Bueno, al parecer mi blog se esta convirtiendo en una copia al carbon del de Bob Lefsetz, pero bueh! que le vamos a hacer? Nada mas recalco las partes que mas me gustan, asi que aqui les va otra...
Hit songs are for a laugh, or a bump on the dance floor. The antics of the drama queens and the has-beens are just that. Train-wrecks to be observed and then discarded. The mainstream media is ramping up the publicity, imploring this generation to pay attention, to stay focused. And when these young people don't, they're accused of having a short attention span. But they just have incredible shit detectors, they don't want to spend time with anything but what truly affects them, that penetrates them.
...His fans don't need him in the newspaper, don't need him on the cover of "Rolling Stone", they just need his music on their iPods
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
No rules
Don't listen to Mr. Big. Telling you to put on nice clothes and play the game. Create something great. And once you get traction, utilize your most innovative, left field ideas to spread the word. There are no rules when it comes to a music career. Other than that your music must be great. No amount of innovative marketing can cover bad music up.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Maybe Attending!!!
From An Artist Inbox X Lefsetz X
from Bob Lefsetz
to gwiernik@gmail.com
date Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 1:16 AM
subject From An Artist
hide details Oct 11 (3 days ago)
Reply
Hi Bob, just a quick email to say: you rock, I love reading your letters and thank you!
As an artist working in this crazy industry (Jem - ATO records), I am happy to say from the beginning I have always marched, actually I should probably say skipped, to the beat of my own drum. I am happy and proud to be following my heart and my musical calling without bowing down to the pressures of this often nonsensical bizness. (I have noticed this kind of attitude sometimes annoys, sometimes intimidates, and sometimes instills joy in music biz people).
After just one album cycle I had pretty much seen enough. When the art meets the commerce it's not pretty, and is usually quite a struggle. At least for anyone with half a brain. Once I learnt not to take anything personally and not to expect logic to be applied in many situations, I became a lot happier..!
As for this current financial crisis, on a much smaller level, I was once apologised to at a radio convention by a lovely radio programmer who told me she felt terrible that my song 'They' had been taken off the air as it wasn't 'researching well' with new listeners. (As you know I think that means playing 15/20 secs of the beginning of a song down a telephone to random people they call up. I did later get #1 for female listeners and #2 for male listeners for the same song in Salt Lake City so hooray for that!) She was frustrated because as she explained, apparently hoards of their loyal everyday listeners had been calling in every hour asking about the same song and requesting it. She felt bad as it was out of her hands, I had already implemented the necessary emotional tools of the previous paragraph, and like people, so I felt bad for her. It was a curious conversation. Anyway, that was years ago, but in light of the current chaos, I don't think the public realise how often they/we are getting shafted.
How fantastic then, the revolution that is now made possible with the internet. How wonderful to be able to connect directly to the people who enjoy one's music. As the guy in Grease says "the rules are, there are no rules". The unending possibilities of communication and speading of positivity, music, thoughts and messages makes me feel as free as a bird. I've never liked 'standard' practices, this is how an album is promoted - steps A, B, C. We all know just like with the movie industry there are channels you can follow, but thankfully there are always exceptions to the rule. It is a form of art after all, the energy around it should be fluid.
I've always known if I make good music that I love, everything will take care of itself, there's no other thought process. And wonderfully, people help spread the word because I think they feel that. It's genuine and honest and perhaps there's not too much of that around. As you say, music with a heart, a soul that moves you is what we all want - along with some fun tracks for bumping and grinding to in the car, well, at least in my case ;)
All the best and have a great weekend,
Jem
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Your message has been sent. Invite Bob Lefsetz to Gmail
from Gabriel Wiernik
to Bob Lefsetz
date Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 12:18 AM
subject Re: From An Artist
mailed-by gmail.com
hide details 12:18 AM (8 minutes ago)
Reply
Hi Bob! The truth is today I clicked on more than 10 "Maybe Attending" event invitations on my Facebook profile, and I thought: what good it would do for me to promote my self (band, website, concert, etc) in this over-saturated Internet?? Of course I go and do it, it's definitely the best way to reach my hard core fan base, but I'm not breaking ground really, I'm not reaching new audiences.
Since there isn't really nothing meaningful that differentiates one event from the other, how do I manage to stand out next to all this homogeneity, in the uniformity of the process in which I promote 'something' on a social network??
The mainstream is also saturated, of something else... not indie. Rock stars. And that is simple because they were rock stars even by the time when we were starting to be common ordinary people.
So we have, Internet for the indies and mainstream for music legends. Ironically these mythic quality of the music history stars and acts gave birth to the "disposable bands, ordinary trivial, almost non artistic, commercial label music" but with a hint of epics all can be aesthetically corrected.
Then again I was taught that as a 21st century artist, mainstream promotion is impossible, I'm not supposed to even think about this possibility.
What I can use is the Internet, but then I find my fan base is divided in two: a) the ones who can get a complete album from the Internet (buying it,torrent, etc) b) the ones that really don't know how to do this, it's amazing how many people don't know how to download a record (I don't know how to do it!) And don't think they buy records in music stores either, they 'll just get a couple of songs from a friend's iPod. These "b" people are potential fans, but I wouldn't bet any money saying that it was because of E-promotion that they actually went to one of my gigs. Most probably they'd go if a friend tells them is good music and invites them.
How ever there is a small portion of bands that sell enough Cd's to live their music careers quite successfully, and enjoy a little bit of both worlds. Which I think it is what's worth aspiring for now a days. Decent, noble, humble dreams that can come true with a lot of work, I think if you get that then you are a successful artist. Todays society has evolved almost magically in creating these kind of environment in which honesty makes you stand out and let your art be appreciated. This is something positive and the trick is still the same, getting to be true to yourself
?????
