Bob,

Once again, you are blaming the artist for the problems with the record industry.
You yourself has said radio is irrelevant, so why do you chastise an artist for workings so hard to promote his art.

I would like to make a few points.

First, Jon , while definitely a classic, is far from a " classic rocker". He and his band have continued to have major hits long since the 80’s passed. How many classic artists from that era are even on the charts, lest I remind you that " Who says you can’t go home" was a number one at country radio, Jon won a grammy in 2007 and songs like "It’s my life" and "Have a nice day" got huge airplay, after the turn of the millenium.

Second, almost every major artist has wanted to be on Idol, and everyone has done the Today show , Unplugged and every other TV outlet available, why…it creates visibility for new music, is that such a crime, to let the world know that you have a new CD in the market. One addtional point on Idol, if you watched that show, all the contestants struggled with those " classic songs" why , they are tough to sing, takes a real performer like Jon to do them.

Third, you fail to mention, that this promotion surrounded Jon doing ten nights to open the first new arena in the tri state area in 30 years. He offered this promotion to his hard core new Jersey fans, who were probably going to by this CD anyway, and he put together a smart and succeful promotion to reward those fans and sell CDs, smart marketing in light of the lack of creativity surrounding our business.

Fourth, as for ticket pricing , go and check all of Jon’s contemporaries he has never been one to gouge on the price. To the contrary, he is very aware of his audience, has never been at the high end, and most importantly delivers a show that is worth every dollar of the price paid.

Fifth, and lastly….I hate when people slam Jon for being smart, as if that were a crime. Yes , he is a smart businessman, so is Bono, Jagger, Sting, Elton, etc etc….does that mean they cannot be great artists as well. Jon has has a 25 year plus career, he consistentaly sells out stadiums around the world, he continues to make hit records, he is incredibly philanthropic, has stayed married to his high school sweetheart and raised great kids….and he knows how to put on a great 2 and a half hour plus hour show, giving every fan the satisfaction of hearing three decades of hits and weaving in his new music as if you have always known it.

Instead of chastising this artist, why not applaud him…..he deserves it.

Rob Light

The response I sent to Rob:

Wow, why don’t I deduct $100,000 from your bank account, you’re going to buy a new Mercedes Benz ANYWAY!
Oh, you wanted a BMW? Well, it’s MY choice.

As for ticket pricing… Are you DELUSIONAL? People were buzzing all over the boards about the top prices.

This is boilerplate bullshit. Written as the guy’s agent.

Wow, how about pulling Richie from rehab? How about never saying ANYTHING negative? How about credibility?

You might be getting paid, but if shit like this was king when you were growing up, you wouldn’t be IN this business, you’d have no DESIRE!

Assuming this is true, and Drudge’s accuracy rating is not 100%, don’t get your knickers in a twist, this is solely about MONEY! With SpiralFrog, YouTube, et al, it’s been demonstrated that Doug Morris just wants a better deal, preferably a piece of the action (can you say ZUNE?)

The only question is whether Steve Jobs needs him.

I’m doubting it will come down to a game of chicken, I’m believing that a deal will be struck. But if one’s not, WHERE THE FUCK IS UNIVERSAL GOING TO GO?

Yahoo, Rhapsody, MySpace, their sales are de minimis, they’re almost nonstarters. And even if they wanted to start offering MP3s sans copy protection TOMORROW, how long would it be until the masses owning iPods, launching iTunes on a regular basis to sync their devices, GET THE MESSAGE!

Borders and Barnes & Noble couldn’t compete with Amazon, because Amazon was there first, and the Seattle company did it so well. Online isn’t like real life. In real life, PROXIMITY is a major issue. ONLINE, everything’s at your FINGERTIPS! So, once an entity figures out a reasonable solution, and Apple’s is BEYOND reasonable, YEARS ahead of the competition even today, competitors are shut out.

