What kind of crazy, f*cked up world do we live in where Taylor Swift leaves country for Top Forty and Beyoncé leaves Top Forty for country?
One in which the story is almost always about the personality and the money but almost never about the music itself.
There's a lot to say about Beyoncé. Her marriage, her children, her brand extensions, but except for the tenure and breakup of Destiny's Child, deep in the rearview mirror, none of it has been salacious, or political. In a world where many have children sans marriage and divorce remains rampant, Beyoncé appears to be old-fashioned, an American role model, not that those outside the Black community give her her proper due.
But none of this is the story, the story is the music. Starting with "Texas Hold 'Em" and now the release of the album "Cowboy Carter," which even has a cover of a Beatles song?
This has been fascinating to watch. The conversation has been about the music, and solely the music. Other than the question of whether Beyoncé will be embraced by the country community. Usually everybody's talking about the penumbra as opposed to the nougat, the essence, the music itself.
And as far as making a revolutionary, political act... We hear all this hogwash about voter registrations... Even "Billboard" did a story how artists are so far reluctant to make political endorsements. Turns out political endorsements by musicians don't move the needle that much. It's been a long time since the Eagles dictated to Jerry Brown as opposed to the opposite. But what Beyoncé has done here is make a direct move into a community that is seen to be a walled garden with distinct rules that can't be broken. Women on country radio? People are still saying there are not enough of them, despite there being a plethora of stars.
What qualifies as country music? Is it a big tent? Does it really represent America's heartland? Never mind that Beyoncé hails from red state Texas.
There have been a lot of stories asking these questions. All because a superstar made a record. Garth Brooks went rock and changed his name to do it. Believing he wouldn't be accepted by the rock community, despite loving and basing some of his stage show on the antics of KISS. And when he was unsuccessful, he went back to his original moniker and retreated to Nashville. But Beyoncé seems to have changed nothing about herself, there's no compromise, no selling out, no whiff of money whatsoever.
That's the only story that really penetrates anymore. America is thrilled with grosses, how much money you make, in the same way it is fascinated by billionaires. Make money good, not rich bad. Didn't used to be this way, but that was back in the sixties and seventies and most of the people who lived through that era are off playing shuffleboard.
Now if you look at the Spotify numbers for "Cowboy Carter"...
When Morgan Wallen puts out a new album, tracks dominate the Spotify Top 50. Ditto Taylor Swift. That is not happening with "Cowboy Carter." As a matter of fact, the streams for the album's tracks are positively anemic. None of the twenty seven tracks breaks 100,000 streams other than the two previously released singles and "II Most Wanted," the duet with Miley Cyrus, which has 106,156. Now numbers are fluid so soon after release, but one thing is for certain, "Cowboy Carter" is confounding listeners, even if it's not confounding critics, who have raved.
You see Beyoncé has thrown the long ball. For most of the twenty first century everybody has stayed in their lane and delivered music that is close to what they've already had success with, or what else is having success. Which is why the hoi polloi, the casual listener who used to represent the wide embrace of music, making acts household names, is paying attention to "Cowboy Carter." The music is the story and they're intrigued by it. My inbox has e-mail from white boys checking out the album and loving it. Who else will be tempted to listen?
That's a heavy lift. To get someone to make an effort, to actually click and listen to something. That is the game. However, it is not the only game. We can all name the ultimate in clicks, Mr. Beast, people like that. But they're stunting, what is driving attention is not worthy of attention, never mind discussion. To go against type, expectations, to take risk, is anathema in our clicks-driven culture. They with the most clicks wins, right? Well, I'm not so sure. Instead of complaining that you don't have what the superstar has, try creating your own lane, doing it differently.
And sure, Beyoncé doesn't need the money. But at what point do you get sick and tired of doing the same thing over and over again?
Listen to the music or not, one thing is for sure, you know that Beyoncé has gone country. Just as many as know Travis Kelce is Taylor Swift's boyfriend, if not more. "Cowboy Carter" is not gossip, it's a Trojan Horse not only into the country world, but America itself, which has devolved into a sports contest between deeply rooted teams, the red and the blue.
And then you have the old rockers who hate country, calling it redneck dreck. But country is the new rock. And Beyoncé found a way to enter the marketplace without selling out, an incredible feat if you think about it. You can see the wheels turning. Someone had an idea, they were excited about it, rubbed their hands together saying this will be good. And had fun executing. This is far different from calling the usual suspect writers, producers and mixers to create a hit... You know, the opportunity cost is so high, you want to pick your investments and do your best to buy insurance.
Furthermore, what has Lucian Grainge's protest against TikTok achieved?
It has hurt Universal artists. Clearing the lane for Beyoncé to clean up on the social media service of choice, the one that breaks records.
The acts always suffer. And so far TikTok is not backing down. So, the Universal artists are taking one for the team. So, they should be sure to ask Lucian for health insurance and cash for groceries when they're down and out.
Now the game of consumption has completely changed. To employ the overused aphorism, it's a marathon, not a sprint. These records exist online, waiting to be discovered, to be clicked on, to be embraced. When you break the mold it takes a while for people to catch on, for word to spread. But the music remains available. The story continues. Which is why it takes years for tracks to become hits.
I'm not saying therefore "Cowboy Carter" will end up being a monolith. No one has their finger on popular culture these days. You make a stand and do what feels right and laugh at the pollsters and prognosticators.
But one thing is for sure, despite all the hoopla, we live in a niche society. K-pop is huge. But either you listen or you don't, you know the songs or don't care. Other than BTS, I'm not sure the average citizen can even name another K-pop act, never mind a song.
But we keep on reading how big K-pop is.
I get it, it's a business story.
But "Cowboy Carter" is a music story, and we haven't had that spirit here since...
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Saturday 30 March 2024
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Tune in Saturday March 30th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
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Re-Damon Krukowski On Streaming
Thanks for the rant against the anti-streaming royalty whiners.
The problem is people hear the word "million" associated with their stream counts and think that it should equal lots of $. Then they look at the imputed per stream rate and think it's pathetic. The facts are:
DSPs pay 50-70% of their gross revenues to the royalty pool (more than 10x radio).
Successful records earn beaucoup bucks from streaming
Complainers are either not popular, or have deals with a label or publisher that is either still recouping the advance or is an old school deal taking most of the pie.
It's useful to think of each stream as an "impression", and compare it to radio "impressions" and royalties. Since US radio doesn't pay master royalties, keep it to publishing only. Take a typical audience for a major market pop station, and one spin is equal to 1x that audience in impressions. Take what BMI/ASCAPSESAC/GMR pay per spin, and divide by the audience size. You get an amount per radio impression that is not light years away from the publishing part of the per stream rate. To get a million impressions on radio you might need somewhere around 10-100 spins depending on the size of the station. Nobody would think they are successful or expect large royalty checks if they only had that many spins at US radio. Big records have hundreds of millions or billions of streams and radio impressions. The radio and streaming royalties generated by a world-wide hit are significant and I don't hear people attached to these hits complaining. It's a hit driven business. Always has been, always will be.
The real injustice in streaming is the 4 or 5:1 ratio of the value of the master vs publishing. That's a travesty and hopefully unsustainable. There is no fundamental legal or economic reason why it shouldn't be 1:1, it's just the result of an historic industry power imbalance favoring the record labels.
Best,
M
Michael McCarty
CEO
Kilometre Music Group
__________________________________________
The music business doesn't exist anymore? Nobody is getting paid? Really? How many times do we have to hear this? It reminds me of the election being stolen. Say it enough times and people believe it. Streaming royalty payments vary according to the arrangements artists have with their labels and distributors, not with the streaming services. Pretty simple. Blame your team, not the streaming services.
Bob Anderson
__________________________________________
I cannot fu*king believe this guy is still at it. This is simple, DSPs payout a little less than 70% of revenue to rights holders (approximately 54% is paid on the master, and around 14% on pub side). Therefore, we have just 2 ways for rights holders to receive more money: claim more than 70% of the overall revenue, or force DSPs to raise what they charge customers monthly. That's it! This is the entirety of the debate.
To me, companies retaining 30% to pay for technology / UX development and upkeep, servers, employee compensation, office/building rent, health insurance, taxes, etc etc seems fair. But I certainly can understand a debate on that.
He doesn't seem like a dumbass, I guess he's a liar.
Peter Wiley
__________________________________________
Everyone keeps blaming Spotify for an existential problem in the music industry. There's too much supply and not enough demand. Musicians used to make money from royalties when record sales were driven by listener demand. Nowadays, there's so much music and listeners don't want more.
Indie musicians made the mistake of believing that if they released enough product, they could stand out in a crowded marketplace. One song a month. One song a week. But since everyone is doing it, the effects are minimal.
Streaming is like an advertisement for your project. Not an income source. We're entering an era where streaming is the result of demand, not the driver of it. Playlists used to be a ticket to a larger audience on Spotify. Not anymore. Now you have to build your own audience, build your own fanbase, play shows, build community, and make people give a sh*t before they'll even think about streaming your songs. Streaming is for the fan's convenience, not your pocketbook.
