The Nashville Feed

Usually people take the last days of a previous year to reflect and make predictions for the coming year. I prefer to make my predictions a few days into the New Year after all the commotion has settled. So here are my predictions for 2009 when it comes to Music technology and New/Social Media:

Social Networks/New Media

MySpace Will Finally Become Irrelevant:
The downward slide of MySpace began at the beginning of 2008 and some would say even earlier. People have social network overload or burn out and keeping up with the next greatest trend will end. Accounts will be abandoned in record numbers but News Corp (MySpace owner) will not report that slide. They will either sell it or try merging content from other properties in order to keep users engaged. MySpace will become the next Friendster.com ever trying to gain back it's glory.

Facebook Will Cement Itself as the Standard Social Network:
Facebook has made all the right moves barring a stumble here and there but overall it will be the main social networking site that everybody has an account. Kind of like Yahoo! back in the day. Will Facebook become profitable? The direction the economy is going I'd say no in 2009 but the pressure to generate revenue will be emence with the tight credit market. Will Facebook become the next Friendster MySpace I can't predict either but the trend looks like someday it will.

Twitter Will Go Mainstream but with Problems
2008 was the year of the tweet but 2009 is where businesses want in on the action. Many will try but few will get it right. They don't understand the way it works and how to utilize the site to it's fullest potential. See my previous post: Twitter is Not Like Any Other Social Network

What about the rest? Other websites will pop up and hit like at cat 5 hurricane while others will fizzle due to the economy and credit market. 2009 will be the year of creating revenue and trying to attain profitibility. All the VC firms are getting impatent and are wanting to see the end in the long tunnel of funding startups. Also 2009 will be the year of many adverstising based sites will go black or sold while many are going to try the "Freemium" model some will work but many will fail.

Music Industry

This is pretty easy almost to easy. The Music Industry still won't get it and revenue will continue to drop. The CD plastic disc model is dead and been that way for a long time. The revenue from downloads doesn't match and won't. They've tried download cards of albums (only place I've seen them is Target) but the fact is people are not going to pay what they used to for physical media plain and simple. I get buy a Blu-ray music with hours of extras for $14.99 why would I pay for 40 minutes of music for $12.99. I won't. So the big 3 labels have built this huge infrastructure the plastic disc which now can't be supported with the changing enviroment. Feels like this is the same as last year because it is. The industry won't collapse but that would be the best thing for it. The prediction for 2009 is down again but in all areas music sales, touring, merch basically everywhere. It's going to be a gloomy year for the industry.

That's it for my predictions. Hope everybody has a great 2009!

Most of us who label ourselves Americans are not cool with change. We wage some sort of bloodless war on those who replace “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays.” We refuse to allow marriage to go through another evolution. We get all pissy when astronomers stop calling Pluto a planet.

We hold tight to our traditions, as if a new perspective will rob us of all our fondest memories.

We can be made okay with change, but only if we are properly prepped. We did just vote in a new president primarily because he promised change. As of yet, he hasn’t changed shit. Even after he drops the “elect” from his title, he is unlikely to dramatically alter the country. His promise was probably too dramatic. A campaign of subtle shift would have been more accurate.   But even Obama’s proposed adjustments require he prepare the masses for some differences. This is the requisite transition period. He must ease us—gradually, with smiles and reassurances—into something a bit new.

December is a good time to do it. In this month, so much of our media is preparing us to switch into a new year. Through the final month we have a million voices attempting to rush nostalgia. They all help us recognize everything that occurred in 2008 as the past so we can welcome a fresh 2009.

Soon we are overwhelmed with lists, an unavoidable result of media’s over-enthusiasm to close out another year. On any given day we expect VH1 to give us countdowns and best 100, 50, 25, whatever of a recent decade, genre, or other category of pop culture trivia. We accept that these shows are primarily there to give Michael Ian Black an opportunity to say something snarky about Debbie Gibson and fill time between the Rock of Love and Rock of Love Charm School. But through the last couple weeks of December, everyone gets into lists. No American can avoid some sort of published retrospective on the past 11 and a half months.  

