All Things D interview with Irving Azoff

The WSJ's D7 Conference covered a lot of ground. Kara Swisher interviewed artist manager, Ticketmaster CEO and soon to be head of Ticketmaster/Live Nation's new endeavor, Irving Azoff. Irving stated what seems obvious to most, except those at the major record labels: Labels have always lagged in embracing new technology, in fact they fear it. Rather than use it for their best interests, they'd rather sue consumers. Irving, as it is with any manager, believes in the live experience. That is where a manager's bread and butter has always been. He also stated that branding will be a big factor for musicians and that Madison Avenue has been a even better source of revenue for recording artists now.

Jill Sobule performed. She recently asked fans to donate money via her website so she could record her new record. She received over $80,000 in donations and the album came out three weeks ago. She wrote and performed a song inspired by attending last year's conference. She was never a fan of Rupert Murdoch. He came up to her at the D6 conference and said he liked her song, gave her a hug and she said he was nice. Inspiration comes from many places.

After watching several of the interviews from the conference, I'd love to know who chose the red chairs. They don't look comfortable. They give the impression that it's a matter of minutes before the dentist will enter the room to do a root canal.

Goodfinger

Mike Williams' band Goodfinger has a new album out: Killing With Kindness. Along with Michael LaMorte, they are the songwriting duo who wrote and performed the music for the upcoming children's animation/music project, The Rattles.

Goodfinger is fronted by Scrappy Calloway, who's sultry vocals breezy through the album. Scappy's vocals work their way around a song much in the same way Terri Nunn of Berlin did. Listen to Another Night On My Own. This song would be perfect on the radio or remixed for the dance floor.




Outside could have been recorded in the late 70's/early 80's. It's infused with all the stuff that made the early CBGB's bands so exciting. Goodfinger would have been a perfect opener for Blondie or Television. Since I mentioned the 70's/80's, I have to point out that Goodfinger do a sinister cover of Squeeze's Take Me I'm Yours.

Green Day

On Friday mornings, I'll check to see what music is on Good Morning America. Today was a winner: Green Day. The band gets the crowd involved, uses the whole stage and plays their hearts out. The Ramones references have been around since the beginning of the band, it especially rings true with the economic length of their songs.

Wal-Mart is not selling their latest record, 21st Century Breakdown. They wanted a "clean version". Green Day refused to alter their art for the sake of a retail chain. Kudos to them. As lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said, "They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

Young Girls Crown A New American Idol

The NY Times takes an analytical look at American Idol, discussing the well run machine that it is. The author states that America voting Kris Allen as the winner, reflects the mood of the country in selecting the more down home choice. I think he won because the young girls love him and with the exception of Howard Stern, they are probably the ones who voted and voted more than once. With close to 100 million votes cast, American Idol is the one place in the media that can draw the same numbers that a show like The Ed Sullivan Show used to.

MySpace Left Out

A posting on today's Cynopsis had a list of the top ten video streaming sites. MySpace is not among them. Just a short year ago, people were still turning to MySpace to hear music. YouTube seems to be the destination for both video and audio. Thousands of songs have user made videos which are essentially stills edited together with the music and uploaded as a video. It's an easier way to hear a song. The MySpace player still takes time to load, which could be sending users to YouTube. YouTube is easily accessible from computers to iPhones.

Top Online Video Brands Ranked by Total Streams - April 2009
Including Month-over-Month and Year-over-Year Growth

Video Brand Apr-09 Streams (000) M/M % Change Y/Y % Change Share of Streams
Online Video Usage 9,452,996 -2.3% 24.2% 100.0%
YouTube 5,490,204 0.2% 35.5% 58.1%
Hulu 373,290 7.1% 490.4% 3.9%
Yahoo! 203,628 -12.2% -8.1% 2.2%
Fox Interactive Media 201,362 -3.0% -38.8% 2.1%
Nick Kids and Family 175,917 -10.3% 15.9% 1.9%
MSN/Windows Live 164,422 -2.7% 9.8% 1.7%
ABC.COM 148,830 -15.9% 144.8% 1.6%
MTV Networks Music 143,356 15.7% 359.6% 1.5%
Turner Digital Network 130,559 -5.1% 60.0% 1.4%
CNN Digital Network 112,469 8.7% 32.7% 1.2%
Source: Nielsen VideoCensus

The audio is not the best, but if you want a quick reference, it's a great resource.

