They’re selling CDs at Whole Foods.<\/p>\n
I stopped by yesterday to get some provisions to hold me over before we go to Vail.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to partake from the raw bar, but I never know how much to buy.\u00c2\u00a0 I HATE being limited with food.\u00c2\u00a0 To be savoring mussels or squid and run out makes me feel like a poor soul living a less than full life.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if I bought too much, what was I going to do with the extra?\u00c2\u00a0 And I come from the kind of background where it’s illegal to throw out food.<\/p>\n
So I purchased some of the usual suspects.\u00c2\u00a0 A Border Girls beef brisket burrito.\u00c2\u00a0 Some smoked salmon.\u00c2\u00a0 Some Zone bars.<\/p>\n
And sauntered up to the cash register.\u00c2\u00a0 Where I was confronted with four CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 One by Michael Buble.\u00c2\u00a0 Two I can’t remember right now.\u00c2\u00a0 And a greatest hits collection by Crosby, Stills & Nash I’d never seen before.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to remove it from the rack, hold it in my hand, the way I used to look through and hold the new releases at the record store.<\/p>\n
But I don’t go to the record store anymore.<\/p>\n
I don’t understand the record store.<\/p>\n
The prices are best at Best Buy, and that’s not a record store.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re catering to the people I don’t respect, those buying the hits.<\/p>\n
And the indie stores are like museums.\u00c2\u00a0 Relics from the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually run by people with long hair.\u00c2\u00a0 I spent half my life in record stores back when, but I don’t want to get back together with my old girlfriends either.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just creepy.\u00c2\u00a0 Just because it was happening there a long time ago doesn’t mean it is NOW!<\/p>\n
I’ll admit something to you.\u00c2\u00a0 The CD still rules.<\/p>\n
I run into people all the time who tell me that people are still buying discs in the heartland.\u00c2\u00a0 I was just IN the heartland.\u00c2\u00a0 THEY’RE RIGHT!\u00c2\u00a0 Leave L.A. and not everybody is sporting white earphones.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not because they don’t want to, they just haven’t gotten the message.\u00c2\u00a0 It hasn’t been sold properly.\u00c2\u00a0 Hasn’t been sold by the labels.<\/p>\n
I thought it would be hard for a baby boomer to resist buying this CSN CD.\u00c2\u00a0 Compared to the price of the food, it was almost CHEAP!\u00c2\u00a0 Well, not exactly, but if you’re looking at the prices, you shouldn’t be shopping at Whole Foods.<\/p>\n
But how is it that Starbucks and Whole Foods are the new record stores?\u00c2\u00a0 On one hand they’re appealing to people who’ve REJECTED record stores.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean if I don’t go in them anymore, how about my adult contemporaries?\u00c2\u00a0 And then there’s the limited selection.\u00c2\u00a0 Sell anything and your boss will tell you to offer only TWO alternatives.\u00c2\u00a0 That if you show somebody multiple items they tend not to buy.\u00c2\u00a0 And, of course, oldsters still believe in the CD.<\/p>\n
But I scratch my head.\u00c2\u00a0 If you buy a CD, you’re not hip.\u00c2\u00a0 And believe me, the one thing the customers of Starbucks and Whole Foods want to be is hip.\u00c2\u00a0 MAYBE if Starbucks opened up a downloading station, where you could just plug in your iPod and get the CD at a discount, people would partake just to BE cool.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine it.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody would show up at Starbucks with their iPod, as a badge of honor.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d b.s. like insiders, like Benz drivers, as they waited in line to fill up.\u00c2\u00a0 And then they’d tell all their buds that they downloaded an album at the coffee emporium.<\/p>\n
But to provide something like this would be to invest in the future.\u00c2\u00a0 And, although they don’t want to go out of business, the labels are not INVESTING in the future.<\/p>\n
When The Levee Breaks What song would you leave off Led Zeppelin IV.<\/p>\n Let’s say you’re ripping the CD, and you only have room for a few tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Which ones would you not bother to convert?<\/p>\n I know it’s got fans, but I’m gonna discard "Four Sticks" first.<\/p>\n And then "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll".\u00c2\u00a0 I respect both of them, but never loved them.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re energetic, but generic.\u00c2\u00a0 They get you going but they don’t throw you into ecstasy.<\/p>\n Same deal with "Misty Mountain Hop".\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly more innovative, but not legendary.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the kind of stuff, like the above three cuts, that CASUAL fans enjoy.