AOL MUSIC
Wsj.com, the most successful subscription site on the Web, is a DISASTER!
Sorry to tell you, the newspaper is on its way to extinction. You see, the younger generation gets all its news from the WEB!
So you'd think that the "Wall Street Journal" was in the catbird seat. You've got to PAY to view the WSJ online. But suddenly Dow Jones woke up. Not were they going to go extinct in PRINT, they were going to go extinct ONLINE! Because they just didn't have enough EYEBALLS!
Yup, it was great that all those readers were paying a significant sum to subscribe to wsj.com, but advertisers JUST DIDN'T CARE! There just weren't ENOUGH OF THEM!
So what did Dow Jones do? They decided to buy cbsmarketwatch.com.
Only one problem, WORD GOT OUT! And a BIDDING WAR ensued. And Dow Jones had to pay a FORTUNE to acquire cbsmarketwatch.com. Because content companies realize it's now all about PORTALS! And at this advanced age in the history of the Internet, it's getting HARDER AND HARDER to establish a brand name. Clusty's fantastic. Its odds of eclipsing Google? About NIL!
Finally, AOL has woken up to this. Their walled-garden strategy, it's HISTORY! It was MARGINALIZING them!
That running man in those ads. Imploring you to sign up for AOL broadband, for all the extra FEATURES? He's been run right off the map. That's the WRONG STRATEGY! The new strategy is not to pay AT ALL, and get ADVERTISING!
Thus, AOL Music is now FREE!
Who KNEW??
God, that's one of the reasons I loved having a PC. So I could view the Mac-incompatible Sessions@AOL. But now it turns out ANYBODY can watch Sessions@AOL. Just go to AOLMUSIC.COM!
Why the hell haven't they TOLD anybody??
That's what happens when you pussy-foot.
When Steve Jobs realizes he's made a mistake, he ADMITS IT and does a 180!!!
AOL needs a campaign. Telling everybody that AOL Music is now FREE!
Yup, it's a rush to rule music on the Web. The labels have woken up too late. NOW they want to charge for their videos. When YahooMusic/Launch is a bigger brand in the mind of a thirteen year old than UNIVERSAL MUSIC! Once again, the tail is wagging the dog. Because the tail realized it was about being an AGGREGATOR! Having EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE! Why don't the labels realize this. That people want EVERYTHING! And that Rhapsody and iTunes don't have everything. People want live tracks, alternate takes, UNRELEASED STUFF FROM THE VAULT, and the longer you hesitate in making them available, the greater the chance of losing the hearts and minds of the audience FOREVER!
Yup, all that shit is available FOR FREE on P2P sites. You can't compete unless you're offering this stuff too.
MEANWHILE, AOL Music works BETTER on the Web. Because you can use QUICKTIME instead of the dreaded Windows Media Player. Yup, you can SCROLL THROUGH THE VIDEO TO GET TO THE PART YOU WANT TO SEE!
For all the money AOL is paying "Hits", how come NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL ANYBODY IT'S NOW FREE??
MORE ADVERTISING
Advertising's DIFFERENT in the Web world. All those banner ads, that's not where the cash is at. No, the cash is in PAID SEARCH!
Here's how it works. You search for something, and there's a row of targeted ads to your right on Google.
Oh, you may never have clicked, but CHECK IT OUT!
Especially if you're shopping for a new car, something you're UNFAMILIAR WITH!
Companies BID for placement, but ultimately placement is shifted based on the number of CLICKS!
And you only pay for clicks.
Yup, you only get people who are interested, and you only pay when they CHECK YOU OUT!
And you wonder why radio and traditional media are dying.
People want information, they just don't want it shoved down their throat WILLY-NILLY! They want to PICK AND CHOOSE!
Okay, putting this all together, we can see that Dow Jones is STILL screwed. Because although with increased traffic they can charge more for ads on their site, this isn't where the ACTION IS! The action is at the portal that has SEARCH!
Google knows this. Yahoo knows this. Microsoft knows this. AOL has woken up, they're redoing their strategy right now. Yup, not only have they moved MUSIC to the Web, making it available for FREE, now they're going to make AOL.COM a free portal unto itself.
And now you can see, the cement is starting to get firm. There's only so many players.
What will differentiate them?
The EXTRAS! Like gmail, with its amazing storage capacity. And Google's DESKTOP search.
It's a race to domination.
Microsoft's got the money. Yahoo's got the inertia. And AOL's a behemoth trying not to turn into a dinosaur.
Bet on Google. All that wizardry you see Terry Semel working? It's smoke and mirrors. Once advertisers woke up to the potential of the Web, he was the one with the real estate/eyeballs. But he's not moving into the future as fast as Google. And this will hurt Yahoo. Because, for all the extras on their site, once again, it's about placed ads in SEARCH!
DUAL DISC
Will you GIVE UP already??
This is as bad as the Democrats in the election. What's the MESSAGE, what's the STORY??
Oh, you can get the tunes for free online. So we're going to charge you just a LITTLE bit more and give you EXTRAS! But how many people in the target audience can play BACK the multichannel mix?? I don't see kids in college with home theatres. They've got iPods, but not surround sound. But OH, they get VIDEO!
