Karl Malden died. He was 97. Capping a string of celebrity and “celebrity” deaths, his probably won’t go as noticed as others. But he reminded me, in an instant, of a catchphrase which has become totally ubiquitous in American culture:
Karl Malden was an extremely talented actor. He won an Academy Award, starred in movies like “On the Waterfront” and “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and he was (a personal favorite…) the star of “The Streets of San Francisco with a then unknown actor named Michael Douglas. The theme song is so damn cool. If I ever get around to a pro-wrestling career, this will be what plays as I walk, no, strut towards the ring:
Alas, despite all Karl Malden has done, the roles he created, the immense career he had, he’ll be immortalized for “don’t leave home without it…” Similarly, as we mourn Farrah Fawcett, she’ll be known mostly for a poster, and not for her acting. And Michael Jackson? The jury’s still out. And as his family’s PR machine goes into overdrive, the public struggles to remember more about the music than the man.
Pop culture creates a wonderful parallel reality that’s so easy to live in. And as practicioner of marketing, it often provides fertile grounds on which to build campaigns. At the same time though, it’s frightening when people flock to TMZ.com and PerezHilton.com for news. These aren’t news sites. And they present an extremely stilted, twisted, myopic view of actors, their lives, and what might actually matter. Do we really care about Perez Hilton’s opinion on …. anything? The trend to sensationalize while also simplifying has reduced an entire generation to one of soundbites and YouTube clips.
Give yourself the time to read a real newspaper — with real stories and articles. Most likely, you’ve become so conditioned to the soundbites that you’ll get fidgety before you even finish. While you’re at it, listen to entire albums, not just singles. Get the whole experience from whatever you’re doing. Just like Karl Malden, there’s a lot more than you’d expect …
Watch it all, but pay attention to the absolute hysteria at 3:44. Has anything in music been the same since?
The clip is from “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.” Thought of as the greatest performance of the night, Michael performed “Bille Jean,” showcasing a new direction in his dancing and debuting the now signature Jackson move - the moonwalk - to the delight of everyone in the audience and to the millions of viewers around the world.
It’s far too easy to label Michael Jackson in negative terms. No doubt he was a flawed individual. But to ignore the colossal talent, the incredible music, and the legacy of showmanship he leaves behind — that would be an even bigger loss.
Springsteen played Bonnaroo. McCartney played Coachella. Elton recorded a track with Timbaland. Somewhere, somehow the lines are becoming blurred. Speaking of McCartney, let’s not forget that Rockband - Beatles Edition comes out on 9/9/09. Can a Rolling Stones/Miley Cyrus duet be far behind?
As they head down the rock icon/megastar road, artists are having a harder time attracting new fans as well as lining the coffers. As an example, if you were 18 when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, today you’re an AARP member celebrating your 63rd birthday. But since Ringo and his friends aren’t keeping their cash under the mattress, odds are they need to earn some cash just like you and me. Maybe you hadn’t heard, but the economy tanked. Anyway…
So how do you stay current in an industry that reveres youth, vitality, and the latest in … everything? The struggle to stay iconic, without becoming archival, has become an issue for multiple artists. The solution is to go where the fans are — which means new venues both online and on stage.
The festival circuit allows artists accustomed to playing 2 (or 3+) hour shows to cut down the act significantly while still making a pretty decent payday. And since the average age of a Bonnaroo attendee is much closer to 20 than 60, you’re gaining the massive exposure your career and balance sheet requires.
I’m an Elton fan. No big secret there. Since they worked together, both artists’ fans are gonna check out the other. For Elton, the Timbaland fans that check him out are gonna find stacks of tracks that’ve been sampled elsewhere. What’s old hat for most becomes new source material for some, but most importantly sales for Sir Elton. Elton stands to make some decent cash and gain an entirely new audience.
Without talking much about sampling specifically, music licensing helps multiple artists make money, gain exposure, and not work too hard in the process. Think of the role music plays in your life (they’re playing our song …), and you can see why music supervisors are a highly paid commodity in Hollywood. Unfortunately, getting rights to use an extremely well-known song can cost a boatload. What’s a film studio to do? Ah, indie artists…high talent and low cost!
If your music sounds just like someone else — a studio wants it. ‘Cuz I’ll bet that Paul McCartney costs far more than Mike McCartney, or Mike Smith (who you’d swear was Paul…). Get a start with licensing today - check out Audiosocket. Good people, simple operation. And if your music’s any good - money for you.
To restate, and in conclusion, and summarilly — find a different audience that doesn’t know you. If your iconic, find a relevant way to get in front of a younger audience. If you’re younger, look at alternative solutions for exposure including licensing. As someone said, “the times they are a-changin’ … “
Every now and then you see a brilliant piece of marketing. It gives one pause, and makes you wonder - why didn’t I think of that!? Here is such a piece…
Now that we’ve elected Barack Obama, and Fidel Castro is slowly fossilizing, there’s all kinds of speculation as to when the infamous trade embargo will be lifted, and Americans can spend their hard earned dollars o’er in that Communist playground known as Cuba.
In fact, there’s a lovely petition you can sign telling our fearless leader that the time has come. The petition, found at opencuba.org , encourages you to support the cause and tell those in power to end the restrictions. When you sign the petition, you get a $100 discount on that first trip to Cuba if and when it happens — courtesy of your good friends at Orbitz! Incidentally, by the time the US and Cuba are friendly, how many people are gonna remember they’ve got that $100 break and actually use it? ROI for Orbitz will be through el roofo…
The folks at Orbitz built, own, and run the whole site which essentially amounts to nothing more than a brilliant lead-gen program. They’ll be contacting the President and all that, but they’re also including a link to jump on their email list, receive their info, and dont’cha think that’s the real goal here? But it’s done in such a subtle, free-the-people kind of way.
