We've been conditioned to vote for change. Even when that change is actually reverting back from the change we voted ourselves out of just two years ago. Sometimes irony is indeed quite ironic.
Breaking the 11th Commandment
As I watch my partners and competitors engage in battles of marketing will, I’m amused by the way they turn the super strategic, high level actions into their own raison d’etre. The belief seems to be that creating these massive partnerships, awesome viral campaigns, and strategic alliances will help you even when your basic product is horribly flawed. I’m thinking we need Moses...
Can You Survive on $311.9 million per Quarter?
Odds are you didn’t read a newspaper this morning. In fact, newspaper readership is down roughly 20% this year alone. Daily circulation of American newspapers peaked in 1984 and dropped 13% to 55.2 million copies by 2003, according to the Newspaper Association of America. At the same time, advertising revenue (with adjustments for inflation) hasn’t budged either. [i] In essence...
Respectivize
Respectivize. What? Huh? I’m tired of incentivizing the userbase, and I’m beginning to think that it doesn’t work. Instead, it’s time to focus on respect rather than incentives. In the long run, respect goes a lot further. Here’s an example: A little while ago I worked with a company that found the road to profitability and enormous profits all stemmed from getting a...
What, why, and so what…
Over the last few days, I’ve been wondering about what we say. Admittedly that’s a wide, open-ended type statement. But think about how you say what you say. Do you actually take the time to choose the word that’s most applicable, or the most industry-pleasing? Do you ramble on and on about “music discovery” or “SMO” or “SEO” without actually...
Here a Beatle, There a Beatle …
Judging from this week’s media hype, 9/09/09 is the next coming of the Beatles. The folks at Harmonix are releasing RockBand: Beatles Edition, and all things Beatle are flooding the market. I just got back from Blockbuster, where you can pick up Bealtes Monopoly, Beatles Trivial Pursuit, and pre-order your copy of Beatles RockBand. They’re (naturally) also featuring Beatle titles...
But interns are free, right?
I was poking around on Craigslist this morning, and alongside a sweet deal on a Rhodes, I noticed that roughly 60% of the marketing job listings were for internships. None of which offered pay, temp-to-perm opportunities, or really any promises beyond “something great for your resume.” This got me to thinking, who benefits by hiring interns? In most settings, interns are there for the...
How Not to Write a (Music) Blog
Lots of folks will tell you how to do things. In fact, everyone probably prides themselves on being an expert on something. I’d rather spin things a little bit and tell you what NOT to do. You see, folks that cover the music industry are even more compelled to prove their expert status. Maybe it’s a desire to serve, or maybe it’s simply an inflated sense of self. Honestly...
Kooper on Napster
This is a column by Al Kooper for EQ Magazine back in 2001. I wanna start off by saying I chose the music business back in 1958 to express myself and to make a living. I’ve shared apartments with rodents (the furry and fleshy kind) in New York City, and I’ve rented houses in Los Angeles that Ringo moved into when I vacated. It’s been a bumpy, crazy ride. I’ve been cheated...