{"id":3678,"date":"2010-12-25T06:51:42","date_gmt":"2010-12-25T14:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3678"},"modified":"2010-12-25T06:51:42","modified_gmt":"2010-12-25T14:51:42","slug":"what-i-want-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/12\/25\/what-i-want-for-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Want For Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Spotify In The States<\/span><\/p>\n

Spotify kills piracy dead.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t this what the rightsholders want?<\/p>\n

As for it being free on the computer…\u00c2\u00a0 I hate to tell you, music is already free on the computer, ever heard of YouTube?<\/p>\n

Yes, we’re moving to streaming, and we’re moving to a mobile world.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to pay to use Spotify on your mobile, people will do it (and for those unfamiliar with Spotify, thousands of songs live on your handheld, so even if you’re out of range, like on the top of Everest, you’ll be able to listen to music on your mobile…well, at least as long as the battery holds out.)<\/p>\n

2. All-In Ticketing<\/span><\/p>\n

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where the most hated corporation in America, Live Nation\/Ticketmaster, is the leader on this?<\/p>\n

Can’t we all take the pledge?\u00c2\u00a0 The add-ons are only hurting overall business.<\/p>\n

If you believe in add-ons, I hope your record deal has a discount for breakage.\u00c2\u00a0 Add-ons are a result of promoters’ inability to make money.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, if there’s all-in ticketing, the acts want to commission that too.\u00c2\u00a0 You may hate Live Nation, I hate the greedy acts and agents more.<\/p>\n

3. Lower Concert Ticket Prices<\/span><\/p>\n

Can’t anybody in this business leave some money on the table now so they can reap rewards in the future?<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, that’s right, the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, all those touring acts that care more about their customers than their pocketbooks.<\/p>\n

If you’re ripping off your audience, it’s only a matter of time until people turn on you.\u00c2\u00a0 Just ask the record labels who discontinued singles and made you pay twenty bucks for a CD with only one good track.<\/p>\n

4. Uniform Licensing<\/span><\/p>\n

I want anyone with a startup to be able to get all the rights they need for a clearly stated price.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, everything.\u00c2\u00a0 Recording rights, publishing rights, even sync rights.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not saying the deals should be cheap, but they should be easy.\u00c2\u00a0 And upfront payments, if they exist at all, should be small. Imagine if you had to pay for all of your kids’ college expenses when they were born, even though you’re young and starting a career.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what it’s like trying to license music for a startup.<\/p>\n

5. A Uniform Music Social Network<\/span><\/p>\n

There’s only one site online.\u00c2\u00a0 Competition is a pipe dream.\u00c2\u00a0 Every site exists side by side, just a click away.\u00c2\u00a0 The best one wins.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s only one Amazon, one iTunes, one Facebook…\u00c2\u00a0 Face it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not saying there won’t be competition on the way to the standard, or that standards can’t be eclipsed, as Facebook did with MySpace, I’m just saying there will only be one winner.\u00c2\u00a0 Get over it.<\/p>\n

And stop focusing on the money-losing Vevo, playing to the advertisers everybody hates, and go directly to the public.\u00c2\u00a0 Let them come in for free, then upsell them with virtual and exclusive goods.\u00c2\u00a0 Look to Zynga\/FarmVille for instruction.<\/p>\n

Let’s get everybody excited about music.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s get everybody playing the music game.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want an exclusive world, we want an INCLUSIVE world!<\/p>\n

6. A Tax On Any Act That Doesn’t Release New Music Every Year<\/span><\/p>\n

The album is an archaic financial product.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re truly making a full-length statement and need sixty minutes to do so, that’s fine with me, but almost no one does.\u00c2\u00a0 Most acts need to make a full length to justify their existence.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like they need to send reporters a finished CD to feel good about themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 If you make music people want, they’ll climb mountains to get it.\u00c2\u00a0 Focus on creating incredibly desirable music.\u00c2\u00a0 And I hate to tell you, in this world, even ten year olds are challenged for time.\u00c2\u00a0 Make it easy.\u00c2\u00a0 Release singles.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re good, people will want everything you do. And just because you make a steady stream of finished singles does not mean we don’t want your rehearsal recordings and road videos and…\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to put enough out there so that if you’re a fan, you can dig for hours and be satiated…\u00c2\u00a0 And continue to be satiated.<\/p>\n

