New Cicada

Scream-a-thon

2012-01-28T15:00:00.001-05:00

Untitled, a photo by Heather Blanchard on Flickr.

View from Music Hack Day at Midem in Cannes, France. Lots of screaming happening next door.

On Pondering the Inside of Things

2011-03-29T18:08:00.000-04:00

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.” - Einstein

(Warning: My curiosity is a little mundane)

Today was a very long travel day. As I sit in row 23 on Southwest flight 2619 to BWI, I gazed across the plane parking lot and was watching luggage being loaded onto another flight. The door was open and there was a guy at the bottom of the conveyer belt and one guy at the top tossing bags into the belly of the plane.

I caught myself musing what it must look like underneath the plane. Was there a system of loading luggage (well with this video someone else took, obviously not)? What did it look like in there? I’ve never seen the inside of a plane.

It started me thinking about the inside of things. Like what’s it like to be in the cockpit of a plane when it takes off and lands?It got me thinking that there are a lot of things I’d like to see the inside of for no other reason that curiosity.

So here’s my top 10 things that I’d like to see the inside of:

#1 - My Body

I think its pretty silly with all this technology that I don’t have more stats about what’s going on inside of me. I would think if people had regular information, meaning monthly, weekly, if possible even daily, information about what’s happening inside of them or the effects of what you put inside of it, I think people would be healthier most likely.

#2 - Plane Cockpit

I travel a lot now and can cope with being on a plane. With as much time as I spend on a plane, sometimes I even enjoy the fact there isn’t internet on a plane. Although, I do get a lot done on planes. Anyways, in the late 90s I had a really bad experience with a flight from Manchester to Logan. For years I was shaky. I think it would be interesting to see what they do up there. How it works. For a while United had a channel on their radio where you can listen to the radio as the pilots move across airspace in the US. It’s pretty interesting to listening to how they call into the tower and how the air traffic controller can route and communicate with flights in the airspace. I love that I knowing what “heavy” means and to follow my flight to landing. Perhaps not even being in the cockpit put put a few cameras up there an the passengers can check out what’s going on. Maybe just once. It would be pretty cool.

#3 - My DNA

Would be pretty cool to see a model of my DNA and how that compares with others and what it means.

#4 - Rock and Roll Houses

After watching, “It might get loud” and seeing how The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White tinkered around with their craft and how passionate they are about sound and their artistry. Would be pretty amazing to see all those little novelties and stories of their growth as an artist. I think there needs to be more “MTV Cribs with real artists like Prince, Robert Plant, Sting and Madonna.

Would be more interesting to hang with the “people behind the people” like Quincy Jones or Cameron Crowe who, in their own right have perfected their craft, but have seen so much of their industry grow up around them. I’ve always interested in the process of creativity. How does it happen? What are the stories that come out of the process? What failed? What was a surprise? Sometimes its just interesting to find out a musician has other interests. For example, I once interview Matthew Sweet and he talked about selling his pottery cats he makes via Esty.com. It’s interesting to know that artists who you think you know have more interests beyond their craft.

#5 - Rolling Stone

More music interest, would be pretty cool to sit in on the staff meetings at Rolling Stone to see how stories are assigned and how the magazine is laid out. Would be interesting to see if there is tension between the new guys and the old guard. I’d be happy with hanging out with Cameron Crowe for coffee where we complain about Kurt Loder.

#6 - Slane Castle (while U2 was recording Unforgettable Fire) & Windmill Lane Studios

I think I probably watched the “making of” U2’s Unforgettable Fire about 100 times. I visited the castle but it was closed and since they recorded there was a terrible fire. I was close that trip. I did hang out and etched my name on the wall at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. It would be pretty amazing to be in the studio with U2 to just be quiet in the corner and watch the process. Again, another fun live stream opportunity.

#7 - Pixar Studios

I’m pretty sure one day I’ll work for or with Pixar. I am facinated by their process to create a story that makes people of all ages engaged and in the end - make people happy. There is something in the water at Pixar. I’d like to swing by and listen into all their creative processes.

#8 - Steve Job’s Senior Staff Meetings

Senior level meetings where there is the big boss and the dynamics which happen within the meeting room. Who wouldn’t want to sit in on Steve Job’s senior staff meeting to see how his vision and passion shapes an iconic brand and company. Conversely, it would be interesting to see where Apple products are made.

#9 - Dolly’s Closet

I can just imagine it, something like the dress up scene in the first Sex in the City movie where Dolly is pulling out all her clothes and talking about the memories associated with clothes and her life. I have been meaning to read her biography for the longest time. I just think she is amazing. I don’t know were that came from, but I just mad respect for the one and only Dolly.

#10 - Where Meat Comes From

I’m pretty certain if I went to a slaughter house or chicken farm that I would never eat meat again. I don’t eat fish now. It’s probably a good thing to see so I can think twice about eating meat. Don’t get me started on wondering what’s in stuff like Beefaroni.

#11 - Bonus: The International Space Station

I’m pretty certain there will be civilian trips to space in my lifetime (go Richard Bronson!). I’d be really interested to see inside the space station and to experience zero gravity. Knowing me, I’d probably throw up in space (I’m motion sensitive) but would be interested to see how it felt to float around and to see things living (and growing) on the space station. Okay, yes, I wouldn’t turn down actually riding (launching) in next generation of Space Shuttle. I've already got my Tweetup Pass.

To All The Haters, Where Is The Love? Thoughts on Superbowl Half-Time Show

2011-02-07T22:33:00.000-05:00

So I was one of the few people who didn't watch, I mean hear (or pay attention), to the Superbowl last night. I'm at my Great Aunt's house in Charlottesville, Virginia because her sister, my other Great Aunt passed away last week. So I'm not in my normal, information 24-7 house. Last night I could see the game from the kitchen but couldn't hear it at all. The television was on mute as my Mom and my Great Aunt were in full fledge conversation. I could see above my Mom's shoulder the Trontastic extravaganza going on. I made a note to myself to check it out today.

So, this morning I went in search of a Starbucks (my remote office) for some caffeine, WiFi and a little bit of online news. What I found was an explosion that the halftime show was, well, not so good. I was actually surprised at this coverage. From across the room the Peas looked like they were knocking it out. Those Tron-ish oompa-loompas were a little weird (as anyone in lighted tights would be) but a bit interesting too in a Blue Man Group kind of way. And as I was checking Twitter, Rob Sheffield's Pop Culture blog had just then posted, "The Ghastliest Half-Time Show in Sports History." Jeez, really? I had to check this out (see below video).

After watching the above video I was a bit annoyed with the ridiculous rage that was going on in the blogosphere. From the video it clearly looks like the Peas had sound problems to start off with (not the Peas fault), they were singing live to their largest audience ever (er, nervous?), their songs are complicated (i.e. er, autotune live is probably a big pain) and whoever did the scope really wanted to push the limits on lighting and the use of tech and clothing. Okay, Slash was a little unexpected but clearly that was a nod to the classic rock guys. No big deal. Usher was his usual Michael Jackson dancing self (impressive jump to split). I didn't feel that "ewww yuck/hands in front of your eyes" feeling that gross Doritos commercial made me feel. The half-time show looked pretty okay to me. Actually, I thought it was kinda cool. They did rock it out. Great Tron-like costumes to boot!

Perhaps what people forgot was that the half-time show was focused from the unique Pea perspective. A little futuristic. A little clubbie. A little sassy. And a wholelotta popular, be happy music. Pretty sure that's why they got selected to the half-time show in the first place. Low risk & High popularity = Sure Bet.

Really people, I didn't see not one wardrobe malfunction (actually I loved Fergie's outfit), I knew all the songs without owning one of their albums and I didn't really care that Will.i.am did an little political shout out to Obama. No big deal. As expected a safe Superbowl half-time show. The whole thing left scratching my head a bit wondering, "What was the freaking big deal about?" Did people really expect to see something so amazing, so awesome that their heads would flip? You can bet that Fox Sports lawyered that deal with the Peas to death. They couldn't as much breathe for the days before and the days after - all happy, crisis-free, family-friendly Black Eyed Peas. It's not the MTV awards, it's the largest sporting event in the USA. Low risk - family friendly is the goal for Fox and the NFL. And in a weird way, I agree with them.

To the Critics (I mean to the all Haters)...

Turning to the haters, I'm pretty sad to see that Rob Sheffield, normally an interesting writer for Rolling Stone, use his blog to rant - and I mean rant - insanely critical profile of the half-time show. I would hate to remind him that the half-time show isn't Bruce at the Garden or some show that is deemed "acceptable" by people who happen to work for a music magazine. The Superbowl half-time show is about being entertaining to a mass audience. Sorry Rob if that failed to meet your high expectations.

Just for old time's sake, this gets back to a little rant that I have regarding music critics/writers. Not in one sentence did Rob reflect what people were saying, good bad or indifferent about the show - it was his screaming opinion. I think Rolling Stone does enough opinion if you ask me. When journalists cover popular culture, they should cover it with the facts rather than pretty strong opinion. I expect a little more from Rolling Stone. Add in a little wager for good measure that says that if the half-time show was a band that "critics" find remotely interesting (or a band that Jann loves - i.e. The Who) criticism would have been tempered or perhaps event a little statement like, "poor Black Eyed Peas, Fox Sports really screwed that up..."

The most regrettable aspect of the Peas haters (Sheffield included) is that many of them place very little emphasis on the actual Superbowl fan's reactions or the facts around the technical problems that the half-time show was experiencing (i.e. sound meltdown). I'm pretty positive that none of the Peas or Usher could actually hear themselves sing due to the 90,000 people surrounding them. Okay, so their sound was terrible - doest that mean that the whole show should be categorized as garbage? Seems to meet that they were super confident, high energy and really tried to overcome their lean on heavily produced (and technologically enhanced) music. A personal highlight (being pretty geeky myself) was that technology/lighting incorporated in the clothes and odd, yet interesting army of oompa loompas. Before you even ask, yes, I saw Tron opening night. It made me wonder how they created those lights in the clothes (and better yet, how you can dance in them). It got me thinking. I even would comfortably say that liked it. I'm pretty sure that takes me off some music critic/writer list somewhere.

...Big Expectations

In today's USA Today poll readers thought the half-time show was, well pretty boring with more than half saying such - the second half was split into "liked it" and "hated it." So on the whole, you could say that the reaction was more of a "meh." Not to point fingers, but you can thank Jackson and Timberlake for that. There is zero risk in the Superbowl half-time show. They bet on widely known bands that will swear on the lives of their children that they will be family friendly. The bottomline is that the Superbowl is selling everything, especially ads. Uncertainty and risk is not acceptable in these big events, especially those who showcase their brand around the half-time show. Literally, you could hear the legal flack and the "want to control" what's happing a second after the wardrobe malfunction. Like a big book, you could hear the shut down any loophole for risk in the Superbowl half-time show. It is unfortunate that there is little room for risk, which means there will be little room for "new things" or "changes" in how the Superbowl half-time show is created. Like in technology there cannot be innovation without risk (or in this case, reinvention).

Bowl Rules: "Meh" = Low Risk & Happy Advertisers.

Remember its about them not the Superbowl fans.

Perhaps that is what Rob was trying to get at in his column, the need for the show to innovate outside of itself. Yeah, the Peas perhaps would have been more fun a few years ago, but the simple fact is they are at the top of their game now too. They are a "trusted brand" they can be family friendly if they want to be. They can perform without a major crisis and leave the stage without a political/social comment (oops, strike that last one).

They are really singing...

You can't win this one. These artists are actually performing live in front of millions of people. They are singing live. It's not taped. So give them a break, live shows don't sound like the MP3 (tho, you would hope they can sound better, or at least more interesting). The fact is that the Peas actually have to work harder because their music was not created for live shows, it's club music. Beats are electronic, voices are altered with autotune. You can tell they worked really hard to get that right. To the haters, you guys might want to give them a bit of a break.

On a personal note, seriously, if you were standing there in front of 90,000 people with a LIVE camera beaming to millions more, you would be a little freaked out (and may make a mistake or two). It's always challenge to be that confident and sure of yourself. Anyone, even Bruce, might have been a little nervous. And for the record, the Peas were 100+ better than The Who. I mean who cares about Jukebox Hero when there is Guitar Hero? Yeah, they were great back in the day, but the Superbowl is for today, not yesterday.

...Serving Up Music for the Masses (without input from the Masses)

It's not easy to entertain -- anyone and everyone. Finding something that won't offend, that strikes the right balance of a family friendly event I would imagine would be pretty hard. Perhaps having Kings of Leon, Florence and the Machine and Arcade Fire might have been fun? Maybe Pearl Jam (well, that might be a "sell out" move), maybe a heart warming musician recovery story? Not to think "outside the box" but could the approach to the half-time game been more inclusive of Superbowl fans? Could they be involved in the selection? It seems that some major artists like Beyonce haven't graced a Superbowl stage - and for this Superbowl, she would have been perfect - she is from Texas you know. This is when, perhaps, Superbowl fan input could be incorporated to augment the opinions of the front office? Just saying.

Interestingly enough, the always informative Wikipedia has a list of Super Bowl Halftime Shows. It's as vanilla as they come. Apparently MTV produced the show that had the wardrobe malfunction, and looks like the NFL won't use them again. The pendulum swung all the way to "safe" acts like Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones, then took a chance with Prince (who could forget him playing in the rain?) then Bruce and the Who. So this year was the big "popular culture" chance and unfortunately was met with a barrage of criticism from industry with a healthy "meh" from the public (even with the crazy tech show). Sometimes you can't please anybody. (Sad, Wall-E sigh)

Hey Rolling Stone, Perhaps You Could Criticize the Process?

Perhaps why people think the half-time show boring, is that it's not timely. It's not connected to what is happening - literally right now. Superbowl extravaganza's take time and a ton of money. Perhaps a future strategy is to connect the half-time show with the Superbowl fans and to what is really happening in popular culture (right now, not 30 years ago - ahem, The Who).

Perhaps one actual arguable point to criticize is the process of how artists get selected for the Superbowl half-time show. Could the NFL democratize the selection (er, good idea here) of the half-time show? Can they be nimble enough to connect the fans and what they are doing (i.e. popular culture) with the show. For example, this year you could have had the Wiz and Lil Wayne dueling their "Black and Yellow" and "Green and Yellow." Now that would have been pretty exciting. Unfortunately because the Superbowl will not accept risk into it's halftime show, the choices will always be pretty "meh" for most people.

There are very few bands and music which connect across the American culture and diverse age groups. Perhaps make it interesting for the fans. Include them in the planning and the event itself - especially in the decision making process. It's not a new idea, but something that could give more diversity to how the half-time show gets created and input on what fans want to see. Perhaps if this was done, you might have known that even if Fergie did her best with "Sweet Child O' Mine" that America really wants to see Axl Rose with Slash - they know them from 1989 GNR not the crazy wacko that was on the 2002 MTV video music awards. You talk about a freak show cringfest.

Perhaps in the rush to a story, these small, yet interesting points were overlooked? Perhaps angles of the story could have been better told? You never know. Maybe Rob was wanting to get a story out and he just let it rip. I'm pretty disappointed by the coverage across the interwebs, but really did think that Rolling Stone might have something a little more constructive to say about it all.

I really do feel for the Peas tonight. They probably had a really tough day. I guess there will always be haters. I think if I have learned anything in life is that if you do something big that people, any people, will criticize you no matter what you do. I just hope perhaps next time, especially professional journalists, can find a more interesting story (even for a blog) than just the ridicule seen today. Or if not, that the Peas break out a Boom, Boom, Pow on their comments section.

Talent is Timeless: My #9892 Indigo Girls Show

2010-10-25T00:04:00.000-04:00

Okay, I haven't really seen the Indigo Girls 9,892 times. Probably more like 20 times since 1988. Tonight you can add a +1 to that number by catching their show at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia.

The thing about the Indigo Girls is that they have been with me since I was 16. It's almost like a blanket you just don't give up. They've been through a lot with me. We've done a lot together.

The first time I met the Indigo Girls was in 1988 when they played the Boathouse opening up for the Violent Femmes. I never really liked the Femmes. I'm not much for party bands. Anyways, that night as I recall the audience, filled with a bunch of young guys wanting to Add It Up didn't know what to do with the Indigo Girls. It felt really bad for Emily and Amy and hoped they would come back without the Femmes. They did about a year later to a packed audience.

Like all my favorite things, the Indigo Girls went with me to college. I remember distinctly the one tape I had in my Walkman as I walked across campus during my first two months in college was the Indigo Girls. I wore that tape out. I probably bought that album about 10 times in various forms. Their self-titled album will always remind me of feeling a little lost but also my first taste of independence. It was intoxicating. I guess looking back the Indigo Girls reminds me of those days. New freedoms, new adventures.

While in college the Indigo Girls were a staple. They were always on rotation. My friends and I spent countless hours probably wasting time, listening to music than studying. (Shocker) The Indigo Girls went camping with us. They were shotgun in the car during roadtrips. They were played on my radio show at WUVT. If I had a co-pilot in college, it was the Indigo Girls.

As the years have gone on, the Indigo Girls seem to get more insightful. They talk about love lost and the funny side of life. They talk to us about being better people and to not worry so much about everything. There is a whole generation of us who have been raised by the Tao of Indigo.

Indigo Girls Sing "Watershed" at the Birchmere:

Ever since college the Indigo Girls always represented getting together with my friends. The shows at Wolf Trap are always fun. Its the only show where my friends who have children of their own get baby sitters or tell their husband to cook at TV dinner because they have "plans with the girls" tonight. Emily and Amy always put on a perfect show. Their voices sound like they are made to sing together. Really, the thing about the Indigo Girls is that their talent is so timeless.

Indigo Girls sing "Closer to Fine" with their opening act, Mount Moriah from Durham, NC

[Note: Sorry its sideways...]

So tonight, again, I find myself at an Indigo Girls concert. I'm surrounded by good friends. Every song creates those "recall" moments bringing me back to the wonderful memories of my life thus far and the amazing people that I have shared all of my Indigo Girls moments with.

Thanks Emily and Amy for continuing to make music.

