Links for 11.7.07: Facebook’s sound, Prince’s hate, Bridwell’s folly +
by Josh Kimball
*Facebook’s music service has apparently begun rolling. [venture beat]
*Prince hates you. And me. [vulture]
*Sub Pop is opening its own digital music store. [filter]
*In social networks: MixRevolution – the soc net for DJs. Are there that many DJs? [listening post]
*Ugh. I love Ypulse as an information source, but upon a closer read today (which I unfortunately don’t often have time for) really mediocre analysis of Radiohead + the youth market. Scary.
UPDATE: From the comments – My main (overly harsh) complaint about the Ypulse post was with saying control was one of the big takeaways (see the ‘ments below for too much wordiness on the subject). Yp’s Anastasia counters by saying that I’m getting all semantical. Which is probably fair. Finally, we agree on the maxim “Wine before bloggy, everything foggy.” (OK, I just made that up. But you know.)
*Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell keeps talking about his band’s Wal-mart licensing deal. [largehearted boy]
*Lily Allen has become a lingerie model for Agent Provocateur. [peefork]
*How would you like to smell like Jay-Z? [popeater via daily swarm]
Hey Josh. I was just sharing why I think teenagers would dig what Radiohead did even if they aren’t huge fans of the band. Not attempting to do an in-depth analysis of Radiohead in the context of everything going on the music industry. I’d be curious to know what specifically you thought was off or disagree with…
Hey. A couple things. As I said, I’ve been a big fan of Ypulse – long have been, actually. It’s a daily read and I’m consistently impressed by the breadth of coverage and the fun and inspiring niche digging. Not only do I read and recommend it, I often also cite it to colleagues – in particular (and of late) such takes as your skepticism / questioning of any sort of Millennial modesty movement.
So, the positive stuff out of the way. I was probably kind of harsh in my assessment above (especially the “scary” part). Still, I think citing control as a takeaway for teen appeal is imprecise at best. There are tons of ways media experiences can be controlled and personalized right now (and these are important concepts, not just buzz words), but taking charge of the actual price – at least to my incredibly tiny brain – isn’t really one of them. Picking your price may be about MONEY (most probable), power, and/or subversion. But control and personalization? Huh…not really.
Forgive me for maybe being overly eager in demanding motivational precision. Probably should have checked my post before I wrecked myself with over-the-top rhetoric. A good lesson to do the daily links in the pre-wine morning rather than the post-work evening.
josh
Hi Josh. Thanks for responding. How is being given the option to name your price not a form of control vs. being forced to only buy it on iTunes, Amazon, etc. or at an offline store. It may not be the same as customizing your sneakers online, but it feels sort of empowering for fans/consumers when an artist asks, “what is this worth to you?” vs. this is what the music industry is telling you it’s worth. And I do think there is a parallel to being able to skip ads with a DVR. It created a new choice or a third way for teens vs. stealing the music as they normally would or buying the music in a store or on iTunes. I think teens would see the band asking them (or the fans) to name their own price as giving them some degree of control (even if they choose the price of $0), don’t you?
Anyhow, I think maybe it was the semantics I used, i.e. personalization/customization vs. control. I’m a fan of Iconoculture as well and often link to stuff in your newsletter. Keep up the great work…and remember, drinking and blogging can kill a friendship;-)
Hey–not going to make people wade through a SUPER lot more of my spilt ink, so I’ll just refer to my first comment. Is giving people price choice ceding over some form of control? Probs. Is it the best way to describe buyers’ motivations in this case? Personally, as I said, I think there are other core issues that are more important. (Though obviously, and again as I said, in general, the importance of media control to consumers is difficult to overstate.)
I should end this by apologizing to my readers (Joe, Bobby, and you too, Frank) for stringing more than two sentences in a row. It’ll be months before I do it again. Swearzies. And also I should probably state the obvious – though I am happily employed by Icono, this endeavour has nothing to do with that one. The listenerd is just like any other blog out there – sprung from a spirit of futility and desperation.