Amiercan Idol: The Only Game in Town

Major record labels did listeners a service: they narrowed the playing field. Before the Internet, the labels would be the place for an artist wanting a career in music. They had the time, money and people power for a finite number of acts to promote each year. Acts needed producers and studios to make the records. Radio was king for turning people on to your music. Hearing your favorite band live was (and still is) the ultimate experience. Now anyone can make a record and they do. Most bands write, record and produce their own records. Radio is so narrowly programmed that there isn't much room for a new artist to be heard. American Idol is the only game in town now for massive exposure. I think Ryan Seacrest said that 88 million people voted for the top two spots left in this season. I realize many people vote multiple times, but that is an insane number.

Danny was voted off the show. This is probably the best thing to happen to him. Besides going out on the Idol Tour, he doesn't have to play by their rules and for a rock singer, this is a plus. He got the exposure. People know his name. He'll have no problem getting a record deal. What he does with his career and how he handles it, will determine how successful he is. Daughtry hit the jackpot when America chose Katherine over him. It seemed crazy at the time, but the word Idol is in the shows title. Of the two that are left, either Adam or Kris would make a great Idol. Adam has the androgynous, pop voice and Chris has the adoration of the little girls. The stage is set for a night of massive exposure that used to come only to those who slogged it out on the road, put in their 10,000 hours and had a producer to helm their latest record. Can't see Adam or Kris trashing a hotel room.

Mosaic Music Video

Editing YouTube clips and make a music video. Very clever.

Here are the creators notes:

The video's official release date was April 21, 2009. It took our team over 1 month to privately annotate the videos before publishing it publicly!

The YouTube Mosaic Music Video is a digital piece of art that was made from 1.4 million tiles, and thousands of unique YouTube video stills. It is an original, interactive video of it's kind, and maxs out YouTube's annotation editor.

Miss Vicky

1968 and 1969, were among other things, boom years for American Pop Culture. So many memorable moments, both good and not so good, happened in that two year time period. My 1969 memories include the Mets being crowned the Amazin's, Neil Armstrong landing on the moon and the marriage of Tiny Tim and Miss Vicky on the Tonight Show. Tiny Tim always fascinated me. The first time I saw Andy Kaufman on SNL, I thought here's the next Tiny Tim. Not that they had all that much in common, except that they were outsiders who were so interesting.

Ms Vicky was 17 years old when she married Tiny.

Sonic Boomers has a piece written by Ms Vicky that's an interesting short read. It's apparent that her life with Tiny was too large for her. She is now blogging http://missvickinow.blogspot.com/ and she reveals a little more about their short time together. The girl from NJ is living in a rural area of Tennessee. She does have 6 chickens 4 of which are named Ginger, Maryann, Laverne and Shirley. She talks about singing Why on the Ed Sullivan show with Tiny. The clip is a fun view, especially knowing that wardrobe gave her the ensemble.

Worst Album Covers

I was forwarded a link to the 50 worst album covers.
This one is downright creepy.

Indie Music Not Hear on Radio

The Future of Music Coalition released the results of an analysis they completed to determine what radio is playing.

The results:

Using playlist data licensed from Mediaguide, FMC examined four years of airplay – 2005-2008 – from national playlists and from seven specific music formats: AC, Urban AC, Active Rock, Country, CHR Pop, Triple A Commercial and Triple A Noncommercial. FMC calculated the "airplay share" for five different categories of record labels to determine whether the major labels’ ratio of airplay share has changed at all in the past four years.

