{"id":1712,"date":"2009-02-23T09:32:48","date_gmt":"2009-02-23T17:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2009-02-23T09:33:19","modified_gmt":"2009-02-23T17:33:19","slug":"news-roundup-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/23\/news-roundup-2\/","title":{"rendered":"News Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Freese<\/span><\/p>\n

The number one forward to my inbox this week.<\/p>\n

In case you are unaware, you can catch up here: <\/p>\n

\n
Former NiN Drummer Takes Album Promotion A Step Further<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

and many other places on the Web.<\/p>\n

My first inclination was this was a parody of every artist now tapping his fans to make a record.\u00c2\u00a0 What blows my mind is all these acts need to make an album for the same price as the one they made for the major label, before they got dropped.\u00c2\u00a0 In a recessionary time, where technology grants so many advantages, why do you have to spend $75,000 making an album?\u00c2\u00a0 Probably one no one other than your hard core fans will ever listen to.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re just gonna strike off and do another disc, and you know you want to release it as a CD, so you can feel good about yourself, containing music just like the one on your old albums that has been rejected by most of the marketplace.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re not successful, if you don’t make music most people want to buy, if you can’t generate enough income to pay for your own damn record and have to resort to begging, shouldn’t you try something different?\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like that insane Bun E. Carlos\/Taylor Hanson\/Adam Schlesinger\/James Iha supergroup?<\/p>\n

Yes, you should make your new album for bupkes.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if you’re making an album, know only fans care about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Only fans want to hear that much music by you, casual listeners want a track.\u00c2\u00a0 And if your track is so damn good, then they want more, a little at a time, and maybe they might become fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Concentrate on one track so good that people have to talk about it.\u00c2\u00a0 But that would require you to break your paradigm, of being a loser\/has-been.\u00c2\u00a0 Complaining the label won’t sign you, which really means they won’t give you money, and the Internet killed the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 Please, try something different.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re that talented…<\/p>\n

On the other hand, your fanbase will support you in a way no other people will.\u00c2\u00a0 So, to ask them for more money is not a bad idea.\u00c2\u00a0 But you should give value.\u00c2\u00a0 Asking people for $75,000 so you don’t have to live in the new paradigm, even though they do, smells of rip-off.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas generating enough cash to record is not a bad idea.\u00c2\u00a0 But once again, how successful are you if you have to resort to begging?\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t generate this income on the road or through sales of your already recorded music?\u00c2\u00a0 Better to sell the $150 package AFTER you’ve recorded the album.\u00c2\u00a0 Which, as I stated above, should be done on the cheap.<\/p>\n

But then I thought Josh Freese’s scheme was an attempt at humor.\u00c2\u00a0 Is there even going to be an album?<\/p>\n

If there is, I’ll check it out, and I’ve never checked out any music by Mr. Freese previously, because the whole construction here is so damn creative!<\/p>\n

That’s what we’re selling, creativity.\u00c2\u00a0 People want something new and different.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why "American Idol" is losing viewers.\u00c2\u00a0 People have seen it!\u00c2\u00a0 Adding a new judge who isn’t sure whether she’s Simon or Paula doesn’t change the paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 How about a competition where people have to write their own material.\u00c2\u00a0 Or one solely for bands.\u00c2\u00a0 The lack of innovation by the producers is just as lame as the lack of creativity of the contestants.\u00c2\u00a0 Oops, the producers don’t want to take a risk, they just want to do it the same old way.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like the record labels.\u00c2\u00a0 And look where that got them!<\/p>\n

Labels with their social marketing plans sign up interns and street teams to try to generate the heat of Mr. Freese’s project and are almost always unsuccessful.\u00c2\u00a0 If something is truly great, truly creative, truly different, Internet surfers will spread the word for you.\u00c2\u00a0 For free!<\/p>\n

And come on, don’t you want to go miniature golfing with Maynard and Mark Mothersbaugh?\u00c2\u00a0 How did Josh come up with this shit?<\/p>\n


The Facebook Fracas<\/span><\/p>\n

The flip side of the Josh Freese story.\u00c2\u00a0 Something great is passed along instantly, but not as fast as something heinous.\u00c2\u00a0 Last Monday morning, a national holiday here in the States, I turn on my BlackBerry and it starts buzzing incessantly, like a know-it-all contestant on "Jeopardy".\u00c2\u00a0 Wasn’t I going to comment on the heinous Facebook license agreement?<\/p>\n

The heat was all generated by a blog known as the Consumerist.\u00c2\u00a0 In the past, the story would have been in a print magazine and almost no one would have known.\u00c2\u00a0 But today, it’s a searchable\/linkable site and word spreads faster than information about Paris Hilton’s latest car accident.<\/p>\n

I didn’t bother writing because I knew Facebook would say it was a mistake by an overzealous lawyer and quash the controversy instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 I was amazed that pint-sized plutocrat Mark Zuckerberg was so insanely stupid as to say users should trust Facebook, that’s like trusting Dick Cheney to do the right thing when it comes to torture.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, another twenty four hours passed and Facebook said it was going to change the language.\u00c2\u00a0 Whew!\u00c2\u00a0 Building the basis for a competitor every inch of the way.<\/p>\n

And why does this matter to you?<\/p>\n

I’ll give you an example.\u00c2\u00a0 A little birdie told me Sony Music is going to make all their catalog $1.29 at the iTunes Store.\u00c2\u00a0 Backlash will be unbelievable, variable pricing being revealed to be a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, heinous behavior is outed and amplified online, so you’d better think through your decisions long before they become public.<\/p>\n

Maybe that Sony story isn’t true.\u00c2\u00a0 But the point remains.\u00c2\u00a0 The entertainment business is based on shady practices, which have never received enough traction.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, with Bruce Springsteen revealing Ticketmaster directed buyers to Tickets Now before cheaper tickets for his shows were sold out, Ticketmaster’s merger with Live Nation may be derailed.\u00c2\u00a0 Was the Tickets Now fiasco a fuck up or intentional?\u00c2\u00a0 Who cares!\u00c2\u00a0 Either way, someone made a lame decision that could cost the company dearly.<\/p>\n

We live in a world of watchdogs.\u00c2\u00a0 Just waiting to police your inappropriate actions.\u00c2\u00a0 Beware.<\/p>\n

\n
Facebook’s New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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