Parking our asses on a couch in the lobby of the Royal York Hotel, we watched the endless parade go by.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought everybody was here for CMW, especially the young girls parading around in their pajamas.\u00c2\u00a0 Turned out they were Christian moms, aged thirty, in town for a conference with someone named Beth Moore and when they realized Jake was the judge from "Canadian Idol" they insisted we stay right there, as if we could move, while they went up to their room, retrieved a camera and came down for a pic for posterity.<\/p>\n
It was me, Jake, Eric Garland of BigChampagne and Lane Dunlop of iTunes Canada.\u00c2\u00a0 And after discussing my presentation, Terry McBride and Glenn Beck and the Christian Right, I asked Eric about his business, selling information to media companies that they think they want but don’t really want to know about.<\/p>\n
BigChampagne tracks online swaps.\u00c2\u00a0 As Eric says, don’t kill the messenger.\u00c2\u00a0 But, there was that label that threatened to sue the company.\u00c2\u00a0 But now Eric also provides data to movie companies.\u00c2\u00a0 Who are always stunned how much theft is already happening.\u00c2\u00a0 And when Eric tells them what he tells the labels, that their business is going to get smaller, they just don’t want to believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 But it will.\u00c2\u00a0 According to Eric.\u00c2\u00a0 Data doesn’t lie.\u00c2\u00a0 Windows will get smaller and disappear.\u00c2\u00a0 The public loves the movies, but the purchase options have been determined by the purveyors, now the consumer is going to have a ton of control, and revenues will go down.<\/p>\n
Then again, everybody remarked about the price of a movie.\u00c2\u00a0 Have you seen "Avatar"?\u00c2\u00a0 Jake bought four tickets and the clerk said $70.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, four times $17.50.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be the price of a movie was an afterthought, but if film companies want to maintain their revenues and their employees their lifestyles, prices have to go up.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like concerts.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, we’ve never found a way to project the concert into the home, not in a way that everybody will pay, you just can’t smell the crowd, scan the audience and feel the music.<\/p>\n
Then Jay Frank strolled by.\u00c2\u00a0 Jay is Senior Vice President of Music Strategy for CMT.\u00c2\u00a0 How a Jew from New Jersey ends up in Nashville, I’m not sure, but Jay’s right at home in Tennessee, employing his scientific approach to hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, he even wrote a book about it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to have a hit, if you want to play by the rules, you should check it out.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\nGo to: Future Hit.DNA<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nAnyway, being deep into analysis, and living in Music City, I asked Jay about Taylor Swift.\u00c2\u00a0 Pretty right on response.\u00c2\u00a0 He said it depended on her next record.\u00c2\u00a0 Could she grow, could she mature, could she deliver something beyond what she’s sold\/written before?<\/p>\n
We’ll see.<\/p>\n
But when that topic was covered, Jay turned to Lane and asked him about Sam Adams, was it real?<\/p>\n
We’re not talking about the beer here.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though Sam Adams is from Boston, even though if you Google his name, the results will spell beer.<\/p>\n
That’s just the point…<\/p>\n
If Sam Adams really earned number one on the iTunes hip-hop chart, you’d think there’d be some Google action.\u00c2\u00a0 Scroll down and you can find some recent news results, but the links, the stories?\u00c2\u00a0 Not to be found.<\/p>\n
And when you go to Amazon, you find little action, only two reviews.<\/p>\n
And when you go to iTunes, the comparable purchases are not similar material.<\/p>\n
So, is it fake?\u00c2\u00a0 Or, as Jay put it, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck is it really not a duck?<\/p>\n
Apple is so secretive, I won’t give you Lane’s response.\u00c2\u00a0 But he did indicate that people have tried to scam iTunes in the past, and that they have techniques for uncovering the fraud.<\/p>\n
Then conversation wandered to the Chris Brown wedding dance video.\u00c2\u00a0 Was that fake?<\/p>\n
Jay laughed.\u00c2\u00a0 Eric too.\u00c2\u00a0 OF COURSE it was fake.<\/p>\n
How come the mainstream media didn’t pick up on the story?<\/p>\n
BECAUSE THEY DON’T LIKE TO BE DUPED, THEY DON’T LIKE TO LOOK BAD!<\/p>\n
Fascinating.\u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday, in the "Globe and Mail", they had the story of the Facebook war between Nickelback and a pickle. In case you don’t have an Internet connection, the pickle won.\u00c2\u00a0 But the spicy cucumber won WEEKS AGO!\u00c2\u00a0 Where was the paper then?<\/p>\n
No viral video has ever had that many hits on YouTube in less than a week.\u00c2\u00a0 Other online indicators of success were lacking.\u00c2\u00a0 But the press bought the story, hook, line and sinker.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, does the "Today Show" do any investigative journalism?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a feel good story!\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t argue with me!<\/p>\n
And speaking of YouTube, it came out last night that that’s where people go to stream music.\u00c2\u00a0 Check the statistics vis a vis MySpace.\u00c2\u00a0 Plays have plunged on Murdoch’s site.\u00c2\u00a0 And speaking of MySpace, if Sam Adams is working a record, how come he hasn’t logged in to his page since the last week of February? <\/p>\n
\n