Do Technology Company's Have More Creativity Than The Music Industry?

How often have you wanted to smash something computer related?

Not too far in the recent past, making a living as a musician was a bit easier and the audiences paid a bit more attention to a live act, rather than just a guy with a laptop standing on a stage with headphones. In our current time frame, dance clubs are packed elbow to elbow, while many rock, punk and country acts are playing to less and less fans. 

Could this be a paradigm shift in musical taste? Or, maybe fans are just wanting something new and the immediacy that they are used to, from the internet. Could these electronic musicians be tapping into a larger unknown sphere of influence that in actuality is a database of the pre-programmed minds of video game sounds, website dings modem rings? Hmmm.... Maybe the electronic music evolution is just another part of the internet revolution and music that has been performed in a style for decades is just going out of fashion.

The Great White Hype - Beck's Sheet Music

Who will be the next Great White Hype? Well in this case, Beck has taken to the publishing world, to hype his new album and Bob Lefsetz has done quite the interesting write up on it. 

Opportunity exists where talent, luck and skill rendezvous in a dark abode. Call this dwelling the soul and you will be on the right path, as it is where true character is born into existence. Now imagine, as you the craftsman, look into the mirror each day and know, that the achievements to be earned, will be from never giving up and never going back.

Can you do this and not lose momentum? Should everyone do this and reflect on what they want to accomplish? Well, that is entirely up to you and the journey for which you are seeking the map to the calling of your desired destination.

The other day I was speaking with a buddy and he was telling me about seeing Springsteen the other night. He said he was taking notes as the show was in his top five of all time. The chemistry on stage, the music and most of all his charisma lit up the stadium like a Christmas tree. Springsteen is a dude not resting on his years of hard work, but continuing to cultivate his work as a true music craftsman and fellow musicians look on in awe. 

Bruce Springsteen on stage in Foxboro, Massachusetts 2012, photo by Jo Lopez

Now let's get to the nitty gritty of Bob Lefsetz's write up as he digs calling a spade, a spade. Read through his diatribe below and think on what he is saying. Without fire, there is no smoke. So if ya want your music to be heard, it's got to be damn good. This goes along with your stage show, your presence and every single aspect of what it is, that you represent. Fans don't have time for ego or petty bullshit as they will leave you for someone else with true character at a moments notice. If you want to last, you have to be better than the last show you just played. Don't ever forget that music comes from the soul, but fans come in the front door and pay for the experience.

Check out what Beck is up to with his Sheet Music from Forbes.com

Beck's sheet music album

Link to Bob Lefsetz writings, ramblings and bad ass vernacular on the music industry

"It's a publicity stunt.

Unable to sell an album, people no longer interested in what he has to say musically, Beck has made an end run around the music business and gotten his old fans and techies excited, and has them spreading the word better than any major label campaign publicity would be able to.

Josh Freese started this.

Radiohead capitalized on this.

Kickstarter institutionalized this.

And now Beck is employing the same paradigm.

Let's separate music from publicity. The dirty little secret is if you're nobody, publicity doesn't count and music is everything. If you're nobody, if you've never broken through, if you have no toehold, you've got to create at least one track so good it's passed on virally to everybody.

Yes, the track can be good in a train-wreck way, a la Rebecca Black's "Friday," but it's got to be noteworthy. And this is much more difficult to do than to create a genius marketing campaign.

But if you've already got traction, if people already know who you are, then it's time to put your thinking cap on and come up with a left field marketing idea.

In other words, that old newspaper/magazine/interview game doesn't work anymore. Unless you say something truly astounding, like you were humiliated by a famous paramour, like John Mayer did, traditional publicity doesn't go viral. Everybody shrugs their shoulder and sees it for what it is...hype.

And we've become immune to hype.

Of course, if you can get your song on the radio, that pays dividends. Radio is still the dominant way to expose music, but contrary to the blowhards employed in it, radio's power is fading and will continue to diminish. These are the same self-satisfied pricks who said the CD was forever, that no one would want to buy an MP3. Just wait a few years, when there's Internet in the car, hell, there's already Internet in Audis, radio's mindshare will decrease. Just like network TV ratings plunged in the wake of the advent of cable and the resulting hundreds of stations. Talk radio is vital, on the pulse, music radio is not. Which is why MTV got out and now relies on longform shows. Music is an on demand item. You can hear it whenever you want wherever you want with a mouse click or a finger touch, ever hear of YouTube? Sure, people need to know what to listen to, there's room for trusted filters, but most commercial radio is beholden to advertisers, it's anything but trustworthy. As for satellite... What we've learned here is people are cheap. And satellite will never become ubiquitous. But Pandora is free. As are many other Internet music options.

Which brings us back to the issue of fame and exposing new music.

These old acts...no radio station wants to play their music. None that mean a damn. So, these acts can either work with Max Martin or Dr. Luke or stop making music or realize they're journeymen. Ironically, it's these old acts who will triumph most as radio declines, people no longer care if an artist is signed to a major label, an indie is just as credible, being on the radio won't be the end all and be all in the future.