7. The Disbanding Of The RIAA<\/span><\/p>\n

The record companies no longer rule.\u00c2\u00a0 This organization has done more harm than good.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m all for a music trade organization to lobby in Washington, D.C., but the RIAA is not it.<\/p>\n

8. A Reduction In The Number of Grammy Awards<\/span><\/p>\n

Ten tops.<\/p>\n

Now if you can’t get nominated for a Grammy, you didn’t release a record.\u00c2\u00a0 If the Grammys are about rewarding excellence in all genres, an insider circle jerk, cancel the TV show and don’t publish the endless nominations.\u00c2\u00a0 But most of NARAS’s money comes from CBS…\u00c2\u00a0 Can we at least make the awards comprehensible?\u00c2\u00a0 And how about transparency as to who’s actually voting? Or maybe an insiders’ award.\u00c2\u00a0 One voted on by those who were Top Ten in music sales and touring revenue.<\/p>\n

9. Discontinuation Of The Fallacy That There’s No Cost To Tying In With Corporations<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to sell out, it’s your choice.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s always a cost, nothing’s free in this world.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t know that, you’re still wet behind the ears.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re taking corporate money, you’re more into money than music.\u00c2\u00a0 You love success more than playing.\u00c2\u00a0 You can make it without the Fortune 500. But it’ll be slower, you’ll struggle.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s this struggle that makes great art.<\/p>\n

10. The Best Of Howard Stern on Terrestrial Radio<\/span><\/p>\n

Cut up a daily four hour show and turn it into a best of two hour broadcast for terrestrial the very next day.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a win\/win\/win.\u00c2\u00a0 For Howard, Sirius XM and terrestrial radio.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t know Howard Stern is the best broadcaster in existence today, more honest than anybody else on the radio, you haven’t listened to him.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s pitiful that such a powerful voice has such a limited audience.<\/p>\n

11. The Failure Of American Idol<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll get this one, I don’t even need to wish and hope.\u00c2\u00a0 "American Idol" was always about TV, not music.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you eliminate all the drama?<\/p>\n


12. Lady GaGa Must Perform In Street Clothes<\/span><\/p>\n

She’s made it, can she afford to make it about the music?<\/p>\n

13. U2 Must Donate The Entire Proceeds Of Their Concert Tour To RED<\/span><\/p>\n

They’re tax exiles.\u00c2\u00a0 Bono’s trying to save the world while he’s lining his own pockets.\u00c2\u00a0 Put your money where your mouth is.<\/p>\n

14. Every Touring Act Must Do A Minimum Of Five Club Gigs<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, tickets will be impossible to get.\u00c2\u00a0 Scalpers will sell them for zillions.\u00c2\u00a0 But imagine the buzz!<\/p>\n


15. Paperless Ticketing<\/span><\/p>\n

Goes a long way towards eliminating scalping.\u00c2\u00a0 But demonstrates exactly what demand truly is, which oftentimes is lower than public perception.<\/p>\n

16. The Death Of ReverbNation<\/span><\/p>\n

And Constant Contact and all the other sites that spam consumers under the aegis of helping performers.\u00c2\u00a0 These are just sham organizations, ripping off wannabes and cluttering our inboxes.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe there should be a fine for unwanted musical e-mail.<\/p>\n

17. Top Forty Radio Must Be Renamed "Rhythmic" or "Beat" Or Really Play All Genres Of Music<\/span><\/p>\n

18. The Demise Of EMI<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are we delaying the inevitable.<\/p>\n

Sell the publishing to Warner and the recordings to Bertelsmann, or maybe both to Bertelsmann.\u00c2\u00a0 Now the company is playing with both hands tied behind its back.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re signing to EMI, you’re naive.\u00c2\u00a0 By time your record comes out, not only will the employees be gone, it’ll be owned by someone else.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s if your record comes out.<\/p>\n

