Apple's Orchard

This video may indeed have "AP" stamped on it, and these guys are officers of Verizon, but this is an Apple iPhone advertisement. Notice Verizon did not say "We welcome the iPhone into our line of products..." or mention any other brand retailed in their stores. Instead they pitch the iPhone as the flagship of the Verizon network.

You may not be able to afford an iPhone, but you sure know what it is, and chances are you want one. Same with the iPad - you may not be able to afford it, but you know what it is and you want one.

What is Apple doing different? I mean sure, their overall design is better, but it's a little more than that. Even though their app store is a 'walled garden', Apple's users are not clamoring for open alternatives. Relatively few people jailbreak their devices - that speaks volumes to the overall experience.

I think Apple's strength lies in its ability to be invisible. The most popular apps are built around communities, not Apple itself.

Maybe this is our new paradigm as musicians and performers - we're really creating tribes out here, and we'd do best to simply be a part of the experience versus demanding our community to worship us alone.

Shift

Oh we're never gonna survive unless,
we are a little crazy.
-SEAL

Geologists call it 'plate tectonics.' Change that is invisible, yet alters destinies. One epoch your relatives are all in walking distance. The next, an ocean divides you.

The thing we forget about change in our modern day is that adoption is logarithmic. Put another way, the future comes slow, then faster, then....avalanche. And you can't negotiate with an avalanche.

Haven't you touched an iPad yet? That's why the Apple store is now the #1 draw in malls. Don't believe me? How long was the wait last time you wanted to play Angry Birds while the Cinnabon wears off? It's as if the Apple store is what the arcade used to be, except now you're not ashamed to be there with your parents. That's how cool Apple is right now.

And all indications are it will be that way for some time to come. Even the current crop of iPad wannabes yowling for attention at this year's CES show are forced to compare themselves to the iPad, if not overtly, then certainly by borrowing design cues (shiny bouncing icons!) For musicians, this means two things:

1. iPads and tablet computers are here to stay, will only get faster/cheaper/cooler.
2. the Apple model of 'apps' is firmly ingrained in our culture, so 'apps' are the future: Subscribers are our future.
   

We used to call them "patrons." Now we call them "subscribers" or "users." Same concept. Someone likes your work, and wants to support it directly. But more importantly, a patron wants to connect with you.

Yes, we'll still have obligatory websites, and some of us will still post content on YouTube, but the best of us will be working with geeks to develop mobile apps that engage our fans. Lucky for us, these days app developers are a bit like weed dealers: even if you think you don't know somebody directly, you've got a friend that "knows a guy!" Ask around - you'll be surprised.

What's an app going to look like and actually do, though? In it's simplest, it's just a content bundle. Maybe we've shot some footage in the studio and want to present it in a magazine style format. Or exclusive backstage footage. Or concert. Or our blog. Can we find a hundred people who'll pay $1 a month to get in our world? A thousand? Can we produce good work consistently, every month, like those winning kitchens on "Kitchen Nightmares?"

Are we willing to put in the time? The thousands of hours of sucking at something? The next thousand getting slightly better? And for what? A few hundred bucks a month?

But what happens if we create something as engaging as Angry Birds? What if we manage that terrific feat of being so compelling - so astonishing - that people can't wait to turn on their iPad/Android and join us while their Cinnabon wears off?

For now, I'm just excited this is even possible, much less that it seems our current destiny. But it means we need to change our ways. For instance:

• The album is dead. It's indulgent. Nobody has time anyway⁺. People want ala carte singles. (there are exceptions, if you're doing New Age or some kind of ambient where an hour of time is reasonable to ask a listener.)
• Music is free now, but concert tickets are not. Apps are a vehicle for getting asses in seats.
• Mashups are sometimes more popular than the songs being repurposed. Participatory culture means our raw tracks are bundled in the app for remixers. This is antithetical to how many of us musicians were trained to relate to our work. It needs to change.

I'm off to play Angry Birds.

Mailbag: Context

re: my post "Context"

Hi Jeremiah. I just read your latest post and something didn't sit well with me, and my wife says I shouldn't get too stressed about these things but I really had to say something. You said:

"Even more important, control your presentation. Buskers (street performers) are public music spam. No better than those teenagers paid to shove glossy 5x7 party fliers in your hands."

I'm sorry, but after 20 plus years of playing in public as a street performer, I don't like being called 'public music spam.' No doubt there are plenty of bad perfomers out there to that give us a bad rep, but they don't last long anyway. Give us old badgers a break. We have been in this longer than you've been alive.

--name withheld

#2:

Hey Jeramiah! Usually I don't take time to comment, but your post about musicians being public spam was not cool. Even those kids pushing flyers into your hands are signs of a vibrant population. They are part of the arts community just like the artists. What better patronage than your time? I like your blog, but your wrong about that.

