By Josh Rabinowitz
How does one make an impact in music? For many folks like me, who were formally trained in music, impact is a calling.
Is it by:
- producing a hit song?
- mentoring young thirsty musical minds?
- discovering somebody gifted?
- devising a trend?
- being THE person behind the music?
- being the defiant one, the non-confrontational one, the visionary one, or the one who borrows, rhymes and steals?
- paying musicians so they can monetize their creativity?
At 18, I opined in my lofty HS yearbook quote: “To Achieve Music is to Achieve the Essence.”
In its “essence” music really is just a combination of rhythm, at times rhyme, melody, harmony and spirit – something that’s totally and utterly invisible, yet at times incredibly and visually profound. However, it has been an essential aspect of most everyone’s existence.
It is that ‘inter-subjective’ universal language that compels people to feel, forces people to connect, and commands people to squeal.
I’ve persistently tr-tr-tr-tried to sustain myself via music and correspondingly yield actual impact in the space.
My path has been scattered – making even a sliver of $ money being musical is kinda like winning the lottery.
I was a street musician, a public school teacher, a trombonist, a bandleader, a composer, a producer, a music-house and ad-agency producer, a columnist, a university professor, a public speaker, and a Music Director – a student of all and a mentor to some.
My main gig over the last 20+ years has been as a Big ad agency Music Person, which afforded me the ability to be musical; to creatively collaborate; to sonically persuade consumers; to pay out millions to musicians, creators, songwriters and producers; to become quite skilled at being a policemen of IP, a competent corporate politician, a bit of a rainmaker for my company and a manager to several young musically-inclined folks.
I believe I made some impact. I’ve produced over 10K tracks for media, and gazillions have heard my music.
It has been the best of times, at times, and conversely tough as hell, at others.
The best part has been dealing with musically inclined creative comrades in the space and mentoring, mentoring, mentoring.
The toughest part has been to be a harbinger of musicality in a business where music, although an important, alluring and sexy piece of the puzzle, isn’t the primary, secondary or even the tertiary offering of the traditional advertising concern.
Also tough–The Big Agency model is deeply challenged. Clients seem to be eschewing the Big and looking to the Boutique and/or to the Consultancy – scrappy, small enterprises who don’t need to bill out their employees at three or more times their salaries, nor require a client to pay for the full array of billable services such as strategic planning, production services, creativity, digital, social, business management, talent management, casting, post production, project management, account management, middle management, upper management, legal services, and, oh yeah, music services.
Additionally, ad music has, to a large extent, become devalued. Budgets have been battered. Data, Metadata and Playlists have become equally precious as taste.
The ad scene is too prickly for this music person to continue to make an impact or even attempt to ‘achieve the essence’ – thus it is time for me try something different.
As of December 31, I’ve left the Big agency world – wish me luck.
Goodbye to you!
Josh Rabinowitz has been a music leader at WPP for the past 20 years. He currently is an adjunct professor at The New School and a music consultant.
A TV as big as a bed? With the holidays approaching, stores stock more supersize sets
For some television viewers, size apparently does matter.
Forget the 65-inch TVs that were considered bigger than average a decade ago. In time for the holidays, manufacturers and retailers are rolling out more XXL screens measuring more than 8 feet across. That's wider than a standard three-seat sofa or a king-size bed.
Supersize televisions only accounted for 1.7% of revenue from all TV set sales in the U.S. during the first nine months of the year, according to market research firm Circana. But companies preparing for shoppers to go big for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa have reason to think the growing ultra category will be a bright spot in an otherwise tepid television market, according to analysts.
The 38.1 million televisions sold with a width of at least 97 inches between January and September represented a tenfold increase from the same period last year, Circana said. Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics chain, doubled the assortment of hefty TVs — the 19 models range in price from $2,000 to $25,000 — and introduced displays in roughly 70% of its stores.
"It's really taken off this year," Blake Hampton, Best Buy's senior vice president of merchandising, said.
Analysts credit the emerging demand to improved technology and much lower prices. So far this year, the average price for TVs spanning at least 97 inches was $3,113 compared to $6,662 last year, according to Circana. South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung introduced its first 98-inch TV in 2019 with a hefty price tag of $99,000; it now has four versions starting at $4,000, the company said.
Anthony Ash, a 42-year-old owner of a wood pallet and recycling business, recently bought a 98-inch Sony for his 14,000-square-foot house in... Read More