I am the child of a successful writer and a librarian. To me, nothing beats the smell of a good book. Whether it is old and musty or fresh off the shelf, something about the smell of paper and ink and binding glue just makes the reader want to nestle in whatever cove they have available and have a warm, cozy read. Newspapers, magazines, books, each has a distinct smell and feel and tangible heaviness that reminds the brain that there is something to do. Present Tense, of cou

We’ve talked about this before: music has value. Potentially, a lot of value. And now, Apple is seizing their share. But Apple and its music industry partners have done far more this week than enable the launch of a new music streaming service. They offered the world some common-sense lessons on what strategic pricing means, how to do it without Big Data razzle dazzle, and how to explain it in basic jargon-free language. In doing so, they also went against a lot of convention

When Scott Borchetta walked on stage last week in Nashville to accept an award from the industry association MusicBiz, he had a message written on his suit sleeve which said “Music has value”. Yes, that message seems trivial and obvious. After all, you don’t see executives attend other industry conferences writing messages like “software has value” or “football has value” on their designer clothes. But when the American Idol mentor, who founded Big Machine Records and signed