Fifteen Minutes of Promotion

                     

The buzz throughout the Manilow world is all about Barry’s new CD, Fifteen Minutes. According to a recent hotline, a listening party for the CD was held. Attendees were employees and friends of Barry’s. Not quite an objective audience so the comments included in the hotline about the project were, not surprising, praising the CD. A week or so earlier, Garry Kief, Barry’s manager, asked on his Facebook page for ideas from the fans for promotion of Fifteen Minutes. Was this listening party an off shot of the ideas fans put forth? If so, it seems the Manilow team needs to make-up its mind about what audience they want to market the CD to and then embrace that audience.

Most of the suggestions made by fans had the marketing of the CD aimed at Barry’s loyal fan base. Just a few people thought outside of the box, away from the fans. Fans tend to think of themselves as being a big group. Maybe Barry’s base is large as fan bases goes but it must be remembered that Barry’s loyal fans are a sure thing when it comes to buying his CDs. Especially since this is a CD of original music. That’s something Manilow fans haven’t had since the 2001 Here at the Mayflower. Promotion should be aimed at a wider audience. Who is this wider audience?

If the Manilow team wants to target a younger audience then an up-to date method must be utilized. That means going viral. In the past Stiletto has pulled clips posted on YouTube and Daily Motion without their permission, which would be all the Manilow clips on the sites. Going back to embracing the audience, these tools would have to be used to attract younger listeners. This is how promotion is done nowadays. Fifteen Minutes is said to be a concept CD that tells a story. Barry has said in interviews that the CD tells the story of the handling of fame by a young person. That’s an interesting as well as a relevant storyline. Tell the story.

Copyright is a concern. At some point a decision has to be made: is Fifteen Minutes only going to be sold to the fans or should it be marketed to a larger audience? Viral is what creates a buzz in the music industry at this point in time. Other sites besides YouTube could be used maybe Podcasts of vignettes of the story with the music being the main focus. As bad as it sounds, it might be better if the music sold itself and the emphasis is off of Barry.

Reading the reviews of Barry’s Florida shows in January is a good example of why the emphasis should be on the music. Some people can’t get past the Barry of the 1970s or certain personal issues to give the music a fair chance. Making videos of the songs would get people emotionally involved with the music and lyricists. How many times do people hear a song and say, “oh, I love that song!” but never add the name the performer? Not many. It’s the music that draws people so let the music do the selling.

Then the question comes to mind, how feasible are any of the suggestions the fans made? Things like using Manilow TV or doing concerts for the fans sound like great ideas to the fans but are they doable? I have no idea. I think reaching out to a wider audience than the fans is the best way but I could be wrong. This is not an area I know anything about. My daughter-in-law knows about this stuff- she works in marketing for a record label. Hey, there’s a good suggestion, listen to the people who do marketing for a living, even if they want to step out of Barry’s comfort zone.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what type of promotion is used for Fifteen Minutes. It’ll be interesting to see if any of the fan suggestions are used. As for me, I don’t need to be sold. I already plan to buy the CD. Can’t wait. What I’d like to see happen is my friends and co-workers wanting to go out and buy Fifteen Minutes. I hope someone comes up with a way to make that happen.

Barry Speaks from the Heart

Barry was on the Anderson Cooper AIDS special on CNN a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I don’t go to the right places in the Manilow fan world but I saw very little, if anything written or discussed about this Barry appearance. Granted, Barry’s screen time was very brief: he was on right before a commercial to answer a question that was asked to quite a few celebrities who appeared in the same fashion Barry did. The question was along the lines about when AIDS really came to mean something in the life of the person. Barry chose to speak about Elizabeth Taylor. He related Taylor calling him to ask him to perform at one of her AIDS benefits for the first time.

Time has passed. Elizabeth Taylor asking Barry Manilow to appear at an AIDS benefit seems like nothing today but back in the 1980s, this request was a very big favor to ask of a performer. People today may not be aware of how courageous Elizabeth Taylor was in not only raising money for the AIDS cause but also speaking out about AIDS in public. At the time Taylor started her AIDS work little was known about the disease. A stigma was attached to anything connected with AIDS. Elizabeth Taylor ignored what the public would think. She saw a need from not just a private point of view but from a very public point that she could fill. Taylor forged a path for others to follow. Barry was one of those people who followed Taylor’s lead. She probably changed a lot of people in the public’s eye perception of what they could do to help with the AIDS crisis.

Seeing the respect Elizabeth Taylor gained in her public crusade to raise awareness and money gave performers like Barry the comfort to publicly support the AIDS cause. Over the years Barry has appeared at many AIDS events. He has helped raised large sums of money for the AIDS cause. Talking about Elizabeth Taylor took the spotlight off Barry and allowed it to shine on a person Barry thinks deserves credit for leading the way in the AIDS fight. In the short time Barry was on the Anderson Cooper AIDS special, he managed to convey a powerful message. At some point someone has to lead the way. Barry made us understand that Elizabeth Taylor showed him the way to do something about AIDS. Isn’t that usually the time when something means the most to us, when we find we can do something? This television appearance by Barry may rate right up there as one of my all time favorites. I’m glad I saw the show.