Last night I trekked down to the Comcast Center to see Phish. Admittedly, I’m only a passing Phish phan, but the ticket was offered, seemed like phun, and off (oph?) I went. In my own defense, I’m far more fascinated by what’s going on backstage and not on stage. Phish, in all their earthy-crunchy, hippy-dippy, love all approach, are also seemingly shrewd business pholks.
Tickets to last night’s show were $50. And if you were way up on the lawn - $50. Phront row - $50. Phair and equal pricing phor everyone. Very cool. They could’ve very easily charged more for the phront sections, but didn’t. Initial ticketing was done through their phan club, and the actual tickets were art. Definitely a custom job, but a really nice souvenir of the show.
Custom tickets, like the ones Phish used, run about twenty-phive cents each. Less when you order in the (presumably) massive numbers they are. But it’s that little detail that makes a difference. Beyond that, the merch on sale was standard phair, but amongst it all was a poster selling for phifty dollars. The posters are printed on archival stock, limited edition, and phar better than something you’re picking out of a bin at Sam Goody. Highly collectible, the posters often resell for phar more than their purchase price.
The point? After your phirst $50, you might want the phancy poster for another $50. Now you’ve dropped $100. And what do you think the actual cost on a $50 poster is? Unlike t-shirts, they’re one size phits all, and produced in a limited quantity. The poster profit, even with less actual goods sold, has to be insane.
The atmosphere in and around the venue was warm, welcome, and celebratory. Granted, this was aided by a variety of substances and potables, but that notwithstanding, it was a happy place to be. As a musician, at any level, this is the environment you want to bring to your performances. More to the point: happy people spend money. And while you’re really in this to get laid, you also need to pay the bills.
In an upcoming post, I’ll offer suggestions for cool, nifty merch items. In the meantime, check out www.phish.com . Pay attention to the committment to quality merch and how it all relates to the band’s overall image. Even if you don’t like the music, they’re rockin’ all the way to the bank…
“My thing is I always make a couple of bucks less than whomever the highest-paid guys is. You can’t eat the whole pie. If you eat all the pie, you’ll get fat, choke, and die. If you give someone else some pie — then you have all these friends who are thrilled because you gave them a little piece of pie. It’s not that hard.”
Growing up, I was a nice, Jewish boy. Hebrew School three days per week, youth group activities on the weekend, and a Bar Mitzvah that pulled out every stop. I had, no exaggeration, memorized the Erev Shabbat service and could recite the prayers and passages verbatim — in Hebrew and English. In fact, I even knew the page numbers for each section of the service. Some might call me a geek, but we’ll let that pass for now.
Anyway, at the conclusion of the main part of the service, there was a responsive section. The rabbi would say a line, and the congregation responded. The following line always stood out to me — alongside it’s italicized congregational response:
Let us learn in order to teach!
Let us learn in order to do!
It was instilled in me then that learning and education was the essential conduit to useful, vital activity in life. I’ve always been a fairly active person. Boredom and complacency never really satisfied me. And it explains why I get frantic when I don’t have a bunch of things going on.
I came across a statistic today, and it floored me. I’m still wrapping my mind around it, but it seems to justify most of what marketing is all about. It also takes the Jewish sentiment (above) and turns it on its ear. On the music side, it validates everything that we humble marketers do to maintain our own relevance. If you’re a musician, and you’re reading this, see where you (and your management/professional team) fall on the scale. Perhaps you’re not taking advantage of everything you could or should.
Sorry if it’s a tad blurry, but can you see the point? In the graph, students ability to solve problems is at its highest when they’re actually doing something. In order, effectiveness builds from reading, to seeing, to hearing, to seeing and hearing, up to collaboration and then finally to doing. So perhaps the Rabbis had it backwards: let us DO in order to LEARN!
This may seem obvious — the more involved a person is, the better their eventual outcome. In a word (or not even a word): duh. But, if you’re a musician, and you apply this same graph to your career (and your revenue stream), are you really doing all you can to be effective?
If you’re an artist who relies primarily on touring, you’re capturing (at most) 30-50% of your potential artists. That’s include the “seeing,” “hearing” and “seeing and hearing” portion of the graph. But where’s the collaboration piece, and what about the smaller percentage of reading, and yikes, how do you factor “doing” into the equation?
Yet again, the answer lies in your social media opportunities. Converse with your fans on Facebook, engage with them on Twitter, actively message your fans with newsletters. Most of these steps are low cost (if not free!) and require only modest effort.
Artists who don’t take proactive steps regarding their careers have no one but themselves to blame when things go south. It’s not the economy, it’s not over saturation, and it’s not (just) your music. We’re in a new era, and your choices are simple: get on board, or get forgotten.
“The two saddest words in the English language are: “What party?”
So how do you stay current in an industry that reveres youth, vitality, and the latest in … everything? The struggle to stay iconic, without becoming archival, has become an issue for multiple artists. The solution is to go where the fans are — which means new venues both online and on stage.
In fact, there’s a lovely petition you can sign telling our fearless leader that the time has come. The petition, found at 
“My thing is I always make a couple of bucks less than whomever the highest-paid guys is. You can’t eat the whole pie. If you eat all the pie, you’ll get fat, choke, and die. If you give someone else some pie — then you have all these friends who are thrilled because you gave them a little piece of pie. It’s not that hard.”