My Aunt sells women’s shoes & she’s more tech savvy than your record label!

Saturday I was downtown and was reminded that I hadn’t talked to my aunt in years. I heard she was having some minor tech issues with her business, so I figured I would stop by and see if I could help her. Well, we started talking and I was shocked to find out that she was picking this stuff up faster than most high school kids! I was thrilled to find out that there wasn’t a ton I could teach her. She had recently went to some tech conference and had that moment where the magic light bulb goes off. As she is telling me about this conference, the only thing I could think of was how much I wish every music industry contact I work with could go to this conference.

The music industry seems to take three steps forward, two steps back, and four steps to the left somehow. It makes me want to jump for joy that they are trying, but then land on their head when doing stupid things with these great tools they have finally opened up to. Now I will almost never name names on this blog, because I love the people I deal with in the industry. They are great people who are just making mistakes. So when about a year ago a worldwide label announced that they would no longer work with online publications my head just about exploded! Let me make it clear that I love this label, love the band’s they have, and think very highly of my contact for said label. My contact has zero to do with this decision, so this is not about the person I work with. That being said, why would a label cut off online publications at a time where print magazines are dying quicker then the cd sales they try to blame on downloading?

So recently this honestly outstanding label leaps into the truly wise decision to stop sending physical promos. This can make life more simple for not only the label, but also for writers. They even have it set up so I can just toss it into an RSS feed so it downloads their new releases without me even thinking. So what’s the problem? They tell me that my writers can’t get separate accounts, can’t log in with my account, and I can’t give them files I download. Instead they have some system where for each release (and each writer) I have to specifically request a 24 hour account. The writer has 24 hours to download the file or we have to start all over again. Can you see how they took this great tool and crippled it?

This is how the music industry adopts technology. It’s like paying to hire a top model and putting her in a potato sack and a pigs mask. It’s like taking an amazing ice skater and whacking her in the knees. It’s like having Yo-Yo Ma play your inauguration ceremony and having him lip sync to a tape. I could go on, but you get the idea. It’s like they want to use technology to bring things forward, but instead of listening to the people who know about such things, they are getting their info from their spam folder. Why do they keep falling for scams and listening to the wrong advice? How can we get them to use technology more efficiently? I’m serious. Please someone tell me! My aunt can grasp this stuff to sell womens’ shoes I think they can…right?