I would have used this title on Mathew’s earlier post on YouTube’s bubble-icious IPO aspirations (honestly, a YouTube IPO? Why not just be honest with yourself and go spend it on liquor and gambling?), but he cuts right to the point of the latest scheme to sell music and cel minutes to the gullible and needy – listening to Rolling Stones concerts via your celphone. Indulge me for a moment with a reality-check as Mathew works himself up to the requisite level of gaping disbelief:
Yes, I would love to hear the Stones live without having to fly to Paris and pay $350 or whatever their tickets cost now. And yes, I know that the sound doesn’t come from some drunken groupie holding their phone up in the air but straight from the Stones’ soundboard, as BusinessWeek breathlessly informs us. But it’s still $2 for 7 freaking minutes — and it could easily be the 7 minutes when Keef forgets where he put his guitar, or when Charlie has to be taken backstage to refill his oxygen tanks.
But then, I still think that everything we need to know about marketing music we learned from The Grateful Dead.