Buzzcocks vs. Magazine :: Lipstick vs. Shot by Both Sides

Pete Shelley's the man. I haven't been able to get the Buzzcocks out of my head lately (insert Harmony in my Head joke here). When you listen to Pete Shelley, you can't help but move along to Magazine, fronted by ex-Buzzcocker Howard Devoto.

The great thing about having two artists who were once creative partners split to make their own bands  is this: you occasionally end up with two unique takes on an identical piece of art. In this case, both Shelley and Devoto riffed on the same guitar riff.

Here's Shelley's take in "Lipstick".


Now, here's Howard Devoto and Magazine's version in "Shot by Both Sides"...


So, who do you think did it better?

5 Hit-Testing Algorithms

There are plenty of folks talking about the efficacy of tools claiming to predict the financial success of artistic endeavors. I thought it would be fun to aggregate a list of some of the algorithms out there, so here goes. In no particular order:

http://uplaya.com/
uPlaya claims to give artists the ability to upload a song and "an immediate assessment of its Hit Potential." It even includes a 2 Free Song trial. uPlaya also offers an assortment of marketing tools and services to help get your song(s) noticed. Chuck D liked it so much he's their spokesman now.

http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/
HP's Social Computing Lab "focuses on methods for harvesting the collective intelligence of groups of people in order to realize greater value from the interaction between users and information." So with this idea in mind they went out and decided to predict box office receipts using Twitter. While you can't buy the service yet it's pretty interesting to read about.

http://www.epagogix.com/
Epagogix claims to "assist in identifying and developing scripts, and in transforming scripts with low Box Office revenue potential into properties that can be profitably produced and distributed." This is the company wrote about in his article "The Formula" and is discussed in the MIT article "What People Want (and How to Predict It)".

http://www.musicxray.com/S2O
Platinum Blue Music's product, Music X-Ray, couples their music-parsing algorithm with a platform to facilitate communication between artists and industry professionals, making it easier for both to find the content, tools, resources, and advice they may need.

Any other good algorithms floating around out there?

Is it the Whiskey or the Wine?

The Sound LA had their "A-Z Week" gimmick goin' on this past week. War's 'Cisco Kid' hit the airwaves on Tuesday. I couldn't get enough volume out of my speakers - it was just phenomenal. The simplicity of the lyrics, the repetition, the phenomenal bridge. It was all there. Check it our for your self:



Mitchell Powers (an old friend – smart guy) once told me that some important person (a beat poet I think, but I'm not sure - it was long time ago we had the conversation) said "music is the only art form you feel inside your body." Because of the fundamental way sound works, sound waves can actually be felt hitting your nerves, creating a unique, body-wide sensation. Years later I brought this little tid-bit up to my wife, the visual artist, and an argument ensued of visual vs. aural arts. I'm not going to go down that road because you can't really compare the two artforms and well, I'm only thinking about the audio arts right now.


So back to War and music that get's the blood brewing. What is it about music that stirs us so?  And as a marketer, can we find that special elixir and bottle it? You may have read Malcolm Gladwell's article on "making hits" using a "The Formula."  Or you may have read the research on "Purchase occasion influence on the role of music in advertising." I'm going to take some to look into this – will be back to discuss! In the mean time, if you have some thoughts/ideas/leads, I'd love to hear about them - please leave your comments.

The VA forray

I've made first attempt at a Virtual Assistant. There are so many articles out there that I can't even begin to list them all (but American Express has a nice article on "9 Tips for Working With a Virtual Assistant").
I've ended up working with oDesk for this particular project. oDesk allows you to post a job and then have thousands of VAs apply for the task. My task was to go through a list of 75 websites, collecting links and data from each. Simple enough. Within one hour I had 9 responses, ranging from $0.89/hour all the way to a whipping $5.65/hour. Not too bad.
Ultimately I'm going to try someone from the Phillipines. She has been very nice, has blessed me many times, and even thinks I have a great name because it's in the Bible. Now that's salesmanship - butter me up and bless my eternal soul.
On the plus side, my VA has already started, even though oDesk hasn't "authorized" my account (they have a crazy credit card authorization process that must be a response to some crazy Nigerian spam ring). Good to see the VA world knows that execution matters.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm going to watch Fletch.

The Big Lebowski

Now that I'm 4 years in to my LA experience, I've been thinking about the Big Lebowski a lot. A whole lot. And watching it. It's been very exciting to realize I work next to the diner where Walter tells the Dude he can get a toe. I live next to an In-N-Out Burger in North Hollywood. The Coen Bros. live in LA and so do I! The similarities never end.

SOoooooooo...

What the hell is the movie about? I mean, it's gotta be about something, right? One of the truly best parts of the movie is how it leads you to believe, to truly know, there must be more to the story of bowlers and ballers, artists and nihilists, and jerks and jerk-offs. A quick Google of "What is The Big Lebowski about?" shows I'm not alone. The New York Times and the academics are even in on the act.