They no longer sell CDs at the Harvard Coop.<\/p>\n
We awoke yesterday in Manchester to bright sun and temperatures in the forties.\u00c2\u00a0 On the drive out of town we stopped at a farm stand and purchased some Macoun apples and ventured into the mountains.\u00c2\u00a0 Where we found the foliage way past peak.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether due to weather or the extreme rain of the day before, we’re not sure, but we felt happy to experience the peak, only a few days prior.<\/p>\n
And after driving through Townshend and Newfane, and by the dilapidated Maple Valley, we found ourselves in Brattleboro.\u00c2\u00a0 To find the Dunkin Donuts absent its former location and an endless stream of cars.\u00c2\u00a0 It appears you can’t even avoid traffic in Vermont.<\/p>\n
And then we descended Route 91 into Bernardston, Massachusetts, turned at Greenfield onto Route 2 and left the mountains behind.<\/p>\n
Last night was the rehearsal dinner, at Anthony’s Pier 4.\u00c2\u00a0 It was great to eat lobster, but even more fascinating to speak with my octogenarian uncle, Herbie.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d told me he’d lost $300,000 in the crash of the market.\u00c2\u00a0 My mother, his sister, told me Herb had stock in Wachovia…and although depositors did well, investors were wiped out.<\/p>\n
We read about the fat cats, but throughout my ventures in New England I’ve been hearing the stories of the middle class.\u00c2\u00a0 People who do not make $250,000 a year and want change.\u00c2\u00a0 That family inheritance, that your professional father earned and is now split three ways?\u00c2\u00a0 It lost a third of its value, the family freaked and switched the asset to cash.\u00c2\u00a0 No one was prepared for this.\u00c2\u00a0 People felt they could trust their advisors, they didn’t need specific knowledge themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 And now everybody is scurrying about, trying to find out how to save his investments.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s always the same, socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.\u00c2\u00a0 None of the untaxed dollars from the rich trickle down into these people’s pockets.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re working for a living.<\/p>\n
Today we walked up the Charles to experience the regatta.\u00c2\u00a0 Dozens of teams rowing their sculls three miles up the river.\u00c2\u00a0 Hanging out on the Boston University dock, having employed my chutzpah to get in, I was struck by the sense of camaraderie.\u00c2\u00a0 We all want to belong, we all want to be a member of the group, we all want to participate.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re all patriots!\u00c2\u00a0 But when we’re done with college, society focuses its attention on the youth, we’re the ignored generation.\u00c2\u00a0 I pity those alone at an older age, sans compatriots, working for a living, earning less for their effort and coming home to watch TV.\u00c2\u00a0 The older you are in America, the more you’re ignored.\u00c2\u00a0 Make way for the newbies.<\/p>\n
After taking Felice’s picture aside the BlackBerry mascot, and consuming some free samples from the concession stands, we strolled up to Harvard Square.<\/p>\n
Like the rest of America, it’s grown out, expanded.\u00c2\u00a0 But Passim is still there.\u00c2\u00a0 And the old Yard…\u00c2\u00a0 You can feel the intellectualism oozing from the hundreds year old buildings.<\/p>\n
And after consuming some clam chowder in the aforementioned Coop, we went behind the original building, to the annex, where the records used to live.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re gone. I guess one can say books will be gone soon too.\u00c2\u00a0 With so many college texts being downloaded, with Amazon a viable option for consumers.\u00c2\u00a0 Something is lost when bookstores expire, the vibe, the ability to browse and explore, but driving one’s car one can’t experience the wind in one’s face like Paul Revere did on his horse on his midnight ride.<\/p>\n
Confirming there was no music at the Coop, the man at the information desk told me I could find CDs at Newbury Comics, down on J.F.K., in the Garage.<\/p>\n
Which turned out to be a mini-mall.\u00c2\u00a0 With a Ben & Jerry’s on the first floor and a stereo shop on the second.<\/p>\n
That used to be one of my prime Saturday afternoon activities, shopping for stereo.\u00c2\u00a0 But the store was empty sans a few baby boomers.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids don’t drool over McIntosh the way we did.<\/p>\n
And then, in the back of the building, I found Newbury Comics.<\/p>\n
It’s a record store in name only.\u00c2\u00a0 In truth, it’s a tchotchke emporium.<\/p>\n
Newbury Comics was started by M.I.T. dropout Mike Dreese and a buddy.\u00c2\u00a0 Dreese is inspirational, not relying on self-help books or an MBA to guide his empire, but his instincts, his ability to analyze and a nimbleness that allows him to adjust his inventory, seemingly instantly.<\/p>\n
And what is that inventory?<\/p>\n