19. Everybody In The Music Business Gets Paid On The Upside<\/span><\/p>\n

No big salaries, just rewards upon success.<\/p>\n

20. Twenty Five Percent Of Every Music Corporation’s Employees Must Be Under The Age Of Twenty Five<\/span><\/p>\n

And they must make twenty five percent of the payroll.<\/p>\n

Kids buy the music, they know technology, why are they frozen out of the business?<\/p>\n

21. Newspapers Must Publish The Weekly Touring Grosses Alongside The Record Sales<\/span><\/p>\n

Touring means more.\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t the papers know this?\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, that’s right, the papers are on the road to extinction.<\/p>\n

22. MTV Is No Longer "Music Television", Can We Eliminate It From The Discussion?<\/span><\/p>\n


23. If You Can’t Play, Write Or Sing, You Can’t Get A Record Deal<\/span><\/p>\n

24. Fifty Percent Of Every Record Must Be Made By The Artist<\/span><\/p>\n

There’s singing, playing, writing…\u00c2\u00a0 Just like CanCon, you must be an authentic musician or you can’t release a record.<\/p>\n


25. Jimmy Iovine Must Decide Whether He’s A Record Exec Or An Entrepreneur<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim Guerinot had to leave A&M when his management client Offspring was more successful than any act on the label.\u00c2\u00a0 How can Jimmy sell Beats and HP sound and still work at Interscope?<\/p>\n

26. Doug Morris Can’t Work At Sony Until He Gets Interviewed By…<\/span><\/p>\n

We want accountability.\u00c2\u00a0 Transparency.\u00c2\u00a0 Honesty.\u00c2\u00a0 Every exec must have a Twitter account and a published e-mail address.\u00c2\u00a0 How come everybody in music lives in an ivory tower, yet gets to bitch that the public is ripping them off?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to listen to the public if you want to complain.<\/p>\n

27. Stop Saying Google’s The Savior<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a one hit wonder.\u00c2\u00a0 They do search really well.\u00c2\u00a0 They bought Android.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything else they’ve done is a failure…Wave, TV, the list goes on and on.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t hold up Vanilla Ice as the great hope for the music business, why do we put our faith in Google?<\/p>\n

28. Cessation Of Discussion About Apple Acquiring Music Rights<\/span>

In your dreams.\u00c2\u00a0 Why would they do this?\u00c2\u00a0 So they can listen to managers and acts bitch?\u00c2\u00a0 Apple’s a retailer.\u00c2\u00a0 A very good one.\u00c2\u00a0 One that is relying on music ever less.<\/p>\n

29. A Great Music App<\/span><\/p>\n

That is customizable, that allows me to track any and all of my favorite artists.<\/p>\n

30. Cheaper Prices At The iTunes Store<\/span><\/p>\n

They didn’t raise the prices on typewriters when the computer took hold, why have they raised the prices of tracks?\u00c2\u00a0 Music ownership is a declining paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if Netflix is a streaming company, what makes you believe people are gonna want to own music?<\/p>\n

31. Cessation Of The Argument Re The Value Of Music<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s your computer worth?\u00c2\u00a0 Your iPhone?\u00c2\u00a0 Stop telling me about your blood, sweat and tears, what your music should sell for, think of all the technology, the R&D at your fingertips.\u00c2\u00a0 Get a grip.<\/p>\n

32. Elimination Of Play\/Spin Buying<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is everybody a crook?\u00c2\u00a0 Look, you can have a million views on YouTube and still be a stiff.<\/p>\n


33. Recognition That Video Is Subservient To Music<\/span><\/p>\n

So you can make a cool video.\u00c2\u00a0 A great track needs NO visuals, a lousy one is not improved by dazzling images.<\/p>\n

34. Recognition That It’s About Continuity<\/span><\/p>\n

Where’s Atomic Tom today?\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind the rest of the YouTube wonders.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re hot on YouTube for a day, maybe a week at most, then what? Music, more than ever, is about what have you done for me lately?<\/p>\n

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

1. Spotify In The States Spotify kills piracy dead.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t this what the rightsholders want? As for it being free on the computer…\u00c2\u00a0 I hate to tell you, music is already free on the computer, ever heard of YouTube? Yes, we’re moving to streaming, and we’re moving to a mobile world.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to pay […]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Xk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3678","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=3678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3679,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3678\/revisions\/3679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}