- Show quoted text -
--
Gabriel Wiernik
Vibratica.com
"Mas musica para mas gente."
cel:8860 5663
tel/fax:2255 4285
Reply
Forward
from Bob Lefsetz
to gwiernik@gmail.com
date Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 1:16 AM
subject From An Artist
hide details Oct 11 (3 days ago)
Reply
Hi Bob, just a quick email to say: you rock, I love reading your letters and thank you!
As an artist working in this crazy industry (Jem - ATO records), I am happy to say from the beginning I have always marched, actually I should probably say skipped, to the beat of my own drum. I am happy and proud to be following my heart and my musical calling without bowing down to the pressures of this often nonsensical bizness. (I have noticed this kind of attitude sometimes annoys, sometimes intimidates, and sometimes instills joy in music biz people).
After just one album cycle I had pretty much seen enough. When the art meets the commerce it's not pretty, and is usually quite a struggle. At least for anyone with half a brain. Once I learnt not to take anything personally and not to expect logic to be applied in many situations, I became a lot happier..!
As for this current financial crisis, on a much smaller level, I was once apologised to at a radio convention by a lovely radio programmer who told me she felt terrible that my song 'They' had been taken off the air as it wasn't 'researching well' with new listeners. (As you know I think that means playing 15/20 secs of the beginning of a song down a telephone to random people they call up. I did later get #1 for female listeners and #2 for male listeners for the same song in Salt Lake City so hooray for that!) She was frustrated because as she explained, apparently hoards of their loyal everyday listeners had been calling in every hour asking about the same song and requesting it. She felt bad as it was out of her hands, I had already implemented the necessary emotional tools of the previous paragraph, and like people, so I felt bad for her. It was a curious conversation. Anyway, that was years ago, but in light of the current chaos, I don't think the public realise how often they/we are getting shafted.
How fantastic then, the revolution that is now made possible with the internet. How wonderful to be able to connect directly to the people who enjoy one's music. As the guy in Grease says "the rules are, there are no rules". The unending possibilities of communication and speading of positivity, music, thoughts and messages makes me feel as free as a bird. I've never liked 'standard' practices, this is how an album is promoted - steps A, B, C. We all know just like with the movie industry there are channels you can follow, but thankfully there are always exceptions to the rule. It is a form of art after all, the energy around it should be fluid.
I've always known if I make good music that I love, everything will take care of itself, there's no other thought process. And wonderfully, people help spread the word because I think they feel that. It's genuine and honest and perhaps there's not too much of that around. As you say, music with a heart, a soul that moves you is what we all want - along with some fun tracks for bumping and grinding to in the car, well, at least in my case ;)
All the best and have a great weekend,
Jem
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists?p=unsubscribe&uid=479d33f3865a41e1c37e4c776d607359
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Reply
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Your message has been sent. Invite Bob Lefsetz to Gmail
from Gabriel Wiernik
to Bob Lefsetz
date Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 12:18 AM
subject Re: From An Artist
mailed-by gmail.com
hide details 12:18 AM (8 minutes ago)
Reply
Hi Bob! The truth is today I clicked on more than 10 "Maybe Attending" event invitations on my Facebook profile, and I thought: what good it would do for me to promote my self (band, website, concert, etc) in this over-saturated Internet?? Of course I go and do it, it's definitely the best way to reach my hard core fan base, but I'm not breaking ground really, I'm not reaching new audiences.
Since there isn't really nothing meaningful that differentiates one event from the other, how do I manage to stand out next to all this homogeneity, in the uniformity of the process in which I promote 'something' on a social network??
The mainstream is also saturated, of something else... not indie. Rock stars. And that is simple because they were rock stars even by the time when we were starting to be common ordinary people.
So we have, Internet for the indies and mainstream for music legends. Ironically these mythic quality of the music history stars and acts gave birth to the "disposable bands, ordinary trivial, almost non artistic, commercial label music" but with a hint of epics all can be aesthetically corrected.
Then again I was taught that as a 21st century artist, mainstream promotion is impossible, I'm not supposed to even think about this possibility.
What I can use is the Internet, but then I find my fan base is divided in two: a) the ones who can get a complete album from the Internet (buying it,torrent, etc) b) the ones that really don't know how to do this, it's amazing how many people don't know how to download a record (I don't know how to do it!) And don't think they buy records in music stores either, they 'll just get a couple of songs from a friend's iPod. These "b" people are potential fans, but I wouldn't bet any money saying that it was because of E-promotion that they actually went to one of my gigs. Most probably they'd go if a friend tells them is good music and invites them.
How ever there is a small portion of bands that sell enough Cd's to live their music careers quite successfully, and enjoy a little bit of both worlds. Which I think it is what's worth aspiring for now a days. Decent, noble, humble dreams that can come true with a lot of work, I think if you get that then you are a successful artist. Todays society has evolved almost magically in creating these kind of environment in which honesty makes you stand out and let your art be appreciated. This is something positive and the trick is still the same, getting to be true to yourself
?????
- Show quoted text -
--
Gabriel Wiernik
Vibratica.com
"Mas musica para mas gente."
cel:8860 5663
tel/fax:2255 4285
Reply
Forward
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
$%^ROKET.COM&*(
The day the CD is dead is not far off. 548,052 of Coldplay's 1,773,932 albums have been sold digitally. And they own the second biggest album of the year. I'd say that's a true indicator. That soon people will only want the file.
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