Bad New Bears
Although reports indicate that Virgin is closing all remaining stores, I have an inside source who has confirmed that only three of the remaining six stores will close. Apparently the real estate is simply too expensive in Times Square (go figure). The other three appear to be solvent at this point in time. It is a sad state of affairs when we lose the Virgin Times Square, Union Square, and West Hollywood stores...
The article goes on to say that this leaves J&R Music World to be the last music superstore in New York...
I hope we fix this mess (our economy, our industry, our planet) soon.
Yes I said it! I said it and I mean it. I buy CDs. I love CDs in fact. To my knowledge, I have nearly 1000 of the beautiful discs. I generally keep the cases for a while, but always end up placing the CDs in one of my 10 or so Case Logic books. Why do I do this in this digital age we live in? Why do I continue to adhere to my archaic tendencies you ask?
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Bucking Trends!
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I do this for one reason and one reason alone. I do not want CDs to go away. I still rip everything I buy and believe me, it ends up in Itunes and gracing my Ipod's numerous playlists… but I get something extra for my 10 dollars. I have a pretty shiny piece of plastic to hold onto and I have helped keep my industry afloat (if only for one more minute). Naysayers may indicate that my purchase of that CD did not have any effect, and only further prolonged our slow slip into all things digital (these are the same people who say voting doesn't count because even though you and your best friends all voted for Obama, you live in a red state and the electoral college will make your vote meaningless). But I don't care! This is how I roll. I buy CDs and you should too!
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PS: The new Killers CD is PHENOMENAL… go get it today!
After a quite typical morning at work today, I had a fascinating skype call with our CEO. He after spending yesterday at a high-level music exec meeting in NYC asked me a peculiar question. "Have you heard of "Elbows"? As our resident blog geek, I was embarrassed to say no. He mentioned that it was all the rage and quite the topic of conversation at the conference he had attended and therefore I immediately went digging to figure out what this "Elbows" is.
Elbows is a music blog aggregator. Featuring everything from MP3 Blogs to musical current events and other commentary, Elbows brings all of the approved blogs under one roof where the user can simply browse from post to post. It is rather selective with what blogs are allowed access to be linked to and browsed... according to the faqs, in order to be considered at least 50% of your blog posts must be music related... I no doubt have submitted myself for admittance into the club and we'll see if I pass the test.
I am looking forward to spending some more time on Elbows to benefit from the readily available access of hundreds of blogs I either haven't heard of, or havent made my way to yet... I have a feeling this is going to be a great resource for industry insiders and fans alike.
The news has finally broken. MTV is canceling TRL for good. This news comes as bitter sweet to me since after all, 10 years ago when it launched, I actually watched TRL. Albeit between classes while I was attending University... This also strikes home with me because of the fact that in my short tenure with Viacom / MTV as a production assistant, I actually worked TRL while it was filming on location in Miami. (Carson Daly is a lot taller than you'd think!)
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? I certainly have not. MTV's focus has completely changed to Reality based television. TRL was really the last holdout from the good old Music days. Obviously the change in format was due to increased pressures from Advertisers... Reality based programming means repeat customers. Episodic television almost guarantees a regular audience while simply airing videos does not guarantee any audience retention.
I think it is sad that this great bastion of the 1980's.. "Music Television" has moved so far away from it's original format. I look back on my years as a teenager watching MTV in the afternoons because it was literally that or Soap Operas with great joy. I think it is sad that generations to come wont get to enjoy such great afternoon entertainment.
While TRL is dead, they are planning on keeping some sort of conceptualized version of it alive with a Friday night show hosted by Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz. FNMTV will be the "new" TRL... I guess this is a good thing although I didn't like the Videos that TRL replaced.
