Something isn't right

Last week the musician Prince announced that his latest album would be given away free in conjunction with a UK newspaper. You can read an update here on the story.

Now I posted a couples times on the state of play of the music industry ( you can read my early post here and here). I resisted posting about the Prince story because I wanted to see how the side of the record labels would respond. I am dishearten to see that the same defensive posture of the wanning medium of the album still holds.

Why after a decade of decreasing sales have record labels not developed new avenues to generate income. We have music downloads widely available now but record labels didn't invent that as much as try to jump on the band wagon.

When will see the next era of engaging record music ushered in? It looks like the way of the record store is over. I would definitely be trying to get out of the selling businesses and move towards creating value around music inline with a new generation of music lovers who don't even have the context of only having music available through physical objects like CDs.

Not easy at all, but it has to happen and better to be one of the first right

The best movie marketing ever?

I believe this to be the most intriguing movie promotion to date: 1-18-08

The trailer for this movie was shot as if on a handycam, very amateur and very real, and was shown before Transformers (which I immensely enjoyed by the way).

Its basically a mystery as to what this film is about, and man has it got peoples' attention. The movie is produce by the same dude who brought us the brilliant TV show Lost.

Definitely worth tracking this to see how this evolves. I will be.

Excuse me, there is a white elephant in my way

I just watchws the Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith. There is a scene where Will Smith's character, Chris, has an interview for an internship with a brokerage firm. As if it wasn't bad enough that Chris was going into this situation grossly under qualified, but that very night before his interview, he was arrested for not paying parking tickets in the middle of painting his apartment.

After spending a night in jail Chris goes straight into the interview , disheveled, shirtless and covered in paint.

How would you go about addressing this?

Well, Chris reacts by getting straight to it and naming the white elephant.

Sometimes acknowledging the white elephant by coming straight out with the obvious is the only way to make progress. Leaving it as the "the thing we can all clearly see but shall not speak of" is the route to disaster as it will remain the preoccupation usurping other more important things.

Naming the white elephant takes boldness. But it also results in greater trust and honestly once addressed.

How to fix the Music Industry

The movie industry has bounced back after a dip in the past few years. I think this is largely because studio executives have paid more attention to what people want. This is not a conversation of quality as I think there are still plenty of horrible films being made. But with numerous 80's inspired movies been made recently (think Transformers and comic book adaptations) I think we are seeing a closer parallel to the type film many people want to watch (the biggest movies goers are guys 18 - 35 i.e. which includes people who grew up in the 1980s).

Video piracy, as bad as the media has reported, has in fact not hit the movie industry as hard as suggested. I think this is becuase the theatrical experience of watching film is just that, an experience. Engaging with the event of watching a film, whether a movie theater or at home is an experience - popcorn, getting the best seats, watch trailers. This experience is coupled with a pricing structure that makes sense (most of the time).

The music industry on the other hand has reduced itself to a through-away experience where people place little value on the process on requiring new music. There is so much more new music every week than new films that rallying around just a few big releases is not going to work. Films go from theaters to DVD to TV. There are different windows of opportunity to experiences it. Music on the other hand goes from internet, radio to music stores without the experience fundamentally changing.

There is just way too much choice when its comes to music. I think fixing the music industry comes down to the process of getting music to become as compelling as wanting to listen to the music itself. Until the perceived value of acquiring music increases, piracy will be rampant as there is really very little missed as far as the experience goes from buying a CD to coping music from your friends iTunes.

Your job description

I believe this should be mandatory in any job description becuase if it were our experiences engaging with others would dramatically improve:

Your job is to make things better

Read Seth here for an illustration

How do you see yourself?

When I meet someone new I often seek to find out what they do for a living as I hope to build a conversation around understanding who they are and how they see their place in the world (even if just a little). I think I pursue this line of conversation because I have bought into the idea that what we do equivalent to full time work gives us worth and explains who we are.

But according to two independent 2006 surveys conducted both in the US and New Zealand, only 14% and 17% of adults consider that they spend most of their day working out of strengths, respectively. If you work out of your strengths, it means you operate in your zone, you play to the way you are naturally wired, love what you and do it well.