Not GOOD video. You want to charge EXTRA for that. As a separate product. Almost all the VIDEO content is stuff you'd watch ONCE AT MOST. Except for the collector, NOBODY CARES!
Give it UP!
God, focus on selling lossless content on the Web!
Oh, the labels aren't really interested in sound quality, they just want to find a new way to make a buck.
HELLO, it's called the INTERNET! Jump in with two feet, or be GOOGLIZED by twentysomethings. Yup, Google wasn't started by New York city FAT CATS, rather SILICON VALLEY GRADUATE STUDENTS!
JAM VS. CLEAR CHANNEL
Fantastic. A victory for the little guy.
MEANINGFUL???
Only Clear Channel can be so stupid as to try employ muscle where they don't have a MONOPOLY!
Their monopoly is their BUILDINGS! They should leverage THOSE!
Then again, they're going to continue their heinous behavior.
That's what big bad companies do. They appeal until they get the number down to a reasonable figure, and then they settle. And then, after writing the loss off, they MOVE ON!
Look at Universal and TVT. TVT was right, they won in court, they got a fraction of their initial judgment, Universal went on to big numbers and Lyor Cohen crawled from the wreckage into a brand new car, making MILLIONS at Warner.
Then again, maybe Lyor knows not to lie on the stand anymore.
Maybe Clear Channel just won't delineate their heinous activities in e-mail again.
Really, I don't expect much to change. Unfortunately.
It's not like recordings. Well, it WAS like recordings. The majors elbowed out their competitors via their control of DISTRIBUTION! That's DYING and the landscape is being flattened. But until EVERYBODY can rent the same buildings, expect Clear Channel to still be king.
SILLERMAN
God, does he REALLY BELIEVE CKX is a good idea?
I can't believe that. I think he just wants to roll up some assets and lay them off on somebody ONCE AGAIN! But this time, he won't even be able to create a MONOPOLY!
There's no barrier to entry in the management business.
And what IS the synergy here? What IS the connection between Elvis and "Idol"? Isn't it kind of like buying a Chevy and a BMW dealership? Oh, they're both CARS, but there are not a lot of COST savings. They're different products, using different parts, catering to different customers. Oh, you can share BACK ROOM COSTS!
But really, that's not where the money is. It's about finding something NEW and selling the hell out of THAT! A new BMW minivan or pickup truck would help you out a lot more than firing a couple of accountants.
I don't get this whole management roll-up thing. Makes Cliff Burnstein, once again, look like the smartest guy in the music business.
Oh, he's not in the paper every day. Not on hitsdailydouble. But he's COINING MONEY!
He's got Metallica. The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Shania Twain. Muse. Even Def Leppard and Fountains Of Wayne.
What Cliff and his company did with the Peppers is nothing short of ASTOUNDING! They're probably the biggest American band on the Continent. Selling tickets and albums in the U.K. in quantities almost UNFATHOMABLE!
Yup, while some managers are talking about artist development, Q Prime specializes in making stars SUPERSTARS!
While some managers have fancy digs, Q Prime's offices are more rock and roll than Hollywood.
While everybody's merging, everybody's talking synergy, Q Prime is doing it the OLD-FASHIONED WAY!
I say Sillerman's a carpetbagger. Someone more proficient in three card monte than upfront reality.
Don't pay attention to the smoke and mirrors. Pay attention to the FUNDAMENTALS!
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE
I admit it. I watched the "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" last night.
I'm just about done. I gave up on "Real World" (and seemingly so has everybody ELSE!) But I figured I'd give these seasoned cast members one more chance.
But it's scary. Because now they're getting OLD!
I mean it was okay when they were in the neighborhood of twenty, but now it's like watching "Leave It To Beaver" just before it got cancelled. When Jerry Mathers had already GROWN UP!
But during every single commercial break. TWICE! At the beginning AND the end. There was a promo for My Chemical Romance.
NOBODY'S that good. NOBODY deserves THAT MUCH hype.
But MTV doesn't care. It's all momentary in their mind. Run this up the flagpole and then kick it to the curb after you're done with it. Don't the major labels REALIZE THIS??
Why are the major labels always TOOLS of the system.
They gave MTV the videos for essentially free. And then YahooMusic/Launch. I say Universal is RIGHT to charge for use of their videos on the Web.
But it's too late. Oh, they'll get paid, it's just that the real money will be made by the AGGREGATORS/PORTALS!
But that's the labels. Always trying to pull the future back to the PAST instead of venturing into the new world themselves.
But soon these multinationals are going to find out no one wants to PLAY!!
Being on MTV is no longer a badge of honor. Artists know it's a career kiss of death.
Oh, don't tell me about the acts that came to your office today and said OTHERWISE!
It's gonna be like file-trading. SUDDENLY, almost OVERNIGHT all the acts are going to say NO, we won't DO IT, we're going to stay INDEPENDENT! If we make any deals it will be with GOOGLE! Hell, those guys are OUR AGE! They UNDERSTAND us. They deal in truth rather than deception. They don't want to rip us off, they truly want a WIN WIN! We TRUST THEM!
Yup, it all comes down to trust.
And now the acts don't trust the labels, the labels don't trust the customers and the customers don't trust the labels. This is a recipe for SUCCESS??
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