There are a few rows of CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 The big innovation being the insertion of used product in with the new.\u00c2\u00a0 And the few people perusing the jewel boxes seemed to be looking for bargains.<\/p>\n
As for the vinyl, the vaunted cash cow, I only found one person fingering the albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of which were overpriced in the major label way.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean how many people want an over twenty dollar LP?\u00c2\u00a0 We bitched when we paid more than four bucks!<\/p>\n
And U2 was blaring out of the sound system.\u00c2\u00a0 And the help didn’t have that Tower fuck you quality, but the magic wasn’t in music, but the other merchandise.<\/p>\n
There was a rack of posters.\u00c2\u00a0 I guess kids still need to put their heroes on the wall.\u00c2\u00a0 I certainly did.\u00c2\u00a0 Both W.C. Fields and Peter Fonda.<\/p>\n
And stuffed animals.\u00c2\u00a0 And Red Sox street signs.\u00c2\u00a0 There was more stuff crammed into this store than a museum.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like opening Carrot Top’s trunk.\u00c2\u00a0 This was where you went if you wanted a cheap gift.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were under twenty and were searching for your identity.\u00c2\u00a0 You could buy music, but that wasn’t where the pulse was.\u00c2\u00a0 DVDs got about as much space, but movies are moving online too.\u00c2\u00a0 Blu-Ray is not burning up the sales floor.<\/p>\n
In other words, Newbury Comics and Mike Dreese are going to be fine.\u00c2\u00a0 Because Mike is a retailer.\u00c2\u00a0 Who happened to sell music.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s about store excitement, he’s about unique merchandise purchased in bulk at a great price.\u00c2\u00a0 But despite your protestations, despite you waxing rhapsodic about albums, about the retail experience, brick and mortar music sales are on their last legs.\u00c2\u00a0 The final hurrah is already in the rearview mirror.\u00c2\u00a0 Physical retail is where old wave acts like AC\/DC that didn’t get the memo become pawns to giant corporations that don’t give a shit.<\/p>\n
I don’t see AC\/DC playing any in-stores at Wal-Mart, and I don’t see them playing their entire new album in order live either.<\/p>\n
In other words, music lives online and it’s hard to grasp the scene.<\/p>\n
iTunes represents a fraction of acquisition.\u00c2\u00a0 The iPod eclipses the product.\u00c2\u00a0 And the iPhone stands alone, it doesn’t even need any product to be useful.<\/p>\n
And you can’t tell which way the wind blows by listening to the radio.<\/p>\n
Music is a state of mind.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no longer a product.\u00c2\u00a0 No longer something you produce, ship and wash your hands of.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, music is just part of the relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 Musical acts must acquire and maintain a relationship with their fan base in order to prosper and survive.\u00c2\u00a0 You get paid for some things, and not for others.\u00c2\u00a0 And the fan coughs up important assets to the act.\u00c2\u00a0 A valid e-mail address is worth more than a free track.\u00c2\u00a0 For you can market forever to the individual, whereas that one free song could be an evanescent wank.<\/p>\n
We can’t even call it the record business anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 And, it’s something that is hard to calculate and evaluate.\u00c2\u00a0 What difference does the chart make if no one is listening, if one-tenth of the people are buying?\u00c2\u00a0 It just matters if you’ve got people who like you and your music.\u00c2\u00a0 Who are willing to proffer enough money so that you can survive without a day job.<\/p>\n
Don’t focus on record sales.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t focus on radio adds.\u00c2\u00a0 Those are antique concepts.\u00c2\u00a0 Focus first on your music, and then getting paid.\u00c2\u00a0 Broaden your horizons on how to get paid.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t think of a CD you mail to a critic and sell in a store, but a friend who tells everybody he knows about you.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t worry about the old gatekeepers, their kingdom is contracting.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t worry about awards.\u00c2\u00a0 By time they figure out how to quantify what you’re doing, you will have already broken up.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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They no longer sell CDs at the Harvard Coop. We awoke yesterday in Manchester to bright sun and temperatures in the forties.\u00c2\u00a0 On the drive out of town we stopped at a farm stand and purchased some Macoun apples and ventured into the mountains.\u00c2\u00a0 Where we found the foliage way past peak.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-mq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390","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=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}