Doers vs. Talkers

I was talking with a fellow "industry professional" today about how there are soooo many people in our line of work who love to spend HOURS at panel discussions pontificating (or listening to others pontificate) about "the future of music." You know what the future of music is? Continued massive upheaval and disruption. Now get back to work.

Seriously, do you think we as a company have time to wring our hands about where music is headed? No, because we're in the trenches every day trying to do work, chase down clients, respond to 18,000 emails and generally do all of the things that people who run businesses need to do. I don't have time to sit around in an ivory tower wondering where the Industry will go. If all of the people at these panel discussions devoted more of their time to actually working, they might arrive at a sustainable model, instead of lamenting that fact that they don't have one.

Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy lively discussion as much as the next guy. And I also know firsthand that lively discussion leads to great ideas, which is how we progress, both as a society and an industry. So far be it from me to poo-poo creative thought and intellectual discourse. But there comes a time when you need to stop talking and start working. And for many of these folks, that time is way overdue.

With the music business, the only thing that's certain is uncertainty. Yes, there will be pivotal individuals (Steve Jobs, the MySpace dudes) that will change our way of thinking and steer things in new directions. But we cannot all be those people, at least not all the time (even Jobs has to answer his email at some point).

Ironically, Chris and I have been working on our own potentially game-affecting concept. It's called BrandsForBands and it'll launch soon. But even though it's required hundreds of hours of discussion over the last 2 years, we still managed to increase our company revenues by 10% last year. In other words, we talked about The Big Picture - and are poised to contribute to it significantly with B4B - but not at the expense of getting our everyday work done.

So, fellow music professionals, I beseech you to spend more time on your work and less time worrying - and talking - about where things are headed. That's important, but it don't pay the mortgage. Less talk, more rock. ~ Tim

The D-Process

If you’re at all like me, you’re trying desperately to make sense of the sh*tstorm that we call our nation’s economy. I found this recent interview with Ray Dalio in Barron’s (by Sandra Ward) to be very enlightening:

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123396545910358867.html

Mr. Dalio is the Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates, one of the larger hedge funds out there. He was one the earliest people to sound the alarm about “the dangers of excessive financial leverage.” He does a great job describing the deleveraging and deflationary process that has been happening around the world…what he calls the “D-Process”. Batten down the hatches everyone…we’re in for a fun ride over the next couple of years. ~ Chris

Suddenly, Everything Is Right In The World...

Well, maybe not everything. But the Doves just posted "Jetstream," a new track from their forthcoming album, Kingdom Of Rust, and I'm pleased to report that it's excellent and, as with most music by the band, keeps getting more excellent (excellenter?) with each listen. Download it for yourself.

I'm an absolutely massive Doves fan, and I don't quite know why. I guess it's something intangible that just hits me right here. They're just three dudes from Manchester, but the sum is infinitely more than the parts. I was telling someone yesterday that Doves may be the only band that I would follow around like a Deadhead. Something tells me that that scene would be a little less, shall we say, colorful than the one fostered by JerBear & Company. I can see it now: a bunch of record store clerks in hoodies standing around mumbling about B-sides and bonus tracks, not making eye contact. [shiver] Now that I think about it, I think seeing Doves in LA will be sufficient.

Anyway, back to "Jetstream." It's a bit of departure for the band, with more of an electronic influence, but it's still classically Doves. If the rest of the album is this good, it's gonna be a corker.

This was supposed to the year that I went to England with some friends, including a pilgrimage to Manchester, the home of a great many of my favorite bands. Sadly, the economic apocalypse has thrown a wet blanket over that idea. But at least I'll have a new Doves album in April. Hell, that + a few pints of Guinness and I can just pretend I'm in Blighty. It'll have to do for now. And I'm OK with that. Kinda. ~ Tim

Glasvegas!

Call me a sucker for a thick Scottish accent, a female drummer and gratuitous use of reverb, but I just can’t seem to get enough of the new Glasvegas recording. Dylan aside, it’s the best thing to come out on Columbia in quite some time. You can check out the band here…http://www.glasvegas.net/us/frontpage - Chris

Oh, 9!

