But the truth is, I count on YOU to help me keep at it. Your feedback (your e-mails, your retweets, your comments, your fandom, your forwards); that’s the FUN part. And I can’t do it without you. Just plain can’t.

So, thank you.

Now on to what’s been playing around Outlandos HQ:

1. One eskimO, One eskimO

Wow. Wow. Wow. Smart, clever and remarkably (I hate this word but it’s true)… fresh. And it takes a little bit creep up on you, which is my favorite. Seal/FYC meets 70s Stones meets Tom McRae, translation: singer-songwriter-pop-dance-rock. What? Really. Buy it.

2. Led Zeppelin, How the West Was Won (DVD)

Need a reminder of what exactly melt-your-face-off rock ‘n roll used to be? Arm hairs, beware: you’ll be standing on end for hours. Own it.

3. 7 Worlds Collide, The Sun Came Out

This one’s our Bang-for-the-Buck of the Month. I mean holy crap, it’s a Finn Fest (Neil, Tim, Liam), Wilco, and most of the members of Radiohead. Plus a ton more. Double album. And it’s a benefit to boot. It’s not gonna blow your mind but definitely worth your dollar. Straight up the Starbucks’ alley (if Starbucks had a clue). Do some good and buy it.

xo

Lots of good stuff cranked at Outlandos HQ to keep us feeling somewhat cool, see below.

But first, petite favor to ask you kids. This will literally take you 2 seconds, it’s super easy and you don’t even have to give a rats tail about SxSW but… would you vote for us? 30 seconds of your life. It’s a BIG deal in our world and would mean so much! How could we ever do it without you? Seriously. Thanks zillions. If we get in, not only do I get a free badge (let me tell you, those suckers are expensive) but we get some handy-dandy publicity.

Help me, help me? Just click the 2 links below and then click the “thumbs up” next to each one:

The Value of Emotional Value (Interactive Version)
VOTE HERE

Doing It like Trent: DIY for the Little Guy
VOTE HERE

Now on to the fun stuff:

1. Contramano, Contramano

Buy it.
Argentinian chamber-punk. Go figure. It’s spectacular. Seriously, you need to own this record IMMEDIATELY. In case you missed it, they were featured on the Dose last week.

2. Roman Candle, Oh Tall Tree in the Ear

Buy it.
The Bees (US) are easily one of my favorite bands of all time. Unfortunately, for legal reasons, they had to change their name to The Silver Seas. They should have a new album out this year (yay!). In the meantime, Bees’ cofounder Jason Lehning has been keeping busy. Roman Candle is his latest project and everything you would expect from a Bee. Smart, fun, shades of the Dan.

3. Division Day, Visitation

Buy it.
Soooooo very Radiohead… not that there’s anything wrong with that. But there’s kind of a fresh twist. Really digging this one. Headphone listening for sure.

4. Passion Pit, Manners

Buy it.
Been loving this one for a while now, it’s dance music. Who knew. Fun fun fun. Featured on the Dose earlier this month.

5. David Mead, Almost and Always

Buy it.
He’s always wonderful. Not my favorite of his catalog but still worth it. And just a sweetheart of a guy with a crazy-lovely voice. It might take a little while to grow on you, more complex than you think on the first listen.

xo

Sure, giving stuff away for free is nice. People like it. And these days, you have to do it just to keep up with the Joneses. But keeping up doesn’t get you ahead. And obviously free doesn’t exactly pay the bills unless you’re Trent Reznor or Radiohead, i.e. established. So what about the little guy? Good question.

Things to think about:

1. What’s the effectiveness of your free? To lure in new fans? To solidify current fans?
2. What’s the strategy of your free? Is your free creative? Why do I want it over someone else’s?
3. What’s the bottom line of your free? To get me to pay for something else?

Free can’t be JUST free anymore. And how the hell can you beat free? So that’s my question:

What’s the new free?

Thinking that the answer is in fact the opposite of free. The complete opposite. Fucking expensive.

Take the new food for example (thanks Erik!). $5 Kashi anyone? $4 local, farm-raised, cage-free eggs? $8 Pom Wonderful? $5 rice milk? Are we (me included) out of our minds? Perhaps. But clearly, somehow those foodies did it. We’re willing to pay ridiculously high prices for incredible quality. What’s more is we often drive way out of our way to get it (for most of us, Whole Foods, etc. isn’t usually down the road). Why? We value life for one, fueling our bodies with the best we can to feel healthy, younger, whatever. But also it’s just plain delicious, so there’s definitely an aesthetic association. And for sure, it’s COOL. I love walking into Whole Foods with my eco-conscious shopping basket and looking at all the pretty colors and all the pretty people. I do. It’s a group I want to be long to. But the best part is getting home, unpacking everything, unwrapping and putting it away. I love touching it. I love how it looks in the refrigerator and on the shelves. It looks nice.

