The Rich Get Richer

"The Crowding-Out Effect of Gargantuan Movies": http://nyti.ms/1g5UpE5

This has already happened in music, it's just that nobody wants to admit it.

A few superstar acts are making all the dough. The rest are blaming the internet and Spotify for decimating their financial careers.

But the truth is most people don't care.

Most people are lonely, disconnected, they want to belong, and therefore they partake of what's popular in order to have a basis of conversation.

In the information economy it's simple to ferret out what is a quality product. It happens in phones, it happens in social networks... Facebook succeeded not because of advertising, but because unlike MySpace it just worked, and therefore people gravitated to it and spread the word about it.

And that's the ultimate success, word of mouth. Which is why you can have a huge advertising campaign that results in a dud. Kinda like last year's Tom Petty release, definitely like this year's Keith Richards release. Incredible PR efforts with no one talking about the underlying product... And there's new product every week, so why should we spend time digging deeper on the mediocre?

That's right, unless you're going to put out incredible music, you're playing to your fans only, your audience isn't going to grow. Chances are, it's going to shrink, because people are constantly exposed to great new stuff, and they'd rather listen to that.

This is what the internet has wrought. With all information at our fingertips, it turns out we all want the same thing. You may think you're immune, but you too are using Google, Amazon, iPhone or Android. As for the faltering Twitter, it doesn't even have a competitor! That's right, the techies are smarter than the media companies, they know success lies not in reinventing the wheel, but in coming up with a whole new product.

So the tail is wagging the dog. And it hasn't been this way since the dawn of advertising. The consumer rules. You can make people aware, but with everything available instantly, with quality assessments easily accessible, and the ability to communicate with the world at your fingertips, it turns out the public is in control. And he who does not accede to this dictum is destined for death.

Kind of like the marginal cable TV channels. Kept alive by system payments. They never had large audiences, but now the systems themselves are in transition, because of cord-cutting. That's right, the public doesn't want to pay. And the truth is cable systems will end up fine, they're just switching to being internet providers. Even Jim Dolan, New York City's most hated man, knows this, Cablevision upgraded its internet to compete with FiOS. But artists cannot see that the game has changed.

The truth is we want very few movies. First they came for the indies, now they're coming for the studio pictures.

That's right, indie pics are failing at the box office and studios have ratcheted down their production. The Sundance whizzes have whiffed. It's about "Jurassic Park" and...

"Straight Outta Compton."

Feel good about the latter. Its success was unpredicted, at least at this large scale. Turns out the public adopted the N.W.A. story and spread the word.

And, just to make sure you're paying attention, just to confound you further, in an overly-noisy environment only that which is highly promoted/advertised has a chance! Virality is dead. There's just too much information. You need a head start. Major labels and studios are kings. But, most of what they purvey will flop too. Which is why studios and labels are putting out ever less product, and are fearful of taking a chance on something risky.

And next comes TV. There are 400 scripted shows. There won't be in the future.

But TV is expensive compared to music. But just because the barrier to entry is so low in music, that doesn't mean you will gain attention. It's easier than ever to play, it's harder than ever to get noticed.

This is not the way it was supposed to be. The internet was supposed to level the playing field, let the cream rise to the top. Allow everybody to begin from the same starting line and let the best man win.

Well, the starting lines are now staggered. Unless you have a head start, you're almost definitely going to fail. And when we reach the finish line... We'll find only a few men and women standing.

You can't tour because no one wants to see you, not because expenses are so high.

You're broke not because streaming services don't pay well, but because no one wants to listen to you.

You can't get ahead because you're not in bed with the usual suspect powers, with all their connections, not because your music isn't good enough. You need the A level manager, agent and label to push you.

You may be mad that everybody knows Bieber and Gomez, Perry and Swift, and not you. But the former are playing the game most people are paying attention to, everybody knows their name and not yours. And they're the beneficiaries of committees of the best people creating and pounding their product. Which you pooh-pooh, but the joke is on you.

You can play to your niche, there's nothing wrong with that.

But if you're gonna bitch...

"Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'"

Already changed, in fact. To bitch about pop, to rail against music by committee, to agitate against streaming payments, is a fruitless effort made by those not clued in. Wanna make change? First be a success. Wanna be a success? Create something as good as Max Martin does. Max not only made Taylor Swift an international pop phenomenon, he did the same for the Weeknd.

There are fewer new stars than ever before.

But that does not mean they will all sound the same forevermore.

Innovation works. We're looking for the new and different. "Straight Outta Compton" proves this.

But no review said "Compton" sucked. "Compton" had to vault a high bar. And once it did, its fans got the rest of America to go too.

We're in the midst of a great consolidation. You can either obey the new rules or get left behind.

It's your choice.


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