If older folk still buy music and younger people steal it, why did John Mayer sell almost twice as many albums the first week out as Bon Jovi?

This “oh snap!” moment brought to you by Bob Lefsetz.

Guys. People still buy music. And I would bet that young people, even the ones that download illegally, still buy more than the older folks. iTunes has sold well over a billion songs and I would guess that the majority of those sales went to people under 30.

It takes a lot more work and awareness than it used to in order to sell albums. John Mayer’s is one of my favorite Twitter accounts to follow. He’s clever, witty and he knows how to connect with his fans. He knows that Twitter is not where you do a sales pitch. But I would bet that a large portion of album sales for Battle Studies came from his Twitter followers, because he is constantly reminding them that he is there and that he’s worth paying attention to.

Bon Jovi on the other hand…

Live music, when done right, is life itself. Messy, with warts. You try to get it right, but no one’s life is perfection. You battle the mistakes.

There’s no ideal beauty. Even though actresses all plump their lips in pursuit of an elusive ideal. Hell, remake yourself until you lose your identity, like Jennifer Grey or Leeza Gibbons. What turns us on are your imperfections!

But I didn’t hear one imperfection tonight.

…

I saw better playing in Nashville in a bar than you see at most major shows. I felt it. Music isn’t dead, but the business is trying to kill it. You might think Ashlee Simpson doing a hoedown when the tape breaks on SNL is long in the past, but that mainstream game is not completely dead, unlike Ms. Simpson’s career.

(via Lefsetz Letter – Mika At The Palladium)

Lefsetz strikes again!

A live show is a unique thing. The music industry would die without them. It’s why a lot of die-hard fans collect bootlegs of shows. (I’ve got handfuls of bootlegs from bands I love; every one is amazing and unique and re-listenable.) If you turn the music into a repeat of yesterday’s show, the business of your band is going to be limited and, unless you’re spending a LOT of time in the studio making new stuff, it’s going to wither out and die. Maybe not now, but it’ll happen. It’s like living on a diet of corn syrup and MSG; it’ll kill you eventually.

I’d rather see a band screwing up, engaging with their audience and fighting with their own humanity in order to bring you the best show they can. It shows a dedication and love for the fans, the music and the passion that pushing a button on a computer will never be able to mimick.

In a world where there can be instant availability of all music, the major labels want to sell CDs. They’re afraid to piss off Wal-Mart, and they’re sacrificing their audience to other forms of media. The transition to digital distribution is wrenching. But you’ve got to see the opportunities. Believe me, if Spotify launched its free version in America, there’d be instant hysteria. Akin to the early days of Napster.

Don’t think Spotify doesn’t pay for the music. It does. It’s just banking on building a bigger business, willing to lose money now in order to make tons tomorrow. The music business is unwilling to risk, labels and publishers are desperately trying to keep their old creaky business model functioning. This is a recipe for death. We’re on the cusp of a golden age of music. The only people standing in the way are us.

(via Lefsetz Letter – More E-Books)

My girlfriend got me started reading the Lefsetz Letter a couple weeks ago and it’s already paying off in spades. This guy gets it, just like everybody else except, well… the guys running the music industry.

Every week I want an e-book reader more and more. Just reading about the Kindle makes me want to read more books.

For all-you-can-eat music, I’ve been using Rhapsody for years. It works well enough, but it isn’t ideal. I really can’t wait to see what Spotify has to offer when the stodgy old guys finally realize it isn’t going to kill their already-dying industry.

My girlfriend was a music business major. She has gone (and continues to go) to many seminars and panels on the current state of the industry. Almost every industry guest speaker that came in told her and her classmates, “Hey, we messed up the industry and we don’t know how to fix it, so it’s up to you guys to figure that out.” One time, after hearing maybe the tenth guest speaker say this, my girl stood up and said, “So why don’t you quit so we can have your job?” Tally one more on the “reasons I love this girl” board.