{"id":490,"date":"2006-08-03T10:33:43","date_gmt":"2006-08-03T18:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/08\/03\/finding-out\/"},"modified":"2006-08-03T10:36:56","modified_gmt":"2006-08-03T18:36:56","slug":"finding-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/08\/03\/finding-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just found out there’s a Bruce Hornsby boxed set.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you might not care, but that’s exactly the point.<\/p>\n

Been reading Lee Gomes in the "Wall Street Journal"?\u00c2\u00a0 Refuting "The Long Tail"?\u00c2\u00a0 He had some interesting statistics last week <\/p>\n

\n

It May Be a Long Time Before the Long Tail Is Wagging the Web<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

but this week he’s just missing the point <\/p>\n

\n

Can Web hits drive earnings?<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sure, the most money can be made on blockbusters, BUT HOW MANY ARE THERE?\u00c2\u00a0 And what does it cost you to compete in this marketplace?\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be like funding a new OS since Microsoft makes so much damn money selling Windows?<\/p>\n

If you don’t think niche will eat away at the dominance of hits, you’ve just never turned on a TV set.\u00c2\u00a0 Wherein the five (it is five this week, right?) networks garner 31% of the audience today whereas the THREE networks of yore, of the sixties, had NINETY PLUS percent of the TV eyeballs.\u00c2\u00a0 All those cable channels?\u00c2\u00a0 They may not be pulling in many viewers, but they can be OH SO PROFITABLE, with low production costs and high advertising rates to reach their customer base.<\/p>\n

Bruce Hornsby hasn’t had a hit in years.\u00c2\u00a0 But unlike all the MTV wonders, he’s got a CAREER!\u00c2\u00a0 He’s sustained this by playing with the Dead, who have always been about music rather than hits (well, about joining the carnival too, but let’s not muddy the main point).\u00c2\u00a0 Bruce doesn’t hole up with Diane Warren trying to concoct a Top Forty hit that he’ll never have and if he does his audience will never hear.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather he constantly tours, works with other players, lives the life of a MUSICIAN, and people adore him for that.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s got fans.\u00c2\u00a0 He can work.<\/p>\n

And maybe the hard core knows he’s got this new boxed set Intersections 1985-2005<\/a>, maybe they’ve found out through his Website or an e-mail list, but I’m a believer and I just found out from a squib on livedaily.com, a site I never would have visited if Ticketmaster President Sean Moriarty hadn’t told me to take a look.<\/p>\n

How in the hell are you supposed to be plugged in anymore?\u00c2\u00a0 How in the hell are you supposed to be a fan?\u00c2\u00a0 How in the hell are you supposed to believe in music, feel a member of the fabric?<\/p>\n

Despite Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera, you’d be surprised how many people have tuned out the major label circle jerk.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you think anybody really cares about the VMAs anymore?\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t they cease being about music the FIRST TIME they were in Miami?\u00c2\u00a0 And nobody listens to terrestrial radio (and not many are tuned into satellite either!)\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it’s the easiest way to reach the most people, but doesn’t the network television example above prove that most people are LEFT OUT?<\/p>\n

We used to rely on FM radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Then MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Not to mention "Rolling Stone".\u00c2\u00a0 Now none of those outlets count.\u00c2\u00a0 And no monolith has reared its head to replace them.<\/p>\n

We need a club.\u00c2\u00a0 A SERIES of clubs maybe.\u00c2\u00a0 Where fans can rally.<\/p>\n

Oh, I’m not talking about physical spaces.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m talking about WEBSITES!\u00c2\u00a0 Where you can find out what’s coming out, what’s going on, FEEL PLUGGED IN!<\/p>\n

It ain’t hitsdailydouble.com, inured to the machine.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not the Velvet Rope, miscreants angry with the machine.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not mtv.com, playing to a theoretical teenager who doesn’t even exist.<\/p>\n

It’s someplace cool.\u00c2\u00a0 With a wider net.\u00c2\u00a0 Where if you don’t live and breathe music, if you’re not an insider, you still feel you belong.<\/p>\n

Hell, it’s not amazon.com, with its ratings system.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not pandora or lastfm.<\/p>\n

Can we stop lamenting the decline of the old system and start focusing on the building of the new?<\/p>\n

You start with free music.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I know a TEENAGER, a MALE, who got turned on to Corinne Bailey Rae by the iTunes Music Store free download.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to give people a TASTE, especially when there’s nowhere else to listen.<\/p>\n

But it’s bigger than that.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to establish something people believe in.<\/p>\n

People believe in craigslist.org.\u00c2\u00a0 And google.com.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re simple, they’re usable, they contain NO HYPE!<\/p>\n

AOL Music?\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t go there without getting the feeling they’re trying to sell me something.\u00c2\u00a0 That they’re on the side of the fat cats, not ME!<\/p>\n

Yahoo?\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, AOL with even less hipness.\u00c2\u00a0 The Wal-Mart of the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 Terry Semel has fucked it up completely.<\/p>\n

Where’s the online buzz in music?<\/p>\n

MySpace ain’t bad, but it ain’t about music.<\/p>\n

The buzz still lives in P2P, but the RIAA has scared away everybody but the most tech-inclined.\u00c2\u00a0 Ridiculous.\u00c2\u00a0 Sales were at their peak during the height of Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 Where’s the EXCITEMENT!<\/p>\n

Somebody’s gonna get this right.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who’s on the side of the people as opposed to the side of the labels\/industry infrastructure.\u00c2\u00a0 Somebody who doesn’t say EVERYTHING is good, but wades through the crap to reveal the gems.<\/p>\n

Oh, you’ll be able to look up EVERY new release, but the site will tell you what’s good.<\/p>\n

In the Information Age, there’s no good information on music.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a TON OF IT, but you’ve got to visit a zillion Mom & Pop shops\/Websites to garner it.\u00c2\u00a0 And who’s got that much time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as an owner of EVERY Bruce Hornsby album, and in excess of a HUNDRED bootleg MP3s (including my favorite P2P download of all time, Bruce and Bela Fleck’s cover of "Tangled Up In Blue" from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival), I should have known he had a new boxed set.<\/p>\n

Someone, seemingly EVERYONE, is fucking up.<\/p>\n

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

I just found out there’s a Bruce Hornsby boxed set.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you might not care, but that’s exactly the point. Been reading Lee Gomes in the "Wall Street Journal"?\u00c2\u00a0 Refuting "The Long Tail"?\u00c2\u00a0 He had some interesting statistics last week It May Be a Long Time Before the Long Tail Is Wagging the Web\u00c2\u00a0 but […]<\/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":[2,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-online","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-7U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","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=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}