the light. They have you pull down the shades to simulate nighttime, so you think you’ve gained a day, but it’s all a scam. Freaked me out at first, we weren’t flying over any water. When snow started appearing, I thought the pilot was on drugs. But, turns out, because of the curvature of the Earth, to fly to Hong Kong you go north, over Lake Tahoe, over Bend, Oregon on to Vancouver and just south of Alaska. Eventually you hit the International Date Line and fly south towards Japan. After just about grazing Siberia.

The humidity hits you as soon as you get off the plane. The limos are all brand new Mercedes-Benzes. Shit, I didn’t see one car fewer than five years old on the half hour drive from the airport to here. Just about all of them were brand new. We keep on hearing how America is the greatest country in the world, but could that just be because nobody has ever been anywhere?

The towers are positively jaw-dropping. Just outside the airport there were dozens of them, twinkling in the moist air. We drove over the world’s longest suspension bridge and on one side was Kowloon, the other Hong Kong. The rain was pouring down as if Harrison Ford had jetted back to 1982 and was scavenging for sushi. And when we hit the big island, it was like being in a living pinball machine. Like going to New York City for the first time, but experiencing a hipper, newer, bigger version.

The skyscrapers were festooned with world-dominating brands, shipped out of the world’s second largest port, only behind Singapore. Fluorescent lights were blinking, I felt like I was five, amazed that someplace so exotic could even exist.

The signs are all in English. Our driver was fluent, he learned from watching American TV. And now we’re ensconced on the 26th floor of the Hyatt, with the vast bay at our feet.

I feel both strange and curiously alive. Fourteen hours in a jet plane and it’s like I’m in a completely different universe. And so often when you travel, your destination has a certain hostility, a certain discomfort, you feel off-kilter, you feel you need to be on guard. Whereas Hong Kong seems inviting, I’ve got the desire to eat it all up. It’s like a giant Blu-Ray version of the world, crystal clear and twinkling in the mist. It’s like a cleaned up version of GTA IV, and I can’t wait to get out my controller and play the game.