"Abbey Road" is not my favorite Beatles album.
But "You Never Give Me Your Money" is my favorite track on it.
By 1969 the Beatles had ascended to the superstar status they deserved, far beyond competitors like the Rolling Stones, never mind the American groups. I know that sounds funny, after breaking on to the scene in 1964 the Fab Four never left it, but we expected them to. Bands were evanescent, one hit wonders ruled. Not only did the Beatles usher in credibility and longevity, they constantly pushed the envelope, we never knew where they were going, they were ahead of us, so different from today, when the same guy makes all the same tunes and we're supposed to think that Taylor Swift is a breakthrough and the country acts employ Les Pauls to play a facsimile of seventies rock and roll.
But then came the White Album.
The breakthrough was "Sgt. Pepper." But it had no hit singles. It was different, but almost a last step, where do you go from there?
To a double LP with no cover art.
Of course there was an episode in between, the ill-fated "Magical Mystery Tour," with its glorious first side and second side of hits which was an EP in the UK, but no one ever saw that as a regular album, it just filled the gap, at Christmas, a marketing exercise in the U.S.
But no one was prepared for the White Album. Which inaugurated the concept of double albums to our detriment, especially in the CD era, where one CD is the length of an old school double vinyl album. But the White Album was imperfect, an endless sprawl, a journey to the center of the mind of four heroes who were suddenly somewhat more because of the illustration of their rough edges. Everybody had a favorite cut off of the White Album, whether the bombastic, laughable "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" or "Rocky Raccoon" or the slowed-down, non-hit version of "Revolution" (who leaves the hit off the album, never mind include "Revolution 9," which we neither understood nor liked but listened to.) The White Album permeated the consciousness of America's youth, was the coda to the tumultuous year of 1968, and then came "Abbey Road."
We heard rumors the band was breaking up. But they were only that. There was no information pipeline. You could be the biggest star in the world and live in near-privacy. All we had were the records and the radio, our aural soundtrack on the go, before the Walkman, never mind the MP3.
We knew the release date, we had cars, we bought it when it came out and you heard "Abbey Road" everywhere. We sang "Come Together" in the school library, Gary Fialk tapping out the rhythm with his fingers on the table and then we were off. George Harrison's "Something" was the big hit, we were stunned the way "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" ended so abruptly, as if someone lifted the needle at the end of the first side.
But really it was all about the second side, the suite.
After "Here Comes The Sun," one of George Harrison's sweetest numbers, presaging his gigantic success with "All Things Must Pass" the following year.
The most famous song on the second side was "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," because of its obtuse lyrics and the fact that we already knew it, having been included on dearly-departed Joe Cocker's second LP in a similar arrangement.
After buying the LP the one I couldn't get over was "Polythene Pam," because of the aggressiveness and the intensity and the stereo effects going from ear to ear in my headphones.
At this late date one can argue that the most memorable song is "The End," with its endlessly repeated quote, "The love you take is equal to the love you make."
But forty-odd years later, the one I love best, the one that goes through my brain, is "You Never Give Me Your Money."
Maybe it's the piano intro, so honest and reflective. With the distorted guitar leavening the sound as it goes on. Remember when guitars were the essence of rock and roll, remember when we all lived for rock and roll?
"You never give me your money
You only give me your funny paper
And in the middle of negotiations you break down"
Now the problem with the Beatles is they've been overanalyzed, speak your personal truth and some scholar will come out of the woodwork and tell you your interpretation is wrong. But the truth is when we became indoctrinated by these tunes, we knew no backstory, all we had was our own reaction, and as Bob Dylan told us, this was the most important. And money was important in 1969, but it was not the religion it is today, it was a means to survival. Once you had enough you could get in your VW bus or stick out your thumb and set out across this great county of ours, go on an adventure, back when where you went and what you experienced was more important than what you accumulated.
"I never give you my number
I only give you my situation
And in the middle of investigation I break down"
Reluctance, obfuscation, the exact opposite of twenty first century living wherein everybody reveals everything all the time, where being overexposed is the essence of life. We say we're individuals, but really we're just parroting each other, looking to fit in.
