PWN or be PWNED (look it up on wikipedia)

I was checking my youtube wigit this morning and the most viewed vid was how to "PWN" your I phone. I'm not condoning such activity, I'm not even sure I fully understand what exactly it means. It's like hacking from what I understand. But it got me thinking, apples concept is one I have been encouraging the artists I work with to adopt for a while. ...Leave the audience wanting more.

When you play a show, as a new artists it's better to play four songs than fourteen. If you nail those four the audience will want more. They'll hit up your myspace and go to your next show. (There should be a next show even if it's an open mic)

This principle can apply with releasing music as well. A single is hard to pawn off on a concert goer it doesn't feel like enough. But an e.p. can wet the appetite and create a desire for more. Whereas, a full length album the first time around can over expose a fan and have them be done with you before you pick up enough steam to continue. But music makers BEWARE! Many a independent artists have bleeding feet due to the GSW left by waiting too long to release a follow up ep.

So apple releases an i-phone with a small hard drive, people love it and can't wait for a bigger better one. If apple gave out the 80 gig the first go around it might have been to expensive and they would have no way to keep their product on the market for a long period. You may crack, hack, and update but you'll probably trade that i-phone in in a couple years for something with a bigger hard drive, larger screen, or thinner case. And so technology shows it's ability to "pwn" us, while music continues to loose money.

j.

degrees of separation between work and j.

Well it's been almost a year since I left Lee University, and yet I still can't call myself an alumni. Oh I did the course work, sat through the classes, even went back for a few "exit exams" but still no diploma. Just today I received a call from Potsdam State acknowledging I sent them a note requesting my transcripts be sent to Lee for verification, but then they asked me to fill out a request form. So instead of taking the signed letter I sent them they need a separate signed letter with their emblem on it to be "official".

Then the lady checks to see if I have any holds, and I do. They need my transcript. Which I sent them...attached to the note which warranted the phone call and the above conversation. THEY CALLED ME! Then the lady ignoring my pointing out of this point insists on transferring me "downstairs". The new lady tells me the same thing and is mad that the first lady sent me to her in the first place. She however, removed the hold in good faith that my transcript was "somewhere on this big campus".

Then an email from Lee after dinner saying the computer exit exam was "not satisfactory". Now they want me to take a 2 week online computer course. Are you joking? How dumb am I? I didn't "satisfy" the demands on power point,word, and excel? I haven't called to see what the deal is yet.But it's a shame on me. Now I think PP is irrelevant I'd use flash or some other program, and word/excel are being replaced by open source programs like Google docs but I should still be able to pass a competency test. But whatever, I'm not bitter.

The good news is the school owes me $300 bucks, so that's a plus...granted I inevitably owe them nearly 50k, but for now they owe me. Thank heaven I work for myself and club owners don't ask for a degree when you play a show. I don't mean to sound arrogant I'm just frustrated.

j.

Colaborations & Co-writes

Why is it that in the world of hip-hop and r&b collaborations are so common, there's almost no artists who gets a track all to them self. These days you can't hear a song that isn't feat. T pain or Akon or Timberland.

Why aren't rock stars into sharing the mic for a track or two. Lord knows it isn't because the urban performers have some great humility and lack of ego. Maybe it's that sense of family that seems to be stronger with minorities.

*edit-what I mean is that, in my experience the familial connection between non-blood related minorities tends to be stronger, than that of non minorities. It can probably be assimilated to finding someone from you state in another state while on vacation or away on a trip. There is a deeper connection than would be present otherwise.

It would be nice to see some pop/rock super stars track together outside of the "super ballad" or the occasional Santana album.

j.

The good ol days, the nubies, and my opinion

I read through a number of old posts last night. Reminiscing about the days when my blog was popular and flourishing. I was funnier then. I told stories about skating down highways and teaching classes I once failed. But these days I write about the music industry and the average person doesn't much care. I considered going back to what worked, but there is no guarantee that those readers will return if I "find" my funny again.

Instead I will keep writing on the track I'm on. If I do it well enough I may never get the casual reader back, but it's likely I will gain new niche readers. Readers gained by word of mouth. And isn't that what it's about?

The dinosaurs in the high-rises keep trying to go back to what worked before trying to get their "funny" back. Maybe that's not what listeners need. It's certainly not what the acts need, to be pushed into yesterdays model.