To check out music by the Indigo Girls visit their website at: www.indigogirls.com

Guster Makes Waves and Delivers Jesus on the Radio in the Round

2010-10-24T00:17:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: @robharalson

Tonight was a beautiful fall evening in our nation's capital. Crisp air and the incandescent monuments aglow as Guster took the stage at DAR Constitution Hall. For someone who has been following Guster for a very long time, it was a change of pace to be at a "seated" Guster show. But what was really strange what it wasn't just me and a couple hundred people, it was more like a couple thousand. Guster is all grown up now.

I'm pretty biased when it comes to Guster. They rank up there with U2 and Bob Schneider as some of my favorite shows to see live. As usual, Guster did not disappoint tonight. Here's a few highlights:

Guster hopped on stage to Hail to the Chief. That was funny.
This perhaps was the largest show Guster ever played in DC. Second time playing at DAR.
When the audience greets the new Guster bandmate Luke, it sounds like a big booo...but we are really saying Luuuuukkkkeee.
Ryan instigated the crowd wave which went on for 5 minutes at least!
Hang On had a little Billy Joel shout out
They played Airport Song apparently for the first time in over a year. I find that hard to believe as its always pretty much a staple show song. With Halloween next week, I was surprised they didn't reprise the Vincent Price remix version for the crowd.

The best was the close of the show. They always play Jesus on the Radio, acoustic without mics, but tonight Guster took it to a new level in such a large arena. See for yourself below. They played in the middle of the floor in DAR and you can hear Ryan pretty clearly. That's really impressive.

Quick Snapshot from the field seats (Thanks Dojotony for the link!)

From my view:

What's always awesome about Guster is they are really relatable. I mean you can friend Thundergod himself on Facebook. That's pretty cool.

He is Thundergod after all...Great show guys - see you on Friday at the Beacon Theater in NYC!

Photo Credit: @washingtonnydc

Photo Credit: @Ardvaark

Photo Credit: @pglatfel

Just in case you can't get enough of Guster. Check out my interview with Ryan and Brian last time they came to town. Maybe next show we can get another scavenger hunt going!

Ten Snaps: Rdio Launches Player Embed Codes for Playlists

2010-10-20T23:41:00.000-04:00

I think I need to curb my enthusiasm for Rdio. They are totally getting it as right!

They just launched a new feature which can embed players in your blog. I'm trying it out based on music I'm picking up here and there from other folks playlists.

Follow me on Rdio you know, just like Twitter.

Stolen Instruments, Future of Record Labels and an iPhone Band: Atomic Tom's Subway Serenade Goes Viral

2010-10-17T09:38:00.000-04:00

That really sucks that Atomic Tom got their instruments stolen. They say scarcity is the mother of invention. They probably just created the best demonstration that perhaps you don't need instruments to make music these days.

Labels need to recognize that this is the new paradigm. They should act as venture capital for public relations. Labels really need to seed ingenuity and investment in creative works like this. Its the ideas that are important not the production. All the below took was an idea and some practice. It cost nothing to make. Getting the video into the NY Times to post, now that is where investment helps get the information to the right people at the right time. If the label was smart they would book them on the late shows within the next two weeks.

Perhaps it was always a bad investment for labels to pump millions into production of a brand new artist. Like Little Steven said at the New Music Seminar this year, nothing replaces being out there playing. Atomic Tom is playing all over the place -- even in a subway. This is after their instruments got stolen when some bands would just give up. But today they turned that hardship into innovation. I bet they could put a PayPal link up and have the money to replace them within 3 days. I'll give them 20 bucks. Hey, Atomic Tom - Where do I hit send?

You can tell Atomic Tom in its videos has a sense of humor but when they play they are all in sync, they are passionate. People can to see that. As much as a label machine wants to create distance called fame between an artist and a fan - relatability and rapport is paramount.

Labels should encourage these impromptu acts of music. People love a surprise. Remember U2's Where the Streets Have No Name? I must have watched this video a million times when I was in high school wishing I too could have a moment with a band like that. Something where, "you had to be there" to experience. This is the future of music. Exclusive engagement and impromptu shows. It captures almost the same magic as a flash mob. When you can provide both in some format that will be pretty amazing. Entertainment at its essence is showmanship. That could be from a band or a singer or can be, as we have seen with flash mobs, just ordinary people who learn a little dance and dedicate to show up.

With all of these you get goosebumps about how much fun surprise entertainment is and connects people on an emotion level (which is what music does right?). But don't take it from me, here is what people are saying:

Facebook:

"Awesome subway video. How ridiculous that I started crying but really... fantastic job, guys. Your ingenuinity is inspiring! Oh- and you NEED to play at the Westcott Theatre, here in Syracuse, NY. You'll be SWAMPED with fans!"

"You guys are truly an inspiration! Your video reinvents the meaning of overcoming adversity."

"Like everyone else, I saw the subway video and became an instant fan. That was brilliant! I can't wait to get your album and see where you go from here."

"Just watched the subway video and got chills! Amazing vocals, harmonies, and what an awesome use of new tech! CHILLS!"

"Wow way to kick butt guys, I just saw that video on the subway! You totally got a new fan for amazing music and an a hardcore resolve to play the music you love!"

"Genius. Have been on that train many times and would have loved a ride like that!"

"Never heard of Atomic Tom before this morning, but their brilliant creativity to overcome a situation that sucked has made me (and probably thousands more) a new fan. Thanks!"

"I am American living in South Africa, and while I love it, people sometimes give me a hard time for being America. I just watched the iphone video. This is a pure example of what being American means! To not give up but use what life deals you to pull yourself up to succeed!"

"Am impressed with creative people who dont let adversity dull their determination to succeed"

"Saw the B Train Video of Take Me Out! Right on!!! You all are sweet! Posted it immediately on my wall! Shows how you can make something out of nothing and you all done just that. You had no instruments and yet you still put on the best show you have ever done. Right on!!!"

Its pretty hard not to have a great time watching a something that is a surprise. But this video had the fact that these up and coming guys got their instruments stolen but they didn't give up. Perhaps what resonates the most is when a band really believes in themselves. This is how to rise above the noise in music land today. Be unique, be clever but moreover be good. Good music gets noticed. A good story always does a good job of being a catalyst.

Well done Atomic Tom! If you need a place to stay in DC, look me up. Happy to host you in our nation's capital.

You can find Atomic Tom on Twitter and Facebook these days. If you are in NYC they will be performing at Macy's Department Store in the Kenneth Cole Reaction Space (nice product marketing tie in) on the 2nd Floor on October 20th at 5pm.

Michael Bay Likes His Fans and Tells Us: "DC Cops Wrecked My Bumblebee!"

2010-10-13T01:04:00.001-04:00

DC is all a flutter. Usually it doesn't take much for us to be excited about Hollywood. DC needs more glamour if you ask me.

This week Michael Bay has brought in the cast and crew for production of his new movie Transformers 3. For weeks the city has been getting ready. Warnings about road closures, text messages from Alert DC. All seemed to be going like clockwork, er, until this happened yesterday...

At first I thought, was that real? Like for the movie? But apparently it was not part of production. In a way, I feel really bad for the police officer. You know, everyone makes mistakes. I just hope he wasn't hurt. Poor Bumblebee, he was pretty wrecked. : (

Of course, drama only attracts more people to check out what's going on. Despite rumors that production was halted people still lined up to catch a glimpse of what the Autobots and Decepticons were going to do next. Hopefully all without incident this time.

Aside from the Bumblebee crash yesterday, I guess it didn't hurt that on all the street closures warned that "there will be pyrotechnics" at tonight's shoot. The first thing that popped into my head was, "Sweet! Things are going to blow up!" I rallied my Facebook for some friends willing to be gawkers and we headed down to Constitution Avenue.

We weren't alone, about 500 people complete with families and doggies in tow were watching behind the yellow tape. Some yellow shirt guys kept telling everyone, "No flash photography! No cheering!" Everyone nodded an okay. Within minutes of arriving we heard, "Quiet!" then from a distance, "We're rolling. " Just then I saw the most amazing 2 minutes of stuff blowing up and fake guns ablazin' - check it out for yourself:

Man, that was so awesome. Even though I was moving around to see what was happening. DC police cars (ironically) were all crashed up and on fire in the middle of Constitution Avenue. Lots of SWAT team guys were firing guns all over the place. At the tip of the guns it looked like they had little explosions that went off everytime they shot the gun. And the ringer (pun intended) it was crazy loud! Like super loud! By far was totally worth coming out to see what Michael Bay was up to in DC.

Speaking of Michael Bay, just moments before they rolled an unexpected visitor saundered up to the fan area. He was a really tall guy with a baseball hat. Looks like he would be into microbrews and the Grateful Dead.

Right when he walked up to the fans, everyone around me hushed. People were buzzing and asking,"Is that Michael Bay?" Sure enough. The Transformers director, producer and firer of Megan Fox came out to hang with the fans. Man, I was impressed. Not only did he come out, but he hung out. He walked the entire perimeter of the ropeline where all the fans were standing before the SWAT Team Shootout (see above).

For this blogger who constantly talks about fan engagement, tonight was somewhat a bonus. I saw a big shot movie director, producer actually take time to talk to his fans. I don't think anyone expected that.

People all around were giving Michael shout outs and of course were asking, "Hey Michael, what about Bumblebee??" I was in luck by having my phone already switched to video and recorded his, perhaps first, comment on the carnage of poor ole Bumblee:

Pretty funny answer. You know he is a rockstar of the film world. But you have to respect a guy who makes it a point to go up to talk to his fans. Ten snaps for Michael Bay.

Tonight was not only fun, but perhaps I will think more about who is directing the film and wonder if they engage their fans or not. For that matter, maybe I'll start writing about that too.

So what was tonights big result? Well, Michael Bay, I'll buy a ticket to see your movie. I might just get an Optimus Prime for my nephew for his birthday coming up. Not sure if you get cash for that or not.

But really, I am coming away with being impressed tonight. With Michael Bay - who knew he was a fan guy and with his "blow 'em up" movies. It was fun to watch.

Here's a quick shout out to Michael: We really appreciate you guys filming in DC. We definitely need more Hollywood up in here. This place can be a bit stuffy! Oh, and big hugs and thanks for hanging out with your fans. That was pretty stand up of you. We need more Hollywood filmmakers giving love to the fans. Its good karma all the way around.

And perhaps for what its worth: We're really, really sorry that DC wrecked your Bumblebee. DC has a new mayor. I'm sure he'll be happy to write you a check.

Don't forget to get a half smoke before you jet outta town. Get it loaded!

See you on the big screen!

Kinch (USA) Plays DC, Talks Future of Music and the Demise of Kinch (UK)

2010-09-26T07:57:00.000-04:00

Yes, perhaps it was my birthday. Nothing ever good begins with that line.

I really did (in earnest) plan to head upstairs at the Red and the Black to see the Kinch show, but admittedly by the time I wanted to, the show was over. Lucky for me, Kinch was nice enough to chat outside for a bit about DC, future of music and the demise of Kinch UK (which is good for Kinch USA).

Note: I don't think he means steal, perhaps he means "listen to."

A little tip to the guys - your band page on Facebook should be open.

Find Kinch on their website at www.kinchband.com, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace

Their album, "Collars and Sleeves" out now and is a free download on Topspin. Check it out.

Looking for Birthday Entertainment, I Found Arizona

2010-09-21T19:32:00.001-04:00

If you live somewhere long enough, you find yourself perhaps staying in more than you should. It's only a matter of time. I'm 38. I stay in a lot, tho I do travel a lot too. Lately i've been avoiding the question, "What are you going to do for your birthday?" Pretty much because I didn't know what I was doing. Lately I tend to not make personal plans to far ahead.

Of course its Sept 21. My birthday is on the 25th. Lucky for me the internet is a procrastinator's dream. Quick information, make a decision. A quick Pollstar search, led me to an unexpected place, Arizona. Well, I mean, I found Kinch who is from Arizona and will be playing at the Red and the Black on H Street here in Washington DC on Saturday night. AM: CrisisCamp at the World Bank PM: Red and the Black. Birthday plan complete. Whew.

Not only did I find Kinch, I found more Arizona bands like Dear in the Headlights. I love how You Tube can be like those 80's "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. I think I read all of them. So in 2010, instead of a book, it's you and your mouse clicking through the video jungle. A clip here, a clip there. Sometimes you come up empty handed, but there are times where you come out with a jem of a find like Dear in the Headlights. I opened a new window, clicked on Rdio and found both Kinch songs and Dear albums there. I'm liking this all I can hear for $10 bucks a month on Rdio. I just made a new playlist of what I am listening to this week with both Kinch and Dear. Check it out here on Rdio.

As a sidenote, I'm not sure why the lead singer of Kinch reminds me of Roland Orzabal from Tears from Fears, but in any case, Saturday will be a fun show to check out while all the hipsters are running all over the Virgin Music Festival. Okay, yeah the Virgin Mobile Music fest will be a great show too. I'm a fan of Matt & Kim and Thievery Corp.

Double sidenote: It's too bad for Kinch in the USA there is a equally fun Kinch who are in UK. Check out their Madness inspired, "Old Fashioned Love." Cute. Not to be confused with Kinch (USA) singing about London Town.

Glad to have birthday plans. Glad to discover Arizona.

Here's to 38. [Insert noise maker]

Dear in the Headlights (My New Fav.)

Kinch in the USA singing about London Town

Kinch in the UK (Just how old are these guys?)

Bob Schneider Sings About Salad, Burgers and Penelope Cruz

2010-09-20T01:38:00.000-04:00

From Bob Schneider - State Theater - 9/19/10

My birthday week has started. The first birthday present came tonight from @DonaldinDC to go to check out one of my favs, Bob Schneider at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia. You know its one of those "sitting down" shows. I'n not so much into these dinner style/food venues. Seems to me it zaps the energy in the room. It's got to be a drag to play infront of an audience that is eating and sitting down. Despite the environmental challenges, tonight's audience tried to be as fun as possible - sitting down, that is.

Of course tonight Bob was "Bob" at this show. Great full band, looks like most of the folks from Lonelyland (Saxon Pub band) were on tour with him. He broke out into song about veggie burgers, cheeseburgers, hamburgers and caesar salad. Seemed like a Blues Traveler "Hook" song to prove a point it is the music not the lyrics. Amusing. He also shared that he was a little sad that Penelope Cruz is married (and pregnant).

Perhaps was the best was the final song of the night, 2002. I've heard him play this a million times, but this was a clever arrangement, Bob was auto tunes. I dug it. Right after the show, it was great to see he was still selling CDs. As I was walking out Bob was chatting with fans in the lobby. He's a classy guy. Probably about 100 facebook worthy pictures went out the door.

Most of the show was from his new album Lovely Creatures which has the delicious 40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet). This seems like a song that should be part of some movie. Perhaps is not coincidence that the second video to this song featuring actress of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist fame Kat Dennings. Maybe that was it.

It's great to see Bob in my town. I seem to catch him a few times a year. When I visit Austin I try to be in town on Monday nights to catch him at the Saxon Pub where he is perhaps at his best - hilarious, sensitive and perhaps more comfortable.

Bob is what is great about music. He isn't a genre. He raps, he is a songwriter, he is an artist, he rocks it out, he creates swoon moments and he is hilarious. A renaissance man. A comedian. Hope he keeps doing his thing.

If you get a chance check him out on tour or go buy his albums. You can follow him on Twitter @bob_schneider or be his friend on Facebook. What you should really do is see Bob at the Saxon Pub in Austin on Monday nights.

He's a keeper. Go Austin.

On the funnier side

Hey, You, Get Onto My Cloud: Music Goes Cloud and All I Hear Is Data A-Ch-Ching-Ching

2010-09-17T13:01:00.000-04:00

It's not surprise to see Google circulating with the music labels with a deal to stream music AND host music storage. That's pretty much a duh factor, but what will be interesting will be how much they invest to make the consumer experience as brainless as possible and of course, what exactly will Google be doing with the data it has on my music tastes and search experience.

Google Music has far larger implications than the Ticketmaster/LiveNation deal (re: privacy, use of data) because, Google is a analytics and search company. They are pretty smart cookies. They can serve up exactly what someone is looking for, including music. Google can measure consumer music discovery for labels/artists, sell opportunities/placement well beyond Pandora or Apple. Perhaps we might ask the question, what's the real win here? The answer would be, again, uh, duh - Data.

The Real Race - The Sprint To Monetize Music Data

The lucrative derivatives of entering this market in the space Google owns is pretty awesome. Too bad the labels are fixated on 50/50 splits. Perhaps some food for thought:

Consumer Spending Data, Especially Mobile

Google would have the largest data set on consumer entertainment spending, listening habits and behavior (past, present and analytics for future). The implications for this is endless.

Imagine, you got a free Android phone and access to the internet (you have to pay for voice, but who needs that?). Your phone and home computer has all the music in the world at your fingertips, all someone is asking you to do is let them measure what you are doing. Free phone, free music? Delirium will ensue. The sweet spot of consumer spending when it comes to music, the 18-35 age bracket won't blink twice at a deal like that. Layer on better engagement with artists, exclusives and fan communities. Data will be flowing like a geyser. All of that data is valuable. I imagine what we will pay for in the future will be privacy, a phone without ads. It's not right. I love EFF. But just saying. People are all about free. Many give up information that perhaps they shouldn't just get things for free, right or wrong.

Recommendation Engine vs. Music Content DNA Analytics vs. Friends

Part of the race will also depend on how music is served up, recommended or shared. There are three ways where this would be of serious impact to the consumer.

First way is say the Pandora way, based on a recommendation engine which ranks and rates user experience with music. If you have ever been on Pandora, its great for listening to at work but you know when you are listening to the Pixies then Journey comes on and you wonder what the hell is up with that? That is the challenge of popularity systems like the recommendation engine. Its really good up to a point. Then you scratch your head.

Second approach actually takes recommendation engines to the next level by creating recommendations not through the Wisdom of the Crowds but rather through analyzing the composition of the song, the beats, rhythm, tempo. This is being done by computer guys who love music at the University of Barcelona with the idea that recommendation engines get stale because ranking and recommendations are based on popularity not by the composition of the music itself. This approach would be a big win for those seeking to license music where they can easily search and find music available to fit say a commercial or a scene in a movie. Or even provide an artist with potential collaborators. This also could be massive if all the music in the world is indexed and searchable. Then the question is availability.

