A Conversation with Jeff Black (continued)

PM: Let's talk a minute, if you would, about the podcast thing.

JB: Yeah, I'd love to.

PM: I've been hipped to it recently, but for the benefit of the readers who may not be aware even what the term actually refers to, let's just take it from the top.

JB: Okay.

PM: What the hell is it?

JB: Well, the podcast was something that was the brainchild of my lovely wife. [Kissy Black is a highly regarded music publicist.] She was reading an article about podcasting, and she said, "We've got to do this." It became another wonderful and very creative outlet. Once I found out a little bit more about it, I thought I couldn't think of a better way. It took me back to the days when I was just playing and throwing it out there in the universe. And that's what I'm doing now, except it's in the form of an audio file that people can download. So it's all those live shows that I didn't record before.

PM: Right.

JB: So now I document some of these things and share them with folks that like what I do, and also hopefully to turn on some people to my music that may have never heard it before. Then we got some attention from NPR back in August when they did a little piece on All Things Considered. And Melissa Block singled me out as being one of the pioneers, apparently.

PM: God bless her.

JB: Yeah, man. Last month I think we hit somewhere around 40,000 downloads of shows.

PM: Holy jeez!

JB: It's really been going crazy.

PM: 40,000 downloads. Okay. So you got to back up for me just a taste and explain the process of what we're talking about. So first of all, it's MP3 player or iPod related, right?

JB: Right. And the iPod thing is a little bit misleading, because you don't have to have an iPod to do it.

PM: You just have to have what?

JB: Well, any computer that's kind of made in the past couple years will have iTunes on it.

PM: Right. Just a computer with iTunes is all you need.

JB: Yeah.

PM: Okay. And then how do you find out that there's a show to download, and where do you go to get it?

JB: Well, let's just use iTunes, for example.

PM: Okay.

JB: I was a featured artist on there for a while, and right after the NPR thing we were in the Top 100 downloads of podcasts out of thousands. In iTunes, they have a section called Podcasts. You can click on that, you can search my name, or you can search "Black Tuesdays," the name of the show. Once you find that, there's a little button that says, "subscribe," and then you're done. And every week, once a week, when I throw the file up to a server, your program will go and find it.

PM: Wow.

JB: And so by the end of the day on Tuesday, whenever I have time to get it posted, hopefully by midnight on Tuesday, it comes up, and there it is. It's usually about a 30 minute show, rare takes and live cuts, and some new songs, and just whatever I feel like I want to put on there. And I put this stuff on there that I own the rights and the copyrights to it, so it's all tight in that regard. It's a very freeing experience.

PM: Now, if somebody wants to buy a tune on iTunes, they pay 99 cents.

JB: Right.

PM: If they want to subscribe to a Podcast or listen to a select show, do they pay to do that as well? And if so, what do they pay?

JB: It's free.

PM: That's the nice price.

JB: Yep, the price is right. It's very, very free.

PM: Now, do you find that after doing thousands, gobs of downloads, it's helping with album sales?

JB: Well, I think it is. I think it's helping with awareness about it all. I think it gets more people out to the live shows, which was harder and harder to do. Now I have more and more people come up and said, "Wow, we came out because we've subscribed to the Podcast and we love it." And also, it's worldwide, so the response, I think, again, especially from the UK--I'm really anxious to go over there and see what's going to become of all that.

PM: It's amazing how small the world is becoming. I mean, when I recently look over our mailing list for Puremusic, I was amazed by how many addresses were not in the States, but were in countries far flung. It's a small world now.

JB: Yeah, the internet, and especially downloading these tunes and stuff, the way it's happening now, it has made the world very small. [laughs]

PM: So if somebody wants to get a Jeff Black podcast, they check out "Black Tuesdays" or they just search your name?

JB: Yeah. And they can Google my name, and it comes up, and there you have it.

PM: Well, you mentioned her briefly, let's take a minute and talk about that fantastic wife of yours, Kissy Black.

JB: Yeah.

PM: What a fantastic stage name that would have been. She's not a singer or a writer herself, is she?

JB: She's a wonderful singer.

PM: See, I knew that.

JB: But she's not crazy about the politics. [laughs]

PM: Yeah, well, what's to like about those?

JB: Nothing. But she's a wonderful singer, very talented in every facet.

PM: Wow.

JB: She's certainly my muse, that's for sure.

PM: She seems amazing. And I know her more on the email than I do in person, but she's the kind of person who even in the email domain will make you feel like you're her friend.

JB: Oh, yeah. Well, she's just a very special human being that way. She has a wonderful light surrounding her.

PM: And you guys have kids?

JB: Yeah, we've got a couple little ones. Emerson and ZuZu. Emerson will be four in November--he was born on Thanksgiving Day, and he'll be on four on the 22nd of November. And then ZuZu was born on Christmas Day, and she'll be three on Christmas.

PM: Wow.  continue

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