Music is marketing

I wanted to share a pretty insightful and passionate piece of editorial from Jon Pareles of The New York Times. I worked with Jon a couple of times while in the music industry and remember him as a good dude. I like him even more after reading his probing story into the increasing use of marketing in music promotion, which closes with the following;

Perhaps it’s too 20th century to hope that music could stay exempt from multitasking, or that the constant insinuation of marketing into every moment of consciousness would stop when a song begins. But for the moment I’d suggest individual resistance. Put on a song with no commercial attachments. Turn it up. Close your eyes. And listen.

I feel like too many bands are putting the almighty publicity before the unsightly creative process. It's something I've seen first hand recently and I realize this is coming a career publicist... I'm not immune to the irony. Regardless, read the whole piece here.

TED prize winner and photojournalist breaks global news story visually

James Nachtwey is a photojournalist who won a TED prize to help him demonstrate the power of visuals. The TED prize offers "one wish the change the world" and for James, that means

“I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it, in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.”

The TED site also teases

James Nachtwey is preparing to reveal his photographs, which highlight a shocking and underreported global crisis. Over the past 18 months, the TED community have been working with James to gain access to locations he wished to photograph, and to prepare spectacular plans for unveiling these pictures.

So they've created the above embeddable link and the news story will go live on Friday. Check back here then.