Someone once said we only know/use 10% of the music out there. It's because we as mere humans we don't have the capacity to search and match without assistance. Computation does not replace good management, it would give management more opportunity and information to make better decisions. All data gives is the ability to make better decisions and take risks with more assurances. That is why it is completely insane that music management complain about the internet. Perhaps management tools just aren't there yet because, in a way, artist management haven't come together to better understand the landscape and place investments in innovations for tools to help themselves. That's why they come off a little whiny. Perhaps in the evolution of music that is what labels should be, they should act more like venture capital based on potential, data and metrics. But that is whole other blog.

The lastly, the one everyone is waiting for, is the recommendation by friend. This happens today in a variety of ways but truly has not gained critical mass, especially with Facebook. When insane sharing of music that can be measured (how its shared, when its shared, why its shared, what purchasing behavior does this drive) between people is encouraged that perhaps may be the biggest win. Potentially what consumers would pay for is privacy of sharing, because free would mean some kind of measurement for advertising/promotion. Instead of albums, artists would want their data and their ability to monetize around their own content but if technology continues to work to fracture artist communities, it will be increasingly harder for artists to maintain a community because in effect, they are drowning in channels. Again, the future of music is about monetizing the artist's data and their community.

There are very few companies who can really do the analytics and the computation behind this on a massive scale. Google has the chance to offer the industry the most comprehensive analytics on the net and drive behavior through ads, but not necessarily social interaction (well, not yet). With Google as the dominant video provider on the net, it can make a big play to connect the dots of consumer spending from exploration, remix (You Tube), sharing and spending. Opportunities about for cross promotion across the spectrum.

Privacy and Security

When you talk data you talk privacy. This has a lot of privacy implications as all data has however, it needs to be done right from the start. For artists, this might be a new area. Just like you would provide security at an event, what is an artist's responsibility to make sure its data, and the vendors they work with, are taking privacy considerations and online safety into account. Even the largest bands in with resources really have little understanding of this.

Easy Like Sunday Morning (Love me some Commodores)

One of the most important factors of the potential for music to go cloud is that it has to be easy and solve a consumer challenge. Cloud makes sense for some of us, perhaps not all. Many people have more than one computer (generations going back 10 years), external hard drives, iPods, and other contraptions that hold media. In essence it has become very necessary to have a place, a safe place, somewhere on the internet to post what is valuable, including music.

You cannot discount the level of digital literacy of consumers and their ability to connect with the internet, er, "the cloud." National Association of Recording Merchandisers perhaps is the only association that has invested in consumer insights on how people are challenged with technology and that limits their ability to ultimately buy things. In their "CyberCensus" there was a participant who stated that they found that they had better things to do with their money than trying to figure out the technology behind it. This is critical for industry, both music and technology. Because if the people you are selling or wanting their data don't know how to use systems or don't trust them because of privacy/security, the ability to monetize begins to fall exponentially.

Should We Stay or Go Cloud?

So, yeah, its great that Google Music is on its way but before everyone gets all crazy about it, there is a long road ahead of everyone connected to music. I hope we don't forget the two key ingredients to all of this - the important connection between the artist and his community. Those are the true "people" behind the music.

Deadmau5 Kills It via UStream: The Future of Live Music

2010-09-15T01:27:00.000-04:00

Seriously, I should be asleep.

So, I got up to check my email just one more time tonight and I saw a UStream update fly by talking about a live show, so of course I checked it out. Now I seriously can't go to sleep. Deadmau5 set up his laptop to stream his DJ set in NYC. It's incredible.

In thinking about the future of music, I can't help but think of the exponential factor that live stream shows have. They are immediate. People gather within the music tribe. They are great for folks who are just looking around. They are great for artists to pull new fans into their community. As I sit here Deadmau5 has gone from 5,000 viewers to 6500 in 15 minutes. How many people are in that club?

I am telling you. Live streaming shows will be where artists can build their community. Where fans can interact with each other and provide opportunity for monetization.

There are some seriously happy fans. You know not everyone can be in New York City, but they can connect online. They can tell their friends about it. They can tune in at 1:42AM and enjoy beats all from your hacienda.

Just wait until instead of a social stream, you have a map where all the people are coming from, what they are saying. Now that would be seriously cool.

Regardless to the underutilization of this tool by industry, this indeed is the future of LIVE music. Being there in person and being there with your peeps online.

And as for Deadmau5 - to say he rocked it is an understatement. Just super sick. Sick to the 1000th degree.

I'm glad I couldn't sleep. This made my night. Thanks Deadmau5 :)

PS - Oh, in the time it took to write this blog, now there are 7544 people watching at 2AM.

I'm definitely going to go one of his shows in NYC now.

Killer.

PPS - 2:04AM - 8,000 viewers.

The Unlikely Participant: My Story and a Call to Service

2010-09-10T09:48:00.000-04:00

When people first find that I worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, they are, in many cases, "surprised" seems to be the right word to describe their reaction. Sometimes I did get that look like the picture of Pee Wee Herman above. Almost like the sounds of "Ewww" wanted to come out of their facial expression. Even a CEO of a tech company had an interesting reaction. When I was introduced to him he said literally, "Homeland Security?" (then paused a few seconds) then he said just one word to complete our engagement, "Scary."

More often, the follow up statement was usually along the lines of a very friendly, "I'm glad they have someone like you there." I always took this as a complement. In either case, many times people struck up conversations but they usually asked "What was it like?" Sometimes I was pretty honest. Sometimes they were surprised by my answers. Most often times this reaction was as a result of my interest in open systems, the role of collaboration, corporate social responsibility and perhaps a more common sense attitude towards public policy development and community outreach.

After some backwards complements and quite a few snarky comments of how could I work for this largely unpopular bureaucracy, the next question was, "How did you end up working at Homeland Security?" Well the short answer to that is perhaps something along the lines of just being someone who had a skill and someplace that needed help.

In my new adventures to increase the engagement of volunteer technology communities in crisis response and global development through CrisisCamp and CrisisCommons there have been quite a few people who scratch their heads that DHS is on my resume. Sometimes, not all the time, but there are times that we as people will naturally rush to judge a person. It's an effort to simplify who they are and what they believe. "Oh, you worked at Homeland Security then you must believe X and Y." or the silent disapproval that, "you aren't like us." There have been many hurtful examples of how people have judged me and the years I spent at Homeland Security. In some respects, you can't care about people who aren't very nice to you. For the people who know me personally, know I worked for the first half of my career in environmental protection and corporate social responsibility. They also know I am really into the connection between technology, music and fans. Its a mixed bag. If you want to go way back, I began my college career as a Mass Communications major but they only taught theory. I had a great teacher in the political science department who talked a lot about organizational change and people, I did well in those classes. They much more interesting that communications at the time. So I switched. I was not unlike many in Washington DC that was bounding along perhaps a typical path: if you aren't in government, you are consulting for it or creating laws to manage it.

Everyone has a story of how they get from one place to another. I'm no different.

Citizen in Crisis

Tomorrow marks the ninth anniversary of September 11th. On that day in 2001, I was 28 years old just a few weeks shy from my 29th birthday. I was working as the Communications Director for Marasco Newton Group a small consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia. I loved my job. It was a great place to work. That morning was a normal morning for me, I was late. While I was getting ready my then boyfriend (who was already at work) called me on my cell phone and told me to turn on the television.

I turned on the Today Show, I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but my mind turned to my family. My brother and his wife live in New York City. Like a lot of people in New York City, his business was connected to the financial district. He often had business at the World Trade Center. Then I remembered that my stepfather's sister works in the Trade Center for the Port Authority. My mind was racing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Just as soon as I told my boyfriend I had to go, the second plane hit the South Tower before my very eyes on live television. I burst into tears. Right then I hung up, hopped in my car and rushed to work. I was calling New York from my cell phone all I got was a busy signal. I started calling my parents in Florida but no answer on their cell phones.

I raced down Washington Blvd (Rte 29) in Arlington, Virginia which is less than a mile from the Pentagon. As I got out of the car, our normal fun loving Vice President seemed visibly shaken. He was in shock. He said to me, "Did you see that? The plane?" He had just saw the impact to the Pentagon. We both rushed into the building. At work I had faster email than at home, maybe my brother would answer his email.

I fired off email messages asking if he and his wife were okay. I kept calling my mom, but she had her phone off and worked at JC Penneys. I knew her office was in the backroom without internet or television and I wouldn't be able to get through until the switchboard operator at the store got into work. My stepfather is a teacher at a Florida elementary school and he was in the classroom. His cell phone was off too.

I walked into our office gym downstairs and the televisions were on CNN. Just then the first tower collapsed. My friend Beth and I were terrified. She was from New York. The whole room, like the rest of the world, was in utter shock.

I went back to my desk to see if there were any email messages. None. I had the JC Penney store on speed dial now and finally an operator answered. I was finally connected to my Mom. I told her what was happening. She didn't know because she had been in the back room. She left work and got in touch with my stepfather. I told her I hadn't been able to get in touch with my brother and his wife but that I would keep trying. All of the New York numbers I tried were busy. I kept sending my brother emails. Little did I know that would be the last time I would be able to speak to my Mom until 10 hours later.

By this time we started to hearing rumors that the roads were closed into and out of Washington DC. I-495 South is major highway and it was closed. People who were in DC and lived south could not leave. Basically unless you walked to work or lived close by you were stuck. Days later we all heard tales of people who just got up from their desk and just walked home. Like 10 miles.

In the office that morning, our management began accounting for the whereabouts of all of our employees. Everyone that lived around the office opened their homes to people who were stranded because of the road closures. Everyone that day took care of each other, of their colleagues, even strangers. Looking back, as the Communications Director, I didn't do a great job that day. Actually, I really failed at it. I was so overwhelmed with the "not knowing" if my family was okay. It was the first time I questioned living near a city. Especially living somewhere without any immediate family close. I was frightened. On that day I didn't know what to do. All I knew is that I wanted to go home. I wanted to watch television and wait for an email or a call from my family. I prayed. I was at a loss of what I could do. I felt helpless.

The drive from work back to my house took 3 hours that morning. I could see the smoke billowing above the Pentagon. The smell of the Pentagon burning was surreal. You could smell the jet fuel. I had NPR going in the car. I was glad I had a full tank of gas and my cell phone charger. By then I couldn't receive calls or to call out. I was literally disconnected by phone. When I got home I fired up my HP tower and kept checking my email. It was the only communication network that worked for me that day.

By 1pm that afternoon my brother emailed that he and his wife were shaken, but okay. He was blocks from the Trade Center in a meeting that morning. His wife saw what happened from the street. I still hadn't heard any news from my parents in Florida about my stepfather's sister. I was relieved to hear that they were okay but was anxious for my stepfather. It was horrible to just sit and watch TV. I could smell the Pentagon from my apartment. It was awful.

Hours later I learned that my stepfather's sister was okay. She had to walk miles to get to transportation to get her home. Since that day I, like we all, have heard so many heartbreaking stories. For me, it was the saddest and scariest day of my life. I'll always remember being disconnected from what matters most. My people. Little did I know, that several years later I would be helping people who were just like me be better prepared. To be better connected to their friends and families. Sometimes you just don't know what your life will have in store for you.

The Unlikely Participant

In 2003 the company I worked for was sold to a defense contractor and in the shuffle, I moved from corporate communications to project work. My first client was the U.S. Department of Commerce's Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office. They were one of the 22 federal agencies that were pulled together to form the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Ironically I began work with that agency within the first few weeks of the formation of the Department on March 1, 2003. It was an interesting time and place. It was in some respects a "start-up" but really it was the largest change in US Government in 40 years.

I began as a contractor then joined as a Federal employee a year later. I worked for all kinds of offices, but primarily spent most of my time in the Secretary's Office of Public Affairs and the Office of Policy. Those adventures could be a book into themselves filled with wonderful moments like when I was Deputy Director of the Ready Campaign and visited an elementary school in Oklahoma City where the children composed and sang for us, "Get Prepared!" the first ever National Preparedness Month Song. I was a complete puddle. That day reminded me of when I was a kid and told the FBI I wanted to be MacGuyver or that McGruff guy.

There were so many good people I met that wanted the world to be a safe place both at home and online. But unfortunately, the book would also be filled with heartbreak of failures of imagination, initiative and collaboration - the true perils of bureaucracy. Anyone that has worked in government or any large organization has felt this pain. The most disappointing is when things are the way they are because they had always been that way. Sometimes you just went home and wondered what kind of difference you, personally, can make on an organization.

Making a Difference, In Your Own Way

I ended up at DHS working on interesting problems, trying to show their leadership that there were new ways of thinking about challenges and to allow for a more open approach to problem solving. I took my experience on 9/11 and constantly wanted to fix fundamental challenges. How will people find the right information during a crisis? How will organizations be prepared to handle the unexpected? How can cybersecurity be transformed into something that real people understand, like my mom or a small business owner? How can large institutions influence behavior of its employees by leading their company, even their industry, to be better prepared. But overall, how can we center our efforts around people. How people react to crisis, why they behave in certain ways, the tools they use and to actually take the lessons learned from the millions of dollars spent on after action reports, and put those lessons to use.

Learning Through Experience

Often I have lunch with people that I meet through my work with CrisisCamp and CrisisCommons. Again, many are surprised that I used to work for Homeland Security. Some want career advice. We often get on a topic of how something sucks, and often it has to do with government or a large bureaucracy who is failing to be agile, transparent, innovative and collaborative.

What I learned from working at Homeland Security is that bureaucracies of all kinds are just that. They are large amounts of people working together (some forced to), trying to get to a goal (with variations of opinion of just what that goal really is), trying to get along with each other and very often become a competitor for scarce resources such as funding, original ideas and authority.

The only way real changes happens is if you sacrifice yourself to be part of it. This often is not the answer a lot of people really like to hear. (Note: Even me now, I do my fair share of critique of the music industry. I should take my own advice.) But actually working within, or fairly close the organization you want to change is perhaps the most effective. You learn your subject inside and out. You can see the low hanging fruit as well as the substantial mountains that a coalition of people like you would need to tackle. The most successful people who can be an external driver of change are the people who have been inside the beast and can contribute more insights that someone to might have just studied it or read about it in the newspaper. I'm a big believer in doing.

The hardest part about really being a true voice of change is that many times you arent swimming with the school of fish, you are perhaps on the outside saying, "Why not?" This can make any person in an organization unpopular. Change is new, what is new is not proven. People don't like things that aren't proven. It really is one of the hardest things to do if you are lone voice. Sometimes it can get kinda lonely, especially when you are taking arrows from all directions, even from your own people. It takes guts to not be part of the crowd and to stand for something. We need more of these people who will raise their hand. Who will question the status quo? Who will wonder how would this apply to my family?

My Call to Service: We Need More Unlikely Participants

Tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of 9/11 and is lesser know as a day of national service in the United States. (And just a reminder, it's National Preparedness Month) It's the ninth anniversary of me being a citizen who, like millions around the world, were worried about their families and people who were in crisis. That day will always be shocking but in the days after I never saw people come together more to help other people. It didn't matter what country you came from, what religion you were or what job you had, all that mattered centered around the wellbeing of people.

At the end of the day, what matters most is people. Not technologies, not ideology, not policy or opinion.Whatever your line of work, people are priority. Your employees, your students, your neighbors. Maybe if we gave more people information and if people felt that they were empowered to serve and contribute perhaps in the end the change we seek can come from people like me, the unlikely participants. Perhaps that is what we need the most today. More unlikely participants to share common sense approaches or define challenges based on real world experiences. You know when someone raises their hand and says, "I don't understand, why are we doing this?" Often they represent many who are within the conversation who wanted to ask the same question. It's true, there are no dumb questions.

Looking back I was by far an unlikely participant at Homeland Security. I didn't come in as an expert in preparedness or security, I was really a communications and community engagement person. For me, my time at DHS was like getting another degree. I learned about the good and bad in bureaucracy. I learned that my common sense approach was appreciated and valued. I had bosses who fought the good fight and some that were well, "meh." Being political science major I was fascinated at the inner workings behind the curtain. The experience actually changed my mind about a few things. I formed new opinions as well - this time they were more informed. The heart of my experience focused on what I thought was the most important job Homeland Security could ever do was to help people and communities be better prepared. I enjoyed this work because I remembered that in 2001 I wasn't prepared. It takes work to be prepared, its a continuous process. I worked hard share new innovations from what I saw was happening worked to provide opportunities for Homeland Security's leadership that there was a different way of thinking about some of the challenges of crisis response.

There are some days where I wish I could show people how hard change is in these organizations. It's doesn't happen overnight. It happens with small incremental wins, not a big bang. There are millions of good people working in organizations who you don't think are cool or that you think are politically unsavory. I want to let you know those organizations are filled with good people who are working hard to make things better. They slug it out everyday. They deal scarcity on a daily basis. Not enough people. Not enough money. Not enough time. Too many emails. Antiquated technology tools. They are underpaid. Rarely do they get recognized for a job well done. They do it because they want to make a difference. They serve the public good.

Look, I know you can go work anywhere these days, a cool new start-up or a consulting firm, but I share my story with you because perhaps you might want to think about where you are needed most. This might be a place where you are unlikely to have thought you would want to be. Or perhaps an agency that your friends would disown you for working for. Let me be here to tell you, it's not where you work does not define you, its how you work and what you do that matters.

To this day, I still get people who say, "I can't believe you worked at Homeland Security." I still take that as a complement. My story of service was that I wasn't planning on it, but looking back, I think there is some master plan up there that had this experience on a list for me so that I would know what its like on both sides of the fence. There is something to be said about walking in someone else's shoes.

I'm proud of my public service. I have some battle scars, and I kinda fancy them. I know I raised my hand and said, "This doesn't make sense," I was obnoxious when it came to focusing on people and providing tools from them to be prepared and communicate in disasters. I listened to a lot of people, I learned from some serious leaders from all sides of the political spectrum. Bureaucracies need people who think different. They need people who can create collaboration. They need people with big imagination. They people who have moxy and determination to move ahead. They need people to lead them into the future.