Great music will still count. And we can debate whether these old acts can still create great music all day long, but one thing they have is their fame, can they leverage their fame?

That's what Beck Hansen has done here. He's a known quantity. Furthermore, he's known for cutting edge innovation. So people are interested in what he's doing. And he was smart enough to get them interested without the music! People haven't been talking about Beck for years, but with this one little stunt he's become part of the discussion. And what's even more interesting is the word was not spread by the music press, or traditional mainstream media, but "Forbes." ( http://onforb.es/RtkRYm) In other words, if you want to go viral, you're better off being featured in "Wired" or on Gizmodo than in the "New York Times" or "Time." Because the former outlets have no b.s. images. They're not known as bastions of hype. People trust them. It may not be true if it's in the newspaper, but if it's in "Forbes"?

What Beck is doing is no different in theory from what Trent Reznor did years ago. What artists do every day on Topspin. They're upselling. Selling products that have nothing to do with the music itself. Like books. All Beck has done is push the envelope.

Name your own price is dead.

Sheet music has now been taken.

How will you get the public's attention in the future? How will you go viral?

It depends entirely on creativity. By the book, pardon the pun, does not work online, does not work with today's generation.

So Beck gets some notoriety and some coin. Maybe this stunt even drives people to his show.

But it is a stunt and it's not about music and it's no different from having some has-been movie actor appear on a sitcom. If the sitcom sucks, it's just a payday. If the sitcom is great, it burnishes your image.

It all comes down to the music. And creating great music is almost impossible.

And we're only interested in great. Good just ain't good enough.

But "Loser" was phenomenal! You only had to hear it once and you needed to hear it again. It made Beck's career. It set him up so he could employ this sheet music stunt and people would care. Have you written "Loser"?

It not, better keep your day job."

Mac Miller: Indie Music's Savior? From Forbes.com

How does an indie artist turn into the number one selling album? The only other time this has happened was with the debut of Snoop Dogg on Death Row Records back in the early nineties. This is the power of social media and the death of the major labels and their bad bank loans to bands. Forget the 360 deals and corporate big wigs who have never toured in a cargo van, think on hard work and success that is earned and not given away. Forget shows such as X Factor, American Idol or the Voice. That system works for "pop stars", as I can equate them to a can of soda. On that initial burst from the can opening or bottle cap dropping away it tastes good, but goes flat more a few sips in. All that processed sugar and more chemicals with huge names meant to instill flavor do nothing but leave a sour taste in your mouth, same as most contestants on those shows.

We understand why that system exists and can applaud its purpose in a business discussion, but here is what it lacks, soul. Yep, something as simple as real soul. Having character, depth and a true value in relating to other folks while weaving stories to get them enthused and buying your music. Mac Miller has done this in spades as he went out and won over the masses the old fashioned way. Mac brought the message to them and believed in himself. We are not huge fans of rap by any means, but we can appreciate hard work and dedication to your craft. Hopefully Mac won't get corrupted by hip-hop's reliance on self indulgence and can keep his eye on the real prize, a long career in the music business.

Mac Miller from RagerLife.com

Link to original article on Forbes.com

At first glance, Mac Miller would appear unlikely to have a secret interest in art conservation. The 19-year-old rapper slouches into the Forbes Galleries sporting a pair of camouflage pants, a backwards baseball cap and what seems to be a week’s worth of facial hair. Upon noticing the Salvador Dali painting on the wall by the door, though, he suddenly snaps into curator mode.

“This is an original Salvador Dali painting? Who uses this room? Wait, so they just have a Salvador Dali painting here, and no one is ever in here?” He pulls out his iPhone to snap a picture. “If I had a Salvador Dali painting, I would cuddle it to sleep.”

Almost as unexpected as Miller’s interest in fine art is his rapid rise—and accompanying role as a possible savior of independent music. In November, the Pittsburgh-born rhymester released his debut album Blue Slide Park through indie label Rostrum Records; it sold 144,000 copies in its opening week and became the first indie album to top the charts since 1995. The success earned him a spot in the music section of FORBES’ first-ever 30 Under 30 list.

Miller went from mixtape maven to national sensation without the help of a major record label or a big radio hit. Instead, he’s relied largely on social media to build his following, releasing a new song for every 100,000 Twitter followers (he now has 1.4 million). His quirky, low-budget YouTube videos have clocked over 200 million views. One, titled “Donald Trump,” even elicited a video response from the billionaire real estate developer himself. His secret: opening the spigot.

“I flood the internet with what I feel is quality content,” says Miller, settled into a cushy red chair opposite the Dali. “I’m just looking for creative ways to get all that content out there. And just being reachable. Not necessarily sitting there and responding every tweet or every fan, but being a symbol of someone who doesn’t think that [he’s] anymore more special than anyone else.”

