We know, for example, that fans prize souvenirs — a tactile take-away that reminds you of the feeling you have when listening to music. It’s kind of like what we’re doing with The Daily Dose — further enhancing the “sensory experience” with rock ‘n roll wine and cheese picks so as to emphasize “more than music.” Certainly, a recommendation isn’t exactly “tactile,” but it does bring us closer, drawing upon multiple aesthetic experiences and uniting them in one place. So, perhaps upon purchasing the wine or cheese of the day, upon tasting them, you’ll conjure up the associated songs, thereby giving the taste an added, well, taste.

All of that, the long way of saying: multiple aesthetic experiences rule the day. And things that you associate with music are likely the same things other people (who like the same music as you) might be curious about. It’s a Tribes-thing.

Hence, this month’s semi-random compendium:

1. Dunder Tchotchkes

Perhaps one for everyone you know this Christmas? Plus they have action figures, star mugs (sans Jim and Dwight), Office Clue… it was really hard for me to not buy one of everything. And it’s totally overpriced. I don’t care.

2. Kitty-Cat Umbrella

Ladies, it’s kind of irresistible. The furry casing complete with cat tail. I love love love it.

3. Empire, My New Favorite

No news here of course but all summer, we’ve been on a retro-blockbuster binge here at Outlandos HQ, to maintain sanity during all that insistent soggy weather. Highly recommend it.

Empire appeared late on the list and it had been ages since I’d seen it. So for the millionth time, we watched.

Of the three (let’s face it, Episodes I – III might as well not exist) this one always bummed me out. As it was supposed to. But as a little girl, it was the scary one and the sad one and the gory one (at the time, Luke losing a hand was gory to me). Now, it’s the one I love the most. Imperial Walkers, Laugh it up, fuzzball, that hot, hot, Han Solo kiss. If only they could get rid of that dreadful added footage.

xo

There is, after all, something fascinating about hitching your identity onto the fate of 11 virtual strangers, thereby declaring their actions as somehow an extension of yours. It’s as if by association, for those few hours, you too are “super.”

And allegiance is everything. Giants? Patriots? Either way, you’re making a “super” statement. “I don’t know” is not an option.

So when asked the obligatory: “who are you rooting for?”  My answer was easy: Tom Petty.

Dude.

IT WAS SO FREAKING AWESOME!!!

Undeterred by the slew of on-screen nubiles who’d stormed the stage, I too had my rock horns up and out for the entire, truly super 12+ minutes. Right there in the living room. I’m not kidding.

The spectacularly gianormous, neon heart/flying v logo… the Guitar Hero-esque lighted backdrop… the Free Fallin’ fireworks… Tom’s schoolboy grins… Jesus.

“Runnin’ Down a Dream” blew the freaking roof off.

Mike Campbell was on fire! 

Post-show, delirious music-high still pumping, I went straight to the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers website. I wasn’t alone… the site was so jammed with hits, you couldn’t get on.

They connected.

Now that’s shared experience for you.  Supersized.

And then, on the eve of Super Tuesday, like so many others, I was torn between two candidates. Somehow, “I don’t know” became a perfectly viable option. Until I saw this. 

At first, I merely read the subject line and dismissed it as yet another thing to fuel my indecision. It sat in my inbox for days. The Black Eyed Peas? Oy. That wasn’t helping.

Finally, I opened it. And it hit me.  Shared experience. Politics aside, it was truly a magical thing to witness the power of contagious emotion communicated by music — in action. The choice was clear: yes we can.

Suddenly, I felt super-connected.

Which brings us to the holiday at hand.

Someone once quipped that Valentine’s Day is sort of like the Super Bowl for women, what with all the hype, the anticipation, etc. Maybe. But whether you are pro or con, the desire to feel connected, to feel loved, to feel, essentially, “super” is universal. And while chocolate and flowers can’t hurt, nothing conveys emotion quite like music.

Hence, my valentine to you is a Bowie cover I’ve recently fallen in love with: “Modern Love” by The Last Town Chorus. Not exactly a love song in the romantic sense but nonetheless, stunningly superb.

xo

© Outlandos Music^TM2008

Don’t you get it? Music is meant to be shared. Not a new concept but apparently, a forgotten one.

Let’s examine the basics. Acclaimed neuroscientist Daniel Levitin writes that “the goal of the… musical composition is [to convey] an aspect of universal truth that if successful, will continue to move and to touch people even as contexts, societies, and cultures change.”

Translation: great music is not only transcendent but highly emotional and, as I’ve mentioned before, is much more than just something that goes on between your ears.

Remember hearing, for the first time, a mind-blower-of-a-song and then… that mad, feverish rush to play it for someone else — subpar, recorded-off-the-radio-onto-cassette-sound-quality be-damned?

Remember emphatically dragging a pal out to see a band that they’d never heard of before — in a dank and dirty little club neither of you would normally set foot in — undeterred by the fetid smells and the sparse (at best) turnout?

What you wanted was for that music to make someone else feel the same way it made you feel.

It’s all about the shared experience.

When Mr. Guinness says, “… it’s about the whole relationship between the music and the technology business” and “access” and “ownership,” I say: um, no Paul, it’s about the relationship between the music and the fan (a.k.a. “the thief,” in your words).

It’s about maximizing the shared experience between fans and fans and artists and fans.

It’s about creating contagious emotion; the kind of emotion that people are willing to pay for.

And in your case Paul, at the moment, it’s about embracing the technology.  Kind of like that “Vertigo” iPod commercial which made nearly everyone feel impossibly cool/sexy/hip just watching it? Talk about contagious.

Which makes me wonder why on earth Mr. Guinness would even ask, “Shouldn’t we be catering to people who want to hear music through big speakers rather than earbuds?” Maybe… audiophiles are always a worthwhile target… but dissing the iPod?  Is he OUT OF HIS MIND? Those little white earbuds were largely responsible for U2′s success with what was widely critiqued as not their best effort.

Anyways.  Earbuds, schmearbuds.  The point is that at the very root of things, it’s not about the speakers, it’s not about the ISPs, and it’s not even about the money… it’s all about HOW FANS CONNECT WITH THE MUSIC itself and, consequently, the talent behind it.

Hell, even Bono gets this, seemingly contradicting Mr. Guinness by proclaiming, “I’ve not been famously profit-oriented…. I believe… that brilliance rings a better bottom line. Always.”

Absolutely. And, while we certainly can’t ignore profit, the inherent bottom line is brilliant talent.  Brilliant talent connects.  Connection is power.  Power begets profit.

So Paul, I’m thinking that as the tables have turned, the more prudent thing is to call upon that very powerful talent.  Here goes.

Calling all artists…

It’s up to you to harness the power of your music and to evoke emotion among your fans.

It’s up to you to create brilliant, transcendent, relatable, emotional songs and to then think of the imminent death of the music industry as a little gift: it’s a new world where one-on-one connection is everything and middlemen are virtually obsolete.

Because the truth is, you no longer need a label-driven machine behind you to get your music heard and, more importantly, sold. The key is to remember, first and foremost, that you are, inherently, the CEO of your own business, the business of your music.

It’s up to you to protect yourself from the “shoddy, careless, and downright dishonest” treatment of musicians that Mr. Guinness (misguidedly accusing the “digital age”) points out; the very treatment which, ironically, seems to sum up the music industry’s historical MO — an MO that, in spite of all the buzz of a new paradigm, 360 deals, etc. — remains constant.

With love,

A Fan

PS If you happen to have a manager who doesn’t get this, I suggest firing them.

© Outlandos Music^TM2008