I hope tomorrow on our National Day of Service that you are reminded that service doesn't mean just volunteering, service can be a vocation. This can be a day that reminds us that people are the most important resource in a crisis, that we need more people to think differently, to challenge the old ways of thinking, to bring people together and to drive innovation. Sometimes this is someone, it could be you, to be that unlikely participant. It's not sexy. Its hard. People might judge you. Nobody will thank you for a job well done. You do it because you want to. You do it because you have something that you can contribute. If you got talent and the guts to brave the popularity contests, salary scales to make a real impact by putting action behind your passions, it might be the change we all need. Because sometimes it can be an unlikely participant that see through the fog and kick it to the next level.

The Divide Continues. Silliness of Apple's Ping

2010-09-01T20:52:00.000-04:00

Is there anybody out there (that has a clue about digital music)?
The Plain Old Silliness of Apple's iTunes Ping Social Music Discovery Attempt

Is it me or should Apple have created Ping around the time they created iMix? Does the layout scream Facebook status meets iLike? If you were reading the reports from major news outlets you would think that whoever is reporting perhaps really likes Apple and apparently isn't following digital music. I mean there wasn't really one story from the perspective of what is already out there, why this is different (because clearly its the same) and what customers actually want. Jeez. Really?

Silliness I say. Just plain old silliness. Oh great oracle Ping super duper, now I can see what everyone is buying. But there is a little problem there, I don't want have to buy something to discover music or just wait for my friends to buy music. My buying music rate is vastly slower than the rate that I want to find new music. I want to new things everyday, but I might only want to buy something every once in a while. I want to tag songs I hear all over the internets or even when I am walking in a store that I can Shazam the song and somebody reminds me to buy it. I want to hear the whole song. I want to share things with my friends that I don't own to see what they think. I might want to buy it, maybe not. I know You Tube advertisers hate it but I kinda like seeing people who do covers and silly stuff like that. Yeah, I bought the Bed Intruder song not just because it was funny but to help Antoine and his fam. Saw him on Facebook, he's super sweet. Now he's my ringtone and my friend on FB. But I guess that isn't technically music - but I bought it on iTunes. I like knowing what's going on with the artist. I really like when an artist reminds me they are in my town. I love streaming concerts and chatting with fans about how awesome they band is. I love when there are secret shows and exclusives. Even when I travel, I'd like to see who's playing in town. I mean I saw James Taylor at the O2 just because.

Just a little tip for yah, the term "Discovery" is a music industry term not in the language of the every day person. Seems you are paying more attention to the industry than the consumers of music you are trying to sell to - oh, but yes, that isn't your main goal because you don't make money on music, your game is hardware. Humph. Well, then if that is the case, how much are you willing to dive into this to make this really happen?

Taking a different perspective, digital music is great for artists but if it doesn't promote the growth, connectivity and exchange to bring the artist closer to the fan, then how is this useful if it only is yet another channel which distribute, but the key to the future is the ability to develop and monetize fan communities. Fans promote the music by sharing it with their friends. They are the new virtual street teams and can remix their own content and take a song that never did anything strait to millions of downloads. The further a fan is disconnected by the technology itself from the artist's fan community the more fractured and the harder it is for the artist to engage their base. More channels of distribution is awesome, but there has got to be some thought that all of the fan interaction needs to lead the fan to reach the artist on a long-term basis not in a passive role. I mean if I was an artist, these distribution channels are really helping to have your music in more places but you can't reach the people that are into your music in a meaningful way long-term. This will continue to be a serious challenge until artists figure out how to drive community of anyone who has stumbled up or "discovered" their music.

Here is the duh factor - why music discovery is #1 on You Tube. Er because it is free. It's the whole song. It can be shared, embedded and emailed. You can get to from whatever device you have - especially your browser. People don't want to pay to test drive music. They don't mind giving you 10 bucks a month to access music or more to store music they already have. People are going to be mad when they pay all this money for songs and the world goes cloud. I will tell you one thing from the consumer side, I don't have places to store all this crap and like the 2009 CyberCensus people don't have time to figure it all out. I have it all my computers and its annoying.

Let's just create an argument for argument's sake - the best thing for me is to have all of my data in the cloud, I can find and search for it easy, but Apple makes hardware. Hum. Will Apple work in the best interest of the consumer? Because there is a finite amount of music people will download due to space constraints. The more I want to have movies that are big files the more I have to think about storage. I don't want to have to do that. You know what people do? They delete what they bought or it goes on an external hard drive and just sits there. Or in some cases people just buy a new computer. Storage space will begin to be a big deal, where to put all this stuff. People using music from the cloud seems like a better stewardship of data storage because its shared rather than clunking up drives, computers everywhere. That just isn't fun and it stops the consumer from buying music.

Keeping up with digital media has disconnected whole markets. People are just like enough and now they spend their time and effort on something else. Really, when was the last time you went into someone's house and saw their state of digitalness? I literally have a HP Tower from 1999 that has a bunch of songs on it. I keep it with the thought that one day, ONE DAY, I can take all my computers to a magical place where they get organized and I can actually use everything I have bought or were given.

Before all the Apple love goes a little crazy, perhaps we can think about where the consumer is and how is Ping going to help them do the things they like to do. Great to see what other people buy, but really, come on now, it that all you got?

My Teachers, Myself

2010-08-31T23:05:00.000-04:00

I’ve always been interested in how people do things and why they do them. I think from an early age I’ve been interested in how this happens. Why people choose one way over another. How people inspire and create. It’s pretty amazing what people can do to inspire others.

I think perhaps one of my first inspirations was a teacher named Ms. Carroll. She was my 5th grade (maybe it was 4th) teacher Berkley Glen Elementary School in Waynesboro, Virginia a small town tucked in the middle of the Shenandoah mountains. I remember Ms. Carroll well. She had the cool classroom. The desks weren’t in rows rather she shaped the room in a U so we all could engage - kinda like the UN. She encouraged speaking up and gave us interesting projects. I don’t remember the first album that I ever bought but I remember my geography project to make the continent of Australia out of paper mache. She also introduced us to new things. Once we had an assignment to write about an animal. I drew out of a hat the assignment to write about a rodent - the American Prairie Dog. I went to the library (my favorite place besides the YMCA) and dove into the project. To my surprise, I found out that Prairie Dogs get a bad rap and have come to adore them. She allowed me the space to discover for myself and form my own opinion. I think the reason why I loved Ms. Carroll so much was that she created the environment that I wanted to be a part of, she led the class and gave us projects which inspired me to participate and go the extra mile. It wasn't just class, I wanted to be there and participate. I hope that whenever I have kids they have teachers like Ms. Carroll.

Later on when I was in college, I had another teacher, Dr. Shareef who inspired me with a similar open approach. He didn’t take class attendance, he didn’t really assign homework we had to turn in, we were graded on two things: 1) our class participation and 2) your ability to create a well constructed debate. I practically minored in what I called, “Shareef.” I took all of his classes. Somehow in these classes the concept of leadership and organizations always came up. I was fascinated with how organizations worked, why some worked, why some didn’t. It always seemed to boil down to the people in the organization and how well they worked together. The most successful companies are organizations where perhaps not everyone agreed but there was an overarching dedication to the mission. A love for one another. The word family came up often.

When I graduated from college, I was extremely lucky to experience this first hand. I was offered a job by a small consulting firmed named Marasco Newton Group. When I was hired there were only 70 employees but had to almost double overnight because they won a big contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There was about 10 of us in that first wave of hires. I would bet we were all about 25 years old or under. I immediately fell in love with the company. It was set in a an open space, people talked to each other. There was a pool table and beer in the fridge. You might find a team playing video games in the conference room. They were flexible in how you worked, the point was to do a good job. There were awesome perks like the office closing at noon on Fridays. Every single friday. They allowed you to actually take the vacation time you earned. I went backpacking in Europe for the very first time in the summer of 2001 for a month. How many companies let you do that in DC? There was a big party each month we called corporate gatherings where the events were created by the employees and it celebrated the company’s values like diversity and community service or encouraged employees to be healthier and better prepared for emergencies. It was an employee-owned company. I loved it.

I was hired at the tail end of the “Total Quality Management (TQM)” movement that seemed to be a buzz word in businesses of the mid-90s. Ironically, TQM was coined by Edwards Deming. Deming was a statistion, but perhaps more known for his management philosophy. I was familiar with Deming because during college, Dr. Shareef would frequently point to Deming his in lectures. In the Deming System of Profound Knowledge he talks about the transformation of business begins with the transformation of the individual. Where in essence if people transform within themselves to do such things as (1) be an example, (2) be a good listener (but not compromise), (3) continually teach other people and (4) help other people themselves transform (without the guilt) then the system itself, meaning the production you seek, will improve.

Looking back now, I see pieces of Deming and pieces of Yochai Benkler who spoke of distributive peer production and the innovation outside of the market systems. Seems like there was a bit of both going on at Marasco Newton Group. I remember wanting to do good work because I wanted to represent the best of what I could do. I wanted to pitch in to help organize community events, I wanted to learn new skills and show how I could apply them to our mission. I wanted to contribute. We all worked together. Some of the most cherished friendships I have formed in my life came from working at that company. We became a tight nit group because we were innovating and contributing to the culture we loved. Everyone had a role to play. Nobody was above any task. Employees led Continuous Improvement Teams (really the Japanese "Kaizen" approach) they also thought of more ways to recognize good works and if there was a challenge, employees would recognize it and work together to develop a solution. The culture of the company held service of ourselves within our own internal community on par with work performance. To be honest, it was easy to be enthusiastic because you were contributing to the culture you, yourself wanted to be part of. We often spoke of Marasco Newton Group as a family.

Amy Marasco was the president of the company. Without a doubt, Amy was my first professional role model. She was so smart and was always full of great ideas. But the best thing about Amy is that she let us run with the ideas. She empowered everyone around her. She led the company by not being a leader, but by being personable, open and accessible to everyone in the company. She made it a point to spent time with people. She wanted to listen. Sometimes she could help, but sometimes she could only listen. She inspired many of us to strive for the stars.

Amy placed a lot of emphasis on recognition and the importance of our service to with the company and to our customers. Her famous line was, "We want to make our customers giddy!" And she meant it. But she knew in order for that to happen, she had to begin by nuturing her own community. She knew it was tough sometimes to do some of the work we were doing on a technical sense. But often, it wasn't the work that was tough but the way we had to do the work which might have been outside of anyone's control. She knew if people were recognized for the good things they did - especially when they went above and beyond - that we would be a high performing company. She was right. We were profitable and grew our impact in the community year after year.

Thinking back, "Spot Awards" perhaps was the most fun and immediate way she empowered recognition. Say you were working really late to do something for a client who asked for the impossible, but you made it happen. All of the project managers had a set of money they could just give you a $100 right on the spot. It wasn't an everyday thing, but when that happened, you felt great! It was a nice surprise. Was a great watercooler story too - better than, "Ugh I had to work late yesterday." Every week people were recognized in front of the whole company for doing great things. There wasn't a week that went by that I didn't want to be mentioned. It's nice hear. But the best perhaps was at the corporate gatherings, Amy and her husband Dave would give away a week of vacation. This was the most popular prize. It created cheers from everyone and we all envied who won the free week off. It was not recognition award but rather a participation bonus. But as Amy and Dave would say, "You have to be here to win." I rarely missed a corporate gathering.

Everything aside, it was the values which attracted people to the company. We worked hard, we played hard. We were there for each other. We were empathic when people were going through tough times or medical issues. We were a family. Perhaps it was an easier road because we were environmentalists and believed in service and stewardship. So in a sense, service and conscious action were traits we all had. Not everyone at the company came from an environmental background, but we all could relate to being good to each other and giving back to our community. So in a sense we began from a place where we wanted to contribute not only to the bottom line but to make the world a better place.

When you look back on your life and say who made an impact. Amy Marasco profoundly affected my life. She showed me that an organization can care about its people and that leadership isn't about telling people what to do but rather being the person you need to be and being there, in a personal way. She showed me that a woman doesn't have to try to be someone else to be successful. She was authentic. She was girly. She wore bright colors and laughed a lot. She was emotional and her compass came strait from her heart.

Perhaps you might ask, did she do everything right? I'm sure she would tell you there were many challenges. But to me she was someone you respected not because she commanded it, because of the way she treated people, encouraged service to others and how she walked through her own life. She was a giver. She still is doing that to this day with the Newton Marasco Foundation who is dedicated to environmental education and service.

Perhaps it was that sense of community which led people to describe their feelings about the company as a family. We all believed in service as a root value. Service to others not only meant helping people outside of the company, but that community began from within the organization. In fact, it really began within yourself. That we would treat each other with respect and work together towards the common good. Like any family, we would have disagreements but at the end of the day it was the heart of our community which would always lead us back to what attracted us in the first place. A workplace where people were paramount, their ability to give of themselves to each other and to their own communities was of greatest importance.

On one of her last days in the office, Amy gave away her prized rhino collection. I remember being surprised to see a rhino on my desk. You have to know those rhinos meant a lot to her. Its a funny thing about rhinos, did you know they are acute listeners? As you can imagine, my heart was filled when I read the card, "Be strong, always protect what is most dear, and have the courage to enjoy everyday." I still have this card and the rhino. It sits within eye sight of my desk at home. I often think about Amy these days in my new adventures with CrisisCommons and CrisisCamp.

Perhaps one of the things I have learned from Amy and Deming is that I need to be a good listener. I can hear the people who know me giggle a little bit. For most people who know me, they know that I am a serious participator! That probably comes from being a better participator than a student in school. Its something that is learned, listening. My brother actually has this gift. It's what makes him a great lawyer and brother. He listens and provides feedback in a way where you hear it. Listening can come in many forms, it can be one on one, it can be giving people space and it can be just being there to be supportive. To be honest, it is one of the top three things I really want to do better because in a way its not on of my natural instincts like it is for my brother. I do try and hope to be better as time goes on. That is the work for me that needs to be done to be that better person. If we are using Deming, I love to share what I know and its been a personal project to be that better person. I think everyone in some respect always wants to be better. We can all do better. We can always be more positive, respectful and giving of our selves. We can always do better in empowering each other and building the communities we belong. If we start with ourselves, we can be that person of change and that only multiples with every interaction we have with people in our lives.

At the end of the day, the world is about people working together. But as we know, we aren't all perfect. We shouldn't expect that from each other because we will all make mistakes. What we should expect are the important things such as how we work together and how we treat each other. That is what makes a group of people a true community. It's not that we all think the same or even agree on things. Rather is it that we all have a deep sense of service to ourselves and respect for each other. That if we are working towards a common goal that we bring each other up. We listen. Perhaps that is what Gandhi was saying when he talked about being the change. He didn't say it was easy. He didn't say it was without conscious effort. In a sense it is about us showing up to do our part. Doing the work, being the person we need to be. It's not always easy, its an every day process. But, like I have seen with the people who have inspired me, it can be done. Community begins within ourselves. With that begins the greatest possibilities for a bright tomorrow.

Love is a Mixed Tape

2010-08-26T06:14:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed Rob Sheffield's (@robsheff) Love is a Mixed Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time. I was reminded about that book when I saw he was coming out with a new book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. Being in love with Simon LeBon since I was 10, I couldn't help but put that on my "to read" list. I bet girls will buy that book just for the name. I will. Genius.

I being like any other search obsessed, tangent driven person on the internet, you start searching for more. This is when I stumbled across Wikipedia's description of the mixtape:

"On a very basic level, the creation of a mixtape can be seen as an expression of the individual compiler's taste in music, often put forward for the implicit approval of the tape's recipient, and in many cases as a tentative step towards building the compiler's personal canon of pop music." - Wikipedia

To me a mixed tape is a special thing. You do spend time figuring out the song list, trying to be clever but perhaps getting a message across as well. In the past, distant past, when I was given a mixed tape it was a form of expression from a guy who liked me. During the early 90s I was given tapes filled with metal ballads. Yes, Great White's Afterglow is a favorite song of mind. Don't hate.

I was thinking what if I asked a guy, a potential date if you will, what kind of mixed tape he would put together for me (before meeting him). I love Craiglist and what better way to gauge the dating public than put out a post. Within about two hours I received the following replies.

Most interesting of this little experiment was that both listed Best Coast Boyfriend and had at least one Arcade Fire song. Some nice touches was Avalon by Roxy Music. Who doesn't like Bryan Ferry?

It was fun to get the lists. Some nice surprises were Trilogy by Rocky Road which made me hunt around a little to find a clip. You and I by Washed Out which as no surprise was a CMJ favorite in October 2009 where the NY Times cooed about Ernest Greene. I echo their sentiment. Good stuff.

In any case, here are the lists in their entirety.

Happy Listening!

Mix 1

Ready to Start - Arcade Fire

Help, I'm Alive - Metric

11th Dimension - Julian Casablancas

Boyfriend - Best Coast

Cosmic Love - Florence & the Machine

Let's Get Lost - Beck & Bat for Lashes

Love my Way - Psychedelic Furs

Lips Like Sugar - Echo & the Bunnymen

Crash Years - New Pornographers

Howlin' for You - Black Keys

Revenge - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse

Avalon - Roxy Music

Mix 2

Foals- Spanish Sahara

Arcade Fire- Rococo

Film School- Two Kinds

Sahara Hotnights- Alright Alright

The Sandwithches- Back to the Sea

Soulsavers- Revival

The Bitters- Travelin Girl

Zola Jesus- I cant stand

Interpol- Barricade

Washed Out- You and I

Tennis- Marathon

Japandroids- Younger Us

Caribou- Sun

Sonic Youth- Incinerate

Strokes- NY City Cops

Yeah Yeahs Yeahs- Maps

The Drones- Sharkfin Blues

Love of Diagrams- Pace or the Patience

Best Coast- Boyfriend

Dum Dum Girls- Jail La La

Trilogy- Rocky Road

Little Dragon- Feather

Casandra Wilson- Lover Come Back

Mix 3

'Young Folks" - Peter Bjorn and John
"Steady as she goes" - The Raconteurs
"Space Walk" - Lemon Jelly
"Heaven" - RJD2

'Electricity (Harvey’s Night Club version) - The Avalanches
"watermelon man" - Herbie Hancocks version
"hard knock life" - Jay Z
"boys in the hood" - dynamite hack version
"Today" - Smashing Pumpkins
"Heaven" - Rjd2
"love you madly" - cake
"lousy reputation" - we are scientists

Mix 4 (complete with "sides" nice touch.)

