{"id":2074,"date":"2009-07-05T11:27:18","date_gmt":"2009-07-05T19:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2074"},"modified":"2009-07-05T11:27:18","modified_gmt":"2009-07-05T19:27:18","slug":"michael-jackson-turning-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/05\/michael-jackson-turning-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Turning Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Death Of Traditional Media<\/span><\/p>\n

The story was broken on TMZ and spread on Twitter.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only was the straight media caught flat-footed, stating that it was playing by traditional rules, waiting for confirmation, it let TMZ continue to own the story.<\/p>\n

In other words, in the future, if a story is breaking, you will not go to nytimes.com.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll fire up TMZ, or maybe CNN.com, which provided heavily-watched video of the inauguration and the Presidential debates, instead.<\/p>\n

When newspapers were the only game in town they could survive by being all things to all people.\u00c2\u00a0 But that model has evaporated, as quickly as the concept of the ubiquitous pop star.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want that which appeals to everybody, we want that which appeals to us!<\/p>\n

I get three physical newspapers a day.\u00c2\u00a0 But like the commentator said on the "Daily Show", it’s "aged news" <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11p \/ 10c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
End Times<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
thedailyshow.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n
Daily Show
Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\n		Political Humor<\/a><\/td>\nJason Jones in Iran<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The "New York Times" was so stupid as to let Jason Jones inside their building, not realizing they’d be ridiculed.\u00c2\u00a0 These are the people we want reporting our news?<\/p>\n

And the old saw that websites just repost the stories of traditional reporters…\u00c2\u00a0 Well, that was blown out of the water by TMZ.\u00c2\u00a0 TMZ has its own sources, does its own reporting.\u00c2\u00a0 If there’s a gossip story, that’s where I’m going.\u00c2\u00a0 Even Perez Hilton doesn’t realize the change.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s been relegated to commentator status.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s become niche overnight.\u00c2\u00a0 We want the gossip facts, and for that information we’re going to the source, TMZ.\u00c2\u00a0 If Perez wants to compete he’s got to hire reporters, pay off tipsters.\u00c2\u00a0 Now he’s what he’s become.\u00c2\u00a0 A self-promoting tyke.\u00c2\u00a0 Perez is famous, he’s created a mini-industry where he gets on TV and sells books.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s a star.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully, he’s happy.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he’s no longer the king of gossip.<\/p>\n

So do one thing incredibly well.<\/p>\n

Not only did the traditional media miss the Michael Jackson story, it didn’t own it.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not only the newspapers, but TV.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t want others’ opinions, we wanted the story!\u00c2\u00a0 The story wasn’t Lou Ferrigno talking about working out, but what drugs truly killed Michael Jackson.\u00c2\u00a0 Give credit to the AP, they got an exclusive with Michael’s nutritionist, about the anesthetic.\u00c2\u00a0 On TV, we got has-been celebrities talking about their distant memories.<\/p>\n

So good riddance to newspapers.\u00c2\u00a0 Who were too stupid to know that the landscape had changed and too stupid to change with it.<\/p>\n

If the "New York Times" is so good, why didn’t they put a whole team of professionals on this story, who could have ferreted out the details we wanted to know? Why didn’t they put a box on their homepage, linking us to a plethora of stories?\u00c2\u00a0 The L.A. "Times" tried the latter, but failed, because they had almost no reporting.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re supposed to support you after you fire everybody?\u00c2\u00a0 No way.<\/p>\n

TMZ stayed on the story.\u00c2\u00a0 Even when scooped by the AP, they didn’t ignore the anesthesia story, but reported it.<\/p>\n

We got the news we wanted, with deep reporting.<\/p>\n

That’s what we want now.\u00c2\u00a0 Incredible depth about what we’re interested in.<\/p>\n

Don’t load your band’s website with an entrance page and tons of Flash.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s good for people who go once!\u00c2\u00a0 But true fans go multiple times and are frustrated by the delay.\u00c2\u00a0 Make your site fast, with a constant stream of new information displayed, so people will come back and get what they want.\u00c2\u00a0 This is how labels blew it on the web.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t exploit their own sites, and the public went elsewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 As for labels, are they that different from newspapers?\u00c2\u00a0 Is there really a need for one company which releases product in a multitude of genres?\u00c2\u00a0 It made sense in the era of physical distribution, when terrestrial radio was king.\u00c2\u00a0 But haven’t we seen that trying to be all things to all people in the internet era is a failed strategy?\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re going to consolidate acts, have a pop label, or a metal label, get people to be fans of your label the same way those interested in gossip are fans of TMZ.<\/p>\n

The Album Is Dead<\/span><\/p>\n

How come no one is writing this story?\u00c2\u00a0 That Michael Jackson sold so few albums in the wake of his death?<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

