How come it took five years for the public to turn on President Bush?\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that people are just that religious, or just that dumb, or could it be that they just didn’t HEAR WHAT WAS GOING ON!<\/p>\n
The left doesn’t get it.\u00c2\u00a0 The tax cuts.\u00c2\u00a0 The lack of WMDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally Katrina.\u00c2\u00a0 What took people so long to find out that President Bush was less than perfect?<\/p>\n
Those in power, baby boomers, are still living in the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 They still believe there are three TV networks.\u00c2\u00a0 That everybody watches.\u00c2\u00a0 But it hasn’t been remotely like this since at least the midseventies.\u00c2\u00a0 When cable started to gain significant penetration.<\/p>\n
Think of this in terms of music.\u00c2\u00a0 We used to believe everybody knew.\u00c2\u00a0 Who the biggest acts were.\u00c2\u00a0 What was going on.\u00c2\u00a0 It was as simple as turning on the AOR in your hometown.<\/p>\n
That’s right.\u00c2\u00a0 From the early seventies to 1982 or so, Top Forty was kind of a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t until after the advent of MTV that Top Forty moved to FM and was reborn.\u00c2\u00a0 Truly everybody tuned in to only a couple of stations.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe African-Americans tuned into the Quiet Storm station.\u00c2\u00a0 These stations disseminated news, attitude, musical information…\u00c2\u00a0 You didn’t need a newspaper, you just had to listen to the radio.<\/p>\n
Then the news departments were gutted.\u00c2\u00a0 Then rock stations refused to play what was breaking on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Then AOR was replaced by Top Forty.\u00c2\u00a0 Which was taking its cues from the aforementioned MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 But then all the radio stations merged and tightened their playlists and MTV stopped playing music.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, there was no longer a center.<\/p>\n
This caused CD sales to drop dramatically.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever notice that all these forces occurred almost simultaneously?\u00c2\u00a0 Not only radio consolidation, and lack of MTV airplay, but Napster\/P2P too.\u00c2\u00a0 Confronted with little choice on one hand, from the traditional media, the public took off to the hinterlands, people following their own muse.<\/p>\n
"American Idol" sells records because it’s got so many VIEWERS!<\/p>\n
Check the ratings when MTV airs music videos.\u00c2\u00a0 MAYBE 100,000 or 200,000 people are watching.\u00c2\u00a0 Compared to almost THIRTY MILLION tuned into "American Idol".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not that people are DYING for "American Idol" music, they’re just not exposed to much more!<\/p>\n
It’s not only the casual fans.\u00c2\u00a0 The people who purchased only a couple of CDs a month.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the old repeat buyers.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re just overwhelmed.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t know where to go anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s so much choice and no one to tell you what’s any good!<\/p>\n
Where do you go?<\/p>\n
MTV says it’s low on videos because those are now Web-only items.\u00c2\u00a0 But go to Yahoo Music.\u00c2\u00a0 Or AOL Music.\u00c2\u00a0 Would you trust these sites?\u00c2\u00a0 They’re essentially advertising.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, if you know what you want it’s one thing, but who the fuck knows?<\/p>\n
Reaching people has become almost impossible.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why record companies now use a shotgun approach.\u00c2\u00a0 Working their acts in every medium that’ll have them.\u00c2\u00a0 Only one problem…this robs all the COOLNESS from the act, essentially shortening its career.\u00c2\u00a0 Even so, only a VERY FEW ACTS reach quasi-ubiquity.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s another interesting point, the days of 30 million sales for "Thriller" are done.\u00c2\u00a0 Major labels want a return to days that are NEVER going to come back.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, we’ll have the OCCASIONAL phenomenon, like "American Idol", but multiple diamond sellers, those days are THROUGH!<\/p>\n
The natural instinct when confronted with barriers is to push harder.\u00c2\u00a0 Find ways to rig the system, so YOU get mindshare.\u00c2\u00a0 But there are very few winners.\u00c2\u00a0 And, like "Millionaire" proved, burnout is JUST around the corner.<\/p>\n
The gatekeeper used to be the radio station.\u00c2\u00a0 And MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Now the gatekeeper is the public.\u00c2\u00a0 The key isn’t trying to get a middleman to say yes, but to get the FINAL CONSUMER to say yes.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is rough.\u00c2\u00a0 Because THIS depends on QUALITY!\u00c2\u00a0 The SOFTEST of sales techniques.\u00c2\u00a0 The only people selling hard today are those who desire short term results, who are going to be out of the business in a few years, like those running major labels.<\/p>\n
Go back to the Dave Matthews Band.\u00c2\u00a0 They weren’t sold on image.\u00c2\u00a0 They were sold on MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, blown up by MTV, but even if all those videos hadn’t gotten airplay, the DMB would still be playing to thousands of people a night.\u00c2\u00a0 Their FANS sold the band.<\/p>\n
Now fans sell bands on the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 Push it and you kill it.<\/p>\n
You CANNOT rig a fan’s enjoyment of a record.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, we’re not even selling records anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re selling ACTS!\u00c2\u00a0 People have to believe in the ACT!\u00c2\u00a0 Via the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why all the traditional marketing techniques are passe.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the focus is on the single.<\/p>\n
You’ve got to accept that results take time.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re not in it for the long haul, you’re going to be frustrated and give up.\u00c2\u00a0 Speak to the major labels.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll tell you how much it costs to MARKET acts.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why they don’t want to sign you.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than spending all this money on advertising, invest it into the music and live gigs.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, spend very little and wait for your scene to percolate.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if it doesn’t, face it, you’re just not that good, give up.\u00c2\u00a0 Because people will latch on to that which is good, and sell it for you.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s human nature.<\/p>\n
As for a place for the wandering zombies to find new stuff…we’re still waiting for it.\u00c2\u00a0 He who delivers this will make the next fortune.\u00c2\u00a0 So far, all the traditional players have failed.\u00c2\u00a0 MTV, "Rolling Stone", radio stations.\u00c2\u00a0 Their Web plays are a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 MySpace is successful because it’s owned by the public.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Fox essentially possesses nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 The users can decamp in a day and MySpace will be history.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about trust.\u00c2\u00a0 And one trusts the technology in Google.\u00c2\u00a0 And people.\u00c2\u00a0 So, one needs seamless technology, which is why Apple is so successful, and you need to hand the reins to those presently not empowered.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say those in power now should be very afraid, but they already are.<\/p>\n
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How come it took five years for the public to turn on President Bush?\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that people are just that religious, or just that dumb, or could it be that they just didn’t HEAR WHAT WAS GOING ON! The left doesn’t get it.\u00c2\u00a0 The tax cuts.\u00c2\u00a0 The lack of WMDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally Katrina.\u00c2\u00a0 What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-6L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}