One really nice perk of a career in advertising is free music; record labels send out CD’s promoting tracks and artists hoping we will use them in commercials, thus launching their artists to a music-buying public. Every week, anywhere from four to ten CD’s arrive at my desk. Which is kinda great. This photograph showcases maybe four months worth of free music that I’ve collected in the trunk of my car with the intention to eventually give all of them a listen and find some cool new music. Because I know that somewhere in those thousands of tracks, I will find my next ten favorite songs ever.
However, finding those specific ten songs demands a lot of time. Sifting through these thousands of tracks will require more than a few hours–it will demand weeks. Once you fall behind on this, the task seems to grow exponentially. It’s kind of like subscribing to The New Yorker–you inevitably fall behind but you know the writing’s so good that can’t just toss them in the recycling bin. Which is the issue: with all of this raw product, the real value resides in the curation, not simply the ownership, of these assets.
This mirrors a fundamental challenge of the internet: while most of us share a tendency for collecting, few possess a natural propensity for archiving. The abundance of information and content means there’s always another post to read, another link to follow, another tweet to retweet.
Regarding the CD’s, my best solution–aside from arranging frequent long car trips–would be to enlist a trusted friend who knows music to tell me what tracks she thinks are great. Which is nothing other than recommendation marketing; the stock in trade of word-of-mouth advertising companies. The smart folks at Zocalo Group cite studies that show 92% of Americans rate WOM of friends, family, and others as the best source of ideas and information (up from 67% in 1997) and the #1 driver of technology or services purchase decisions.
In a crowded world thick with potential experiences and opportunities, making informed choices efficiently isn’t simply appealing, it’s essential. Because even when you get something for free, the time required to experience it commands a premium.
Conundrum? I recommend my approach. You NEED every recording in every format. I’m talking about this kind of action – digital file, compact disc, cassette, 8-track, reel-to-reel, 4 track radio station cart (for a certain kind of weirdo), wax / vinyl / LP / record (if possible in 78rpm, 45rpm, 33 1/3rpm versions on 7 inch, 10 inch and 12 inch formats. 16rpm records are too hard to find.)!!! I’m working on converting a mono copy of The Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed to Edison cylinder as I write this.
Right on!!!
ST5K
Guardian Brands – Like Oprah’s Book Club
Don’t worry about the rest of the tripe – here’s the really good shite.
c
1) Complaining about getting free music is bad form. Feel free to dump the contents of your trunk on my doorstep. I’m glad to volunteer to be your personal taste-tester and rip what you’ve got.
2) I now understand why the only songs that accompany commercials were written in 1969.
3) The key to keeping up with reading the NYer is to a) skip any article longer than 4 pages and probably the fiction, b) focus on the articles with the worst cartoons–those articles don’t need the help that the other ones do and c) remember there’s a deadline for entering the Caption Contest. Being unemployed also helps.