{"id":3553,"date":"2010-11-24T06:59:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T14:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3553"},"modified":"2010-11-24T07:04:07","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T15:04:07","slug":"don-ross-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/24\/don-ross-crazy\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Ross “Crazy”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Don Ross: CRAZY (Gnarls Barkley)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I like this.\u00c2\u00a0 I did not at first.\u00c2\u00a0 At the beginning, I thought it was pedestrian, just another guy looking to get famous doing a cover. Then, he hit the chorus and I started to get this feeling inside, around the :42 mark, it was like catching someone’s eye across the room, and then at :58, it was like getting into a conversation with that person.\u00c2\u00a0 And thereafter, the connection continued.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d been on a parallel line with the song, now I was enraptured.<\/p>\n

The big story online today is Shirley Halperin’s interview with Scooter Braun, the manager of Justin Bieber. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
"THR: What was the most common reason they gave you when turning him down? <\/p>\n

Braun: They all said the same thing: that he’s too young and no one’s broken from YouTube. ‘Where’s the platform? Go get a TV show, you can’t compete with Disney or Nickelodeon.’"<\/p>\n

The Brains Behind Justin Bieber: A Conversation With Scooter Braun<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That’s the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Or as Eric Hoffer so eloquently puts it: <\/p>\n

\n
"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."<\/p>\n

Slide 60: Learning in a Networked World<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You can break from YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re really good.<\/p>\n

Sunday evening Justin Bieber won a ton of awards at the AMAs.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t tell you exactly which ones, because I didn’t watch.\u00c2\u00a0 I know the AMAs are fake.\u00c2\u00a0 A Dick Clark show created to compete with the Grammys.\u00c2\u00a0 If you win one of these and you get a rush of blood to the head you’re sorely mistaken, consider your appearance a public relations move at best.\u00c2\u00a0 One that pays ever fewer returns, the AMAs ratings fell precipitously, to their lowest level ever:<\/p>\n

\n
2010 American Music Awards broadcast lowest-rated in AMA history: report<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, the mainstream game is failing.\u00c2\u00a0 Which does not mean the indie game is going to step in and steal its thunder. Rather we’re seeing a compression, from both ends.\u00c2\u00a0 Ubiquitous promotion yields fewer dividends and you can employ the indie tools to gain significant traction.\u00c2\u00a0 How significant?<\/p>\n

Well, I never ever would have heard Don Ross’s version of "Crazy" prior to the Net.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve never experienced a terrestrial radio station that plays this kind of music.\u00c2\u00a0 And with no exposure, there’s no word of mouth.\u00c2\u00a0 But now you can put your music online and if you’re good, word can spread.<\/p>\n

But Don is still old school.\u00c2\u00a0 Go to his site.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no streaming, no free downloads.\u00c2\u00a0 My friend Marty Winsch says his client Corey Smith’s sales at iTunes go up when he gives the same music away free on his Website.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, you’ve got to be fully old school or new school.<\/p>\n

Old school is sell your soul to a major label.<\/p>\n

If you’re doing this, you must make music that can be played on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be willing to do what the company says.\u00c2\u00a0 You must promote the hell out of yourself in order to try and get people to pay attention to you at the same time you’re causing a backlash and make very little money all in the name of fame, which pays fewer dividends than ever before.<\/p>\n

New school is do it yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 With a team that you control.<\/p>\n

You give away your music.\u00c2\u00a0 You stay in touch with your audience.\u00c2\u00a0 You keep giving them more and more, for free, in the hopes that the bond will get stronger and they’ll support you, buy your merch and recordings and come to see you live.\u00c2\u00a0 But new school depends on two things:<\/p>\n

1. Being good.<\/p>\n

2. Having friends.<\/p>\n

You’re building a tribe from the ground up.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s very slow.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll slog for years before you find out if you’ve made it.\u00c2\u00a0 But once you have, your fans will continue to support you, you’re not flavor of the moment, you’ve built something.<\/p>\n

You can study and ace one test, but that won’t get you into Harvard.<\/p>\n

You can get plastic surgery and try to look young, but that’s not gonna work when you’re in your late thirties and trying to snare a husband, when there’s a constant stream of fresh-faced twentysomethings vying for attention.<\/p>\n

If you do it new school, you’ve got to have substance.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s what’s on the inside that truly counts.\u00c2\u00a0 But, like getting into Harvard, that requires a lot of hard work, over a period of years.<\/p>\n

All the hard work at the label has got little to do with you.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s relationships with radio and TV and songwriters and producers. Which is why they can abandon you so easily, and you end up being famous for being famous, not much more.<\/p>\n

Who won last year’s "Dancing With The Stars"?\u00c2\u00a0 The year before’s?<\/p>\n

I know nothing about Don Ross.\u00c2\u00a0 I can see by this clip that he’s not a looker.\u00c2\u00a0 But when he plays "Crazy" I get energized, I feel alive.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the essence to hooking someone.\u00c2\u00a0 Putting humanity in your music.<\/p>\n

P.S. I believe there’s an element of self-promotion in Dave Stewart’s drunken rant, but it’s worth noting anyway: <\/p>\n

\n
NEWS – Stewart’s drunken rant at AMAs<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Then again, is Mr. Stewart part of the problem or part of the solution?\u00c2\u00a0 Because to try and rebuild the mainstream game by reconstructing the major labels\/system is like trying to convince MTV to air more music videos.\u00c2\u00a0 That ship has sailed, it’s not financially prudent in an era where clips can be played on demand online.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no longer about fixing the old, but keeping the kindling lit on the new.\u00c2\u00a0 No one is in control.\u00c2\u00a0 The music world is being reinvented as we sit here.\u00c2\u00a0 What triumphs will be a concoction of artists, business people and fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Artists will not be pretty faces with one hit, business people will make a lot less money for a very long time and it’s the fans, those who live for music, who will ultimately infect the general public with the great music of tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 The fans are Malcolm Gladwell’s connectors.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to learn about the music business, you’re better off reading Gladwell’s "Tipping Point<\/a>" and "Outliers"<\/a> than any music business book.\u00c2\u00a0 Because all trends are the same, it’s just that when music hits, it’s got traction nothing else possesses.\u00c2\u00a0 Assuming it’s music with the humanity of Don Ross’s cover of "Crazy".<\/p>\n

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Don Ross: CRAZY (Gnarls Barkley) I like this.\u00c2\u00a0 I did not at first.\u00c2\u00a0 At the beginning, I thought it was pedestrian, just another guy looking to get famous doing a cover. Then, he hit the chorus and I started to get this feeling inside, around the :42 mark, it was like catching someone’s eye across […]<\/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":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Vj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3553","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=3553"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3557,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3553\/revisions\/3557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}