You give the audience what it wants. You don't put the shareholders first, you don't create your business plan in a vacuum, winners take direction from what is in the heads of consumers, and if they're really savvy, they get ahead of the public and give them what they don't even know they want, i.e. Spotify.
That's right, the record business was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption, yet every business believes the rules established in the twenty year transition don't apply to them. Then again, the movie business always thought it was superior to the music business, even though it was Warner Brothers' record companies that threw off all the cash that built the company's cable system.
So the record business was flying high. It figured out how to charge double, even more, for the same music, getting customers to buy it all over again. People were told the CD was superior, and then companies stopped manufacturing vinyl and cassettes, forcing you to buy the CD. If a single was a hit, they cut it out, i.e. stopped selling it, and made consumers buy the album.
And then came Napster, the poster child for digital disruption.
The record business was making so much money in the nineties it was insane. The executives became household names, whereas prior to the end of the twentieth century the hoi polloi had no idea who ran record companies, after all, weren't the stars the acts? No! And even to this day, the acts are fungible, the companies remain, that's the perspective of the major labels. Furthermore, they've got insurance, i.e. their catalogs, so they'll be sitting at the table until copyrights run out, which they never seem to do, the corporations using their political muscle to extend them. And these same people were pissed when the public appropriated their content to make new works on YouTube, and then TikTok, now they're begging for their content to be used. But you follow, you don't restrict. You don't institute a RootKit scheme. If you customers are not perceived as friends, you're screwed. Unless you're the only game in town, and therefore the two most hated enterprises extant survive, i.e. Ticketmaster and cable companies. Forget that Ticketmaster is just a front for the acts, and the fees don't go straight to the company's bottom line, people hate Ticketmaster.
The same way artists hate Spotify.
Ticketmaster will talk about the advantages it provides, the ability to buy a ticket 24/7 from anywhere on your handheld device. But people forget the past. Artists bitch that they're not making the bucks of the pre-internet era, not knowing that without the technical advantages they wouldn't even be able to participate, forget the remuneration.
And then you hear the refrain that music's value has been reduced. Well, I've got to ask you, what's the value of the device you're reading this on, all the technology, your smartphone and computer are bargains. And in truth, the value of a product is what people will pay for it, not how much money or blood, sweat and tears you invested in creating/manufacturing it.
So it took Spotify with its free tier to kill piracy. And the truth is the free tier is monetized with ads and statistics tell us it's the main driver of subscriptions. That people who listen for free want unfettered access, the ability to listen to exactly what they want when they want, sans commercials. Just like someone PAYING a TV streaming service wants content on their terms.
And it wasn't that way for a very long time.
But then came on demand, and then came streaming, and then came "House of Cards," where Netflix released the entire season at once. And that was the paradigm until...
Streaming became the norm.
HBO refuses to change its game. Which is why I no longer watch their product. I can't wait week to week. I forget too much, I can't be as emotionally involved, it's a story, back in the days of Dickens they serialized books, but no longer, imagine having to wait a week for the next chapter, the book business would be eviscerated.
Same deal with Apple TV+. Their biggest success, "Ted Lasso"...I still haven't watched the second season, but if they released it all at once I would have. But the buzz is already gone, there's a tsunami of new stuff, if you can gain someone's attention, keep it. Do you know how hard it is to have people come back week after week, especially if the series starts off crappy?
Like Apple's "The Morning Show." The first few episodes had horrible buzz, so almost everybody tuned out. But those who stuck with it said it got better, but it was too late.
As for "Mrs. Maisel'...
We just started a series on Netflix entitled "Unauthorized Living," still haven't figured out what's going on, but I'm intrigued, yet then I remembered "Mrs. Maisel" was coming out on Friday, and I tuned in and there were only TWO EPISODES! On a holiday weekend! Furthermore, the first eighty percent of the first episode was nearly unwatchable, so cheesy, so two-dimensional with the actors chewing the scenery. I almost had to turn it off, and I'm a fan. But I stuck with it and watched the second episode and it was somewhat better and if the rest of the series had been available I would have continued. Now I'm not sure I'll even go back. I mean you had me and you let me go? Doesn't anybody at Amazon know about the attention economy?
And dripping out episodes makes no sense at Amazon, since all of its subscribers are locked in via Prime, they want the fast free shipping, the video is just a bonus. Apple is in a bind, it's got very little product and everybody is on a free subscription but those are ending and the Cupertino company thinks week by week is the only way to keep people subscribing. But there was a new show reviewed in the papers today, starring Adam Scott, who I'm a fan of, but one paper said it sucked, that only one episode was necessary, not a complete series, and the other said it was better but was I really going to waste my time checking it out? I mean dribbling out episodes is akin to having intercourse for months without orgasm. Who wants that?
Nobody. And you listen to your customers, because they have options.
Yes, I watch Netflix because if I'm into something I can consume it straight, I can have a deep, intense experience.
That's right, to me streaming television isn't entertainment, it's ART! Which is how you should treat it. I love being taken away, caught up in a story, returning to it night after night until it's finished. I can't have that experience if I have to wait week by week to see episodes.
And therefore I won't write about it. And I don't think I've got that much influence, but I've got some, and what these companies are looking for is buzz. And right now my buzz on the new season of "Mrs. Maisel" is it's for diehards only, and really you don't have to watch it. Wait until the series plays out, wait to hear what people have to say about it before you dive in, because our time is precious. That's the number one crime in my book, WASTING MY TIME!
