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.
And in spite of that imbalance (or maybe even because of it), I have been enjoying myself. I feel useful. Productive. Invested. Engaged.
Ztail is slowly coming into focus (not without a herculean effort, but that’s what makes it even more satisfying). The product is taking shape, the key features and functionality are gaining definition, and perhaps most important, the pitch (the sale, the value, the reason to be) is revealing itself. I hope to share more in the first part of the new year, but for now just know that I am very pleased.
Working this much, this intensely, means I have headphones wrapped around my head almost the entire time (it’s the only way I can concentrate). As a result, I’ve been pouring over each and every piece of music I’ve acquired this past year. I’ve always wanted to do a ‘year-in-review’ post of my favorite albums, singles, and songs. Ideally, I’d simply pick and choose from reviews that were already written over the course of the year, but since I have nothing of the sort, I’ll be starting from scratch. Interestingly enough, for every obvious winner, there’s an equally surprising one, which makes me smile (I love nothing more than music that improves over time). I hope to share this list with you in the coming weeks as well.
I often struggle with this blogging thing. On one hand, I feel obligated to make it more than a ‘hey look at this’ linked list, opting for more involved and more (hopefully) cohesive thoughts (tonight’s post excepted). But that means so many of my less-than-fully-formed ideas fail my lame-ass litmus test, never to see the light of day. I am aware of it and focused on finding a better rhythm.
That said, I won’t resist the urge to point you to a free download of The Areas of My Expertise audio book by John Hodgman on iTunes. Trust me, it’s worth every penny. He’s a frequent contributor to the Daily Show as well as the PC in those ubiquitous Apple commercials (I think he’s far more compelling and the much more likable of the two—it pains me to say that out loud, given my deep dislike of anything Microsoft). I only wish I would have had it prior to my trip back to Ohio this past weekend. I threw some pics up on flickr if you’re so inclined.
I have much more to write, but I’m fading fast. Hope to be back soon.
I never intended tankt.com to house my (most) personal ramblings. But lately that’s been front and center in my life and I see no reason to separate the two. It’s clear not everything is settled, as evidenced by last night’s banner effort, but at least it is settling. I remain a work in progress, and happily so. Would you bother to tune in if not?
Over time, I hope, I’ll show you (my loyal audience of two) the things I love, the dreams I hold, and the talents I’ll use to pull them all together. That said, this blogging shit is hard.
My goal is really quite simple. I want to spin a story, weaving in and out of the corners of my mind, loosely tying together all of the disparate pieces of information I’ve gleaned from the day, with the double goal of a density of thoughts and an economy of words.
I want to then annotate, curate, and merchandise each post. I have some ideas on how the future of (online) retail unfolds and I’m fortunate to find myself in a position to make that happen at ztail. This blog has become my laboratory in so many ways.
I spent the previous few weeks trying in vain to build a store within my blog. When I recommend a song of an artist on an album, or a passage by an author in a book, I want to link you directly to the point of purchase.
I want that link to be contextual in the purest sense, in order to create the emotional connection between attaining the idea and buying the product. Oh c’mon, you can’t be surprised, you know how much I love infomercials…
The point isn’t consumption per se, but awareness. That and artists deserve to get paid for their work.
I realize not all of you will buy. I don’t expect to earn riches from these links, though there is cash at play, that’s not quite the point. I believe I can create an audience and build a reputation as an authority, then use that leverage to pursue new ideas and opportunities in the future… I’m hardly the first to think along these lines, Doc Searls:
The because effect is a kind of jujitsu. While other people look to make money with something, you’re finding ways of making money because of something.
Long story short, I embedded thumbnails of album and book cover art and wrapped ‘em in amazon links. So GHETTO, but it’s a start, and about as good as I can do given the existing tools, and the limits to my web nerdery.
It amazes me that everything in my life is lining up at this moment, but here it is. I love the way it feels so natural and completely unforced. While I promised myself I would go to bed at a decent hour, it’s already well after 2am, and I’m half tempted to stay up all night for old time’s sake. It’s been a while since I’ve had such a labor of love, and I just want to soak it all up.