The pinch artists are feeling is amplified because many of us were supplementing streaming income with sync placements and brand deals. But when TV production stopped and advertising budgets have been cut, so did the payouts.
Music is no longer "culture." It's not interesting enough on its own to move the needle. The future is in the niches, not the mainstream.
Nicholas Roberts
__________________________________________
Hi Bob,
I couldn't stop giggling at this. A few months ago I did a couple podcast episodes on this; my grievances are almost identical to yours. I referenced Damon (he is among the "indie music guru bros" I mention), because I found his articles and tweets on the topic infuriating, as someone who works in music. My artist friends were starting to discuss streaming as if they knew what they were talking about because they read his pieces.
I knew I would get called a bootlicker for saying "artists aren't entitled to royalties", and I did at first. I'd rather be called a very inaccurate insult from people with zero dogs in the fight and be right than be Damon right now.
It's validating to know that an industry "vet" agrees with me. And you're right, it's hard to get people to listen. There's so much noise, and most people who work in the industry don't even know enough to know that Damon was wrong. Concerning, to say the least.
If you'd like to listen to the next generation sh*t talker:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0STQSygEyaIttx49S9tEMK?si=52f449abf3ab4a41
Take care
__________________________________________
Bob, I'm with you on this but I think there's another way to think about it. Before mass media, most musicians made their living by singing for their supper. it's the illusion of possibility that causes everybody with a stream on Spotify to think they are entitled to more.
When you stood on a corner or sang in the local bar you made a couple of bucks in tips and felt good about it. With Spotify it feels like you're standing on the World stage right next to Taylor Swift and somehow it doesn't seem right you're only making a dollar.
Oh well,
Andy Romanoff
__________________________________________
Nobody is entitled to make a living from music.
First, find your audience.
Nobody who signed a deal 30 years ago should expect to be still making a living from their recordings in 2024.
But because streaming makes their music available again, they complain about streaming rates.
Well: first, find your audience.
Again.
Just like when you did the club and bar circuit back in the day, today's recording artists find their audience online. And they work hard at it.
And if they get the numbers, they get the streams.
Doesn't matter about the music. Could all those bubblegum pop acts from the 70s play a diminished chord, or solo like Hendrix?
Success is about communication with an audience.
First, find your audience.
It's really very simple. I'm 75 years of age, and I'm looking forward, not backward.
Best wishes
Paul Phillips
__________________________________________
Complaining about streaming payments is just someone telling on themselves. They're admitting publicly that they don't have enough of an audience to make decent money from streaming their music and/or are lashing out because they were foolish enough to quit their day job without having enough income streams to not starve. I imagine for most of us, streaming money is funny money, it's not something you're going to be paying your bills with unless you're at or near the top of the pyramid and it's wild to me that more people don't realize this.
Adam James Deiboldt
__________________________________________
I get the point.
I DJ, and I ask myself how can I get paid like the big time DJs.
It's about demand.
If I can't create the demand for people to see me, I can't command high fees.
How do I create the demand?
Make music that people want to hear.
Even if I can out-spin someone, it doesn't mean that I deserve more money.
But if they are less skilled as a DJ, but out-demand me and sell out a show, they deserve the money they ask for.
It took me a long time to understand this point.
Shammy Dee | Event & Luxury DJ
__________________________________________
EXACTLY... No one knows the history well enough... nor do they adjust well to the ever changing paradigms (that's understandable)... but, bands like G500 can make $ via the never-say-die vinyl boom and do hip in-store unplugged gigs at the shops and do sporadic touring/shows-- MANY bands don't even have that luxury...
Patrick Pierson
__________________________________________
Seems to me that many 'artists' are longing for the old days and past royalty rate payments that have never actually existed…
Interesting…
Mick Dalla-Vee
__________________________________________
Spot on, Bob. What world is that cat living in?
In the 90s I toured with and did session work for some name acts, then started writing for TV & film in the early 2000's, after the musician's union wiped out all of our pensions with bad investments. The 2008 recession cost me 70% of my composing business in 18 months. I also released a niche album of my work in 2010.
Flash forward to now, and film/TV works that I created in my early career are still paying me in performance and mechanical royalties; and that album somehow caught on 10 years after its release and has over 2 million Spotify plays. But it's rolls of nickels & dimes, not Benjamins that I can count on. It's asinine to think that you can survive on anything but playing live at this point, since it's the last price point musicians can actually control(!)
I'm grateful for even the minor success I've had, and don't understand how anyone who's done even a little bit of research can't get this through their head: it's. up. to. you. Create something people want; learn about and register your works with PROs, The MLC, Sound Exchange; play live gigs; have merch. Repeat. But most people won't succeed, something that sobers me when I (weekly) hear something fantastic and it hasn't ever gotten traction for whatever reason(s). Sad, but it has always been - and always will be - true.
- Scott
Scott W. Hallgren
composer / conductor / sound editor
Scootman Music Productions
__________________________________________
While I'm not a musician, I'm a writer that has self-published my own work to some modest success, and I wanted to give you a perspective from where I sit.
Anyone who is creative and hopes to make a living off of being creative needs to know that it's a long road, and that (at least for writers like me) it's nearly impossible to live off of royalties alone. I hold down a day job. When there's so many things people can choose to read, watch, or listen to, just getting others to know you exist is a challenge in itself. The sooner one accepts that, the better off they'll be.
My writing is academic. I think the reason why I've been able to attract eyeballs to my work is because I did the opposite of what a lot of academic publishers do. They'll charge anywhere from $75 to $125 and up for a book. But I had to be realistic. Nobody knows who I am; who the hell am I to ask people to pay that much for a copy of my work? So I dropped the price. Initially, I charged $25, but had to raise the price recently due to increased printing costs (the agreement I have stipulates that the printing cost has to be covered in the list price). And I made the e-book price lower, and kept it there. The result is that readers have checked out and purchased the work - they've decided the price is reasonable. I guarantee that had I stuck to the old model I wouldn't have had the sales I have.
Granted, the royalties are small, but what's more important is that people are reading the book. And as a writer, that's what you want. For academic works, selling 500 to 750 copies of a work is considered quite successful; it is very rare that an academic book will sell hundreds of thousands of copies. I'm not quite at the 500-750 copy mark yet, but it's getting there. So my advice to creatives would be to do the best work you can, don't be afraid to be unconventional, and to temper your expectations.
Take care,
Wes R. Benash
__________________________________________
I found this interesting because Damon/Naomi and Galaxie 500 frontman Dean Wareham had a falling out after Dean quit the band in 1991 due to creative differences, and Dean went on to form the band Luna. Neither band is successful based on streaming metrics, Luna's biggest spotify song is ~6m. But both have avid cult followings in the vein of The Feelies, Big Star and Guided by Voices which you will find ample evidence of in online searches. Dean has been prolific throughout his career and I assume has made a nice living of it, my sister just saw Luna play in Chicago two weekends ago. Discovering Luna first in my early 20's and then going backward to Galaxie 500, i always found Dean to be the creative talent for both bands, as even though all members of each band get songwriting credits, the consistency and volume of good (great to me) songs he has been a part of in his long career prove that out. Not so much for Damon. And to the longwinded point, tellingly Dean begins his memoir with a sour grapes filled quote from Damon about Dean asserting control of the band behind their backs and having a spotlight on just him at a show for the first time. Perhaps Damon has always felt underappreciated.
Chan Dillon
__________________________________________
Bob,
I wonder how many musicians who insist that Spotify is screwing them out of a rich and famous lifestyle pay for 100% of their software, recording and otherwise? And even if they do, how much of that software runs on the back of countless open source projects whose creators both have never been, nor ever will be, compensated even a single penny?
They'll say, "oh, I have no idea. I don't understand that stuff! Why weren't they paid? That doesn't seem fair!", and truthfully, some open source developers have figured out how to get paid, but those are brilliant, diligent people who stand out from the pack. Most of the rest do it out of ideology, optimism, because they want to, they need to, they can't stop thinking about the project until they bring it to life. And they give it away to the world for free, because it needs to exist.
Every single piece of software that these complainers touch has an extremely high probability that it only functions because of the thankless millions of hours, blood, sweat and tears poured into a void that practically nobody will ever see, let alone acknowledge, compensate or praise. Every website they visit, every app they're addicted to, their inner workings stand on the shoulders of giants come before them, and the coders aren't getting paid.
Frankly, why should they be entitled by default just because they made something?
And who would pay them?
Software companies who industrialize free software into a product and charge for access?
You? Me? The government? What about Elon Musk? He's got a lot of money, maybe he can pay me because I made something!
Gregory Coleman of The Winstons never got paid for his iconic drum break that literally birthed entire genres like jungle and drum & bass.
H.P. Lovecraft never got paid and was dead in the ground before his groundbreaking contributions to horror / sci-fi were recognized, reprinted, reworked, and revered.
