
Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network - blasdel
http://www.kempa.com/2010/01/04/absolutely-surreal-excerpt-from-a-new-yorker-profile-of-vampire-weekend/
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kilian
The way I see it, this is just an entrepreneur being very passionate about his
product, and some too-cool-for-school kids make jokes about it.

I submitted the (full) source article to HN a couple of hours ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034444>

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mbbean
The journo's point wasn't about the pitch, the site itself or a "too cool for
school" reaction from VW, it's about the band staring their own future in the
face.

Blink-182 was a massively (far more so than VW) successful act, yet one of the
members of the band is now hawking a web site instead of making music. It's an
anecdote about the state of the industry and how that affects those currently
caught in the machine.

[I can't imagine why he would even pitch to the artists in the first place;
for an act of that size, that's the management, label and booking agent's
territory.]

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skinnymuch
I think 'successful act' should be changed to 'profitable act'.

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mbbean
How do you define success in the music industry?

To me it means the following things: making a career out of playing music
(even just for the short term), being profitable both for yourself and your
label/team, being heard by a large amount of people (this includes touring and
sales) and getting mainstream radio/tv play. And managing to make more than
one record that gets at least a 50% positive critical response.

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weaksauce
I really like that he termed a website an "operating system." It's funny to
see what kind of weird stuff comes out of the mind of rock stars only
surrounded with yes men.

~~~
byrneseyeview
People refer to Facebook as an "operating system":

<http://www.redherring.com/Home/23046>

or

<http://www.google.com/search?q=facebook+operating+system>

~~~
teej
Maybe my experience has been skewed, but every person I know that has referred
to an entity as a web operating system has been full of shit.

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philk
All I can say is good on him for having a go, no matter how awkward it seemed.

Being successful means being willing to look like a weirdo from time to time.
I'm not seeing the smarmy reporter types achieving too much beyond saying
nasty things about someone who's actually trying.

~~~
Multiplayer
I can only imagine how difficult it is to pitch a product to someone who isn't
there to listen to a pitch while being filmed by two separate crews. It would
be really hard not to look like a dildo.

We've known for over a decade now since Napster that artists would need /
could get other revenue from online to make up for declining music sales.

It's cool that Tom is actually trying to participate in the changes rather
than just bitch about the state of the industry as 999/1000 of them do.

~~~
SwellJoe
_I can only imagine how difficult it is to pitch a product to someone who
isn't there to listen to a pitch while being filmed by two separate crews. It
would be really hard not to look like a dildo._

Which, to some people, would indicate that this might not be an appropriate
time to pitch.

Sometimes, pitching has negative value. Looking like a dorky salesman on video
is anti-marketing for a rock and roll related project, and cannot be good for
the project. It makes it look like just another "big business cashing in on
little guys" swindle, with the older bands now being on the side of big
business.

There is a right time to be a salesman. This wasn't it.

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callmeed
Regardless of DeLonge's bad pitch and VW's reaction, niche website tools are a
good business. That's what we do and we do well. Don't forget, that's #29 on
YC's startup ideas.

In a way, I see a lot of similarities to our industry (professional
photography). Both are creative industries that have been quite disrupted by
various technologies. Just about every well-known, experienced photographer
sells training material, photoshop actions, holds workshops at $1k a seat, or
lends their name to technology companies in exchange for money and/or free
services.

I imagine DeLonge isn't much different. I just hope he wasn't suckered into
investing his own money into someone else's idea. I also don't blame DeLonge
for pitching to VW (but I admit, the circumstances seemed awkward). In niches
like this, the more well-known bands you can get using your startup's product
the better. Heck, I would have offered it to them for free. But, then again,
I'm also a big VW fan.

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danbmil99
I had a band in the 80's. Never famous except locally. We played the same
clubs as They Might Be Giants.

In the 90's I had a startup that got some buzz. TMBG came and pitched us for
tour support. There was lots of "remember the good old times?" which frankly
was bs, we had some common fans but never really hung out or anything.

Bands are weird.

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seldo
This is the network he was plugging: <http://modlife.com/>

There are a lot of other sites in this space and I can't say this one stands
out as being particularly impressive.

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lancer383
Wow - that looks like Myspace 1.5. And not in a good way - this site is
confusing.

~~~
robryan
Looks about like what you'd imagine for something probably mostly guided by
non technology types, they are trying to be a content site similar to myspace.

I think for a site like this your much more likely to be successful if you can
be the only network people use. Most users of a site like this would probably
still have say a facebook. A myspace with good tech would have achieved this.

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Rd182
Ok some I'm a member of modlife.com specifically the angels and airwaves site.
And I have to say it is the perfect site for a dedicated fan, who enjoys
social networking online. It is a site for people to have a more intimate look
into the band members lives. We also get to hear insider news, have access to
presale tickets, get to participate in private sound check parties and get VIP
status at shows, we usually have live chat or webcam at least once a day with
one of the members, etc. I enjoy the site very much, because I am a loyal fan.

I dont think people should hate on the site, because it is cool that the guy
who used to sing about sex with dogs is trying to adapt to the changing times.
It a shame more bands won't have such an open mind.

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ianbishop
They showed up to interview him, as a west-coast artist, and instead walked
into a (rather sad) pitch for a music publishing network. It would be atone to
going to a party and seeing an agent and trying the agent pester them to
switch record labels or something. It was awkward because it was Tom DeLonge
who they respected too much to say 'what the fuck' half way through.

How can anyone see this as them being 'too-cool-for-school'?

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cmgarcia
I caught this story on AbsolutePunk this morning. Sounded terribly awkward,
but for every entrepreneurial success pitch there is sure to be one of these.

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rms
If anyone can get the rest of the article up I'd like to read it.

