After months of effort, research, head-scratching, and stress, I finished my book.  The first copies of the The Analysis of Hype are now in the hands of those who purchased the eBook.  Printed editions are printing and will be shipping later this week.  But, holy crap, I wrote a book! As...

Pretty much everyone knows the story of Kubla Khan.  It starts out, “In Xanadu did Kublai Khan A stately Pleasure-Dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.” Some know it from the intro to Citizen Kane, others were...

Here in Boston we’ve got our knickers in a potential twist.  Yet again, there’s talk of raising fares on the “T” to offset some staggering deficits.  It amazes me that so many companies (and politicians…) think they can continually cut spending in order to raise...

I’m the first person to tell you not to believe everything you read on the Internet. For every useful piece of information, there’s a Nigerian price lurking right around the corner. But when you’ve found something so unbelievable, so fantastical, that it must be obviously a...

OK – maybe it’s a stretch, but …. Today would’ve been Harpo Marx’s 123rd birthday.  Bizarre?  Any excuse to add a little Marx Brothers to the festivities, right? Share Tweet

I’m gonna say it:  I hate Kickstarter.  I hate the fact that they make it easy for anyone to ask you for money.  That’s not to say I’m a total Scrooge, but I keep getting hit up to back people’s projects.  Somehow, it seems fundamentally wrong for me to...

Over the last few days, I’ve received 73 Facebook event invitations.  It’s not because of my incredible popularity, subtle wit, or boyish charm that people want me at their event.  Shocking, I know.  Instead, they overutilize the tool so much that it becomes noise — and...

Within the last month, I’ve had two interns quit.  As the lowest rung on the professional ladder, it’s not common for interns to be less than enthralled with the work they’re doing.  But as companies continue to squeeze free labor out of the unpaid masses, I had to stop and...

Working with musicians, you hear a lot of “oh no, my fans would HATE that …”  Venues do it too.  And managers often assume an understanding of what their artists like or dislike.  On nearly every count, they’re wrong.  This is never more apparent than the world of...

Working in the music industry is kind of like living through a Homerian epic. There are heroes and enemies and epithets a-plenty. You also get introduced to the mighty beast known as hubris.  You know the type:  brash CEO who boasts on and on and on about how their service will...

Today would’ve been Freddie Mercury’s 65th birthday.  Here’re a few of the things he’s said over the years … A concert is not a live rendition of our album. It’s a theatrica! event. I always knew I was a star And now, the rest of the world seems to agree...

There are times when it’s fun to be a dick.  Maybe you’ve hard a really hard day;  the man is just beating you down.  You gotta vent on someone, and that barista seems perfect to inflict rage upon.  It happens.  But unlike the lowly barista, I run my own business.  I...

This past weekend the J. Geils Band decimated their audiences in Boston.  This is probably no surprise to anyone who’s ever seen them perform.  It’s a visceral, religious, reverential, exhausting experience.  What’s amazing is that the band hasn’t lost energy or...

30 years ago today, the rocket launched and MTV was born. Surprisingly (or not?), there's no mention of this milestone on the homepage of MTV.com.

I spend a LOT of time at music industry events. And I spent a lot of time in college as a music business major. And I grew up in Boston. So when I see a band that's doing everything the industry's leading voices are recommending, I (at least...) pay attention. The bizarre twist is that NOBODY else is paying attention -- except the fans!

Maybe it’s a character flaw, I’m not sure.  But I want to be as nice to every client as I possibly can.  Sometimes that results in over-promising, and most times it results in under-charging.  As an example, I recently had a client that needed a very basic website done.  I...

So the whole industry is all abuzz about Google Music debuting. And for those that're using Google Music, they're not all that thrilled. It's slow, clunky, and not exactly the Music 2.0/Next Phase/New Wave solution everybody was trumpeting from the rooftops. And so it goes. Once the music industry gives up on one problem, they just move onto another while forgetting to continue solving the previous one. That's why I'm saying "fuck the cloud."

Here's the deal folks: websites are instruments for your career. Like a fine Steinway or a vintage B3, simply posessing them doesn't equate to being a virtuoso player...

Today, on 4/20, we should all learn The Terrible...

Happy 67th Birthday to John Kay – frontman for Steppenwolf.   Their biggest hit, “Born to Be Wild” was originally written as a ballad.  Steppenwolf’s sped-up 1967 arrangement was the one that became a hit and helped the band sell over 25 million records worldwide. Shar

It seems that no matter where you go, there's always some asshole that wants to pee on your cornflakes.

In the process of starting D.I.-Why, I realized that bringing on investors might not be a bad idea.  If you take a look at the companies shaping “the new music industry,” investors are heavily financing their trek toward profitability.  Why should my baby be any different? To get...

I resisted writing this post for a while, because I’m either gonna piss off a few people or (at best?) come off sounding all snooty and elitist.  Finally though, that moment has passed. Foursquare is a cool way to share information about where you’re at, offer cool tips, and play...

At the time of its release in 1970, “Vehicle” by the Ides of March was the fastest selling single in Warner Brothers’...

It's really not something that needs to be discussed, or at least that's what I thought. When you're working with a client/artist/musician/band/whatever, the asumption is that everyone involved will conduct themselves in a professional manner. Unfortunately, at 3 AM, this isn't what happened...

Business school grads make millions preying upon a ready group of suckers who sang lead in their high school musicals, but a decade later they're just bartenders working for tips wondering why fame and fortune hasn't smiled on them.