The iTunes Store is the only bright spot in the economics of the major labels. They can’t afford to shut it down. Digital sales will tank, and digital sales are the future. But isn’t it funny that Doug & Zach are the ones who are posturing, part of a French water CONGLOMERATE. Doug & Zach don’t report to common shareholders, they’ve convinced Vivendi that now’s a bad time to sell, and to let them do it THEIR way. Whereas if Warner announced this move, analysts would start crucifying the company and its stock would TANK!

Apple/iTunes doesn’t have too much power… The labels haven’t authorized a better SOLUTION! Sale by track is economic death. The reason the business blew up is we got everybody to buy an album, TEN tracks, for TEN TIMES THE PRICE! You’ve got to sell people the PACKAGE!

Furthermore, Jobs has gone on record how very few iTunes Store tracks are on iPods. If Universal’s tracks were to disappear from the iTunes Store tomorrow, how much would the customer suffer? NOT MUCH! He would just be incentivized to steal, and we’d be back in the days before the April 2003 iTunes Store launch, when P2P RULED!

I can see Jobs raising the price. Hell, he did so for EMI, under the rubric of better quality and no copy protection. But will that be enough for Doug? Jobs can’t offer much more of HIS share, because Apple’s profits at the store are RAZOR THIN! Will Jobs offer a share of every iPod sold?

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

It’s kind of like blank CDs, music isn’t the only thing iPods hold. People can use them as hard drives, to store movies and podcasts… Jobs is gonna cough it up for old wave Doug? NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!

So Steve Jobs, who owns the media, and the customer, who sold nearly a million iPhones in a weekend, who had even the Mayor of Philadelphia lining up to buy one, is suddenly going to be portrayed as an ogre in the press, as someone to be defeated?

The labels have their leverage all wrong. With every year that goes by, the perception of the companies decreases. People believe the companies rip off not only them, but their artists. And that lawsuit campaign? That’s created a lot of good will.

I’d love to see Jobs hold his ground. That’s a better movie than "Live Free Or Die Hard".

Doug Morris may win through intimidation at terrestrial radio, at old wave brick and mortar retail, but in the new world of technology, he’s a dinosaur with little leverage. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

This is HYSTERICAL! Is the pint-sized rocker truly going to get the last laugh?

Oh, you remember, when he changed his name, and painted "Slave" on his cheek. The big bad record company wasn’t allowing him to do what he wanted, which was to release more MUSIC!

For those who’ve forgotten, that was Warner Brothers, run by Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, the most respected, the most credible label in the business.

But Mo was an accountant. This didn’t make BUSINESS sense! Releases had to be staggered, marketed and promoted, the public just couldn’t devour that much music.

But what about artistry, what about FANS!

So, Prince ultimately got his freedom and went on his own personal hejira. A walkabout. A journey in the desert.

He used the newfangled Internet to form a club.

Well, that didn’t work.

Prince was a joke, a has-been. Someone off the grid, that you no longer paid much attention to.

And then Prince executed a masterstroke. He decided to display his still prodigious skills on national TV, and then go on tour and GIVE his new album away!

Hell, the concert tickets were so expensive anyway (albeit cheaper than those of most long in the tooth rockers), what difference did it make if he threw a few pennies away if it got his new music in the HANDS OF THE FANS!

Yes, just a few pennies. Hell, the value of a plastic disc declined to almost zero, just like its cost, when AOL flooded the market with them.

Getting the music in the hands of fans. That’s what technology allows, cheaply. This is what has been driving the record labels INSANE! They’ve got a model. Not any different from the one Mo employed back at Warner Brothers in the nineties. You craft an album, run up the publicity and sell it for in excess of fifteen bucks. But is this serving the ARTIST, never mind the FAN!

A true artist desires one thing more than any other. To get his music EXPOSED!

Oh, the labels will say it’s all about the money. Well, maybe it is to the execs, who are sans talent and sans mission, that’s probably why they said that Napster would kill music. Maybe their PROFITS were threatened, but music would live on just fine. Because the people who make it, THEY’VE GOT TO MAKE IT!

Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff and Paris Hilton wouldn’t make music if it were free, but Radiohead would, and so would Coldplay.

So, if you’re a heritage act, and radio will have nothing to do with you, how do you get your message out there, how do you get people to hear your new music?

In one fell swoop, Prince has trumped McCartney. The "Daily Mail" is going to deposit TWO MILLION CDS in the hands of old fans and potential new ones, AS A PREMIUM, essentially COMPLETELY FREE TO THE CONSUMER, the disc comes with the newspaper. What’s even BETTER, Prince is getting PAID FOR THEM, by the "Mail"!

Win-win, wouldn’t you say?

Not if you’re a music retailer. Or a record label.

The retailers, they’re dropping like flies. The Fopp chain suddenly bit the dust in the U.K., and you’ve heard of Tower Records, haven’t you?

Think about this. Prince is going to reach MORE people, and ultimately make MORE MONEY, leaving traditional CD retailers OUT OF THE LOOP!

And what does he need the label for? He’s rich enough to record the music on his own, and who needs all the services they charge for, getting discs in the store, paying the retailers to stock them, trying to get tracks on the radio unsuccessfully, when he can accomplish ALL THIS BY HIS LONESOME AND KEEP ALL THE MONEY!

It took more than ten years, but the game finally caught up with Prince. He’s suddenly at the FOREFRONT!

Wal-Mart? The Eagles should have made a deal with a media company TO GIVE THE ALBUM AWAY! A fucking bidding war, what’s a new Eagles disc worth as a promotional tool?

And suddenly, everybody’s got your music and you’ve gotten paid.

Radio didn’t play "Hole In The World" that much, it’s not like you can count on radio this time around, but maybe all the hoopla of giving the album away will CAUSE radio and TV to embrace new Eagles tracks.

I don’t want to beat Irving and his band up too badly. They were at the forefront LAST YEAR, when this deal was MADE! If Henley wasn’t such a perfectionist, the album would have been on sale MONTHS ago and they all would have looked like geniuses.

But who’s gonna be the first classic act that’s gonna give away their record in the U.S?

A new Police record?

The Stones would have been better off giving their album away, shit they barely sold any copies of "A Bigger Bang" and the band’s records never sold that well anyway!

Now if you want to get on the radio, if you want to build an act, this paradigm doesn’t look too good. You need the traditional label, with its infrastructure and ties to radio and other media outlets.

But do you really need THEM? Or, in the future, will you be able to OUTSOURCE these functions?

Better yet, let’s say you don’t make music that CAN GET ON THE RADIO! Which is seemingly everybody but rappers or pop airheads these days. Where does this LEAVE YOU?

Well, music shouldn’t be free, people should pay for it. But until the labels wake up and authorize new modes of acquisition, allowing more people to own more music at a cheaper price, should free be a part of YOUR STRATEGY?

It already is. Even at the most basic level, the ability for the audience to hear four tracks on MySpace.

Every band has a MySpace site. You have to. The public EXPECTS IT! They just put your name and "MySpace" into the Google field and presume you’ll come up. You’re THRILLED IF PEOPLE WANT TO LISTEN! That’s the HARDEST PART, getting people to LISTEN! That’s what the labels have fucked up, the ability for people to HEAR the music. The old bait and switch, one good track that has to be purchased as part of an album of dreck, that paradigm is history, that’s done, the Net killed that.

And now the Net seems to have killed record stores.

And despite the long arm of the government, trying to kill small Web stations, the Internet is killing terrestrial radio.

And that free music, traded P2P and hard-drive swapped, it ends up on iPods, many people never even TOUCH the radio dial.

Right now, at the halfway mark in 2007, the revolution has finally begun.

EMI making a deal with SnoCap? Selling by track is economic death, never mind at $1.30. But notice they’re unprotected MP3s, UNTHINKABLE AS RECENTLY AS 2006! You see, EMI is DESPERATE!

