Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Daily Mantra:  Stump Removal

When your neighbor who does concrete work for a living offers to pull out your two largest juniper stumps with his Gehl skid loader tractor, you say “yes.”

Especially when all he asks in return is a six-pack of good beer.  And especially when the second stump is in so hard that the back wheels of the skid loader lift off the ground before the stump finally breaks loose.

(A six-pack is more than worth the 2-4 weeks of evenings it would have taken to remove those two stumps.)

Monday, March 26, 2007

The Album and Musical Revolution

I don’t remember the first album I ever owned, since it was almost certainly a kids album.  I don’t even remember which of the few records I’ve owned was my first, although I think it was Pet Shop Boys, bought halfsies with my sister (who, incidentally, introduced me to Dark Side of the Moon at the same time). My budget was cassette tape focused until I got into high school and college and discovered that CDs didn’t stretch out with massive replaying (my favorite tape at the time, Midnight Oil’s “Blue Sky Mining” album, finally stretched so much that I could hear the music going flat in my player).  But until recently, my purchases have always been album based.

Now, though, with the rise of iTunes and music file sharing, albums may be slowly dying off.  And while part of me actually sees this as a good thing, that feeling is bittersweet.

According to the article linked above, digital singles outsold album CDs for the first time last year.  And Aram Sinnreich, managing partner at media consulting firm Radar Research, says in the article that “Consumers are listening to play lists.... Consumers who have had iPods since they were in the single digits are going to increasingly gravitate toward artists who embrace that.”

Who among us hasn’t bought an album for one song only to discover that the one song was the only good song on the whole album?  Heck, my wife has at least one mix CD titled “Songs I Bought the Whole CD For,” and I could probably pull one or two together myself.  For listeners who have had this experience ten too many times, the (possibly) impending death of the album is probably a good thing.

Thankfully, however, there are people out there who disagree.  Again, the NYTimes article quotes unnamed music execs as saying “...fans of jazz, classical, opera and certain rock (bands like Radiohead and Tool) will demand album-length listening experiences for many years to come.” And those music execs are probably right - some genres will forever be album released.  But the opera and classical markets aren’t in the same league as rock or hip-hop.

Just like I’ve found CDs that sucked badly when compared to the original song I’d bought the album for, there have been albums that I bought for one song that I ended up loving for the other four amazing songs on the album that I never once heard played on the radio.  Add to that the fact that I’m a fan of epic rock and concept albums (The Moody Blues “Nights in White Satin” is a shorter example of this, but Rush’s Hemispheres and 2112, Pink Floyd’s The Wall and, more recently, American Idiot by Green Day are more representative), and I’m sitting here bemoaning all the opportunities I may not have to discover another “Calypso” (Suzanne Vega’s Solitude Standing album, bought for “Luka"), “God Shuffled His Feet” (Crash Test Dummies’ God Shuffled His Feet album, bought for “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmmm"), or “Grade 9” (Barenaked Ladies’ Gordon album, bought for “If I Had a Million Dollars").

In my case, I’ve had many more experiences where I bought a good album for one good song than experiences where I bought a crappy album for one good song. And so I’m going to miss the album if/when it fades into obscurity.

That being said, however, the supposedly impending death of the music album isn’t entirely a bad thing, for two main reasons.  First, the record lables and RIAA (and RIAA’s international equivalents) have built up their empires on the album, and if the album’s power declines, the music industry will lose a lot of its power at the same time.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s a very good thing. The music industry has been choking the life out of music for so long that killing the lables off wouldn’t bug me in the least.  The emerging realities of the new music industry (iTunes, Rhapsody, MySpace musician pages, etc.) are driving the music industry apoplectic, and it’s been fun to watch the RIAA thrash about trying to stuff multiple genies back into their respective bottles.

The second reason I think that the reduction of the album’s power is ok is that I believe the album-centric music industry has restricted the artistic expression of musicians.  When you have to release albums, when singles are frowned upon if not outright banned, musicians have significant pressure to avoid experimentation.  The only artists who can get away with it are the ones who can afford to have an album crash and burn commercially, which limits the experimentation to only the successful artists (artists like U2 or Barenaked Ladies).  The vast majority of musicians, the ones who have to put food on the table or replace the busted-down touring VW Microbus with the next album, lack the opportunity.

But if singles and digital distribution of music are the new reality, then artists can play around more.  If Green Day had wanted to make “American Idiot” four songs longer, or two shorter, then they could have, without having to worry about overflowing or not filling an 80-minute CD.  And if Assemblage23 had always wanted to do an R&B single but couldn’t afford to leave behind the electronic dance scene, then he could and release it as a single with a note that it was radically different than anything else he’d ever released.

Do I know that it’ll turn out this way?  Of course not - I expect that my music industry crystal ball is cloudier than most.  But the supposedly impending demise of the music album could release musicians one of the shackles that binds them.  I’m hopeful that this could be the start a musical revolution that will leave all of us who enjoy good music that much richer for it.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Daily Mantra: Anger

Hot anger uses you.  You use cold anger.

(Kudos to Orson Scott Card, who first introduced me to this idea in his amazing book, Ender’s Game.)