Looking back, I don't think I said much of anything for the first 6 months I was working in radio. But I absorbed everything. Over time I learned how to be persuasive without being a bully. I learned when the end result often meant sacrificing what you thought (at the time) was totally essential. The hardest lesson was learning to let others do their job so you can do yours.

Dear Neil: I spent most of yesterday celebrating “Music’s Biggest Night” with a few thousand of my closest friends. As a member of the Recording Academy, it’s a singular thrill to be able to personally witness the hype machine ramp things up into frenzy of klieg lights and chaos. But this year, moreso than the others, was it really music’s biggest night?

Latest Amoeba Music shopping spree: You should all go buy these NOW! And while I love Newbury Comics, Amoeba Music is the greatest music store on the planet. Perhaps the galaxy, and likely the universe...

Back when I lived in Hollywood, I spent most of my time working from home. The boss-man didn't want to incur unnecessary overhead, so in exchange for picking up the cost of my phone and internet, I never had to commute more than 10 steps from "home" to "work." For the most part, it was pretty sweet. But...

I love random facts.  And I couldn’t pass this one up …. so random, so weird, and so damn cool! On this day in 1963, Fleetwood Lindley died.  At the time of his death, Fleetwood Lindley was the last living person to have looked upon the face of Abraham...

50 years ago today, JFK became our 35th president. Watch the speech that started it all...

It snowed in Boston.  One reporter saw a guy named Noah putting snow tires on his ark.  Shoopa Shoopa.  Knowing that I was going to be spending a large amount of time outside snowblowing/shoveling/cursing my life, I used Rdio to make a lovely playlist. Here’s what was in my ears while...

A few hours ago, Debbie Friedman passed away. For those who knew her, she was a unique person with an absolute gift. But for most Jewish kids, she was the creator of countless songs that are indelibly linked to our days in youth group.

Too many folks today feel compelled to tell you how shitty their experience was with any retailer.  It seems that bad news is far more interesting to share than the good kind.  After a while, you start to get really pessimistic.  The surplus of unwarranted cynicism is enough to make you...

For anyone that’s a marketing consultant, you know the three steps to discomfort…. You submit an invoice to a normally happy client. They come back to you with: “what have you done?  Why am I paying you this much?” You show them everything you did, which they...

John Lennon 1940-1980 For a lot of people it seems bizarre to think that John Lennon died 30 years ago today.  While not that long ago, 1980 was a completely different time and place for the music industry — if not the world at large.  To remember John and his music, take a minute, sit...

My computer is a few years old, and I was starting to panic.  Should this computer die, I’m totally lost.  My entire professional life (not to mention a lot of other stuff) resides inside it’s Apple-y glow.  I’m approaching the hard drive’s capacity, and I know...

After a while, pie sucks. It doesn't take much skill to buy a frozen crust, plop fruit and sugar inside it, and bake at 350 'til golden brown. Anyone who does this, and claims to have "baked"...is a liar.

Over the weekend, I saw a very cool band play. At times, their shtick began to take away from their music. It was as if they had to make sure they got the gimmick represented at every opportunity...

SS Edmund Fitzgerald (nicknamed “Mighty Fitz,” “The Fitz,” or “The Big Fitz”) was an American Great Lakes freighter launched on June 8, 1958. At the time of its launching, it was one of the first boats to be at or near maximum “St Lawrence Seaway...

It’s Guy Fawkes Day!  Here in the U.S. that probably means nothing. In fact, it’s only a big deal ‘cuz I can post up this song.  Ultimately it’s more of an English thing, but it does let me put up a timely John Lennon track P.S. A bit of background from our...

Happy Birthday to Peter Noone — lead singer of Herman’s Hermits!!! Fun fact:  During 1965, The Beatles released Rubber Soul and Help!, but they were outsold by … Herman’s Hermits! Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone is still touring, still packing houses, and...

So why hasn't the band put it all back together, hit the road, and capitalized on the adulation? And why has Steve Perry remained suspiciously out of the limelight for so long? It makes a cynical marketing mind wonder how "planned" the spontaneous appearance at the Word Series truly was...

OK, so I stole this title from Led Zeppelin, but it's really the best way to describe what's going on in today's music industry -- and especially in its marketing. I'm amazed by the continual insistence on the "next big thing" being hyped long before the current big thing has been proven...

Here’s your easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide …. Be an outsider. If you’ve never worked in politics, government, or gone to jury duty — all the better! Have a silly skeleton in your closet. You dabbled in witchcraft?  Fabulous! Don’t let the facts stand in your...

So there’s all this hype and rumble around the new Elton John/Leon Russell album.  Some love it, some hate it, and most agree it could’ve been better.  I’ve been an Elton fan for a LONG time.  In fact, I’ve seen him in concert 32 times.  But the single greatest...

Happy 64th Birthday to the pride of Downey, CA — Richard Carpenter.  As one of (and later 2/3 …) of The Carpenters with his sister Karen, they made easy listening even easier.  Nixon loved ‘em, millions mocked ‘em, and well … judge for yourself ...

This post was written by David Ginsburg of Hector Solutions… Over the weekend, (“weekend” is a vague term in the 24/7 world of social media) I was speaking with a colleague handling the PR for a mutual account regarding the importance of sticking to the content strategy laid out at...

I don’t like discussing politics.  Usually it’s because I’m totally right, and the other person is an absolute moron. But seriously folks… The more I watch the news, I see all these ridiculous Repubican-type “Tea Partiers” bitching and moaning about how the...