New options, new ideas, different approaches, that's what's happening with the 20 somethings who are stuck at the reception desks and internships at the "big players" in NY LA and Nashville. Get your own coffee and use that intern for a more practical use. SAVING YOUR JOB.

j.

Another lesson music can learn from the movies

I don't watch to many movies, I don't typically like them. I happened to be kind of sick which left me in a position to watch a couple movies. Atonement and Reign Over Me...I will say I was impressed with these films on some levels. It would seem the "artsy" camera techniques are "in". Lots of color and non-traditional angles and such.

I am no expert on film but it's funny to me, I didn't hear anything about these movies when they were in the theaters but they are buzzing about my netflix subscribed friends. Maybe good movies are surfacing because with netflix there's not as much as a risk factor. If you rent from a video store it's a gamble. You pay three dollars or whatever it is now, to hope for a good movie. This is why I stopped renting for the most part. I got tired of loosing. But with subscription services if you get a bad movie it's no big deal. Send it back and get the next one on your list.

I wonder if this would apply to music. Why would I gamble on buying a fifteen dollar cd. If it's getting airplay I've likely heard the closest thing to a good song the album has to offer. If there was a "net tunes" I could try-out new bands and albums and then add the ones I like to my library. I know technically I could steal whatever I want, but it would be nice to legitimately own music.

j.

A puzzle with no box. Re-shaping the "edge"

I haven't done a puzzle in years but some how a friend convinced me it would be a good way to spend a Tuesday evening. We put on some music, unwrapped the box, spread the pieces about the table and started looking for edge pieces. This was a different kind of puzzle though. First off it was a 750 piecer (more than an evenings worth) and it had no box. I mean it came in a box, but the picture on the box had nothing to do with the puzzle.

I'm as tired of "out of the box"-isms as anyone so I'll do my best to skirt them. But it's possible the label industry execs have been staring at the box to long. Maybe it's time to do the hard work and figure our for ourselves what lies inside those edge pieces. It's a whole new inference to being "on the edge" the edge creates the boundaries by which the rest of the pieces fall into play.

Are you an edge, do you define the structure by which other pieces fit, or are you waiting for the edge to be defined to see where you fit it? If your still looking at the box your working on the wrong puzzle. Sorry.

OK that was an excessive amount of analogy. We are now in an industry full entrepreneurial artists who a piecing there own stuff together and are less concerned with fitting into a puzzle that's being dismantled and put back in its box and headed for the shelf.

j.

Once

MTV is dead, and even it's auxiliary stations struggle to stay with a video only format. Radio is corrupt (for the most part)and the labels have forgotten about the listener. So where can music turn?

I'm not going to say the "indy musical" is the next wave in music promotion but I will say that audiences want to connect with music and the ONCE sound track is on the top of the i-tunes album charts. I've watched the movie now with three sets of friends in three parts of the country and every time at least two or three people buy the soundtrack within a couple days.

There's an emotional attachment to these songs. The Garden State Soundtrack had a similar reaction. Four of the top 10 albums on IT are soundtracks. And some of these movies were made with budgets under a hundred thousand. (less than many mainstream music videos).

If another writer/director decides to make another one of these films I might watch it. I'm on the fence as to whether this "neo-musical" is the next generation of cinema or just a thing that happens once.

j.

Trial and error.

Well my laptop crashed today. I'm sending this from a friends pc. Its a sad state to lose such a thing as the internet for any long period of time. It did however force me to spend the day out doors.

j.

Trust

Remember those trust falls they used to make you do in gym class. The ones where you stand on the bleachers or a chair and lean back hoping your friends/ class mates will catch you? Shouldn't those be called trusts holds? I mean if you "fall" then the exercise is void. Right? "Trust Holds"

This is the problem with the major labels and the pop radio stations. They're not holding anyone's trust. They make me believe they have my best interest in mind, bringing songs that must be heard and that "we're" requesting. But it's usually a scam.

That's why whenever a big artist comes to town, they get more play two weeks before the show. The radio station has vested interest in the show, and the label has interest in the station, but no one really has an interest in me, the listener. Even the indy stations will "uncover" a newer act like Ingrid Michaelson or Sarah Bareilles and then play them to death. Stealing that feeling like I uncovered them and have to tell all my friends.

