Fuck Facebook.\u00c2\u00a0 Mark Zuckerberg is a pompous, socially-impaired nitwit who has managed to connect a ton of people but not make any money.<\/p>\n
That’s what’s wrong with these Web hypes.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got very short shelf lives.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they just can’t make any money!\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be cool to order an ice cream sandwich on the Internet and have it delivered to your door?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, but the company providing that service went out of business.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’d like an ice cream sandwich delivered to your house for less than twenty bucks, buy a slave.\u00c2\u00a0 Or enlist your children (for a hefty reward!)<\/p>\n
Then there’s MySpace…\u00c2\u00a0 PASSE!<\/p>\n
You want to know where it’s really happening?\u00c2\u00a0 THE APP STORE!<\/p>\n
Apple isn’t focusing on ONE app, they’re purveying MANY!\u00c2\u00a0 Some of them even FREE!<\/p>\n
But you’ve got to buy an iPhone first.\u00c2\u00a0 Or at least an iPod Touch.<\/p>\n
Then you’re a member of a cult.<\/p>\n
Ask your buddy, the one who has already gotten religion.\u00c2\u00a0 Have him demonstrate some apps.\u00c2\u00a0 Like the one reproducing that labyrinth game, you know, the one where you’ve got to keep the ball from falling into the hole.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s extremely cool on an iPhone, and you can take it ANYWHERE!\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind apps giving you information and telling you what song you’re listening to.<\/p>\n
The iPhone is cool.\u00c2\u00a0 May not do e-mail as well as a BlackBerry, might not be as easy to use to make calls as your old RAZR, but the total package is damn near irresistible.\u00c2\u00a0 When was the last time you heard a song that was irresistible?\u00c2\u00a0 THAT MEANT SOMETHING!<\/p>\n
I’m not talking about the little doggie in the window, or the bitches and ho’s anthem that cracks you up.\u00c2\u00a0 There used to be a culture around music, just like there’s a culture around the iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 If you wanted to know what was going on, you bought a record.\u00c2\u00a0 The acts were hipper than you.\u00c2\u00a0 Not tools of the corporation, but independent thinkers.\u00c2\u00a0 We were DRAWN TO THEM!<\/p>\n
I’m at a music conference in Aspen.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve heard a lot of interesting things.\u00c2\u00a0 But the question everybody keeps asking is how can I get more people to buy what I’m selling?<\/p>\n
Don’t they get it?\u00c2\u00a0 The public is OVERWHELMED with music.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t know what to listen to and your damn e-mail is not going to encourage them.\u00c2\u00a0 They might go see a dinosaur at an inflated price, but not your developing act.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it doesn’t mean shit.<\/p>\n
Steve Jobs has become a national icon by doing it his way.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the products are cool, but the cult of Steve is based on his iconoclasm.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s direct. He got rid of the floppy.\u00c2\u00a0 Now he’s killing Firewire 400.\u00c2\u00a0 What kind of guy does this?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t you know you’ve got to play by the RULES?<\/p>\n
But what if you made up your own rules?<\/p>\n
Using Twitter to tell your twits that you’ve got a new album out is ridiculous.\u00c2\u00a0 The funny thing about great albums?\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody knows they’re coming out.\u00c2\u00a0 What kind of fucked up business do we have where people say "Chinese Democracy" failed because Axl Rose didn’t work it.\u00c2\u00a0 Come the fuck on. PEOPLE DON’T GIVE A SHIT!\u00c2\u00a0 If they did, they’d be going to Guns N’ Roses’ Website every damn day.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what fans do.\u00c2\u00a0 Multiple times a day. They tell everybody about what they’re into.\u00c2\u00a0 If Axl goes on Jay Leno, he reaches the people who truly don’t care and aren’t going to come to the gig where the real money is made anyway.<\/p>\n
The business thought Guns N’ Roses was cool.\u00c2\u00a0 But the public was way ahead of the game.\u00c2\u00a0 They knew he was TOAST!\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t you see him on the VMAs?\u00c2\u00a0 LAUGHABLE!\u00c2\u00a0 You think people didn’t KNOW?<\/p>\n
And if you think Britney Spears is about music, then you don’t ever read "People" or "Us" or surf from TMZ to PerezHilton.\u00c2\u00a0 Britney’s about train-wreck. That’s a business, but the music is incidental.<\/p>\n
Great music sells itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t matter if the venue has got plush seats or you’ve got to stand, if the music is great, the building will sell out.<\/p>\n
We don’t have a theft problem.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got a MUSIC problem.<\/p>\n
This business is too long in the tooth.\u00c2\u00a0 It used to be run by renegades, now it’s controlled by major corporations, only interested in the bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all about the money, baby.\u00c2\u00a0 And money might be good in the abstract, but money doesn’t keep you warm, doesn’t get you high all by its lonesome. But music does.\u00c2\u00a0 A great record can change your mood, can literally keep you from committing suicide.<\/p>\n
Don’t tell me it’s the same as it always was.\u00c2\u00a0 It was different in the sixties and seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, we wanted to go to the gig to hang out, but we NEEDED to hear the music.\u00c2\u00a0 We NEEDED to be closer to the geniuses who made it.\u00c2\u00a0 We felt it was us versus them, the act and its audience versus the system.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas now the acts ARE PART OF THE SYSTEM!<\/p>\n
If you make a deal with a major corporation, how are you different?\u00c2\u00a0 Steve Jobs keeps telling everyone he won’t do it their way, but everybody in the music business is compromising and selling out.<\/p>\n
Will a golden era return?<\/p>\n
Doubtful.<\/p>\n
But it will only happen when acts are about the music first, and don’t focus on reaching everybody, but SOMEBODY!\u00c2\u00a0 When they say no more than yes.<\/p>\n
"The Sopranos" was cooler than any record, any act of the twenty first century.<\/p>\n
Network television is dying because it’s trying to be all things to all people.\u00c2\u00a0 And there’s too much competition.<\/p>\n
There’s too much competition in music.\u00c2\u00a0 Listeners are confused.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll go to see an old classic act, even a momentary star, but the country does not have a passion for music.<\/p>\n
Michael Rapino?\u00c2\u00a0 Who gives a shit how you sell it, what’s underneath is not compelling.<\/p>\n
Jimmy Iovine?\u00c2\u00a0 Like we used to say in the sixties, you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.\u00c2\u00a0 You took a huge hit to your cred, you did the business a disservice by hyping the Pussycat Dolls.\u00c2\u00a0 You made everybody think music is a joke, only created to get rich.<\/p>\n
The revolution is based in the tools.\u00c2\u00a0 Your Mac and Pro Tools allows you to put forth your vision.\u00c2\u00a0 You are an app in the world of music.\u00c2\u00a0 Apps are downloaded because of their coolness.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re nobody until you’ve downloaded the latest one.\u00c2\u00a0 When was the last time you could say that about music?<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fuck Facebook.\u00c2\u00a0 Mark Zuckerberg is a pompous, socially-impaired nitwit who has managed to connect a ton of people but not make any money. That’s what’s wrong with these Web hypes.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got very short shelf lives.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they just can’t make any money!\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be cool to order an ice cream sandwich on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[4,2,5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-music-business","category-online","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-or","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}