Showing posts with label The GRAMMY Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The GRAMMY Foundation. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
SRO
This is GRAMMY week. For me, in my final year as Chairman of The GRAMMY Foundation, I will be at a number of events this week where it will be standing room only, SRO. I always marvel at the number of people who want to attend The GRAMMYs. The demand is high. Behind this interest is a love of music.
Wouldn't it be great if we could get our customers and consumers to desire our business at the same level? It's not impossible. If we know the loves of our customers/consumers and what they desire and why, then we might be able to have them clamoring for us.
If you think it can't be done, ask Apple what it feels like to launch a new product. It can be done.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
The Power of Availability, Part 1
I just returned from two days at GRAMMY Camp New York. As Chairman of the Board of the GRAMMY Foundation, I absolutely love going to GRAMMY Camp
and seeing the best of the best high schoolers pursuing their dreams of
making it in the music industry.
The New York GRAMMY Camp happens at Converse's Rubber Tracks Studio in Brooklyn. Converse donates the week of the studio's time and support to the GRAMMY Foundation. Having this availability to be in a state-of-the art studio is just amazing and so appreciated. What's even more amazing is that Converse makes this studio available to any musician and best of all they provide the studio for free, without any strings attached; Rubber Tracks Apply . When I tell people this they are taken back with Converse's generosity and just how cool it is that with this one gift of availability they are building deep loyalty and commitment with their consumers. One band that forever remembers the one time that they were able to record that one album because of Converse will wear Chuck Taylor's forever.
Availability of what we have to offer; be it space, knowledge, people, services, etc. are powerful, powerful consumer brand and loyalty building tools!
The New York GRAMMY Camp happens at Converse's Rubber Tracks Studio in Brooklyn. Converse donates the week of the studio's time and support to the GRAMMY Foundation. Having this availability to be in a state-of-the art studio is just amazing and so appreciated. What's even more amazing is that Converse makes this studio available to any musician and best of all they provide the studio for free, without any strings attached; Rubber Tracks Apply . When I tell people this they are taken back with Converse's generosity and just how cool it is that with this one gift of availability they are building deep loyalty and commitment with their consumers. One band that forever remembers the one time that they were able to record that one album because of Converse will wear Chuck Taylor's forever.
Availability of what we have to offer; be it space, knowledge, people, services, etc. are powerful, powerful consumer brand and loyalty building tools!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Kristen Madsen from The GRAMMY Foundation delivered...
...a most beautiful and eloquent speech about the importance of the arts, creativity and the wholeness that comes from digging and seeking for the full human experience.
From The GRAMMY Foundation's "CUE THE MUSIC" Event in LA on January 28, 2010:
At the 1939 Worlds Fair, when David Sarnoff, the founder of NBC introduced television, he clearly recognized the impact this new technology was poised to leverage. He said, “It is an art which shines like a torch of hope in a troubled world. It is a creative force which we must learn to utilize for the benefit of all mankind.”
In its public debut, this fledgling medium was introduced as an art form, a creative force. In that moment, it was bound together with its sister arts – endowed with a power that we in this room inherently understand, but to which so many others remain stubbornly tone-deaf.
The first people who truly understood the power of the arts were the ancient Greeks. They believed that the arts and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was the tool to understand the relationships between observable, external objects. The arts, on the other hand, could decipher the relationships between invisible, interior forces.
The arts can burrow into our hearts and unlock the puzzles they find there – in our interior selves. That exploration of what is life-sustaining inside all of us, while incredibly rewarding, requires great discipline and patience.
Today, we are surrounded by evidence that we are maddeningly willing to surrender to the seduction of sound bites and headlines.
Our capacity to dig deep is at risk of atrophying in a world where finding an opinion that matches our own is as simple as the click of a mouse.
We’ve allowed ourselves to become so mesmerized by the shiny penny of the mass quantities of everything available at any time, that we’ve forgotten that the volume itself is of no consequence – it’s merely a distraction.
Consider the very stark contrast between a carefully curated collection vs. the accumulations of a compulsive hoarder.
A single day spent diving deep is worth a lifetime skimming the surface.
And the velocity of change in our external environment – more relentless now than ever previously – also seem to be having an impact on our memories. Our ability to recall even our most immediate history – particularly if it is inconvenient or boring -- is itself becoming a thing of the past.
But of course, change will be our constant, if sometimes unwelcome, companion. In the words of my favorite tv character of the past decade, the philosopher/saloon owner Al Swearengen on HBO’s Deadwood, “Change aint’ lookin’ for friends. Change calls the tune we dance to.”
As we are being propelled along this journey, where the need to speed-communicate is apparently so urgent that we can’t even take time to type complete words much less sentences, remember that the arts are our best antidote to a “path of least resistance” life.
We may not be able to call our own tune. We can choose our favorite choreography. We should recalibrate our values to champion depth over breadth. We must celebrate the arts’ ability to give anchor to our memories and flight to our imaginations. Let’s all drink deep from that rich and nourishing well.
-Kristen Madsen
January 28, 2010
From The GRAMMY Foundation's "CUE THE MUSIC" Event in LA on January 28, 2010:
At the 1939 Worlds Fair, when David Sarnoff, the founder of NBC introduced television, he clearly recognized the impact this new technology was poised to leverage. He said, “It is an art which shines like a torch of hope in a troubled world. It is a creative force which we must learn to utilize for the benefit of all mankind.”
In its public debut, this fledgling medium was introduced as an art form, a creative force. In that moment, it was bound together with its sister arts – endowed with a power that we in this room inherently understand, but to which so many others remain stubbornly tone-deaf.
The first people who truly understood the power of the arts were the ancient Greeks. They believed that the arts and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was the tool to understand the relationships between observable, external objects. The arts, on the other hand, could decipher the relationships between invisible, interior forces.
The arts can burrow into our hearts and unlock the puzzles they find there – in our interior selves. That exploration of what is life-sustaining inside all of us, while incredibly rewarding, requires great discipline and patience.
Today, we are surrounded by evidence that we are maddeningly willing to surrender to the seduction of sound bites and headlines.
Our capacity to dig deep is at risk of atrophying in a world where finding an opinion that matches our own is as simple as the click of a mouse.
We’ve allowed ourselves to become so mesmerized by the shiny penny of the mass quantities of everything available at any time, that we’ve forgotten that the volume itself is of no consequence – it’s merely a distraction.
Consider the very stark contrast between a carefully curated collection vs. the accumulations of a compulsive hoarder.
A single day spent diving deep is worth a lifetime skimming the surface.
And the velocity of change in our external environment – more relentless now than ever previously – also seem to be having an impact on our memories. Our ability to recall even our most immediate history – particularly if it is inconvenient or boring -- is itself becoming a thing of the past.
But of course, change will be our constant, if sometimes unwelcome, companion. In the words of my favorite tv character of the past decade, the philosopher/saloon owner Al Swearengen on HBO’s Deadwood, “Change aint’ lookin’ for friends. Change calls the tune we dance to.”
As we are being propelled along this journey, where the need to speed-communicate is apparently so urgent that we can’t even take time to type complete words much less sentences, remember that the arts are our best antidote to a “path of least resistance” life.
We may not be able to call our own tune. We can choose our favorite choreography. We should recalibrate our values to champion depth over breadth. We must celebrate the arts’ ability to give anchor to our memories and flight to our imaginations. Let’s all drink deep from that rich and nourishing well.
-Kristen Madsen
January 28, 2010
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