Retail is fucked.

Are the labels fucked too?

It seems so. Their cash cows are going to do it themselves, like Prince and the Eagles, or extract heinous terms. And, if you’ve got no guaranteed sellers, HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR NUMBERS?

By not even being in the new music game, by ceding that business to newcomers, functioning at a much lower economic level, and by selling the assets you already POSSESS!

Yup, trying to sell EVERY LAST ZEPPELIN track to people. Lower the price, and give people more.

Otherwise, the way we’re going, people are going to EXPECT, like with Prince, that the music be FREE!

Time to monetize P2P. Time to throw the long ball. Because the acts, and labels are always dependent on the acts, are getting RESTLESS!

In other words, the lunatics are taking over the asylum.

WHAT A GREAT FUCKING MOVIE!

John Batdorf and James Lee Stanley, performing their acoustic rearrangements of Stones songs, some solo stuff and recounting a bunch of rock history, like how Batdorf was signed to Ahmet’s Atlantic but then asked to be switched to Geffen’s Asylum for the second album and ultimately ended up on Clive’s Arista, which is the last time he recorded with Mark Rodney until NOW!

Yup, listen to the Stones samples at:

Acoustic Guitars and Rolling Stones Songs

and tracks from John’s new album at:

John Batdorf

Last time I saw Batdorf perform, a month ago, he told us how he was inspired by Stephen Stills’ great guitar playing. Then, John proceeded to work out on his Martin and bring me right back there, into that pocket, when acoustic music ruled. If you were a fan of that Stephen Stills debut, check out "Can’t Be Trusted".

But, the most meaningful song is "I Don’t Always Win".

Remember those late night teenager and early twentysomething years, when you had more questions than answers, and you stayed up long after dark, with only your records to console you, keep you company? "I Don’t Always Win" sounds EXACTLY LIKE THOSE MOMENTS!

There’s a feeling that oldsters, aged baby boomers, can’t recapture the greatness of their youth. I think Batdorf is now BETTER! Sure, he got some airplay with Mark Rodney thirty years ago, and toured, but he never broke through to big time fame, he can’t survive on his royalties. He’s lived inside his head, he hasn’t been worried about dealing with groupies at Kitson, but rather feeding his family. So, the passion, the desire, IS STILL THERE!

I didn’t listen to Batdorf’s album the first time he sent it to me. I mean in today’s Net world, how much can you experience, how much can you check out? But, after seeing him live, I INSISTED he send me another. I WANTED to hear it, the way you bought the album of the opening act you experienced in the triple header at Fillmore East.

And for those who were fans the first time, be sure to listen to "Home Again" on MySpace, a remake of a tune from Batdorf & Rodney’s second album.

This is the song that won me over. I went to see Batdorf and Stanley for the Stones tunes. I wasn’t eager to hear unfamiliar new stuff. But when John started strumming that Martin, when he got lost in the music, when the audience no longer mattered, when it was about the power of music to transform both the player AS WELL as the listener, that’s when I got hooked.

James Lee Stanley has a new album too. You can hear it at:

James Lee Stanley

To tell you the truth, I was so mesmerized by James Lee’s stories, about sneaking out against his father’s wishes and burning up his bathing suit and having to ride his bike home in the nude, that I’m looking forward to having another chance to reacquaint myself with his originals on Sunday night.

So, tune in. From 9-11 PM, on Sunday night, 97.1 Free FM.

97.1 Free FM (click here to listen in real time)

97.1 Free FM Podcast (podcasts)

P.S. Batdorf, can you put up "Solitude" as the last track on your MySpace page?

That’s my other favorite on his album. It sounds like one of those Stills songs off a Crosby, Stills & Nash album, like "4+20", or "Helplessly Hoping".

If you were ever lonely, if you ever thought the world was unjust, if you ever listened to a record to get you through the night, you’ll get this.