Plen told me he could be a spokesman for TiVO.

We'd been at the Ivy for hours already, but when he broached this subject, Michael's eyes widened. He became a zealot. I was almost ASHAMED to admit I wasn't a convert.

He said one of his cohorts at Virgin said he wanted to buy himself a Christmas present. Treat himself. But he wasn't sure what to purchase.

Plen said BUY A TIVO!! It'll be the best investment you ever made. You'll thank me when you come back in the New Year.

The guy followed Plen's instructions and was as happy as a clam.

I thought I was going to escape. After all, I can talk the game. But finally Plen challenged me. He looked me straight in the eye. Did I have a TiVO?

When I told him no, he was incredulous. I told him unlike many, I knew how to program my VCR. I watched nothing in real time. I had the advantages of a TiVO.

But Plen wasn't buying it. He told me he liked to watch spy shows. And the night before he'd come home to find his TiVO had recorded "Spy Games".

I didn't want to admit it out loud, but that sounded pretty phenomenal. Someone looking over my shoulder. A bit Big Brotherish, sure...but in the best way, if that's not a contradiction in terms.

TiVO penetration is a joke. Your standard Wall Street analyst would scoff. They haven't even broken the million household barrier. The financials suck. But insiders know, it's just a matter of WHEN! Intelligent hard disk recording of television programs is going to arrive. Probably it won't be until the units are built into all cable boxes. But it's gonna be figured out, it's gonna happen.

If TiVO were an act, the label would have already dropped it. They would have done a TON of promotion. Gotten even more press coverage than the real TiVO did. The label would give one to every deejay. Get some soulless acts on its label to testify. Pay Best Buy to feature it. But it wouldn't sell. Sure, because it's too expensive. But also, because it's too NEW!! The average person just can't ACCEPT IT, if he can even UNDERSTAND IT!

Sure, at this point, the potential audience knows what a hard disk is. But people don't really know the difference between analog and digital. How a program recorded on a hard drive can look BETTER than one recorded on tape. They don't understand how you can pause live TV, or start watching a recorded show that hasn't finished yet. They just can't wrap their head around it. They will, but not now. The computer revolution didn't happen overnight. Took almost two decades before EVERYBODY had a computer. Took developments in ease of use and the Internet to convince everybody. And they weren't convinced by the machines themselves, but by everybody AROUND THEM!

The way Plen feels about TiVO is the way people USED to feel about acts. But you can't feel this way about today's hit acts. You can't live and die for Pink. Nor Papa Roach. Nor Josh Groban. Or Shakira. These are two dimensional acts that only have one desire...to sell records. Hell, irrelevant of what the acts themselves believe, their careers are steered by major labels, and this is ALL the labels are interested in.

In the heyday of the business, when all the rules were written, from '67 to '75, the sale of the record was an AFTERTHOUGHT! First, you established a RELATIONSHIP!

That's what we want in life, relationships. A love relationship. We shop where the help knows us and says hi. We go to doctors that are warm and personal. And, if we don't get this treatment, we split. We'll show them we say. We'll take our business somewhere else! There's no INVESTMENT in the act.

That's one of the mistakes made by major labels with Mariah Carey. They're under the illusion that there's a plethora of Mariah Carey FANS. There are not. Oh, yes, people bought her hit records, which were marketed superbly by her ex-husband Tommy Mottola and Donnie Ienner, but they weren't buying HER!

Aerosmith had a hit right up front, with "Dream On".

But the band was still nowhere. Because back then, a hit didn't do anything for your CAREER! People wouldn't buy an album on one hit track on the radio, not many anyway. And, truly, the money was on the road. Hell, for all the BIG acts, the money is STILL on the road. Now the labels don't get any of this road money, which may be why they only promote sales at all costs, but this is myopic and hurts them in the long run. Despite having this radio hit, Aerosmith had to prove it was REAL! And the only way you could prove this was by going on the road. Showing people you had the tools, that you could play, that you could MOVE THEM!

Aerosmith had the skills, and went on the road to prove them. They established fans. Hard core fans, like Michael Plen. And these fans told EVERYBODY what a great band Aerosmith was. They dragged their friends to shows. And when Aerosmith released its next record, they bought it without hearing it first. It was a BADGE OF HONOR! They wanted to be members of the CLUB! And, since the album DELIVERED, things truly started to happen. Bigger shows, better word of mouth. So, when "Toys In The Attic" finally came out, Aerosmith BLEW UP! Still, at their peak, the band's material wasn't UBIQUITOUS on the radio. It wasn't like today's MTV and Top Forty radio. "Walk This Way" wasn't aired once an hour. Because the RADIO STATIONS knew this would ALIENATE the listeners. People who loved the tracks they were playing went out and bought the album for themselves. And liked hearing the songs on the radio, it made them feel how wise they were to make the purchase, to become fans.

And, as a result of all the foregoing, Aerosmith became established, an icon if you will.

This is artist development. Not what's bandied about at labels today. Today's execs consider artist development to be a euphemism for acts that can't be played on MTV and Top Forty. Or else more enlightened workers want to give the band time to get it together, figure it out, write the hit. But really, the development is of the RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACT AND FAN! It's got to go slowly, it's got to be nurtured. Because it's LOVE. And you know how love relationships go. Even if it's love at first sight, you go through the bends. Is it REALLY love? You introduce the guy or gal to your friends...if they pooh-pooh him or her, you jettison them. You don't go out on a limb alone, you want your peeps along WITH you. And, if it's not instant, and it so often isn't, you sniff. Decide to take the plunge. Then solidify your bond with the act and proselytize.

We're SO busy trying to extract the dollars from the wallets of the populace today that we're missing the point. We should go after the audience's HEARTS. And MINDS! Believe me, the money will come later. It's like those con men. They don't ask the widow for the money up front, they nurture the relationship, and then, DEEP INTO IT, the widow gives them everything, every last dollar.

Now this game between performer and fan...Colonel Tom Parker knew it. All the great managers knew it. David Krebs, Aerosmith's original manager. Irving Azoff. After the Eagles finished the "Hell Freezes Over" tour in '95, Irving said the band wouldn't tour until the millennium. You see you've got to keep the act SPECIAL! A bit MYSTERIOUS! Create DEMAND!

Label execs give all the info to the press. Mystery is history. The acts are seen as jokes, all over the airwaves today, working at the 7-11 tomorrow. Can you say Vanilla Ice?

But the execs don't care. Because they're judged on a quarter by quarter basis. Because although the act might be in indentured servitude to the label, the exec will be long gone before their contract runs out. Unless, of course, the label drops the act first, having wrung every last ounce of quality from the performer the same way Tommy Lasorda burned out Orel Hershiser's arm.

VERY GOOD READ!!! Thanks for the past of the article...

I wonder if Prince's decline in venue sizes has more to do with how often he now tours, versus actual interest in him...

back when he did the Jam of the Year tour, it just seemed like everyone and their mother wanted to see him jam...now, its like.."oh yeah, prince here again..how nice, pass".

I wonder from a revenue perspective if its more profitable to do what The Eagles do (tour once every great while) or tour often like Prince...

Hey skletonkee don't try to bring any bad ideas to prince mind man!!

He should be touring more, In europe at least. You are almost saying he should tour even less!!

Abrazo said:

lol...sorry, i meant only in the states...your right, he hasnt toured on your side of the atlantic...im sure you all are ripe to be screwed up the arse with no lube...

(well, thats how it feels for me everytime i shell out a couple hundred bucks to see his show)