It's been widely covered. HarperCollins book publishers have set a limit on how many times a library can "lend" an e-book. After 26 times, the "book" will self destruct. Obviously this does not appeal to librarians or people who frequently use libraries like myself. E-books are the future. Heck, e-books are happening now. They are the future of the libraries.
Librarians are now fighting back. I was alerted to this by Techdirt. In support of the Readers' Bill Of Rights, I'm posting their logo and linking to their site. Their goals are to
To increase awareness of the ways that e-books are unique in terms of readers' rights.
Revisit DRM and it's consequences (the music industry has had their share of this pie).
To invite discussion.
To provide alternatives to closed technologies such as DRM.
For more info follow them on Twitter
Use the hashtag #readersrights
We are sharing updates as @readersrights via Twitter and Identi.ca
I'm a fan of Jac Holzman and I've written about him before. There is an insightful profile of him by Fred Goodman in the NY Times. How does he seem to be the only high level music executive out there who gets it? He is currently an adviser to Edgar Bronfman Jr who runs WMG. Read the whole article, but I'm just going to pull a few worthy quotes.
“Marketing is nothing more than connecting something interesting to willing ears. I like being sent music, and that’s one of the great advantages of the Web. If I have something I think is a great song, I send it to 20 friends. But making that connection through the Internet is one of the problems that the record industry has not figured out.”
He is concerned about the absence of what he called “first filters”: the online equivalent of the radio stations and disc jockeys, the publications and writers who, in Elektra’s early days, acted as guides for the larger public and helped shape tastes. “They have to happen,” he said. And until then, he added, the best thing a company can do is emulate the way small independents, like the early Elektra, did business and try anything to survive.
“Did I care when Jim Morrison passed out in the office?” he said. “No. We would have put those orange cones around him if we’d had them. We’d just let him lie there, and eventually he’d get up and dust himself off and go home."
“The reason indies beat majors as a rule is that the people who own these companies can make decisions and move,” he said. “I can tell you story after story about hearing something and making the deal that day, while it took Columbia six weeks to process the demo and decide they wanted the band. Hey, too bad. They’re in the studio for Elektra.”
I know there are rumors of Edgar selling WMG. He's still at the helm though, so I hope he's heeding Jac's advice. Jac's a smart man with a stellar music history.
When hearing NY described as Gotham City, Batman of course comes to mind. Commissioner Gordon was in charge of fighting crime in Gotham City, a vague rendition of New York City. Turns out the nickname was given to New York by writer Washington Irving over 200 years ago. The word Gotham dates to 1600's England.
According to Carmen Nigro's blog post at the NY Public Library, "English proverbs tell of a village called Gotham or Gottam, meaning “Goat’s Town” in old Anglo-Saxon. Folk tales of the Middle Ages make Gotham out to be the village of simple-minded fools, perhaps because the goat was considered a foolish animal." I guess if the shoe fits.
Gotham City sure had it's cast of characters: The Penguin, Catwoman, Mr Freeze and The Riddler to name a few. None were able to take down the Cape Crusaders or destroy Gotham City. I guess that still holds true, whether you call it Gotham, New York or The Big Apple, it's not going anywhere (despite the NY Daily News Headline from 1977: Ford To New York: Drop Dead).
The beauty of living in New York City is being able to take advantage of the bounty of cultural events. For under $30, one can experience a magical evening of music, art, culture, etc. These events always have produce moments that give you a chill, making you think, damn I'm so glad I experienced that. Guster and artist Jon Sarkin provided those moments on Friday evening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You're probably as surprised to hear Guster played there, as lead singer Ryan Miller and Sarkin were to in awe to be playing there.
Sarkin's art is a big part of Guster's latest project, Easy Wonderful. From the packaging to merch to the video, Sarkin's art is there. Drummer Brian Rosenworcel was the first to discover Sarkin's work and as fellow bandmate Adam Gardner said, they all fell in love with his paintings. Apparently he sent them so much art for the album, that they had a hard time choosing just one painting. They immediately knew the color wheel would be the cover. From there Sarkin wound up doing the whole booklet and participated in the video for Do You Love Me. He is creating art as the video progresses. Brian brought pieces of art that Sarkin left on the ground at the end of the video shoot and passed them around for the audience to look at. Sarkin explained that the joy is in creating the art and he doesn't necessarily have to keep it. He does keep whatever his wife likes. His recent work brings to mind Roz Chast, most famous for her New Yorker cartoons.
