You'd read an article about that, right?
Actually, I caught up a week late, reading the responses, in the "New York" magazine that just arrived today. And after finishing that issue, I delved into the prior one, containing the aforementioned article, which was billed on the cover as "Does Money Make You Mean? How even a little bit of wealth changes personality."
But the article was boring. Other than the quiz. Which I'm not sure is online. I found myself skimming. Then I came across this:
"T. Byram Karasu, a psychiatrist at Albert Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center who treats wealthy clients, believes all very successful people share certain fundamental character traits. They have above-average intelligence, street smarts, and a high tolerance for anxiety. 'They are sexual and aggressive,' he says. 'They are also competitive with anyone and have no fear of confrontations; in fact, they thrive on them. And in contrast to their image, they are not extroverted. They become charmingly engaging when needed, but in their private world, they are private people.' They are, in the parlance, all business."
Whew!
Let's start at the end. With the "charmingly engaged" bit.
Despite the existence of mega-corporations in the music business, almost each and every man, and they're all men, running these enterprises started out as an entrepreneur. One can argue they're working for the man so they can rape and pillage, not their customers or competitors, but the corporation itself. That's why they went inside. For access to all that dough. And a steady paycheck.
That's what you can't understand. With such a high guaranteed salary, why do they need such extreme bonuses?
That proves the point, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
My initial point is each and every one of these men is charming. When they need something. That's what the acts can't fathom, how nice these execs are when they want something, you, and how disengaged they become after they've acquired you, or you've lost your fame.
That's how they're wired.
As for revealing intimacies, inadequacies, peccadilloes, they never do this, to be a powerful music business executive is to be stunningly private. The only person privy to their inner thoughts is their significant other, and oftentimes they don't even share with her or him. You see they're at war. They're on high alert. They're on the road to victory. They can show no vulnerability.
Now let's go back to the beginning. Each and every one of these music business titans is smart. I know them, trust me. They may not have gone to Harvard, then again, I know many people who went to Ivy League schools who don't even make six figures. Let's just say they were born that way. But they also have incredible street smarts. They can see how the game is played, where the edges are.
That's one of the reasons they make the big bucks. They can see where the extra dollars are, how to put together a deal so everyone comes out ahead just a bit. You won't hear the truth in public, at a conference, but go to dinner and hear the history, you'll be stunned. These street smart hustlers know where every dollar is buried and they're like generals, they never get depressed and despondent, if they lose today, they're figuring out how to win tomorrow.
As for the high tolerance of anxiety... I find that fascinating, because anxiety rules my life. But being an entrepreneur, which is how all these men got started, is fraught with anxiety. There is no safety net. You might manage a great act, but without a record deal and tour receipts, your commission ends up at zero. You're starving.
As for confrontation... That's what they do best. Get up on their high horse and kick and scream and yell and blow your house down. If you don't have this gene you're utterly overwhelmed, you cede ground just to evade the tsunami. Meanwhile, their issue isn't really anger management, they know what they're doing. They're intimidating you. That's how they win. Hell, Billy Beane admitted to this when I interviewed him and Michael Lewis at Pollstar...
So, are you one of the above people?
You think your 10,000 hours of dedication is enough. Have you ever met any rock stars? They're rarely nice. They're incredibly self-centered, they're the definition of narcissists. It's incredibly disillusioning to meet your musical heroes. It almost always disappoints.
Are you this kind of jerk?
If not, you're probably not going to make it. No diss. You're probably a very nice person. But we're talking about winning, power and money here, and that's got nothing to do with nice. Hell, this whole article posits that the wealthier you are, the nastier, less-caring of others you are.
You're slaving away for the company, working fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. You think you're working your way up. Probably not. Your boss sees you as a peon, if he even knows your name. He'll yell when you screw up, maybe kiss your behind when he needs something, but you're not friends. And if he needs to fill an important position, he's gonna hire someone he trusts, which may not be you, but someone from the outside, because he doesn't really know you. Furthermore, it's all about loyalty. Would you break the law for your boss? Would you refuse to turn him in if he committed a crime? If not, you're definitely going nowhere in the corporation.
Now we're not saying these titans are happy. Money doesn't buy you happiness. Unless you're close to broke. But our whole country is focused on the 1%. We alternate between loathing them and wanting to be them. As for wanting to be them, the article goes on to say "Nearly half of Americans between 18 and 29 believe it's 'likely' they'll get rich, according to Gallup - in spite of all evidence to the contrary."
So, half the public is deluding itself. Which is okay, as long as you're not at the edge of despair.
But if you want to be a winner, certainly in the music business, you can't be a nice guy, you can't be a compassionate soul who empathizes with the little guy. Because those people don't win at business. Sorry to say.
So instead of complaining that you're not rich and powerful, look inside. Ask who you are. Be thrilled with being a nice person, revere your spouse, have fun with your friends, something these winners usually have none of, but don't think you got a raw deal, that somehow you missed your chance.
You never had a chance. You weren't wired that way.
Maybe you can take some lessons and learn how to compete.
But that's hard to do. And do you want to?
http://nymag.com/news/features/money-brain-2012-7/
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Friday, 13 July 2012
Rhinofy-The KISS I Like
I hate KISS. Or is it Kiss? No disrespect intended, from now on I'm going to use the latter. Then again, this is all about disrespect. Kiss was a johnny-come-lately with lousy songs that appealed to those who'd only recently experienced puberty. They went on the road playing their lame music to pyrotechnics, trying to force little kids into submission, yet it didn't work at all.
Until suddenly the band released a live album and "Rock And Roll All Nite" permeated the airwaves.
I like that cut.
This is all about the Kiss songs I like.
And there aren't many.
But there are some.
"Lick It Up"
Credit MTV. Without the outlet, this track would have had no traction, I'd have been oblivious. But every time this video came on, I stopped in my tracks and watched. It was like sucking down a Fudgesicle, all gooey and tasty, and it became the very first Kiss track I loved with all my heart, with no reservations.
Not that it's Hall of Fame worthy. And no, I don't believe Kiss belongs inside. Then again, certainly before Patti Smith and Madonna and so many other acts. Hell, they've got a place in the firmament. Maybe if they inducted the band Gene Simmons would publicize the joint and make it legit. But "Lick It Up" titillates and makes me nod my head and feel good all over, and isn't that what rock and roll is all about?
And isn't it interesting that this was when the band had run out of tricks and removed their makeup... You see it all really does come down to the music.
"Lick it up, lick it up..."
No, the success of the track is not due to the lyrics, but the guitars. Yes, despite Gene's tongue-extending trick being well-known at this point, the chorus is catchy but the meaning is irrelevant. But that guitar, it's like the track underneath the roller coaster, I'd ride that ANYWHERE!
It's crunchy and distorted. It's everything your parents hate. Even though at this point I was long gone from the family home. But the best rock and roll makes people uncomfortable. It's the squeal, the wail of the guitars. And here, it's really just about the riff. The sound of it.
But then there's the break... With the descending waterfall of picking at 2:40 that makes you feel like you're in the shower with the person of your dreams. It's the little things that matter, and it's this exquisite section that puts the track over the top.
Credit Vinnie Vincent for the magic.
Isn't it funny that Gene's got no room for anybody else's talent. Maybe if Vincent had remained in the band they would have done more memorable work.