"Out of college money spent
See no future pay no rent
All the money's gone, nowhere to go"
Ain't that a laugh.
Of course there are those who cannot get jobs living with mom and dad, but the truth is everybody today is a winner, at least in their own mind, on a path to victory. They're world-beaters. Reflection is taboo. But the "Graduate" had it right, graduation is depressing, what then, what to do, who to become? I was a ski bum. No one does that anymore, certainly not from an elite college. Everybody's on a fast track to nowhere, which is where we truly went, in search of self-discovery.
"But oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go
Oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go"
I just lost two gigs, nearly all my guaranteed income disappeared in a day. Frightening, not easy to recover from. But there's a creeping sense of freedom, I can be whoever I want to be. I'm not sure what that is, where I'm going, but a weight's been lifted from my shoulders, a role music played back before it was just aural grease riding alongside you as you danced together in a group.
But as poignant as the lyrics of "You Never Give Me Your Money" may be, it's the twists and turns of the ride that are infatuating.
It starts off so slow and dreamy, and then it starts to run, with a treated vocal, as if you exited the building and were running down the street with a smile on your face. There's that deep dive bass, holding down the enterprise, anchoring you to where you are, and then it's all thrown over in pursuit of exploration and fun, illustrating how we should live our lives.
And then there's that magic feeling, when it all stops and we all revel in the power of being fully present and alive, and that's what it's truly about, eyes wide open, hair blown back, taking it all in.
And if you do it right, you let go, go with the flow, it's truly like a dream. Pick up your bags, get in your car, get away from here, forge new friendships, have new experiences, live your life to the fullest, make the most of it.
And who knows if all good children go to heaven, all we know is that guitar alone makes us feel like we're surfing the stratosphere. The endlessly repeated hypnotic groove has us nodding our heads in agreement, we were along for the trip, we were all in it together, blazing trails at the tail end of the sixties.
And there you have it, the difference between yesterday and today. The evolution from possibility to disillusionment. The change from the military being the enemy to being embraced. The dissipation of hope.
No one gives you their money anymore.
If you're broke you're told to get off the couch and get it together, losers are not tolerated in America.
People beg on GoFundMe.
Bankers have all the money and we wonder how things have gone topsy-turvy.
And then we put on the Beatles and realize it doesn't have to be that way.
That's the power of art. That's why we gave them all of our money. That's why we still do. We want more of that magic feeling.
http://spoti.fi/1JxB8UT
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Thursday 24 December 2015
Wednesday 23 December 2015
The Beatles Streaming
There's a first mover advantage.
That's right, let Spotify stream your music early and you get a check or stock or both. Wait until the downside of the curve and you get bupkes.
So let this be a lesson to all of you Luddites out there, the best way to leave money on the table is to refuse to play, to refuse to embrace the future, to insist on the past trumping the future, and I've never known that to happen.
The Beatles could have been leaders. But now it's all about the cash, that's what moves the Fab Four. And this time their reluctance to take action is to their financial detriment.
This is big news, but not for the reason you think it is. I mean sure, it's a validation of streaming services, but you just had to use YouTube to know streaming was not only the future, but already here. But this is the first time it's not about now, but tomorrow. Yesterday and Today? No, Tomorrow Never Knows. But what we do know is that the Beatles are going to get paid every time someone listens to their music in the future. RSO may have released the "Sgt. Pepper" soundtrack and sold tonnage (and gotten tonnage returned), but how often have the Beatles been paid when their old vinyl records were spun? Or those eighties CDs? Never.
But now they will.
It's like getting a retirement account without opening one. And sure, the Beatles may be past Social Security age, but all the young acts who are often dumb will now be taken care of in their later years, not only by publishing rights, songs played on the radio, but by streams.
So the game is completely different.
I don't expect the media to do hosannas for more than a week, if that. We'll see the usual press releases about the number of tracks streamed, the percentage of the respective services' volume that was the Beatles, what that might be worth, but then crickets.
You see, once again, the music business is the canary in the coal mine, far advanced beyond not only movies, but news. The film business is Balkanized, you can't get everything in one place. Furthermore, try getting an accounting based on how many times people actually streamed your show on Netflix or Hulu. Hell, the deals themselves aren't even structured that way. In the film business it's all about now, in music it's all about tomorrow.
