JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Mentor Questions Forum Newsweek Interview with Michael Laskow

Brian,

First you missed the point that the first part of my post points out the unfeasibility of the 'walkaround wireless jukebox' concept that he advances as 'the future'. Or just ignored it. Those subs will never materialize. Which leaves tethered computer subs.

Then you accuse me of having 'a chip' for pointing out that the payout AND the multiplier are ridiculous numbers regardless of who claims them to be authoritative.

TEN MILLION SUBSCRIBERS A MONTH DOES NOT EQUAL TEN MILLION LISTENS PER SONG PER MONTH, EVEN IF THE SONG MAKES IT ON TO 'SEÑOR TASTEMAKER'S' JALAPEÑO-LIST!

ONE-HUNDRED MILLION cable subscribers not listening to the Polka Channel on cable equals ZERO. Some folks, a LOT of folks are NEVER gonna spend more than 30 seconds there.

If your song is Scandinavian neo-Goth deathcore, MAYBE 100,000 will hear it ONCE, MAYBE. Point: total number of subs doesn't guarantee same total number of listens.

Or does the model FORCE PEOPLE TO LISTEN to everything on their selected list?

10 million people don't listen to music at their computers hours and hours a day.

Let's do the math: say there's a fresh new batch of 50 songs on my favorite filter's list each month. Why 50? We're tearing down the tyranny of the evil CC-Radio's Top 40, remember? Restricted playlists, ba-a-a-ad! More hotlist picks, go-o-o-od!

So at, say, four minutes per that's 200 minutes, 3 hours twenty minutes to get through said filter's list at full-length.

And if your song, Brian, isn't on that list, you haven't made that penny yet.

So, if I have to listen through another 3 hours twenty of someone else's 'hotlist' to hear your song, not looking for it because I know nothing about you or your music, and decide I don't like it, I've wasted SIX HOURS FORTY finding out that I don't like your song.

Let's say I can squeeze in an hour of 'active listening' per day, the active listening that has to sit at the computer, scroll the list, play the song, skip to the next if I don't like the current song. I've just spent SEVEN DAYS to find out I don't like your song, and will never listen to it again. So you could get a penny.

And if I bailed on that song before, say 60 seconds, are the money-collectors gonna pay you your penny?

Or does your song get a penny just for showing up on some veted filter's list whether ANYone ever hears it?

Ten million folks doing this same ritual every month at their computers, as if there weren't ANY PTA meetings and soccer games and doctor appointments and shoveling the snow and walking in the park and talking to the significant other. MASSIVE WASTE OF EVERYBODY'S TIME AND EFFORT!

Oh, you were talking about limitless-time-endowed junior-high and high-school and college kids as those customers? They want everything free anyway. "Fifteen-hundred dollars for a leather bustier? I di-in't care; it lifts and separates!"

I've never done business with Mr. Laskow or any company he's part of to my knowledge. No chip here.

But the proposition as stated should ring FIVE-ALARM FIREBELLS for ALL songwriters and artists! If they want to buy into that idea, of POSSIBLY making ONE-FIFTIETH what they COULD with NO GUARANTEE of listens, fine, go forth and boldly!

I DO know that what he's advancing seeks the Holy Grail of making an unproven 'business model' viable on the backs of already under-resourced artists.

People will decide what they want to spend money on. And Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" proves that CDs will be bought in MASSIVE QUANTITIES at TEN BUCKS AND MORE if the perceived value is present.

Have a nice future!

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EdX.iuma.com www.soundclick.com/40LOVE www.soundclick.com/EdX



[This message has been edited by ed323 (edited 03-05-2004).]