Most of these lists don’t really mean anything. They are just a way to help us look back so we can prepare to move on. We don’t even know what criteria were used to decide upon finalists for a vast majority of these yearly inventories. There is some random panel of unnamed judges, or possibly just one geek with a computer and too much time, determining what was important in 2008.   For instance, InTouch Weekly gave Jessica Simpson the award for Best Breasts of 2008? It was apparently based on a poll. Of who, I do not know. Are her funbags really better this year than they were last year? Did she become pregnant, get implants, or have a cist removed? Barring those alterations, can her sweater meat really change that much in a year?  

Listaholic gives Jennifer Love Hewitt the top slot in their 50 hottest celebrity boobs, but she doesn’t even appear on InTouch weekly’s top 10. How can that be possible?  

Scarlett Johannson places high in both lists. No list could establish credibility without recognition of young Scarlett’s cha-chas. Alternative Reel puts her in number two amongst a group that acknowledges the great historical baloobas on Raquel Welch, Jane Russell, and Adrienne Barbeau. But they also snuck Jessica Alba into that ten. Jessica’s admittedly sweet dumplings do not get her onto the InTouch Weekly list and only up to 37 on the Listaholic rundown. And Listaholic’s number one (Hewitt) does not make Alternative Reel’s preferred sweater junk at all.  

If these self appointed experts can’t agree on fleshy cantaloupes, we really can’t trust any supposed authority to rate a topic open to even a little bit of subjectivity.  

Parade magazine lists off their worst dictators. Really. That colorful little rag stuffed into Sunday newspapers to bring Americans gossip and feel good celebrity stories somehow finds themselves qualified to take on Mugabe.  

With a great deal of arrogance, Time appoints themselves the authorities on everything. They have published their top ten of everything of 2008. Well, it’s not everything. They make absolutely no mention of tits or dictators.  

We are too diverse of a people to simply accept as fact what InTouch Weekly says about juggy pillows, what Parade says about bad guys, or what Time says about everything. We have our own perspectives and can make up our own minds on this stuff.  

Still, the lists are fun in that they allow us to reminisce, agree/dispute the “experts,” or just spy some cleavage. With the idea of just having some similar, unauthoratative end of year fun, I have come up with my own list. A list of lists.  

Unlike most year-end accounts by undeserving authorities, there is no theme running through my list. I am not John Cusack in High Fidelity (still one of Jack Black’s 10 best performances), breaking my whole life into clear categories that are easily summed up with lists. I enjoy randomness too much. These completely unrelated sites made me laugh, a bunch. So here are 10 lists to shock, entertain, and end your year with a good cleansing crack up.  

Number 10: Something to look forward to New Year’s Day.  

Number 9: Tattoos last forever. Think about that.  

Number 8: With the proliferation of pornography on the Internet, we often forget that it is truly about the cinematic experience.  

Number 7: I piss on your art. And, in Florida, so does she.  

Number 6: A reading list for the New Year.  

Number 5: I have not yet surrendered my war on Christmas.  

Number 4: Children are just disgusting little creatures.  

Number 3: Many laws were made to be broken, but probably not the law prohibiting intercourse with porcupines.  

Number 2: Today, a company’s URL is often its first introduction to a potential customer.  

Number 1: America truly needs to re-invest in science education. After all, these children are our future.  

Now go out and do something this year—something so noteworthy it will get you on someone’s list for something at the close of 2009.  

Last weekend to get your holiday shopping out of the way...good luck if you still have to do that...anyway, speaking of the holiday season...my all time favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life starts its annual Belcourt run Saturday.

Friday!

• Untitled Nashville presents the Abominable Art Show at Gallery East. 6 - 10pm
• The Greencards at Station Inn. 9pm
• Winter of Dreamz Nashville Cream Party featuring JEFF the Brotherhood, Ghostfinger, Chris Crofton & A Carl Sagan Christmas at MercyLounge. 9pm
• 2nd Annual Beatles VS Stones Christmas Bowl for Charity featuring Heypenny, Oblio, The Daylight Brigade, Red White Blue & more at the Basement. 9pm
• Stephen Belin and the Minor Keys, Big Jim Slade & Sam Stone at the 5 Spot. 9pm

Saturday!

• Marc Broussard w/ Sons of William & Josh Hoge at Cannery Ballroom.
• Winter of Dreamz Holly House Winter Formal featuring Eureka Gold, Shoot the Mountain, And the Relatives, Caitlin Rose, Tristen, The Tits & The Glib at Mercy Lounge. 9pm

Sunday!

