First and foremost, does anyone really care? Is anyone even listening to radio anymore, let alone satellite radio? Even XM fanatic Bob Lefsetz questions satellite’s viability:

… if you pony up, you find out you’re in the wilderness, not a member of any club, not one of any size, and that freaks you out and you abandon your subscription.

He’s right. And he’s not alone. And XM and Sirius only have themselves to thank.

Throughout both companies’ histories, as marketing efforts focused on the “big” names, i.e., Major League Baseball, The NHL, the NFL, Opie and Anthony, Howard Stern, Oprah, Martha Stewart, Starbucks, Ellen DeGeneres, Tyra Banks, etc, what was weird and wonderful about satellite radio began to fade.

Having been been on the inside at XM, I witnessed it firsthand. And for a little while there we (the programmers) believed.

We believed in the true art of radio, the craft, the connection between great music and fans and the curator behind the scenes — a veritable magic of sorts, as those of you who came up through 70s radio knew all too well.

XM Cofounder Lon Levin knew this. Certainly, former Programming Senior VP and Chief Creative Officer Lee Abrams knew this.

Their vision, in the beginning, was all about celebrating that magic. And it was, truly, a beautiful thing.

But then former CEO Hugh Panero brought in the new guard: Programming Executive VP Eric Logan and John Zellner, terrestrial radio’s Infinity kings… not exactly purveyors of Abrams’ wondrous, contagious irreverence, the driving force behind XM’s once-upon-a-time magic.

Across many of the music channels, playlists were slashed and it seemed that XM was becoming a virtual mirror of terrestrial radio, just without commercials. Except, suddenly, there were commercials. Zoikes.

And still today, the channels that are most interesting, most human (XM Kids, X Country, Liquid Metal, Fungus, The Rhyme, Fine-Tuning, The Joint, The Loft, etc.) chug on but go virtually unnoticed. What’s worse is that the talented curators behind them remain grossly overworked and, sadly, underpaid. But that’s another story…

The fact is, collectively, XM and Sirius have a point: our other content options are numerous and in many cases better. So why would we keep paying for a service that’s become not all that different then terrestrial radio, which we can get for free? Good question. And I’d love to say that Mel Karmazin’s gonna save the day. But it’s no secret that Mel’s a business guy, not a music guy. Certainly, he’s no Lee Abrams.

Yet, in theory, it could happen.

Maybe if instead of continuing to blindly throw marketing dollars at the anonymous masses, satellite radio got back to what it’s poised to do best: creating a haven for the “weird and wonderful” and thereby perpetuating the shared experience, a.k.a., Lefsetz’ membership to “the club.”

After all, the masses aren’t fans. And, I can’t say this enough, FANS are what you want. Fans invest in music. Fans invest in the club. Loyal, diehard, spread-the-buzz fans who, simply by virtue of their devotion, will sell your product for you.

And it just so happens that the most likely fans of things “weird and wonderful” are adults… age 35-65… 1/3 of the population… wielding $1 trillion in disposable income. Do I sound like a broken record?

Music Industry Professor Jerry Del Colliano, in a recent Post article:

Young customers don’t have the need that we older folks have to have someone knowledgeable about the music tell them what’s new. They have their social network to tell them what’s cool.

Damn straight. Earth to Mel!

So maybe if instead of trying to be everything to everyone, satellite radio embraced this rather sizable niche and got back to its roots of humans programming for humans, then maybe the magic would prevail and satellite radio would, at the very least, survive… or at the very best, emerge as our savior. Now that would be worth paying for.

© Outlandos Music^TM 2008

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From May 2007’s Quotables, Harp Magazine:

“Get off my fuckin’ telephone. Fuck off! Both words. Do you understand those?! Implicitly. Do you understand ‘em?!”
David Lee Roth, when reached for comment (on his cell phone) by Harp about the implosion of the Van Halen reunion tour.

Dear, dear David, I can’t tell you how much joy this quote has given me. Again and again.

So, when I heard that my favorite music zine closed up shop this month I was genuinely, seriously bummed.

The rumor was true: Harp Magazine, the unequivocal rock ‘n roll go-to music companion called it quits after a stellar seven-year stint.

The brainchild of Scott Crawford, Harp’s anti-elitist ability to make both legendary music-heavies and break-out newbies wonderfully accessible to fans went unmatched. At Harp, music was paramount — an ideal that the grossly fashion-laden pages of Rolling Stone lost long ago to TV, gossip, and pop-culture. Magically, Crawford and crew maintained an exceedingly smart but nonexclusive music-lovers haven, delightfully free of all that boring, overly burdensome insiders’ tech-lingo, rampant among industry, gear-head, and other stuck-up periodicals. And unlike Mojo, Pitchfork, etc., Harp was hip without out-hipping its readership. Cool but not too cool… the kind of magazine where women and men alike were welcome, never falling into that seemingly rampant assumption that Tweedy, Iggy, et al are “guy things.” Whatever!

Besides music, Harp’s additional reviews of what I’d call essential lifestyle accessories made me feel like they knew who I was… more than just a music fan… I mean, what impatient, grocery-shopping audiophile doesn’t need these? Genius.

Which brings me to the best part: Harp was FUN to read. We all know that oft- off-color, off-kilter, off-the-wall nature of all-things-music is a given. What I’ll miss most is Harp’s unabashed willingness to embrace and celebrate exactly this. Cue Dave Grohl, America’s next president.

Alas, as the music industry continues to implode (a good thing) and the digital world swallows up print (not so much a good thing), it’s not hard to understand why Harp was forced to throw in the towel. It is hard, for me at least, to understand why a world-class magazine like Harp wasn’t more in demand. But in a world where Groban is king… what can you say? “Power to the sheeple?”

© Outlandos Music^TM 2008

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Adult music-freaks, I’m talking to you.

And by freak, I mean fans, enthusiasts, devotees…your music is synonymous with your identity. Webster’s defines this sort of freakdom as “a markedly unusual or a regular thing or occurrence.” Apparently and, in my opinion, mistakenly, when it comes to adults, the music industry agrees.

Yes, we’re getting older. But this doesn’t mean we’re getting lamer. The fact is, today’s music marketplace virtually ignores the very people who grew up on rock ‘n roll. From Zeppelin to Simon and Garfunkel to Aretha… we lived it. But is there new music that’s relevant today?

Abso-freaking-lutely.

The idea is to create a smart antenna for lifelong music fans, where it’s easy to both discover the next Clash, Dylan, or James Brown and to be reminded why those artists out-and-out rocked your world in the first place. After all, no matter what your age, music remains essential. The current assumption is that grown-ups are uninterested in new music. You and I both know that just plain isn’t true.

I mean, come on, we’ve all had the experience where aesthetically, at least, an infectious new song can act as a youthful elixir the same way an old gem can transport you through time. And, although we might blush to admit it, from Botox to Viagra rejuvenation is a universal desire.  So why not, through the discovery of relevant, new artists alongside heritage mainstays, cultivate an environment where great music, new and known, is much more than just something that goes on between your ears? A place where your personal soundtrack is, unequivocally, serious business? Where each and every song is lovingly handpicked, with your adult sensibilities in mind?

Groovy.

Set to launch early 2008, Outlandos Music aggregates, curates, and shares great music…music for knockdown, jump-around, shout-out-loud music-freaks. Adults. Just like us.

In the meantime, it’s my hope that we can exchange ideas via this blog about all things music. So don’t be shy. Get your music-freak on and let’s cut through the noise.

www.outlandosmusic.com

© Outlandos Music^TM2008

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