Alas, soon he was gone, just like Peter and Ace.
But while he was around...
Still, what makes it a Kiss song is Paul Stanley's vocal. Just a bit too high in the register, just a bit strained, like his head is barely above water and he's fighting for survival. I'm not sure Paul would have made it without Gene, but being so close to the marketing savant, his image has been brought down. It's Paul who cowrote this song with Vinnie. Gene bullies his way in, but he possesses mediocre talent at best.
Meanwhile, there is one good lyric...
"You gotta live like you're on vacation"
No, the key is to have a job that feels like a vacation.
Still, vacation is an attitude, one that's carefree and irreverent, that takes no crap but doesn't care that much about it.
I wouldn't put "Lick It Up" in my personal pantheon, but I still smile every time I hear it.
"Cold Gin"
Yes, it's on the debut. But it didn't penetrate me until years later, until this century, when I heard it on XM.
You see on one level, "Cold Gin" sounded like everything else on the radio in the seventies, but that era's history, and what blended into the background back then now sticks out.
It's all about the riff.
Kiss is about loneliness. Male loneliness.
But when you hear the riff to "Cold Gin", you're alone no more.
Get behind the wheel, tear the tab on your beer, cruise down the highway in your jalopy and feel good... That's the power of a riff.
Once again, not written by Gene, but Ace.
(As for driving drunk...that's what we all used to do. Sorry for reporting the truth!)
"I Was Made For Lovin' You"
Unlike the Beach Boys, Kiss actually made a good disco song. Hell, you could listen to the entire track and not even know it was Kiss. Credit Desmond Child and Vini Poncia, who cowrote the song with Paul Stanley.
It rocks, it's danceable, yet not wimpy. It's not that different from club music today. It's all about leaving your inhibitions at the door and surrendering to the mood, the music.
"Crazy Crazy Nights"
Okay, now I'm starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. This is so pedestrian, it almost doesn't belong on this list. But then there's the chorus. As hooky as anything in the Top Forty today.
That's what we're all looking for, crazy crazy nights. When we're so busy, running on adrenaline, that anything can happen, and does.
These are the good times we remember.
And there's a soundtrack to each and every one of them.
"Crazy Crazy Nights" fits some of them well.
"Forever"
If this sounds like a Michael Bolton track, it's because it is. Bolton cowrote it with Paul Stanley. Close your eyes and you can hear Bolton singing it. Or oversinging it, as the case may be.
Never forget Michael Bolotin tried to be a rocker before he became a schmaltzmeister. And I believe deep down inside, he still is. Instead, he got rich and famous singing saccharine ballads and was abused. Then again, I LOVE that Mutt Lange cut "Said I Loved You...But I Lied".
Yes, this a power ballad, from that era where guys in leather wimped out on MTV, but if you're not too proud to like a ballad, this is just as good as the Bon Jovi stuff. There are pretty good changes, your girlfriend likes it, which means...you might get lucky.
And don't you love that twinkly guitar in the intro?
"Forever" is not as good as the Beach Boys song of the same name, but it's not tripe. Then again, it really is tripe, but tasty tripe.
"Reason To Live"
Speaking of Bon Jovi, this was cowritten by the aforementioned Desmond Child, who had a hand in so many of Bon Jovi's classics. And this sounds straight off a Bon Jovi album, but that does not mean it's no good.
Desmond is all about the changes. And the anthemic singalong parts. And when he does it right, it doesn't reek of hackdom, you feel manipulated, but you don't really mind, it's like sucking down a McDonald's shake, you know it's full of artificial ingredients, but it still tastes good.
"God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II"
Many of the movie soundtracks are not on Spotify. So this track, from "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey", doesn't appear under that title. But Kiss ultimately included it on their own album, "Revenge". And despite additional credit given to Simmons, Stanley and producer Bob Ezrin, the arrangement is essentially identical to the Argent original.
It's hard to understate how big Argent was in that summer of '72, when "Hold Your Head Up" dominated the airwaves.
"Hold Your Head Up" is better than anything Kiss ever did, in its entire career. Because Gene is a hack and Paul is a journeyman but Russ Ballard is an artist, not to underestimate the wizardry added by Rod Argent, who had success with Colin Blunstone before. And it is the keyboard textures that put "Hold Your Head Up" over, but without Russ's voice, never mind the underlying song, you've got nothing.
And after this monstrous hit, Argent followed it up with..."God Gave Rock And Roll To You". Which stiffed completely.
Now if Gene Simmons were in Argent, they wouldn't be forgotten. Then again, he would have been kicked out early on.
But the point is despite stiffing, "God Gave Rock And Roll To You" is a very good song, and when rescued from the dustbin by Kiss, it was turned into a hit.
Still, I don't think there's a kid under twenty five, maybe thirty, who knows "Hold Your Head Up". Not that they wouldn't love it, but no one's championing it, no one's keeping it alive.
And don't get me started on "Liar", from the band's debut. A perfect concoction with a haunting Ballard vocal, at least Three Dog Night turned it into a hit, you might hear it on oldies radio now and again.
"Rock And Roll All Nite"
And then there's this.
The studio take isn't bad, but the live cut was the hit, with the propulsive drums and the crunchy guitar (akin to the one in "Lick It Up"!)
And there you have it, the Kiss I like.
No "Detroit Rock City", no "Strutter", no "Christine Sixteen" and certainly no "Beth". Not that they're bad, but they're not good! They're serviceable, and that's not enough in rock and roll.
But back in the days when not every band came to your town, when you were too young for the Beatles, Kiss might have hit your sweet spot. You may like them.
But they're positively second-rate.
But Gene Simmons willed them to success. Put him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for that!
P.S. I know, Spotify is laden with lame covers. But back in the last century, when it took some money to imitate, and you had to be a bit creative, an outfit called Hayseed Dixie did country/bluegrass versions of...AC/DC. And not only was it a laugh, it was more than a novelty, you could listen to it. Ultimately, Hayseed Dixie gave Kiss the same treatment. And the cover of "Rock And Roll All Nite" misses, and "Lick It Up" is too fast, but "Cold Gin", slowed down, with a lazy groove, works. Check it out.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Until suddenly the band released a live album and "Rock And Roll All Nite" permeated the airwaves.
I like that cut.
This is all about the Kiss songs I like.
And there aren't many.
But there are some.
"Lick It Up"
Credit MTV. Without the outlet, this track would have had no traction, I'd have been oblivious. But every time this video came on, I stopped in my tracks and watched. It was like sucking down a Fudgesicle, all gooey and tasty, and it became the very first Kiss track I loved with all my heart, with no reservations.
Not that it's Hall of Fame worthy. And no, I don't believe Kiss belongs inside. Then again, certainly before Patti Smith and Madonna and so many other acts. Hell, they've got a place in the firmament. Maybe if they inducted the band Gene Simmons would publicize the joint and make it legit. But "Lick It Up" titillates and makes me nod my head and feel good all over, and isn't that what rock and roll is all about?
And isn't it interesting that this was when the band had run out of tricks and removed their makeup... You see it all really does come down to the music.
"Lick it up, lick it up..."
No, the success of the track is not due to the lyrics, but the guitars. Yes, despite Gene's tongue-extending trick being well-known at this point, the chorus is catchy but the meaning is irrelevant. But that guitar, it's like the track underneath the roller coaster, I'd ride that ANYWHERE!
