They just called me from "Marketplace".\u00c2\u00a0 They wanted some quotes on the new Michael Jackson album.<\/p>\n
You know it will sell because of pent-up demand, because he died, because it’s the fourth quarter, but that’s not why I’m writing this.<\/p>\n
Almost two years ago, I got a phone call from Laura Sydell, asking me to go on the record re YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 We’d worked together before.\u00c2\u00a0 She called and I gave her quotes.\u00c2\u00a0 This time she asked me to go to Culver City, to the NPR studio, to ensure pristine audio quality.\u00c2\u00a0 She said it was a major story, I ultimately agreed.\u00c2\u00a0 Told her I’d meet her there.<\/p>\n
That’s when Laura told me she’d be in San Francisco.\u00c2\u00a0 That she wasn’t going to the studio.<\/p>\n
I live half an hour away in traffic.\u00c2\u00a0 Would Irving Azoff go to Culver City?\u00c2\u00a0 Michael Rapino?\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy Iovine?\u00c2\u00a0 I expressed reservations, told her I wouldn’t do it, but I’d be glad to do it as usual, on the phone.<\/p>\n
She got someone else.\u00c2\u00a0 He wasn’t much of an authority, but he’d go to Culver City.\u00c2\u00a0 Which begs the question of the authority of those who do go on the record.\u00c2\u00a0 Turn on the TV, you’ll see professional pundits pontificating, but they rarely have a true power base, they’re just talking.\u00c2\u00a0 Those truly making the decisions?\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t get them to go on the record.<\/p>\n
And you can’t get me to go on the record much anymore either.\u00c2\u00a0 Because there’s not that much of a benefit.\u00c2\u00a0 I get quoted in "The New York Times" and I don’t get one e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I’m on NPR…<\/p>\n
With her dander up, Laura Sydell informed me how many people listened to NPR, that public radio news reached more people than TV news. That nearly twenty million people tuned in.<\/p>\n
I checked this out.\u00c2\u00a0 Laura was right.<\/p>\n
Whenever I’m on NPR, I hear about it multiple times, for months thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 From people I haven’t seen since college, from people who care not a whit about the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 My mother will call and say her octogenarian friends heard me testifying.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is all a long story to tell you when NPR comes-a-knockin’, SAY YES!<\/p>\n
NPR may not get the ink, but it’s got the power.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got an active intellectual audience that digests stories and acts on them.\u00c2\u00a0 My physical therapist could not be less clued in when it comes to popular culture, but a few weeks back she started talking all about the Keith Richards book…\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 She heard about it on NPR!<\/p>\n
In an era of chaos, when a late night TV appearance means almost nothing, you’re better off focusing on your fans than taking the shotgun approach, utilizing multiple media outlets to try and reach people who ultimately don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at it this way, how often do you see Rush on TV, in the newspaper?\u00c2\u00a0 But Rush can outsell Katy Perry live any day of the week.\u00c2\u00a0 Katy Perry is a star in the media, but in the real world, not so much.<\/p>\n
The news king in the real world, bigger than any Top Forty station, bigger than Fox News, is NPR.\u00c2\u00a0 They can put your band on the radar. Coverage on NPR has impact.<\/p>\n
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