Mark Likes Music

I got an email from Ragan's PR Daily today that pointed me to David Ogilvy's famous 10 tips on writing . Although he wrote these in 1982, Ogilvy concludes with a rule that everyone who uses e-mail should always follow: If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want. Or at least make a phone call. E-mail was once a nice tool to share information, faster than regular mail and more cheaply than a messenger. Today, it's a stage upon which co-workers can soliloquize and demonize (thanks to CC), and a quick and easy way to pass the buck. So, if you're really committed to solving a problem, if you really want to move things forward, take Ogilvy's advice. Get off your seat or pick up the phone and have a conversation.

Hypebot notes that albums on independent labels won half of the Grammys last night, and pointed to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and XL Recordings' Vampire Weekend as examples. But, as the Future of Music Coalition points out, independent artists need to rely on big-label distributors and partnerships to really move product--and gain the notoriety that leads to awards. Macklemore, for example, works with Alternative Distribution Alliance, owned by Warne r, and XL Recordings have a promotion and distribution deal with Sony's Columbia Records.

Back on New Year's Eve, USA Today published an op-ed by Wynton Marsalis and Harvard president Drew Faust on the importance of arts education: We need education that nurtures judgment as well as mastery, ethics and values as well as analysis. We need learning that will enable students to interpret complexity, to adapt, and to make sense of lives they never anticipated. We need a way of teaching that encourages them to develop understanding of those different from themselves, enabling constructive collaborations across national and cultural origins and identities. In other words, we need learning that incorporates what the arts teach us. This follows a spate of articles in the fall about how music can make you smarter and richer and this one back in December in The New York Times . 

It's been a while since I've posted, and it'll probably be a while yet before I get to putting something together. Stay tuned.

According to SoundScan, vinyl record sales are up 32% over last year, but the LP is hardly back, as Mashable recently declared . Total music sales--CD, digital download, and vinyl--were about 300 million units in 2013, and of those, only 6 million, or around 2%, were of the big, black disc variety.

You start following Al Jazeera, you retweet a couple of things on bombings in Lebanon , and this is what comes up as a promoted post on Twitter: I am neither single, nor a Muslim, and I plan on becoming neither any time soon. I'm not offended, but, wow, those algorithms can really let you down sometimes.