I learned of the passing of Steve Jobs as I was leaving a Apple store with a new iPod Nano while wearing my Apple ball cap. It really hit me. Apple has been a part of my life since 1984 when I started selling Macintosh’s for a small Minnesota computer retailer, Dan Patch Micro. I have a house filled with Apple computers, iPods and iPhones.
You changed the world and you changed many lives, including mine.
Thank you Steve Jobs.
Michael Brandvold Marketing has been nominated for CBS San Francisco’s Most Valuable Blogger Awards 2011. You can find my blog in the Dining/Entertainment category. I am one of ten blogs in this category. All other blogs are food blogs. So how about a vote for me and music!
You can vote once a day, so remember to come back. Voting closes September 9th.
I tell many people one of my strengths is I am a fan, I’m not a musician. I love music, I love bands, I love concerts. I am your customer.
Last night I went to the one night only showing of the Angels and Airwaves movie Love. I had been waiting to see this indie sci-fi movie that the band produced for many months. Angels and Airwaves (AVA) have made it so much fun to be a fan and I love it. They gave away their last album LOVE for free. They released a live/behind the scenes DVD. They released a great selection of t-shirts and merchandise. They provided sound check and VIP access that their shows. Now they spent their own money (reported to be $500,000) and five years to produce a full length feature movie for which they provided the soundtrack. They will be releasing the movie and a double album this coming November. They just didn’t show the movie last night. They also did a live three song show, did a fan Q&A and debuted the video for their brand new single Anxiety. I spent over two hours with my favorite band and got a tidal wave of new stuff from them. As a fan, I loved it!
Musicians and bands need to always remember this; make sure it is fun for your fans to be your fans. When they are having fun they are supporting you, they are buying your product.
How was the Angels and Airwaves movie Love? Great film for a low budget, indie production. The movie is a 2001 Space Odyssey type of sci-fi flick. During the civil war a alien ship is discovered in Crater Lake. Fast forward to a lone astronaut on the International Space Station. He looses contact with earth. You then see how he changes as he looses contact with other people. The astronaut comes to learn he is the last human being in existence and has a encounter with the alien intelligence. Not a simple story line I know. It is a thinker. I think you would need to watch it a couple times to put the pieces together. I admire AVA for not making a AVA movie, but a movie with a interesting story that they only provided the soundtrack. You will not see the band in the film, they are not performing in the movie, they are not singing in the movie… just instrumental soundtrack. It really is a art movie made with passion.
August 1, 1981 MTV went on the air changing television and changing music. I have some very vivid memories during the birth of MTV. I graduated high school in 1982. I can’t recall if we had cable TV at home at that time. But, when I started college in the fall of 1982 at Normandale Community College the college union did have cable TV. They had a small room, maybe 25 feet by 15 feet, that was the TV room with a large screen TV. I don’t remember anything other than MTV playing on the TV. Upon starting college I remember this room was always packed with people, sitting on every available chair as well as sitting on the floor squeezing into every available space. People would cram into the doorway trying to grab a glimpse of a video, and waiting for someone to leave for class so they could grab their seat. Seems like there was a constant stream of people trying to watch MTV, including me. I know we were all waiting for a video from out favorite artist. At the time I remember hoping to see KISS I Love It Loud.
What was addicting about MTV? Easy, you always wanted to see what the next video was. Just one more video. Who was next? Once we got cable TV at home I would do the same thing, watching to just see who the next video might be. MTV was also ideal when you didn’t have time to watch a entire TV show, say you only had 15 minutes before you had to leave. Turn on MTV and catch maybe three videos.
Sometime around 1988 while at my first job after graduating college our company had rented a large video wall to use at a NACA Convention in Washington DC, we were showing videos of bands we were managing, The Ultraviolet and Unleashed. MTV was also putting on a Club MTV event at the convention and they asked if they could use our video wall for the show. In exchange for letting them use the video wall they send a bunch of MTV swag; including black satin MTV jackets and MTV beach towels. Both of which I still have; I actually just used the MTV beach bowel this past weekend.
I want my MTV back!
I wanted to get back to some posts that aren’t music marketing tips and advice, but rather are about me, helping you get to know me. I always feel if you know a person, who they are, what they like, you will have a better professional relationship.
Today as I sit in Starbucks in Sausalito catching up on a lot of writing I missed over the last I have been listening to a lot of new music recently added to my iPhone:
1. Sixx A.M. – This Is Gonna Hurt
2. Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
3. Romeo Spike – For The Cause
4. The Go-Go’s – Beauty And The Beat
What have you been listening to this week?
