Record

“Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo

Two days ago I turned 33 1/3.  My joke was I must be some kind of a record.  Though I shared the hilarious quip with only my wife, I’m guessing her confused reaction would have been shared by many with whom I could have shared the genius comedy.  For those not in the know, 33 1/3 is the revolutions per minute at which LPs spin.  What’s an LP?  Long Play Record Album… you know, the things before tapes… tapes?… you know, the things before CDs… CDs?… you know, the things before iPods… iPods?… if you’re reading this in 2020, iPods have likely been replaced by surgically implanted audio devices of some sort, so iPods are the things before those.

But I digress.

In August of 2008 I developed an Internet entertainment channel with a group of businessmen.  The channel was designed to operate in much the same way as a television network by releasing programs according to a schedule.  For reasons too lengthy to explain here, it didn’t work.

Visions of hundreds of thousands of dollars rolling in was enough to keep me interested and striving to improve the ‘network.’  I still believe in the potential of earning that kind of money with Internet entertainment.  After all, College Humor, iJustine, and FRED are all making a handsome penny.

So why do others succeed where we failed?  They know their audience.  A messy battle of power, egos, and irrational condescension from one particular group under my power in the channel became the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.  I spent hours and days selflessly offering my services to them, asking for nothing in return, and they thanked me by lecturing with false accusations while themselves ‘secretly’ condemning everything I was producing for the channel.

Just like my 33 1/3 joke likely would be lost on many, the productions this group was bringing to the channel were geared toward an audience of themselves, 60 year-old-men.  That audience simply doesn’t exist on YouTube, at least not for entertainment.  So why bother creating content for a nonexistent audience?  That’s where the power struggle came and that’s where the abrasiveness and irrationality become too much to deal with for mere dollars a day.

Whether creating content for television, theater, Internet, or even home videos of your family, you have to have an acute awareness of your audience’s tastes and tendencies.  Yes, Mr. Cosby, I know you can’t please them all, but you might as well tailor your efforts for the majority.  In this industry, it’s the only chance you have.

Never before have I dealt with a group plagued by such stubbornness and self-righteous attitudes.  Their demeaning words and actions became a broken record, and nothing I said or did could change their already made up minds.  It takes a lot for me to swallow my pride and walk away from something before I have tried everything to make it a success.  Numa Network may very well succeed one day, but the awful treatment I received from a ridiculously egocentric group isn’t worth any sum of money.  I’d rather be appreciated and poor, than rich and abused.