(or, who do you think you are?)

One of the more interesting music festival stories this summer, so far, was the story of Kanye West at Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo has made efforts over the past few years to bring in some artists, even mainstream artists, that you don’t typically think of in connection with these field-of-steam type mega music festivals. For example, the Police at last year’s festival were a huge hit with fans. For a variety of reasons, Kanye’s light show was not such a hit. The story has been all over, but if you’re not familiar with it, here are a couple of quick links from jambands.com

Click the link and scroll down to “Kanye West Screams”: Kanye West Screams

And for a balanced look at what happened, read Dean Budnick’s assessment: Kanye Was Doomed

But besides the interesting culture clash story here (and also besides wondering what Kanye thinks of his Mac Book Air), I was struck by the fact that both articles mentioned the mercinary look of Kanye’s website:

(incidentally West’s blog is a curious destination in its own right, seemingly devoted to product placement of all stripes)

…along with sharp comments by various artists over the course of Sunday at the fest, yielding West’s own rant on his product placement enhanced blog.

This was interesting to me, in a self-centered way, because, over the last year, I’ve had occasion to notice and talk about the fact that some musicians have websites that really focus your attention on the music they have to present (with merch etc a click or two away), and other musicians have ones that look like they’d sell their souls on a napkin, if there was a market for it. In my own blog and at other sites I go to, I prefer it when the music is easy to get to, and the celebrity hawking and hyping is, in order of preference: (a) absent, or (b) well-hidden, or (c) exceptionally clever (I just added the last option, for reasons explained later).

I, naturally, drew the inference that if I preferred such sites, that there were other people (aka music fans) who thought similarly and might even be put-off or confused if the mercinary/celebrity aspects dominated the musical aspects too much. Now, I’ll admit, I was often saying this to people who were really into celebrity culture, but I was nevertheless surprised to hear that some people actually didn’t believe that anyone else shared my opinion. We all like to think of ourselves as unique, but that’s ridiculous. So the jambands comments made me feel less alone in this cold world.

Anyway, this whole Kanye thing crossed my mind this week because I, like a lot of people I know, received an email the other day inviting me to plop down $100 for the chance to swoon in the presence of a Broadway phenom. And like a lot of people, I’ve been wondering what I think about that. In general, that is: Broadway is a great American institution and I’m all for people making it there, if they have the interest and chops, but it’s off my path, both geograpically and interest-wise, so actually taking this offer was not even a consideration.

But what does it mean, besides being an attempt to sell fanclub memberships? I’m a firm free-marketeer and think people have a right to sell whatever they want, within reasonable legal and socially acceptable limits. It’s not like it’s influence peddling or selling indulgences, after all. Artists and other celebrities have a business relationship with their fans, so it makes as much sense for them to charge for their time as it does for, say, doctors or lawyers. But, as consumers, we naturally assume that when people charge for a service, that indicates the business they’re in. We expect to pay doctors and lawyers for their professional advice, we expect to pay musicians for their music.

And that’s where there can be a disconnect, some brand confusion. While pretty much everybody expects to pay for the T-shirt or mug, the same isn’t true for face time. Maybe it ruins the illusion that they’re seeing the “real” side of the celeb?

For other people, who are mainly or only interested in the music side (or sports - it happens in all forms of entertainment), it’s at best a distraction. At worst, it can make you question the committment to the core product. If the salesman is trying too hard to sell you on the paint job, it’s only natural to wonder about what’s under the hood. It’s all about balanced marketing, knowing your product and knowing your customers.

But thinking all that, and not wanting to shoot from the hip (entirely), I went back and looked at some artist’s sites that I’d liked in the past, and checked on what was going on with some of my more recent interests, like Back Door Slam and Paul Thorn. The t-shirts and mugs and M&Gs are there, even for the opera company I’m visiting this week ( I mention in case anyone is tempted to raise the annoying and perenneal “serious musician” red-herring), but not tempting the damning “product placement enhanced” label or presuming anything as undignified as swooning.

But that said, and digging a little deeper, I found that Paul Thorn puts all other musician-marketeers to shame. While others are selling access and coffee cups, Thorn is selling salvation.

The Paul Thorn Church:

Last night I did a show in Louisville, Kentucky. There were about 250 people in attendance. About 67 of those people bought a copy of my new CD A LONG WAY FROM TUPELO. Without even realizing the positive equal sign of their purchase, those fortunate humans have unknowingly bought their way out of hell. Yes, that’s right friends, when you lay your $15.00 down on the merchandise table and I personalize it with my [i]Anointed Sharpie[/i], your name is automatically written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Being a natural sceptic and having suffered from some Sharpie-induced mental trauma in the past, I’ll need a live show before signing in blood, but this is a kind of value-added marketing I can definitely get behind.

categories: biz
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