Does Paul not know that NOBODY cares?<\/p>\n
Nobody wants new material from a Beatle.<\/p>\n
Oh, I think it’s a good idea for him to make a deal with Starbucks.\u00c2\u00a0 He’ll get positioning, and a healthy cut of the proceeds, but the album will STILL stiff.<\/p>\n
It’s been so long since Paul McCartney has put out an album you wanted to hear ten minutes, never mind ten years, after it finished playing, he’s completely eviscerated the trust, the BOND with his audience.<\/p>\n
But that doesn’t really matter.\u00c2\u00a0 Because no one EXPECTS the material of ANY has-been\/classic rock\/baby boomer act to be any good.<\/p>\n
Do you think Carlos Santana could come back TODAY?<\/p>\n
No fucking way.<\/p>\n
Oh, he could get on the "Today Show", but he could never get on\u00c2\u00a0 Top Forty radio.\u00c2\u00a0 And not many people are listening to Top Forty radio and…<\/p>\n
The mainstream is imploding.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re in the disc business, you’d better be niche, or you’d better GET OUT!<\/p>\n
Your only hope is to put out something SO far under the radar that people will seek it out as a badge of honor.\u00c2\u00a0 But with the search and destroy marketing campaign that will accompany McCartney’s record, people will RUN!<\/p>\n
McCartney could put out something good, and forget the marketing, rely on word of mouth.\u00c2\u00a0 But has he got anything good in him?\u00c2\u00a0 Probably not.\u00c2\u00a0 Most classic artists don’t, sorry to say.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe if we took away all his MONEY McCartney might surprise us, but he’s just not hungry enough anymore, he’s been to the top of the world, he just wants to keep his place there.<\/p>\n
But even Madonna can’t keep her place at the top.\u00c2\u00a0 Does anybody know she put out that album of her tour?<\/p>\n
It’s getting pretty desperate out there.\u00c2\u00a0 The mainstream music business, it’s COLLAPSING!<\/p>\n
The only way you seem to be able to SELL tonnage is to get on Top Forty radio.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not really Top Forty, that’s urban and pop.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ve got to be YOUNG!\u00c2\u00a0 And, those hip-hop albums, they’re not moving AT ALL!<\/p>\n
So, you can sell the MOST albums at Top Forty, but it’s still fifty percent less than you used to be able to move, if not less.<\/p>\n
Not that you’d know this if you listen to the hype.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem with music sales is that people are STEALING!\u00c2\u00a0 If we could just get them to stop STEALING, we’d be in GOOD SHAPE!<\/p>\n
Well, it would be great to get the revenue from all that P2P action.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s still not going to give you massive hits.<\/p>\n
In other words, the blockbuster is dead.<\/p>\n
And this is big news to the majors, because THEIR WHOLE MODEL is built on blockbusters!<\/p>\n
They don’t want anything that sells 250,000.\u00c2\u00a0 And they can’t make any money on gold.\u00c2\u00a0 And all the marketing is built on relationships\/trade-out, hell, they fired all the employees who do the grunt work in the trenches.<\/p>\n
As we sit here right now, music is turning into TV.\u00c2\u00a0 The networks used to have 90+% of the market prior to cable.\u00c2\u00a0 Now they barely have over 30%.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest is sliced and diced amongst niches.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of selling ten million of a blockbuster, we’ll be very lucky if we sell two.\u00c2\u00a0 While a ZILLION indies take over the rest of the sales landscape.<\/p>\n
This is fact.<\/p>\n
And where does it leave Mr. McCartney?\u00c2\u00a0 He wants a blockbuster in an era where there NO LONGER are blockbusters.<\/p>\n
If he’s in it for the money, for the quick sale, he did the right thing by going into business with Starbucks.<\/p>\n
If he’s in it for the career…<\/p>\n
I’d tell him to forget about the hype and make an album as good as "Band On The Run".\u00c2\u00a0 But I don’t think he can make that record.<\/p>\n
Or, he could go into partnership with Clive Davis, and sing old standards.<\/p>\n
But he’d be lucky to move a million after selling his soul.<\/p>\n
Used to be that Starbucks was a filter.\u00c2\u00a0 But the company burned that out.\u00c2\u00a0 If a record is hyped by Starbucks it’s now MEANINGLESS!\u00c2\u00a0 The only advantage to going with the company is positioning.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, you’ve got the disc in front of the target demo, there is very little competing product.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s no heat.\u00c2\u00a0 Even Starbuckians have iPods.\u00c2\u00a0 And although some have no impulse control, there’s no longer any mania associated with music at the coffee company.<\/p>\n
This is a flawed concept, Starbucks’ move into entertainment.\u00c2\u00a0 Music, and movies, will live on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 To embrace them at physical retail is utterly, incomprehensibly, stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 If the company was smart they’d sell something that CAN’T be replicated on the Web, like the drink that earns them their main revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 But no, since Howard Schultz had one success, everybody believes he’s untouchable, that everything he does will win.<\/p>\n
That’s not Howard Schultz, that’s Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n
If only McCartney could emulate Jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 If only McCartney could unveil something SPECTACULAR where everybody is paying attention.\u00c2\u00a0 And then let the media and the public hype it and sell it.<\/p>\n
But that would be too scary, McCartney needs INSURANCE!\u00c2\u00a0 He’s gonna be in every magazine and on every TV show that will have him.\u00c2\u00a0 Saying this album is his best ever.\u00c2\u00a0 And if he thinks people are paying attention, that they care, then he’s even more out of touch than I think he is.<\/p>\n
We’re immune to the messages, we want quality, undersold.<\/p>\n
But it must be quality.<\/p>\n
That’s what sold Starbucks coffee, quality.\u00c2\u00a0 At least PERCEIVED quality.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there’s no perceived quality in the whole MUSIC sphere.\u00c2\u00a0 From the Pussycat Dolls to the Shins.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you’re a believer, you’ve tuned out.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 The great mass of humanity no longer has a new music jones.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they’ve been burned too many times, and they can’t make sense of the landscape.<\/p>\n
The majors could address this question.\u00c2\u00a0 By creating new trustworthy filters, by marketing credible acts.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re not playing to the consumer, they’re playing to WALL STREET!<\/p>\n
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