Might be a good day to brave the crowds, oh procrastinator!

Have a great weekend and best wishes for a wonderful holiday! Cheers, j.

Twitter is not like any other social network. Plain and simple. Unlike other social networks like MySpace or Facebook if you "add" aka "follow" someone on Twitter it will not result in that person following you in turning growing your reach.

Twitter is pure interaction where if you just post crap nobody will follow you nor will they care about your brand. The only exception I can think of is a news service like CNN or New York Times. They post information that people interests people hence creating value. The key to Twitter is creating value to the people that follow you. Why did Obama have over 50,000 people following him? Because he posted information that people wanted to know or follow. A good example of a brand utilizing Twitter to the fullest while creating dialoge and community is Griffin Technology (the maker of iTrip & other goodies). Check out the Griffen Tech Twitter feed and notice how they do it. One thing to consider is they have a dedicated person that works the social network 5 days a

Of all the social networks Twitter is hardest to maintain because it's so real time. If your a music artist consider two or more twitter accounts. First start just with band news this is something you would update when you have specific updates, information you are pushing out where people don't expect conversation. Then a second that you would use for personal conversation with daily trivial stuff. Create the conversion with your fans of each member of your group then fans will have a more intimate connection.

One caution with having twitter feed for each member of the group is if there is problems or issues it will be very public. While your official artist Twitter feed is saying everything is fine the personal feeds may say something very different.

Overview:

Pros: Real-time feedback, easy, quick & creates a bond with fans if done correctly.

Cons: Time consuming (even though easy), risk of private matters aired public

Other Reading:

• Grow Your Social Networks Organcially, Start with Twitter

Happy weekending, all! If you can get away from the Christmas party madness, there are some pretty great things going on in town this weekend...

Friday!

• An art show at Crema featuring the works of Stacie Berry, Thomas Petillo, Arron Grayum, Janet K. Lee and Taunia Rice. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Safe Haven Family Shelter of Nashville. 6pm - 10pm
• Stateliner w/ Hurricane Doyle, Branded Sons & The Last Straw at the Rutledge. 8pm
• Happy Birthday Amy w/ The Vermicious K'nids at the End. 9pm
• Those Darlins w/ Deertick & Meemaw at the 5 Spot. 9pm

Saturday!

• Halcyon Bike Shop Grand Opening featuring JEFF, The Privates and Diarama. 4pm
• The Loft w/ The Steepwater Band & Black Honey at 12th & Porter. 9pm
• Winter of Dreamz featuring How I Became the Bomb w/ The Protomen & Jensen Sportag at Mercy Lounge. 9pm

Sunday!

• Harry Connick Jr. and His Big Band at the Ryman. 7:30pm

Get out and have fun this weekend! Cheers, j.

Something I've been saying for years. Make note, if you're not using the web to promote your brand as an artist then your late to the game.

• I Want My MTV? Not Anymore, Music Promotion Moves to Web
  It's clear now that the Web has once and for all replaced TV's role in the music business.     
  

Further reading:

• R.I.P T.R.L. - Why MTV's TRL was doomed anyways
  The loss of TRL is directly associated with the networks move AWAY from music. Music Television was after all the original name of the network before it reduced itself to MTV. Lets face it though... have any of us actually seen a music video on MTV in the recent past?         
  

With each election, we see a new crop of states change their constitution to forbid people with the same parts in their pants from marrying. No one was surprised when Tennessee did it. More recently, the more progressive constituencies in California, Florida, and Arizona kept any serious perusing of Bride magazine for chicks pledging devotion to dicks.

But we Americans are a short-sighted bunch. All this anti-gay marriage amending is actually quickening the approaching death of traditional marriage.

The biggest spoon to recently stir the gay marriage pot was Proposition 8 in California. The Mormon church deserves a great deal of credit—or blame—for its passing, the Catholics did their part, Evangelicals were likely involved, black Obama supporters helped, and that plumber from Toledo probably contributed indirectly in some way. They all seem like a bunch of people who probably want their grandchildren to enjoy an old-fashioned hetero legal love commitment just like the one they had. But if they’d held their finger up to the wind prior to stepping into the polling station, they would have voted to just let the queers have their ceremonies already.

