There was a rather heated discussion yesterday between two individuals: 1. A brilliant marketing mind with years of experience in the music industry (me…) 2. A co-op student toiling partially under the whim and wisdom of the aforementioned brilliant marketing mind. The discussion centered around the topic of products, value, and power. Specifically: is a digital item an actual product...
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...
Let the River Run Dry?
Reprinted from the New York Times – 10/11/09 Broken trust, men misbehaving, women trying to recover — these sound like themes pulled from a Carly Simon song. Maybe from all of Carly Simon’s songs. But this time Ms. Simon was telling a story about her most recent record, a 2008 Brazilian-tinged album called “This Kind of Love”. She had signed with Hear Music, the...
Savor the experience…
Last Friday, I had the extreme pleasure of being a dinner guest at Boston’s Oak Room. It’s a steakhouse in the classic tradition that fusses over every detail, serves the highest quality cuisine, and charges its patrons accordingly. As dining goes, it’s fantastic. But what really got me to thinking was the overall experience — how it kept me thoroughly contented and...
What price for loyalty?
Just days after my 21st birthday, I found out that I’d be starting an internship in radio. And along with learning a lot of outdated skills (does anyone broadcast/record/edit on 1/4 inch tape?), I learned one that has continually served me well: loyalty. So many of my friends jump from job to job, searching out huge paychecks, and essentially selling their souls in the name of simply moving...
Beware the Guru
I’ve worked with multiple startups. They’re exciting, and the potential for growth, opportunity, and massive fame and fortune is always dangling right in front of you and (usually…) just out of reach. Success, therefore, becomes infinitely more meaningful, and helps keep the ego fully fed. Good stuff, indeed. In this startup environment, the one role that always perturbed me is...
U.S. Radio Revenue for 2008: $16.7 Billion, down 8.5%
Reprinted from Managers might be forgiven for leaping at the smallest good news, but the phrase “slight recovery” jumps out of the latest revenue forecast for the U.S. commercial radio business. More immediately, the research company found that small and mid-size markets continue to perform better than larger ones and that “income from digital sources is quickly proving itself...
If “A” is for Allah, is “S” for sellout?
The public is a fickle lover. One minute, it’s a blissful romance, and in the next you’re a loathed, lambasted lothario clamoring for acceptance from those who understand you. Alliteration aside, the public has the power to make or break you. They buy your music, come to your shows, and think that deep down, you understand them. You wrote that song for them. Only you can mend their...
If everyone knows the answer, why is the music industry (still) broken?
Everyone reaches their own version of a breaking point. It’s the moment when the incalculable doom of your current situation demands you to do something. Divorce attorneys are experts at exploiting that point in marriages, and music bloggers (you know who you are!) are very quick to point this phenomenon out as the music industry lurches toward its seemingly self-inflicted, horrible demise...
Want A Corporate Social Media Job? Demonstrate These Three Essential Qualities
Today, for the first time ever, we have a guest post. It’s exciting, innovative, and much easier than writing my own post. Anyway … today’s guest blogger is web strategist Jeremiah Owyang. Smart guy, very smart guy …after you’re done reading my stuff, feel free to read his! Jeremiah writes: Hiring managers, recruiters, and management staff are often confused on...