Hell, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier died in 1830(!), and without his contributions to math and physics, there would be no signal processing, no sound cards, no digital music, no Napster, no iTunes, and certainly no Spotify.
Without that guy and scores of geniuses building upon his work, these dorks wouldn't even have the -opportunity- to get paid their point-zero-zero-nine cents per stream!
I just don't get the entitlement.
"I'm not paying for your fu*king software! I'll steal it if I have to, and I'll make music and art with it, and by the way I'm SPECIAL too, so if I don't get rich and famous it's Spotify's fault, not because I made music nobody wants to listen to!"
Huh??
-Kevin Kaiser
__________________________________________
Sup Bob
Your only pal who owns a bus company here.
I sent you my song a bit ago. As you didn't publish the link in your mailbag, I blame you for its measly 400 streams :)
I kid
I was actually super stoked when I got a royalty check from Spotify. It was for $2.
I'm totally serious and that's not a number I pulled out of my ass. Real data from the trenches.
I don't expect to make a living as a musician. I don't expect to make it leasing buses out to bands I care about. I don't want to sound like a Republican either.
I own my song.
I honestly uploaded it to see if I could figure out how to navigate the backend of Distrokid. The total strategy was to text the link to friends and post it on my little instagram page. 400 listens, hardly a blip. But a $2 royalty was, I think, amazing.
I knew I was putting no strategy into it. No marketing, I'm not working the algorithm.
All while driving bands, running a business.
Which one is my "side hustle"? Neither. I want to win at both.
I'm a lifer for music because it makes life worth living.
$2 for 400 people listening to my song is quite amazing.
That means if 4000 people listen it's $20
40,000-$200 and so on
I think the thing that people are bitching about is just life.
Would you rather make $200 writing and recording a song? Or driving 8 hours?
I do both
So, thanks for your perspective Bob.
Here's the video I paid a friend to make. It has 227 views after a week. If you post it in your mailbag, I'll split the royalties with ya.
And I'll still drive you on the podcast tour
"I Am A Robot by The Cle Elum": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG1v_zwMXe0&list=PLCloigebw3zp6e7W1sOa73PdvNFhED6cz&index=1
Best
Ian Lee
__________________________________________
My son is a 16y old professional musician (a Broadway run, national tour, Pro Tools certification, and loan-out LLC under his belt), and you'd be appalled at the disconnect in his "music business" courses. He gets it, is graduating 1y early (can't wait to get out of HS), and would be laughing listening to Damon & Naomi... "WTF is this $h!t, can't sing, barely plays chords, putting me to sleep....!"
Streaming is not rocket science, my 16y old gets it quite easily.
David B. Weiss
__________________________________________
This guy was my TA in junior year English class!
Jim McCarthy
__________________________________________
We used to publish him at Bug Music- not a big earner and that was a long time ago.
The problem is people hear the word "million" associated with their stream counts and think that it should equal lots of $. Then they look at the imputed per stream rate and think it's pathetic. The facts are:
DSPs pay 50-70% of their gross revenues to the royalty pool (more than 10x radio).
Successful records earn beaucoup bucks from streaming
Complainers are either not popular, or have deals with a label or publisher that is either still recouping the advance or is an old school deal taking most of the pie.
It's useful to think of each stream as an "impression", and compare it to radio "impressions" and royalties. Since US radio doesn't pay master royalties, keep it to publishing only. Take a typical audience for a major market pop station, and one spin is equal to 1x that audience in impressions. Take what BMI/ASCAPSESAC/GMR pay per spin, and divide by the audience size. You get an amount per radio impression that is not light years away from the publishing part of the per stream rate. To get a million impressions on radio you might need somewhere around 10-100 spins depending on the size of the station. Nobody would think they are successful or expect large royalty checks if they only had that many spins at US radio. Big records have hundreds of millions or billions of streams and radio impressions. The radio and streaming royalties generated by a world-wide hit are significant and I don't hear people attached to these hits complaining. It's a hit driven business. Always has been, always will be.
The real injustice in streaming is the 4 or 5:1 ratio of the value of the master vs publishing. That's a travesty and hopefully unsustainable. There is no fundamental legal or economic reason why it shouldn't be 1:1, it's just the result of an historic industry power imbalance favoring the record labels.
Best,
M
Michael McCarty
CEO
Kilometre Music Group
__________________________________________
The music business doesn't exist anymore? Nobody is getting paid? Really? How many times do we have to hear this? It reminds me of the election being stolen. Say it enough times and people believe it. Streaming royalty payments vary according to the arrangements artists have with their labels and distributors, not with the streaming services. Pretty simple. Blame your team, not the streaming services.
Bob Anderson
__________________________________________
I cannot fu*king believe this guy is still at it. This is simple, DSPs payout a little less than 70% of revenue to rights holders (approximately 54% is paid on the master, and around 14% on pub side). Therefore, we have just 2 ways for rights holders to receive more money: claim more than 70% of the overall revenue, or force DSPs to raise what they charge customers monthly. That's it! This is the entirety of the debate.
To me, companies retaining 30% to pay for technology / UX development and upkeep, servers, employee compensation, office/building rent, health insurance, taxes, etc etc seems fair. But I certainly can understand a debate on that.
He doesn't seem like a dumbass, I guess he's a liar.
Peter Wiley
__________________________________________
Everyone keeps blaming Spotify for an existential problem in the music industry. There's too much supply and not enough demand. Musicians used to make money from royalties when record sales were driven by listener demand. Nowadays, there's so much music and listeners don't want more.
Indie musicians made the mistake of believing that if they released enough product, they could stand out in a crowded marketplace. One song a month. One song a week. But since everyone is doing it, the effects are minimal.
Streaming is like an advertisement for your project. Not an income source. We're entering an era where streaming is the result of demand, not the driver of it. Playlists used to be a ticket to a larger audience on Spotify. Not anymore. Now you have to build your own audience, build your own fanbase, play shows, build community, and make people give a sh*t before they'll even think about streaming your songs. Streaming is for the fan's convenience, not your pocketbook.
The pinch artists are feeling is amplified because many of us were supplementing streaming income with sync placements and brand deals. But when TV production stopped and advertising budgets have been cut, so did the payouts.
Music is no longer "culture." It's not interesting enough on its own to move the needle. The future is in the niches, not the mainstream.
Nicholas Roberts
__________________________________________
Hi Bob,
I couldn't stop giggling at this. A few months ago I did a couple podcast episodes on this; my grievances are almost identical to yours. I referenced Damon (he is among the "indie music guru bros" I mention), because I found his articles and tweets on the topic infuriating, as someone who works in music. My artist friends were starting to discuss streaming as if they knew what they were talking about because they read his pieces.
I knew I would get called a bootlicker for saying "artists aren't entitled to royalties", and I did at first. I'd rather be called a very inaccurate insult from people with zero dogs in the fight and be right than be Damon right now.
It's validating to know that an industry "vet" agrees with me. And you're right, it's hard to get people to listen. There's so much noise, and most people who work in the industry don't even know enough to know that Damon was wrong. Concerning, to say the least.
If you'd like to listen to the next generation sh*t talker:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0STQSygEyaIttx49S9tEMK?si=52f449abf3ab4a41
Take care
__________________________________________
Bob, I'm with you on this but I think there's another way to think about it. Before mass media, most musicians made their living by singing for their supper. it's the illusion of possibility that causes everybody with a stream on Spotify to think they are entitled to more.
When you stood on a corner or sang in the local bar you made a couple of bucks in tips and felt good about it. With Spotify it feels like you're standing on the World stage right next to Taylor Swift and somehow it doesn't seem right you're only making a dollar.
Oh well,
Andy Romanoff
__________________________________________
Nobody is entitled to make a living from music.
First, find your audience.
Nobody who signed a deal 30 years ago should expect to be still making a living from their recordings in 2024.
But because streaming makes their music available again, they complain about streaming rates.
Well: first, find your audience.
Again.
Just like when you did the club and bar circuit back in the day, today's recording artists find their audience online. And they work hard at it.
And if they get the numbers, they get the streams.
Doesn't matter about the music. Could all those bubblegum pop acts from the 70s play a diminished chord, or solo like Hendrix?
Success is about communication with an audience.
First, find your audience.
It's really very simple. I'm 75 years of age, and I'm looking forward, not backward.
Best wishes
Paul Phillips
__________________________________________
Complaining about streaming payments is just someone telling on themselves. They're admitting publicly that they don't have enough of an audience to make decent money from streaming their music and/or are lashing out because they were foolish enough to quit their day job without having enough income streams to not starve. I imagine for most of us, streaming money is funny money, it's not something you're going to be paying your bills with unless you're at or near the top of the pyramid and it's wild to me that more people don't realize this.
Adam James Deiboldt
__________________________________________
I get the point.
I DJ, and I ask myself how can I get paid like the big time DJs.
It's about demand.
If I can't create the demand for people to see me, I can't command high fees.
How do I create the demand?
Make music that people want to hear.
Even if I can out-spin someone, it doesn't mean that I deserve more money.
But if they are less skilled as a DJ, but out-demand me and sell out a show, they deserve the money they ask for.
It took me a long time to understand this point.
Shammy Dee | Event & Luxury DJ
__________________________________________
EXACTLY... No one knows the history well enough... nor do they adjust well to the ever changing paradigms (that's understandable)... but, bands like G500 can make $ via the never-say-die vinyl boom and do hip in-store unplugged gigs at the shops and do sporadic touring/shows-- MANY bands don't even have that luxury...
Patrick Pierson
__________________________________________
Seems to me that many 'artists' are longing for the old days and past royalty rate payments that have never actually existed…
Interesting…
Mick Dalla-Vee
__________________________________________
Spot on, Bob. What world is that cat living in?
In the 90s I toured with and did session work for some name acts, then started writing for TV & film in the early 2000's, after the musician's union wiped out all of our pensions with bad investments. The 2008 recession cost me 70% of my composing business in 18 months. I also released a niche album of my work in 2010.
Flash forward to now, and film/TV works that I created in my early career are still paying me in performance and mechanical royalties; and that album somehow caught on 10 years after its release and has over 2 million Spotify plays. But it's rolls of nickels & dimes, not Benjamins that I can count on. It's asinine to think that you can survive on anything but playing live at this point, since it's the last price point musicians can actually control(!)
I'm grateful for even the minor success I've had, and don't understand how anyone who's done even a little bit of research can't get this through their head: it's. up. to. you. Create something people want; learn about and register your works with PROs, The MLC, Sound Exchange; play live gigs; have merch. Repeat. But most people won't succeed, something that sobers me when I (weekly) hear something fantastic and it hasn't ever gotten traction for whatever reason(s). Sad, but it has always been - and always will be - true.
- Scott
Scott W. Hallgren
composer / conductor / sound editor
Scootman Music Productions
__________________________________________
While I'm not a musician, I'm a writer that has self-published my own work to some modest success, and I wanted to give you a perspective from where I sit.
Anyone who is creative and hopes to make a living off of being creative needs to know that it's a long road, and that (at least for writers like me) it's nearly impossible to live off of royalties alone. I hold down a day job. When there's so many things people can choose to read, watch, or listen to, just getting others to know you exist is a challenge in itself. The sooner one accepts that, the better off they'll be.
My writing is academic. I think the reason why I've been able to attract eyeballs to my work is because I did the opposite of what a lot of academic publishers do. They'll charge anywhere from $75 to $125 and up for a book. But I had to be realistic. Nobody knows who I am; who the hell am I to ask people to pay that much for a copy of my work? So I dropped the price. Initially, I charged $25, but had to raise the price recently due to increased printing costs (the agreement I have stipulates that the printing cost has to be covered in the list price). And I made the e-book price lower, and kept it there. The result is that readers have checked out and purchased the work - they've decided the price is reasonable. I guarantee that had I stuck to the old model I wouldn't have had the sales I have.
Granted, the royalties are small, but what's more important is that people are reading the book. And as a writer, that's what you want. For academic works, selling 500 to 750 copies of a work is considered quite successful; it is very rare that an academic book will sell hundreds of thousands of copies. I'm not quite at the 500-750 copy mark yet, but it's getting there. So my advice to creatives would be to do the best work you can, don't be afraid to be unconventional, and to temper your expectations.
Take care,
Wes R. Benash
__________________________________________
I found this interesting because Damon/Naomi and Galaxie 500 frontman Dean Wareham had a falling out after Dean quit the band in 1991 due to creative differences, and Dean went on to form the band Luna. Neither band is successful based on streaming metrics, Luna's biggest spotify song is ~6m. But both have avid cult followings in the vein of The Feelies, Big Star and Guided by Voices which you will find ample evidence of in online searches. Dean has been prolific throughout his career and I assume has made a nice living of it, my sister just saw Luna play in Chicago two weekends ago. Discovering Luna first in my early 20's and then going backward to Galaxie 500, i always found Dean to be the creative talent for both bands, as even though all members of each band get songwriting credits, the consistency and volume of good (great to me) songs he has been a part of in his long career prove that out. Not so much for Damon. And to the longwinded point, tellingly Dean begins his memoir with a sour grapes filled quote from Damon about Dean asserting control of the band behind their backs and having a spotlight on just him at a show for the first time. Perhaps Damon has always felt underappreciated.
Chan Dillon
__________________________________________
Bob,
I wonder how many musicians who insist that Spotify is screwing them out of a rich and famous lifestyle pay for 100% of their software, recording and otherwise? And even if they do, how much of that software runs on the back of countless open source projects whose creators both have never been, nor ever will be, compensated even a single penny?
They'll say, "oh, I have no idea. I don't understand that stuff! Why weren't they paid? That doesn't seem fair!", and truthfully, some open source developers have figured out how to get paid, but those are brilliant, diligent people who stand out from the pack. Most of the rest do it out of ideology, optimism, because they want to, they need to, they can't stop thinking about the project until they bring it to life. And they give it away to the world for free, because it needs to exist.
Every single piece of software that these complainers touch has an extremely high probability that it only functions because of the thankless millions of hours, blood, sweat and tears poured into a void that practically nobody will ever see, let alone acknowledge, compensate or praise. Every website they visit, every app they're addicted to, their inner workings stand on the shoulders of giants come before them, and the coders aren't getting paid.
Frankly, why should they be entitled by default just because they made something?
And who would pay them?
Software companies who industrialize free software into a product and charge for access?
You? Me? The government? What about Elon Musk? He's got a lot of money, maybe he can pay me because I made something!
Gregory Coleman of The Winstons never got paid for his iconic drum break that literally birthed entire genres like jungle and drum & bass.
H.P. Lovecraft never got paid and was dead in the ground before his groundbreaking contributions to horror / sci-fi were recognized, reprinted, reworked, and revered.
Hell, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier died in 1830(!), and without his contributions to math and physics, there would be no signal processing, no sound cards, no digital music, no Napster, no iTunes, and certainly no Spotify.
Without that guy and scores of geniuses building upon his work, these dorks wouldn't even have the -opportunity- to get paid their point-zero-zero-nine cents per stream!
I just don't get the entitlement.
"I'm not paying for your fu*king software! I'll steal it if I have to, and I'll make music and art with it, and by the way I'm SPECIAL too, so if I don't get rich and famous it's Spotify's fault, not because I made music nobody wants to listen to!"
Huh??
-Kevin Kaiser
__________________________________________
Sup Bob
Your only pal who owns a bus company here.
I sent you my song a bit ago. As you didn't publish the link in your mailbag, I blame you for its measly 400 streams :)
I kid
I was actually super stoked when I got a royalty check from Spotify. It was for $2.
I'm totally serious and that's not a number I pulled out of my ass. Real data from the trenches.
I don't expect to make a living as a musician. I don't expect to make it leasing buses out to bands I care about. I don't want to sound like a Republican either.
I own my song.
I honestly uploaded it to see if I could figure out how to navigate the backend of Distrokid. The total strategy was to text the link to friends and post it on my little instagram page. 400 listens, hardly a blip. But a $2 royalty was, I think, amazing.
I knew I was putting no strategy into it. No marketing, I'm not working the algorithm.
All while driving bands, running a business.
Which one is my "side hustle"? Neither. I want to win at both.
I'm a lifer for music because it makes life worth living.
$2 for 400 people listening to my song is quite amazing.
That means if 4000 people listen it's $20
40,000-$200 and so on
I think the thing that people are bitching about is just life.
Would you rather make $200 writing and recording a song? Or driving 8 hours?
I do both
So, thanks for your perspective Bob.
Here's the video I paid a friend to make. It has 227 views after a week. If you post it in your mailbag, I'll split the royalties with ya.
And I'll still drive you on the podcast tour
"I Am A Robot by The Cle Elum": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG1v_zwMXe0&list=PLCloigebw3zp6e7W1sOa73PdvNFhED6cz&index=1
Best
Ian Lee
__________________________________________
My son is a 16y old professional musician (a Broadway run, national tour, Pro Tools certification, and loan-out LLC under his belt), and you'd be appalled at the disconnect in his "music business" courses. He gets it, is graduating 1y early (can't wait to get out of HS), and would be laughing listening to Damon & Naomi... "WTF is this $h!t, can't sing, barely plays chords, putting me to sleep....!"
Streaming is not rocket science, my 16y old gets it quite easily.
David B. Weiss
__________________________________________
This guy was my TA in junior year English class!
Jim McCarthy
__________________________________________
We used to publish him at Bug Music- not a big earner and that was a long time ago.
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Thursday 28 March 2024
Cidny Bullens-This Week's Podcast
He sang backup for Elton John. And cut multiple solo albums. But that's only the tip of the iceberg of Cid's amazing story. You need to hear it.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/cidny-bullens-162746354/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cidny-bullens/id1316200737?i=1000650716211
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6FgM2Qn0h4Ds265fCeGED7?si=yoVxSrhZQ2qCkE9eXO-LeA
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/1c4235b9-0b71-4ba5-8a1f-dc1b18ec8550/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-cidny-bullens
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/cidny-bullens-162746354/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cidny-bullens/id1316200737?i=1000650716211
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6FgM2Qn0h4Ds265fCeGED7?si=yoVxSrhZQ2qCkE9eXO-LeA
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/1c4235b9-0b71-4ba5-8a1f-dc1b18ec8550/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-cidny-bullens
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Damon Krukowski On Streaming
"How are musicians supposed to survive on $0.00173 per stream?":
"The Guardian": https://shorturl.at/mCIJ6
This is what I hate about America, it's all about self-interest, people believe they're entitled to a living, and the truth is irrelevant.
Mr. Krukowski was in the band Galaxie 500. Their albums were released by Rough Trade. Assuming the label gave them an advance to make them, I doubt there were any significant royalties paid. I'm aware of Galaxie 500, but even household name bands from thirty plus years ago never went into royalties.
Now Mr. Krukowski has since moved on from that band. Presently he has an act with his wife, entitled Damon & Naomi. Go to the desktop version of Spotify, where streaming totals are published. Damon & Naomi's "hit," entitled "E.T.A., has a whopping 108,821 streams. No other track of their Top Ten breaks a hundred thousand. This is a hobby, not a career, and this guy deserves to get paid?
Dig a little deeper and you'll find out that Krukowski went to Harvard, has taught there, I don't think he's starving, he's just standing up for the little guy. Who was standing up for me when I had fewer than twenty bucks in my checking account and had written a bad check for the rent? I don't want to sound like a Republican here, but I made my own choices and I lived in the bed I made. I'm not saying everybody has to sacrifice like I did, just that if you go down a rough path there is no guarantee of success, very few people succeed, and we as a society have no obligation to support your journey.
Makes me crazy. All these acts who consider themselves professionals who complain about streaming payments. It's very simple, NOBODY IS LISTENING!
Talk to any other vertical... Do the social media influencers have a lobby asking the government to pass a bill so everybody who declares themselves an influencer gets a living wage, that a view pays more than it now does? At least these social media sites are profitable. Spotify swings from the red to the black. But somehow it's Spotify's fault.
As for the payment per stream... Makes a good headline, but Mr. Krukowski pulled that number out of his ass. There are different payments for different kinds of streaming, but the public is drawn to over-the-top headlines, it makes the story sexier.
How come these acts can't realize that you get paid based on the number of times people listen to your music? That's basically fair. As for dividing up revenue based on what an individual subscriber listens to... That's fine with me, but one study said that the big acts end up making more this way! And if people don't listen that much how much money are we talking about anyway?
Reminds me of ticketing. Yes, you should be able to go see a superstar in the front row for fifty bucks, you're entitled. And the promoter can't make any money, it's a public service, even though the promoter takes all the risk.
Did you know that the bridge collapsed in Baltimore because of the Democrats? Yes, that's what the Republicans are saying.
As for Ronna McDaniel... Why are these same Republicans worried about what goes on at a mainstream news outlet that they tell their acolytes not to watch?
Then there's Israel/Gaza. Those poor innocent children being murdered by the crazy Israelis, led by that madman Netanyahu.
I point you to yesterday's "Wall Street Journal":
"What if the U.S. Helps Hamas Win? - The path Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer have chosen means the end of any hope of peace."
Free link: https://rb.gy/glrbro
And while you're at it, read this:
"Schumer Stumbles Into Israeli Politics - The Senate majority leader overstepped when he demanded Netanyahu's ouster."
Free link: https://rb.gy/usaq9x
Schumer and his crony poseurs keep talking about a two-state solution, but the facts tell us Jewish Israelis reject this by a two to one margin. As for the Palestinians...from the river to the sea baby.
And, only 15% of Israelis want Netanyahu to continue as prime minister after the war.
Yes, the Opinion page of the "Wall Street Journal," which Democrats tell you to completely ignore. And I'll admit there's a lot of right wing hogwash on those pages, but not always. Talk about knowing how the opposition thinks.
The goal of a manager is to get their act paid. And that's one of the reasons poor streaming acts have handlers complaining they should get more.
Forget that in the old days, Damon & Naomi would have a nearly impossible time getting their music into record stores, never mind getting paid. Retailers paid their big suppliers first, indies last, if at all, especially if they had little product.
As for Galaxie 500... That band would be deep in the rearview mirror. Man, bands from the sixties couldn't make the bins in the seventies. And by time you hit the eighties many record stores only stocked greatest hits LPs, forget the individual albums. The internet is keeping these acts alive, they should be thrilled. But no, they want more, much more.
Everybody wants more, but there's only so much to give.
But you can't convince people they must accept their fate. Tom Rapp had a band Pearls Before Swine, they had multiple albums on Reprise and then Blue Thumb. I knew who they were, they had a major label deal, which was a giant hurdle to jump, but they never broke through commercially. So what did Tom Rapp do? He went to law school. Not everybody can be Elton John or Don Henley. Especially those people who e-mail me their dreck every day. Let's see... You can't sing well, you have hackneyed lyrics, but because the tools of creation and distribution have a de minimis cost you're entitled to a living as a musician?
Once again, I believe in a social safety net, everybody deserves food and shelter. But if you didn't do well enough in college to get into medical school...should you somehow be compensated?
If no one watches your movie, that you wouldn't have been able to make so cheaply without modern technology, are you entitled to a living?
Why don't I declare myself a basketball player and agitate for a starting role in the NBA, at least a benchwarmer. I love basketball, it's my right!
As for the Gaza conflict... Nobody wants innocent people killed. However, the dirty little secret is that's a consequence of war. But that first article in the WSJ I linked to above makes the point that if Israel pulls out, it's a Hamas victory, which will be celebrated throughout the Arab world. And how about the dirty little secret that Hamas could just return the hostages and get a ceasefire tomorrow?
Never mind that BDS on campus was grown by the Palestinians.
I'm not making any of this up, it's all true.
But the truth hurts. It's more satisfying to believe someone is at fault. And you don't want to say anything unpopular, the consequences are too much for you to bear. Do you know how many subscribers I'm going to lose by not calling the Gaza war genocide, by not calling for an immediate ceasefire? Once again, I'm against war, period. However, in this case Hamas did attack.
Not every situation is black and white. But most of society acts like they are. It's team sports. I thought America was about the rugged individual. But no, now it's about somnambulant sheep.
As for Mr. Krukowski... Why don't you just create music that more people want to listen to? That's what's wrong with the hit music of today, it sounds too much alike. People are afraid to make unique music for fear of starving. But recorded music is not the only way to make a living as a musician today. Not only are there house concerts, there's Patreon... Believe me, if you have hard core fans you can make some money, enough to make a living, I don't know. But I remember a bass player from a major label act who got his car repossessed and then had no wheels. Those were the good old days?
It's B.S. like that of Mr. Krukowski that makes it so those in charge refuse to engage. Talk to anybody who runs a label, or a streaming service, they're inundated with misinformation, they can't fight it, so they don't. People would rather run on emotions than facts.
And in a world of seemingly unlimited music, getting someone's attention is the hardest part. If you've got attention, you can make fans and money. Why is that Spotify's job? Seems like it's yours.
Now the truth is there's a huge living in giving wannabes hope. I've learned this speaking around the world. The audience hates the truth. They want to hear that there is vast opportunity and if they just stay the course they're going to make it. And meanwhile, will I listen to their CD?
Now let me see... The laptop I take on the road doesn't even have a CD player. You could give me a streaming link, but you'll feel better if you give me something physical. Furthermore, when I tell these people if they send me a link to their music in e-mail I'll listen and respond...they never do. Amazing.
But they're entitled to a living playing music!
Millions of tracks on Spotify, tens of millions, are never ever listened to. We're going to pay those people too?
As for the government... It can't even understand ticketing. I'm for big government, I'm for the Deep State, but when it comes to business, Congress is always about grandstanding and getting nothing done, holding hearings wherein members demonstrate their lack of knowledge of the subject. I wish it were different, but it's not.
But some wanker musician from Harvard knows better.
Yeah, right.
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"The Guardian": https://shorturl.at/mCIJ6
This is what I hate about America, it's all about self-interest, people believe they're entitled to a living, and the truth is irrelevant.
Mr. Krukowski was in the band Galaxie 500. Their albums were released by Rough Trade. Assuming the label gave them an advance to make them, I doubt there were any significant royalties paid. I'm aware of Galaxie 500, but even household name bands from thirty plus years ago never went into royalties.
Now Mr. Krukowski has since moved on from that band. Presently he has an act with his wife, entitled Damon & Naomi. Go to the desktop version of Spotify, where streaming totals are published. Damon & Naomi's "hit," entitled "E.T.A., has a whopping 108,821 streams. No other track of their Top Ten breaks a hundred thousand. This is a hobby, not a career, and this guy deserves to get paid?
Dig a little deeper and you'll find out that Krukowski went to Harvard, has taught there, I don't think he's starving, he's just standing up for the little guy. Who was standing up for me when I had fewer than twenty bucks in my checking account and had written a bad check for the rent? I don't want to sound like a Republican here, but I made my own choices and I lived in the bed I made. I'm not saying everybody has to sacrifice like I did, just that if you go down a rough path there is no guarantee of success, very few people succeed, and we as a society have no obligation to support your journey.
Makes me crazy. All these acts who consider themselves professionals who complain about streaming payments. It's very simple, NOBODY IS LISTENING!
Talk to any other vertical... Do the social media influencers have a lobby asking the government to pass a bill so everybody who declares themselves an influencer gets a living wage, that a view pays more than it now does? At least these social media sites are profitable. Spotify swings from the red to the black. But somehow it's Spotify's fault.
As for the payment per stream... Makes a good headline, but Mr. Krukowski pulled that number out of his ass. There are different payments for different kinds of streaming, but the public is drawn to over-the-top headlines, it makes the story sexier.
How come these acts can't realize that you get paid based on the number of times people listen to your music? That's basically fair. As for dividing up revenue based on what an individual subscriber listens to... That's fine with me, but one study said that the big acts end up making more this way! And if people don't listen that much how much money are we talking about anyway?
Reminds me of ticketing. Yes, you should be able to go see a superstar in the front row for fifty bucks, you're entitled. And the promoter can't make any money, it's a public service, even though the promoter takes all the risk.
Did you know that the bridge collapsed in Baltimore because of the Democrats? Yes, that's what the Republicans are saying.
As for Ronna McDaniel... Why are these same Republicans worried about what goes on at a mainstream news outlet that they tell their acolytes not to watch?
Then there's Israel/Gaza. Those poor innocent children being murdered by the crazy Israelis, led by that madman Netanyahu.
I point you to yesterday's "Wall Street Journal":
"What if the U.S. Helps Hamas Win? - The path Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer have chosen means the end of any hope of peace."
Free link: https://rb.gy/glrbro
And while you're at it, read this:
"Schumer Stumbles Into Israeli Politics - The Senate majority leader overstepped when he demanded Netanyahu's ouster."
Free link: https://rb.gy/usaq9x
Schumer and his crony poseurs keep talking about a two-state solution, but the facts tell us Jewish Israelis reject this by a two to one margin. As for the Palestinians...from the river to the sea baby.
And, only 15% of Israelis want Netanyahu to continue as prime minister after the war.
Yes, the Opinion page of the "Wall Street Journal," which Democrats tell you to completely ignore. And I'll admit there's a lot of right wing hogwash on those pages, but not always. Talk about knowing how the opposition thinks.
The goal of a manager is to get their act paid. And that's one of the reasons poor streaming acts have handlers complaining they should get more.
Forget that in the old days, Damon & Naomi would have a nearly impossible time getting their music into record stores, never mind getting paid. Retailers paid their big suppliers first, indies last, if at all, especially if they had little product.
As for Galaxie 500... That band would be deep in the rearview mirror. Man, bands from the sixties couldn't make the bins in the seventies. And by time you hit the eighties many record stores only stocked greatest hits LPs, forget the individual albums. The internet is keeping these acts alive, they should be thrilled. But no, they want more, much more.
Everybody wants more, but there's only so much to give.
But you can't convince people they must accept their fate. Tom Rapp had a band Pearls Before Swine, they had multiple albums on Reprise and then Blue Thumb. I knew who they were, they had a major label deal, which was a giant hurdle to jump, but they never broke through commercially. So what did Tom Rapp do? He went to law school. Not everybody can be Elton John or Don Henley. Especially those people who e-mail me their dreck every day. Let's see... You can't sing well, you have hackneyed lyrics, but because the tools of creation and distribution have a de minimis cost you're entitled to a living as a musician?
Once again, I believe in a social safety net, everybody deserves food and shelter. But if you didn't do well enough in college to get into medical school...should you somehow be compensated?
If no one watches your movie, that you wouldn't have been able to make so cheaply without modern technology, are you entitled to a living?
Why don't I declare myself a basketball player and agitate for a starting role in the NBA, at least a benchwarmer. I love basketball, it's my right!
As for the Gaza conflict... Nobody wants innocent people killed. However, the dirty little secret is that's a consequence of war. But that first article in the WSJ I linked to above makes the point that if Israel pulls out, it's a Hamas victory, which will be celebrated throughout the Arab world. And how about the dirty little secret that Hamas could just return the hostages and get a ceasefire tomorrow?
Never mind that BDS on campus was grown by the Palestinians.
I'm not making any of this up, it's all true.
But the truth hurts. It's more satisfying to believe someone is at fault. And you don't want to say anything unpopular, the consequences are too much for you to bear. Do you know how many subscribers I'm going to lose by not calling the Gaza war genocide, by not calling for an immediate ceasefire? Once again, I'm against war, period. However, in this case Hamas did attack.
Not every situation is black and white. But most of society acts like they are. It's team sports. I thought America was about the rugged individual. But no, now it's about somnambulant sheep.
As for Mr. Krukowski... Why don't you just create music that more people want to listen to? That's what's wrong with the hit music of today, it sounds too much alike. People are afraid to make unique music for fear of starving. But recorded music is not the only way to make a living as a musician today. Not only are there house concerts, there's Patreon... Believe me, if you have hard core fans you can make some money, enough to make a living, I don't know. But I remember a bass player from a major label act who got his car repossessed and then had no wheels. Those were the good old days?
It's B.S. like that of Mr. Krukowski that makes it so those in charge refuse to engage. Talk to anybody who runs a label, or a streaming service, they're inundated with misinformation, they can't fight it, so they don't. People would rather run on emotions than facts.
And in a world of seemingly unlimited music, getting someone's attention is the hardest part. If you've got attention, you can make fans and money. Why is that Spotify's job? Seems like it's yours.
Now the truth is there's a huge living in giving wannabes hope. I've learned this speaking around the world. The audience hates the truth. They want to hear that there is vast opportunity and if they just stay the course they're going to make it. And meanwhile, will I listen to their CD?
Now let me see... The laptop I take on the road doesn't even have a CD player. You could give me a streaming link, but you'll feel better if you give me something physical. Furthermore, when I tell these people if they send me a link to their music in e-mail I'll listen and respond...they never do. Amazing.
But they're entitled to a living playing music!
Millions of tracks on Spotify, tens of millions, are never ever listened to. We're going to pay those people too?
As for the government... It can't even understand ticketing. I'm for big government, I'm for the Deep State, but when it comes to business, Congress is always about grandstanding and getting nothing done, holding hearings wherein members demonstrate their lack of knowledge of the subject. I wish it were different, but it's not.
But some wanker musician from Harvard knows better.
Yeah, right.
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Tuesday 26 March 2024
Dasha
I'm surprised there's something here.
That's how far we've come, or fallen. When there's a bidding war over an artist, when we start reading about it in the trades, it's usually dismissible, a youngster in a traditional genre spewing generalities.
But that's not Dasha.
I'll be honest, I only heard about her a few days back. I was on the lift with Zach Kuhn and he mentioned her, and how hot she was. And then I read about her being signed to Warner and I decided to check her out.
Now the hit, the single, is "Austin." And if you listen, at first you'll be turned off by the simple, monotone, machine-like rhythmic bed. And then there's the voice, which isn't that much more than a whisper. But then...
"Did your boots stop workin'
Did your truck break down
Did you burn through money
Did your ex find out
Where there's a will, then there's a way
And I'm damn sure you lost it
Didn't even say goodbye
Just wish I knew what caused it"
She's not singing to the back row. This isn't a television competition, this is personal. You're getting a peek inside someone else's mind, their feelings, the situation they've found themselves in, that you've probably been in yourself.
"Was the whiskey flowin'
Were you in a fight
Did the nerves come get you
What's your alibi"
There has to be a reason. There must be. We were in love, on the same page, and then you bounced. WHY?
"I made my way back to LA
And that's where you'll be forgotten
In forty years you'll still be here
Drunk washed up in Austin"
She's shoring herself up, with attitude, but we know it's all a pose. Maybe if some superstar belted the lyrics we'd see it as a triumph, but not when Dasha sings.
"Hell of a bluff, you had me believin'
How many months did you plan on leavin'
What happened, bad habits?
Did you go back, go batsh*t?
I loved you, how tragic, oh-oh"
Once again, WHAT HAPPENED?
About two-thirds of the way through I realized why "Austin" was a viral hit. It speaks to people. It's what Taylor Swift used to sell before she went Top Forty. It's personal, raw.
But the rest of the cuts have nowhere near the same number of streams on Spotify. But as I listened to the album I was stunned that it contained the same viewpoint, the same personality, there was a person at the core of these songs and sure, she didn't have a great voice, but she had something to say.