The data indicate almost no change in station playlist composition in this period. Specifically, the national playlist data indicated very little measurable change in airplay share from 2005-2008, with major label songs consistently securing 78 to 82 percent of airplay. The format data showed some modest increases in airplay for indies on some formats (Country and AAA Non-Commercial, in particular) but otherwise the data from year to year changed very little. An examination of airplay by release date showed that many formats leave only small portions of their playlist for new material, with current songs sprinkled in among well-worn hits.

Not surprisingly, there is only 18% dedicated to non-major label musicians. I guess the flip side to this is that most people are not learning about new music from terrestrial radio. It's YouTube, friends and social networks leading the way to discovering new artists. Does this make it easier for news artist to get heard? It certainly is more accessible for them.

The State Of Radio

Clear Channel will be laying off up to 1000 people, mostly in programming in mid and small size markets according to an article in Paid Content. Wikipedia state that Clear Channel owns 900 radio stations and is the largest radio station group owner. Not much talk is directed at the state of radio for the down slide in sales in the music business. The consolidation and control of radio to a handful of companies has had a monumental effect on how people hear music. I don't know anyone who listens to terrestrial radio now. Radio used to be a personal and local comfort. Stations are now programmed by one body of people, rather than each station taking into account their audience. The Jack stations sounded like an iPod on shuffle mode. Songs are not back announced so you have no idea what you just listened to. Major labels should have been protesting that years ago. You can't buy a record if you don't know the artist or what the title of the song is. The listener doesn't get insight on the recording, who may have played on it or when the artist will be in town. All of that came from a knowledgeable, passionate radio station staff. That all used to be part of the listening experience. Public radio still serves people this way (think WFUV, KEXP).

It was reported over a week ago that online radio listeners have increased to 42 million from 33 million in 2008. More on an article in Billboard. In most cases the stations that are truly online stations and not streaming from an existing terrestrial station are programmed by DJs in their home and sent from their laptop. It may not be a local thing, but it's a much more personal thing. The playlists are usually posted live; therefore, you never have to guess at who you're hearing. I remember putting my transistor radio, tuned to WABC, under my pillow at night. There was nothing more reassuring than that. The image of a child falling asleep with her laptop at her head, is probably not that different a scenario.

A Social Media Strategy Outline For Bands

Hypebot posted a graphic that sums up why bands must use social networking tools. It's not telling artists anything new, but it does lay it out and makes it all very logical. This will help bands to focus their marketing. At the center of the hub is the website from which all roads (whether Reverb Nation or Twitter) lead to.





Study Finds Those Who Download Free Music, Tend To Purchase 10 Times More Than Those Who Don't

According to a Norwegian study, those who downloaded free music, either legally or illegally, purchased ten times more music than people who did not download free music. Billboard recaps a story in Afterposten. The study followed 2000 people over the age of 15.

This points to what I always believed, that serious music lovers will always purchase music. I think a lot of people download music to get a preview of what they will purchase. The few seconds you can sample on iTunes is not enough to judge. How long did the major labels release albums with one hit and 9 inferior songs without the option of buying just the single? The music consumer got fed up with it. They got hip to the lousy music. Wonder why the single is king now?

Saturday is Record Store Day

Unfortunately record stores are becoming a dying breed. Go support your local record store tomorrow.

What Do Royalties From YouTube Amount To?

Peter Waterman, songwriter of Rick Astley's hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," is not happy with Google's royalty payments and compared his royalties from YouTube to the "exploitation" suffered by foreign workers in Dubai according to a piece in the Telegraph. The Astley video has been viewed 154 million times on YouTube, according to the article, and Waterman says he has received £11 ($16.30) from Google. There are several posting of the video on YouTube, including Pop Up Video versions. The views ranged from 1.5 million to 16.3 million views. I'm assuming these are global views and not just US. If so, the 154 million claim seems rather high.

The PRS For Music organization based in the UK, wants Google/YouTube to pay higher royalties to songwriters for use of their work online and Waterman's comments were part of a press conference for the PRS for Music group, which is demanding higher payments to content creators.

