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We needed a cassette deck. And bad.
Granted, over the past few years I have thought about it... there is that dusty box I almost never open, housing all my old tapes, stashed in storage, at the very bottom of a stack of other miscellania that require minimum accessibility.
But about a week ago, I picked up Eric Clapton's recent autobiography from the stack of books I've been meaning to read forever and finally dug in.
To be honest, for $26, it wasn't particularly enlightening reading. The writing is overall subpar and the story lacked discovery. After all, we pretty much know the deal... world-renowned guitar talent, infamous unrequited love eventually conquered and subsequently destroyed, tragedy upon unthinkable tragedy, and a seriously ungodly amount of drugs. For the most part, the book revisits Clapton's well-publicized, 40-odd year elusive chase for happiness, from band to band, tour to tour, and lover to lover, all perpetuated by a sort of insatiable numbness fueled by the fog of heroin and alcohol. In a nutshell: a life --- that is, one hell of a life --- sadly missed-out on by its owner. To that end, a really, really, really fucking depressing read. Nonetheless, I kept on, mostly driven by Eric's seeming inability, even in retrospect, to have just one, singular "holy shit, this is my amazing rockstar life" moment, to recognize and connect with the magic in his own music that we fans feel. And while the book ends warm and fuzzy with his hard-won sobriety, his selfless, successful efforts in helping others achieve the same, and the love of a devoted family (all truly miraculous, wonderful things), my desire went unfulfilled.After 300 plus pages of Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie, D&D, etc., he'd gotten me all wound-up. I went hunting for that box.
Longing to feel that connection, to re-live my own Eric Clapton "aha" moment, at first, I panicked. The box wasn't where I thought it was. Three closets and a crawl space later, I found it. Buried in a jumble of various mix-tapes, air-checks, and my earliest and occasionally embarrassing stabs at music-discovery (Bronski Beat Age of Consent, Yaz Upstairs at Eric's, Alphaville Forever Young, The Ramones Loco Live, The Police Outlandos d'Amour, The Caddy Shack Soundtrack, etc.), was my first ever Clapton cassette: a two-sided compilation of favorites an old boyfriend had pieced together in a valiant effort to expand my at-the-time fairly limited tastes.
Now all I needed was a tape deck.
I'd long ago chucked my Fisher Price Walkman and lilac pastel Sony boombox. My vintage Bang & Olufsen had been hopelessly busted for at least a decade. Even the last holdout, my car deck, had been recently replaced with a CD player.
Situation desperate.
It wasn't that I didn't have access to E.C.'s music otherwise... there were CDs, records, and Internet for a quick fix. But it was the ORDER of this particular mix that I'd listened to over and over and over again, indelibly committed to memory so that I expected each song to come after the next. It couldn't be any other way.
Side One:
Bell Bottom Blues
Slunky
Have You Ever Loved a Women [sic]
Let It Rain
Anyday
Key to the Highway
Peaches and Deisel [sic]
Watch Out for Lucy
Side Two:
I Shot the Sheriff
Promises
Knockin' on Heavens Door [sic]
Wonderful Tonight
Cocaine
Lay Down Sally
Willie and the Hand Jive
After Midnight
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Let It Grow
Blues Power
This was how I'd heard it all first, how I'd first discovered the music in music. How I'd fell in love with blues without even knowing it was blues. How "Bell Bottom Blues" was the first song that I wished someone had written about me, long, long, long before I even knew what love was. How at some point, I'd accidentally pressed the record button during "Key to the Highway" so that there was that inevitable irritating silence at the bridge. How the last song on side one ended way before the actual end of the tape, requiring an impatient couple of minutes of fast-forwarding. How I'd first heard "I Shot the Sheriff" and was eventually (actually!) bummed by Bob Marley's original.
More than anything, a dedicated, uninterrupted listen to this cassette what I wanted, in part to feel as though my time spent reading hadn't been wasted.
So. It's official. I'm now the proud owner of a little Aiwa that we found online today for about 20 bucks in the next town over. And later tonight, after we pick it up and get the whole thing hooked into the stereo, I'll pour myself a glass of wine, put on the headphones, and nestle up to the hot, hot picture of Eric adorning the book jacket. Happy Monday.
Amidst all the recent Music 2.0 wonk and posturing, the preposterous notion of fans as "thieves" has been largely bandied about. Which got me thinking about the art of Picasso-ian stealing :
Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
So then, assuming you, as an artist, naturally wish to be great, the co-opting (stealing) of a pre-existing successful business model is key.
