If I hear one more old fart who grew up separating seeds from stems in the middle of a gatefold cover say we’ve got to save the album my head is gonna EXPLODE!<\/p>\n
What ruined this business was the single.\u00c2\u00a0 The individual track honed to perfection and then sold on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, people no longer believed in artists, but SONGS!\u00c2\u00a0 It was 1963 all over again.\u00c2\u00a0 When the 45 RPM single ruled.<\/p>\n
But that was an interesting time.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite all the one hit wonders, there WERE certain artists who did return business, who got the public to buy disc after disc.\u00c2\u00a0 Artists like the Four Seasons.\u00c2\u00a0 And the Beach Boys.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they realized it was about the ACT, not the song, or the presentation.<\/p>\n
Sure, the Beatles turned the album into an art form.\u00c2\u00a0 But the old fogeys would have you believe there was no legitimate music, never mind act, prior to this happening.\u00c2\u00a0 That the history of music before the 33 1\/3 LP is completely irrelevant.<\/p>\n
Let me put this all together for you.\u00c2\u00a0 To make it today, to have an impact and longevity, you’ve got to establish a CULTURE!\u00c2\u00a0 You have to create a community.\u00c2\u00a0 People have to BELIEVE in you.<\/p>\n
Do you think everybody loved "Rubber Soul" from the minute they heard it?\u00c2\u00a0 God, some people didn’t even buy it because it DIDN’T have any singles.\u00c2\u00a0 Albums like this, like so many great records of yore, you had to play again and again and again to GET INTO THEM!\u00c2\u00a0 And the reason you gave them this chance was because you believed in the BAND!<\/p>\n
That’s where it’s at.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a collection of ten to fourteen tunes.\u00c2\u00a0 It would be as if Beethoven or Bach were only relevant, only important, if you could collect their great work on one LP, or CD.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s hogwash.<\/p>\n
Hell, if you want people to buy an hour long production then replicate Jethro Tull’s "Thick As A Brick".\u00c2\u00a0 Other than that, know that the album is HISTORY!\u00c2\u00a0 Done.\u00c2\u00a0 Finito.\u00c2\u00a0 To deny this is to live in an ancient fairyland far from reality.<\/p>\n
The key is to hook somebody so they’ll want EVERYTHING you do.<\/p>\n
The idea is to be an ongoing artist.\u00c2\u00a0 With a steady stream of product.\u00c2\u00a0 So people don’t get over you.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s paradigm is like having an intense girlfriend and then not seeing her again for three years.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially if you’re under the age of twenty, do you think the relationship would last?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t say it’s about attention spans, it’s about CONNECTION!\u00c2\u00a0 While you’re off flogging yourself in a foreign land I’m supposed to hold a torch for you?\u00c2\u00a0 What’s more, what if you come back exactly the same?\u00c2\u00a0 If three years go by, who wants a girlfriend who’s still fifteen rather than eighteen.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what it’s like when an act releases a new disc after years have gone by and it sounds just like the old one.\u00c2\u00a0 The only people interested are those who are nostalgic.\u00c2\u00a0 Can you say U2??\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what’s going on with this band.\u00c2\u00a0 Repeating the formula so only people who went to college in the eighties still care.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, don’t send me hate mail.\u00c2\u00a0 Just name two tracks from the last two records as good as "I Will Follow" or "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For".\u00c2\u00a0 Or with the limit-testing of "The Fly".\u00c2\u00a0 Case closed.\u00c2\u00a0 Go back to sleep.<\/p>\n
Can we stop arguing about disintermediation?\u00c2\u00a0 How we’ve got to keep the integrity of collections?\u00c2\u00a0 How the iTunes Music Store is ruining music?\u00c2\u00a0 Like I said up front, it’s the corporate marketing policies that got us to stop believing in "musicians".\u00c2\u00a0 Explain J. Lo to me.\u00c2\u00a0 An actress\/model "sings" in an almost million dollar video and I’m supposed to BELIEVE IN HER ART?\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they were thrilled over at Sony.\u00c2\u00a0 Execs at other labels were waxing jealously.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s this kind of shit that got us in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Why would you need a new J. Lo single\/video.\u00c2\u00a0 To see what she’s wearing?<\/p>\n
If you’ve got a story to tell, make it all one song.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, explain it on your Website.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell people how to sequence the downloads.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe, ask THEM how they sequence the downloads and what the result means to them.\u00c2\u00a0 If the medium affects the art, the Internet is about collaboration, get the listener INVOLVED, don’t dictate to him.<\/p>\n
So, stop polishing turds.\u00c2\u00a0 Make a ton of music.\u00c2\u00a0 Put it up on your Website constantly.\u00c2\u00a0 So people will go back and LOOK for it.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t tour over five months a year, so you have TIME to relax and get inspired and continue to write, which is what you’re truly about, being an artist.\u00c2\u00a0 Establish a relationship with the fan, an ongoing one, not a static one.\u00c2\u00a0 And know that if someone is into you, they’ll want everything you ever did.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why I comb the P2P services for live tracks by my favorite acts.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is the passion we need.\u00c2\u00a0 Not fat cats lamenting the passage of the old days eliminating all the soul from the enterprise.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is dope.\u00c2\u00a0 Sell it that way.\u00c2\u00a0 Get people hooked so they won’t let go.<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n
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