So if the vast majority of us are not:

1. doing what we love; and,
   
2. feel like we are using our strengths to full effect

I would put forward that we are not employed/ doing something that is closely aligned to who we are. It would then seem usually then that in order to understand who someone is we ask what they do for work, when more than likely, they are not doing something that are great at i.e. doing something that tells us what makes them unique and thus setting them apart from others.

If you do a do that you do think completly captures you, here is your challenge. Next time someone asks what you do, only tell them about your passions or what you dream of doing and see where the conversation takes you.

Back by um...popular(?) demand

I must admit that the my attention to this blog has wanned over the past three months. But my honest belief is that I should on write stuff on here when I have something worthwhile to say.

For the last few days I have been participating in a convergence of leaders from around America and the globe who are have gathered together out a common purpose to influence the world. I would like to expand on something that was put forward this morning in a panel discussion.

It was put forward that "Who can I trust?" is a fundamental question that shapes, in part, the way we in the west approach engaging in society. It was stated that the question is now at the very essence of how many of us see life because of the unfulfilled promises of scientific advancement and the decay of the family unit.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated that science was not the new bright hope of a better world and a better life but if fact a treacherous pursuit so poorly pursued that global alienation, (the term once confined to science-fiction) may become the last entry into our history books.

Once a taboo, divorce has sadly become as much of a social institutional experience for many families as the marriage relationship it severs.

It should come to no surprise that children grow into adulthood with persistent question mark hanging over every interaction with a new people or contact we a new organisation. For any of us how have to promote, spread, and communicate ideas and beliefs we are faced with the challenge to not develop a perception of trust worthiness but to actually develop credibility through building relationships based around honest yet tactful presentation of what we are about and to what ends we want to achieve.

I believe that this in not a vocation relative theory but rather a posture everyone should consider who desires others to know what they know or experience what they experience. The alternative is that it will take so long for someone to trust what the hear or see that nothing positively authentic will be spread.

The power of random generousity

I came across this story about a random act of kindness: http://alchemic-spot.blogspot.com/2007/02/guerilla-tourism-board.html.
This is an example of how shaping culture towards hospitality and kindness will always be more effective in than leaving that duty to paid "specialists".

Hope you have a good day

Will it spread?

I believe that each human has an inherent potential set before conception. The word potential in this case means the promise of a level of ability to bring things into existence that are not yet tangible but remain possible if pursued. So this is to say that you and I have a level of creative ability that is not fully realised or put to use without some deliberate effort.

I bring this up because for the almost half a decade I have been developing my comprehension of what it means to be in pursuit of ones potential. In this time I have awoken to a world that has known this idea (in some shape or form) for millennia.

Whether it comes though in a secular or spiritual viewpoint, I think there is a universal truth to who we are; that each person has uniqueness found in the potential they could live flavoured through a limitless combination of DNA, personality, character development, strengths , and choice.

But why doesn't this concept pervade the fabric of society on a conscious level? Why is it that we dynamic and creative human individuals so often settle for mediocre and mundane experiences of life?

It seems to me that the answer to so many of the problems and issues concerning humanity lie just over the horizon of perceived potential (where in my mind realised potential lies) yet seems so far out of reach every time we start to focus our attention on the urgent instead of the important.

Getting the attention of your friend's friend = Priceless

Seth Godin offers yet another insight for us to ponder.

If you want to promote your brand, organisation, product, service or whatever then you need to get your audience on board with what you’re about before you can really reach them with your information. We do this through a permission marketing based endeavour. But how do you get them to bite in the first place?

Well you have to know your target and what motivates them in the right way. As Seth points out, offering that latest have to have will get people to comply with your “please give us permission to tell you about us” (i.e. permission marketing) request, but its not likely to make converts to your message, that is, people who will then turn around and promote you to their friends and acquaintances. We have to provide an incentive which will encourage and grow the behaviour and loyalty you need to successfully communicate the next message.

If you offer people the chance of a reward or prize for signing up to a newsletter, then you should be offering something which encourages a level of participation with you in the future, i.e. passing on the URL to a friend who is also likely to become a convert. That’s a network connection that costs you nothing and one which can translate into a new follower = Priceless.