--withheld (published without permission)

Context

"But in the Metro, Bell is no one. The context of the Metro fails to authenticate Bell’s music. Everyone can listen, thus hearing offers no distinction at all. And almost no one cares."

I can't say this enough: YOU are your own credibility. If you're trying to book shows in "name" venues with the expectation that an audience comes built-in, get out of this business. Now.

Even more important, control your presentation. Buskers (street performers) are public music spam. No better than those teenagers paid to shove glossy 5x7 party fliers in your hands.

But distinction - that's the secret sauce. Sure, you've got to have songs and performing chops, but even if you've only got basics, you can still create an exclusive experience. And that's what people really want - to be around other people just like them (getting laid doesn't hurt, either.)

And who 'authenticates' you now? Your fans, and nobody else. Not the venue, not a critic, not a radio DJ, not a magazine, not an award, not a TV show. When you're good enough, they'll tell everyone about you.

IF YOU ARE STILL STRUGGLING TO GET NOTICED, YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH YET!

The Last Degree

"Standing on the outside,
Lookin' in." -Cheryl Crow

Imagine standing at a golf tee. The green is not too far away - an "easy up" in golfing lingo. So you make your swing. You connect. The ball arcs gracefully toward the grass, plops just long of the cup, rolls down the green, and stops within inches of a hole-in-one.

What do you change??

NOTHING! The best you can do is make a perfect swing. After that, it's just probabilities: the density of air, humidity, wind. The inclination of the green and the tightness of the turf. One or two things against you, and you come within inches. And inches don't count

In my music life, one of my paralyzing fears is that I'll have done all this work - all the emotional and personal investment, etc - only to be confronted with the reality that I'm not quite good enough; close, but not enough. To use the golf metaphor again, it's (emotionally) easier to never get off the green in the first place.

And it's even harder in this business when you see peers in your 1st degree in The Game. Maybe they're on The Tonight Show, or being quoted in major music publications, or on a major tour.

But you're not. You're sitting at home writing about it. (who is this about again??!?)

Here's another way to look at it: you've been toiling along a trail for God knows how long, and upon finally reaching the castle at the top, the guards turn you away. And here you sit, incredulous as all heck, thinking "Are you kidding me? I walked this whole path, did everything it took just to get here, and now you're telling me I can't get in?"

And the guard just nods. It's not his problem - it's his job.

But here's the rub: if you walked that trail and climbed that mountain to the castle with the expectation you were going to be let in, YOU WERE WRONG! It's not about the castle, because that castle doesn't exist. It's like a mirage...something your brain creates out of the chaos so you don't feel lost.

It's about the PATH, you idiot! It's about the journey and those who make it with you. The castle? FUCK the castle. They're terrible homes, anyway.

If you find yourself relating to the Lone Monk On A Mission story, you've got this all wrong. That's the test.

Because the truth is: YOU DO NOT WALK THIS PATH ALONE. And if you forget/ignore those who walk with you, they'll abandon you, and THEN you'll know what loneliness is.

So here's today's big insight for you: take a moment to stop that narcissistic artistic nonsense and appreciate all those who are making the journey with you. They count more than any mythic castle dweller. They make the journey bearable and ultimately, worthwhile.

What I've been wrong about, Vol 2

A few years ago, I wrote:

Seth Godin's awesome insights can be boiled down to this: musicians need to find new ways to make money, because Seth will be godamned if he's gonna pay a pretty penny more for his mp3's. As with all of these "outsider" perspective screeds about the collapse of the shiny-disc-distribution music business, not a single person volunteers to pay artists *more* for music. Instead, we're lectured about how the wonderful internet has made our "product" ubiquitous and......free.....for Seth.

I'm going to spare my readers and clients the verbal 100-yard hurdle that is Godin's article. Here are the realities facing "independent" (read: non-label affiliated) musicians:

Don't believe the hype: We're told over and over how "the internet changed everything" in the music business. This is a lie. The only thing that was undermined was the physics of distribution (and to a degree, promotion), and all the associated businesses and infrastructure along with it. Beyond that, the music business is essentially unchanged.

Except now, it's easier to sell cheap Chinese plastic crap and sweatshop garments at horrific markups to your fans. Of course, these are called "souvenirs" or "schwag", but it's the same shit we've been peddling since Elvis. Thanks, Col. Tom.

Fuck MySpace: MySpace makes more money in a week from your music than you'll ever make from MySpace. They don't even share ad revenue with their members. Record companies tried for decades to get these kinds of deals signed, didn't they George Michael? This goes the same for practically every other "social" site that allows bands to upload music. People will argue that MySpace's value is not as an economic platform, but as a promotional one, because, inherently, your music has no value.

This is, of course, a hollow argument. Billions of gigabytes of mp3's litter the hard drives of Earth's denizens precisely because music has value.