And every day the newspapers and news sites have to reinvent the wheel. Who wants yesterday's papers? Almost no one. Whereas if you write a classic tune, people want it forever.
Or do they?
We'll find out how long the Beatles' legacy lasts. Certainly longer than the rest of the classic rock titans. The twenty second century? The twenty third? It's amazing how greatness is plowed under, Steve Jobs is already in the rearview mirror. But John Lennon and George Harrison have been dead for a while and their influence is still being felt. That's the power of art. You may conceive it in an instant, execute it in an hour, but when done right, it lasts.
So where does this leave the rearguard?
We still don't know how popular the Adele album is. We can crunch streaming numbers and see the impact of everybody else's album, but... We might find out that "25" is not as popular as we think. It might hit streaming services and turn out to be a dud. We get real time statistics always, telling us what's being listened to and not. Major Lazer & DJ Snake had the most played track in Spotify history with "Lean On," but it's got a fraction of the traction in mainstream media that "25" has. It could be bigger, or almost equal.
The data generation is all about truth, about facts. And in the arts, it's hitting music first. Hype has already been decommissioned. That's why acts like Beyonce and Eric Church and so many more are putting out their albums with no advance buildup. Because they know it's irrelevant. The only thing that matters is if people listen.
It's a long road, well, in honor of the Beatles, let's call it a long WINDING road. It took fifteen years, but we've finally got solidification in the music sphere. Disruption is on hold. Piracy has been quelled. We're all on the same page. And this is a good thing.
Are there battles yet to be fought?
Of course. Publishing on Pandora. Accounting transparency.
But progress is being made. Kobalt is leading the charge on transparency and when the boomers retire and their children take over light will reign, because the younger generation does not believe in duplicity, but honesty. Let the best man win.
And let the best streaming service win.
Which one will do.
And before long, they will all be at CD/FLAC/high quality. All those bozos bitching about sound will shut up. As for Neil Young...he didn't get the memo, he who lives in the past is doomed to be a sideshow, if they get ink at all. Anybody want a Pono?
Haven't heard much about that one recently.
But Spotify's in the news.
And Rdio failed.
And Tidal will fail or be sold.
And Deezer's IPO was canceled.
We're on the verge of further consolidation.
But that's got nothing to do with music, that's all about business.
And Brian Epstein was one of the worst businessmen of all time. But he achieved the ultimate goal, he made the Beatles stars, the biggest of the modern era. To the point their moves still make headlines today, to the point that people still want to listen.
Will the world stream the catalog en masse tomorrow?
Not so much, no matter what anybody says.
But in the future, when you get a hankering for "A Hard Day's Night" or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or "Come Together" or...
It'll be just a click away.
They call that the on demand economy.
That's where we now live.
The Beatles know.
Do you?
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That's right, let Spotify stream your music early and you get a check or stock or both. Wait until the downside of the curve and you get bupkes.
So let this be a lesson to all of you Luddites out there, the best way to leave money on the table is to refuse to play, to refuse to embrace the future, to insist on the past trumping the future, and I've never known that to happen.
The Beatles could have been leaders. But now it's all about the cash, that's what moves the Fab Four. And this time their reluctance to take action is to their financial detriment.
This is big news, but not for the reason you think it is. I mean sure, it's a validation of streaming services, but you just had to use YouTube to know streaming was not only the future, but already here. But this is the first time it's not about now, but tomorrow. Yesterday and Today? No, Tomorrow Never Knows. But what we do know is that the Beatles are going to get paid every time someone listens to their music in the future. RSO may have released the "Sgt. Pepper" soundtrack and sold tonnage (and gotten tonnage returned), but how often have the Beatles been paid when their old vinyl records were spun? Or those eighties CDs? Never.
But now they will.
It's like getting a retirement account without opening one. And sure, the Beatles may be past Social Security age, but all the young acts who are often dumb will now be taken care of in their later years, not only by publishing rights, songs played on the radio, but by streams.
So the game is completely different.