<\/p>\n And I’m gonna leave off "Stairway To Heaven".\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve just heard it too much.\u00c2\u00a0 And in some way it’s obvious.\u00c2\u00a0 They KNEW they were creating an anthem, however dark and slow it might be.<\/p>\n But I’m NEVER gonna discard "The Battle Of Evermore".\u00c2\u00a0 I would never want to have to defend it as the best cut on IV, but it’s by far my favorite.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so OTHERWORLDLY!\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody on MTV would cut this.\u00c2\u00a0 And when Sandy Denny and Robert twin wail your jaw drops, as your head furiously nods to the beat.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re pressing the limit.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is the kind of music that made us fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the stuff on the hit parade.\u00c2\u00a0 Even guys in Sweden can write hits, but they can’t write "The Battle Of Evermore".\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be a real musician, someone creative, a VISIONARY, to come up with "The Battle Of Evermore".<\/p>\n And I’m gonna include "Going To California".\u00c2\u00a0 If you immigrated here, you’d get it.\u00c2\u00a0 I followed my dream.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all it was cracked up to be.\u00c2\u00a0 The fact that you don’t get L.A., the whole Golden State, the fact that it’s not like the east coast, not like other cities, is EXACTLY the reason I love it.<\/p>\n But, I’m also gonna include "When The Levee Breaks".<\/p>\n If only today’s metal musicians could cut something as heavy as "When The Levee Breaks".\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they play their guitars furiously, they SCREAM, but it doesn’t translate.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t penetrate you, it doesn’t radiate.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas "When The Levee Breaks", a slow pounding song, immediately gets under your skin and wafts over the complete landscape.<\/p>\n If you had to boil it down to one element, it’s John Bonham’s drums.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to this song one can understand why the band had to call it quits when he died.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like an ocean liner without a hull.\u00c2\u00a0 A cruise ship.\u00c2\u00a0 You can have all the officers, all the restaurants, all the entertainment, but if you don’t have a rock solid hull, the whole thing doesn’t float.\u00c2\u00a0 But Bonzo does more than support, he DRIVES!\u00c2\u00a0 His drums sound like a pile driver, like the blue collar worker none of the band members wanted to be working all day long.\u00c2\u00a0 Tired, but still needing to break rocks.<\/p>\n And from there…<\/p>\n God, there’s Robert’s vocal.\u00c2\u00a0 His harmonica work.<\/p>\n And the sound of Jimmy’s guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 And the changes that develop.\u00c2\u00a0 The song is just slogging along, and then there’s this hook.<\/p>\n This is stuff that is the ANTITHESIS of hit material, and that’s why it IS a hit!\u00c2\u00a0 Not a single, but a song you want to play again and again and again.<\/p>\n Which is why I downloaded the live version of "When The Levee Breaks" by Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation from the iTunes Music Store.<\/p>\n Oh, don’t worry.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t pay for it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got credits.<\/p>\n But I never use them.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m waiting for something I just can’t find P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 But I played the thirty second excerpt and had to partake.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like having your dick two inches from the vagina.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve GOT to go in.<\/p>\n And this take doesn’t have Bonzo.\u00c2\u00a0 And it doesn’t have Jimmy.<\/p>\n But it has Robert.<\/p>\n And Bonzo is dead.\u00c2\u00a0 And Jimmy hasn’t done anything new, anything innovative, in decades.\u00c2\u00a0 God, doing Kashmir with Puffy?\u00c2\u00a0 Going on the road and playing Zeppelin classics with the third-rate Black Crowes?<\/p>\n But Robert.\u00c2\u00a0 Who has allowed himself to age, who has not had plastic surgery, who has resisted casting himself as a legend like Michael Jackson and is walking the earth like a mere mortal…Robert’s still got it.<\/p>\n He’s not wailing like he did in the original.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a more nuanced performance.\u00c2\u00a0 One of a more experienced man.\u00c2\u00a0 Who doesn’t have to bat the chicks over the head but can get in their pants anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Just by looking them in the eye, by being subtle, by being himself.<\/p>\n See The Sun They never do.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the strange thing.