The larger question is: will musicians be able to make a musical living at all?

As I write this today, my prediction is: generally, no. While there will be a minority class of professional artist/performer/personalities (smaller than today's), the vast majority of musical creatives will straddle multiple career paths and lines of income.

But fans also must realize they cannot have it both ways: you do not get to complain about the vapidity of contemporary music and similarly argue it should be free to acquire and listen to. Fans have a choice: you can remain passive and invisible, or you can engage and participate. And by participate, I mean to become a patron.

And let me be clear about this: patronage is *not* the shallow act of commenting, ranking/voting, or posting trite animated gifs on a MySpace page, nor nauseating promotional gushing on one's own blog: it is direct - a motivation of affinity.

It's an unfinished (and unedited) response to an article by Seth Godin (ala 2007-8?) where he lays out his map of the music business. I cannot find the post I was replying to, but it's almost irrelevant: Seth was right.

You have to understand where my head was at the time. Starving (economically) and hurt. Couldn't see my way through, and didn't want to deal with the realities of how hard the work was going to be. I didn't want to pay those dues. I came of age when the business looked completely solid. So of course my expectations were miscalibrated - my inputs were all wrong.

I saw the future in some ways (broadband), but was dead wrong about how long it was going to take. I knew the day I signed up on MP3.com (1999???) it was the way of the future. I just didn't think it was going to take 11 years for the internet to scale to a point where it was both relevant and useable.

The only thing that was undermined was the physics of distribution (and to a degree, promotion), and all the associated businesses and infrastructure along with it. Beyond that, the music business is essentially unchanged.

Turns out, distribution *was* the business, and the tours were supplemental to supporting the distribution. Now, it's inverted. And yes, that means the music business is changed. Big time.

MySpace makes more money in a week from your music than you'll ever make from MySpace. They don't even share ad revenue with their members. ... People will argue that MySpace's value is not as an economic platform, but as a promotional one, because, inherently, your music has no value.

Turns out music has incredible value, if it's any good, and ONLY IF YOU CAN PERFORM, TOO! Sure, the social sites are collecting a few pennies, but who cares? That's peanuts compared to what an artist can take in ticket sales. And that's really where the action is: the live show.

But fans also must realize they cannot have it both ways: you do not get to complain about the vapidity of contemporary music and similarly argue it should be free to acquire and listen to. Fans have a choice: you can remain passive and invisible, or you can engage and participate. And by participate, I mean to become a patron.

And my God do they want to participate. They want to engage, evangelize, and patronize. Desperately. A few years ago, before Twitter and Foursquare made the world interesting again, it seriously looked like people just didn't give a shit. Again, my inputs were wrong.

Finding Bob Lefsetz

I had no clue about Lefsetz until this video was linked one day on Reddit:


I'm not comfortable assigning a term to Lefsetz - blogger, critic, etc. In my view, he's none of those things. He's just Bob. He writes passionately. He cares. His blog is addictive (to me.) Subscribers of my GReader feed know I share his posts with annoying frequency. He is, in my world, a star. I had a choice to spend a Friday night on the town with Gene Simmons or Bob Lefsetz, I'll go with Bob in an instant.

The Big Insight

You have to appreciate how significant that statement is, and how much has changed in the world that makes it real. Instead of hanging out with a bonafide Rock Star, I'd rather hang with someone I'm going to feel a connection with. I'd rather have a great conversation about gardening or oceanography or Byzantine architecture than spend an evening ingratiating myself to Gene Simmons.

It's a little deeper than that, because Bob has also been an unwitting mentor. He's kicked open doors to new realities for me. He's helped light a new path. And like a true fan, I'm evangelizing his gospel. Most beautifully, he's done this without asking anything from me other than consideration. He's not behind a paywall - he's just put it all out there. For free.

I hate to keep couching this in religious terms, but let's be honest: it IS religion. Lefsetz put his gospel out there - his truth - for all to see. Take it or leave it. I took it. It changed me. I've seen the light and I want you (artists) to see it, too; I want you to be saved.

I'm out of the darkness now. Not only do I see the path, I know it's navigable. It's almost too easy: play, get paid. And most importantly.... no seriously - most importantly, BE GENUINE.

And why not? Why try to follow Simmons' path - who could?? Sing YOUR songs the way YOU want. If you're trying to mold yourself for the old world, you're totally fucked. Just do what you LOVE TO DO, and like flies to food, they'll come to you. They'll tweet. They'll share photos they take with you on Facebook. They'll record and post your performances on YouTube. Remember all the overhead it used to entail to get that done? Now its fansourced and......

....look at me. I'm so excited I can barely form coherent paragraphs. I keep veering into tangents.