Don't take that from me. It is the best part about new music. Being the first one to tell every one about the great new song or band. This is why people love you tube and even myspace (for a bit longer any way). They "find" the videos or bands the tell their friends. They maintain a piece of ownership in the whole thing. The stations can only offer me one or two hours of request time a day and I can only request the songs on their limited list. There's no ownership there.

If the stations and labels want to survive they should stop watching their own backs and start getting buddy buddy with me (and you). I know there are lots of people who do what the main stream tells them to but even those people are getting sick of being the least common denominator. That's why every popular song has a remix it's an attempt to reclaim a piece of the stolen ownership in the artist. To retain a piece of the listener credibility. To build trust. Even if it is with the club dj.

j.

Long Tail vs. Isolated Successes

"I'm not sure what I'll do next" I overheard Kara-lyn say to Lindsey (my attorney friend). Kara-lyn works on music row here in Nashville. The topic of conversation was now that she had accomplished some of her life goals; i.e. moving to Nashville and working in the industry. what should she be pursuing next?

I'll come back to Kara-lyn in a min. My friend mark is a respected photographer and designer in NY. Recently he asked me what my "core values" were. I had been spending so much time trying to figure out how my website should look and what stock to print business cards on, that I was missing the point. I had become task or goal oriented with little thought of the long tail.

There are a variety of core value assessments available on line if your interested. I recommend taking one of them. You see with an idea of core values we unlock another piece of understanding vision and can make important decisions accordingly. They also help me to set goals that facilitate movement forward as opposed to isolated successes.

Connectivity and Enrichment those are my "core values" You see, consulting, music composition, teaching, those are means to my end. So if for some reason I lose my voice or hand in some accident, my life isn't over because I can function under those values.

Our ultimate vision is to love God and love others. Each of us experiences and accomplishes that differently. Kara-lyn set goals and to her credit is seeing them fulfilled. How much greater to know we are working the "long tail" of life and not just isolated successes.

The Road to a True Destination is Mile Stoned

I run a business. Sometimes I struggle with feeling legitimate. Anyone can print business cards, build a website (which I'm still working on), and have a business account at the bank. But at what point am I a legitimate entrepreneur? Is there a dollar figure, or staff size requirement?

I sell knowledge, ideas, and information. It's not like cutting hair or plastering walls. You walk out of a salon you know your hair is shorter. I know there's plaster on my walls because I've put holes through it and had to repair it before. But information can be tricky.

I have to assure people I know what I'm talking about, make them feel like I know what they're trying to say, and convince them my ideas are valid and worth their time and money. You try telling a musician that record deals don't work any more. Or a phtographer they need brand themselves as well as be amazing picture takers, and ask them to pay you for it.

A lot of people have dreams, dreams are not the same as vision. Vision comes with a passionate desire to see the thing come to fruition no matter what. I can't help those who have dreams; but if you have a vision we're in business. I can work with that.

With no vision man is unrestrained wandering aimlessly. The path does not lead us to the vision the path is determined by the vision. The path must be mile stoned by clear manageable goals. For the goals we cannot manage on our own there is a God.

j.

AirPorts and Escalotors

I wouldn't say I returned to my home land this weekend, I didn't make it that far notth or east. But I stood there wearing my rented tux in a snow covered chapel in Chitenango NY as a former student and close friend of mine Became a husband.

Despite my best efforts I still got a visit from that voice that occasionally questions my current state of singleness. Thankfully it didn't stay very long.

I was dropped off at the airport on Sunday excited to return to warmth only to find my flight was not until Monday. Typical J. I didn't account for the extra day in feb. my watch said it was the 3. At least that is the excuse I am choosing to go with.

After spending a day in the airport, I noticed I had a facebook friend from syracuse. I hadn't seen or talked to this person in 4 years but it was worth a shot. I sent him a message and actually agreed to pick me up. I spent the evening with college freshman from SU. The dorm smelled, the food was decent, and the floor was some how better than the airport.

On the way back we had a layover in NY the plane landed so hard we had to switch aircraft due to some "maintenance issues" We only left an hour late.
After landing in Nashville as I walked through the terminal with people holding guitar cases and tuning violins and men wearing there tapered skinny jeans, a sense of home came over me. I descended the final escalator our the front door into the 73 and partly sunny day, and headed home. After a quick shower it was down town to the BMI mon night showcase for some talent scouting. Life.

j.