Rewording Marketing

25 02 2009

When I think of the word marketing, I have two images:

1) The corporate asshole who works 12-hour days plotting ways to sell his brand’s flavored sugar water, fast food, or cigarettes.

2) The wacky “think out-of-the-box” guy who has a private consulting company in San Fran or Boulder.

These images have gotta end and the best way to do that is redefine what marketing means by changing the word itself. To me, to market is to expose. Marketers expose people to new ideas or new products through creative means across various mediums (print, radio, TV, internet….). Expose has a lot of more positive connotations to it, with the exception of a sketchy old guy only wearing a bathrobe, but hopefully you get my point. It’ll help people focus on fulfilling services than just trying to get people to buy shit.

And it is no shocker for me to say that the music industry needs to change the status quo. We can’t think in terms of CD’s, record labels, ringtones, or 360 deals because none of them will create sustainable levels of income for musicians and if they’re not making money then music will no longer be an industry.

A good salesman, just like marketer lives by the code Always Be Closing whether it’s directly through sales or indirectly through marketing campaigns, which is why music has been on a decline. They’re thinking about closing before analyzing whether or not people want their goods or services, so my suggestion is get back to the drawing board and find unique ways “to expose” music to people. The industry needs to keep the sources of their product (musicians) and the sources of their income (consumers) happy before the whole system collapses. People won’t go to concerts that cost $100 plus $35 in fees when they can burn the concert DVD that will inevitably come out before the band’s next tour and they sure as hell won’t buy the $10 download when they learn how to download a torrent for free.


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Categories : Industry Commentary

Finding a part time job, doing my work, and searching for a third roommate=worst combo ever

25 02 2009

So basically my life since I moved has been a series of popped bubbles. Last week, I was very aggressive with booking and got a bunch of shows put together, but then I found out that the girl who was really into my apartment changed her mind, which totally bummed me out. And just thinking about paying another month for the empty room is making me quiver and want a part-time job that I can’t even get since everyone and their mother are looking for jobs.

By trying to do all three tasks at once they each individually suffer and are left unfulfilled. But they’re so connected that I can’t let one slip. Make sense?

I need to keep booking in the event I don’t find a roommate, but I need to find a roommate because it’s both logically and monetarily irrational to have a three-bedroom apartment for two people. I want to find a part-time job to lesson the pressure of having to book shows all the time, so I can focus on my various other projects I pile up on the side (including the meetup), but I can’t get one because the economy sucks and it means less time trying to find a roommate and booking shows. So it’s a vicious circle of nothing really getting accomplished and I’m going insane…any suggestions?


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Categories : Life, Random

South Philly Experiment

24 02 2009

Andy and I had been plotting for a while about a way to get Ropeadope some more presence in Philly for Ropeadope’s 10th Anniversary. Over the summer, he asked me to come check out this venue Connie’s Ric-Rac with him and I was a little skeptical because it was actually IN the Italian Market. When I got there my jaw dropped because it embodies all that Ropeadope is: of the beaten path, dive-ish, but artsy…and there’s a snake. We were so amped to actually get this residency going, but Andy lost contact with them until early December when they contacted him outta the blue and said they had an opening for us the following week. With little time and effort we got 30 people to check out the first South Philly Experiment and this is what was created: listen here.

Check out the commercial starring Frank:

If you’re into good music and live in Philly you have no excuses, so come to the South Philly Experiment every last Thursday of the month for a killer night of music (and did I mention it’s BYOB!!!!).


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Categories : Live Music

Paul’s Boutique

24 02 2009

Beastie Boys were an intricate part of my musical evolution. I remember being in 5th grade (I think???) and browsing The Wall (the CD store) for the one copy of Ill Communication that didn’t have the Explicit Lyrics sticker on it, so I could convince my mom to get it for me for being on the Honor Roll that month in school. And to be honest, I hadn’t thought about them for over a year until I read this post Ian Rogers wrote on the Topspin blog about Paul’s Boutique.

After I finished, I kept thinking, “well what’s my Paul’s Boutique?” In other words, what band, album, or musical entity got me so into music that I had to make a career of it for myself?

Part of me wants me to say it was listening to Less Than Jake’s Losing Streak in 6th grade. I always prided myself in diverting from the mainstream and being ahead of the curve in musical taste. A lot of my friends give me shit for hating things that people like or that are popular in general, but there’s something about being part of something small that makes it special. I’m not saying Less Than Jake are the best band ever or that Losing Streak in any way comparable to he quality of Paul’s Boutique, but it’s “my” Paul’s Boutique. It made me passionate about music for something more than a hobby and knocked over the first domino of musical curiosity and exploration.

So now my question for you is, what’s your Losing Streak?


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Categories : Career Advice, Industry Commentary, The Nature of Music

Young Music Professionals Meetup

18 02 2009

Instead of complaining about the way things should or could be in the music industry, my buddy Gabe and I have decided to take on the responsibility of hosting a meetup for all the various industry folk in their mid-twenties to network, interact, and more importantly, mobilize.