Hmmmmm…. what else makes you feel good, feeds the senses, makes you willing to make an effort to get it, makes you feel cool and the need for inclusion? YOUR FAVORITE BAND.

So what’s missing? Well, if it’s digital, you can’t TOUCH it. And that’s a bummer. There’s a lot of pleasure out of simply owning something, holding it. Is that the missing element? Making music TACTILE again?

I think so. And apparently Tim Easton does as well. Bless him.

xo

Sure, the Internet leveled the playing ground for a lot of us but it also muddied the waters; now, everyone’s an off-the-couch artist, writer, photographer, musician. Hence, content, i.e. music, is everywhere. And free. And virtually worthless.

What’s valuable is the way fans FEEL about your music, the connection you have with them, the shared experience. Naturally, if you’re making great music, that helps. But interestingly enough, it doesn’t really matter how good you are… it matters how good your BRAND is. That’s where the money is. From indie to Britney.

Think about it. That crappy cover band that has a gig at the bar down the street every Friday night? They make people feel good, nostalgic, whatever. And then those people buy more beer. And chances are they leverage the shit out of their brand. For example, Boomerang (yes, a real band). Their catchphrase is: “It’s All about… Good Times!!!” You get it.

So whether it’s Boomerang or Radiohead, basic public radio marketing tactics can apply (yes, we’ve been down this road before). But. It’s YOUR job to identify and celebrate your fans, to turn them into super-fans; your brand runs on super-fans.

Keep this in mind: super-fans work for you for free. Largely through word-of-mouth, super-fans act as marketing agents for bands they love. They can’t help themselves.

The trick is to keep them at it:

• Thank
• Reward
• Identify a Need
• Call to Action
• Super-Reward

Reminds you of public radio, right?

Like public radio, your super-fans are integral to your brand. Think of them as equal partners in your quest for monetization; simply put, you can’t do it without them.

Speaking of essentials, our Outlandos intern John keeps this blog going every week by publishing it in various places and wrestling with the nuances of WordPress and the Internet. We really, actually, quite literally, couldn’t do it without him. John is just getting his film career started at Vassar College. By way of thanking him for all of his hard work, please do check out a project he just finished:

Thanks John! As per usual, you RULE.xx

Only, it’s a bit of a Grande-mess. On the coffee end, Schultz is apparently on it. “Small” or “Tall?” Whatever. I just want my frothy vanilla latte© and I want someone else to make it.

But as far as Cinnamon Dolce Cappuccino-accompanying soundtracks go, I’m utterly confused.  Feist or Kenny G.? Uffa!

Let me get this straight, the “Sound of Starbucks” is currently defined by “speaking the language of love without saying a word?” Cue caramel-drizzled vomit now.

Additionally puzzling was the whole XM debacle. Initially, you already had two fairly successful Adult Album Alternative channels, XM Cafe© and The Loft. The obvious, ready-made choice would’ve been to co-brand XM Cafe©. Instead, Starbucks created Hear Music — mimicking XM Cafe© both in format and near-identical playlists — and, despite having had access to some of the top music experts in the country, programmed it themselves.

Stranger still, Hear Music, the XM channel, didn’t air in-store… instead, some other pre-programmed jukebox got brick-and-mortar sipping status, occasionally directing you to listen to XM, if you liked what you heard.

Not surprisingly, the channel tanked. Buh-bye Hear Music. Hello Starbucks XM Cafe© (formerly just XM Cafe©). Duh. And too late.

Good riddance. Even I was having trouble keeping the channels straight.

Now, it’s Hear Music the record label, “the next step in [Starbucks'] (all-over-the-map) entertainment strategy.” Plus iTunes, which brought about Song of the Day and Now Playing.

Don’t get me wrong, those things make sense. If the goal is for Starbucks to be a music powerhouse, then bene. But at this point, the overall music brand is one heck of a blended Frappuccinic blur: from Radiohead to Gloria Estefan?  Not exactly the kind of go-to, reliable resource those of us with discerning tastes require.

If Starbucks Entertainment’s mission is to “transform the way music is discovered and acquired and help both established and emerging artists reach the widest audience possible,” then focusing on said audience, those “typically middle-aged late-adopters rather than younger music fans,” a.k.a. adults, is key.

Hopefully, Howard Schultz’s promise of “reigniting our emotional attachment with our customers” will include Starbucks embracing the idea that coffee-toting grown-ups place a high value on taste — be it epicurean or aural — as well as on the curator behind it.

In short, while some of us may be willing to tolerate “Venti” over “Large,” when it comes to our music, we don’t like to be jerked around.

So, if the $4 you spent today felt elixir-skinny, let me suggest a temporary fix: the New Amsterdams’ Fountain of Youth. Worth every penny.

© Outlandos Music^TM2008