The show started off with curators explaining music's relativity to pieces in the museum's collection. One caught Ryan off guard by asking how he would explain an ancient Greek instrument depicted on an urn to his daughter. The conversation continued to explore the relationship between the band, Sarkin and video director Chad Carlberg. The band originally wanted to shoot the video in Sarkin's studio, but realized that wasn't possible as it's filled wall to wall with his work. The interview below from Good Morning Gloucester begins in his studio. Carlberg talked about the hardest part of making the video. They got the go ahead from the record company on a Friday and made the video on that Monday. Nice to see things haven't changed in the making of music videos.
After the conversation, Sarkin took his place at the easel and began to work while the band performed. Ryan, Adam and Luke played musical chairs, each taking on the bass, guitar and piano. They reworked their songs specifically for this "acoustic" show, keeping in mind that it might be a format to take on the road (Yes!). The bulk of the 45 minute set consisted of songs from Easy Wonderful including Bad Bad World, Stay With Me Jesus, That's The Way To Get To Heaven and a rousing version of This Could All Be Yours. Harmonies were in full swing.
In a hypnotic and powerful Satellite, the band was accompanied by two guest players on violin and cello. It made the song a religious experience. They concluded the set with Do You Love Me. This has got to be the band's new anthem. Didn't think they could match the pop magic of Amsterdam, but they did it with this song. Speaking of religious experience, the encore of Jesus On The Radio brought the band and Sarkin to the front of the stage, all unplugged. Brian played tambourine and Sarkin on teeny tiny maracas. It was an epiphany.
Apparently in the next few weeks, the Met will be posting a video of the whole evening. In the meantime, here's a snippet.
I didn't even make it past the halfway mark of the Oscar's last night. The writing was so dull and uninspiring. Roger Ebert commented on his blog that the first laugh came when Billy Crystal came on stage. I had already given up on the show by that time and missed him.
The opening was silly. James Franco has a sleepy way about him which doesn't work for a host. The big surprise of the evening was not one of the winners, but Anne Hathaway's voice. She sang beautifully. The song was silly, but she gave it her all. She wore a tux, which meant James dressed in drag. Yikes.
He does and he doesn't say that. In his blog this morning he got things stirring. My interpretation: don't set aside a big budget for marketing your start up. You are the best marketer for your company/product and be the evangelist. He goes on to say that most of the companies he's invested in have not had an initial marketing budget.
When applying this to a new band/music artist, I must agree. In my experience, most acts that hire marketing companies come away with mediocre results and a lot less money in their pockets. The act's manager (and the band) is still struggling to pay the bills (she/he gets paid a commission on money earned) but the marketers have made their monthly fee and usually get it for a minimum of three months, which they say is necessary to launch a project.
Times have changed so drastically over the past 10 years, that an artist can build their own marketing machine using existing free tools, which is what Fred recommends. If you're engaging in your Twitter, blog and Facebook posts, you can begin to gain an audience. Obviously your music has to be good. It's been proven that word of mouth endorsements will trump any promotional scheme a marketing company can come up with (see the Grateful Dead). I've seen the results of hiring marketing companies. I've never come away from an experience where I've just wanted to tell everyone to hire that company. I've seen some nice awareness building campaigns and I've seen marketers do exactly the opposite of how you'd like to see your artist promoted. I've never had a home run or even a triple.
Kudos Fred. You got it. If you're a musician, take control of your marketing. If down the road it gets to be too much for you to handle, then hire someone who clearly knows your vision and will stick to it. At that point, you're probably making money and things are rolling along.
