Tag Archives: music

Is Jack White’s Lazaretto Ultra LP a Vinyl Innovation?

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Is Jack White's Lazaretto Ultra LP a Vinyl Innovation?Video may have killed the radio star, but the mp3 and even the CD have failed to kill the lovable vinyl LP record. In fact, they are making a resurgence and if anything have probably grown in popularity over the last decade.

So, you might be thinking what kind of innovation could someone possibly pull off on a vinyl album?

Well, here is a list of the new things they’ve done on the album:

  1. Hidden track under the label of Side A
  2. Hidden track under the label of Side B
  3. One of the hidden tracks plays at 45rpm and the other plays at 78rpm, while the rest of the album plays at the normal 33rpm
  4. Side A plays from the inside out
  5. Side A plays into a locked track on the outside edge that loops continuously
  6. Side B plays the normal way – outside in, but depending on where you place the needle, you’ll either get and electric or an acoustic intro to the first song on the side
  7. Last, but not least, on a 1-inch band near the label of Side A, if you look at just the right angle while playing the record you’ll see holograms of two spinning angels (one right side up, one upside down)

Jack White walks you through the new things they’ve tried to include on this piece of vinyl in this video:



And if you’re not familiar with Jack White’s music (he started the White Stripes by the way), then check out the video below of one of the songs from the album



Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?

So, pull your turntable or record player out from under your bed and check out this groundbreaking new album.

Ultimately whether this album is an innovation or not is up to you…


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Who is in Your Social Media Band?

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Who is in Your Social Media Band?It used to be that when you formed a rock band to seek fame and fortune, all you had to do was find a lead singer, a guitarist, a bass player, a drummer, and maybe another guitarist or a keyboard player if you wanted a richer sound. But the digital age presents a level of complexity and opportunity that John, Paul, and Ringo never had to deal with.

If video killed the radio star, or tried to, then YouTube will certainly finish the job.

In the old days (come on, rock music is less than 100 years old), bands played at their local high school, then maybe the local club circuit, recorded a demo and sent off demo tapes, and finally if they were lucky they were ‘discovered’ by a record exec and signed to a record deal.

In the digital age, aspiring rock stars need to consider the social media and marketing skills of potential band mates as much as they scrutinize their skill with a particular musical instrument. In the digital age your skills with YouTube are almost more likely to make you a rock star then your skills with a guitar.

Just look at Pomplamoose – nearly 80 million video views and 340,000 subscribers. They have more YouTube subscribers than mega-stars Coldplay.

If we look at a new song as an invention and at my Innovation is All About Value framework through a music lens, you will quickly see why social media and creativity are so important in the music business and why new singers and bands can seemingly come from nowhere on the Internet.

1. Value Creation

  • A new song (Is the song any good?)

2. Value Access

  • How easy do you make it for people to find this new song, listen to it and buy it?

3. Value Translation

  • Do you do a good job of making people want to add the song to their playlists and to share the song with others? Do you engage them and make the song a part of them?

The power of #3 is magnified on the Internet (both if you do it well or poorly). Just look at the fact that Gotye created an AWESOME song ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ and the video for it has received 600,000 page views, but a little known Canadian band Walk Off The Earth released a YouTube video covering the song and their cover has generated 83 million page views and an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Why?

More passion, and a better, more engaging story (ultimately better value translation that was worth sharing).

So all you teenyboppers out there putting together the next great rock band, beware. In this new digital reality we all live in, you can’t think just about guitar, vocals, bass, drums, and keyboards. You must also think about who in the band you are considering putting together (unless you actually have money to pay someone) will make you look awesome on:

1. YouTube
2. MySpace Music
3. Twitter
4. Facebook
5. Band Web Site
6. Other places (Spotify, iTunes, etc.)

Yes, I said MySpace. The site remains incredibly relevant despite being eclipsed by Facebook thanks to its understanding of how to help bands create valuable pages for fans. Facebook still sucks at this. If I were Google and didn’t want Google+ to die a slow death, I would buy MySpace and incorporate the Music capabilities into Google+. It would make a great pairing with YouTube. They might want to buy Spotify while they are at it to bolster their unfortunately pathetic Google Play offering.

One other interesting contrast to draw between the successful bands spawned by YouTube versus the successful bands spawned by the old guard. YouTube successes tend to be very human and engaging in their approach, while old guard bands tend to be very aloof, distant, and well-packaged.

What kind of musical band and social media band will you be?

Here are the two different ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ videos, starting with the original by Gotye:

Followed by the Walk Off the Earth cover:

Image Credit: Foxhound Studio

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Inspiring Innovation

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GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

From small startups to world leadership organizations, innovation is a must for business to thrive and perpetuate.

How can your organization inspire innovation?

With long-term commitment to progress of the process, leaders must drive the journey from start through finish. Clearly-defined expectations towards the progress, as well as a definitive end-result are imperative elements involved. As a leader, one must inspire and drive the team. Regular meetings and dedication to touching on progress week-by-week are mandatory, and a clearly-outlined definition of the desired culture of the company helps each member of an organization understand innovative patterns, inspiring them to work together towards the success of innovation.

As a perfect and current example, the Fifth Annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Meeting attracted top CEOs and world leaders this week in New York; this year’s theme heavily focusing on innovation as a top priority and driver towards worldwide economic recovery and growth. Setting the tone, President Barack Obama opened on Tuesday with a speech, mentioning:

“We need new businesses to unleash new innovations. We need new collaborations to advance prosperity.”

Those words were spoken just a day following the White House’s release of a that outlined a .

Founded as a nonprofit, nonpartisan sector of the William J. Clinton Foundation, this year’s organization event held 960 guests from 84 countries. The key themes included harnessing innovation, strengthening infrastructure, building human capital, and financing an equitable future. Climate change, women’s rights, and health care are some of the topics guests were to assess in brainstorming targeted and profitable ways to improve each situation.

A panel on “Approaches to Innovation” was moderated by a BusinessWeek editor, and organized by John Kao, founder of the Institute of Large Scale Innovation at consultancy Deloitte offered an “innovation boot camp” to attendees. Kao stated that Innovation is “not just creativity. It is specifically about creativity that has value.”

When Inspiring Innovation, key elements in defining the desired culture within your organization and perpetuating Innovation within your organization include:

Understanding the goal and what it will take to reach it. Whether it’s a new product per year or a dollar amount in sales, setting goals and knowing what it will take to reach it helps your company plan out the resources and budgets needed. Identifying key players and leaders within your organization is crucial to building your innovation team, as their roles and attitudes will trickle down and affect their teams as well, and your leaders can make or break the innovation process.

As a leader, you must create motivation and proactively push for a successful Innovation program. Leadership by example creates both material and emotional support for your team to push towards the goal. Stay simple and focused on constant communication in regards to Innovation visions. Allow for open communication to be a two-way street and knock down barriers keeping silos apart by creating teams that are cross functional amongst departments that don’t usually interact. In doing so, creativity, cooperation and change will remain at an all-time high.

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