Eggs + Music = Service

Egg timer cup sold by Urban Junkies. The best thing about it? The onslaught of sales buzz phrases on the site:

• "The perfect eggs beautifully presented... "
• "The coolest egg timer and egg cup for every egg head!"
• "...this sophisticated piece of art will impress anytime whether you like your eggs soft or hard."
• "The most beautiful egg cup ever designed combined with the best egg timer on the market. A lovely present for that special someone who has everything."
• "The eggcup & timer comes in a beautiful box making a perfect gift."

And for an extra £2.79 for the "Silver Giftbag, Tag, and Bow." I'm sure it's well worth it.












This morning, I read Bob Lefsetz's latest post commenting on a NY Times article about the tour industry.

In the post, Lefsetz pointed out that "...ticket sales are off 5.6%, but the shortfall was made up by a concomitant 5.9% rise in ticket prices." He goes on to conclude that the music business, especially the touring industry, is in trouble, and the only thing that can save it are new acts.

Bob, I agree with you, but while we spend time patiently developing new artists - not the one-hit wonders but the serious career acts, there's got to be things that can be done in the meantime, for the few worthwhile acts whose careers are NOW.

Last night after a crepe dinner, I found myself in Pendragon Books, flipping through the hardcover of Sway.

If you check out the preview on Sway's website, you'll read what I read last night, about how in his study of eggs and OJ, former USDA researcher Daniel Putler illuminated that "[f]or no apparent logical reason, we overreact to perceived losses."

It turns out that, when it comes to price increases, egg buyers are a sensitive bunch. If you reduce the price of eggs, consumers buy a little more. But when the price of eggs rises, they cut back their consumption by two and a half times.

If asymmetry works the same way in music as in the grocery store, then as prices continue to increase, then consumer demand will exponentially decrease.

Without reading the book, I tried to draw some more conclusions from the Sway Blog. Thanks to Matthew Weathers' blog, I learned about the Fake Restaurant experiment, and I think some lessons can be applied to bring the music consumer back to the table.

First of all, I would rather think that a major reason why the Fake Restaurant experiment worked was not just irrational behavior on the part of the consumer, but because of the customer service that they experienced. They weren't just paying $14 for the burger, but for the experience, the aesthetic, the attention, the SERVICE.

Speaking of egg-related intervals, check out the One-Minute Entrepreneur, where you'll read about LEGENDARY customer service. That's what we need - to give fans an overall experience, whether related to the performance of a major label act, or a grassroots DIY artist, that compels them to rave about it, and drag everyone they know to the next performance.

/mz