It's crunchy and distorted. It's everything your parents hate. Even though at this point I was long gone from the family home. But the best rock and roll makes people uncomfortable. It's the squeal, the wail of the guitars. And here, it's really just about the riff. The sound of it.
But then there's the break... With the descending waterfall of picking at 2:40 that makes you feel like you're in the shower with the person of your dreams. It's the little things that matter, and it's this exquisite section that puts the track over the top.
Credit Vinnie Vincent for the magic.
Isn't it funny that Gene's got no room for anybody else's talent. Maybe if Vincent had remained in the band they would have done more memorable work.
Alas, soon he was gone, just like Peter and Ace.
But while he was around...
Still, what makes it a Kiss song is Paul Stanley's vocal. Just a bit too high in the register, just a bit strained, like his head is barely above water and he's fighting for survival. I'm not sure Paul would have made it without Gene, but being so close to the marketing savant, his image has been brought down. It's Paul who cowrote this song with Vinnie. Gene bullies his way in, but he possesses mediocre talent at best.
Meanwhile, there is one good lyric...
"You gotta live like you're on vacation"
No, the key is to have a job that feels like a vacation.
Still, vacation is an attitude, one that's carefree and irreverent, that takes no crap but doesn't care that much about it.
I wouldn't put "Lick It Up" in my personal pantheon, but I still smile every time I hear it.
"Cold Gin"
Yes, it's on the debut. But it didn't penetrate me until years later, until this century, when I heard it on XM.
You see on one level, "Cold Gin" sounded like everything else on the radio in the seventies, but that era's history, and what blended into the background back then now sticks out.
It's all about the riff.
Kiss is about loneliness. Male loneliness.
But when you hear the riff to "Cold Gin", you're alone no more.
Get behind the wheel, tear the tab on your beer, cruise down the highway in your jalopy and feel good... That's the power of a riff.
Once again, not written by Gene, but Ace.
(As for driving drunk...that's what we all used to do. Sorry for reporting the truth!)
"I Was Made For Lovin' You"
Unlike the Beach Boys, Kiss actually made a good disco song. Hell, you could listen to the entire track and not even know it was Kiss. Credit Desmond Child and Vini Poncia, who cowrote the song with Paul Stanley.
It rocks, it's danceable, yet not wimpy. It's not that different from club music today. It's all about leaving your inhibitions at the door and surrendering to the mood, the music.
"Crazy Crazy Nights"
Okay, now I'm starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. This is so pedestrian, it almost doesn't belong on this list. But then there's the chorus. As hooky as anything in the Top Forty today.
That's what we're all looking for, crazy crazy nights. When we're so busy, running on adrenaline, that anything can happen, and does.
These are the good times we remember.
And there's a soundtrack to each and every one of them.
"Crazy Crazy Nights" fits some of them well.
"Forever"
If this sounds like a Michael Bolton track, it's because it is. Bolton cowrote it with Paul Stanley. Close your eyes and you can hear Bolton singing it. Or oversinging it, as the case may be.
Never forget Michael Bolotin tried to be a rocker before he became a schmaltzmeister. And I believe deep down inside, he still is. Instead, he got rich and famous singing saccharine ballads and was abused. Then again, I LOVE that Mutt Lange cut "Said I Loved You...But I Lied".
Yes, this a power ballad, from that era where guys in leather wimped out on MTV, but if you're not too proud to like a ballad, this is just as good as the Bon Jovi stuff. There are pretty good changes, your girlfriend likes it, which means...you might get lucky.
And don't you love that twinkly guitar in the intro?
"Forever" is not as good as the Beach Boys song of the same name, but it's not tripe. Then again, it really is tripe, but tasty tripe.
"Reason To Live"
Speaking of Bon Jovi, this was cowritten by the aforementioned Desmond Child, who had a hand in so many of Bon Jovi's classics. And this sounds straight off a Bon Jovi album, but that does not mean it's no good.
Desmond is all about the changes. And the anthemic singalong parts. And when he does it right, it doesn't reek of hackdom, you feel manipulated, but you don't really mind, it's like sucking down a McDonald's shake, you know it's full of artificial ingredients, but it still tastes good.
"God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II"
Many of the movie soundtracks are not on Spotify. So this track, from "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey", doesn't appear under that title. But Kiss ultimately included it on their own album, "Revenge". And despite additional credit given to Simmons, Stanley and producer Bob Ezrin, the arrangement is essentially identical to the Argent original.
It's hard to understate how big Argent was in that summer of '72, when "Hold Your Head Up" dominated the airwaves.
"Hold Your Head Up" is better than anything Kiss ever did, in its entire career. Because Gene is a hack and Paul is a journeyman but Russ Ballard is an artist, not to underestimate the wizardry added by Rod Argent, who had success with Colin Blunstone before. And it is the keyboard textures that put "Hold Your Head Up" over, but without Russ's voice, never mind the underlying song, you've got nothing.
And after this monstrous hit, Argent followed it up with..."God Gave Rock And Roll To You". Which stiffed completely.
Now if Gene Simmons were in Argent, they wouldn't be forgotten. Then again, he would have been kicked out early on.
But the point is despite stiffing, "God Gave Rock And Roll To You" is a very good song, and when rescued from the dustbin by Kiss, it was turned into a hit.
Still, I don't think there's a kid under twenty five, maybe thirty, who knows "Hold Your Head Up". Not that they wouldn't love it, but no one's championing it, no one's keeping it alive.
And don't get me started on "Liar", from the band's debut. A perfect concoction with a haunting Ballard vocal, at least Three Dog Night turned it into a hit, you might hear it on oldies radio now and again.
"Rock And Roll All Nite"
And then there's this.
The studio take isn't bad, but the live cut was the hit, with the propulsive drums and the crunchy guitar (akin to the one in "Lick It Up"!)
And there you have it, the Kiss I like.
No "Detroit Rock City", no "Strutter", no "Christine Sixteen" and certainly no "Beth". Not that they're bad, but they're not good! They're serviceable, and that's not enough in rock and roll.
But back in the days when not every band came to your town, when you were too young for the Beatles, Kiss might have hit your sweet spot. You may like them.
But they're positively second-rate.
But Gene Simmons willed them to success. Put him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for that!
P.S. I know, Spotify is laden with lame covers. But back in the last century, when it took some money to imitate, and you had to be a bit creative, an outfit called Hayseed Dixie did country/bluegrass versions of...AC/DC. And not only was it a laugh, it was more than a novelty, you could listen to it. Ultimately, Hayseed Dixie gave Kiss the same treatment. And the cover of "Rock And Roll All Nite" misses, and "Lick It Up" is too fast, but "Cold Gin", slowed down, with a lazy groove, works. Check it out.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz
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Thursday, 12 July 2012
I Hate Radio Festival
I thought Taylor Swift was taking a year off.
What has Bob Pittman ever done, other than take undeserved credit and trump up publicity to make it look like he's a wunderkind when in reality he's a self-satisfied huckster barely different from a used car salesman.
Do we really believe he started MTV all by his lonesome? Talk to anybody else who worked there, you'll get a different story.
And Six Flags... What hubris, being in the commercials. Didn't he learn that Eisner failed as the face of Disney, that it only worked with Walt?