And I owe this not to academia, not to the school of Hard Knocks, nor some random weekend music business seminar or songwriters guild, but to a guy with a blog who wasn't afraid to lay it all out there.

Thank you, Bob.
----------------
Pop Quiz: Name two songs by the act Simmons is promoting in this video.

Greyson Chance

We knew him a few months ago as "The Lady Gaga Kid." He popped up as if he were a viral hit, only to be revealed as yet another manufactured spectacle. And here he is again, completely manufactured, coached and oblivious:

I can't imagine this is really a future star here. His plucky demeanor and smile betray a kind of cluelessness - it's cute when you're ten, but he's worn out that welcome mat. Truth is, there's not a kernel of authenticity in him, but he's not mature enough to know that.

I don't know why we tolerate this - it borders on child abuse. We're being presented this individual as if somehow he's arrived - fully realized and ready to take on the world. He isn't. He couldn't be. Does he think he's going to have the respect of others in the music business? Even worse, do his handlers believe this? Sure, he's got some heavy hitters in his corner, but to what end? And who's his audience? Seriously, who's bought a Greyson Chance concert ticket?

Chance was vaulted into the YouTube consciousness on the back of a *very* selectively edited video of what appeared to be a coordinated concert effort (not the "hey some kid plays piano at his school" it was pushed as). It got some attention, including the (desperate herself) Ellen Degeneres, and allegedly, Lady Gaga's management team.

I want Greyson Chance to succeed, I really do, because it would mean the system can indeed be short circuited for the right amount of talent. And that's a lie we all need to believe.

Return of Albini

Steve Albini has a new interview in GQ Magazine. Worth a read. Salient excerpts:

"Everyone said that radio would kill live music and kill the existing music industry because people wouldn't leave their houses because radio would bring the ballroom to them. It had exactly the opposite effect—it made people much more interested in music. The same thing happened with the Internet—people said access to music on the Internet was going to kill the music industry. What it killed was the record industry. The music industry—bands, concerts, things like that are doing great. The live concert experience is a valuable thing now."

"This is a terrific time to be in a band. Every band has access to the entire world by default.
...

An awful lot of bands that had no audience in their first incarnation were able to revive their careers and have a second lap. It's so exceedingly rare that somebody gets more than one bite at an apple like that. I think it's fantastic."

"There's a perversion of normal ethical standards, indulged and encouraged by a music industry that feels more important the more it is removed from regular life. For those of us in Shellac and the other bands we admire, being in a band is just part of normal, regular life. You don't act like an asshole when you go to the barber. So why act like an asshole when you're in a band?"

I succumb to the occasional "I'm an artist therefore I get to behave differently." Happens to the best of us.

All very salient observations.

Charlie Hopper on songwriting in Nashville

"After class I would drive to the Bluebird, a little bar in Nashville where songwriting successes perform—midway into one of their verses you can usually feel the whole audience sort of slip into realizing they know this song from the radio, sort of like when your car shifts from first to second gear: if you're paying attention, you can feel it.

Especially when you're sitting there alone.

Nobody to talk to.

Many miles from the person you should be there with.

Who would enjoy the show, too." (#3)

and...

"You can always hear what's wrong with other people's songs, even as you're blind to your own song's shortcomings." (#8)

and...

"This particular Roundtable was a lovely affair with a catered dinner and free drinks, hosted by a well-regarded demo service. We gathered in the actual studio, where musicians perform. One by one Hopefuls arrived and mingled awkwardly—none of us had ever met. We were thrown together and had to muster our people skills.

Not all songwriters have people skills.

Still, networking is key to Nashville success. And this was prime networking. Future co-writers might be here tonight. We all made quick, biased, hunch-based, unfair judgments of each other, trying to answer the question, "Whom will I wish I'd buddied up with?" The classic Mingler's Challenge." (#9)

and...

"I have a mental malfunction in which the main way I approach enjoyment of any performance is through the fantasizing eyes of an introverted extrovert, as if I were the one up there performing, or the author of the piece being performed. Why, I could write a musical; I could write a play—I could write a book and read from it!

"Tonight when we get home I'll get started," I secretly plan to myself as I offer my applause."

....

"As I played these, or the songs I'd make up, I'd imagine a vast, appreciative crowd out to my right, just beyond the edge of the conjured stage the dining room had become.

Basically I am a pathological dreamer, with a vaguely pathetic desire to perform. Or have my stuff performed."

....

"[my wife] pales at the notion of having someone hand you a guitar with the expectation that you'll sing a song you wrote. "Is everybody paying attention to me? I'm going to sing to you! Something I wrote one day! I'm certain that it's good and you'll enjoy the experience of looking at me while I perform!" The idea makes her a little queasy.

But I was ready." (#10 is a gangbuster.)

I'll leave to you read the entire series. These are just a couple gems - there are many more. Absolutely fantastic series. Inspiring.