Side one

Everything I Do – Bryan Adams

All My Life - KC & JoJo

Can't Help Falling in Love – Elvis Presley

How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees

I'm in the mood for love - Rod Stewart

Light My Fire – The Doors

Side Two

Three Times a Lady – The Commodores

Endless Love - Lionel Ritchie & Diana Ross

Private Emotion - Ricky Martin

Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye

Thank You For Loving Me - Bon Jovi

Every Breath You Take - The Police

Sidenote: I began putting these in a @Rdio list to listen to later today. Rdio is newest all you can eat song streaming service. I'm thinking about subscribing, it's the closest thing that the US has to Spotify. The trouble with these services is that everything isn't on there. There are probably about 10 songs from these lists that can't be found on @Rdio. That is annoying. Of course I found all but 2 on You Tube. That's why people are all over You Tube for music, because some piece of it, whether its official or fan made, can be found on You Tube in the song's entirety, not just a clip like on iTunes or @Rdio. You can embed and share the link really easy. You can even respond to it. It's so silly that the music industry doesn't understand this. I know there is Vevo, but it's super annoying wait for a commercial before a song. I usually I'll just click off rather than wait. Probably not the behavior that the labels/advertisers were looking for.

But if I were to make a mixed tape, you can't burn a CD of the songs you put in a playlist on Rdio. I guess you can share online, but that doesn't count at a Valentine's Day present. The whole point of a mixed tape is to give it to someone else. I guess I might be old school in this regard. I want to listen to it in my car. I stream music in my car, but most people don't yet. I guess there are iPods, but then you have the same problem if you don't have the iPod Touch. Rdio being a website makes it hard to move music around in playlists. I like to drag and drop. I guess iTunes has taught me that. It's a 90% solution but if you pay every month, you expect a 100% solution, better than what you can find on You Tube. Don't get me wrong, I like @Rdio, I might even subscribe, but am still wishing for something that works all the way around.

Gremlins Multiply: An Open Letter to Paul McGuinness, Manager of U2 (My Favorite Band)

2010-08-22T02:02:00.001-04:00

Dear Paul,

It's really disappointing to read yet again another very long opinion in the August 2010 issue of GQ on how you feel that internet piracy is destroying the music industry. Isn't this argument pretty tired by now?

Our world is entering into a new age of collaboration and participation in the way that has never been known before. Old centralized and bureaucratic models are being challenged. It's really not about people stealing music (although that is a bad thing) rather its about a consumer who has changed their behavior and you just don't like it, or rather, you don't understand how to harness it.

Perhaps instead of continuing to wallow (BTW - it's really not all that sexy especially since U2 ticket prices have risen from 17.50 in 1987 to 100 bucks today) you might look a things a bit differently? Why not learn about the cool things about the interwebs and take advantage of your pre-established community? Learn about what's coming down the pike from tech companies and how U2 could lead innovation in the music industry? After all you are one of the richest bands in the world.

Just a few ideas for you:

1) Hang Out With Tech Peeps: Paul, if you need some help connecting with the technology sector, I'll be happy to help you out. I know people who would be happy to help you too. But you don't need me (well maybe you do) to create a Music + Technology Summit in Silicon Valley with the industry. If I can create roundtables about cybersecurity, you can certainly show up with Bono in tow at the Googleplex or Infinite Loop to hear from the people who are dreaming up the future. They already have the next five years in the pipeline, you might want to pay attention to them. Seriously, you have a pulpit of cool not complain.

There is not one door of a technology company who would not want to talk to you. Really. Who are you working with that give you pause to say to the Financial Times, "...what dismays me a little about the online universe is that these corporations, like Google and MySpace and Apple, don’t have anything that’s the equivalent of artist relations." Five bucks says within an hour if you asked, you can have meetings booked with the CEOs of those companies and ask for someone who will liaison to you. If they don't, I would do it for you in a heartbeat. We all want you to succeed. I might be a little biased. I am a super fan.

But just a quick question, you know Bono is a partner in Elevation Partners a private equity investment firm that includes a form VP from Apple? And just last fall he was chums with Eric Schmidt during the Vevo launch. So why do you feel disconnected? Just sayin'

2) Midem Isn't CES or TED (it ain't Davos either): When you talk to your own people in the music industry, well you get the same tired ideas (and too many partners to commiserate with). Perhaps Midem needs to blend with folks in the Valley? Maybe you need to have MidemTech? Really, it doesn't take much to bring people together. Get the top ten music managers that you know, have them come to Silicon Valley to see the new shiny tools and hear about cool things happening in tech. It can be that simple.

3) Glass Houses: I hate to point this out, but before you complain about losing money on record sales perhaps you should check out all of the missed business opportunities using technology to engage and yes, sell things to fans. Not to bust it out, but your deal with Live Nation is not a good deal at all they are fracturing your community instead of bringing it together. Simple things - U2 doesn't even have an @U2 twitter address. The Twitter address you do use for the tour has been stale for almost a year! The You Tube Live Show at the Rose Bowl was a multi-million dollar advertising opportunity that was totally missed and U2's social good engagement is very sad and completely not representative of the band's values or desires to encourage their fans to get involved. Basically someone just threw up boilerplate content. Not too compelling.

Let's run the numbers:

U2 360 Tour - 3.2 Millions People in 44 dates

U2 Live at the Rose Bowl - 10 Million People in 1 Night

You reached three times more people in one night via online stream than you did the entire tour. 10 Million people. Largest viewing audience of all time and you missed so many opportunities. You had dead air. No sponsorships. No public service information. No fan engagement and sadly if you saw U2 on that tour, the exact same set list. Perhaps instead of fighting Google, you might want to join them. 10 million people, that's a lot of ads. If you owned the site you streamed from like U2.com then you can sell you own ads if you wanted. 10 million people - lots of companies would want their products to be part of that experience, notwithstanding your own tour sponsor, Blackberry/RIM.

It goes without saying that U2's web presence should be one of your top priorities. Did you know if you sold tickets direct (not through Ticketmaster) you would make more money? Did you know if you sold digital copies of your shows (at the show) you could make 40% more money for each show? Did you know if you did a short code to have your fans interact with the band to crowdsource the encores you can make 10% more on your show at least? What if you had Video on Demand for you entire tour? What if you had the shows streamed? I would bet for whatever money you are loosing on record sales you could make up two fold using technology to further connect the U2 fan with the band. Seriously, with a band who has so many resources not only could you do this for U2, but you could do it for other bands that U2 wants to help.

4) The Power of Good: This is the part that just kills me. You have millions of people around the world who would do awesome works if you asked them or pointed them in the right direction. U2 has a community of millions. The future of music is YOUR ability to harness your community. If you won't use technology to harness your community for business, then why not for good? Today people are using technology to connect aid directly where its needed and to help people in crisis. If U2 took an interest in using technology to connect their fans with opportunities they can do to change the world, why wouldn't you do this?

5) Gremlins Multiply With Water: One thing you might not want to do is to diss the blogosphere. It's just not a cool thing. There are millions of people around the world that write about U2 and say how great they are. They are U2's fans, they are at the end of the day your customer. The bloggers aren't "anonymous gremlins", we are people who want to say good things about your music. Weare your street team, but on the internet. You want us to be informed, you us them to be part of the process. If you gathered the top 50 U2 bloggers (and a handful internet blogger celebs) you would garner more engagement and traffic to buying U2 music and merch than any press release. Didn't you hear at SXSW that the press release is dead? Seriously, bloggers are your friends. Yeah, there are some trolls out there, but for the most part people want to help. If I got to be on a conference call with you and Bono once a year I would freak out. All that takes is an hour of your time. There are so many advantages of creating a blogger community to support U2 than dissing them. They aren't stealing your music, they are promoting it!

I will leave you with a quote from Ghandi, "Be the Change You Want To See In The World." Yes, maybe you can't save the music industry but what you can do is be the light for the future. You, meaning U2, has the resources to create innovation in the music industry. You can be poking around the streets of El Camino Real and Sand Hill Road to get indicators for the future. I bet Google would love to have a U2 Droid or Microsoft have premium live shows only available on XBOX. So if you aren't making money on records then make money using the technology that is there, sell advertising, VOD, ring tones, short codes, after digital live shows and enhanced fan engagement. If you don't even want to do that, use technology for good.

But if you do anything, please think about U2's fans. We want you to engage us. We want to see live shows from home because sometimes our lives won't let us go to a concert (kids, aging parents, money, ect.). We want to have a special moment with Bono to share with the world. Want to be have a religious experience at a U2 show. We want to know that each engagement is unique and that we are special. We also want to help tell all of our friends about you and how awesome you are. We want hear the show that we just saw (in the car ride home from the show) and trade songs with our friends to relive movement of our lives that U2 shared with us.

Don't loose sight that it's the fans who make U2 go round, not the music industry. The world had changed, the music industry may not chose to move quickly, but you can lead by example.

Paul, I challenge you to lead the music industry into a new age of engagement with fans and embrace the new age of innovation. If you do that, you just might be able to steer the U2 ship where the wind is at your back.

Peace.

Forgetting the Fan: The Deserved Woes of Live Nation

2010-07-22T08:29:00.000-04:00

Live Nation has a long road ahead of them if they expect to plug the holes in their battlestar to maintain a sustainable business. The glaring absence of a fan-based experience business model, lack of trust across stakeholders, distraction of a complex merger with Ticketmaster and perhaps the most challenging, an air of arrogance of its leadership that other people are to blame for their challenges. These indicators are just the beginning of Live Nation's woes because when a business forgets who they are selling to, its only a matter of time when the fan (consumer) will find something better to spend their money on.

Does Live Nation Know What Fans Want?

First lesson in selling anything, know what your customer wants. Does Live Nation know this? Have they conducted research in what fans expect out of their live music experience? What exactly are the consumer insights? I have a feeling you might come up with a few suggestions:

Fans want to know in advance about tickets going on sale about bands they care about
Fans expect an easy and fair way to obtain tickets
Fans expect authenticity
Fans don't want to find out they bought tickets at $80 when if they waited they could have bought them for $10 bucks
Fans don't like "fees"
Fans want the chance to be in the front row and pay the same as everyone at the show
Fans are (for the most part) indifferent to the stage show they are there to see the artist perform
Fans want an emotional experience, a religious experience at a live show. They want the show to change their life.
Fans want to extend their live concert experience beyond the show
Fans want bragging rights; an exclusive experience that could be earned not bought
Fans want to see a show where the band is highlighted not the promoter
Fans like seeing causes and information that the band cares about
Fans like to buy stuff that is cool not the same old stuff
Fans love their cell phones

In some respects what Live Nation should be is an advocate for the fans to help artists create better live performances because they should know the most about how fans want to interact in a live performance setting. Live Nation's profile should be very limited because they are working on behalf of the artist. A company that spends time and efforts stating they are the promoter is missing the point of their job. They serve the artist, but they must be an advocate for the fan (consumer) if their business model is to be sustainable.

"The front row is [worth] a whole different price than even 10 rows back, or 100 rows back," said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino "You can now get more creative with the artist and price the house differently. That gives you a chance to bring the back-end of the house way down."

This mentality is what has contributed to Live Nation's decline. If as a fan I have no chance of being "front row" then why should I break my neck to buy a ticket? It's really a bummer when you see seats left empty in the front row. As a fan you shouldn't have to pay $400 for the front row, you should be able to earn that or be selected by chance. The more ticket level pricing and secondary markets rise from a show, the more a fan feels a sense of "that isn't cool"

To be honest if it is 2010 and Live Nation is just now removing the $2.50 fee for "allowing" fans to print their own tickets (but haven't addressed security concerns), well, that just says that it will be years until Live Nation can turn their boat around.

A Warning for Artists

In some respects artists are making a decision by working with an organization who may not be acting in the best interest of an artist's fan base. It could be argued that the mistrust which fans may feel about being charged for fees or the co-branding you do with third party organizations like Live Nation will, at some point, reflect upon the artist's own values and engagement strategy with their audience. For example, Jay-Z greeted the investors and stayed around for its duration. A fan could wonder why an artist would back up a business that says (in his presence), "Jay-Z doesn't care if he's playing Paris or Denver," Rapino said. "We do." I'd bet that Jay-Z cares about reaching his fans in every point of the globe. I bet he cares if his fans are upset about fees that cost about a third of the original price of the ticket. I bet he would rather see his hardcore fans in the front rows rather than empty seats or corporate types. Jay-Z wants to get paid, but I am pretty sure he cares on how he gets paid and what cost that is to his audience that he has worked very hard to build and maintain. For artists, signing a Live Nation deal is a business decision. In some respects, the very artists themselves have created this marketplace and have accepted the behavior of third party companies like Live Nation.

When the market is in a recession and industry is being transformed by technology, artists may find themselves wanting to have a tight grip on the management of their fan base because their community is what will likely be their main source of revenue. The more authentic and meaningful experience that is served up to the community, the more an artist can involve fans in the process, the greater ability it will be for an artist to build a community that sustains their craft for the long haul. Artists don't need millions of fans, they need to build communities that are meaningful to the craft they create.

Artists already are beginning to see that their community of fans are the most valuable asset of any artist. An artist has to be involved in the connection and decision-making of the development and sustainability of the community not "trust" that their handlers will make all the decisions. The most profitable bands know this. They are intimately involved and place fans as the focus of their business model. These artists have strong fan engagement and don't have Live Nation 360 deals. They create a live performance that is authentic and emotional for the fan. I once asked a Live Nation representative at this year's SF Music Summit if Live Nation was in the job of building community for the artist, the response was: "No."

You don't have to ask Live Nation if they build community, just analyze what they do to "help" the artist. The most clear example of this is U2. Live Nation is managing their website and their tour. The fact that U2's twitter address is the @U2_360Tour shows that there is not a focus of Live Nation to help the artist to build and sustain their community. Notwithstanding the fact that twitter account has never been two way nor has creating any communication between the members of the band and the public. Live Nation does a great job of helping an artist distance themselves from their fans. This kind of behavior will only continue to alienate fan bases, broaden the distance between the fan and the artist and allow for fans to seek other experiences which are more meaningful to them. It will only change when the artist (ie. their management) demands that fans be put first and central to their core business. This will likely only happen after Live Nation and other third parties have significantly fragmented their core fan base to the point where an artist who is ready to monetize their community cannot because of the business decisions create a fragmented community overtime with little ability of the artist to recoup missed fan engagement.

Transparency & Trust

If I was Live Nation, I would not throw around the word transparency around unless you have staff dedicated to making this happen. Creating transparency in an organization is a cultural change. You have to start with an open and collaborative environment, you have to trust your staff and the public. This will be very hard for Live Nation to accomplish because of the simple fact you have a confidence problem. People don't trust you. This just didn't happen this year, this has been earned by the way you conduct your business and treat your artists, partners and most importantly the fans. People don't trust that your company is doing the right thing. People don't trust you because you have nickel and dimed anyone who has come to a Live Nation show. Transparency to investors isn't going to help. You need to start with the people who are buying what you are selling.

Since you said transparency is important, why isn't the slides and webcast of the investor meeting on your website? In your press release, Live Nation committed it would be publicly available for 30 days. It's not on Live Nation's Investor Relations web site. Its the small things that make transparency happen.

In any case I would argue that the Investor Meeting debacle was an indicator of what is bubbling just under the surface within Live Nation. I once heard advice given to technology start-ups that said "90% of the failure of a start-up has to do with you." It seems that Live Nation has that problem in a big way. They have many assets they could use to turn it around but it would take leadership, trust and a collaborative environment to change the culture at Live Nation. But the single most important change they have to make is with the fans. They have to be an advocate and center their business model around what fans want in a live music experience. It goes back to the basics.

Yeah, I bet Azoff loves hanging around with artists. Yeah, I am sure he thinks that is cool. But its really the fans, that make Live Nation work. When was the last time Azoff hung out on the lawn with the fans?

If you treat fans like gold the rest will all fall into place, for everyone.

The Old Rules Still Apply - Reflections from Little Steven at the 2010 New Music Seminar

2010-07-21T21:25:00.000-04:00

I always thought Little Steven was a stand up guy, but complete renaissance man and candid artist development advice giver definitely earned mad respect from the new artists attending the New Music Seminar. As one of the final panels of the day, Bill Werde, Editor in Chief at Billboard Magazine led a lively panel discussion with Little Steven, Tom Jackson, Just Blaze and Kelly Cutrone. From the group, it seemed that Little Steven kept issuing very relevant and insightful pearls of wisdom. Basically, do the work.

Being a rockstar takes practice. Little Steven underscore's this notion during a quick overview to the new artists listening, "You
get into Rock and Roll to control your own destiny. What does that mean? You get a band, you get a local bar, you get your own powerbase. If they (the fans) aren’t coming to your shows, you aren’t going nowhere...its strictly word of mouth,” said Little Steven. “You have to be your own industry as well as learning your craft. You have to learn all that ‘tweeting’ and stuff. At a certain point you have a DIY problem, its not all DIY for life. You can’t do it all yourself. All the best records were made by an army of people. Get your craft together, get your own little world going and invite them (people to help the artist) in.”

Little Steven outline the progression of an artist’s development emphasizing that it is all about “the order of things” and that “you (the artist) have to find out who you are before you dress it up." He continues to illustrate that artists have to, "Find that you like. You have to decide who you like. You start to learn the craft. You are who you like.” He also underscored the importance of “getting to the roots of your music” rather than “learning from the diluted version 30 years later.”

Little Steven's four tenants to new artist development are:

Arrangement: This is the exploration of music for the artist. Find your favorite artists. Learn from them. Deconstruct their music. Learn to play it. Study their works. Learn from the roots of their music. Dig deep.
Performance: Go out an play. Find a local bar where you can get a regular gig. They get the bar, you get the door. This is the most important part of your development. This is where you learn to perform.
Composition: From the experience of others and your experience playing you can then move to writing and composing your own music.

Recording: This is the final step in your process. There is a long road between these steps. The freedom of DIY recording is nice, but you have to earn it. You need all of these steps before you record. You can’t just sit in your room and pump out music.

As a sidenote, a little nostalgia about Little Steven. More than half of the audience at the New Music Seminar probably doesn't know too much about Sun City. Besides Bruce and the Sopranos, many people remember Little Steven and South Africa. Just last week Nelson Mandela celebrated his 92nd birthday. What a difference 20 years make.

