It's like waiting in line to buy tickets for SPRINGSTEEN!
Tonight I stopped in at the Apple Store on the Third Street Promenade. I wanted to buy an extra FireWire cable for my iPod so I could leave the Dock attached to my desktop machine and wouldn't have to unplug the thing every time I wanted to charge the thin white duke away from my desktop.
And at the Apple Store at eight p.m. on a late summer Monday night it was clear. This was the RECORD STORE! This was TOWER RECORDS IN THE SEVENTIES!
I had two peeps along with me. I convinced them to enter the store by saying they could CHECK THEIR E-MAIL! Yes, every Mac in the joint is connected to the Net, at high speed. You can sit there doing your business UNINTERRUPTED! They WANT you to be there. They want you to soak up the RELIGION! The music business has succeeded in marginalizing indie retail, but I ask you...is there any RELIGION at Best Buy? No, music there is like a REFRIGERATOR! All static and inert. It doesn't live and breathe. Putting the screws to indie retail, favoring the big boxes, is one of the STUPIDEST THINGS the music business has ever done. Because, after all, you've got to buy your stuff SOMEWHERE!
But why in the hell are they concentrating on physical retail AT ALL!
In a couple of months, the iPod will have been on the market for three years. But, I've got to tell you, it's just hitting critical mass NOW! Oh, the early adopters like me were necessary to get the ball rolling, but now we've got MANIA! A kid without an iPod is a SOCIAL OUTCAST! But even MORE FASCINATING is the ADULTS! And it's not only their personal usage and satisfaction, there's an incredible element of EVANGELISM! These past twenty-fivers buy these little machines, start ripping CDs and listening through the earbuds and CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT! They tell EVERYBODY! God, there's not this kind of fervor for the acts that were at last night's lame VMAs!
And there's a TON of help. All blue-shirted. Busy, but willing to stop and answer questions.
And there's the famous Apple Store policy of having EVERYTHING on display and the ability to FUCK WITH EVERYTHING! Oh, we've got record stores with lame listening posts... Imagine if you picked up a CD out of the bin and it started PLAYING! THAT'S what the Apple Store is like.
And, it's BUSY! You feel the vibe. This is where it's HAPPENING!
Go to the record department at Best Buy...it's a GHOST LAND! As is Tower Records. The place is fucking EMPTY!
But here where the wares cost a FORTUNE more, you feel the mass of humanity. Not the UNWASHED mass, but the cutting edge mass. If you're in the Apple Store, you're COOL! The same way you were hanging out on the couch in Licorice Pizza back in 1975.
And, there's a NEW feature. A line to check out. One of those velvet rope affairs.
This is like having a checkout line at the MERCEDES-BENZ dealer. I mean can you sell that much of this high-priced equipment, can there be such demand that you have to WAIT IN LINE TO GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY???
This is what astounded me about Tower Sunset. You sometimes had to wait fifteen minutes to pay. But you were willing. Because this is where music LIVED!
Oh, we had this kind of excitement in the music business for a while. It was on the front page of "Newsweek". On TV constantly. It was called NAPSTER! But the fucking idiots running the major labels KILLED IT instead of MONETIZING IT! It seems they've got a DEATH WISH! P2P isn't killing the music business, demonizers like Zach Horowitz are!
And like hearing rumors your favorite band was going on tour, everybody in the Mac community has been excited. For on August 31st, at Macworld Paris, the company is SUPPOSED to introduce the new iMac.
Oh, on CNet they've got people THEORIZING what the computer is going to look like. There's SPY pictures on a French Website. There's a FRENZY! A frenzy ABSENT from the music business. This ain't street team mania, it's just MANIA!
And the presentation is not being broadcast live.
But, if you go to thinksecret.com, they've got somebody taking notes. Which are broadcast to the Website every handful of minutes, to be read by fans.
And I'm reading. And then...it's like fucking Genesis building to the encore. Back when Peter Gabriel was in the band. Yup, word comes down...THEY'VE CLOSED THE ONLINE APPLE STORE!
I raced there to see...
Yup, all the products are gone, there's just a yellow stickie saying "We'll be back soon." I just refreshed the page...THERE IT IS! The new iMac! It's almost three in the morning and I've got NO INTENTION OF GOING TO BED!
Turns out the spy photos were ACCURATE!
Wow, look at those prices! $1299 for a G5 processor and a 17" flat panel. And, that's about ALL THERE IS! As it says further down the page...THE DISPLAY IS THE COMPUTER! Apple DOES IT AGAIN!
The dinosaurs go on the road to rape us of our money, threatening that it will be the last time ever.
The new acts are phony.
Even Bono...his music isn't as good as the iPod. No, the iPod is THE BEATLES!
DON'T THINK THIS IS IRRELEVANT! THIS is what intrigues the customer. It's part theatre, part the future here today, it's ALL insanely great.
As for us, in the music business?
We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
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