Kenneth Mars played one of my favorite film characters, Franz Liebkind. He was the author of Springtime for Hitler who cared for pigeons on the roof of this building. Without him, there would be no Producers. Kenneth passed away this past week.. His beloved portrayal of Franz is classic and I thank him for it. To quote his character, "Not many people know it, but the Fuhrer was a terrific dancer!"
Robert Williams' images jump at you. He relies a lot on pop culture references. In the movie Robert Williams: Mr. Bitchin', the images literally jump at you from the screen. The filmmakers of this documentary isolated certain images from his paintings and bring them to the front of the screen, which made you pay attention to his details. There are details everywhere in a Williams' work. In dissecting a few of his paintings in the film, he details where his inspiration comes from, why he likes certain colors and how he would love to paint tiny details all the time if it wasn't so taxing. The movie had it's New York premier last night at the MOMA.
He wanted to depict delusion, he thought of King Farouk. He read extensively about him and his rule over Egypt (which of course is very timely) and portrayed him in several vignettes on a large canvas. Gluttony, thievery and conspicuous consumption are played out in his typical bright colors. As in most of his paintings, cars figure. In this case it's a shiny red Cadillac convertible.
A Life Of Delusion by Robert Williams
Early in his career, Robert was the art director for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's studio in Los Angeles. Big Daddy customized Hot Rods, which were themselves customized cars. The movie gives a nice history of the Hot Rod's beginnings. Ed Roth saw Robert's car, which he described as one big dent and his long hair and thought there was no way this guy could paint this beautifully. Robert proved him wrong and secured a job at the studio. Robert is seen driving his cars (and a unicycle and sting ray bike) in Mr. Bitchin'.
Robert was part of Zap Comix and eventually started his own art magazine JUXTAPOZ, which is a forum for both established and up-and-coming artists. Juxtapoz was different than other art magazine which seemed to focus on text and not the art.
He creates characters and comes across as a character himself in this film. Many artists will not discuss their art and that's why Mr. Bitchin' is a breath of fresh air. Williams freely lets you into his process, which for me made his work that much more alive. It's a fun romp into an artists head.
First came Citi Field, could Citi Records be far behind? Citigroup took over EMI today under a restructuring of debut. Not quiet sure why Citi even got involved in the recorded music business in the first place. According to the NY Times, it's likely that Citigroup will sell EMI. Will Martin Luther King lll, James McCartney and Carnie Wilson form a coalition to buy it?
In the ever shrinking film budget world, it makes sense that filmmakers/producers are now selling the music rights. The NY Times has an article which focuses on the British company The Cutting Edge Group. They can provide all the services needed to put music in a film from hiring music supervisors to selecting the film's composer. What they are now doing is buying the rights to the music from the producers. Soundtracks don't sell like they used to, but there are many other ways Cutting Edge can reap monetary benefits. They usually buy the rights for a sum between $50,000 to $200,000. This enables them to collect royalties every time the film is played, sell soundtracks, etc. The film producers give up any rights to future royalties on the music, but they more than likely get the music the way it should be, as opposed to having the music budget cut (I know from any music supervisor I've ever worked with that the music budget is the first to get cut in a film production). As Iain Canning, the producer of The Kings Speech said, “What we wanted to do was get the music that would do the images justice.” They were able to do this by selling the rights to Cutting Edge. The infusion of money, allowed the producers to hire Alexandre Desplat to score the film. He is nominated for an Oscar for his work.
I got to meet Charlie Louvin and see him live while I was working with Amoeba. The energy and love of music that he exuded in his performance was contagious. He passed away at 83. Age was not a factor for Charlie. He was young at heart and loved playing. All Things Considered did a nice piece on Charlie.
The good news for Cake is that they scored their first #1 album, Showroom of Compassion according to Billboard. It debuted at the top of the charts last week. The bad news for the recorded music industry is that the album only sold 44,000 units. This is the lowest debut since Soundscan started recording sales in 1991. 15 years ago, acts would get dropped the next week if they debuted with that many units sold. This week's sales topped last week's lowest selling #1 in Taylor Swift's Speak Now. It was her sixth consecutive week at #1 with 52,000 units sold. This has got to be bad news for record labels who solely rely on recorded music sales. It doesn't mean anything to artists who always made their money touring and selling merchandise.