\u00c2\u00a0 When they’re done with you accept it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you will them back, if they come back with their tail between their legs, it will never work.\u00c2\u00a0 What will be keeping you together is desperation.<\/p>\n I’m not talking about a fight.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m talking what happens after a BUNCH of fights.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, in the middle of the night, one partner calls it quits.\u00c2\u00a0 Says not only that he can’t do it anymore, but reviews the whole relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 Says why it’s done.<\/p>\n You could foresee it.\u00c2\u00a0 You did everything in your power to prevent it from happening, from hearing these words, but to no avail.<\/p>\n Oh, OF COURSE they regret their decision.\u00c2\u00a0 But something has changed in their heart.\u00c2\u00a0 They might come by, even fuck you, but they’ve moved on.\u00c2\u00a0 The more you beg, the more you mope, the less chance you’ll get what you’re looking for, which is having it the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if you can mourn, if you can get to the other side, then you get perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 You see their flaws, how they weren’t right for you anyway.<\/p>\n These are the kinds of concepts that appear in Dido’s music.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why I love her.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why I play her.<\/p>\n I don’t think I’ll ever get in her pants.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m savvy enough to know that famous people, people you’ve never met, never fit the construct you have of them in your head.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not their job, to be in real life who you want them to be.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about creating your own mental picture, based on the data they give you, that’s what makes you fall in love with them.<\/p>\n It’s not about appearing in the tabloids.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about what they do day by day.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about their MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 The songs and the album cover are enough for you to establish a complete picture.<\/p>\n Dido is me.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who is thinking about all interactions.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who’s analyzing in a way that everybody hates.\u00c2\u00a0 What do they tell you?\u00c2\u00a0 Forward?\u00c2\u00a0 Get on with it?\u00c2\u00a0 I realize that’s the sentiment of "See The Sun"…but not really.\u00c2\u00a0 Here she’s lending a helping hand.\u00c2\u00a0 To someone who’s stuck.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s not chastising him, not castigating him, but trying to prod him just a bit, trying to impart enough wisdom to get him moving again.<\/p>\n Shine It’s hard to get excited about music today.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just not purveyed in a palatable way.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got the evanescent Top Forty\/tabloid fodder and then you’ve got the hipper than thou pitchforkmedia crowd, that tells you you’re just too stupid and out of it to know what’s going on.<\/p>\n I don’t like being excluded.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t like being unhip.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to feel plugged in.\u00c2\u00a0 But I just don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 And I know all the movers and shakers, I get anything I want for free.<\/p>\n Used to be music was an inclusive endeavor.\u00c2\u00a0 We were in it together.\u00c2\u00a0 There weren’t rival camps telling us we didn’t get it.\u00c2\u00a0 That we would never get it.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t purely about the bucks.<\/p>\n The whole country has gotten coarser.\u00c2\u00a0 We used to depend on music to soften things up.\u00c2\u00a0 I yearn for those days.<\/p>\n I want a rallying place.\u00c2\u00a0 Somewhere I can go where there are other people who feel like I do.<\/p>\n I don’t drink coffee.\u00c2\u00a0 And I don’t buy CDs.<\/p>\n I can barely fall asleep as it is.\u00c2\u00a0 To add that much caffeine to my body would have me spinning off into the universe.\u00c2\u00a0 A CD just isn’t a vinyl record.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s small and creepy.\u00c2\u00a0 Already antiquated.\u00c2\u00a0 I only want the file.<\/p>\n I know this is where it’s going.\u00c2\u00a0 But rather than invest in where it’s going we’ve got the powers-that-be trying to corral everybody into the past.<\/p>\n We’ve got an adversarial relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 How is it that Andy Lack, David Munns and Zach Horowitz are AGAINST their customer, HATE their customer.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be the coolest thing was to make and sell music.