Jay Mathes

Author: jaymathes

  • The Strange Tendency of History to Repeat

    @jaymathesmusic: Reading “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” right now. Why can’t we prevent history from repeating itself? Oh yeah, now I remember: politics.

    Clarification: I’m reading a translation, in English…  The picture to the left is a copy of the first edition.

    I’m only one hundred pages in to the book right now, but a lot of what I’ve read so far sounds vaguely familiar: Nazi Germany, Sudan, and the Trail of Tears all come to mind.

    I do have one, big clarification, though, on my tweet: I think there are occasions where the main reason countries do no intervene in preventing genocide is because they do not have the resources – financial or otherwise – to stop it. For all practical purposes, this was probably a big factor in WW2. Not most of Europe together could stop Nazi Germany, even though they wanted to.

    I think at the heart of this global problem is the fact that people inherently react to events with self preservation as the highest priority. I can bring this theory in to the practical: I love my son. Very much. But when he runs at me when I’m lying on the floor, full-speed, and I don’t see him until the last instant, my only reaction is to lift my arm, shielding my body from the blow, regardless of the consequences to him. Thank God I haven’t hurt him yet this way, but he has definitely lost his breath on a number of occasions.

    I’d just like to humbly conclude by saying that this is an area of great interest to me, and one that I know almost nothing about. I tend* to be a serious cynic when in comes politics, and the American political system, in particular, and this obviously affects my views here. I’m open to discovering the truth behind what I’m talking about – even if it means revising my entire view of the matter.

  • A Song is Not a Cookie

    I distinctly remember reading a book for a marketing class in college that referenced the start-up of some, well-known cookie manufacturer of today. That cookie company was started by one dude giving away cookies on public transit buses in whichever city he lived at that time. I could have sworn he did it in the city of Chicago. I’ve searched, but alas, cannot identify the company. Maybe it was all a dream… I’ll try to remember to dig out a couple of books and search for the company the old-fashioned way – by browsing my book collection.

    But here’s the deal: a song is not a cookie.

    When a dude wants to start a cookie company, he just might become successful by giving away his cookies for a month straight, and, assuming his cookies are fantastic, he might gather a long line of customers who seek to eat another one of those fantastic cookies – and pay for it – after that time.

    With artists, songwriters, record labels, and anybody else who relies on *recordings* for their income, you can’t, ultimately, just give them away for free. Why? Because once someone “tastes” (IE: downloads) your sound recording, the person never has to come back to you to get that same flavor – he already has it in his iTunes library. You’ve just given away your number one commodity, and users can re-create that listening experience without you now.

    I haven’t decided exactly what this epiphany means for me, my music, and the music Swiftly Running Records represents, but you bet I’m thinking about it – alot.

    If you think you’ve got a few good ideas to explain what I’m talking about, or if you’ve got other ideas about how to make sound recordings work for artists, please let me know. Or maybe I’m way off base…