Season Opener At Shea (oops!)

Tonight is the Mets official opening of Citi Field, which I continue to call Shea. My friend T'Boo refers to it a Two Shea (touche). In the spirit of things, my dog Dusty put on her game face and donned a Mets jersey. Let's Go Mets!

NIN Drummer Update on Promotional Campaign

Josh Freese, the drummer from Nine Inch Nails, posted a bunch of ways his music could be purchased: lunch with him, he'd write a song with your name in it, hanging out with Mark Mothersbaugh, etc. He wrote to Bob Lefsetz with an update on how his promotional campaign is going. The beauty of the campaign is that he did something with humor and integrity. How could you not be taken in by it? He seems to be enjoying it as much as his fans. It sounds like it is a winner. Here's the posting.

From: Josh Freese
Subject: Checking in with an update.
,
Hi there Bob. How are ya?

So, I wanted to check in and give you an update on what's been going on just after the first week or so of my records release. My label, "Outerscope Records" (that's me, my girlfriend and our nanny when the kids are asleep) is proud to report that I've sold about 150 of the $50 of the packages and all 25 of the $250 packages (those went in the first 24 hours.) In less than a week I have sold 4 of the $500, 2 of the $2,500, 2 of the $5,000, and the big old $20,000 package! No one has bought the $75,000 package yet but I've had someone fairly serious inquiries about it (still only "talk" at this point though.)

Any-hoo, I just started my "lunches" with people and I've been on the phone nonstop for the past few weeks with people who have bought the record (and a phone call option). It's actually been completely hectic and I've just finally got my head above water for a minute. My friends were joking the other day that I may be the only person in the music business that considers himself to be selling TOO MANY RECORDS right now! These phone calls and lunches are a lot to keep up with and I've hardly just begun. I still stay "BRING IT!" though. I made my bed and now I gotta' sleep in it.

I'm still waiting for some numbers regarding how many downloads or just regular CD's I've sold but my expectations aren't very high. But if it all stopped right now I can walk away feeling successful about the whole thing and I am pleasantly surprised at how many of the "packages" have sold. I truly did not expect them to sell so well. And sure it's been great to make some money doing it, but the most rewarding part has been getting feedback from people about how much they liked what I'd come up with. Or how much they laughed while reading the stuff at their desk or in the studio with their friends huddled around the computer. Getting the nod from smart, creative people always feels good. I've received emails and phone calls ranging from guys in Pearl Jam, to Tony Hawk to Trent Reznor to Billy Gibbons to Devo to top producers and label people all loving it and giving me big props on the whole thing. I had the head of marketing at a very prestigious and famous company (who shall remain nameless) tell me that she "hung her head in shame for a week after seeing my marketing plan." It was like, here she was doing this for a living and some dumb-ass rock drummer came along and smoked her at her own game... or something along those lines (sorry, I think I just pulled a muscle from patting myself on the back.) We had a laugh about it and I thanked her for the compliment. Point being, it's been nice receiving so many accolades from people I admire and from professionals who deal in this world every day. I also love the fact that this has nothing to do with drumming and writing music but EVERYTHING to do with being creative and unique.