Check him out at his website: www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com

Reflections from a Morning at the New Music Seminar

2010-07-20T13:59:00.000-04:00

Its 1:15 and Nimbit is on stage demoing their product. Its 3 hours into the New Music Seminar and one word I haven't heard yet is community. But before I get into that let me just share a few thoughts.

I think that the folks who are at the New Music Seminar are quite aware that the music industry has challenges. but perhaps what could be discussed are the opportunities and how, even though this is perceived to be the wild west, but in fact it is the greatest opportunity for innovation in the industry. You know, its not all gloom and doom. There are people doing cool things. Maybe you have to work harder, but its your work. Ray Charles would have loved this time period. He wanted to own his music.

What A Fan Wants - Do You Know?

One of the first reflections from this morning's discussions, its the first thing I noticed that nobody has talked about yet, what fans want. Does anyone know? Has anyone asked them? I bet if you asked a fan today they would rather have a copy of the show than a t-shirt. Has anyone here bothered to do research in what works for fans? First rule in marketing. Know your customer (since you are calling them customers). I would advocate - know your community. I'm pretty disappointed to hear the generalization, "you fan is your customer." That is completely not the point, yes fans are ultimately an artist's customer, but there are other stakeholders such as radio and sponsorship.

Building a Community Not a Customer.

Being a fan is about being an enthusiast and sharing a community with the artist. Have you every had a great time waiting in line to get into a stadium by hanging out with other fans? That is community. Being a fan is a part of a shared experience, they are part of a community. That's why people go to concerts. They can't get that experience anywhere else with people who are equally are excited. I mean if community wasn't important nobody would go to concerts and Video on Demand concerts would be huge.

The question really is how can artists build a community which is reflective of their values and attracts people who like their music. What's funny about a community, it fails the "demographic" test. An artist would be surprised who their fans are. Its often people whom you would not expect. The great thing about the digital age, it knows no barriers, if its good, people will respond. Crossover happens everywhere. Its a digital soup in a fan's iPod. Five bucks they have a piece of classical music, something that is really bubble gum and perhaps something hardcore. Embrace the diversity, don't assume people are just like you (that goes to you marketing people).

Leverage is what an artist can do when a community is actively engaged. They don't need high awareness but they do need engagement. The ultimate question isn't about a number of fans but rather how an artist creates a meaningful and authentic experience with their fans. You can do everything that people tell you but if an artist isn't authentic to their fanbase, it won't be good. Be real.

An Artist's True Leverage - Access.

Fans are willing to pay for access and things that not everyone has. An artist has something they can sell, and its not records, its a little bit of themselves. Fans love to say they were there. They were there for a show which an artist can create.

Crowdfunding isn't the Solution (tho, its cool to raise money). Its About Building a Sustainable Community.

Ask Public Enemy. They didn't do so great on the crowdfunding. What happened? I would argue it was because they were not actively engaging their community. You can't come out of retirement and say, "Give me $200K." There is almost a sweat equity between a fan community and an artist. Both have to give to make the magic happen.

On Email Lists

So when someone tells you its all about your email list, your email list can't recommend new music. It can be really annoying and email addresses change all the time. But what wasn't said was why email is useful? Because most a lot of people aren't on Facebook or Twitter. Lesson: Don't assume that people are using tech. They likely aren't or don't think to find you on whatever network they belong to.

On Susan Boyle

I love the topic of Susan Boyle. It reaffirms my theory - the largest market for music, the baby boomers are largely disconnected from the distribution model which music uses today. When a Susan Boyle happens they actually have to work at seeking out the album at a Best Buy or Wal-Mart. These folks aren't on iTunes. I bet they have an iPod but they have the songs that were loaded on it from their kids. There are four baby boomers to every one GenX-er. There is a chasm in the ability of this demographic to reach music. My mom buys most of her CDs at Starbucks these days.

Live Music and the Bucks

Really there could be a focus on the live venue and that being the opportunity for point of sale. Offer a USB copy of the show and make 50% more profit, but what about owning your own short code. What if folks could text in the encore? What if every text was a buck? All throughout the show the texts would go into a word cloud? Again another opportunity. What about Video on Demand? What about a mobile app to take your website mobile, offer catalog to stream, have fan email/community, offer promo codes?

The Most Important Thing - Own Your Data, It's the DNA of your Community

There is a little secret here, if you build a successful community, people will want to have access to it to shop their wares. Its hard to do when you make deals where the artist gives away one of its greatest assets, their data and access to their community. I would offer be wary of organizations who want to help artists and in turn they only want your data. Data will be the signal most important value that you have. You can use that data to help better understand your fans, to provide sponsorship opportunities and even crowdsource production of new music (ie. Jill Sobule). If you make deals early on that segments your data or asks for you to be on a platform where your storefront can't be your own URL, you may want to think twice.

Matthew Kemp Talks Fan Engagement + Production of Rakim's New Album The Seventh Seal

2009-12-21T21:24:00.001-05:00

Tonight (11/15/09) Rakim is playing at the Black Cat and is having his album release release this week. What are the uses of social media that you are using to promote Rakim’s new works?

Well, we’re everywhere, but Rakim is a little bit of a different beast than other people. So, we are on Twitter. We actually have like three Twitter sites that we running right now. He uses different Facebook pages. He has his new personal page. We also encourage fans to to put up their own pages, obviously. His my MySpace is a big thing we're getting ready right now. His website is a promotional web site right now, but you will have a real interactive web site will be launching the same time as the album. We are making sure our presence is out everywhere.

Unlike a lot of other artists who are a little bit more personable, Rakim sort of been like, well I call him the “Howard Hughes of hip hop.” He is definitely a family man. When you meet him he is one of the most engaging people in the world. He’s definitely got a lot of humility about him. You wouldn’t think he’s the icon that he is when you actually meet him in person. But there is still a little bit of a distance, he’s still a private guy. And so you know, twittering about that he ate oatmeal for breakfast this morning and things like that wasn’t really the route we wanted to go. Keep a little bit of the -- I don’t want to call it “the mystery” -- but keep a little of his personal life out of the public eye and make sure that people know him for his music primarily.

So [for] social media the way we actually integrate is multi-tiered. What we do is that we put out some broad broadcast messages and then we really find our niche. Basically do narrowcasting to those different niches. Also with Twitter, you know it is obviously a phenomenon that is relatively new. You find that [Twitter] is becoming a source of news and is also becoming a way to spread stories. Some of them true, some of them not true. You find that you address a lot of things that way. But the great thing about it is that we just did an in-store appearance -- we decided to do that two days ago. We were able to use Twitter effectively to go out there and let everyone know. So when you are trending on Twitter, you kinda watch to see what was going on [with] Rakim you can all of a sudden see.

Its really sometimes interesting to see when plant a seed one place how quickly that germinates and how quickly moves to everywhere else. It’s pretty funny and its amazing to watch. Unless of course its a single that leaked that it’s not supposed to be out there or something else - then its really frustrating to watch. Because by the time you have taken it down from two places twenty others have popped up. So its the immediate communication that is out there is definitely a lot of changing things.

With the recording industry really having a hard time on the business side making sure that their artists are profitable and doing the right deals, publishing and those kinds of things. With this new album, what was new? What was different on the business side?

On the business side, the first thing obviously Rakim’s was with Dr. Dre’s at Aftermath that didn’t work out for mostly creative reasons. It was primarily, Dre has a certain way of doing things. He is been really, really successful with the gangster side of things and Rakim has always been more of a conscious lyricist, at least for the last 15 years he had developed into very conscious lyricist. Dre had wanted him to go back and be a little bit more gangster and talk about things that Rakim wasn’t necessarily comfortable talking about. Once again he is a pretty private person when it comes to some of his past dealings. The couple things that came out of it that were really really great were that number one was the exposure to west coast music and some of the producers that are out there, producers we are still using on this album. Using them and broadens the horizons outside of New York, but also watching the way that Dre actually ran Aftermath. The way he was developing artists within it, obviously you know it is was company that was set up before him initially but very quickly started to develop artists and moved forward.

So Ra came back and was like, “You know what I’m sick of dealing with labels. I am sick of not having control over my own destiny. So I want to have control over my own destiny.” So that actually is the beginning of when we actually met. That is what he was talking about doing. So we went out and we found private equity investors. We put our own money on the table and actually developed an album. We went out and it got it all produced ourselves. It took a little while, but that’s Rakim. He takes a little while to to finish his songs and it think it reflects in the content of them, though. We were able to go to a Universal and marketing partners and say, “Hey, we have a completed album, but now we are going to sign it to you on own terms.” And those terms are much more favorable when you come in with a completed album. So that is one way we changed things up. The other way is that we because of the market conditions that are out there, especially when you are basically a start-up company and a company that is reliant on one big project. It doesn’t always make sense to go in and hire a huge staff and do all that. So what we did was created, what I refer to as a virtual staff. We have the absolute best in the business working for us, but instead of having in-house publicity and an in house PR team we have Susan Blond who comes ahead and does all of our publicity for us and so we got the best PR Department in the industry.

Same thing with a lot of our A&R, we do it by committee. We’ll bring people like Dee Dot, Clark Kent, K id Capri, and other artists who are either really in tuned to what is going on on the streets and things like that. They can really come up and say these are the tracks but also people who are very familiar with Rakim and know exactly what he likes and make sure they’re not pushing him to far aside. We got a guy named Nick Wiz who is actually a producer on the album but was really influential on bringing some of the other producers together. Nick and Ra worked together for years and years. It was pretty cool.

What are you listening to right now? What’s on your iPod?

Leonard Cohen. (laughs) No, I mean I try to listen to just about everything, you know? I don’t sort of structure myself only in hip hop, I have pretty broad musical tastes. I listen to sort of things that are really poppin’ and also kind of tend to fall back into the old school a little bit. I really like people who have been in the game for quite awhile, who are still evolving and and putting out really relevant music. Just recently, obviously, Jay-Z is doing his thing. Couple of the tracks on that album are really, really, really hot. Snoop’s got a new one out with the Dream, that I think is just amazing - the new Gangsta Luv is a great track. I am from New York so you gotta rep with Jada. You gotta rep with Fab. Jada’s album is amazing. Raekwon is a good friend of mine. I think his new album is great. Now we have the Seventh Seal, that was 10 years in the making. We got Linx II and that was, what , seven years in the making? Now if we can just get Dre to put a little bit out. Okay, we aren’t going to be waiting for anything, anymore. Dre will be droppin’ Detox real, real soon.

Check out:

Rakim's MySpace Page
CNN Money: Rakim's "Seventh Seal" Debuts at #3 on Billboard Rap Albums Chart
CNN Money: SMC Recordings Announces Historical Fiscal Numbers Worldwide
Pitchfork.com Album Review of Rakim's The Seventh Seal
Spin Magazine's Review of Rakim's The Seventh Seal
Billboard Video: Rakim Puts 'Love Back in NY' on New Album

What's Really at Stake with the Live Nation/Ticketmaster Merger? Your Privacy.

2009-12-20T22:20:00.001-05:00

Perhaps what might not be the big headline, but with fair ability to impact the marketplace is IF Live Nation and Ticketmaster do merge, they will have a unique asset - data. They will know what music sites you visit, what tickets and direct artist music that you buy. They can take that data and sell it to other people. This little nugget seems to be lost in the controversial merger. Concerns such as the ability to:

Generate and store consumer data which the consumer has no choice not to give them;
Track the music fan's (consumer) movements across platforms and store their browsing behavior and purchasing habits for future marketing and/or create a market to sell that data. They can do this by tracking your movements through the use of cookies and your transactions across platforms which they managed - the artist's web site, online store and ticket sales; and
Work with third parties or sponsors to share (or sell) consumer data so that if you like band X you might be more likely to be into buying beer x or interested in new tech gadget Y.

Seems that this ability may give Live Nation/Ticketmaster a competitive advantage to promote their artists in the marketplace (which is what they want) but they will also be the one of the only operators to be able to offer third parties the opportunity to engage the consumer on what you might be interested in based on consumer behavior data. All of this is happening because a fan wants to buy a CD or go to a concert. Music fans are likely unaware their actions are being monitored and turned into data. Of course, this is all predicated that Live Nation/Ticketmaster have technical capacity to realize these opportunities. Where there is a market there is a way...

For the music fan, this would equate to someone who knows an awful lot you. Sounds a little creepy, right? So let's play this out if someone knows that at least X number of people in city Y would be willing based on past behavior to pay $X dollars, then that could be the price of your next concert ticket. In a way this is already happening. Don't like it? Well then go fend for yourself in the secondary markets where its twice as much. There is always someone else who will buy that hot ticket. They may even get a little savvy and cross promote using this data that you, the music fan provided so that they, industry, can sell you more things.

The question then becomes a discourse on trust. How much does the artist trust its vendors to do the right thing with your information/data? Perhaps we should take what happened this past year as indicator. Here is what Ticketmaster said went a "little gliche" made fans pay more for Bruce Springsteen tickets. (file under "non-apology, apology" or "gliche gone wild")

"What really happened was that there was an actual glitch — a little tech glitch in the system that had nothing to do with the availability of tickets," said Diller. "It had to do with, I think it was, Visa [see update] that couldn’t process the data, so it kind of froze the system for a bit." - Barry Diller, TIcketmaster (check out the article on Wired.com here)

Of everything I have written, the sad part of this whole story is that the artist is indeed responsible for choosing to enabling these market conditions and industry behaviors. And its not the little guys, its the large established acts who have more ability and margin to demand more from its vendors. This begs the question, if the merger goes through, and if the two companies begin to share their data in an effort to "promote" the artists, what kind of responsibility does the artist have to ensure the protection of their fans privacy? How will a fan know if their transaction is being shared or the tracking of their visit to the artist's official web site? Moreover, what is the artist's liability to its fans - online safety, privacy, consumer protection? Because remember, Live Nation/Ticketmaster is working for the artist.

Perhaps artists need to really start thinking about who they are choosing to be the middleman controlling their experience with the fan (both online and in a live venue). Food for thought:

How is an artist, through its management and vendors, ensuring that the fan's safety, security and privacy are being protected?
Ultimately, what is the responsibility of the artist to hire vendors (Live Nation/Ticketmaster) which meet some kind of standards and practices, placing emphasis on the use of cookies (tracking) and purchase history aggregation to create profiles of consumers?
How will Live Nation/Ticketmaster protect user data and information from being misused?
What is the anonymization schedule?
Will Live Nation/Ticketmaster sharing consumer information with, sharing or selling it to a third parties?

Lots of questions, without any answers....

For more information:

(show some love) Ticketdisaster.org
NorthJersey.com: Coalition urges public to denounce Ticketmaster, Live Nation proposed merger
(for the fans?) Wired: Live Nation Kills Convenience Fees for Certain Concerts
(rocky road to merger) Forbes: Live Nation Set to Punch its Own Tickets
(makes your stomach hurt) TicketNews: Live Nation begins linking to broker tickets
(uh, really?) Wired: Ticketmaster Chief - Billing Gliche Caused Springsteen Fiasco
(sadness) LA Weekly: Ticketmaster and Servants - Bands get cut of service fee
(more sadness) Rolling Stone: Artists Marking Up Own Concert Tickets to Profit off Secondary Market
Billboard: Springsteen/Ticketmaster War Escalates
(testimony) US Senate: Testimony of Irving Azoff, CEO, Ticketmaster
(testimony) US Senate: Testimony of Michael Rapino, CEO, Live Nation
(testimony - must read) US Senate: Jerry Mickelson, CEO Jam Productions
(testimony - must read) US Senate: David Balto, Center for American Progress
(testimony - must read) US Senate: Seth Hurwitz, Owner, 9:30 Club/IMP Productions

Hey Live Nation - Brand the Artist not the Promoter

2009-12-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

Perhaps we were all too busy getting ready for our Thanksgiving dinners when Live Nation decided to roll out (on a holiday week?) the new deal to record live shows at Live Nation concerts and deliver them on iTunes. What's interesting about this is that Live Nation is billing this as, "Live Nation Presents" (someone from Cellar Door or Bill Graham Presents must be missing the 80s) with its own category instead of promoting this from the artist to the fan. As a promoter, shouldn't the main focus be on enhancing the artist's brand? I hate to break it to you, people go to concerts to see the artist, not revel in the promoter's marketing and logistics prowess. Isn't that what you get paid for anyways?

I have regularly pointed out missed opportunities which artists overlook potentials for advertising, sponsorship, leveraging recording (audio/video) live shows, cable delivery and web streaming. Perhaps its good that someone it taking advantage of this - although shouldn't it be the artist promoting the live show, not Live Nation? This new product isn't that new and when you look at the opportunity - you kinda wonder why they don't do more of this? Doesn't the entire audio of the show go through the board? Why not record it? Aren't you shooting the entire show for the jumbotrons in HD? Why not record that? Or better yet, web stream or carry live via cable? You can sell advertisements all across the board on those products. Er, duh. But what is being promoted here, the artist or you? Seems the that with several of the artists you mention that on their web site is no mention of these live shows. Not to mention some poor online merchandising. Nothing about OK Go's web site makes me want to buy anything or even share anything. Oh and Live Nation - the Live album you are selling on iTunes isn't even available for sale on the OK Go official web site. #Fail

Lets explore this - here are the artists who are on the "Live Nation Presents" iTunes channel:

Hinder - No music sold on official website

Flobots - Live show not sold on their official website

Hoobastank - Live show not sold on their official website; sadly the music for sale is under the "Assorted Merchandise"

A Fine Frenzy - Live show not sold on the official website; store link absent from main navigation

Hilary Duff - No music at all available for sale on her web site

Duffy - Live show not sold on the official website;

Jesse McCartney - Live show not sold on the official website;

OK Go - Live show not sold on the official website

Plain White T's - Live show not sold on the official website (wasn't even in their news section)

Say it Twice - Has a link to iTunes on main MySpace page; could not find official web site (is there one?)

Ziggy Marley - YES! Both the DVD and the CD.

Stripes and Lines - Yes - and on the front page of the web site as news. Tho, no way to buy direct from the artist. No online store.