I don't expect the media to do hosannas for more than a week, if that. We'll see the usual press releases about the number of tracks streamed, the percentage of the respective services' volume that was the Beatles, what that might be worth, but then crickets.
You see, once again, the music business is the canary in the coal mine, far advanced beyond not only movies, but news. The film business is Balkanized, you can't get everything in one place. Furthermore, try getting an accounting based on how many times people actually streamed your show on Netflix or Hulu. Hell, the deals themselves aren't even structured that way. In the film business it's all about now, in music it's all about tomorrow.
And every day the newspapers and news sites have to reinvent the wheel. Who wants yesterday's papers? Almost no one. Whereas if you write a classic tune, people want it forever.
Or do they?
We'll find out how long the Beatles' legacy lasts. Certainly longer than the rest of the classic rock titans. The twenty second century? The twenty third? It's amazing how greatness is plowed under, Steve Jobs is already in the rearview mirror. But John Lennon and George Harrison have been dead for a while and their influence is still being felt. That's the power of art. You may conceive it in an instant, execute it in an hour, but when done right, it lasts.
So where does this leave the rearguard?
We still don't know how popular the Adele album is. We can crunch streaming numbers and see the impact of everybody else's album, but... We might find out that "25" is not as popular as we think. It might hit streaming services and turn out to be a dud. We get real time statistics always, telling us what's being listened to and not. Major Lazer & DJ Snake had the most played track in Spotify history with "Lean On," but it's got a fraction of the traction in mainstream media that "25" has. It could be bigger, or almost equal.
The data generation is all about truth, about facts. And in the arts, it's hitting music first. Hype has already been decommissioned. That's why acts like Beyonce and Eric Church and so many more are putting out their albums with no advance buildup. Because they know it's irrelevant. The only thing that matters is if people listen.
It's a long road, well, in honor of the Beatles, let's call it a long WINDING road. It took fifteen years, but we've finally got solidification in the music sphere. Disruption is on hold. Piracy has been quelled. We're all on the same page. And this is a good thing.
Are there battles yet to be fought?
Of course. Publishing on Pandora. Accounting transparency.
But progress is being made. Kobalt is leading the charge on transparency and when the boomers retire and their children take over light will reign, because the younger generation does not believe in duplicity, but honesty. Let the best man win.
And let the best streaming service win.
Which one will do.
And before long, they will all be at CD/FLAC/high quality. All those bozos bitching about sound will shut up. As for Neil Young...he didn't get the memo, he who lives in the past is doomed to be a sideshow, if they get ink at all. Anybody want a Pono?
Haven't heard much about that one recently.
But Spotify's in the news.
And Rdio failed.
And Tidal will fail or be sold.
And Deezer's IPO was canceled.
We're on the verge of further consolidation.
But that's got nothing to do with music, that's all about business.
And Brian Epstein was one of the worst businessmen of all time. But he achieved the ultimate goal, he made the Beatles stars, the biggest of the modern era. To the point their moves still make headlines today, to the point that people still want to listen.
Will the world stream the catalog en masse tomorrow?
Not so much, no matter what anybody says.
But in the future, when you get a hankering for "A Hard Day's Night" or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or "Come Together" or...
It'll be just a click away.
They call that the on demand economy.
That's where we now live.
The Beatles know.
Do you?
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Monday 21 December 2015
What I Learned This Year
People make up their own facts, and if you call them on it they just double down. We live in a disinformation economy. The more data there is, the less we can come to a consensus.
Media will follow an irrelevant story if it makes them rich. Donald Trump has absolutely no chance of becoming President, never mind the GOP nominee, but major publications and talking heads can't stop talking about him because it brings in revenue.
One tragedy replaces another and everything runs together in a sea of iniquity.
Those up in arms the most are those least in danger.
Artists are two-faced. Taylor Swift can refuse to be on Spotify but is all over YouTube, what's up with that? Have the courage of your convictions Tay Tay.
Spotify is the devil. That's what the artists keep telling me.
Apple can screw up. The Watch is a joke and Apple Music is so bad it couldn't even distribute Swift's show properly, assuming you could find it to begin with. Steve Jobs was all about interface, making it simple, stupid. But it seems he came from a lost civilization that we may not revisit for millennia. Jobs was about eliminating options, now we've got so many choices, so much ability to customize, that not only do we not know how to use our devices/apps, we don't want to.
People gravitate to one winner. Hear anybody championing their Samsung Galaxy recently? Everybody's on an iPhone, with iMessage. And if you're about to send me hate mail telling me I'm wrong, I hope you like your low income no friends lifestyle, because all the winners are on the Apple platform, and you keep saying you want to win...
There's so much television to watch I view almost none of it. I stopped going to the movies long ago. And if you're not overscheduled, if you're not time-constrained, if you aren't overwhelmed with choice and obligation, you're dead.
They hate Obama because he's black.
We don't like outliers, those who raise their heads too high, we tear them down. Would Martin Shkreli have been arrested on securities fraud if he didn't raise the price of that drug so outrageously? Probably, but not this soon. Everybody wants to be rich and famous, Shkreli just got caught. If you've got money and are flaunting it, showing off, you're making a mistake. Hoard your winnings and hide. As for the Wu-Tang Clan selling its album to Shkreli..? That's the entertainment business in a nutshell, we don't care if you're a criminal, if you've got the cash, we're in business.
People are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore, but they're clueless as to the underlying facts of their condition. They just know they're unhappy and not doing as well as before.
College students think they're entitled to be insult free, that life should be as smooth and uneventful as their boomer parents told them it should be, in the car, driving to Dairy Queen after they got their trophy for landing in last place in the soccer league.
America laments every military fatality, but it tunes in on Sunday to see oversized gladiators bludgeon themselves to death.
Money is our religion. We play the lottery, donate to God and emulate and criticize those further up the economic ladder who keep telling us they earned it and are entitled to it.
You can't get a good ticket to a hot show at face value because the artists don't want you to. Ignore the double-talk, the truth is tickets to star attractions are underpriced and as long as they continue to be the public will blame Ticketmaster, the government will investigate scalpers, brokers will employ bots and nothing will change. You don't really want to know that a ticket to see Adele is worth a grand, do you?
Our mobile phones are our most valued possessions, they're the one thing we can't live without. It's all about connection and communication, but you think it's about money.
Style is bigger than music, everybody can be a star.
Abortion may be legal, but good luck trying to get one.
God will save us from global warming. Who cares if it's real or a fraud, the rapture is coming, despite the number of religious believers declining.
He who yells loudest gets listened to, because those who could contradict him are afraid of raising their head and appearing to be a blowhard. For everyone building a shrine to themselves on social media, no one risks being an outcast in service of the truth. Today's life is all about being a member of the club, the clique, where no contradiction is tolerated. America used to be the land of rugged individualists, today it's overrun with groupthink. Polls trump right and everybody's going where everybody else is. As for the punk outsiders complaining they're not getting notice...true believers challenging the status quo never complain, they just go on their merry way, sowing their seeds, waiting for the world to catch up with them.
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Media will follow an irrelevant story if it makes them rich. Donald Trump has absolutely no chance of becoming President, never mind the GOP nominee, but major publications and talking heads can't stop talking about him because it brings in revenue.
One tragedy replaces another and everything runs together in a sea of iniquity.
Those up in arms the most are those least in danger.
Artists are two-faced. Taylor Swift can refuse to be on Spotify but is all over YouTube, what's up with that? Have the courage of your convictions Tay Tay.
Spotify is the devil. That's what the artists keep telling me.
Apple can screw up. The Watch is a joke and Apple Music is so bad it couldn't even distribute Swift's show properly, assuming you could find it to begin with. Steve Jobs was all about interface, making it simple, stupid. But it seems he came from a lost civilization that we may not revisit for millennia. Jobs was about eliminating options, now we've got so many choices, so much ability to customize, that not only do we not know how to use our devices/apps, we don't want to.
People gravitate to one winner. Hear anybody championing their Samsung Galaxy recently? Everybody's on an iPhone, with iMessage. And if you're about to send me hate mail telling me I'm wrong, I hope you like your low income no friends lifestyle, because all the winners are on the Apple platform, and you keep saying you want to win...
There's so much television to watch I view almost none of it. I stopped going to the movies long ago. And if you're not overscheduled, if you're not time-constrained, if you aren't overwhelmed with choice and obligation, you're dead.
They hate Obama because he's black.
We don't like outliers, those who raise their heads too high, we tear them down. Would Martin Shkreli have been arrested on securities fraud if he didn't raise the price of that drug so outrageously? Probably, but not this soon. Everybody wants to be rich and famous, Shkreli just got caught. If you've got money and are flaunting it, showing off, you're making a mistake. Hoard your winnings and hide. As for the Wu-Tang Clan selling its album to Shkreli..? That's the entertainment business in a nutshell, we don't care if you're a criminal, if you've got the cash, we're in business.
People are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore, but they're clueless as to the underlying facts of their condition. They just know they're unhappy and not doing as well as before.
College students think they're entitled to be insult free, that life should be as smooth and uneventful as their boomer parents told them it should be, in the car, driving to Dairy Queen after they got their trophy for landing in last place in the soccer league.
America laments every military fatality, but it tunes in on Sunday to see oversized gladiators bludgeon themselves to death.
Money is our religion. We play the lottery, donate to God and emulate and criticize those further up the economic ladder who keep telling us they earned it and are entitled to it.
You can't get a good ticket to a hot show at face value because the artists don't want you to. Ignore the double-talk, the truth is tickets to star attractions are underpriced and as long as they continue to be the public will blame Ticketmaster, the government will investigate scalpers, brokers will employ bots and nothing will change. You don't really want to know that a ticket to see Adele is worth a grand, do you?
Our mobile phones are our most valued possessions, they're the one thing we can't live without. It's all about connection and communication, but you think it's about money.
Style is bigger than music, everybody can be a star.
Abortion may be legal, but good luck trying to get one.
God will save us from global warming. Who cares if it's real or a fraud, the rapture is coming, despite the number of religious believers declining.
He who yells loudest gets listened to, because those who could contradict him are afraid of raising their head and appearing to be a blowhard. For everyone building a shrine to themselves on social media, no one risks being an outcast in service of the truth. Today's life is all about being a member of the club, the clique, where no contradiction is tolerated. America used to be the land of rugged individualists, today it's overrun with groupthink. Polls trump right and everybody's going where everybody else is. As for the punk outsiders complaining they're not getting notice...true believers challenging the status quo never complain, they just go on their merry way, sowing their seeds, waiting for the world to catch up with them.
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Sunday 20 December 2015
Entertainment Unicorns
10 million people want Adele tickets and "Star Wars" grosses $238 million in a weekend. What does this tell us? PEOPLE WANT TO BELONG!
Welcome to the teens. The media doesn't label them that, but they should start. It's not the aughts, the era where the public gradually adopted broadband and pirated movies and music, rather the teens are about a plethora of information, a cornucopia of entertainment options at your fingertips, a tsunami of info so overpowering the only thing to do is to keep shooting pics for Instagram, to try and hold on to your identity.
But that paradigm doesn't work. Social media is riddled with burning towers. Once people realize no one is really interested in their mundane lives, not even their shenanigans, they return to being observers, only they don't know where to direct their eyeballs!
When media was scarce, when there were only a few options, when there were so few choices that those which were anointed were ridiculed by a small cadre of black-clad naysayers, you felt you were part of a cohesive society. Now no one knows what's going on. Disinformation and falsehood rule the land. You can no longer feel the pulse, never mind be on it.
And then come the unicorns.
A tech unicorn is a nascent company worth a billion dollars.
An entertainment unicorn is an album/film/book that exceeds all previous sales/acceptance records, that towers so high we can barely see the top. We're wowed by its stature and influence. And although these unicorns are good, that's not the story, the story is their success.
No one's talking about the music on "25." And eventually there were positive reviews of "Star Wars," but they were dwarfed by the hype, the lineups and the toys and the...
This is the future. The big will get bigger and everything else will be plowed under. This is what the public wants, something they can talk about, analyze, own and feel involved with. Turns out owning your own plot of land on the fringes is anathema to the human condition.