I've got 6 of my 25 lunches under my belt now and it feels pretty good (and weird.) I've got one tomorrow and I'm doing 2 back to back on Saturday. I schedule all lunches from 11 AM to Noon so I can continue on with my "normal life" of showing up and doing sessions. So far people seem surprised and appreciative when I call them at home in Texas or Iowa or Greece or Australia (called all those places and another 100 cities so far.) The guy from Florida that bought the $20,000 package and I have been joined at the hip since Sunday and I won't even go into all the stuff that we've done in the past 4 days but I've already gone above and beyond for him and we're continuing to have a blast. I'll start posting stuff soon on my website and on youtube but just to give you a quick idea...mini-golf with Maynard James Keenan, pizza at Mark Mothersbaugh's house, sensory deprivation tank sessions, a signed snare drum I used on a Nine Inch Nails tour, slumber party at the Queen Mary, going to gigs of mine with me, pulling items out of my closet, etc, etc......He's a great kid and a friend for life. We're having him check out of his hotel and stay at our house tomorrow night. It's a LONG, LONG story that I'll write about later. You can laugh when I say this but it's true when I tell you that he came into my life for a reason other than just the $$. I actually feel bad about taking the $$ because at this point I'm not hanging out with him or pretending to be his friend for the cash. He got all of his stuff (and a bunch more that wasn't on the original menu) a while ago. He's a sweet 19 year old kid who's had a really rough last couple years (like REALLY fucking rough.) Like....this money he spent to come out here is part of a inheritance he received (you can fill in the blanks there.) I feel like his big brother and I'm trying to make this one of the best weeks of his life. OK, we're getting a little too heavy here SO...for now here's a shot of me and my first lunch date last week at the ol' Cheesecake Factory. His name's Andrew, he's a photographer for the OC Weekly and a super guy! Bob....if you want I'l throw ya a free $500 package and we can go floating in Venice and then whip over to Sizzler sometime. I'm telling ya man....you'd dig it! Trust me...I'm a drummer.

Josh F

Friday Night Lights

Tonight is the season finale for Friday Night Lights. I should have been telling you to watch it at the beginning of the season, but there many ways to watch a show now. This season was first aired on Direct TV before airing on NBC, which is why the show is still in production. It's been renewed for two more 13 episode seasons. The writing and the acting are quality. It's also nice that this show is not chock full of gratuitously placed music. It's a show about real people, oh it happens to involve some football.

Common Line of Clothing Inspired by Microsoft

Common, the rapper and actor has two endorsements running now: a new fragrance for Diesel called "Only the Brave," and a line of PC-inspired clothing called Softwear for Microsoft.

According to the article in Billboard, Common has also partnered with Microsoft to launch Softwear, a clothing line inspired by PCs and revolving around when the machines started to become popular. Softwear tee-shirts, some of which were designed by Common, were made available in retail stores just a few weeks ago. (This news was originally reported in December)

After reading this I had to see what clothing inspired by a PC looked like. I can't imagine Microsoft sparking a person's creative inner fashion designer.

A Common designed shirt:


This design immediately takes me back to the 1980's. This shirt would be worn with leggings, possibly belted and of course the wearer would have on pointy-toed boots.

Here are two samples of classic shirts:

Nothing immediately comes to mind after viewing the DOS shirt or the one that features Bill Gates. Wait, wasn't there a Jim Morrison T Shirt with his mugshot from his arrest in Florida? These two are part of the collection but not designed by Common. I wonder if these are selling. I couldn't find sales figures. According to the clothing line's website, these cannot be purchased online, only in select stores. This seems like a very low tech strategy. In fact, this all seems very misguided. I'm not sure who the audience is or if there is an audience for items. Does Common have the influence to make this work? Has anyone seen a person wearing one of these shirts?

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer wrote to Bob Lefsetz about her experiences with her record label, Roadrunner Records and her fight to be dropped from the label. She recorded a song called Please Drop Me to the tune of Moon River. Shades of Graham Parker's Mercury Poisoning. She's a member of the Dresden Dolls and made a solo record with producer Ben Folds in Nashville. Not being able to listen to Please Drop Me, I still decided to follow the link she provided. My puppy is sleeping (I have to grab the time when I get it), so audio was out of the question. Amanda is entertaining and informative. I guess I shouldn't find this story hard to believe, but it is. From her Leftsetz posting:

i had to EXPLAIN to the so-called "head of digital media" of roadrunner australia WHAT TWITTER WAS. and his brush-off that "it hasn't caught on here yet" was ABSURD because the next day i twittered that i was doing an impromptu gathering in a public park and 12 hours later, 150 underage fans - who couldn't attend the show - showed up to get their records signed.

Here are some other links to read about what makes her tick. I promise to listen to her song as soon as Dusty wakes up. I'm intrigued.

The Dresden Dolls
Who Killed Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer