The Attention Game

You've got to decide which track you're on, whether you truly have a mass cause or something that is inherently narrow and promote accordingly.

In entertainment nothing is for everyone. We got the last hurrah of the power of overwhelming publicity with Taylor Swift's Eras tour, which all media believed was a phenomenon and convinced the public of same. However, now there are multiple acts playing stadiums. In multiple genres. Some of which you don't like, if not all of them. So the publicity slides right off of you or alienates you or BOTH!

Now if you're in the narrowcasting business, the niches, which is almost everybody, truth and credibility are key, your goal is to create a solid bond with an audience that will never leave you.

If you're going broad, it's about frequency and bombast, the truth is irrelevant.

This is the new world. Almost no one can help you but yourself.

Yesterday's "New York Times" article on Lola Young says this:

"A few years ago, Shymansky brought on Lily West, a friend of his younger sister, to make honing Young's visual persona fun, instead of a chore dictated by her label. They tried for years to 'crack it,' West said, making amateur montages of couples in public, jumping on forced trends, filming bad dances.

"Eventually, they happened upon a gimmick that worked, bringing attention to Young's textured voice by putting her behind a huge professional microphone in unlikely locations (a swing, a canoe, a beach) and allowing her to sing live."

http://bit.ly/45CnUda

You break yourself, on social media, and to do that you have to uncover a strategy that works, and feed the monster CONSTANTLY!

Never mind all the no-talents doing the same thing trying to gain traction. You're competing against the greatest hits of all time, all of them available on streaming services, and the great unwashed who believe they deserve attention, who've got a lot more drive than talent.

So think small. Everybody in the music business should think small. It's all about knowing who your fanbase is and superserving them. Only they can grow you. The rest of the public has too much going on to pay attention to you. And chances are if they check you out as a result of hype they won't like you. Your only hope is that your superfans spread the word.

If someone hears positive things from superfans multiple times, they might give you a listen. Otherwise...

You can bug gatekeepers, but in truth they've lost their power. Radio goes on records AFTER they've been broken and are climbing the chart on Spotify.

You are responsible for your own success. And the music is not enough, it must be available.

Now on TikTok you have an opportunity to make fans, because the algorithm is in control, feeding viewers stuff that they probably wouldn't pull. So is your video so arresting that people will want to see more of you? If not, give up.

Now if you've established a career the old way in the old days, you can muddle along. But if you're just starting out, trying to break, this is the game you must play.

Forget the labels, they can't do anything for you other than write a check and give you a bad royalty rate. You have to do it for yourself.

Everybody is cottage industry these days. Even Trump. That's what makes his social media posts so arresting... They come directly from him, outrage and misspellings galore! You may not like it, but those who support him love it! It's almost punk. Even though he went to Penn, he's showing his fans that all the decorum and erudition of the elite is irrelevant to him, he's down and dirty, a veritable metal band.

And the Democrats are flummoxed.

We live in the era of the individual. The corporations have made the tools...then again, we can't stop hearing about Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg...they're all out there making pronouncements willy-nilly, whereas the majordomos of old school enterprises are quiet. Hell, Lucian Grainge should be all over social media, drawing attention to Universal Music (then again, he's so overpaid the blowback might be fierce). Daniel Ek is smart, he knows he's a target, so he stays quiet. But if you've got something to sell, you must be in the game constantly.

Ticketmaster, like Ek, shuts up, because it knows nothing it can say can sway the public's perception of them. And like Netanyahu, THEY DON'T CARE! We were made to believe that news and public opinion swayed the minds of those in power. No more! Beat up on Trump all you want, so far it hasn't made a difference, all you can do is steal attention from him. That's how you win in today's game, with attention. And the underlying message is not enough. The beast, the public needs to be fed 24/7.

Railing against the system is doing you no good. Which is why all the anti-tech screeds in elite publications are a joke. The smartphone and social media are here to stay. Do you think the people scrolling TikTok care what the "New York Times" has to say about it? That's like convincing people not to see superhero movies because they're lowbrow. We no longer live in a cohesive society, everybody is on their own path, and the sooner you realize the better.


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