THE LEFSETZ LETTER: Song Of The Day

You can’t hear this track on MySpace. Oh, you can hear the demo.

When will these fucks realize that locks don’t work, that they’re

the antithesis of the Internet paradigm? That you have to make

everything AVAILABLE! You’ve got to lower barriers. Maybe, like

Google says, you have to know where in the food chain to charge.

Since you’ve ruined selling music, if you want to go into

management, owning the Sanctuary assets, you should realize in this

era of clutter you’ve got to give people the tools to spread the

word. And by refusing to put music on MySpace, you’re doing just

the opposite.

But it gets worse. If you go to the act’s site, you can only watch

60 seconds of the video. What, do they want us to BUY IT? Since MTV

airs no videos, why hold back?.

	Bob Lefsetz, Santa Monica-based industry legend, is the author of the e-mail newsletter, "The Lefsetz Letter". Famous for being beholden to no one, and speaking the truth, Lefsetz addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself. His intense brilliance captivates readers from Steven Tyler to Rick Nielsen to Bryan Adams to Quincy Jones to music business honchos like Michael Rapino, Randy Phillips, Don Ienner, Cliff Burnstein, Irving Azoff and Tom Freston. Never boring, always entertaining, Mr. Lefsetz's insights are fueled by his stint as an entertainment business attorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music's American division and consultancies to major labels. Bob has been a weekly contributor to CelebrityAccess and Encore since 2001, and we plan many more years of partnership with him. While we here at CelebrityAccess and Encore do not necessarily agree with all of Bob's opinions, we are proud to help share them with you.

Ah, that’s the English site. If you go to the U.S. site, both begin

on the same page, you can watch the video. Not that you can see it

on Yahoo if you’re running Safari. You’ve got to use Firefox And Doug Morris is worrying about incompatible DRM schemes? God,

he’s doing a great job of confusing the public all by his lonesome.

What the FUCK am I talking about?

Fire up your P2P app of choice. Don’t even watch the video, the

audio is so horrific. And when you SEE this guy, you won’t get it.

Search on James Morrison. "Wonderful World".

I know, I know, you’ve been into him for months.

I tried playing the CD. But where to begin? I needed radio to pick

out a track. And in the parking lot of Rite-Aid this afternoon,

just after firing up my Saabaru, this mellifluous number came

pouring out of the speakers, via Sirius’ Spectrum.

I’ve become immune to hype. Immune to press. Who is paying

attention? God, it’s so hard to get people’s attention anymore.

There’s no one you trust. As for the people who e-mailed me about

Mr. Morrison, with the unfortunate name of one of the greatest rock

and rollers of all time, they didn’t play dj, they didn’t pick out

a specific track.

There are certain records that are one listen, that you only have

to hear once to get. James Morrison’s "Wonderful World" is one of

these.

I’m sure at some point I’ll decipher the lyrics. But now I’m just

enraptured by the style, the changes. It sounds positively

seventies, with a big band. Horns, backup singers, a whole

CORNUCOPIA of players. And atop them all is this dude with a fresh

voice singing like he’s got not a care in the world, all that

matters is the music. How often do you hear a song that takes you

away instantly, that makes you forget your problems?

I could go on and on, but really you’ve just got to hear it. That’s

why I fired up MySpace, to make sure it was available there. After

all, I was going to clue tens of thousands of people in, I wanted

them to be able to hear it INSTANTLY! But they CAN’T! "Wonderful

World" isn’t ON MySpace. Oh, there’s a demo. But don’t listen to

that, this is a record, not a song.

His Website, www.jamesmorrisonmusic.com/, gave me the choice of

entering or going to the U.S. site. Haven’t we known to go to the

English site since the Beatles, ever since Capitol raped their

albums?

I’m hunting all over.

If you want to hear the song, go to Yahoo Music. But, use Firefox

if you’re on a Mac. But the effect is going to be ruined. I had a

whole movie in my mind. But the guy didn’t look like this, the

images didn’t look like this. It was dark, a nightclub. The singer

was older. He was wearing a suit, with a tie loose around his neck.

And long after dark his large band took the tiny stage, and when

they fired up he sang like his life depended on it, like this was

his only chance to close the audience.

And you’ll be closed as soon as you hear "Wonderful World".

Not that this is Top Forty-friendly. Not that this is even Hot AC-

friendly. This is the kind of music that needs to be sold word of

mouth, by baby boomers, like Norah Jones.

And you’ve got to give boomers help. They no longer listen to the

radio. THIS should be playing in Starbucks, not McCartney’s

substandard crap. Play "Wonderful World" and people will be looking

to the ceiling asking WHO IS THIS?