And now Pittman's running Clear Channel radio. A moniker that's a pejorative. As in everybody hates it, as in everybody believes Clear Channel stands for everything wrong with the AM and FM dials.
But now Pittman's making inroads with I Heart Radio, well, it was there before he began, and now he's got a festival to trump the lame service which is nothing more than terrestrial radio on the Internet and a me-too Pandora service, which sucks in itself, by the way. Hell, can Pandora survive now that Spotify's got a free app? You get more for your buck with Daniel Ek's service. Then again, people keep e-mailing me about Pandora, actually that stopped about six months ago, the bloom is off the rose, but the point is people don't always know what's good for them, they don't explore the alternatives, which may be why terrestrial radio sucks so bad yet still has listeners.
I'm talking about music radio. I understand news and talk. It's real time, it's engaging. But music radio, commercial music radio, is all jive deejays spewing useless information while they play the hits others have chosen. Hate Ryan Seacrest? I do. He's the poster boy for everything that's wrong with terrestrial radio, what's wrong with our country. The people don't like Ryan, the media does. But that media means less and less everyday.
But the major labels are part of old media, and they think terrestrial radio is king. When it dies, the executives will be gone, having reaped their bonuses and fulfilled their contracts. Nobody's looking long term at the labels, because nobody owns one. Otherwise they'd be freaked out, worrying about what to do five or ten years from now. Instead, they just do what they've always done, in a weird combo of that old Talking Heads song and "Groundhog Day".
In other words, they're afraid to piss off radio.
So radio says "Do my show...or else."
These radio shows are positioned as givebacks to the fans. They're really givebacks to the stations, for playing the act's music. And if you don't show, suddenly the airwaves go silent, your music disappears. You think artists would have united to stop this heinous practice, but it continues to flourish. No one wants to be Curt Flood, they just want to profit themselves. Which is what wrought ticketing fees. Do you see any artists replicating Louis CK's anti ticket fee strategy? Of course not! Because they want the Live Nation/AEG guarantees, and they want them high.
But what if all the artists refused to play these payback live shows... Would radio really play indie records? Of course not, the stations depend on hits. It's not the stations that have the power, but the acts, but the acts are too stupid to realize this.
And the stations are penetrating the artists from the rear. Because they won't pay royalties for recordings. They fight it in Congress, claiming poverty. Meanwhile, stations in the rest of the world pay, and even worse, Americans don't get this money because there's no reciprocal right.
But no individual artist is willing to raise his head and complain. Yup, you're supposed to make it in music on your individuality, but when it comes to standing up for your rights, everybody's a faceless member of the group, letting some suit do their bidding. You wonder why I hate today's artists. They don't stand for anything, other than what's expedient.
But Scott Borchetta makes a deal with Clear Channel for his label, Big Machine, to get sound recording performance royalties. But it's not that complicated, there's a quid pro quo. THAT'S WHY TAYLOR SWIFT IS PLAYING THE I HEART RADIO FESTIVAL!
Scott Borchetta is part of the problem. He's doing what's right for himself, not everybody else. He could have fought Clear Channel, instead he broke rank for personal gain.
And what's worse, Clear Channel owns so many stations it's got tons of power. This is what we're worried about in the Universal/EMI merger. A little birdie called me today. Said how in a foreign market Wal-Mart sells hit compilations with only Universal music. Yup, Lucian's label strong-armed them. They own so much repertoire they can leave the other companies out.
Maybe if Taylor Swift herself said no. The biggest star in today's music business.
But she can't. She owes Borchetta. And there isn't an artist alive who isn't afraid it'll all end tomorrow.
But she needs time off, to clear her brain and compose a follow-up.
Isn't this what killed Kurt Cobain, handlers telling him he had to perform instead of taking mental health time?
But no individual act is bigger than the business.
Or is he or she?
That's the Curt Flood point. One man or woman can change the rules.
But it's got to be someone in the game. Someone willing to put his money where his mouth is.
Instead, the acts playing radio festivals are willing to burn out markets, take money from their kitty and give it to the stations, all for giving programming for free to same stations. Oh, there are publishing monies, then again, once upon a time exhibitors didn't want to pay those either.
It's time to move forward.
Bob Pittman doesn't want to do a real music festival. No Coachella, Austin City Limits or Lollapalooza. No, he just wants to burnish his company's image, get press, raise the stock price, get paid.
That's what it's come to.
Music takes a back seat. The businessmen are in control. It's all about getting paid.
P.S. Pittman's doing no innovation at the stations themselves. He's not cutting commercials, wowing the customer, it's the same as it ever was. He's part of the problem, he's far from the solution.
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What has Bob Pittman ever done, other than take undeserved credit and trump up publicity to make it look like he's a wunderkind when in reality he's a self-satisfied huckster barely different from a used car salesman.
Do we really believe he started MTV all by his lonesome? Talk to anybody else who worked there, you'll get a different story.
And Six Flags... What hubris, being in the commercials. Didn't he learn that Eisner failed as the face of Disney, that it only worked with Walt?
And now Pittman's running Clear Channel radio. A moniker that's a pejorative. As in everybody hates it, as in everybody believes Clear Channel stands for everything wrong with the AM and FM dials.
But now Pittman's making inroads with I Heart Radio, well, it was there before he began, and now he's got a festival to trump the lame service which is nothing more than terrestrial radio on the Internet and a me-too Pandora service, which sucks in itself, by the way. Hell, can Pandora survive now that Spotify's got a free app? You get more for your buck with Daniel Ek's service. Then again, people keep e-mailing me about Pandora, actually that stopped about six months ago, the bloom is off the rose, but the point is people don't always know what's good for them, they don't explore the alternatives, which may be why terrestrial radio sucks so bad yet still has listeners.
I'm talking about music radio. I understand news and talk. It's real time, it's engaging. But music radio, commercial music radio, is all jive deejays spewing useless information while they play the hits others have chosen. Hate Ryan Seacrest? I do. He's the poster boy for everything that's wrong with terrestrial radio, what's wrong with our country. The people don't like Ryan, the media does. But that media means less and less everyday.
But the major labels are part of old media, and they think terrestrial radio is king. When it dies, the executives will be gone, having reaped their bonuses and fulfilled their contracts. Nobody's looking long term at the labels, because nobody owns one. Otherwise they'd be freaked out, worrying about what to do five or ten years from now. Instead, they just do what they've always done, in a weird combo of that old Talking Heads song and "Groundhog Day".
In other words, they're afraid to piss off radio.
So radio says "Do my show...or else."
These radio shows are positioned as givebacks to the fans. They're really givebacks to the stations, for playing the act's music. And if you don't show, suddenly the airwaves go silent, your music disappears. You think artists would have united to stop this heinous practice, but it continues to flourish. No one wants to be Curt Flood, they just want to profit themselves. Which is what wrought ticketing fees. Do you see any artists replicating Louis CK's anti ticket fee strategy? Of course not! Because they want the Live Nation/AEG guarantees, and they want them high.
But what if all the artists refused to play these payback live shows... Would radio really play indie records? Of course not, the stations depend on hits. It's not the stations that have the power, but the acts, but the acts are too stupid to realize this.
And the stations are penetrating the artists from the rear. Because they won't pay royalties for recordings. They fight it in Congress, claiming poverty. Meanwhile, stations in the rest of the world pay, and even worse, Americans don't get this money because there's no reciprocal right.