Corinna Bailey Rae - No online store. No news or link to release

So as you can see the majority of the artists did not have a way to buy the audio or DVD direct from their official web site and sadly many did not even mention it in their news or featured areas. Stripes and Lines did a nice feature - but they have no online store. Ziggy Marley sold both from his web site directly but without a major feature driving you to the new release.

I'm not sure who to blame more here, the fact artists aren't managing their online presence or the Live Nation puts out artist content in a online retail environment with little if any artist promotion to their fan base. Instead, in essence you have a third party (Live Nation) making the new product (rights?) available via online retail (iTunes) with little attention or promotion paid by the artist (official web site) for this product. Seems something is amiss. Isn't the artist paying Live Nation to promote them? Oh and I wonder who owns the recording? What is really going on here?

Artists of all shapes and sizes should seriously look to Dave Matthews and Pearl Jam - they really know how to do this. Direct engagement (and online retail) from artist to the fan. They are good at it and have a wide and engaged fan base. Arguably both are two the most profitable bands in the industry.

I would have to say that small bands perhaps have an advantage in this market as well. They can create the real "personal" connection coupled with a "you had to be there for the show" offering. Take for example, Bob Schneider. He and his Jingy-self, goes out to a small club, plays for 2 1/2 hours and the Bob-fan walks out of the show with a CD of what he just experienced with funky cover art created by Bob himself. The show cost $25 bucks and the CD was $15 bucks. At least a third if not half of the show bought the CD right there. That raised the profit of the show by over 35%. That's a great deal for the artist. Aside from the CD and the cover art, its all profit. And since Bob is super great, he usually hangs out and signs each of the CDs and does "Facebook" quality pictures with his fans. (Note: Facebook quality means the photo is of you doing something fabulous or with someone fabulous) Joshua Radin talked about this with New Cicada a while back.

Live Nation should really focus on linking the live experience with the artist's brand directly to the fans. Artists - you don't need Live Nation to release live music, you can do this yourself - digitally. In fact, it might be the most profitable product you will ever release.

If you think about it, Live Nation's strategy should be to drive fans who just saw an artist's show to their web site. It is there where an artist can directly market the availability of the live show they just saw as well as other shows, goodies and news they might also want to pick up. Why would you just release on iTunes when you will likely only release one or two shows? If you post more than than 1 or 2 shows on an artist's profile, the catalog will seem to look cluttered. Regardless, don't you want to have exclusives on the artist's web site so you can cross promote and actualize advertising and sponsorship (which you can't do on iTunes)?

Perhaps Live Nation could dedicate a section of the artist's web site to sell live shows (they sell everything else there). Each show could have the set list with the corresponding song, perhaps a video? You should be able to listen to the whole song and share clips with your friends on your social networks. However, the important thing is that the fan should be driven to the place where the artist releases exclusives - perhaps their official web site (uh, huh). Of course, the digital live show release should be the market close - Pearl Jam charges $9.99 for MP3 live shows - and they give them a cool name "Bootlegs." (Oh the days of the Grateful Dead shows on cassette tapes) It's interesting to see into what other fans are looking at which can be done quite simply by posting sorting mechanisms so a fan can quickly see "what is popular."

Now if Live Nation was really savvy, you would have a mobile app which fueled and connected to the fan community on the artist's web site. On the mobile web app would be opportunites to stream the show (video/audio) direct from your mobile phone after the show. In addition, you could have a iReporter content gathering from fans so they can immediately post their pictures, text messages and videos from the concert to the fan community.

If Live Nation were ten times savvy, you could figure out a way where you can use a text short code for fans (assign one to each band) for fans to text in their choice for the encore of the night. The results could be displayed in a word cloud for the audience live during the show and the artist could play what the fans wanted to hear for one or two songs. Talk about crowdsourcing set lists!

Live Nation you might need to rethink your "strategerie" and perhaps consult with artists you represent. And artists, well you need to get on top of your web presence. You can't complain about the music industry when you fail to show up within your own official web site with limited if any capability to sell your music. Shame, shame you know your name!

I can't emphasize enough to Live Nation that the pot of gold that you, and everyone is searching for it right in front of you. Uh, hello? We are over here. We are the music fans.

Bob Schneider, in case you don't know him.

Don't Believe The Hype: Vevo (ain't MTV) and divorces fans content from artist content.

2009-12-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

It seemed that Vevo's launch party in NYC tonight showcased the good, bad and the ugly of the music industry. Perhaps the good was Jimmy Iovine's suggestion that there could be charity works through Vevo (the next "Band Aid?"), the bad was the sheer volume of extravagance of the event and the ugly truth that the industry continues to discount the value of meaningful fan engagement. Isn't the web all about creating communities? Connecting people to content and people they care about? Direct access and authenticity? If this is the case, Vevo falls short of engagement. Vevo may just be another orphaned destination rather than a fan inspired (and involved!) collaborative and grassroots community.

“Friends, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a great old cash cow that was the music business. But friends, we’re also here to celebrate new shoots, new life, and the birth of a new model for our industry.” - Bono at the Vevo Launch (quote from New Tee Vee)

Perhaps the ultimate irony of the Vevo launch was they failed to see the opportunity to stream the launch live to fans everywhere. Why wouldn't you want to drive people to Vevo? Have music fans test it out, but most importantly allow for the fans to share in Vevo's launch. But instead, fans at home read tweets from industry insiders who were there and we clicked on www.vevo.com with a redirect to its blog page. #fail

1) The Fan Is Your Customer. I shouldn't have to tell the music industry that the fan is the ultimate customer. The old adage that its easier to keep current customers than go out and foster new ones, right? Everyday the artist works hard to attract and build a relationship with a fan. They get them interested. Is Vevo going to help that interest? There are some who have high interests (the 1000 true fans) and there are some who are just shopping around and there are some that are inbetween. Just how is Vevo going to help this process? I will admit the quality is very good - but if I can't share or manage through the web site, its not that helpful.

2) "Whhhhhy, whhy, why???" Why is the music industry creating Vevo? Well, it seems that industry is a little annoyed that millions of people are viewing and sharing music videos (without their involvement). I would argue people are going to music videos because 1) they are short 2) they are shareable across platforms and mobile and 3) p eople like to do funny things or prove they can shred like their favorite rock star. Also it doesn't hurt that often times the video is the whole song instead of a snippet.

3) Divorcing Fan Content from Official Content - Not Good. The most troubling aspect of Vevo is that is seeks segregate industry "official" videos from the fan generated - or as industry calls it "user generated content."

"By moving their music videos off YouTube and onto the new site (Vevo), the associated partners hope to create more value for advertisers that might be scared off by user-generated content."

- NewTeeVee

First - advertisers will advertise anywhere where people are. Second - industry didn't mind when Chris Brown's "Forever" single was revived and jetted to the top of the singles chart all because of some cute couple in Minnesota created clever wedding dance that was on You Tube? Check out the You Tube search now with Vevo for "Chris Brown Forever" - you won't find the wedding dance which is more popular than his own video. Why would choose you divorce yourself from your fan's content? Isn't that cross promotion? Doesn't the artist want to be associated with his fan's videos? Or at least in the same search? How much earned media did Chris Brown receive for that and the spike in purchasing of the single? This begs the question, WHY would industry PURPOSEFULLY remove themselves from the pond which they wish to fish from? Isn't the strategy of social media to be where the fish are at? So why would you create another layer - just to have "official" versions of videos? Lyrics to the songs? Some chat feature? Is that all?

4) Chat - how novel. Vevo is also claiming you will be able to chat with your friends while you are watching your favorite music video. How exactly will you be able to do this? Using existing chat applications. Will Vevo allow fans to use what they currently have like AIM or Gmail and import their friends? Can you talk across platforms or will this be that you (sigh) have to again sign in, become a member of something else to talk to people you can talk to on a another network. And of course, if Vevo is just "official" content and no fan based videos, won't that be boring really quick? Also if they make the mistake of taking sharing and embedding opportunities out of the videos, then what is Vevo for?

5) Don't even compare yourself to MTV. Don't even try...

FIRST of all - MTV changed the way people experienced music. MTV made music visual. That had never been done before. (thx @gwynnek for this insight) Vevo, what are you doing that is game changing?
MTV was right on time. They early adopters in cable, Vevo, you are not an early adopter of anything - actually you are late in the game.
MTV wasn't created by a music label. Vevo, you are.
MTV is broadcast - all a fan had to do was have a TV and subscription to cable. Vevo will you make it easy on fans to use social networks and interactive applications they already belong to? Will Vevo allow fans to use devices they already own? Building another destination isn't the answer, its about making what people already have to work together.
At their launch both MTV and Vevo have limited fan interaction. The difference is that in 1981 is was impossible to create fan interaction that we see today. But sadly Vevo is making a choice not to go down that road. Instead, one of Vevo's sole purpose is to divorce fan content and industry content.
MTV humbly and quietly came into our world. It was word of mouth. People subscribed to cable just to watch it. Vevo you threw every name you could drop. Seems a little tacky since the site wasn't ready to launch - its been up and down since the announcement. Oh, and ironically the fans shared in MTV's launch - they could actually see it at home. You didn't provide the same ability for the fans to participate. How many fans did you invite to the launch or was it just an industry love-in?
MTV didn't seek to change popular culture, rather it sought to reflect what was happening on the streets and clubs. A good example of this was the rise of hip hop. Vevo can claim to want to be the next MTV for the Web. Exactly how it will Vevo position itself to be an influencer of its audiences. Speaking of, who is Vevo's audience?

I hope Vevo will tone down its effort to change the business model because the ugly truth is that nobody knows where this is going to go. If someone says they know, they aren't telling you the truth. Everything is changing. What is known is that if you create divides in an online experience and make it difficult to share or be involved, then you just created a new web site. Who needs that? What an artist may need is help connecting to their fans on a myriad of levels. Not really artists like Bono or 50 Cent - they have such a wide fan base (tho, U2 needs serious help), its the the next big thing - how will they break out? What is their path? Or are the days of the mega stars are gone because music is so distributed and available?

At the end of the day an artist's web site is the authoritative source for anything related to the artist, so in a way you just created another distribution channel when there are so many of these. What is really needed is a way to continue to build and support mechanisms for fans to talk about and share more of an artist. Isn't that what you want people to do?

Check it out for yourself: www.vevo.com

News on Vevo's Launch:

Billboard: Vevo is a necessary experiment of for the majors
Reuters: Music labels bet on Vevo next MTV
CNET: Rio Caraeff Posts - Digital Media
Top Tech News: Vevo aims to be the Hulo of Music Videos
NewTeeVee: Bono - Vevo is Rebirth of Music Industry

Music Without Borders: Musicians and Coders Connecting/Creating Music + Technology

2009-12-05T09:17:00.000-05:00

Why use a plastic guitar when you can shred on a real one? Don't have a friend who plays? No problem. Virtual bands, fanboy collaborations and coders are creating music across time and space like never before.

Code - the Ultimate Instrument to Make Music

or make your favorite rockstar visit where you are...

U2 in SL - A Virtual Band

Demian | MySpace Video

A few sites worth visiting: Kompoz.com or VirtualRockBand.com

Matthew Sweet 2009: Cool Cats, Tweetin' and Rollin' with Susanna Hoffs

2009-12-04T23:59:00.001-05:00

Caught up with Matthew Sweet playing a Sid & Susie gig in Maryland to a packed house. I was really happy to meet Matthew. He's one of the nicest artists that I have ever interviewed. Perhaps what doesn't come through the text during this chat was his sheer excitement when he was talks about the internet and self declarations of being kinda nerdie. (Hey, Matthew - I watch Star Trek too!)

This interview comes at a time where Matthew has decided to dip his toes in the social media wavepool. His candor and honesty of taking us through his first days of Twitter and how overwhelming and exciting that is for him. Already he is interested in how his fans interacting with him and what to do with all those DMs!

I'm Looking forward to following his adventures on Twitter @iammatthewsweet. Lots of love and a big thanks to Matthew and Russell Carter for taking some time to talk to New Cicada.

As I was coming into the show, [I noticed] you have this new eclectic audience. How do you think people are finding Sid and Suz’s music today?

That’s a good question. I think at these particular shows its eclectic because its two of us doing shows together. So people from both of our camps, and I guess it’s just a really different thing. We’ve never really played acoustic like we are doing on this show. It’s a different kind of club that we are playing in general. Rather than the rock clubs that I usually play. Some of them overlap. It’s more places like this where they have food. It’s kind of a different scene. In New York we are playing City Winery that is like that. It’s a really nice venue. Good food, wine and everything. It’s just a really different scene. It was very scary for us. We have done a few now.

How think people are find out about your music?

I think they probably still, generally, either big fans of mine or big fans of Suz. People who don’t know who I am find out that like the Bangles and visa versa. Although people who are my fans probably know the Bangles. It wouldn’t be - that’s for sure - probably that way the other way around.

Do you think that the Internet has anything to do with it?

Absolutely! I mean the internet is the only way now that people kinda find out about that stuff and it’s great because of that. If you really care about someone you can really follow them. It’s just so weird to think when there wasn’t the internet, already. More so for you because you are a little bit younger than I am. I’m 45.

You know, there was just no way to find out things every five minutes that you want to know. There just wasn’t. We know so much more. We are aware of so much more. That also affects the whole way businesses are and everything. It’s all being all taken apart. I really like that. Sort of everything reduced. You know it’s so blown up! Like there is nothing that sticks out. It’s kinda very populist. I like that! It makes it all more fun, not so much pressure. That idea that you are going to “get everyone.” It’s much more indie feeling in the music business now. That just is more fun, it just IS more fun.

I think that when they really had a way to sell tons of records and that they could sort of “make it happen” to some extent. Whatever gets you with radio or whatever. Its just so much different - its so much more pressure. So many people who wanted you to be a certain way or certain thing. Some of these people didn’t really get what you were. They were wanting you to be something that people could “get,” you know? That just has kinda gone away to some extent.

There are so many artists. There are so many people trying to put out music. It’s a more interesting time. However, how will they ever be known? There is just so much. What does it mean to be known? I kinda think of it in that way. I mean, we know that logically nothing matters and it all goes away over time. How we thought of things 20 years ago, its very different now.

I feel like I came from these olden days time when it was so different -- but I love the internet. I love times now. You do feel more connected to who the fans are. Because they do find you on the internet. You start to kinda know the ones that are really crazy for it. Things can spread that way. I think it’s cool. I don’t think we’ve - in my case at least - I don’t think I have yet figured out how to find everybody. I’ve got people helping me try. Like they got me set up to do Twitter last week.

Do you know what your Twitter address is?

It’s @iammatthewsweet. So, like I am just getting my head around what that is. It’s amazing to me. Its a great question to get right now because today was my first day of getting emails from people following me on Twitter. There it like, you know, hundreds of emails that came in of people who are suddenly following me. Now I really don’t understand what I do? Like do I interact with them or just throw things out there?

You know, there are a lot artists that are out there that might be able to give you some tips.

Yeah, I am sure there are. There is a young girl at our office who really understands all of it. I am not one of those people who don’t get it or not “techie.” I am really techie. I am full on deep into Macs and stuff for many, many years. Using them for music. Using them for art and stuff. Computers and technology I love! I have always loved technology, even though I am thought of as a retro person. I also, you know, love Star Trek. (laughs)

In that light, you had mentioned (in the show) you were talking to your label, or your perspective label. Would you want to release independently?

Yeah, maybe. The thing about a label for us, I have put out records on my own - independently, early in in the 2000s. I had a couple of records I just owned, that I made and I put them out. The thing is if you don’t have a label and you want to really try to get your record out there and get it promoted, you still have to kinda hire the people that you would have been even at a small label or whatever to put it out with. And so to some extent we can make a record and if someone just wants to buy it, we sell it to them and we get money up front and they work to sell it whatever they can. The margins are such if one of them ever took off and sold a lot we would make money from it, you know. But, its not far from my mind to do it ourselves. I mean, we kinda know how to do it.

Russell’s (Carter) our manager started doing it with the Indigo Girls, I think, and like I said, we put out a few things years ago. But it still was almost like a label because there would be a distributor that would give you a chunk of money for the record as an advance. You are just going past, strait to the distributor [through] whatever hierarchy there is. I mean, they are struggling. Our label isn’t really a record label, its more pop culture, a lot DVD reissues and things. Its the people who started Rhino and they sold Rhino to Warner Brothers in 2000 and got a non-compete for two or three years and they started Shout Factory, so it’s a cool place for us. Its very, you know “pop cultur-ie.” They have a lot of older, cool stuff. But, its hard for me to imagine what a label would be like if we all do well and make money. Our goals seem to be at the time to connect to the people who already know and care. Find the people who would care if they knew or whatever.

But you know, it’s like when I go make pottery. It’s like that is now and interesting thing. Like through the internet people, people can kind of know about it and you know, sell some cats or whatever. That way they just don’t build up and build up at home. That’s is the problem with pottery. Its solid, not like music. So there is a lot after awhile, you have to give to somebody or something. So, I don’t know, its those sorts of things. Having a hobby, where you can support the hobby kind of and stuff. It seems very “internet.” You know what I mean? I can’t imagine how you would have done that exactly before.

I saw that you played at Amoeba last summer.

That was a good show! It was kind of fun. We were surprised at so many people who came. I was like, “Alright!”

You can’t get to a lot of Amoeba Records, not every town has a great independent (record store).

It’s less and less.

How do you feel about that?

Again its a total shift in culture. It might as well be like how we used to have our albums before even CDs. You didn’t go to the internet to find everyone who loved that artist and know all about the artist. It was like a mystery. It was like this other thing.

The record store was where there might be that person who would know about something you might like. If you like the dBs you better check out Big Star. This kind of connection. That’s how you would find out about stuff. Whereas now, just to filter all of the things that are out there. You just wander along and discover stuff if you are a young person.

Yeah, Apple is trying to make sure that you use Apple Genius to turn you on to new music.

Yeah, that’s supposed to work really well, but as far as the stores, they were also a place where someone could be “made cool.” We were really supported, really a lot during Girlfriend by independent music stores - the independent mom and pop places. And that was a time when the chains were going strong. I always felt an affinity to those places. I played in a lot of places that were small and homey, not like Amoeba. That was always great. That’s one where giant music fans worked there. Just a place that is special. Again with the internet you find anything and why wouldn’t you order it and have it sent to you?