Of course we want to dig down deep into our personal interests. But don't confuse that with what we desire to consume as a community. Only a few people want to be alone, the rest want to belong. And in an era of chaos and cacophony, that's so hard to do.
Let's say you're a music fan. Where do you start? Of course there are aficionados, who know a lot, but they don't know everything. The EDM fan knows nothing about country, or hip-hop or... Used to be an industry insider knew every record in release, now no one does, there are just too many. There are too many playlists, too much hype, no wonder we gravitate to that which is anointed. Adele is a star whose album got no negative reviews. Let's start there.
Like with "Star Wars." Every weekend more movies open than anyone can see. Sure, "Star Wars" is a classic saga, but the reason this one is so big is because it's easier to point to one flick than to try to personally make sense of the chaos!
Kind of like the 400 odd TV shows. Do you think that will continue? No, we'll see shrinkage, we're at peak TV, and it won't be long before a show is so successful it towers over everything else. Kind of like the Super Bowl, people aren't interested in the game as much as the MANIA!
So don't overanalyze the elements. To go deep into Adele and "Star Wars" is to miss the point. It's not that either is so much better, so much more desirable, it's just that they're exponents of the modern era.
We will have more unicorns. This is what the baby boomers and gen-x'ers in control don't understand. Google is a paragon. As is Amazon. No one can compete. The "New York Times" will own the news, it already does, it's the only outlet with boots on the ground everywhere. If you double down and play the long game, YOU WIN!
This is what Spotify has done. All the criticism from the unwashed is it's losing money. But the truth is it's establishing a beachhead, which it turns out even Apple can't overcome.
We don't want choice. Talk to a salesman. Show the customer more than two items and he gets confused and walks out. But in the internet era, oftentimes only one choice is sufficient. You go where your friends are. Remember all those nitwits talking about the survival of BlackBerry? Turns out they didn't ask the public. Everybody wants to go where everybody else does.
Like the Adele show. Or "Star Wars."
Forget about scalping, that's not the story. The story is demand outstrips supply. This ain't the seventies, when "Star Wars" opened in limited release. "Star Wars" is EVERYWHERE, just like "25."
And chances are, if you're not everywhere, you've been marginalized, you don't count.
That's what they don't want you to know, all the people selling false hope, that there are fewer winners than ever before. Someone will succeed, but you'd be better off playing the lottery. It's like the country at large, with income inequality, statistics tell us there's greater upward mobility in Europe, but the poor in America vote for lower taxes because they believe they're going to get rich.
The "Long Tail" was a fraud. Millions of tracks on Spotify have never been played. There's so much information that your missive is buried. Now, a song can truly be a hit but not become one. Because the gatekeepers, who were supposed to be eviscerated by the internet, decided against it. And the money men...without a push, you're destined for the scrapheap.
Not that you can't listen to Adele's record and enjoy it. Not that you can't go to "Star Wars" and emerge with a smile on your face. But know that this is your role, you're a consumer, at the end of the food chain, all that hogwash about being a creator is just that. You can build it, but no one will come. And no one wants to live in a vacuum.
So welcome to the new world. Where big is bigger than ever before. And where you've got to be good to get a chance, but you don't have to be the best of all time. You just have to get everybody on your team, from the investors to the marketers to the media. You're not saving the music business, or the movie business, YOU'RE SAVING SOCIETY!
Come on, you've got an opinion on "Star Wars." You want to see Adele so you don't feel left out.
No one wants to feel left out.
--
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Welcome to the teens. The media doesn't label them that, but they should start. It's not the aughts, the era where the public gradually adopted broadband and pirated movies and music, rather the teens are about a plethora of information, a cornucopia of entertainment options at your fingertips, a tsunami of info so overpowering the only thing to do is to keep shooting pics for Instagram, to try and hold on to your identity.
But that paradigm doesn't work. Social media is riddled with burning towers. Once people realize no one is really interested in their mundane lives, not even their shenanigans, they return to being observers, only they don't know where to direct their eyeballs!
When media was scarce, when there were only a few options, when there were so few choices that those which were anointed were ridiculed by a small cadre of black-clad naysayers, you felt you were part of a cohesive society. Now no one knows what's going on. Disinformation and falsehood rule the land. You can no longer feel the pulse, never mind be on it.