Privacy on the Internet?

Is there such a thing as privacy on the Internet? No. This past week there was a discussion on My Manilow Network about how a picture some lady took was posted on another site without her permission. She ranted about getting a lawyer and the whole thread turned into a name calling bash of alt. fan Barry Manilow. (While this person never came right out and said what group, it was pretty easy to figure out; everyone knew what group she was talking about.) This fan needs to do some research. Picture can’t be posted to alt. fan. It’s a binary group. Images can’t be posted there. All someone can do is post a link to a picture. She put her picture out there. That means she opened the door for anyone with the knowledge of right clicking a mouse access to her picture. How many times do people have to hear this before they believe it – once anything is posted on the Internet control is lost? Now this person is only going to post a link to her blog on MMN. She also isn’t going to allow comments. Next time you have a picture you don’t want retrieved by anyone, don’t post it. That’s the only way to avoid the problem.

Another privacy issue concerns MMN. It is now a “closed” website. MMN can only be seen by individuals whose passwords allows them to log in. Don’t confuse “closed” with “private.” “Closed” means the site is passworded. That doesn’t mean members can’t take posts off the site and post them on other sites. That is happening all the time. Is it fair, or ethical? Who can say? It’s not good net etiquette but when has that stopped anything? MMN is no longer available for viewing by anyone surfing the web like alt. fan is but it is also not private. Why? Because, and I’ll say it yet again, there’s no such thing as privacy on the Internet.

Manilow Convention Thoughts

I did not go the BMIFC convention held last weekend in Vegas. BMIFC conventions are not my thing. Back when the conventions started, I really, really, really wanted to go. The first one sounded so great but I stayed home for an even better reason; I was giving birth to my second son. Over the years the desire to go to a BMIFC convention cooled. I was offered a gift of attending a few conventions by my sons when they got old enough to have jobs but I turned them down. It seemed too expensive for an event that had activities I had no interest in participating in. I have been to convention shows which were enjoyable.

All last weekend I read about the BMIFC convention online. Most, if not all, of what was written was by people who did not go to the convention. That was interesting; people critiquing an event they did not attend. Not only did these people not attend the convention most swore they wouldn’t be caught dead at a BMIFC convention. (To hear them tell about how TPTB feel about some of these people, dead is the only they’d be allowed at a BMIFC event.)

My take on the BMIFC convention goes likes this:

If you went and had a great time, I’m happy for you. That is what is important. When money is paid to do something the person who spent the money should be satisfied with what they got for their money.

If you went and were disappointed, don’t go next time. The disappointment will be avoided that way. Chalk it up to a learning experience.

If you didn’t go- shut-up about it. It doesn’t concern you. You chose not to go. (Well, to be fair, some people couldn’t afford to go. This isn’t the group doing all the complaining.) It’s a novel concept to some people in the Manilow world but try being happy for the people who enjoyed the convention. It’s way classier than tearing everything down. Try it sometime. And people wonder why stories, pictures and Platinum experiences aren’t shared among fans. Who wants their happy moments to be drug through the mud by other fans?

I hope everyone who went to the BMIFC convention brought home good memories of a wonderful time. That’s what’s it all about.

The Hijacking of a Manilow Blog

This past week I experienced just a tiny bit of what it must be like for Barry and other artists when their work is used without permission. My blog, the very one you are reading, was hijacked and a post from here put up on My Manilow Network. All this was done without my permission I might add. To give some background on what transpired:

The first of last week I got a friend request from someone over on MMN. Not only did this person want to be my friend, but she asked permission to post my Queen Bee blog on the network. She said, and I quote, “It’s time.” Besides having no idea who this person was, I had no clue what she meant when she said it was time to re-post that blog. Right then and there I made up my mind to deny both of her requests but I didn’t have time to reply at that time. I put off answering her until the next day.

Waiting was a mistake or maybe not. Anyway before I replied to her requests, I checked MMN. Can you guess how this plays out? Of course you can, the blog post was already posted. My suspicions are the blog was already posted when I was asked for permission to put it on MMN. The permission asking may have been an after thought triggered by a couple of people commenting on the fact that I wrote the piece.

See, I don’t post on that many places. Not because I don’t have anything to say, quite the contrary, I have tons to say. I’m just not into all the drama that comes with posting on the majority of Manilow sites. Every place, including the scarce newsgroup, has its own dramas. That’s not my cup of tea. The Internet is a very hard place to access what people are trying to express.

The printed word leaves out all the clues such as body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, etc. that are used in conversation to help people understand what is being said. Reading what someone writes on the Internet might not come across in the way the writer meant. So how is it determined which individuals like to cause the drama on Manilow or any other sites? (FYI, Manilow sites are not the only places where fans disagree. It happens all over.) History. That’s how drama queens are identified. The pattern of behavior is repeated over and over, no matter where they go, making it easy to know who is going to stir things up.