"This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry
This town, is coming like a ghost town"

Those words were sung by The Specials in 1981. The band was lamenting the depressed state of their native England, deep in the throes of Thatcherism with nothing but darkness on the horizon. But those words (soon to be sung again at the band's reunion shows) do an excellent job of describing the current situation we Americans find ourselves in.

And speaking of ghost towns, we were in Vegas earlier this month for the Consumer Electronics Show. The place was (relatively) deserted, with half-built hotels flanking The Strip. It was eerie.

As you may have read, attendance at CES was down about 25% which, despite being a bummer for the CEA, actually made the show a much more pleasant experience for attendees. The usual cattle call was replaced by something resembling a dignified gathering of CE professionals and various hangers on (ahem). We were able to park with ease in the Hilton garage (score!) and experienced very few lines. What struck us though was that every single person we met with said the same thing: "I hate Vegas." Seriously. Everybody. Now, Brandracket's disregard for Sin City is well established, but I always figured that most people liked it. Turns out that's not the case. Frankly, I think the whole "adult Disneyland / 'what happens in Vegas...'" schtick is played out. Do I need to go to Vegas to get drunk or cheat on my wife (hi, honey!)? Not really. I can get thoroughly debauched in my own zip code. So why go? Gambling? Yeah, right. The shows? No thanks. In fact, it's been really entertaining reading the positively brutal reviews of Criss Angel's Believe show.

So, yeah, I don't really know why anyone would want to go to Vegas. And I sincerely hope that the CEA will consider moving it to a different locale. Like one where I don't feel like I need to take a shower just by being there.

In other news, I'm finding it hard to contain my excitement at the fact that the Oval Office is now occupied by a smart, articulate, exceedingly competent human being who claims to like Wilco. Finally, I feel like the POTUS may actually be the smartest guy in the room. Here's hoping that our man lives up to his potential. My gut feeling is that he could be one of the greatest ever, but only time will tell.

Now please excuse me, I'm stimulating the economy. Are you?? ~ Tim

Oh Joy!

New Doves record coming in spring '09!! Rejoice!

Here Comes The Fear...Again

A lot is being made of the current "economic downturn", but those of us toiling in the music sector have been witness to a slow-motion apocalypse for nearly a decade now. The phrases "job security" and "career in music" are rarely uttered in the same sentence, but lately things seem to be getting a lot worse, a lot faster. It's kinda like when a ship sinks - once the stern is vertical, you know you'll be wet soon.

Just today Viacom announced the down-sizing of 850 people, including a number of cuts in the NYC office of the Rhapsody music service. As someone who's actually been down-sized by Viacom (back in '01), I can attest to the fact that getting laid off really sucks, and my heart goes out to those folks.

The thing that really interests me is the number of "music professionals" that are / will soon be out on the street trying to find jobs in music. Frankly, I don't think our industry - which is relatively small and insular - can sustain them, and I suspect that many people who've spent their entire professional lives parked at the intersection of Music and Business will soon be exploring new career avenues.

That's a tough pill to swallow. What if you were a pastry chef and suddenly someone told you, "That's it - out of the kitchen!" Yet, that's what's happening. The technological disruption occurring in the music space - and the resultant file-sharing - is unprecedented and it's making a lot of people either 1) unnecessary or 2) redundant or 3) unemployable.

We here at Brandracket take some comfort in the fact that we don't pay our rent selling music. We're essentially a service business - helping brands find and license music for a variety of purposes. Lucky for us, brands will always respect copyrights (thanks to the armies of lawyers they employee...), and they will always need someone to help them navigate the musical waters.

But that said, don't think for instant that we're not battening down the hatches over here. The looming economic storm is gonna rain on everyone's parade, including ours. So we're doing everything we can to keep existing clients and aggressively (but nicely!) go after new ones. Ultimately, that's really all we can do.

And if it doesn't work, we'll just ask for a bailout. :)

Enough hand-wringing. Last time I checked, none of us are in a Turkish prison, so let's keep things in perspective. (Apologies to anyone who actually is in a Turkish prison. Keep digging.) If I don't get around to writing something here before the end of the year, we wish you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season. See you in '09! ~ Tim