It seems like I've always known about Don Kirshner. His name was on the credits of the Monkees TV show and their albums. He later hosted his one of the first live music TV shows, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. I watched it every week. The talent was so diverse that you could see the Rolling Stones, The New York Dolls or the Allman Brothers.
Don died this week from heart failure at age 76. He like Jerry Weintraub and a list of others, either hailed from the Bronx or Brooklyn. Don was from the Bronx. These guys realized early on that they may not have the talent to be a songwriter or an actor themselves, but they did know a hit. Neil started Aldon Music, one the most successful publishing companies of the early rock era. He signed Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Doc Pomus, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Mort Shuman and Neil Diamond. The amount of hits written by this group is staggering. Don paired the Monkees with some of the best songwriters, many whom wrote for him including Boyce and Hart who are forever associated with the group. From there he took on The Archies who scored with Sugar, Sugar. He later had his own record label. He was immortalized by Paul Shaffer who portrayed him on Saturday Night Live. Gilda Radner played his daughter, Karen. In real life Don did not have a daughter named Karen.
Paul talks about his relationship with Kirshner in the LA Times.
"He was a great character, a lovable character, certainly the most colorful character I’ve ever met. He was very fast talking, always very emotional about the music he loved and the music he was making. He was the ultimate when it came to promoting the songs he loved. He’d go on these runs and talk so fast that sometimes he’d break himself up."
Guster is in Daryl's House. I have such respect and love for both artists music, but would never have thought Guster would be dropping by Daryl Hall's. As a new father, Adam didn't make the trip. The event was described on the band's website. It's a show, on the interweb, where you go to Daryl's house and sing songs together (Daryl's songs, Guster's songs) in his studio while a renowned chef makes duck a l'orange and steamed mussels in the kitchen. Then when the music is over you drink a lot of wine, eat good food, ask Daryl a million questions about what it's like to be a rock star, and pee in the snow in Daryl's backyard. At least, I hope they included this in our episode.
Guster surprised everyone by choosing to cover an obscure Daryl solo song (from the album Sacred Songs) Babs and Babs (another surprise: it's about the left and right brain). There were a few selections from Easy Wonderful, which is Guster's latest arsenal of power packed tunes. In the show Ryan describes their music as Pop, the same way one would describe the music of Harry Nilsson or The Lovin' Spoonful. He's spot on. On that note, here's the Claparoo of the show: Do You Love Me. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Curious Sense is developing a Grateful Dead social game for online and mobile devices. They want your input. The survey welcomes those who are not yet Deadhead also. The game is schedule to launch in August of this year.
The bigger question might be: Why was I watching the Bachelor to know that Train was on it? Can't figure that band out, who their audience is or why they make the decisions they do.
Dave Matthews Band has decided that after 20 years of touring, they would take a break in 2011. An article in Slate breaks down the touring success of the band. The article makes the obvious reference to the Grateful Dead. DMB knows and appreciates their fan base the same way the Dead did. DMB differs in that 6 of their 7 studio albums have hit the number one spot on Billboard's charts and they have sold 30 millions records. Here is the most telling sign of the success of this band: In 2010 they grossed $72.9 million by performing 62 shows in 50 cities with an average ticket price of $58.69 the article points out. (The band's website says they performed 89 shows this past year. The article might be referring solely to summer touring.) While other acts are charging upward of $100 a seat, DMB is charging about 50% less. This allows fans to attend more than one show a tour and encourages ticket purchases. The fans more than feel like they got their money's worth and are encouraged to be part of a community.
NPR has a photo wall of musicians that died this year. Click on a name and hear a sample of her/his music. I was surprised to learn that Kate McGarrigle had died in January of 2010. Not only the mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright, but a fixture of folk music in New York City. The McGarrigle sisters will always be associated with The Bottom Line in my mind.
. From the packaging to merch to the video, 
) Babs and Babs (another surprise: it's about the left and right brain). There were a few selections from 
, which is Guster's latest arsenal of power packed tunes. In the show Ryan describes their music as Pop, the same way one would describe the music of