I know it’s big on a lot of people’s lists, but if you are not friends & family or don’t have pre-IPO shares, please please PLEASE DO NOT BUY SHARES OF FACEBOOK STOCK.

I admire the company. I constantly read white papers drafted around their mind-blowing presentations. They are a super-smart crew with incredible vision & reach, and the site is personally a daily destination.

But as an investment, you’re best to steer clear until they can Read More…

There is so. much. MONEY. flowing around the world these days.

Instagram gets bought for $1 billion by Facebook!

Facebook opens with a $120 billion valuation on their first day as a publicly traded company!

Coachella 2012 grosses over $50 million!

Amanda Palmer raises Read More…

Getting ready for NARM, looking forward to seeing many digital / music peeps next week. Should you make it to town early (or happen to live in LA), I recommend spending a weekend day downtown — start your day with a trip to Caine’s Arcade, check out the Mike D-curated Transmission: AV Club at MOCA Geffen, grab some lunch in the adjacent Japantown / Chinatown / Olvera Street areas (or a French Dip at Philippe), and wrap the day by firing some rounds at LA Gun Club.

No kidding — clear your head before the conference kicks in, and get some inspiration from outside your normal space.

Watch the 11-minute video for Caine’s Arcade (above) and see how a good story and good storyTELLING garnered 3 million views and $200,000 in Read More…

Anybody catch this post from the LA Times yesterday?

The subject is nothing remarkable, just the 10,000th update from Coachella.

No, the subject is nothing special, but how the article was put together IS.

You see, 90% of the article’s content is pulled from other sources, using the platform Storify.

Storify is one of a handful of new platforms that lets reporters and bloggers easily tell and enhance their stories from all around the web, pulling content from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, flickr, Instagram, RSS, and others.

Storify hasn’t had their breakthrough moment. Yet. But look at their user base, and you see Read More…

So, after Facebook’s purchase of Instagram last week for a cool billion, does anyone need any more convincing that we are moving towards visual-based communications?

Anyway, Facebook. Timeline. What the f is going on? I didn’t want to say it in my email a couple weeks ago because I was unsure of the results after the changeover (and I have more than a couple friends that work at these places), but Facebook’s conversion to Timeline is KILLING traffic to Facebook apps.

What’s a band / club / store / station to do? Go back to square one, plain & simple — instead of putting all your energy into pimping out your Facebook profile, use your Facebook presence to Read More…

Hope you all had a relaxing holiday weekend, short & sweet this week — if you are looking for all the secrets to making it, regardless of whatever field you are in, then rent BEING ELMO. Immediately. All the twists & turns of achieving the American Dream are there — Work your ass off. Don’t be afraid to be called weird. Obsess over your craft. Pick great mentors. Don’t be afraid to change direction if things aren’t working. Understand that you WILL make mistakes and Read More…

Welcome to your new Facebook page! Like it or not, your entity’s presence on Facebook has now switched over to Timeline, and with it comes new rules and possibilities. And as much as we can all complain about Timeline making it much harder to read things in a linear manner (having to zig-zag to read anyone’s stuff), I’ll let you in on a little secret: Timeline isn‘t meant to be READ, it’s meant to be VIEWED.

Sure, you can add your entire history to Timeline if Read More…

One Direction debuted at #1 this past week with 176k albums sold, marking the return of boy bands in a big way. Awesome.

Seriously, we need acts like this to create new generations of music fans. Most of today’s big pop stars are so long in the tooth that we hear more from them via tabloids, reality shows, talent shows, and endorsements than we do from the radio. And that’s not good.

So yeah, to have a new crop of pop acts draw billions of dollars out of parents’ wallets? Bring it.

Glee, Idol, Bieber, Katy Perry, and the like have all Read More…

Hey Scott, who were your favorite bands at SXSW?

Well, I enjoyed Pepsi, Doritos, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Monster, Red Bull, Mountain Dew, Mello Yello, Neuro, Tito’s, Jack Daniel’s, Sailor Jerry’s, Captain Morgan, Purus, Peligroso, Miller Lite, MGD, Sam Adams, Honest Tea, Sweet Leaf Tea, Emergen-c, Marlboro, Read More…

SXSW — it’s here, and it’s insane as always. The rain actually made it all more bearable, since it kept a lot of people indoors instead of filling up the streets with lines outside every venue. The weather could seriously put a damper on live shows if the rain returns, so make sure you have as many contingencies in place as possible. Anybody that can flash-press branded rain ponchos has a chance at winning big.

This year is your usual mix of parties, wacky promotions, costumed characters, and tchotchke / food giveaways, edging towards the mainstream as even the Today Show tries to bribe the tech set with food trucks. But what has worked best so far is the very thing that worked for a consulting client of mine — Read More…