theWheel

dnb

Earlier tonight I went to a meeting of WordPress Ann Arbor. Much food for thought vis a vis theWheel and branding. Here it is, The Secret Formula:

Decide on your brand promise.

Make your brand promise.

Deliver on your brand promise.

Believe it or not, I actually know what I mean to do here.  Oh, to articulate it clearly.

One more task among hundreds, yet I look forward to this task.

Yikes…

Hitler, as “Downfall producer” orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.

Found this at the Daily Dish:

theOwl

I’m a huge Police fan and a huge Elvis Costello fan, so imagine my joy when I belatedly ran across these two icons video intersection:

Oh, and what’s your favorite Police song???

Roxanne? Alison?

Sorry, Elvis, the reharmonization doesn’t really work – kinda jumps the shark – but, I hasten to say, Elvis Costello’s Alison is just a fantastic song…lets see if I can find it…

The first time I heard this song was in the late 70s on the radio in Los Angeles, sung by Linda Ronstadt. I haven’t heard that cover for years and years, but with the magic of the internet: (don’t look at this video – just listen)

She basically just covers Elvis’ arrangement, with musicians who play in a style acceptable to the then current radio gods. But, in fairness to Linda Ronstadt, check this out:

Oh, the joys of YouTube. The above cover is a good example of the Southern California pop sound circa 1978. There was a true archetypal style by then. The backing band could have backed the Eagles or Jackson Brown, or any of a numbers of others. I like this sound. Did I say Eagles, circa 1978?

You know, I get carried away with this stuff. I really loved a lot of this late 20th Century rock/pop music. There was a real good run there. I don’t know where we are now. Records are no longer what they used to be. The old music business business model is a dinosaur. Yet music always finds a way. Like mathematics, music is always there on the cutting edge. It can’t help it. It’s just that the cutting edge is no longer to be found in record companies or on radio stations controlled by corporations.

The first explosion of culturally – mythically transformative music that makes its mark through the great mythical tubes of the internet – that’s when we’ll feel it again.

theOwl

Great article here about Choruss, a new model for a music economy.

theOwl

(1.8.11 – I can’t find Dylan’s version on YouTube anymore, so here are the Byrds…)

OK. Here’s a link to the internet sensation of the moment – Susan Boyle. (If a black Apture window pops up here stating “Embedding disabled by request”, click on the words “Susan Boyle – Singer – Britains Got Talent 2009″ at the top of the black window to link to the  video at YouTube). The video you’ll find at the above link has been viewed some 31 million times in the last week or so.

Something BIG is happening here.  From the Washington Post:

Indeed, the Internet is her stage, and the 47-year-old who has said she’s never heard of YouTube is the Web’s hottest entertainer. “She’s really the world’s singer right now,” said Julie Supan, a YouTube spokesperson who in her four years at the company cannot remember a video raking in this many views in such a period of time.

One view at a time, Boyle’s audience is proving that the social Web — where users aren’t just mere viewers but also distributers — makes the digital world feel smaller and more connected. And her global popularity is a testament that the marriage between old media (her performance first aired on Britisn television) and new media (it then made its way to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook) is broadening the reach of all media, from one channel to the next, one person at a time.

As a result, at any given moment, someone is passing along Boyle online.

That’s the kicker.  If a YouTube video goes viral, that event trumps all the money and promotional apparatus of the content industry.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

UPDATE – 3.19.09 – Here’s a richly linked article from Wired concerning Why File Sharing Will Save Hollywood, Music.

theOwl

I’ve just finished buying – and reading – Larry Lessig’s new book Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, of which I will write more presently..

But tonight, and muchly pertinent to Lessig’s book – tonight the 2008 Oscars show is being broadcast. OK. I can’t watch the whole Oscars show. Can’t do it. But, anyhow the Oscars are on in the living room, and there was a song and dance production number – “The Musical Is Back.”  Top Hat, White Tie and Tails segued into I Don’t Know How to Love Him, while Maria – I’ve just met a girl named Maria wafted through the hodgepodge…

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theOwl

YouTube has announced that it is going to be supporting Creative Commons licenses.

theOwl

Could it be that Clear Channel Communications has finally reached its high water mark, and is on its way back down to join some reality attuned to the U.S. Constition’s injunction that

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

theOwl

First, here’s a little introduction to Google Earth.

OK – here’s where I started writing this post before the scales fell from my eyes.  I guess I had heard of Google Earth, but I had not yet really looked into it.  Don’t be a sluggard like me.  You want to check all this out.  Really.

Wow. I must live in a cave.

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