The woman who posted my blog on MMN, (did I say it was without my permission), I don’t know if she causes problems. I do know she caused me anguish by taking it upon herself to hijack my blog for her own personal use. I don’t participle enough on the network to know what is going on. I don’t even post by blog on MMN anymore. I post the title and a link to my blog on my page. That way people can make up their own mind if they want to go read it, or not. I did post when I saw my blog on MMN, because I wasn’t sure how people were reacting to the post. I wanted everyone to know I had nothing to do with the blog being posted or any part of any issue that was being addressed.

If this person felt so strongly about issues she felt needed to be addressed, then she should have expressed her feelings – not mine. Like I said at the first of this post, maybe this week I felt just a minuscule bit of what Barry feels when he sees his work, illegal videos of the shows or copyrighted material on the Internet without his consent. It’s a terrible jolt to come across something you created being used in a way you never intended it to be used. I understand that so much better now.

As I said, I rejected that friend request. I couldn’t see myself being friends with someone who would take such advantage of me. The decent thing to do would be to at least apologize to me. I haven’t heard from her as of this writing and I don’t expect I will. To finish off the hijacked blog story; after I posted about my unhappiness on MMN, I went out to dinner. I had great food and a wonderful time with good friends. By the time I returned home, my blog had been removed from MMN. By whom? I don’t know. I was glad it had been taken down.

Please, feel free to read my blog posts. I welcome that. Comments are welcomed too. Just when you are finished reading my blog, leave it right here on the Blogspot site. This is where I put it and until I decide otherwise, this is where I want my blog to stay.

Opportunity Knocks

I keep reading that Barry will be the last guest to appear on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. This appearance is being compared to Bette Midler’s performance as the last guest of Johnny Carson as he took his leave of The Tonight Show by some of the media. If this is true then Barry has been handed a golden opportunity. I hope he makes the most of this rare gift.

This appearance will be the one that will be written about in the books on the history of television, rating right up there Jack Parr walking out on The Tonight Show. Clips of this show will not only be shown in the days after the show airs but for years to come. Barry, being the showman that he is, knows that this appearance has turned into much more than just a gig to promote his new CD. No, this appearance will be an event watched by a much larger audience than normal. It is up to Barry to make the show even more special by what he chooses to perform.

What should Barry perform? I don’t know. I’m not good at that sort of thing. Barry is the one who has expertise to make that choice. A very rich resource Barry could use is his loyal fan base. The Internet makes it possible for Barry to ask for suggestions from his fans as what special song they think would make his Tonight Show appearance memorable. As an added bonus, think what great interview material asking his fans’ input could provide for the talk shows Barry will be doing to promote his new CD. The dramatic story of how Barry wanted to do something extraordinary for the last Conan’s Tonight Show and his fans helped him chose what that will be.

I’m happy that a great performer like Barry who knows how to make something memorable will be the last guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. I hope Barry closes this chapter of The Tonight Show history in a spectacular way.

Leaving the Building

It isn’t often that I get to write about my two favorite singers in the same blog post but thanks to a tweet by Garry Kief I get to do that very thing. December saw the end of Barry Manilow’s run at the Las Vegas Hilton, and to commemorate this event, his manager tweeted, “Elvis has left the building.”

Discussions on a few fan boards had some Manilow fans wondering if this tweet compared Barry and Elvis Presley. The Hilton is famous for the shows Elvis did there from 1969 until his death in 1977. At the end of each show Elvis did on the road, it was announced, “Elvis has left the building. Thank you and good night.” That was true. Elvis did no encore. He went straight off stage, into a waiting car, and was gone. After his death, the announcement came into popular usage. Was this a tweet that compared Barry to Elvis?

Not to brag but I am probably one of the few Manilow fans who could actually compare the two entertainers. I saw Elvis in concert around twenty-five time in the mid- 1970s. The Barry concerts I have seen are too numerous for me to count. Seeing concerts by both Barry and Elvis would put me in a good position to do a comparison.

I won’t do that. Both Elvis and Barry are great performers. They have different styles but both of them connect with their audience in a very special way. Sadly Elvis has left the building never to return. This is not the case with Barry. He is moving to a new gig at the Paris on the Vegas strip. Manilow fans can still enjoy Barry’s shows. As unbelievable as it is to me, the number of people who actually saw Elvis perform is rapidly shrinking.

Back to the question of if the Kief tweet was comparing Barry to Elvis. Personally, I think the tweet was just the use of a pop culture statement. It fit with Barry leaving the Hilton. My husband once asked my son the meaning of a post on Facebbook. His reply seems to sums up the meaning of the tweet about Elvis leaving the building – it’s only Facebook, or in this case. Twitter. Nothing more; nothing less. No hidden meaning. One good thing did come from this tweet; a few interesting conversations. That’s a good thing.