• Ernie Ball
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  • Sterling by MusicMan

Laredo

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Oct 7, 2008
Messages
113
Location
Upstate, NY
Well Put..............

.................I work in Corporate America, and also have dealers going through internet marketing issues. I deal with Motorsports products, and am well aware of competing for the consumer's discretionary income. We are also losing our youth to a virtual world, rather than an outside activity. The real world, is no longer reality (in a way).................Glad to hear things like Guitar Hero are turning out to help the Music Industry, rather than hurt it! :D
 

MK Bass Weed

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Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Messages
829
Location
New York and Philadelphia
Thanks BP...your Blogs post are required reading for my music Biz class!

After looking at your 'vintage' photo...I thought what would YOU tell the YOU of the past..if you could hop in that Delorean, hope up to 88 miles per hour...

Show him the Bongo?

Great Blog.

M
 

bovinehost

Administrator
Joined
Jan 16, 2003
Messages
18,197
Location
Dall-Ass, TX
You always make me think in different ways, boss, and not a lot of people can do that. Thanks for taking the time. Know that it's appreciated.

Jack
 

Smallmouth_Bass

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Joined
Sep 25, 2007
Messages
1,761
Location
Montreal, Canada
I admire what you guys at EBMM have done in the last couple of years. The economy is down and you guys are still moving things forward with new and innovative products (specifically the Big Al and 25th).
 

Big Poppa

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Feb 9, 2005
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18,598
Location
Coachella & SLO, California
thanks so much I get the feeling that I have to do these and I have an idea and start typing and about twenty minutes later it ends up nothing like I thought I was going to write...stream of conscious zen psyco babble...I have a friend that reads them and he thought that I spent days on them.....
 

shakinbacon

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Feb 5, 2008
Messages
791
Hey there is a new addition to my blog thanks

Interesting read. I too have been pondering the state of the record company/music industry for the last several years. It definitely feels like the record companies have been fighting the inevitable: the fact that the distribution system for music dramatically changed with the internet and consumers no longer have to buy an album worth of filler tracks to get one song they want.

I often compare it to the typewriter industry - I can only imagine the marketing guys at Brother, Canon, etc scoffing at computers and word processing software in the early 80s. Sometimes technology comes along and changes the rules to the point where whole industries become irrelevant.

I don't think it is economic Darwinism... the bigger the company, the harder it is to change direction. Sony (as BP stated) is an excellent example. Somehow, as big as Apple is, they got it right.
 

Drmckool

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Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Messages
125
Location
Toronto, Ontario
upon further thought Ernie Ball seems to have an advantage over the recording industry. Your products can't be downloaded off of the internet for free (if i'm wrong someone tell me how to download a stingray).
 

tommixx

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Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
332
Location
Virginia
I posted this in the blog but I will post it here to...

WOW...As someone on the inside of the record business (as a recording engineer) I wish ALL of the record labels could have read this about 10 years ago. As you know the studio system has essentially disintegrated into a mush of half assed "producer studios" and assorted "Artist studios" and most of the most talented engineers who ever lived are either dead, dying, or bankrupt. I am appalled by the quality of recorded (in most cases but certainly not all) music that is being presented to the consumer today. There seems to be a prevailing "it is good enough" attitude out there that springs from the very problems you touch on here. I fight this nearly everyday and was just talking to an arranger over breakfast last night about it. I do not want to compromise my work ethic and endorse the attitude by allowing myself to "conform" to the norm....

THANK GOD you don't either! Thank you for that! Don't ever change, there are people out here who do get it and appreciate it!

Peace,

T
 

MrChedda

Active member
Joined
Sep 1, 2008
Messages
39
Location
Greensboro, North Carolina, United States
Thanks

Great blog post, thanks for sharing. It particularly hits home from my perspective; I'm not ashamed to say it, but I started playing Bass last year because I had such a good time with Guitar Hero/Rock Band. I'm 33, have no musical background whatsoever and hadn't played a single musical instrument in my life prior to last year. A buddy of mine got me hooked on Guitar Hero; after awhile, he asked, since we're spending so much time on the game, why don't we just do it for real.....

The rest is history. I own a couple of Music Man's, another name brand bass, and more gear than I currently know what to do with. If you'd have asked me 18 months ago if I'd be playing in a band and actually doing it for real, I would have called you crazy.

I'm a bass player today primarily because I first got introduced to Guitar Hero. I'm a Music Man customer because the instruments are fan-friggin-tastic, the customer service is phenomenal and I can't think of another company I purchase products from where the chief executive posts on an open forum and actually interacts with customers. That's pretty damn cool. It's a huge distinction between purchasing a product from someone you can actually interact with as opposed to a faceless Fortune 500 company.

I know I'm a little off topic, but for what it's worth....thanks. The time, money and effort spent on actively maintaining a forum, hosting events like BPL, directly responding to customer inquiries/requests, and most importantly making the highest quality products is greatly appreciated. It's the primary reason I spend all of my time with the Music Man products when I walk into a dealer...

Which reminds me....I finally got to play a Bongo on Friday for the first time. Must have.....
 

OldSchool Noob

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Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
224
Location
Minneapolis, MN
BP in his blog said:
... The Music Industry tried to put Sean Fanning (creator of napster) in jail when they should have hired him...talk about fighting your demographic....they litigated and legislated themselves into a pathetic state of non relevance.
This is the truest thing I've read this week.

If AOL had cut a deal with Napster for say, $29 per month with unlimited uploads/downloads and $12.95 a month for Limited downloads, they would own the whole enchilada today instead of being a joke that's about to be divested from Time.

Some folks just don't learn.
 

stretch80

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Joined
Dec 1, 2004
Messages
358
Location
massachusetts
Interesting to talk here about how games can help people become musicians.

On the forum, I'm just another knucklehead bassist, but in my other life, I'm a game designer, and I founded a company that pioneered the guitar-game idea back in the 90s. It was a wild ride - I got to make games with Aerosmith and the Who, and spend a ton of time in Japan -- we were bought by a Japanese game co. in 2000. The Boston Globe wrote an article about us last year that's pretty fun:

The unsung story of Quest for Fame - The Boston Globe

Anyway - we didn't get super rich but we did OK, and I have seen so many people who "get" what it means to play music from playing a game -- because it puts you in the shoes, so you understand that there's a guitar part and a bass part and they are different.

One of the reasons it's cool to play a MM bass is that this is such an entrepreneurial company, and thanks Sterling for sharing your thoughts.

Bert Snow
 

Big Poppa

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Feb 9, 2005
Messages
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Location
Coachella & SLO, California
Bert I brought back a game from japan in the 90's by konami and all the kids (brian and Scotty and their friends) loved it but it never went anywhere...I tried to get involved back then
 

stretch80

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Joined
Dec 1, 2004
Messages
358
Location
massachusetts
Cool, it was probably Beatmania, or I forget what their guitar variation was called. You were thinking ahead. Like you are with the 25th now.

We invented a lot of the underlying tech, and at that time all these games were big in Japan, but didn't catch on here. In 2000 we got several patents issued to us in Japan, and both Konami and Namco came to us to license the patents, and we engineered a bidding war and Namco ended up buying the company. No one thought that 5 years later the idea would finally catch on in the US!
 
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