But no individual artist is willing to raise his head and complain. Yup, you're supposed to make it in music on your individuality, but when it comes to standing up for your rights, everybody's a faceless member of the group, letting some suit do their bidding. You wonder why I hate today's artists. They don't stand for anything, other than what's expedient.
But Scott Borchetta makes a deal with Clear Channel for his label, Big Machine, to get sound recording performance royalties. But it's not that complicated, there's a quid pro quo. THAT'S WHY TAYLOR SWIFT IS PLAYING THE I HEART RADIO FESTIVAL!
Scott Borchetta is part of the problem. He's doing what's right for himself, not everybody else. He could have fought Clear Channel, instead he broke rank for personal gain.
And what's worse, Clear Channel owns so many stations it's got tons of power. This is what we're worried about in the Universal/EMI merger. A little birdie called me today. Said how in a foreign market Wal-Mart sells hit compilations with only Universal music. Yup, Lucian's label strong-armed them. They own so much repertoire they can leave the other companies out.
Maybe if Taylor Swift herself said no. The biggest star in today's music business.
But she can't. She owes Borchetta. And there isn't an artist alive who isn't afraid it'll all end tomorrow.
But she needs time off, to clear her brain and compose a follow-up.
Isn't this what killed Kurt Cobain, handlers telling him he had to perform instead of taking mental health time?
But no individual act is bigger than the business.
Or is he or she?
That's the Curt Flood point. One man or woman can change the rules.
But it's got to be someone in the game. Someone willing to put his money where his mouth is.
Instead, the acts playing radio festivals are willing to burn out markets, take money from their kitty and give it to the stations, all for giving programming for free to same stations. Oh, there are publishing monies, then again, once upon a time exhibitors didn't want to pay those either.
It's time to move forward.
Bob Pittman doesn't want to do a real music festival. No Coachella, Austin City Limits or Lollapalooza. No, he just wants to burnish his company's image, get press, raise the stock price, get paid.
That's what it's come to.
Music takes a back seat. The businessmen are in control. It's all about getting paid.
P.S. Pittman's doing no innovation at the stations themselves. He's not cutting commercials, wowing the customer, it's the same as it ever was. He's part of the problem, he's far from the solution.
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53rd & 6th Halal Cart
We were in New York for Daniel Glass's daughter's wedding.
Say that three times fast...
Anyway, it was hot as hell. And the A/C in Felice's mother's apartment was on the fritz. But after a scorched night we hit the pavement that inspired "Summer In The City" and walked over to the Eugene O'Neill Theater to pick up our tickets for "The Book Of Mormon". Felice is a diehard South Park fan.
And just around the corner is a Shake Shack. With a line. In the hundred degree heat.
I'd like to tell you it's fantastic, unmissable, but I'd still rather go to In-N-Out, which is gonna lose the war because of its expansion policy, which is essentially a no-go. The shakes at Shake Shack are to die for, real ice cream. The fries are worthless, those crinkle-cut pudgy ones.... Fries either need to be shoestring and brown, maybe just golden, or steak cut and crispy-edged. These are neither. They're forgettable at best. You can taste the Pat LaFrieda beef, but it doesn't dominate. Which is good, but makes the burger just a bit less memorable.
Not that I told any of this to Danny Meyer. Who I ended up sitting next to at the wedding... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Felice wanted to take a cab back to the apartment, to wait for the A/C company, ironically entitled "Arista", but that seemed too wimpy to me, so I suggested we walk back.
And that's when we saw the line. At 53rd and 6th. But it was the middle of the day. I didn't pay it that much attention. People need to eat lunch. But after midnight, when we returned from the play, which is so wild you don't believe it's on Broadway, never mind won all those Tonys, I can't even repeat some of the lines in this family-oriented newsletter, ha!, (not because I don't want to but because they won't make it through the spam filters), we encountered once again...
The line at 53rd and 6th. Twenty deep. After midnight?
I had to check this out. Nothing special. Just meat on a grill.
But now I was intrigued.
The next day I spent at the Paley Center, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio. I advise you go. First and foremost, to see all the people who mean nothing to today's younger generation. Do today's kids know who Marlo Thomas is? Even Richard Pryor, who was the absolute best? And I watched the pilot of "Seinfeld", without Elaine, where Kramer is monikered "Kessler", but what truly intrigued me was John Lennon on Tom Snyder. Wherein he said he left the Beatles because he was bored. Not that the others weren't good musicians, but they always played the same thing, he wanted to make music with new people. But what about the fights? He'd known these cats since he was fifteen, the fights were over long ago. What about the jealousies? Hell, people preferred Paul, the cute one, to him and the rest of the band from the very beginning, back in Liverpool in the fifties.
Whew!
And it was after that I had the halal.
That's what they sell at the cart at 53rd and 6th. Halal. Which is meat on a grill. Beef and chicken. With white sauce, which I was afraid would give me diarrhea, hell, it was sitting out in the heat, and a red hot sauce that's akin to Tabasco. Oh, there's rice if you want it, but we're all off carbs. And a few vegies and pita. And for six bucks, I got a container full.
Not that I didn't have to wait.
The guy behind me was from Sweden... How does everybody know?
And the proprietor and his assistant couldn't have been less interested. One was on the cell phone the whole time and the other wouldn't even talk to me, or anyone else.
And I brought the steaming hot container back to Felice's mother's apartment and...
It wasn't the highlight of my life, but it was the food highlight of the weekend. The beef was just a little crisp, almost burnt on the edges, exactly the way I like it. And it wasn't low rent meat. And the chicken didn't have the bland taste of the hormone birds. And the sauce made the whole concoction work. I couldn't stop eating it. Even though we had to be at the wedding soon.
Which was at the Harvard Club, Daniel's daughter went there. For graduate school (she hit an Ivy for undergrad too!)
And I had an intriguing conversation with a Harvard grad who mentors kids. He counsels them to find financial independence. To put that in the mix with your dream.
And Rita Houston and I bonded. After she tweeted bad things about me in Philadelphia.
And Danny Meyer was fascinating. You always wonder about talking business with successful people. I asked him whether to order the veal or the fish and he was nonresponsive. I figured that was a generic ice breaker. But after the main course came and he leaned over and said the fish was the right call, we got into it like old buddies. There are few people you can connect with, but I connected with Danny. Because he was real, without airs. He certainly talked about his restaurants, Felice swooned when he told her he owned Maialino, the food there is so good. But more interesting was hearing the family history, of going to Trinity instead of Princeton, of finding his wife and his way.
As for meeting Daniel... He responded to his complaint!
That's what Danny does.
Imagine Doug, Lyor or Lucian responding to a customer complaint. They don't have the time for the little people. But unless you do, you're doomed, your business is going in the wrong direction.
And on Sunday we went to visit my mother in Connecticut. Where I had fried clams, with bellies, which were better than the faux item at Howard Johnson's, but nowhere near as good as any roadside stand in Wellfleet.
And of course we stopped at Carvel, it's a tradition!
And despite the heat, and the intermittent A/C, we had a wonderful time.
And one more thing... I went to MOMA. The Museum of Modern Art for the uninformed.
This income inequality is ruining the arts. Because the best and the brightest, those willing to challenge instead of fall in line, are not going into art, but banking, they need the money.
And we all need the money. But how much?
My choices are behind me.