Step 1.
In order to become a bona fide "thief," you must first swap your music-industry-imposed traditional role as Creative Underling for Opportunistic Vigilante-Entrepreneur.
Voilà.
If I'm not mistaken, we just stole you an all new identity.
Step 2.
Now that you're an entrepreneur, it makes sense to take (steal) someone else's ingenious entrepreneurial principles and apply them to your career. If you don't know former Apple visionary and current Garage Technology CEO Guy Kawasaki, not to worry, you're not alone . Nonetheless, RUSH out and buy this book.
A few noteworthy highlights:
First, ask yourself if your reasons for making music, for making "meaning" as Guy calls it, are any of the following:
• Make the world a better place.
• Increase the quality of life.
• Right terrible wrong.
• Prevent the end of something good.
If not, to be frank, get the hell out of the music business. Seriously.
If so, read on.
Guy's Key Principles of Getting Going/Kate's Examples of How They Might Apply to You:
• THINK BIG . Self-explanatory. Thinking small is pointless.
• FIND A FEW SOULMATES . Going it alone at the beginning is historically risky. Think "strength in numbers" or "The Tribe ."
• POLARIZE PEOPLE . People are either devoted fans or relentless critics. Because you can't monetize passivity, utterly and completely embrace whatever it is that's your thing (rare talent, controversy, parody, etc.) and then highlight the fact that it's the opposite of someone else's thing. Remember, it's 7-Up, the Un-Cola.
And lastly, Guy's Business Model Basics/Kate's Examples of How They Might Apply to You:
• BE SPECIFIC . In a world where the market is flooded with endless music choices, niche is essential. Know your audience and create music specifically for them.
• KEEP IT SIMPLE . Describe your music. The "sounds like" section on your Myspace page should contain a concise, recognizable answer. Declaring that you don't sound like anybody is a) impossible and b) stupid.
• COPY SOMEBODY . Commerce has been around a long time, and by now clever people have pretty much invented every business model that's possible. You can innovate in technology, markets, and customers, but inventing a new business model is a bad bet. Try to relate your business model to one that's already successful and understood. You have plenty of other battles to fight. Did he say "copy?" I think in this case, it's safe to interpret that as "steal."
Eureka.
Step 3.
In order to define your business model --- to identify which already successful ( THINK BIG ) business model you're going to steal --- Guy suggests you answer two questions: • Who has your money in their pockets?
• How are you going to get it into your pocket?
Obviously, the "who" would be your audience, your fans. But here's where you need to BE SPECIFIC ... what kind of people are your fans? And while you'll want to narrow it down, no need to get into overly-heady psychographics ( KEEP IT SIMPLE ). For example:
• Do they drive Volvos and Subarus?
• Do they shop at Whole Foods?
• Are they college-educated?
• Are they taste-makers?
• If you sound kind of like Nick Drake, are they the kind of people that like Nick Drake?
This information will help define how you market your music to your fans and, more importantly, how you can potentially connect with them. So if the answer to the above five questions is yes, chances are that if you have a mohawk you'll want to consider a new 'do. On the flip side, if you're a diehard recycler, requesting blue bins to be available at your next venue might be a connection-savvy idea.
The "how" is, of course, less obvious. So let me suggest a successful business model worth stealing ( COPY SOMEBODY ): Public Radio.
For instance, the folks at Public Radio are cross-promotion ( FIND A FEW SOULMATES ) experts, fluidly connecting the listeners of one show to another. If you like Garrison Keillor, check out the Sunday Morning Bluegrass Show, etc.. You get the picture. Moreover, thousands of stations additionally join forces to promote and air specific shows, i.e., All Things Considered and the like. Hence, teaming up with other artists who have a similar fan base to yours and then leveraging your respective audiences is an excellent way to both maximize your resources as well as both your individual profile and that of the whole. Three words: Hotel Café Tour .
Notice too that Public Radio excels at what Guy calls "catalyz[ing] passion" ( POLARIZE PEOPLE ): come fund-drive time, it's a love-hate thing. But this polarity is exactly what makes fund-drives the most-listened to times of year, overall. No joke. Moreover, it's this same polarity that separates mere "listeners" from the contributing elite, a.k.a. "members;" if you've ever donated to Public Radio, you know that membership affords you outright bragging rights. YOUR individual contribution is directly connected to the success of the station. It's a pride thing.
