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Patti Smith on the death of CBGB’s Hilly Kristal

August 30, 2007 in news by George | No comments

hilly kristal

HILLY KRISTAL

The Good Shepherd

Hilly Kristal opened the doors
of CBGB’s to us all in 1974.
All who passed through the portals
experienced, as Arthur Rimbaud would
say, “new scenes, new noise”.

He offered us artistic freedom and his
gruff yet unconditional love. We evolved,
we left and went out into the world like
prodigal children. When we returned
he always accepted us with open arms.

Once back in 1974, leaving the club after a
loud, raucous night, I noticed that Hilly had fallen
asleep on a cot. He was covered with a faded blanket
and his feet were sticking out. His mismatched socks
were also holy. Having holes that is. But perhaps holy
as well. I remember thinking he’s just one of us.

I never really knew him outside of CBGB’S. But
he was always there. His door was always open. And
when he fell asleep we never had to be quiet.
Hilly Kristal was the good shepherd of a flock
of black sheep. We are forever grateful.

From Patti Smith’s website.

NYT has an obit.

A Lesson in Attract & Retain: NPR’s Fresh Air now a free podcast

February 2, 2007 in music business, news by George | 2 comments

The fantastic Open Culture blog is reporting that Fresh Air is now available via free podcast.

This is great on a couple of levels. First, up until this change, you used to have to purchase Fresh Air via Audible, and now, uh, you don’t.

Second, and, more interestingly from a marketing perspective, is the potential rationale behind this move. Fresh Air was constantly ranked as one of the most downloaded podcasts, so revenue was certainly being generated. However, as we know that the goal of all businesses should not be profit, but rather the attraction and retention of customers, it stands to reason that Fresh Air – wisely – determined that it was more important to attract more (and new) customers, than it was to generate revenue from a fairly defined group of supporters.

I LOVE this!

Now, the fact that NPR is a non-profit might have had something to do with this decision, but I sort of doubt it. Just b/c a business is a non-profit doesn’t mean they don’t need money (particularly in this era of decreased governmental spending on the arts and Public radio/TV). So, it seems to me that this was a clear decision to go out and find some more listeners; knowing that if they attract and retain them that profit would be the axiomatic byproduct over time. Some percentage of these new listeners will become financial supporters of NPR and Fresh Air via pledges.

Musicians need to understand the importance of doing what they can to attract and retain customers. Often this means foregoing the quick buck in order to build a larger constituency that will bring the big buck over time.

Now, go grab that free Podcast. Lots of great music on Fresh Air.

Screaming Creative Commons

January 21, 2007 in music business, news by George | No comments

As I just wrote about Lawrence Lessig in my last post, it makes it all the more interesting to read that Lessig’s labor is bearing fruit. Boingboing is reporting that the movie Children of Men, a major motion picture, has used a sound (specifically, the sound of someone screaming) that was taken from the Free Sound Project, which is a “collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.

Boingboing speculates that this may be the first appearance of a CC license in a major motion picture. Wanna bet that it won’t be the last?

more optimism?

January 19, 2007 in blogs/podcasts, music business, news by George | No comments

A podcast I’ve blogged about before Sound Opinions has a great new episode (show #59) that spends a good deal of time talking about the 2006 music sales numbers, which have recently been released.

Essentially there’s nothing terribly earthshaking here – CD sales down (5%), digital sales up (up to 13% of all sales), etc. However, the repeated mantra is one of “more music – in varying forms – is being purchased then ever before.” In fact, total music sales is up 19.6%. Please note, this does not mean that profit is up.

In other words, while labels are selling more stuff, they’re making less doing so. Jeff Mayfield from Billboard, who is interviewed on the show, sort of sums it up when he says, it’s now a business of making “dollars from pennies.”

Another interesting note is that there is now talk of one of the music businesses’ best friends: repurchase. In other words, people are replacing their CDs with digital sales, as evidenced by the surge in the sales of digital catalog sellers (up 109%).

You can subscribe to the podcast or stream/download the episode. The segment on the business runs from about 5 minutes in to 15 minutes in.

As an added bonus, they’ve also got an interview with Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck (my surrogate older brother).

Payola is a multi-headed hydra

January 19, 2007 in music, news by George | No comments

It saddens me to write this because it really speaks to the desperate times of (at least) two business models, but write about it I must.

Idolator has a story (picked up by Wired’s music blog) that chronicles an email exchange between the publisher/advertising director of the Boston-area magazine Amplifier and the marketing director for the Birdman label.

In the exchange, the publisher of Amplifier comes right out and asks the label if they plan to advertise in his magazine. When the label’s marketing director informs him that he doesn’t have the budget to do so, the publisher says, “Bummer…..wish we could continue to support your artists, but I guess we can’t….if you’re never going to advertise with us I can’t justify the cost of covering your releases.”

We typically associate payment for exposure (ie payola) w/ radio, and while it certainly goes on in the print world, I’ve never seen it quite so blatant in either.

It really is kind of sad all the way around. Things like this often do signify the bottoming out moment, and hopefully we can start rebuilding.

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