But I fret that the younger generation has skewed values. Believing bankers are kings.
You want to know who are kings?
Those middle eastern guys at 53rd and 6th. They've got a line. That's how good their product is. It's selling itself. No advertising. No hawking.
Musicians could take a lesson from them.
But before you take the lesson, eat the food, it's fantastic!
53rd & 6th Halal Cart (be sure to check out the pics!): http://bit.ly/WwTyS
Maialino: http://www.maialinonyc.com/
"A Movable Feast: Danny Meyer on a Roll": http://nyti.ms/qU1WTF
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Say that three times fast...
Anyway, it was hot as hell. And the A/C in Felice's mother's apartment was on the fritz. But after a scorched night we hit the pavement that inspired "Summer In The City" and walked over to the Eugene O'Neill Theater to pick up our tickets for "The Book Of Mormon". Felice is a diehard South Park fan.
And just around the corner is a Shake Shack. With a line. In the hundred degree heat.
I'd like to tell you it's fantastic, unmissable, but I'd still rather go to In-N-Out, which is gonna lose the war because of its expansion policy, which is essentially a no-go. The shakes at Shake Shack are to die for, real ice cream. The fries are worthless, those crinkle-cut pudgy ones.... Fries either need to be shoestring and brown, maybe just golden, or steak cut and crispy-edged. These are neither. They're forgettable at best. You can taste the Pat LaFrieda beef, but it doesn't dominate. Which is good, but makes the burger just a bit less memorable.
Not that I told any of this to Danny Meyer. Who I ended up sitting next to at the wedding... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Felice wanted to take a cab back to the apartment, to wait for the A/C company, ironically entitled "Arista", but that seemed too wimpy to me, so I suggested we walk back.
And that's when we saw the line. At 53rd and 6th. But it was the middle of the day. I didn't pay it that much attention. People need to eat lunch. But after midnight, when we returned from the play, which is so wild you don't believe it's on Broadway, never mind won all those Tonys, I can't even repeat some of the lines in this family-oriented newsletter, ha!, (not because I don't want to but because they won't make it through the spam filters), we encountered once again...
The line at 53rd and 6th. Twenty deep. After midnight?
I had to check this out. Nothing special. Just meat on a grill.
But now I was intrigued.
The next day I spent at the Paley Center, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio. I advise you go. First and foremost, to see all the people who mean nothing to today's younger generation. Do today's kids know who Marlo Thomas is? Even Richard Pryor, who was the absolute best? And I watched the pilot of "Seinfeld", without Elaine, where Kramer is monikered "Kessler", but what truly intrigued me was John Lennon on Tom Snyder. Wherein he said he left the Beatles because he was bored. Not that the others weren't good musicians, but they always played the same thing, he wanted to make music with new people. But what about the fights? He'd known these cats since he was fifteen, the fights were over long ago. What about the jealousies? Hell, people preferred Paul, the cute one, to him and the rest of the band from the very beginning, back in Liverpool in the fifties.
Whew!
And it was after that I had the halal.
That's what they sell at the cart at 53rd and 6th. Halal. Which is meat on a grill. Beef and chicken. With white sauce, which I was afraid would give me diarrhea, hell, it was sitting out in the heat, and a red hot sauce that's akin to Tabasco. Oh, there's rice if you want it, but we're all off carbs. And a few vegies and pita. And for six bucks, I got a container full.
Not that I didn't have to wait.
The guy behind me was from Sweden... How does everybody know?
And the proprietor and his assistant couldn't have been less interested. One was on the cell phone the whole time and the other wouldn't even talk to me, or anyone else.
And I brought the steaming hot container back to Felice's mother's apartment and...
It wasn't the highlight of my life, but it was the food highlight of the weekend. The beef was just a little crisp, almost burnt on the edges, exactly the way I like it. And it wasn't low rent meat. And the chicken didn't have the bland taste of the hormone birds. And the sauce made the whole concoction work. I couldn't stop eating it. Even though we had to be at the wedding soon.
Which was at the Harvard Club, Daniel's daughter went there. For graduate school (she hit an Ivy for undergrad too!)
And I had an intriguing conversation with a Harvard grad who mentors kids. He counsels them to find financial independence. To put that in the mix with your dream.
And Rita Houston and I bonded. After she tweeted bad things about me in Philadelphia.
And Danny Meyer was fascinating. You always wonder about talking business with successful people. I asked him whether to order the veal or the fish and he was nonresponsive. I figured that was a generic ice breaker. But after the main course came and he leaned over and said the fish was the right call, we got into it like old buddies. There are few people you can connect with, but I connected with Danny. Because he was real, without airs. He certainly talked about his restaurants, Felice swooned when he told her he owned Maialino, the food there is so good. But more interesting was hearing the family history, of going to Trinity instead of Princeton, of finding his wife and his way.
As for meeting Daniel... He responded to his complaint!
That's what Danny does.
Imagine Doug, Lyor or Lucian responding to a customer complaint. They don't have the time for the little people. But unless you do, you're doomed, your business is going in the wrong direction.
And on Sunday we went to visit my mother in Connecticut. Where I had fried clams, with bellies, which were better than the faux item at Howard Johnson's, but nowhere near as good as any roadside stand in Wellfleet.
And of course we stopped at Carvel, it's a tradition!
And despite the heat, and the intermittent A/C, we had a wonderful time.
And one more thing... I went to MOMA. The Museum of Modern Art for the uninformed.
This income inequality is ruining the arts. Because the best and the brightest, those willing to challenge instead of fall in line, are not going into art, but banking, they need the money.
And we all need the money. But how much?
My choices are behind me.
But I fret that the younger generation has skewed values. Believing bankers are kings.
You want to know who are kings?
Those middle eastern guys at 53rd and 6th. They've got a line. That's how good their product is. It's selling itself. No advertising. No hawking.
Musicians could take a lesson from them.
But before you take the lesson, eat the food, it's fantastic!
53rd & 6th Halal Cart (be sure to check out the pics!): http://bit.ly/WwTyS
Maialino: http://www.maialinonyc.com/
"A Movable Feast: Danny Meyer on a Roll": http://nyti.ms/qU1WTF
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Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Update
LUCIAN GRAINGE
"'It could be in five years that the digital landscape has the same choices as the physical landscape had 25 years ago,' Mr. Grainge said."
http://on.ft.com/Ov6kqI
But it won't.
There's one iTunes, one Google, one Facebook, one Netflix, one Amazon... Anyone who thinks the future of music retailing will resemble the brick and mortar world of old is either duplicitous or dumb.
I'm sure Mr. Grainge is duplicitous. I'm not sure if he's dumb.
This is just boys with their toys. Men measuring their dicks against each other. Whenever they say it's about music, you know it's about money. Trusting what Mr. Grainge says is like trusting the pronouncements of Mitt Romney. The latter just wants to be President. Grainge just wants the Universal/EMI merger to close. Each will say whatever it takes to gain his just reward. Hell, wasn't it Romney's aide who said after the primaries the campaign will utilize an Etch A Sketch? Anybody who believes anything Grainge says will apply in the future is dreaming.
There's only competition online until one definitive winner emerges. To try to go up against this dominant player is to be Bing, a search engine Microsoft trumped up that is such a colossal failure, the company just took a write-down of $6.2 billion related to it, even after paying Yahoo and RIM to be the default search engine.