Marriage is declining throughout the country. It has been sliding for some time, long before there was any public consideration of His and His towel sets.

Out of wedlock cohabitation has become quite popular from Generation Xers down. Maybe all of the divorces we witnessed as children showed us marriage is little more than a cheap show leading to expensive legal commitment. Maybe it was feminism telling women they didn’t have to be owned to have children. Maybe it was just finally time for the society to move forward. It was probably some of all of this, plus a few other factors, that moved the newer people away from matrimony.

A 2004 Rutgers University study found 56 percent of both teen boys and girls saw bearing and raising a child out of wedlock as a worthwhile lifestyle. Compare this to the numbers for the same question from 1980, when only 41 percent of boys and 33 percent of girls viewed the practice as cool. Less than half of the high school seniors in the study saw getting hitched as contributing to their long term satisfaction. They also want to try shacking up before committing on paper. In 2001-2002, almost 65 percent of boys and 55 percent of girls thought it was a good idea to share a lease and some household chores prior to marriage.

A 1999 University of Chicago (pdf) study found only one quarter of American households lived up to the ideal of a traditional family: husband, wife, and children.

Want more numbers on the declining value of old school marriage? Get a bunch of stats in favor of my argument at unmarried.org.

The gay issue did not start this ride, but it is certainly pushing on the accelerator. And it’s not because they are getting married. It is because we won’t let them.

Beyond the harm inflicted on marriage, prohibition of gay nuptials has a negative impact on the society banning their espousal. In particular, it threatens a local economy.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is some kind of funny Republican, cited economic reasons for his opposition to Proposition 8. In his books, The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent, economist Richard Florida stresses the fiscal benefits of attracting and keeping homosexuals in a community.

Many corporations, whose primary interest is making bank rather than fighting culture wars, have recognized this. According to a 2006 study by the Human Rights Campaign, 78 percent of Fortune 100 and 49 percent of Fortune 500 companies offered domestic partner health insurance to their employees. This number is only going to increase. Disney showed us boycotts from the moral police are unlikely to alter company policy. In order to remain competitive for talent, businesses will move towards similar benefit packages. Domestic partner benefits are on their way to becoming the norm.

Our elected officials, frequently fearful of the holier than thou crowd, have no control over the human resources of a private corporation. But even political figures are reducing incentives for traditional marriage. Calls for civil unions, with all the legal rights and responsibilities of marriage, are being heard at every level of government. Three states already allow them. More are likely on the way, with the Obama administration offering support at the federal level.

Two gay prostitutes may never have the thrill of gathering together before someone’s god in Ted Haggard’s church for a Christian wedding. But with all the legal protections and employee benefits already in hand, is there any reason to complicate things with the old fashioned sacrament? We have the wonderful tenet of church/state separation. This means Reverend Jeremiah Wright will never have to oversee the commitment ceremony of two hot lesbians no matter how the law reads. But it also means no American has to seek the approval of any religion for a relationship.

Slowly bleeding out marriage is about all we are accomplishing with anti-gay betrothal legislation. As we provide more options short of marriage for homosexual couples, heteros will be taking advantage of those same alternatives. Permitting gay marriage could slow the progress by quieting the call for civil unions and restoring the exclusive employee benefits.

With the next generations of adults increasingly accepting of unwed couplings and the practical motivations for matrimony no longer relevant, we are likely to see a sharpening decrease in traditional marriage.

But this trend works completely in my favor. As a straight man, I should support ballot measures like Proposition 8 in order to move the country away from marriage.

I have been with my girlfriend for over four years. We’ve lived together for the past two and a half. We plan to move to a new city together soon. We have every intention of spending several more years together, if not our entire lives. We both agree that marriage is not for us. The only thing that would push us towards it is a desire for the legal rights and a sweet insurance plan. In a few years, as domestic partnerships are more commonly afforded these benefits, we will have no reason at all to book a ceremony.

I should be absolutely supportive of bullshit regulations like Proposition 8. It is the quickest path to increasing my benefits as an unmarried partner. Still, I just can’t do it.

What kind of asshole takes away the rights of others just to make himself a little more comfortable?