It's not difficult to figure out then, that as an artist, you too want to catalyze this kind of passion, ownership, and connection that gives your fans bragging rights. Which makes the pay-as-you-see-fit model an appealing vehicle for cultivating an interactive environment where fans actually have a stake in your career. Connection. Loyalty. Radiohead . Quite smartly, Public Radio not only celebrates but also perpetuates the whole idea of membership-pride through regular, public acknowledgment, member-only thank you gifts, as well as access to special events, etc. You can see then, that if we're following the model, it's not enough to just allow fans to determine how much your record is worth. You can't stop there. Once a listener has made the jump to fan (fans being your paying investors) you've got to keep them hooked. And remember, by rewarding your fans in this way, they will spread the word about you, for FREE . Therefore, you've got to continue to thank them, both publicly (perhaps a scrolling marquee listing names on your website) and individually (a personal e-mail should do it). Plus, why not throw in some added value (limited-edition recordings, front row tickets, etc.) to use as leverage for increasing the amount of money you hope each fan will part with? For example, $5 gets the record, $10 gets the record AND a live recording of the upcoming New Year's Eve concert. I call this the McDonald's Bundling Model; ordering a #1 is cheaper than separately ordering a Coke, a hamburger, and some fries... but even if you only wanted a hamburger and fries, you're more likely to go for the bundle because it's a better deal. Tried and true.
And while we're talking dollar amounts, again, BE SPECIFIC . "Whatever you feel comfortable with" is NOT specific. $5, $10, $50... that's more like it. Having worked in Public Radio myself, I can tell you that a successful fund-drive host knows that you get what you ask for. So if you request only $50 pledges, the majority of pledges you'll receive will --- you guessed it --- be for $50. However, if instead you ask for $500 pledges ( THINK BIG ), the majority of pledges will be for $500. Which is not to say that everyone will suddenly have $500... the point is that narrowing options as well as switching them up begets better results. I call this the Ben & Jerry's Model; if you offer 32 flavors, chances are people will still choose Chocolate, Vanilla or Strawberry... but if you offer only Chocolate, Vanilla or Strawberry and then a rotating few exotic flavors, you'll sell more Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia. Those of you who have been longtime Ben & Jerry's customers will recall all sorts of wild choices that, over the years have been limited considerably, for what I'm guessing is this reason.Another Public Radio tactic worth adopting is the "challenge." That's when someone who is already a member puts up a high dollar amount and challenges the station to raise that same amount in a certain time frame. If the station meets the goal, they also get the challenge amount. If they don't meet the goal, it's off the table. Not only does this create sense of urgency, thereby increasing the possibility of pledges but it also gives potential members a chance to add value to their contribution. Imagine, for instance, that you, the artist, have a benefactor who wants to help you produce a record and they've agreed to put up $5,000 for every $5,000 you accrue in donations from your fans. It could work.
And lastly, Public Radio relies heavily on the ability to draw on emotions and experience during a fund-drive. You (a fellow listener) are often asked to consider what life would be like without Public Radio... talk about a rough commute. Or you're reminded of the iconic Public Radio "driveway moment." Maybe the host makes a correlation between the $4 you spend at Starbucks everyday and suggests that if you're willing to pay that much for coffee, why not for Morning Edition? Connection, connection, connection . After all, why wouldn't that same $4 be better spent as an investment in an artist who's entertained you for decades, whose music has served as the soundtrack to so many memories? Or maybe it's a new artist who has captivated you unexpectedly by reminding you how exciting hearing a great song for the first time can be... reminiscent of your youth? Worth $4? Why not?
In any case, now that the whole idea of fan-determined pricing is out there , why stop at the basics? Jump in. Go whole-hog. Don't settle for good, be great. Steal the whole damn Public Radio model and see what happens. In an age of stealing versus free , what have you got to lose?
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
© Outlandos Music TM 2008
In our house, we don't have TV. And not because we're on that crack -political agenda bandwagon... God knows I love me some mindless TV. But up here in the sticks, it's all static without cable. And cable is hella expensive. Netflix (bless it!) is cheap. Internet TV (Survivor, The Office, etc.) is free.
We make do.
But last week, while visiting my fully cable-equipped parents' house, it was a no-holds-barred, all-out, brain-numbing TV bonanza: Deal or No Deal, Dancing with the Stars, and that gravy train, top-dog of shows, American Idol.
Man, it was bad. But still, I watched along with 30 million other walleyed viewers.
Why?