Adds Rostrum Records founder Benjy Grinberg: “He’s relentless … If he’s not doing a show, he’s in the studio writing music. If he’s not in the studio, it’s because he’s doing an interview or coming up with merch ideas.”

The buzz is there, and the money is starting to roll in. Miller played over 200 shows in 2011, grossing an average of $40,000 per night. He expects to play almost as many shows in 2012, and his nightly rate is now approaching $150,000. Miller also rakes in tens of thousands per night in merchandise sales, thanks largely to the wealthy suburban high school and college students who are the primary consumers of his music.

And unlike Pittsburgh pal Wiz Khalifa, who signed a multiple rights deal with Atlantic Records that calls for him to hand over a slice of all revenues to the company, Miller is still fully independent. He doesn’t enjoy some of the perks that often come with a major label deal—like the ability to tap into a broader publicity network and get favored status from radio stations—but he’s already connected, directly through Twitter, to his massive fan base.

“With Mac, we’ve proven that we—and other independent artists—can sell records by ourselves,” says Grinberg. “It just depends on how far we want to take it alone. We haven’t seen the ceiling yet.

Miller’s rise is all the more amazing when one puts his age into context. Born in 1992, he hadn’t yet started first grade when Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were gunned down. At age six, he taught himself piano, drums and guitar (Miller hasn’t given up the latter, regularly reeling off rock hits like Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” between rap songs; at a recent New York show, he flipped the guitar onto his back and played an impressive solo).

He started putting out mixtapes as a teenager, first as part of a group called Ill Spoken, then by himself. He released The Jukebox and The High Life in 2009, earning him a modicum of buzz on the Pittsburgh rap scene and throughout the internet. Miller soon caught Grinberg’s ear and signed with Rostrum the following year; his big break followed with the debut of the mixtape K.I.D.S. (Kickin Incredibly Dope Shit).

“I had been putting out mixtapes before that, and I had generated a little fan base, but K.I.D.S. was when I felt I did something that people really decided to take notice of who I was,” says Miller. “I feel like that gave me a platform to build and reach a bigger fan base for people to care.”

Miller built off that success with Blue Slide Park, an album that chronicles and almost glorifies suburban ennui. This is not the youthful rebellion music of the Baby Boomers; rather, Miller describes a world of endless adolescent possibility–albeit mostly concerning controlled substances and consenting females–a sort of figurative playground echoing the real one mentioned in the title.

And that’s precisely what makes Miller’s music so appealing to many middle class high school and college aged students. They grew up on hip-hop, but the music’s content didn’t always mirror their experience. In Miller, however, there’s a bit more with which to identify.

 

“The reason Miller’s mass of fans follow him is not because of his music, at least not completely,” wrote Pitchfork’s Jordan Sargent. “It’s because he looks just like them, because they can see themselves up on the stage behind him, if not next to him.”

Full coverage: 30 Under 30 – Music

Detractors dismiss Miller’s work as “frat rap,” pointing out that Miller’s subject matter rarely ventures beyond telling tales of teenage debauchery. The young rapper, they contend, spends too much time chronicling his herbal indulgences. Miller’s defense, as explained to audiences at his shows, is that he’s simply being honest: “I just so happen to smoke a lot of weed!”

That same what-you-see-is-what-you-get attitude pervades Miller’s videos, which he makes with the help of pal and director Ian Wolfson. Far from glitz and glamor of a traditional hip-hop video, his tend to find glory in the mundane–take the video for “Frick Park Market,” which starts out in the aforementioned deli with Miller placing an order for a turkey sandwich.

“I always thought I’d look corny in the type of rap video in the club with girls and all that type of stuff,” says Miller. “I just didn’t think I could really pull that off. We always think it’s more fun and better just to go outside the box and to use our videos to show cool concepts.”

It seems unlikely that he’d be given the same creative freedom if he signed with a major (think of the feathers that might have been ruffled on a record company’s legal team by the idea of releasing a song called “Donald Trump”). There’s no reason Miller can’t keep making videos on his own—many of his earlier cuts cost less than $1,000 to put together.

Even  the newer ones are cheap. “Party on 5^th Ave,” a generalized celebration that involves motorized scooters and wigs, clocked in below $10,000, about one-tenth the cost of a typical big-budget video. It’s unclear whether a major would be able to give him a platform bigger than the one he’s already created for himself using little more than a computer, a video camera and his brain.

For his part, Miller says he’s not philosophically opposed to the idea of being involved with a major record label, and realizes that there are advantages.

“We’ve done something that’s historical independently,” says Miller, who’s already been contacted by multiple major labels. “If I reach a point where there’s things I can’t do—we haven’t reached that point yet—but if I ever reach a point where there’s something I can’t do and I need some help from a major, who knows.”

It doesn’t seem Miller will need that kind of help anytime soon, though. He’s already a teenage millionaire, and given his ambitious touring plans, he could earn $10 million in 2012.

A few more years like that, and Miller shouldn’t have any trouble affording a Salvador Dali painting of his very own.

For more on the business of music, see my book Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office and follow me on Twitter.