That’s Flom and Steven for those scoring at home.<\/p>\n
Jason Flom specializes in signing cartoon characters.\u00c2\u00a0 Steven Tyler IS a cartoon character.<\/p>\n
Only problem is, the road to riches for newbie cartoon acts is broken.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t make a video for MTV illustrating your excesses and end up selling ten million copies.\u00c2\u00a0 Who cares if the music is forgettable!\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that the essence of TV stardom, the evanescence?\u00c2\u00a0 Hear anybody talking about Tim Allen recently?\u00c2\u00a0 Or Chandler Bing?\u00c2\u00a0 What was Chandler Bing’s real name…WHO CARES!<\/p>\n
But Steven Tyler is a legitimate rock star with a string of hits under his belt with his band Aerosmith.\u00c2\u00a0 Whose latest management team has garnered the band tons of dough, but has done nothing to burnish the act’s image, promote them, build them other than a cash-in with Guitar Hero.<\/p>\n
Yes, Aerosmith was first.\u00c2\u00a0 They made a fortune.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can’t play the game with your friends!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s solo mode only!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s like being on Facebook with no friends. HUH?<\/p>\n
Howard Kaufman may know how to extract big bucks from concert promoters, but that’s it.\u00c2\u00a0 And eventually, you burn out the marketplace.\u00c2\u00a0 Aerosmith ticket sales are off.\u00c2\u00a0 Fleetwood Mac is soft.\u00c2\u00a0 Def Leppard is past its peak.\u00c2\u00a0 Overpriced seats for the same show year after year go unfilled.\u00c2\u00a0 The public has moved on.\u00c2\u00a0 How do you get the public back?\u00c2\u00a0 BY ADDING SOME EXCITEMENT!<\/p>\n
Where is the Web play with the Fleetwood Mac tour?\u00c2\u00a0 You’d think the iPhone is some futuristic gadget from the "Jetsons".\u00c2\u00a0 Where’s the special hook-up section at the gig…boomers are divorced, they need to get laid too…all triangulated via Craigslist or the band’s app.\u00c2\u00a0 Where are the salacious messages texted by the audience on the big Verizon screen during the show.\u00c2\u00a0 Where is the contest where an audience member gets to take the stage and sing "Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around" with Stevie Nicks?\u00c2\u00a0 You might say this is sacrilegious, I’d say the religion’s long gone, with the band’s hits behind them.\u00c2\u00a0 The new century is all about getting the audience involved, and Howard Kaufman is only interested in taking a check!<\/p>\n
Believe me, Jason Flom likes a check too.\u00c2\u00a0 But suddenly, he’s realized the old game is up.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, he made a deal to bring Lava to his old mentor Doug Morris’ Universal house.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about that deal with Cherry Lane?<\/p>\n
Jason’s trying to survive.<\/p>\n
Is Jason twenty five, has he spent 10,000 hours online?\u00c2\u00a0 No.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s tenacious, and he realizes if he’s going to continue to be a force in the music business he must change his ways.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why he’s suddenly gone where the action is, MANAGEMENT!<\/p>\n
Anybody can book a superstar’s tour.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what an agent is for.\u00c2\u00a0 But career direction?<\/p>\n
Assuming he’s willing, and by signing with Flom and the guy from Nickelback’s team it appears he is, there are HUGE opportunities for Tyler in the marketplace. He’s our number one American rock icon.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s our Mick Jagger.<\/p>\n
Does Tyler want to whore himself out to corporations?\u00c2\u00a0 Jason can certainly facilitate that.\u00c2\u00a0 But what’s more interesting is what Jason did with Antigone Rising…the first new act promoted by Starbucks.<\/p>\n
How successful the album ultimately was is irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 The point is, Jason pulled off the deal!\u00c2\u00a0 He got in touch with all the parties, wooed them and got it done. Have you seen Jason in action?\u00c2\u00a0 He’ll call everybody he knows, not be afraid to look uninformed, and then synthesize all the data he collects into a plan that is positively today, that he wills to work.<\/p>\n
I don’t think the future is Jason breaking new acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Because right now, it’s hard, there’s not that much money there, it’s not where the action is.\u00c2\u00a0 But rehabilitating old warhorses?\u00c2\u00a0 That can be done.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re innovative!<\/p>\n
Irving Azoff’s got tons of ideas over at Ticketmaster.\u00c2\u00a0 But needing to raise Ticketmaster’s image and finalize the deal with Live Nation, Irving just can’t get into the trenches with so many of Front Line’s acts like he used to.\u00c2\u00a0 So there are opportunities for new players, who are willing to think outside the box and deliver what some of Irving’s team just cannot come up with.<\/p>\n
Do I know the plan?<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
But I know that Steven Tyler must have been unhappy.\u00c2\u00a0 And I know that Jason Flom must have pitched him.\u00c2\u00a0 And I know that Tyler wouldn’t have jumped unless there was a true management partner involved, i.e. John Greenberg from Nickelback.\u00c2\u00a0 And that Tyler wouldn’t have made a move unless he planned TO DO SOMETHING!<\/p>\n
Anybody can play live.\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody can get on TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody can release a record no one buys.\u00c2\u00a0 But can anybody have an impact on the culture at large, can anybody make a big splash?<\/p>\n
Odds are best with a proven name.\u00c2\u00a0 With no negativities attached.\u00c2\u00a0 Steven Tyler is the perfect rock star.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only can he still sing his hits on stage, he’s smart and personable and wows you one on one.\u00c2\u00a0 There are numerous opportunities here.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly greater than singing "Dream On" in sheds every summer.<\/p>\n
But more fascinating is Jason Flom’s move.\u00c2\u00a0 Jason can see what his contemporaries cannot.\u00c2\u00a0 That the old game is dying.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not giving it up entirely, he knows there’s a process of evolution.\u00c2\u00a0 So now he runs a record company, but is also a manager.\u00c2\u00a0 And a publisher too.\u00c2\u00a0 Endless pennies paid over decades are just as good as dollars paid today, but never again.<\/p>\n
Jason, unlike his old label brethren, is not a liar.<\/p>\n
But he is not sans ego.<\/p>\n
Can he subvert his to truly serve Tyler?\u00c2\u00a0 Can he come up with an innovative plan, not only execute it?<\/p>\n
We’ll see!<\/p>\n
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