KATY PERRY
Her film is a disaster. As in no one wanted to see it. At the end of the day, the distributor might make money, but what we learned here is...
Nobody cares.
You can have a number one single right up to release and you still may have few fans.
You live and die by the hit.
To build a fan base that will support you for a long time you have to have credibility and appear not to be chasing trends.
And speaking of chasing trends... Isn't that what Ms. Perry did here? There's nothing new about a 3-D movie for a tween star. That paradigm is just about as dead as Radiohead's name your own price protocol.
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
20 million. That's how many books the trilogy has sold in the U.S. Half of them digital. (http://on.wsj.com/Ne2Ucd)
On the surface of it, it appears the music business is left in the dust. Only Adele, with just under 10 million albums sold in over a year, comes close. But if you look at single sales... There are numerous tracks that sell in excess of 5 million.
That's the new game. One of single ubiquity.
I know you hate it, I know you're living in the dark ages, I know you want to make an album-length "statement", but I'm telling you to wake up before you get left behind.
Album sales are sinking. They made sense as revenue events. But now labels won't pay you that much, and the albums don't last. The single is not about the money so much as the career. You can reach many more people with your single. But it must be so new and different or so cliched and forgettable that it gets millions to pay attention.
In other words, it must be "Somebody That I Used To Know" or "Payphone". Gotye's track was like nothing else on the radio yet it ended up being a monstrous smash. And if you think people are going to see him live because of his album, you're ignorant. People want to attach themselves to the phenomenon. And if he doesn't follow it up, he's toast. Same deal with Maroon 5.
But the point is Gotye was true to himself, Maroon 5 sold out.
But Maroon 5 is about business, money.
Which side are you on?
Either sell out to the whores who'll make you a track that sounds like everybody else's or write and record something so unique it stands on its own. The latter is harder, but replicate it a few times and you've got a career.
As for the album, no one's got time to listen to it.
In a world where no one's got time to talk on the phone, where tweets are under 140 characters and texts aren't much longer, do you think people really have time to listen to your hour plus piece of crap?
VIACOM VERSUS DIRECTTV
And AMC versus Dish, while we're at it.
This is no different from the music business. Content companies keep wanting to make more and the purchaser is saying NO MAS!
Only in this case, DirecTV and Dish are surrogates for the consumer.
Cable TV is overpriced. The model is broken. You pay for what you don't want. Yes, if you unbundled the channels and bought them all individually, you'd pay more...but do you really want all of them?
Distributors have become emboldened. Same deal with Vevo versus YouTube... YouTube does not need Vevo to survive. Vevo has less leverage than it thinks. Meanwhile, is Vevo making money or losing it? Doug Morris is talking about high costs, and the financial statements are always evasive. Then again, people love their music videos. But never forget, distribution is king, not content. Hell, if content was king everybody would leave Netflix in droves, which keeps losing stuff. But instead, people pay and find something to watch, however crummy it might be.
LOUIS CK
This is not about him avoiding Ticketmaster. If you want to discuss ticketing fees, let's just say that Louis CK is willing to leave money on the table, and musical artists are not. It's just that simple. Louis CK is willing to put in more effort and make less. Crybaby musicians won't do that. Not anybody with a fan base (don't email me and tell me you'll do it, nobody wants to see you!)
This is about radio.
But it's about more than that. It's about challenging the system.
Everybody thinks there are rules. But really, there are very few. You can choose to do it the man's way, but oftentimes you emerge further ahead in the game if you do it your own.
Read all of this, from an Louis CK interview in the A.V. Club:
"LCK: Yeah, well, I like to try stuff. I like to try to see if something can work. It's really satisfying to figure out, 'What if we try it this way? What if we made it way more pleasurable and cheaper to come see me? Or to watch my show online? And if we do this right, how much benefit were we getting from the giant companies?' The first time I ever toured in theaters - the first time I toured, really. You do comedy clubs, it's just working clubs, but the first time I went on a tour in theaters - they were like 500-to-700-seat theaters, my agent asked me some blanket questions, like, 'Here's what's going to come up,' and he said, 'What is your radio tolerance?' That's what he asked me. He said, 'What presence are you willing to let radio people have at your shows?' and I said, 'Give me an example.' And he goes, 'Well, here's all the things they will ask for in every city: Thing one is that the radio personality gets to come onstage and introduce the show. And the second thing they're going to want is a van outside, broadcasting from the show. Then they're going to want a banner onstage, with the name of the radio on it. Then they're going to want a table out in the lobby with bumper stickers.'
He just made a list of, 'Here's the things that they will want.' Another one was meet-and-greets. They get to give away tickets, and the DJ introduces you to the contest winners who won the meet-and-greets. Ten minutes with you alone in a room where you take pictures and stuff. So they said, 'What of these things are you willing to do?' And I said, 'Let's say no to all of this.' (Laughs.) One hundred percent of it. As a professional courtesy, if a radio DJ wants free tickets, he can come to the show. He can't come backstage. He certainly can't come onstage. They may not have their logo on any of the shit on the stage, anywhere near it. I want people to come to the theater and feel like they're just coming to see this; they're not being promoted to. I don't think there's anything more obnoxious than when someone has paid to be somewhere, to be promoting to them. That they're paying to be advertised to is really annoying to me.
I said to him, 'Let's do none of it.' And he said, 'Well, here's the thing: If you let them do these things, then they talk about your show all the time. They talk about your show on the air, and you get more free promotion from radio stations. If they get to say, "I'm going to be there'" they'll get more into it.' And I said, 'Well, first of all, I don't want people at my shows that are there to see the DJ. I just don't want them to come.' And I said to my agent, 'Let's find out if this is a huge mistake. Let's find out. I'm willing to sacrifice my first theater tour and have the places empty and identify that it's because I wouldn't let the radio people participate. But we also might find out that it didn't make a difference and that I never have to do it.' (Laughs.) Because you can't roll that shit back once you've started.
Anyway, the obvious story is that it didn't make a fucking difference. It didn't matter."
http://avc.lu/PcQYf2
The little things count. There's a price to whoring yourself out to not only radio, but Fortune 500 corporations. You take the short term money in lieu of the long. Then again, your handlers only care about the short term dough...
Hell, ask Lucian Grainge if he'd have bought EMI if it were his dough. The deal doesn't look good on paper. But it's the company's money, so who gives a shit.
Do you give a shit? About your art, your career, your fans?
Then learn how to say no.
No one's said no in the music business for a very long time. Unless it's some faux artistic decision, insisting on something that doesn't even matter.
It's about time people started saying no again.
You don't need the Fisker. You don't need the private jet. You're just keeping up with the Joneses.
It's a privilege to play music for a living. Even more, it's a privilege to have an audience. Respect that.
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"'It could be in five years that the digital landscape has the same choices as the physical landscape had 25 years ago,' Mr. Grainge said."
http://on.ft.com/Ov6kqI
But it won't.
There's one iTunes, one Google, one Facebook, one Netflix, one Amazon... Anyone who thinks the future of music retailing will resemble the brick and mortar world of old is either duplicitous or dumb.
I'm sure Mr. Grainge is duplicitous. I'm not sure if he's dumb.
