Posted 1:37 PM by seth godin

So, if you could design a new kind of record business...

What would the label look like?
Here's what I'm doing with zoomTone Records (not quite ready to launch):
1. No retail sales. All on the Internet.
2. Big discount if you subscribe to the music. We send you a new album every six weeks.
3. No attempt at radio airplay. It's too hard and it skews the music you make.
4. MP3s of everything available for free download.
5. Recorded on SACD, which plays in your CD player but plays even better in an SACD player. "Music worth paying for."
6. Live to two track. No compression, overdubs, edits, etc. What you hear is what I heard.
7. Treat the musicians fairly. In this case, it means no options on future music, they own the masters and they get the cash when a record sells.

More as it happens! (sign up for more info at zoomTone)

Posted 1:27 PM by seth godin

Where are the optimists?

A quick look at just about any news source covering the business world and you're likely to be either frightened or depressed. Seems like everyone is a crook. What are these people thinking? Is capitalism doomed?

Me, I'm betting on small companies. Small companies are where the people doing the work are also making the decisions. I'm endlessly optimistic about the capacity for human beings to make money solving each others' problems. It's only when we create a new sort of royalty--an unelected ruling class--that these companies seem to get into trouble.

Can't wait to see the new stuff that's getting invented in someone's garage right now!

Posted 1:24 PM by seth godin

Robert Heinlein said...

"There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such a profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is supported by neither statute or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history
be stopped, or turned back."

I liked reading him when I was a kid. Maybe I should start again. Thanks to Nathan for pointing me to it.

Posted 5:17 PM by seth godin

[deleted]

I just got spammed by GENERAL MOTORS! I wrote a whole angry post about it, then decided it wouldn't advance the conversation, so now it's gone. Sorry. General Motors... oy.