However, let me backup a little. Last night, I went to a meetup hosted by Derek Sivers at Crash Mansion. I have spoken to Derek on and off for the past 8 months or so whether it was to update him on what I’m doing or for him to reaffirm my beliefs that I am capable of doing great things if I sit down and act on my ideas. Anyways, during his impromptu speech, he kept talking about organizing and creating a movement in music. I kept thinking that this concept of a movement was easily applicable toward the business-side to give a voice to all the assistants destined for the big office such as Gabe or the starving entrepreneurs who needs the right team to surround themselves with such as myself.

It kind of clicked by the time Gabe got to the meetup that we should do something instead of waiting. When Gabe pretty much said what I was thinking, but said he had been looking for a wingman of sorts to divide and conquer, we knew that we were gonna make it happen NOW. Sooooooo stay tuned for details and specifics in the next week or so!

Also, please contact me if you’re in the New York-area, you want to partake in this experiment of ours, and include what your involved in the music industry is.


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Categories : Career Advice, Industry Commentary

Guest Blog — How applicable is Obama’s marketing campaign to music?

18 02 2009

To get a good understanding of how my intern Ryan thought, I emailed him a document describing how Obama used social networking and I asked him to apply it to music. This is what he said (completely unabridged):

I have been studying a lot of Obama. He masterfully did to the American people what every musician should try to do: built a loyal tribe (as much as that word has been overused into oblivion by hypebot, it’s still the best way to describe it). I think those principles can be applied without even changing them, although for it to make sense I quickly have to explain that most if not all of my business plan for my band is based off how Tucker Max has run his company. Tucker Max masterfully used a message board to support him for years with ad revenue, and I think message boards could be huge for musicians who know how to use them.

Anyway:

- Personal/Social/Advocate: A personal level: listening, be our friend on facebook/other social networks, commenting on the songs, participating in message board discussion. Social: posting videos/pictures of concerts, being a high volume poster on the message board. Advocate: someone who would help advertise our concert by putting up flyers around school, perhaps getting us in contact with the school radio station, hosting an afterparty for the band to interact with fans, and maybe even housing the band (an idea I thought might work: a private hour total concert split over 2 half hour sessions in return for housing a band for a night). I think empowering super users such as making them moderators or having them help with the publicity for a given show goes along with this as well.

- Source material: maybe not on such a level as Trent Reznor, but I think this definitely means having tons of videos and pictures up, all for free download for fans. Whatever (reasonably appropriate) media we have should somehow be available for the fans.

- Going where people are/making it easy: this means being on all the popular sites, having our material on MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm, ReverbNation, etc etc. Also having an interactive and clean website is important.

- Analytics: Google analytics is great, and I’ve heard about something called band metrics that apparently is supposed to be good. I would say that geographical metrics are more important for bands than most, as then you can see where you can tour the best.

- Picking the right team: I’m not sure this is super applicable to bands as you’re pretty much on your own for the first few years, but picking a team that has your best interests in mind and can complement your faults the best, and that understand the future of media are all extremely important when picking a label or manager or whoever else you choose to hire.

Ryan made some very valid remarks. However, he floated around a couple extremely key points. Although Obama is an Ivy Leaguer just like Bush and most presidents, he used his story and his character on top of the substance of his beliefs to win the hearts of minds of (most of) America. They got to know who he was to supplement what he believed in. In addition, he was dead on about the role of his supporters; by getting them involved, they become even more passionate about the cause and this raw passion conveyed from one person to another means more than some guy in a suit saying, “Vote for Obama”. AND by taking these tactics off the street (ie the annoying door to door bullshit) to various online mediums, the scope of Obama’s reach magnified and his various beliefs become a movement. THIS is how a band gets fans; substance alone doesn’t win fans and sure as hell doesn’t win presidencies.


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Categories : Industry Commentary, The Nature of Music

Music and Fashion…are they really that different Pt. 1

12 02 2009

Two nights ago, I had my friend Virginia over for a move in dinner.  Asking her questions about fashion, she pointed out that the fashion industry discovered The Ting Tings and followed up with saying that Coachella is a huge deal for the fashion industry.  This prompted me to try to take this comparison even further.

In the next week, I will be a guest at two fashion shows:  one for lingerie and one for boutique dresses.  My goal is to decide how similar/different the two artistic mediums are in both the creative and business-sense.

A couple general questions to help guide me:

Are the younger fashion professionals the heat in the fire as in music?

Is everyone oblivious to where fashion will be in five years as in music?

Do designers think they’re changing the world with their clothing as some musicians feel with their music?

Does what music the designer listens to reflect their clothing as music genre dictates a certain fashion for the musician (ie you will never see Marilyn Manson in Dockers)?

What is cost versus selling price in fashion in comparison to music?

What is the average loss in 2008 for a major fashion company versus major label?

What is the role of marketing in fashion versus music?

Next week after the second show, I will sit down and try to make an analysis of all I saw, heard, and spoke about.  Also, feel free to participate with your own thoughts and/or knowledge about these two art forms.


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Categories : Industry Commentary, Random

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