This is just boys with their toys. Men measuring their dicks against each other. Whenever they say it's about music, you know it's about money. Trusting what Mr. Grainge says is like trusting the pronouncements of Mitt Romney. The latter just wants to be President. Grainge just wants the Universal/EMI merger to close. Each will say whatever it takes to gain his just reward. Hell, wasn't it Romney's aide who said after the primaries the campaign will utilize an Etch A Sketch? Anybody who believes anything Grainge says will apply in the future is dreaming.
There's only competition online until one definitive winner emerges. To try to go up against this dominant player is to be Bing, a search engine Microsoft trumped up that is such a colossal failure, the company just took a write-down of $6.2 billion related to it, even after paying Yahoo and RIM to be the default search engine.
KATY PERRY
Her film is a disaster. As in no one wanted to see it. At the end of the day, the distributor might make money, but what we learned here is...
Nobody cares.
You can have a number one single right up to release and you still may have few fans.
You live and die by the hit.
To build a fan base that will support you for a long time you have to have credibility and appear not to be chasing trends.
And speaking of chasing trends... Isn't that what Ms. Perry did here? There's nothing new about a 3-D movie for a tween star. That paradigm is just about as dead as Radiohead's name your own price protocol.
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
20 million. That's how many books the trilogy has sold in the U.S. Half of them digital. (http://on.wsj.com/Ne2Ucd)
On the surface of it, it appears the music business is left in the dust. Only Adele, with just under 10 million albums sold in over a year, comes close. But if you look at single sales... There are numerous tracks that sell in excess of 5 million.
That's the new game. One of single ubiquity.
I know you hate it, I know you're living in the dark ages, I know you want to make an album-length "statement", but I'm telling you to wake up before you get left behind.
Album sales are sinking. They made sense as revenue events. But now labels won't pay you that much, and the albums don't last. The single is not about the money so much as the career. You can reach many more people with your single. But it must be so new and different or so cliched and forgettable that it gets millions to pay attention.
In other words, it must be "Somebody That I Used To Know" or "Payphone". Gotye's track was like nothing else on the radio yet it ended up being a monstrous smash. And if you think people are going to see him live because of his album, you're ignorant. People want to attach themselves to the phenomenon. And if he doesn't follow it up, he's toast. Same deal with Maroon 5.
But the point is Gotye was true to himself, Maroon 5 sold out.
But Maroon 5 is about business, money.
Which side are you on?
Either sell out to the whores who'll make you a track that sounds like everybody else's or write and record something so unique it stands on its own. The latter is harder, but replicate it a few times and you've got a career.
As for the album, no one's got time to listen to it.
In a world where no one's got time to talk on the phone, where tweets are under 140 characters and texts aren't much longer, do you think people really have time to listen to your hour plus piece of crap?
VIACOM VERSUS DIRECTTV
And AMC versus Dish, while we're at it.
This is no different from the music business. Content companies keep wanting to make more and the purchaser is saying NO MAS!
Only in this case, DirecTV and Dish are surrogates for the consumer.
Cable TV is overpriced. The model is broken. You pay for what you don't want. Yes, if you unbundled the channels and bought them all individually, you'd pay more...but do you really want all of them?
Distributors have become emboldened. Same deal with Vevo versus YouTube... YouTube does not need Vevo to survive. Vevo has less leverage than it thinks. Meanwhile, is Vevo making money or losing it? Doug Morris is talking about high costs, and the financial statements are always evasive. Then again, people love their music videos. But never forget, distribution is king, not content. Hell, if content was king everybody would leave Netflix in droves, which keeps losing stuff. But instead, people pay and find something to watch, however crummy it might be.
LOUIS CK
This is not about him avoiding Ticketmaster. If you want to discuss ticketing fees, let's just say that Louis CK is willing to leave money on the table, and musical artists are not. It's just that simple. Louis CK is willing to put in more effort and make less. Crybaby musicians won't do that. Not anybody with a fan base (don't email me and tell me you'll do it, nobody wants to see you!)
This is about radio.
But it's about more than that. It's about challenging the system.
Everybody thinks there are rules. But really, there are very few. You can choose to do it the man's way, but oftentimes you emerge further ahead in the game if you do it your own.
Read all of this, from an Louis CK interview in the A.V. Club:
"LCK: Yeah, well, I like to try stuff. I like to try to see if something can work. It's really satisfying to figure out, 'What if we try it this way? What if we made it way more pleasurable and cheaper to come see me? Or to watch my show online? And if we do this right, how much benefit were we getting from the giant companies?' The first time I ever toured in theaters - the first time I toured, really. You do comedy clubs, it's just working clubs, but the first time I went on a tour in theaters - they were like 500-to-700-seat theaters, my agent asked me some blanket questions, like, 'Here's what's going to come up,' and he said, 'What is your radio tolerance?' That's what he asked me. He said, 'What presence are you willing to let radio people have at your shows?' and I said, 'Give me an example.' And he goes, 'Well, here's all the things they will ask for in every city: Thing one is that the radio personality gets to come onstage and introduce the show. And the second thing they're going to want is a van outside, broadcasting from the show. Then they're going to want a banner onstage, with the name of the radio on it. Then they're going to want a table out in the lobby with bumper stickers.'
He just made a list of, 'Here's the things that they will want.' Another one was meet-and-greets. They get to give away tickets, and the DJ introduces you to the contest winners who won the meet-and-greets. Ten minutes with you alone in a room where you take pictures and stuff. So they said, 'What of these things are you willing to do?' And I said, 'Let's say no to all of this.' (Laughs.) One hundred percent of it. As a professional courtesy, if a radio DJ wants free tickets, he can come to the show. He can't come backstage. He certainly can't come onstage. They may not have their logo on any of the shit on the stage, anywhere near it. I want people to come to the theater and feel like they're just coming to see this; they're not being promoted to. I don't think there's anything more obnoxious than when someone has paid to be somewhere, to be promoting to them. That they're paying to be advertised to is really annoying to me.
I said to him, 'Let's do none of it.' And he said, 'Well, here's the thing: If you let them do these things, then they talk about your show all the time. They talk about your show on the air, and you get more free promotion from radio stations. If they get to say, "I'm going to be there'" they'll get more into it.' And I said, 'Well, first of all, I don't want people at my shows that are there to see the DJ. I just don't want them to come.' And I said to my agent, 'Let's find out if this is a huge mistake. Let's find out. I'm willing to sacrifice my first theater tour and have the places empty and identify that it's because I wouldn't let the radio people participate. But we also might find out that it didn't make a difference and that I never have to do it.' (Laughs.) Because you can't roll that shit back once you've started.
Anyway, the obvious story is that it didn't make a fucking difference. It didn't matter."
http://avc.lu/PcQYf2
The little things count. There's a price to whoring yourself out to not only radio, but Fortune 500 corporations. You take the short term money in lieu of the long. Then again, your handlers only care about the short term dough...
Hell, ask Lucian Grainge if he'd have bought EMI if it were his dough. The deal doesn't look good on paper. But it's the company's money, so who gives a shit.
Do you give a shit? About your art, your career, your fans?
Then learn how to say no.
No one's said no in the music business for a very long time. Unless it's some faux artistic decision, insisting on something that doesn't even matter.
It's about time people started saying no again.
You don't need the Fisker. You don't need the private jet. You're just keeping up with the Joneses.
It's a privilege to play music for a living. Even more, it's a privilege to have an audience. Respect that.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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