JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum We aimed for 'The 4th Saddest Country Song...' How close did we c

Well, if nothing else, we're delighted to have inspired such in- depth debate.

Without beating the point to where the horse's ghost comes back and says between naaaaaayyys, "Oh c'mon, now stop it already!" the entire he said-she said discourse above (and predictably below after you guys read this) begs for the question: What are we supposed to say to the hundreds of people who have told us how moved they were by the song? Sure, none of them are Grammy-winning songwriters, producers, or artists or work for any labels, but they do have one thing in common that we would think makes them arguable arbiters of what might be a hit-in-the- making or at least a song that already has 'hit' the right note: they're fans of Country music. Do we simply openhandedly discount their opinions? Sure, this contention could easily dissolve into the time honored debate of artistic vs. commercial success or whether one requires the other for validation but seriously guys, unless we're at risk of believing our own hype -- or we somehow have uncovered a bunch of long lost relatives we didn't know we had, the evidence suggests that the people who, in theory, matter most seem to have been very moved by what we have done here. Now if you're saying that what we have done here is no longer the trend, are you not likewise saying that you, too, put commercial success above artistic merit? If it's all about numbers in the end and we produce the numbers, shouldn't that, at some point, register on the radar of some publishing company or with some major or up and coming artist's manager?

If you attend a novel-writing conference, you soon discover that the 'big thing' in the book publishing industry, which has been vocalized ad nauseum for the past three years, is "the platform." Every lit agent, indy editor, and publisher gushes about the need to build a platform before you go after the book deal. We extrapolate from this that their point is: it's all about numbers. Said another way: Who cares if you're an aspiring Shakespeare or Stephen King? At the end of the day, can you show us that your work -- the product -- has a following that can, if properly promoted to an even larger audience, generate sales and give us a handsome return on our investment if we decide to back you? Now personallly, we'd far prefer to be known for our artistic strengths than solely how many sales we racked up. But are we to say that all of those hundreds now and, we're we to take this to a larger audience, potentially thousands of listeners later are somehow misinformed because a few defenders of good taste and artistic merit and/or trend monitors feel the concept is...dated? Do you guys want to take on the job of writing all these people and telling them they have no right to what they like or dislike? Or even worse, they have no idea what they like anyway? That doesn't strike us as such a hot idea or even a practical undertaking. But ever ones to not be swayed by what may be nothing more than a fluke (let's face it, flukes sometimes happen), we're not going to sit here and either be impressed by our own initial positive feedback or be disuaded by the pundits. No. We're going to use what you've graciously acknowledged are our instincts for promotion...and take this song to a larger -- much larger -- audience. Oh, and so that we eliminate the "freebe factor," i.e. the theory that people will generally give you a decent or at least semi-okay review provided they don't have to pay for the opportunity, we're going to competitively charge prospective FB and MySpace and other social networking audiences no more than $2 per download...with the written guarantee that they will get their money back within 48 hours if they simply do not like the song. In other words, we're going to put their money where our mouth is, so to speak. Anyone care to wager whether we'll break $500, $5,000 or $50,000 in sales? No, that money wouldn't come close to paying back the advance if we were a new band and a label awarded us with a recording contract, but it should hopefully establish whether the general listening public really likes our material. We don't know, do you think that music executives give themselves the luxury of sitting around all day debating art vs. commerce? Maybe. But something tells us that were they to do that, while they're doing that, their company shareholders are busy studying one little four or five lettered abbreviation in a sea of them in the Wall Street Journal. Oh, but wait a minute, now we're starting to sound like all those people who would have you believe it's only about trends. Oh man, it's enough to make us wanna drop the pen and notepad and go back to something more intrinsically imperative, like...sheep farming. Wait a minute, do they farm sheep? Well, while you're pondering that, we're going to start a campaign. Frankly, we're not sure what will determine in the end if this has been a success. But we know this...it's bound to get us noticed. And if the squeaky wheel gets the contract then maybe it'll be worth it. Stay tuned, gentlemen. We have not yet begun to write....