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

A Unique Shopping Experience

Shopping isn’t my thing.  I avoid the mall like the plague, only visiting when I have to because I’ve blown through a knee in my work pants, or the hem’s frayed to the point that it looks unprofessional, or when my shoes have fallen apart.  And even then, I go in, find what I need, and get out again.  Crisp, clean, efficient, and only when necessary.  Grocery shopping isn’t even my thing, but the sheer mundanity of it all makes it tolerable.  Of course, there are exceptions.  Specifically, I enjoy wandering gradually and browsing through music, book, and movie stores.  But shopping a well designed electronics store can be an experience just shy of heaven.

Which is why going shopping for my first iPod nano accessory at the 29th Street Apple Store yesterday was an epiphany, albeit one mixed up with an important cautionary tale.

My wife was kind enough to buy me an iPod nano for a combined Christmas/Birthday/Valentine’s Day gift this year, and I’ve been enjoying it thoroughly.  But the recent spate of fund raising on Colorado Public Radio had me wishing for a mini-jack to mini-jack cable so I could play my iPod through my car’s stereo auxiliary input jack, even after the fund raising ended.  So, money in pocket, I decided to run to the Apple Store in Boulder, CO and get myself the Belkin retractable mini-stereo cable.

When I walked into the store, I had to stop at the entrance I was so surprised by my initial impression.  First there was the sight lines - straight from the wide, open, glass front doors to the back of the store maybe 100 feet away.  Literally, there was nothing to obstruct my sight the entire way, unless you consider employees helping customers an obstruction.  That’s not to say that the store was empty in the middle - it wasn’t - but rather that the tables were low enough that they didn’t obstruct the airy, open feel, but high enough that the iPhone and iPod displays that were set on the first table were easily visible should you be interested in seeing them.  The tables were also set back a good 15-20 feet from the front door, giving gawking customers like me a chance to orient themselves in the store.

On the sides of the store were the computers and iPods.  The computers were set on the left side (looking from the entrance), and they were separated from each other by enough space that an entire family and an employee could gather around a single computer without crowding each other or crowding either adjacent computer.  The iPods were similarly arranged on the right side of the store, although they were only spaced to handle 2-3 people plus an employee.  The center tables had the Apple branded scanners, printers, and computer accessories, all set high enough to be comfortably usable as a table (more on that in a minute) and as a display surface for Apple’s wares.

Once I’d got over my initial shock, I saw a couple of wall racks that probably held the iPod accessories toward the back of the store, and I headed in.  On my way back, I realized that many of the people I’d figured were customers were actually Apple Store employees wearing simple Apple branded black T-shirts.  The first employee I came across was about 25% of the down the length of the store - no employees were lurking at the front door, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting potential customers as they came through the entrance.  Instead, they waited for me to ask for their help, which, being on a bit of a schedule, I did.

I asked the employee to direct me toward the wall chargers and similar iPod accessories, expecting that more people asked for something like a wall charger than for a mini-stereo jack, and he guided me back to the accessories.  When we got back there, he pulled a wall charger off the wall, put it in my hand, and proceeded to ask me if I needed anything else.  I said I was looking for a mini-stereo jack, and he directed my attention to the general area, asking if I knew what I needed.  Since I did know, when I saw the jack (and I saw it before I explained what I was looking for), I just reached out and pulled it off the shelf.

The employee asked me if I was going to be paying with a credit card, and I said sure, why?  That’s when I noticed that he had a hand-held wireless UPC scanner with a built-in credit card swiper in his hand.  He led me over to the closest table in the center of the store, where I put down the two boxes, and he scanned them, gave me a total, swiped my card, and asked me if I wanted a receipt emailed to me.  Wanting a receipt for my goods, I said sure, and he took my email.  He offered me a bag, and when I declined, he said have a nice day, and off I went.

It wasn’t until I was out the door that I really understood how thoroughly enjoyable my shopping experience had been, and that I’d actually bought a second accessory for my iPod, the wall charger, when all I’d really wanted was the mini-stereo cable.  Or, to use the terms my wife did after hearing this story, the Apple Store got me to pay 150% more money than I had intended.

Unobstructed sight lines and a clean, crisp, airy feel.  No pressure, friendly, and helpful salespeople.  A check-out system that is thoroughly easy and without lines.  All of these things are what I expect from small, high-end and speciality electronics retailers like the Bose stores or, in Colorado, ListenUp.  I don’t expect this from what is really a mass-market electronics supplier, even one as consumer and user-interface savvy as Apple.  I expected the Apple Store to be more like a Best Buy or a Circuit City than a Bose store, and I must admit to having been awed by how wrong I was.

If you know exactly what you need, a retailer like Best Buy or Circuit City or CompUSA is fine.  They’re crowded and their employees are usually useless except to direct you toward the general part of the store you need (and more often than not, they’re useless for even that mundane task).  But boutique electronics stores like Bose or ListenUp exist by word of mouth, professional reputation, and customer service, all things that the big-box electronics retailers skimp on because they cost too much money.  The Apple Store resides in a unique position between a true boutique retailer and a big-box store, yet the company has apparently bet on the boutique electronics store model as their way to make money.  If everyone going into an Apple Store comes out after spending more than they’d gone in to spend, then Apple made a smart bet.

Given how crowded most electronics stores are, I suspect that Apple will start setting the standard for electronics retailers.  Because, quite frankly, customer service and a friendly, inviting atmosphere work.  And Apple’s retail competitors had better take notice before Apple starts swiping too much of their market share.  Frankly, I hope they do adopt Apple’s retail model, because while it wouldn’t make me enjoy shopping more (I don’t like to part with my hard-earned money if I don’t absolutely have to), it would make what shopping I do much more tolerable.