This is what we've been looking for. And funny how the fans found it before the labels. We crave authenticity, we crave relatability. With every celebrity selling out, how are we supposed to identify? We want to own the act, not the corporation. That's the essence of music, it connects on a level that's impossible to fully describe, but we know it when we feel it.
Now in the old, pre-internet days, Dasha wouldn't have gotten a deal, her voice would not have sufficed. But today the script has flipped. If you've got a good enough voice we'll provide the material, and that's ass-backwards. You see when done right music is about artistry, inspiration, feeling, not some paint-by-number dream.
I could opine about the commerciality of Dasha, but that's not my point. There's definitely something here, and it's perfectly clear, and it stands out in a Sargasso Sea of endless crap.
You know it when you hear it.
And you might not, and that's fine.
Then again, the women have overtaken the music business. Because they have no problem being honest, displaying their emotions, their humanity, and that's what we're all looking for.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
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-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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That's how far we've come, or fallen. When there's a bidding war over an artist, when we start reading about it in the trades, it's usually dismissible, a youngster in a traditional genre spewing generalities.
But that's not Dasha.
I'll be honest, I only heard about her a few days back. I was on the lift with Zach Kuhn and he mentioned her, and how hot she was. And then I read about her being signed to Warner and I decided to check her out.
Now the hit, the single, is "Austin." And if you listen, at first you'll be turned off by the simple, monotone, machine-like rhythmic bed. And then there's the voice, which isn't that much more than a whisper. But then...
"Did your boots stop workin'
Did your truck break down
Did you burn through money
Did your ex find out
Where there's a will, then there's a way
And I'm damn sure you lost it
Didn't even say goodbye
Just wish I knew what caused it"
She's not singing to the back row. This isn't a television competition, this is personal. You're getting a peek inside someone else's mind, their feelings, the situation they've found themselves in, that you've probably been in yourself.
"Was the whiskey flowin'
Were you in a fight
Did the nerves come get you
What's your alibi"
There has to be a reason. There must be. We were in love, on the same page, and then you bounced. WHY?
"I made my way back to LA
And that's where you'll be forgotten
In forty years you'll still be here
Drunk washed up in Austin"
She's shoring herself up, with attitude, but we know it's all a pose. Maybe if some superstar belted the lyrics we'd see it as a triumph, but not when Dasha sings.
"Hell of a bluff, you had me believin'
How many months did you plan on leavin'
What happened, bad habits?
Did you go back, go batsh*t?
I loved you, how tragic, oh-oh"
Once again, WHAT HAPPENED?
About two-thirds of the way through I realized why "Austin" was a viral hit. It speaks to people. It's what Taylor Swift used to sell before she went Top Forty. It's personal, raw.
But the rest of the cuts have nowhere near the same number of streams on Spotify. But as I listened to the album I was stunned that it contained the same viewpoint, the same personality, there was a person at the core of these songs and sure, she didn't have a great voice, but she had something to say.
This is what we've been looking for. And funny how the fans found it before the labels. We crave authenticity, we crave relatability. With every celebrity selling out, how are we supposed to identify? We want to own the act, not the corporation. That's the essence of music, it connects on a level that's impossible to fully describe, but we know it when we feel it.
Now in the old, pre-internet days, Dasha wouldn't have gotten a deal, her voice would not have sufficed. But today the script has flipped. If you've got a good enough voice we'll provide the material, and that's ass-backwards. You see when done right music is about artistry, inspiration, feeling, not some paint-by-number dream.
I could opine about the commerciality of Dasha, but that's not my point. There's definitely something here, and it's perfectly clear, and it stands out in a Sargasso Sea of endless crap.
You know it when you hear it.
And you might not, and that's fine.
Then again, the women have overtaken the music business. Because they have no problem being honest, displaying their emotions, their humanity, and that's what we're all looking for.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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Monday 25 March 2024
"Private Equity: A Memoir"
By Carrie Sun: https://shorturl.at/AWX38
At what point do you wake up and become your own person. At what point do you throw off your parents' expectations and own your true identity?
Many baby boomers never have. The most passionate music fans I know are MD's. They jumped through all the hoops, they aced Organic Chem, so they could ultimately fulfill their parents' dream, becoming a doctor.
But that's not what they really wanted to do.
Now maybe you didn't have parents who instilled their hopes and dreams in you, didn't get angry when you brought home a bad report card. Weren't worried if you veered off course into drugs and alcohol. Years back, I might have envied you. Because my parents were relentless. There was no doubt I was going to college, and it had better be a good one! It was expected of me.
And I'll save you the ups and downs, but I'm conflicted about my college experience. On one hand I feel superior, because of the focus on the ability to think, write and analyze. I didn't take a single objective test in college, not one. You'd get those blue books and what you didn't know you B.S.'ed about. Then again, the college experience so many of my friends had was completely different. They could take courses outside the narrow confines of the classical canon, they could study little and still get A's. They could find people just like them in the student body.
The world is different now. There's a bifurcation between the rich and entitled and the rest of us. I didn't know I was underprivileged going to public school until I went to college where 45% of the students had prepped. Forget leaving home, they were so much better read than the rest of us. They understood the game.
Today everybody is looking for an edge. We didn't see it as an edge. We didn't do volunteer work so it would look good on our college applications. We just ground and ground to get good grades and...
Many people could never give up the grind.
That happened for me the first semester. With one extra point I could have gotten a B+. In high school, you went to the teacher and grubbed for it, usually successfully. I just couldn't do that anymore.
But I did end up going to law school. Which was instilled in me as a destination before I even entered school, kindergarten, that is. But that was because I was down and out with the world's worst case of mononucleosis and the only advantage of going to law school was I was an expert when Napster hit, that's about it.
Took me a long time to become who I am. To accept who I am. I mean you see movers and shakers and are envious. Then you learn they're different from you, and that is not a bad thing.
So what we've got here is an only child of immigrant parents who finished MIT in three years and goes into finance. Drops out after a few years at Fidelity, and then ends up at a hedge fund, supporting the majordomo.
Most people have no idea what a hedge fund truly is. They know almost nothing about finance. But at this late date seemingly everybody knows these people makes tons of money. And they do. But by time you're done with this book if you still want to go into finance...well, you only care about money, like hedge funders in this book. They protest that they're helping, solving problems, saving the world, but that's all B.S. It's money that they want.
Now don't think you can make this kind of money being an artist, musical or otherwise. Never mind that the odds are nearly impossible.
Believe me, these hedge funders, these financiers, they jumped through all the educational hoops, they work 'round the clock, but at the core their lives are empty. Because money can't keep you warm at night.
For all the hype about elite business people being a-holes, usually that is not the case. When you get to the top you can afford to be nice. Get a meeting with some household name and this will surprise you. The people you know, who you hang out with, can only say negative things about these executives. But they've never met them. There's so much they don't know. And so much most people don't know. But if you read this book...
Now if you're completely unfamiliar with money, with finance you may not know what Ms. Sun is talking about. She describes everything, but doesn't repeat herself. There's lingo, and concepts beneath the lingo, and if you read the 'Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times" Business section every day you'll know what she is talking about.
Then again, most people buy the conventional wisdom that the mainstream media is anathema. It's their loss. Furthermore, I'll let you in on a little secret. Success all comes down to information. And it's great if you're a player, but interestingly so much of the information is public, available to all. And if you spend your time investigating, learning, you can truly come up to speed. But most people would rather complain that they were left out. It's your choice.
But really, to succeed, you need to know how the world works. And the world runs on money. And if you don't know money, you're already a step behind.
And the truth is there is SO MUCH MONEY!
People watch television, read about the celebrities, they think they know rich, but they've got no idea. Never mind so many of the rich want no publicity, it only brings downsides. Carrie's boss is all about time. And if it saves time, money is no object. NetJets takes too long to deliver a plane. So the boss buys a Bombardier. But is unhappy that he's got to shake hands with those who built it. He just wants to get on it and fly home.
And there's recreation too. The boss is into surfing. He has Carrie track the waves, and if they're good, he'll drop everything and go, But if you think he can go on a surfing hejira for months, you're wrong, You see the boss can't miss a thing. He's constantly making bets, based on information. Not only trading stocks, but investing in tech companies.
And Carrie is his slave. Highly compensated, with 5k gift cards to boot. She can go to Stockholm for the weekend, the only issue is the time, not the money.
But she's on call 24/7. And she's never ever treated as an equal.
She's overworked and ultimately complains, but the boss never hears her, never.
Meanwhile he keeps talking about the opportunity, the privilege of working at the company, the front row seat to what is really going on in the world. And he emphasizes self-subjugation, that it's all about the team, put on a happy face, but that's all hogwash, he only cares about himself and making money.
You know how this turns out.
But unless you've worked at a hedge fund you have no idea what is really going on.
So reading this book I wondered why anybody would go into finance. Sounds empty and awful, A lot of money, sure, but I've never lived only for the money. But so many of those who graduate from elite colleges can't withstand the pull.
Now if you didn't go to an elite institution, or if you're not a math genius, you've got no opportunity here.
But having said that, everybody I know who is successful is working 'round the clock. If you have time off, either you've already made it or never will.
And if you want to make it in the arts... You've got to be the opposite of everything catalogued in this book. You've got to be unique, an individual. You've got to think for yourself. You've got to learn how to say no. This is what bugs me when people complain about streaming payments. Your focus is all wrong. If you are truly an artist of note the money will come, but the truth is almost nobody is an artist of note. The funny thing is they don't believe this, but they would not say they're ready to perform surgery or run a hedge fund,..but something even more difficult, become a unique artist? That they can do. Yeah, right.
Now when I went to college my parents never told me what courses to take and didn't care about what grades I got. They figured just the experience was enough. If I was surviving, fine.
But today people think college is a glorified trade school. That you go to college to get a job. And that's one hundred eighty degrees from my background.
Really, it all comes down to being able to think. And you can teach this, but people don't want to learn. Because if you can think it separates you from the rest of the public, the somnambulant sheep who are afraid to go against the grain.
But you win by going against the grain.
I don't expect most people to read this book. But if you think finance is your future, you must.
And you should read it just to discover how many hurdles candidates have to go through to get these jobs, which are nearly impossible to get.
But the system... The only people who can really change it are artists. But the "artists" of today have capitulated. The legendary artists were separate from their fans, lived outside the law, both literally and figuratively. But now that life is so hard, many who can think, who have the ability to become artists, see the long odds and play it safe, and go into banking.
And then there are the CEOs who think they are artists. That's the change in the record business from yesterday to today. Used to be you signed a contract and delivered the record and the label marketed and sold it. The kind of meddling Clive Davis did is anathema to artistry. That's the great thing about music, it comes from personal inspiration, and when you mess with the inspiration, adjust the product for commerciality, it loses its essence.
If you want to learn more about how the world works, read "Private Equity: A Memoir."
Or don't.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
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--
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At what point do you wake up and become your own person. At what point do you throw off your parents' expectations and own your true identity?
Many baby boomers never have. The most passionate music fans I know are MD's. They jumped through all the hoops, they aced Organic Chem, so they could ultimately fulfill their parents' dream, becoming a doctor.
But that's not what they really wanted to do.
Now maybe you didn't have parents who instilled their hopes and dreams in you, didn't get angry when you brought home a bad report card. Weren't worried if you veered off course into drugs and alcohol. Years back, I might have envied you. Because my parents were relentless. There was no doubt I was going to college, and it had better be a good one! It was expected of me.
And I'll save you the ups and downs, but I'm conflicted about my college experience. On one hand I feel superior, because of the focus on the ability to think, write and analyze. I didn't take a single objective test in college, not one. You'd get those blue books and what you didn't know you B.S.'ed about. Then again, the college experience so many of my friends had was completely different. They could take courses outside the narrow confines of the classical canon, they could study little and still get A's. They could find people just like them in the student body.
The world is different now. There's a bifurcation between the rich and entitled and the rest of us. I didn't know I was underprivileged going to public school until I went to college where 45% of the students had prepped. Forget leaving home, they were so much better read than the rest of us. They understood the game.
Today everybody is looking for an edge. We didn't see it as an edge. We didn't do volunteer work so it would look good on our college applications. We just ground and ground to get good grades and...
Many people could never give up the grind.
That happened for me the first semester. With one extra point I could have gotten a B+. In high school, you went to the teacher and grubbed for it, usually successfully. I just couldn't do that anymore.
But I did end up going to law school. Which was instilled in me as a destination before I even entered school, kindergarten, that is. But that was because I was down and out with the world's worst case of mononucleosis and the only advantage of going to law school was I was an expert when Napster hit, that's about it.
Took me a long time to become who I am. To accept who I am. I mean you see movers and shakers and are envious. Then you learn they're different from you, and that is not a bad thing.
So what we've got here is an only child of immigrant parents who finished MIT in three years and goes into finance. Drops out after a few years at Fidelity, and then ends up at a hedge fund, supporting the majordomo.
Most people have no idea what a hedge fund truly is. They know almost nothing about finance. But at this late date seemingly everybody knows these people makes tons of money. And they do. But by time you're done with this book if you still want to go into finance...well, you only care about money, like hedge funders in this book. They protest that they're helping, solving problems, saving the world, but that's all B.S. It's money that they want.
Now don't think you can make this kind of money being an artist, musical or otherwise. Never mind that the odds are nearly impossible.
Believe me, these hedge funders, these financiers, they jumped through all the educational hoops, they work 'round the clock, but at the core their lives are empty. Because money can't keep you warm at night.
For all the hype about elite business people being a-holes, usually that is not the case. When you get to the top you can afford to be nice. Get a meeting with some household name and this will surprise you. The people you know, who you hang out with, can only say negative things about these executives. But they've never met them. There's so much they don't know. And so much most people don't know. But if you read this book...
Now if you're completely unfamiliar with money, with finance you may not know what Ms. Sun is talking about. She describes everything, but doesn't repeat herself. There's lingo, and concepts beneath the lingo, and if you read the 'Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times" Business section every day you'll know what she is talking about.
Then again, most people buy the conventional wisdom that the mainstream media is anathema. It's their loss. Furthermore, I'll let you in on a little secret. Success all comes down to information. And it's great if you're a player, but interestingly so much of the information is public, available to all. And if you spend your time investigating, learning, you can truly come up to speed. But most people would rather complain that they were left out. It's your choice.
But really, to succeed, you need to know how the world works. And the world runs on money. And if you don't know money, you're already a step behind.
And the truth is there is SO MUCH MONEY!
People watch television, read about the celebrities, they think they know rich, but they've got no idea. Never mind so many of the rich want no publicity, it only brings downsides. Carrie's boss is all about time. And if it saves time, money is no object. NetJets takes too long to deliver a plane. So the boss buys a Bombardier. But is unhappy that he's got to shake hands with those who built it. He just wants to get on it and fly home.
And there's recreation too. The boss is into surfing. He has Carrie track the waves, and if they're good, he'll drop everything and go, But if you think he can go on a surfing hejira for months, you're wrong, You see the boss can't miss a thing. He's constantly making bets, based on information. Not only trading stocks, but investing in tech companies.
And Carrie is his slave. Highly compensated, with 5k gift cards to boot. She can go to Stockholm for the weekend, the only issue is the time, not the money.
But she's on call 24/7. And she's never ever treated as an equal.
She's overworked and ultimately complains, but the boss never hears her, never.
Meanwhile he keeps talking about the opportunity, the privilege of working at the company, the front row seat to what is really going on in the world. And he emphasizes self-subjugation, that it's all about the team, put on a happy face, but that's all hogwash, he only cares about himself and making money.
You know how this turns out.
But unless you've worked at a hedge fund you have no idea what is really going on.
So reading this book I wondered why anybody would go into finance. Sounds empty and awful, A lot of money, sure, but I've never lived only for the money. But so many of those who graduate from elite colleges can't withstand the pull.
Now if you didn't go to an elite institution, or if you're not a math genius, you've got no opportunity here.
But having said that, everybody I know who is successful is working 'round the clock. If you have time off, either you've already made it or never will.
And if you want to make it in the arts... You've got to be the opposite of everything catalogued in this book. You've got to be unique, an individual. You've got to think for yourself. You've got to learn how to say no. This is what bugs me when people complain about streaming payments. Your focus is all wrong. If you are truly an artist of note the money will come, but the truth is almost nobody is an artist of note. The funny thing is they don't believe this, but they would not say they're ready to perform surgery or run a hedge fund,..but something even more difficult, become a unique artist? That they can do. Yeah, right.
Now when I went to college my parents never told me what courses to take and didn't care about what grades I got. They figured just the experience was enough. If I was surviving, fine.
But today people think college is a glorified trade school. That you go to college to get a job. And that's one hundred eighty degrees from my background.
Really, it all comes down to being able to think. And you can teach this, but people don't want to learn. Because if you can think it separates you from the rest of the public, the somnambulant sheep who are afraid to go against the grain.
But you win by going against the grain.
I don't expect most people to read this book. But if you think finance is your future, you must.
And you should read it just to discover how many hurdles candidates have to go through to get these jobs, which are nearly impossible to get.
But the system... The only people who can really change it are artists. But the "artists" of today have capitulated. The legendary artists were separate from their fans, lived outside the law, both literally and figuratively. But now that life is so hard, many who can think, who have the ability to become artists, see the long odds and play it safe, and go into banking.
And then there are the CEOs who think they are artists. That's the change in the record business from yesterday to today. Used to be you signed a contract and delivered the record and the label marketed and sold it. The kind of meddling Clive Davis did is anathema to artistry. That's the great thing about music, it comes from personal inspiration, and when you mess with the inspiration, adjust the product for commerciality, it loses its essence.
If you want to learn more about how the world works, read "Private Equity: A Memoir."
Or don't.
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