And then come the unicorns.
A tech unicorn is a nascent company worth a billion dollars.
An entertainment unicorn is an album/film/book that exceeds all previous sales/acceptance records, that towers so high we can barely see the top. We're wowed by its stature and influence. And although these unicorns are good, that's not the story, the story is their success.
No one's talking about the music on "25." And eventually there were positive reviews of "Star Wars," but they were dwarfed by the hype, the lineups and the toys and the...
This is the future. The big will get bigger and everything else will be plowed under. This is what the public wants, something they can talk about, analyze, own and feel involved with. Turns out owning your own plot of land on the fringes is anathema to the human condition.
Of course we want to dig down deep into our personal interests. But don't confuse that with what we desire to consume as a community. Only a few people want to be alone, the rest want to belong. And in an era of chaos and cacophony, that's so hard to do.
Let's say you're a music fan. Where do you start? Of course there are aficionados, who know a lot, but they don't know everything. The EDM fan knows nothing about country, or hip-hop or... Used to be an industry insider knew every record in release, now no one does, there are just too many. There are too many playlists, too much hype, no wonder we gravitate to that which is anointed. Adele is a star whose album got no negative reviews. Let's start there.
Like with "Star Wars." Every weekend more movies open than anyone can see. Sure, "Star Wars" is a classic saga, but the reason this one is so big is because it's easier to point to one flick than to try to personally make sense of the chaos!
Kind of like the 400 odd TV shows. Do you think that will continue? No, we'll see shrinkage, we're at peak TV, and it won't be long before a show is so successful it towers over everything else. Kind of like the Super Bowl, people aren't interested in the game as much as the MANIA!
So don't overanalyze the elements. To go deep into Adele and "Star Wars" is to miss the point. It's not that either is so much better, so much more desirable, it's just that they're exponents of the modern era.
We will have more unicorns. This is what the baby boomers and gen-x'ers in control don't understand. Google is a paragon. As is Amazon. No one can compete. The "New York Times" will own the news, it already does, it's the only outlet with boots on the ground everywhere. If you double down and play the long game, YOU WIN!
This is what Spotify has done. All the criticism from the unwashed is it's losing money. But the truth is it's establishing a beachhead, which it turns out even Apple can't overcome.
We don't want choice. Talk to a salesman. Show the customer more than two items and he gets confused and walks out. But in the internet era, oftentimes only one choice is sufficient. You go where your friends are. Remember all those nitwits talking about the survival of BlackBerry? Turns out they didn't ask the public. Everybody wants to go where everybody else does.
Like the Adele show. Or "Star Wars."
Forget about scalping, that's not the story. The story is demand outstrips supply. This ain't the seventies, when "Star Wars" opened in limited release. "Star Wars" is EVERYWHERE, just like "25."
And chances are, if you're not everywhere, you've been marginalized, you don't count.
That's what they don't want you to know, all the people selling false hope, that there are fewer winners than ever before. Someone will succeed, but you'd be better off playing the lottery. It's like the country at large, with income inequality, statistics tell us there's greater upward mobility in Europe, but the poor in America vote for lower taxes because they believe they're going to get rich.
The "Long Tail" was a fraud. Millions of tracks on Spotify have never been played. There's so much information that your missive is buried. Now, a song can truly be a hit but not become one. Because the gatekeepers, who were supposed to be eviscerated by the internet, decided against it. And the money men...without a push, you're destined for the scrapheap.
Not that you can't listen to Adele's record and enjoy it. Not that you can't go to "Star Wars" and emerge with a smile on your face. But know that this is your role, you're a consumer, at the end of the food chain, all that hogwash about being a creator is just that. You can build it, but no one will come. And no one wants to live in a vacuum.
So welcome to the new world. Where big is bigger than ever before. And where you've got to be good to get a chance, but you don't have to be the best of all time. You just have to get everybody on your team, from the investors to the marketers to the media. You're not saving the music business, or the movie business, YOU'RE SAVING SOCIETY!
Come on, you've got an opinion on "Star Wars." You want to see Adele so you don't feel left out.
No one wants to feel left out.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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