Footnote (pun intended)

Throughout this tour Matthew has caused quite a stir with his selection of shoes. They are called "Five Finger" shoes and are made by Vibram. Their tagline is, "the barefoot alternative." Pretty cool. Happy feet :)

Other cool things to check out about Matthew Sweet:

Check out his web site at www.matthewsweet.com
Follow Matthew's adventures on Twitter @iammatthewsweet
Cool cats! Check out Matthew's pottery
A favorite Matthew Sweet tune (live)
Matthew at Amoeba Records

Matthew Sweet “Byrdgirl” from new album Sunshine Lies
by mango6

In a time of vampires, Matthew Sweet is eternal.

2009-11-04T19:06:00.001-05:00

Matthew Sweet and I go way back. Like whole album sides at WUVT 90.7 at Virginia Tech. I figured that not only did VA Tech students need to hear the single Girlfriend, but the nice deep track, Nothing Lasts is a classic worth repeating. Oh, the days of 120 minutes where you might have found Matthew Sweet inbetween the Pixies and Jane's Addiction. 2009 seems to be a 1991 revival year.

Perhaps, we should pay some reverence to the year 1991. A year where music history turned a page. It was the last year indie was "indie." 1992 began a little set of shows called Lollapalooza and then some Seattle band got signed to DGC Records (David Geffen's label - now Interscope) for over a $1M. That buck took the indie mainstream (where its stayed since).

But yes, this is supposed to be about Matthew Sweet. I can't help but think that Matthew Sweet has more than 1000 true fans that Kevin Kelly talks about. I mean I am at least one of them. I go to every show in DC. I buy every album in every medium. I evangelize.

For a second I was worried about him. Looks like its been a tough go for him in the 2000s. But it seems that whatever road he took down is leading him back to his righteous place in rockland.

Last August, according to the below clip he just started playing live again.

Seems like he is interested in playing more from the below interviews. I hope he does. Tho, I think he needs a social media intern to get his web site together, start connecting with his 1000 fans and claiming the niche he already owns -- it's just been a little vacant lately.

Today's he's on a tour with Susanna Hoffs - the last person I would pair him with - playing 60s and 70s covers on their Sid and Susie releases. I'm not quiet sure how I feel about this. Their voices are both so distinct. I guess if he is having fun, but I'm here to root for the Sweet team.

Looks like Matthew has an affection for record stores (I told you we were kindred spirits). I am hoping to catch up with him next week to ask what his future plans are, why labels himself a"tech head," and see if he has heard of the 1000 true fans business model.

But in the meantime, in case you are wondering what he is up to, here are few recent interviews - including his reaction to Girlfriend being on GuitarHero 2.

November 4, 2009 - Popwreckoning - An Interview with Matthew Sweet
September 10, 2008 - Paste Magazine - Catching up with Matthew Sweet
August 27, 2008 - Riverfront Times - An Interview with Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs
August 27, 2008 - Bullz-Eye.com - Interview with Matthew Swe et

Signing in the Blind. Deals with LiveNation May Prove To Be Just Plain Silly

2009-10-31T14:43:00.001-04:00

Do you remember when George Lucas did a deal in Hollywood to give up his salary for the merchandising rights to his films - oh, you know that Star Wars thing. At the time, Hollywood though he was crazy because to them those rights were worthless. History shows that was one of the smartest business moves in Hollywood of all time.

I was thinking about this as I read about LiveNation's deal with U2 to handle its tour, merchandise and web site -- this is supposed to be until 2020. Wow. That is a hell of a long time to make a deal with any company where at least one third of the deal is something relate to the Internet. Does this involve everything via the Internet? Why do I get a sinking feeling that U2 just signed away the most democratic and powerful avenue to engage their fans. I can understand the tour - there is a lot of legal and logistical deals, but your web presence too? I have a feeling this may be a tragic mistake.

Let me put this another way, U2 "outsourced" its primary voice to the world via the internet to LiveNation - a corporation with very little success in building communities through social media and leveraging technology to further connect the band and the fan. They are in the business of making money not managing communities - which is what every band has - you could say its their one and only asset besides their creative works. That community is what supports a band. They buy their albums, go to concerts and talk about how great they are to their friends.

On top of this what is more frightening is the Live Nation and Ticketmaster will merge forming the only company which will control a majority of live entertainment all across the world. I guess its easier for a large band, but why sign a contract for so long? Why not tour by tour. There is no way to know via web technologies what the next big thing will be around the corner.

This really explains all the hiccups with the U2 You Tube Live Concert. The missed opportunities. The weak "fan" engagement and promotion of social causes.

If you outsource your connection with your fans wholesale - then in some respect, you will get what you pay for - someone to just "deal" with the fans. I am here to say that there is magic out there when you have an authentic and meaningful connection with your fans. The other night you had 10 Million people watching you. How did you make that moment not about you but about those 10 Million people who are listening and perhaps open to "do something." No face mask - but real action.

Ironically, these same large bands really don't even need LiveNation. Honestly, you have the leverage and resources to do this yourself and even build a community to help other artists and social causes.

It just seems silly to sign away everything, when the one thing you are giving up is the key to your most valuable asset any artist could have is their fans.

#gustererngerhunt

2009-10-30T20:29:00.000-04:00

[Editors Note: A huge thanks to Brian for having me come down! Glad to be the second Blanchard on your list!]

When you think of ten years, it always seems longer when you read the words "10 years" or someone says, "Yeah, that was 10 years ago." Although, it doesn't seem long since 1999, but using another 10ism, I do remember when I was 10 years old. That was the year of Prince's debut album, 1999. Back then, I was convinced that the world would be like the Jetsons.

This week during the 10/29 Guster show at the 9:30 Club here in Washington, D.C., it struck me (during intermission there was video of the making of Long and Gone Forever) that indeed there have been a lot of changes in the last ten years. I am pretty sure 1999 was the first year I got a cell phone (very Jetson-like) and I bought my first computer, the HP Pavilion 9690 Desktop. Perhaps, looking back 1999 was kinda space age afterall.

Given the "Celebrating 10 Years of Lost and Gone Forever: An Evening with Guster" tour, it was particularly poignant that Guster used some of this new fangled, Jetson-inspired tech tools like Twitter (@guster) to challenge their fans to a good old fashioned scavenger hunt.

I got a chance to chat with Brian and Ryan after the show as well as the #gustererngerhunt winner Tim Brown (@tkbtweets) of Arlington, Virginia who saw a tweet via @guster, got in his car and scored free tickets + access to the after show party.

Hunting for @guster on the Washington Mall

So how did you find the tickets?

@tkbtweets: I got the blog and the twitter account [and was] looking at the Charlotte tickets. Today, I went home -- I’m unemployed (Note: he's an Art Director - check out www.adtkb.com). Hey, exactly! (laughing)

I saw the tweet with the video and I knew exactly where that was! It was the Washington Monument by the reflection pool. I had nothing else to do, so I got in the car and drove down there. I pulled out the tickets.

How long did it take you to get there?

It was seven minutes up [on Twitter] when I left my house. So I drove down there. It must have been 20 minutes. I walked up [to where the tickets were stashed in the wall] and there was a guy eating lunch. I know he must have thought I was crazy spy or something, because I walked up to the wall and pulled the piece of paper out and walked away. He was probably like, 'What the hell was that?'"

Ryan Miller on Tweeting, Democratizing Music and Secret Shows

I hear you are the voice behind @guster.

Ryan: Yeah, I do the @guster thing

What do you get out of it? What do you like about Twitter?

Ryan: I sort of like it less now. I don’t know. I liked it at first because it was it was interesting because I can lurk a little bit. Not everyone puts “@” symbols so they say things about your band that they don’t necessarily know. Like “Ugh, man, Guster. I forgot about that band." Every time they tweet in spanish, they tweet about Satellite for some reason. So I liked it for that. It was sort of an unfiltered view of our band a little bit.

And today, did you know that we have been hiding tickets? We did this weird scavenger hunt [via @guster on Twitter]. Those dudes (pointing to Tim Brown aka @tkbtweets across from us) actually picked the tickets out of the wall by the Washington Monument today. We are going to hide some more tomorrow. So its that kind of stuff.

We don’t have that many followers, [in comparison with] the Decemberists have 800,000. I don’t think people really care about Twitter. I don’t think its going to last. There is a lot of noise and people really don’t know how to use it. Its hard to be interesting. Even the people I am the most interested in aren’t that good all the time. I just sort of a nerd about that stuff anyway.

Even though I never kinda of got into the Facebook thing. Its a cool way to interact with your fans. I don’t know, I would be into that even if I wasn’t in a band. I am just sort of curious so its really natural for us to be on there and to try to figure out interesting ways to interface with (our fans) like doing the ticket stuff. Eventually it would be great to do an unannounced show -- "here." People sort of rally. All that kind of stuff.

Weezer just did a secret show in San Francisco.

Ryan: All around their twitter? Awesome so cool. Even MySpace and Facebook are valuable for that kind of stuff too. I think its sort of cool. It will be sorta subsumed by something else one of these days. That idea will live on, it will just be bigger and more interesting or something.

Of course it wouldn't be a New Cicada interview without talking about record stores. Here is Brian and Ryan's take on that.

My last question, I used to work for a record store and I have been doing some interviews. I interviewed Joshua Radin, Colin Hay and Robinella talking about the death of the record store. Do you have any thoughts on where that is going? As far as Guster, are you guys going to an all digital format and just cut out the middleman?

Ryan: Some record stores if I understand it correctly, are actually doing okay - they are doing vinyl. Because there are some people who want the physical artifact. But I do think in general its anachronistic thing and it isn’t going to last. But I don’t know. As I said, I am a nerd. I think there are tons of bad things about the way the music industry is sort of unfolding there are so many more great things about it. I mean, it’s like, “Oh, you can’t go to record stores and discover. Think about all the music blogs that are helping people make decisions. You know, there are plenty of taste makers out there that just aren’t the record store clerks or the record stores anymore. Its just Stereo Gum, Gorilla vs. Bear, Pitchfork obviously and iTunes to an extent. Its a really democratizing force for music. And if you make a great record the chances of people hearing it are 100 times more now than they were 10 years ago or even when we started. Certainly now, everyday it gets easier for people to hear your music, I think.

I think its sad that the record store is sort of out of the physical artifact, but think it was sort of a bad part , you know a casualty of it. But in general the fact that the ubiquity of just people sitting around listening to music all the time. And then this is just part of people’s experience. Music is free. We just have to figure out a different way to sort of monentize it. There is an entire generation of people who never will never buy a record. Its just the deal.

Until they get a great subscription service that is cheap, really great and fast. As soon as you can pay $9 a month for iTunes or Rhapsody where you can take it away and put it on your phone. We are really close. Its basically a few phone calls and we make it happen. It will be like, okay then, "I have the entire universe on my phone!" What’s bad about that, really?

Thundergod. (Seriously Brian Rosenworcel is the nicest guy!)

So are you going to go to an all digital format at all?

Thundergod: By all digital format do you mean we will cease making cassettes tapes? Not releasing a physical product?

That’s right.

Thundergod: If we are still on a major label when this next album comes out they will make and print CDs and will put them in Target or whatever store is left that is selling CDs by then. Maybe it will just be Wal-Mart or Best Buy, I don’t know.

Pearl Jam just did the Target deal because they weren't going to go with Wal-Mart.

The whole thing is depressing. Its just lose-lose. The point is that even though nobody is selling their music or even necessarily printing their music, people are hearing their music. So they will still come and go to out shows. They know the words so it doesn't really matter to me.

In the early 90s I worked for a record store, its was like a formative process for me. I am wondering if the death of the record store is a good thing or a bad thing?

Thundergod: Well, it makes me sad because it’s a special experience to purchase a record and listen to it. Its because you invested in it. [You] read the liner notes. I’m sad that is going away. But you know, we’ll be sad when movie theaters go away. Everything changes...

###

I heart U2, but...get some social media experts please?

2009-10-26T01:22:00.001-04:00

Dear Bono, Larry, the Edge and Adam,

I am your biggest fan. Seriously. I am. You've been in my life for a long time, we've practically grown up together. We first met when I listened to Band Aid and you were the voice after my beloved Sting and Simon LeBon (gimme a break, I was 11). That record made me want to understand what was happening in the world. Then I saw you perform at Live Aid. It changed my life forever. I watched and learned. I joined Amnesty International. You taught me to care about things happening outside of the US - things I didn't see on our local television. In 1987, my parents let me go to the last show of the Joshua Tree tour (22nd row) in Hampton, Virginia before you were off to film at Sun Tempe. I was at the Madison Square Garden show after 9/11 with my family - we all cried together. Even my mom loves you guys :-)

Tonight, I am stoked to watch the live show! It's very cool that U2 is trying to embrace social media. (It is the future...) I know the millions of people around the world who have never seen a U2 concert were really excited. Very cool move to do a live streaming event. During the wait until 9PM PST, you mentioned that this was an effort to get closer to your audience. Finding new aways to bridge that gap.

After I watched the show, I was a little concerned about a few challenges you may have faced this being your first entry into the live streaming/fan interaction wave pool. I hate to point out a few things but perhaps there are some lessons learned from this experience for you...

Protect Your Fan's Privacy (and Safety) at All Costs

Now guys, just think about yourself. You wouldn't want your email address exposed to millions of people - would you? The folks you trusted to make sure this event went well did not check to see how the You Tube Twitter Gadget would accept non-Twitter accounts like MSN, Gmail and Yahoo. Seems that your fans could login with these accounts and join the chat. Thats super awesome, but they did so at the risk of exposing their email address to everyone who is watching. How many people is was that? Well apparently it was You Tube's largest audience ever - over 10 Million people. There are a lot of bad guys on the internet that do bad things with people's email addresses. I had to type in bold, but anything that exposes personal email addresses to the public is not a good thing and of course a huge privacy and online safety no-no. I am pretty surprised that nobody caught this....

When you are reaching your fans through technology, just like you do with a physical venue, you have to make sure the first priority is the safety and security of your fans. There are lot of smart people who can give you good advice and can help you on this.

Dead Air on You Tube - Seriously, did we have to wait 30 minutes?

When you say something is going to start at 8:30 - it should start at 8:30. But okay, so you want to build 30 minutes before to test everything to make sure it works -- well make it a pre-game show. Use the time wisely. I can't believe that your tour sponsors -- Blackberry of all people - would let all that time go by. If you were to ask me, you could have given the time to showcase your top 30 charities doing great work in Africa - or even better yet, in LA! Really a missed opportunity to impart big ideas for social change.

Perhaps you could have explained why its important that Suu Kyi be released. You can issue a call to action of your fans. When I saw the DC show, it seemed to me (even in DC) that there were a lot of people who (for whatever reason) may not know who Suu Kyi is or why its important for her to be free. Not to bring this up again, but you had (and wasted) a teachable moment in those 30 minutes -- 10 Million people x $$$ in advertising or donated media space? What could have been...

[Gripe: The road crew who took the mic during the pre-game? Really? Does that guy represent U2's interests enough to speak to 10 Million people - because remember you aren't just speaking to the crowd at the Rose Bowl, but that was a voice heard around the world. Wouldn't have been better to have someone from the One Campaign?]

Incorporate the fans (your community) into the coverage - iReporting, uh, duh.

Rule #1 in social media - it has to be social. That is a two way street. It was a downer not to see fans incorporated into the event. There again was a missed opportunity to have fans participate online beyond tweeting. You talk to a tape of an astronaut - how cool would have it been to go live to fans around the world watching. You should have showcased the shared experience. This is the future.

It was really too bad U2 fan club couldn't create the next generation "street team" and task them with iReporting within the stadium and online (a la PopMart tour). This would provide real time coverage of the show and make it interactive and more interesting for the fans.

It really is a gift to do a show like this for so many reasons. The internet connects us all - its a 2-way conversation, unfortunately this show seemed to be only one-way.

As much as I love you guys, I'm a little surprised with the myriad of missed opportunities and challenges given the amount of resources you have to make this tour not only the biggest in the stadium - but also online.

Just take a second to think about it. You might have reached more people online in one night that you would through your entire tour. Just imagine the opportunities to make poverty history and encourage freedoms of people around the world.

Its a new world - we are all connected. There are millions of people who look to you - I hope with the next adventure in social media that you feel the opportunity you have within your reach.

Heather

Just a few after blog notes:

1) Where is the @U2 twitter account? What is the deal with this? The @U2_360Tour doesn't have a lot of traction because it looks like a corporate way to cross reference U2.com and YouTube Channel. Twitter is a conversation not just a place to post things. You haven't retweeted one thing on the stream. Again another missed opportunity. The fact that you only have a tour account is an indication that social media is just to promote the tour not to promote interaction with your fans.

2) Don't showcase that you are rockstars. I think we already know that. Specially the shots of you in a bubble. It makes me feel that you aren't in touch with reality. Private jets, big suburbans and hundreds of people working for you. We want to see what you are interested in. What are you thinking? Are there funny things happening on the road (there have to be some right?) A good example (kinda) was when the Edge was talking "Ready for Dublin" but on U2.com you can't share the videos. #FAIL U2 Press People - give the camera to the band and let them talk about what they are doing and how they feel. Also you HAVE to be able to share everything you release.

3) Your website, well it seems to be asking me to buy stuff . Really? I have to pay to be in the fan club every year just so I can make sure to get access to tickets? Right at this moment there is not even a column which highlights your social causes. You have a box which is the "Edge's Mask Gallery" with people wearing Suu Kyi's face. Do you take the time to explain how they can help? There isn't even a link to more information on the click through page. The whole point of people wearing the mask is to raise awareness. I bet my parents don't know who she is and you have many fans who are in countries who block information - perhaps it would be helpful to have more context on why U2 cares and what you are asking your fans to do (besides wear a mask). They know they should care, but do you provide the context of why and how they can help. Just wearing a mask at a concert isn't helping and there is no after action call to the fans. Also fans should be able to upload directly to the web site (or Flickr, YouTube, and the like).

4) Hearts + Minds. This seems like someone created a list and posted the organization's boiler plate language. Really? Why don't you talk about why your fans should care about it? Your personal connection with the issue. The only one that has that is Music Rising with the Edge giving a quote - this is where a video would be much better and a showcase of how U2's fans are helping the organization.