I am not a musician. In spite of such a strong personal affinity to music, I lack even the most basic instincts among its instruments. Instead, I rely on my deep appreciation of it, one which admittedly borders on the obsessive at times, to bring me near to nirvana. To be sure, I am a helpless junkie, always looking for a new fix to tickle my ears and lift my head to the heavens…
I am fortunate to have met and become close friends with many extremely talented, and prolific, musicians in my life. We have, at various times, with various strategies, and with even more varying degrees of success, attempted to sell their wares on the open market. It was not an easy business to enter, let alone master, to say nothing of making a profit. Even with critical acclaim, the cost of doing business the old fashioned way (pressing vinyl, of course) was prohibitive.
Ultimately, we put those dreams on hold and went our separate ways. I was thrilled when Stewart Brown and I recently realized that we were living less than a mile apart in San Francisco, and finally reconnected after nearly ten years apart. We are older and wiser now, and while still foolish enough to dream that same dream, we are intent on finding new ways to fulfill it…
To be perfectly honest, I never stopped thinking of how best to market music, and these thoughts only intensified as this “second life” of the internet and its free and easy tools of creation came to be. Brown’s music is infectious (in a very good way) and made to be spread far and wide, and it has long been clear to me that the ease of “spread-ability” is the key to success. So we set out to eliminate anything that inhibits the free flow of music, starting first with the cost to acquire it, so that everyone can hear it instantaneously. That is why you can stream every song in its entirety within the page itself, and even download good quality 128 kbps mp3s (no DRM!!) for free.
I was adamant that we spend as little money as humanly possible (I think our greatest expense so far was buying the domain name). Brown wrote and recorded the music, I designed and built the website, and Kristin tied it all together with her words. If I may say so, it looks and sounds like a million bucks!! Check it out at FORKLIFT ENTERTAINMENT.
I want to point out and thank a few of the many people who helped make this happen…
To Hugh MacLoed and Fred Wilson, two guys who continually experiment and explore new ideas in real-time, right before our very eyes. Their passion and persuasion inspire me to no end. I had trouble finding a singularly illustrative quote from each one, but if you’re at all interested in reading more there’s a combined 71 posts tagged on my del.icio.us from Hugh and Fred.
To Bob Lefsetz, who sums it up best in a recent post entitled “The New Reality”, “You can’t reach them by asking them to buy first. Quite the contrary, it’s like catching a fish. You’ve got to drop quality bait and wait.” He continues, “You establish a beachhead. You try to get people to notice you. And the way you do this is not through endless cross-linking and widgets and all the tools of the helpless, hapless wannabes, but quality music. It’s the only way you can get recognized.” That’s the blueprint right there.
And lastly, to my beautiful wife Abby, who has lived through my countless great ideas and nonexistent execution, who nonetheless never once wavered in her support and always encouraged me to go for it. I could not have done it without you. I love you.
Wow, that was way more than I originally intended to write; still, I left so much out.
I think Brown’s music is poised to take off, and I believe our approach to doing business can help make it happen. I am so excited to see where this goes. I would love to hear what you think, so leave me a comment here or on FORKLIFT ENTERTAINMENT.
As always, more soon.
While Abby is warm in the LA sun, or would be if she weren’t locked inside for marathon meetings, I am freezing in San Francisco. For the first time in many months, I even left our apartment with a jacket and an umbrella. Of course, it turned out to be a beautiful day, unlike the previous two this week, and the evening even had something I haven’t seen in quite some time, clouds.
I can’t believe how well that last shot turned out. It even feels cold, with the icy whites and turquoise blues. I took about ten of them too, each of which was poorly lit in every way and far too fuzzy to use. This one somehow came out just about right.
That’s it for me tonight. Much more soon.
On the role of usability as the most important issue when designing online, Todd Wilkens of Adaptive Path saidbest:
Praising usability is like giving me a gold star for remembering that I have to put each leg in a different place in my pants to put them on. (Admittedly, I do give my 2 year old daughter a gold star for this but then she’s 2.) Usability is not a strategy for design success. … Usability is too low level, too focused on minutia. It can’t compel people to be interested in interacting with your product or service. It can’t make you compelling or really differentiate you from other organizations.
I wholeheartedly agree. I aspire to create interfaces experiences that are engaging, lively, and inspired. I do not always nail it, but I do believe I am getting closer, and much more consistent. At a minimum, they are personable, quirky, and unique; I can live with that in the interim.
Speaking of which, I have a really good one to share with you all in the next few days.
And, fwiw, I respect and truly admire the way Adaptive Path approaches their work. In my mind, AP and Cooper are the quintessential San Francisco design firms, and the only two places I would even consider should I ever tire of doing startups. =)
I’ll admit I was way too into GI Joe back in my youth, so when I saw this first clip earlier today, I nearly fell out of my chair. Even better that I found it on the Beastie Boys blog. You might want to sit down for this:
Fenslerfilm GI Joe PSA 15 - computer
A little searching on YouTube tonight (there are at least 25 different PSAs) came up with two more instant classics:
Fenslerfilm GI Joe PSA 01 - mimimimimi
Fenslerfilm GI Joe PSA 25 - old school
They’re just plain wrong on every level, yet so unbelievably perfect and precise. Admirably, it’s restrained without going over the top, and obviously weird without being absolutely bizarre. It pushes the edge, but remains well-balanced. As for the original cartoon animation, wow… it’s awful. How did I watch that show? I always loved those PSAs tho, “and knowing is half the battle.”
You can also see them all, in higher quality, on website of their creator, Eric Fensler.
And yes, I realize this confirms your suspicions that I have the comedic sensibilities of a 12 year old, but I don’t care.
Abby and I watched the fourth episode from our favorite new show Flight of the Conchords last night, and she had it on again when I came home from work today. Since then, we have been stuck between clumsily humming the melody, struggling to recall the lyrics, and laughing hysterically at the thought of how badly we were messing up it all up.
I would give just about anything to own these songs so I can memorize them top to bottom, but I can’t find them anywhere (believe me, I have looked high and low for weeks now). I don’t know why I never think of YouTube, but one quick check tonight shows they have just about every song from all four episodes (and possibly every episode too).
And now, after watching it about 20 times, we pretty much know the whole “If You’re Into It” song. It has to be their best so far. Watch it:
From the same episode, here’s the song that inspired it:
You know I was hooked from the moment I heard the first song in the first episode. Here it is:
It’s an instant classic. Abby has a knack for finding the best new shows, but unfortunately they usually get cancelled before they reach critical mass (Arrested Development, for instance). Let’s hope F of the C lives a long, long life…