Which is one of the reasons I rarely talk on the telephone. You tell your story, you don't want to hear mine. And I can't jump in and stop you, it's too impolite. Whereas in an e-mail or text I can get to the heart of the matter, and no one is interrupting me when I speak. And in truth, the younger generation rarely talks on the phone. Parents complain, voicemails go unanswered. Why won't they pick up? Because they don't want their time wasted. They want to answer messages on their own schedule, maybe instantly, maybe an hour or two later. Maybe they're busy. There's nothing worse than having the phone ring when you're deep into something else. And if you don't pick up they leave a message and if you don't get back to them you're an a-hole, and that's quite a burden.
If I'm bothering to give you my attention, which is the absolute hardest thing for you to get from me, you've got to treat me right, you've got to make it easy, you've got to deliver on my terms, otherwise you're out of step in the twenty first century. Spotify was started by a twentysomething. Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max are run by lifers who think they are doing god's work, delivering the programming which too often sucks. These people don't have their ear to the ground. It's young people who made bingeing popular. Do you really think they're going to wait week to week for episodes? Are you dreaming? They want all of it on demand, so they can consume it whenever they want. And if they like something, they tell everybody! As for building water cooler moments...there are no water coolers anymore. That's one of the main criteria of young job seekers, the ability to work at home, and flexible hours. And every study says that those who work from home work harder and longer than those in the office! Yes, there are some enterprises that benefit from people being in the office, but many fewer than oldsters think.
And what do the oldsters do?
Crap all over Millennials and Gen-Z'ers. Saying they're entitled babies. No, they have a sense of self-worth. And enough with the b.s. about their short attention spans, if you can binge a TV show for ten or twelve hours straight, which they do, you do not have an attention span issue. But they only do this when the product is superior and it's made available in a palatable way. What blew up TV was the quality. The shows of yore wouldn't be able to compete today. That's one of the reasons the networks keep losing market share. Turns out if there's an abundance of choice, everybody doesn't want to watch the same thing, and certainly don't want to watch something bland made to appeal to everybody, it's the edges that got people hooked on the new TV series.
Not that I think anything I say above will have any effect. Because these people know better. Just like the Democrats, saying they've got to put the progressives in their place. Don't they get it? Just like streaming TV, it's the edges that motivate people, the same old bland b.s. of the past is how Trump got elected to begin with. And speaking of Trump, the Democrats fight him and the Republicans by adhering to processes from the past, whereas the Republicans are not constrained. One thing you've got to say about the right, it thinks outside the box, the Texas abortion law, the new voting laws. What do the Democrats do? Sit back and cry and then are surprised when they lose, kind of like the record companies and Napster. The record companies tried suing their customers...that didn't work out. But do you know what did? Daniel Ek and streaming, he brought the revenues back. But if you listen to the scuttlebutt, you'd believe Spotify and Ek are the devil. It's really no different from consuming anti-vax information. You go with what feels right, you align with the gang, the truth is lost in the shuffle. All truth seems to be lost in the shuffle.
And the great thing about streaming TV is when done right it is truth, a truth you cannot find in Hollywood tentpole movies, nor in most of the hit records. The public knows, which is why they're addicted to the plethora of shows produced under the new model. And if you don't like something, you don't have to sit through it. Which is exactly why MTV stopped airing videos. When they became an on demand item online, why did people need videos on MTV? But everybody had nostalgia for the old way and complained. Okay, all these years later, do you really miss MTV? Waiting to watch one of the handful of videos they actually unspooled?
Being married to the past is a death trap, especially in a technology driven world. I don't have to watch your TV show at all, I can be entertained on TikTok, which is more authentic than many of the shows offered. The public has options and you want to reduce them? You want the public to comport with your desires? This old game has lost again and again and again in the internet era, and you're employing it? And the same customers who say they like episodes dropped week by week, and there are some, are the aged nostalgic for the old days, like those out of touch at the VMAs at the beginning of this century chiding MTV to air more videos. MTV didn't listen, because these vocal complainers were out of touch! As a matter of fact, if MTV had listened it would have had a very short run. It canned the original veejays, knowing that aging with the audience is death, you've got to appeal to young people. "Rolling Stone" failed this mission and therefore became marginalized. Quick, have you ever heard a Millennial or Gen-Z'er talk about "Rolling Stone," ever?
Don't satisfy those at the end of the tail, but those at the head.
As for all those people bitching about smartphone use... Do you ever hear a young person complaining? They're in touch with everybody 24/7, they have the world at their fingertips, do you really think they want to log off to listen to your boring conversation? We've established they have all the time in the world if it's interesting, but the old model delivers boredom, I remember the old days, no one need be bored today.
Because there are so many options.
So if you hook someone, don't let them go! Which is what social media is about for musicians. You're satiating your core customers, feeding them so they'll continue to be fans, so they'll bring new fans aboard. it's not advertising and it's got to be honest and genuine, otherwise it's worthless. In the past it didn't work this way. But in the past there were so many years between albums that by time your next one came out the teenager was married with children and was no longer a rabid fan, so you had to try and convince them over and over again, via an endless stream of hit singles, imploring them to buy the album. Whereas for years you had them in the palm of your hand, you just let them go, it's you who broke off the relationship, the same way Amazon Prime is breaking the relationship with me re "Mrs. Maisel." AND THIS IS A TECH COMPANY?
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