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s a laughable profession inhabited by middle-aged pricks inured to their lifestyle.<\/p>\n Today Apple introduced the Mighty Mouse.\u00c2\u00a0 They responded to their critics.\u00c2\u00a0 Who complained about the lack of a scroll wheel and an extra button.\u00c2\u00a0 They TRUMPED expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 When was the last time the music business trumped expectations?<\/p>\n I think the iTunes Music Store is bullshit.\u00c2\u00a0 Pay the price of a CD for less.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, sale by single is economic death.\u00c2\u00a0 The label model only works if you sell a bundle.<\/p>\n But the iTunes Music Store is selling the one thing that file-traders salivate over, that have them dedicating hours to P2P, that’s rarities, exclusives.<\/p>\n That’s what this business was built upon.\u00c2\u00a0 Owning a copy of "Hey, Hey What Can I Do".\u00c2\u00a0 But somewhere along the line greed triumphed over creativity and all the blood was sucked out.<\/p>\n Despite being a lame economic model, the iTunes Music Store is cool.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the new record store.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got everything the old record stores used to have, and more.\u00c2\u00a0 Stuff the indie stores are lacking.<\/p>\n Go to the homepage, click on "Back To School Shuffle".\u00c2\u00a0 They’re SUGGESTING music.<\/p>\n But what made me cough up some of my credits was the exclusives.\u00c2\u00a0 Stuff you couldn’t buy on CD.\u00c2\u00a0 Stuff like Robert Plant’s version of "When The Levee Breaks" and Dido’s "See The Sun" and Collective Soul’s "Shine".\u00c2\u00a0 I hated "Shine" when it came out.\u00c2\u00a0 But this acoustic version kills.<\/p>\n None of this product, none of these songs, are being hyped by the labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they’re ignorant.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re going after the big bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t care about cool.\u00c2\u00a0 And they don’t want Apple to have too much power.<\/p>\n But it’s THIS stuff that built the business.\u00c2\u00a0 Not stuff shoved down people’s throats but rarities, oddities, that you could tell your friends about, share with them.<\/p>\n Not that you can share anything from the iTunes Music Store.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine that.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels CUTTING OFF their lifeblood.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s only by sharing amongst friends that you create the kind of culture that supports a band.<\/p>\n There should be ads trumpeting the availability of iTunes rarities and exclusives.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is where the future of the business is.<\/p>\n Labels should create a promotional page.\u00c2\u00a0 Where they give this stuff away for free.\u00c2\u00a0 Make a fan and he’ll buy an album, more, in whatever form.<\/p>\n I want to be a member of the club.\u00c2\u00a0 But you make it hard when I can only hear a thirty second snippet before I lay down my money.<\/p>\n And I want to lay down my money.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to give you my money.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got what I want.\u00c2\u00a0 What gets me off.<\/p>\n You’ve just got to let me and everybody else know about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Let us know we’re important, that we count, that you’re doing us a favor, turning us on to this stuff.<\/p>\n Buy some of these tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Invest a buck or two.<\/p>\n And then you’ll know why I love P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got THOUSANDS of tracks like this.<\/p>\n This is what will sustain this business.\u00c2\u00a0 The availability of the culture to the audience.<\/p>\n The major label ethic is anathema to growth.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s why revenues are down.\u00c2\u00a0 If labels only opened up to the new world, stopped lamenting the death of the CD and invested in new ways to truly satiate customers, THEN their business would grow.<\/p>\n These iTunes exclusives are just a taste.\u00c2\u00a0 Of what could be. <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They’re selling CDs at Whole Foods. I stopped by yesterday to get some provisions to hold me over before we go to Vail.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to partake from the raw bar, but I never know how much to buy.\u00c2\u00a0 I HATE being limited with food.\u00c2\u00a0 To be savoring mussels or squid and run out makes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-1K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s going to break<\/em><\/p>\n
Come on take my hand
We’re going for a walk, I know you can
You can wear anything as long as it’s not black
Please don’t mourn forever
She’s not coming back<\/em><\/p>\n
Give me a word
Give me a sign
Show me where to come
Tell me what will I find<\/em><\/p>\n