meta-roj

distant early warning

voice

sea-monkey-man

cnn

Comedian Lenny Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon by Gov. George Pataki Tuesday for a nearly 40-year-old obscenity conviction prompted by a foul-mouthed political commentary.

barry ritholz beat me to the punch on the story (i’m gonna blame the flu). there’s not a lot i can add – in classic barry ritholz-fashion, it’s well-documented and well-sourced and even his spin pretty much echoes the spin i’d put on it (gee, what DID happen to this story?). plus, he’s got a pie chart.

anyway, since i got beaten to the punch on this one, it puts me in the [much easier] position of picking the nits.

barry spends some time exploring the relative merits (or is that value) of dvds and cds – the big picture has a lot to do with the attention economy (not to be confused with the dollar economy). most entertainment is still linear process, so the ears you’re trying to grab as a musician may be otherwise occupied if the brain between them decides something else is more worthy of their attention.

a tiny nit i should pick here (just a tiny one – i don’t want to give you the impression i’ve gone to the dark side!) is that for films and concerts (that end up becoming dvds), the dvd is a secondary source of revenue for the production. the film or concert already made some money on tickets, and might already be “in the black” – so dvd revenue might be pure gravy. that gives the producers some pricing flexibility, and may go some distance toward explaining the cartel behavior of the record labels: they fear for their primary revenue stream.

fear is a powerful motivator, but the suggestion i have is to expand the view a bit – i’ve found at least three ways to create value with music and i hardly even tried. the “sell a million cds at $20 a pop” formula is only perfect for some artists. technology has given us the tools, now it’s time to get creative with them.

i’ve had a little theme i’ve been beating on here for a while – the death of the album theme. to fold that into this discussion, i need to point out that there’s no “death of the album” problem with a soundtrack or concert. the tracks are coherent, and already work together (and if they weren’t connected before, they are now by virtue of being in the film or concert). also important is that the artist(s) should already have been paid once (when their music was licensed for the film or tickets sold for the concert).

there’s a point of philosophy that’s going to stick in my craw, but barry has promised to dig into this later, so i should wait…

The more dangerous long term challenge facing the labels is “disintermediation.” The internet allows for the labels to be removed as the middle man between the consumer and the artist. Networked technology, not free MP3s, may very well be the meteor that eventually destroys the dinosaur labels.

to give you a little hint, my observation of “net era economies” is that this concept of “disintermediation” hasn’t played out very effectively. but let’s see what barry thinks before i show all my cards…

in the meantime, if this really gets your attention, you might want to check out my comments on plan g for some perspective on killing the dinosaur labels (or, in that case, the riaa…)

at the ripe old age of 12, and facing a horrific cancer, hope stout was approached by the good people at the make a wish foundation… because, well. that’s what they do, and it’s a good thing.

then things get extraordinary…

Upon learning that there were 156 other kids waiting for their “wish”, Hope expressed a desire to make that happen. Her “wish” was that all the wishes could come true for the kids on the list!

take a moment and share a thought for hope. and if you’re able, contribute. thanks to the open and amazing heart of a 12-year-old, you have a chance to help make two wishes come true at once.

there’s more at the charlotte observer, and again. i found it at metafilter.

update (2003.12.22): a little more here and a photo.

update (2004.01.05): confirming the comments below, the charlotte observer has a story as does wral, wavy, wsoc, the associated press (via the wilmington star), news14.

update (2004.01.06): the guardian, macon telegraph, kfor, sun news and the associated press (via duluth news tribune) also have stories.

mayor pat mccrory of charlotte, the charlotte center city partners and the bank of america have come together to promote an exhibition football game and gathering in hope’s name. stories here, here, here and here.

weddington high school tribute.

on a personal note, hope is still an inspiration.

i give to you, the people who have come here in the name of hope, this forum to share your thoughts and wishes. please be nice, you’re all here for a very, very good reason.

(photo credit: News 14)

hope stout

Better than being famous, like a person who stars in a really good movie, is being famous as a person who made a difference in someone’s life, and anybody can make a difference is someone’s life.

interesting to stumble into this over at metafilter….

then…
The Beatles, Abbey Road
Led Zeppelin, II
Tom Jones, Live in Las Vegas
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Green River
The Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed
Santana, Santana
Temptations, Cloud Nine/Puzzle People
Blood, Sweat and Tears, Blood, Sweat and Tears
Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills & Nash
Soundtrack / Easy Rider

now….
Ruben Studdard, Soulful
Alicia Keys, The Diary Of Alicia Keys
Various Artists, Now
Toby Keith, Shock’n Y’all
Josh Groban, Closer
OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Rod Stewart, As Time Goes By … The Great American Songbook Volume II
Hilary Duff, Metamorphosis
Sheryl Crow, The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow
Britney Spears, In The Zone

it’s the discussion at metafilter that is interesting… mostly in light of the death of the album thing happening here and the various follow ups.

maybe a chord was struck way back in november with the csm article.

i made a few predictions, both long- and short-term about the time universal announced their new pricing strategy for cd’s. a few months later, a story [included below] that ran in usa today and appeared in yahoo news provided some points of reference.

i’m not yet sure how cloudy my crystal ball is on this issue, but you might have some thoughts on the subject…
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something we’ve talked about here a couple times was the topic of a segment on npr’s all things considered program this past friday. see “the death of the ‘concept’ album.” a few choice quotes from people interviewed in the segment…

tim quirk, rhapsody

i think even if you just look over the last couple of years there’s arguably more artists making… that are album-based rock music at least than there has been in a long, long time whether that’s the flaming lips or radiohead or wilco…

todd rundgren [flash required]

before there were ever recordings, it seemed like serious composers always gravitated toward the long form. towards doing symphonic works as opposed to 3-minute minuets all the time.

perry farrell [also flash]

i haven’t thought in terms of an album for probably a decade. i’d rather be making singles.

record companies have gotten to be such hacks that they have made the idea of doing a full record almost impossible for an artist. it’s disheartening what little respect they have for people that have concepts of albums.

bush’s talking points preparation fails in an interview with diane sawyer.

primetime live

DIANE SAWYER: But stated as a hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons still —

PRESIDENT BUSH: So what’s the difference?

maybe you can think of a difference. maybe not. make up your own mind. for context, i’ve included the full set of excerpts from abc in case that link goes dead.
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