For the most part, and to be fair (because honestly, I wanted to gag my eyeballs out) the singing is fine... if hitting the notes is the standard, those kids certainly have me beat. So I guess you call that " talent ."
But musicianship? Artistry? Not even close.
Let's be clear, Idol contestants are performers. And while I applaud courage (after all, performing in front of 30 million people takes guts), they are not legends-in-the-making. Will YOU be following Kelly Clarkson's career in 10 years?
First and foremost, the music on American Idol just plain sucks. And I don't mean the songs themselves (overall), I mean the whole package, the actual music. Even the classics --- at best, mere props for the aforementioned "talent."But last week wasn't about brazen attempts to out-do the likes of Al Green, Freddie Mercury or Elton John. That might have been less painful. Instead, Mariah Carey guest-starred, so the show focused on her music (if you can call it music). Each performer had to cover one of her songs... apparently the new high-bar that America's aspiring "musicians" are aiming for. Egads.
Admittedly, I had a moment of blushing reflection. Is that what my parents thought, back in my Madonna days?
Madonna, at least, was undeniably interesting. She made up for her lack of musicianship with stunts... the hairdos, the fingerless lace gloves, the cone-boobs, the dry-humping... we ate it up.
What's interesting about Idol is the wrong notes, the embarrassment, the tears, the unpredictability, the drama, the inevitable Cowell-induced squirming, the witnessing of shattered dreams, hell, even Cowell's accent is utterly captivating to the average land-locked American. But the potential of failure, that's the real dog-and-pony-show. We get high off it. Perfect is boring, mistakes are exciting! Now that's fucked up. Albeit, remarkably human.
And the humanity is the draw. It's a kind of voyeuristic-awe, a window into someone else's adventure (or misadventure), bundled in the irresistibly compelling notion of "That could be me!" Evocative. Relatable. Addictive.
Plus, there's power. There's the voting. The idea that we, the viewers, have a substantial amount of control over each performer's destiny is deliciously Machiavellian. Even that qualifies as shared experience . The connection is there.
When you think about it, this sort of innately irresistible appeal is what allows connection to outweigh actual musicianship, it's what allows performance to trump art. So it was no surprise when the Idol caller who mentioned National Record Store Day received an awkward silent pause in response --- as if to say not "Who knew?" but instead "Huh? What's a record store?" Certainly, when it comes to most Idol viewers, we're not dealing with record collectors or investors in music (dropping a paltry $.99 per song does not qualify you as an investor). Hence, content, a.k.a. quality is not king. And although some people would suggest that this is a recent phenomenon, the opposite is true. Think about it. How many times have you been to a concert where the sound was crap, your seat was crap, the beer was crap... but still, you came away having the time of your life? The songs sounded different than they did on the record --- a good thing. There were wrong notes --- you loved every one of them. You felt a connection. If you were at a Ryan Adams concert, maybe he played the same song three times in a row, God bless him. Brilliant. Because it was imperfect. Because it was REAL .And real is king. Yet in a world of digital audio, the autotune, the overdubs, etc., what is real, what is wonderful, gets stripped away. The goal is absolute PERFECTION . Lifeless, utterly boring perfection. Anyone with a computer can achieve it, you no longer have to be an actual musician to make "music." You've heard this one:
What did the ProTools engineer say to the band? That sucked, come on in.
Even Madonna figured out that it was high-time she at least learned to play the guitar. Less provocative stunting, but still, real.
All I'm saying is what if we combined what is real with what is great? Unheard of, right? Is it so much more work to raise the standards, to create something more than entertaining... a timeless lollapalooza of both humanity and caliber? Something both captivating and world-class? The kind of thing that people would even be willing to pay for?
Oh yeah, it's called HBO .
So here's an idea for you Bill Nelson : on the off chance you guys wanted to get into the reality-TV game, why not kick Fox's ass with a show for the rest of us: how about a TV version of real-life Guitar Hero, something of an American Guitar Idol? Now that would be worth watching. Seriously. I might even reconsider paying for cable.
© Outlandos Music TM 2008
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Speaking of Karaoke contests in general, I've suspected that real musicians don't make the cut. (See: Keali'i Reichel) I wonder how the late Eva Cassidy would fare under the media blitz of "American Idol"?
Right. She's wonderful. It's funny because it's totally okay to have a karaoke contest but I can't believe that they really try to pass it off as talent. And worse, that people accept it. I know I'm not the first person to have this thought but it's always good to stir the pot.