MJ only sold 422,000 albums.\u00c2\u00a0 But he sold 2.3 million individual tracks!<\/p>\n

Now that album figure is physical and digital combined.\u00c2\u00a0 225,000 were digital.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was only so much physical product in the stores.\u00c2\u00a0 But it turns out that online people only want the single!<\/p>\n

Are you getting this?\u00c2\u00a0 A legendary artist, with at least two classic albums, and most people just want to cherry-pick the singles.<\/p>\n

Even more fascinating is that through Wednesday, the "Thriller" video had been streamed more than 8.5 million times online.<\/p>\n

In other words, are the labels’ woes related to piracy or a changing marketplace?<\/p>\n

Turns out for many a view of the "Thriller" video was better than owning the track.<\/p>\n

And those who need tracks, who are paying for the privilege, don’t want to buy a bundle, but just what they desire.<\/p>\n

So, if you’re making albums, know that you’re making them for the core.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyman might like a single, but he doesn’t want the album.\u00c2\u00a0 You could say he’s been burned by too many filler cuts packaged at too high a price, but I’d say it’s got more to do with time.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s got the time to listen to an hour of music that you’re not truly interested in when there are all these other diversions that fascinate you?<\/p>\n

If you’re a pop act, you’re screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 Because no one thinks your albums are any good.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite a few exceptions, most people believe the touring rock acts, who’ve been at it for years, are the ones creating a body of work that is worth owning and investigating.\u00c2\u00a0 The pop single is an evanescent artifact.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to reap huge financial rewards on evanescent artifacts.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, the web might kill the pop star.\u00c2\u00a0 Video killed the rock star and replaced him with a pop star, the web is bringing the rock star back.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who knows how to play, who you bond with based on his music and identity as opposed to his looks and his hired creative posse is positioned well for the future.<\/p>\n

And that future will involve multiple revenue streams in order to make your money.\u00c2\u00a0 Not just recorded music, but live and merch and fan clubs.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about ripping people off, but charging them to get closer!<\/p>\n

Joe Jackson’s Faux Pas<\/span><\/p>\n

You screw up on video, it lives forever.<\/p>\n

Hyping your new business venture at the BET Awards when your son just died is not only in poor taste, your faux pas lives in perpetuity online, tainting you.<\/p>\n

The era of hype, of self-promotion, of acts going on the MTV Video Music Awards and telling you to buy their new album, are done.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want to see you sell.\u00c2\u00a0 We want you to create great shit that sells itself.\u00c2\u00a0 We determine what’s worthwhile.\u00c2\u00a0 If your hype is better than your product, you’re screwed.<\/p>\n

Kind of like Josh Freese.\u00c2\u00a0 Brilliant marketing.\u00c2\u00a0 Has anybody listened to his music, does anybody care?<\/p>\n

\n
Start at 3:25 if you don’t want to watch the whole clip: Joe Jackson BET Awards 2009 CNN Interview – arrogant and self serving<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Celebrity<\/span><\/p>\n

Everybody knows who Michael Jackson was.\u00c2\u00a0 Today many don’t know what the number one record is and don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a chart, but it’s a sideshow. Asking someone to recite the Top Ten is like asking them to name the ten best Little League teams.\u00c2\u00a0 Parents care about their kids’ teams, but it ends there.\u00c2\u00a0 The machine foisting these concoctions upon the public just doesn’t realize that most people don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about making them care, eradicating piracy, but what the public cares about!\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t castigate the public, you must entice it!\u00c2\u00a0 You must earn people’s attention.\u00c2\u00a0 And then respect them in the ongoing relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 Rip a person off once, and not only will you lose that individual as a customer, you’ll lose a whole swath of the public when that person tells everybody he knows online.<\/p>\n

We’re living in a changed universe.\u00c2\u00a0 The web enables ubiquity, but how many people will want to buy a Susan Boyle album, even a single, in five years?\u00c2\u00a0 Two years?\u00c2\u00a0 One?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s train-wreck value, but not lasting value. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

We may never have mass grieving for a pop star again.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the end of an era.<\/p>\n

That’s the story here.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re not only mourning Michael Jackson, we’re mourning MTV, Top Forty radio, albums and our collective youth.\u00c2\u00a0 Memories are great, but the old days are not coming back.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Death Of Traditional Media The story was broken on TMZ and spread on Twitter.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only was the straight media caught flat-footed, stating that it was playing by traditional rules, waiting for confirmation, it let TMZ continue to own the story. In other words, in the future, if a story is breaking, you will […]<\/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":[2,5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-online","category-the-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-xs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074","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=2074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2075,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions\/2075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}