Sorry, I just got back. Your link is great. I think for me the practice of standing there having to come out with it was invaluable. Amazing how you have it all in there, but sometimes it comes out like shit through a goose and sometimes it just comes out...well. You know. Anyway. I talked and talked, listened and listened, and learned a lot.
Incidentally, there was a company pitching called eighty/twenty! Not my company, but very cool just the same.
I also appreciated the advice, though I got some cold chills reading it. For example: Today I'm making business cards for a networking event tomorrow. Oops. But I need exposure! I do...really!
I think labels will continue to play a role, if only for the legacy that they already control.
Also, I don't think artists want to have to or should have to be their own record-store-managers.
Handling all of that daily grind artist-by-artist is contrary to the fundamental principle of specialization in economics.
Lastly, I feel that even if an emerging artist wants to self-start and promote using a blog (which worked just fine for Lily Allen), will they want to handle t-shirt distribution in Australia ten years from now? Is that what guitar-players are struggling to get to?
Incidentally, my startup is all about solving this problem by disengaging the license from the file. Let's see if it works. I have to get it built first.
I've hears the opposite too. That merchandising and touring is where artists make money, and recorded music is where the labels make money. I wonder which it is.
When I see the words "clean" and "capable" to describe markets and new buyers of forclosed properties, and the word "evil" used to describe loan modification, I think that:
1) clean is the opposite of dirty. The unfettered market is clean, he says.
2) capable. Who doesn't want to be in that category? Capable! Yes. I am capable. And THAT is the reason (sigh of relief) that I am not being forclosed upon.
This article says: "loan modification is not only ineffective, it is evil."
So. If you're incapable...don't come crying to me. because it would be evil to offer help.....
"Get a job.", then.
Thanks Rupert.
At least one other time, in 1973, I think, the US administration defaulted.
After running up Viet Nam war debt Nixon devalued the currency by de-coupling the value of the dollar from the price of gold.
The debt was repaid in dollars that had lost their value.
There was another effective default/devaluation, but I can't remember the circumstances, sorry.
If the US had free universal healthcare, would GM become viable?
If the GM employee pension fund owned large quantities of GM stock, shorted it and made a fortune, would this constitute a reasonable hedge against the inevitable demise of their employer?