All-In Ticketing

Ticketmaster is committed. All dates that play after January 1st will be all-in. This will end customer confusion. They will only see one price. The main reason Live Nation is doing this is to cut the FTC off at the pass. Michael Rapino learned this from Daniel Ek. You get ahead of the customer, that's the only way to win. Rapino offered Ek a board seat, but Daniel refused it, he's fighting his own battles of misinformation.

As for Robert Smith... Like a typical artist, he doesn't know his own business. Acts can always negotiate the fees, not down to zero, but if you can sell tickets, you have negotiating power. Why he and his manager didn't know this is beyond me. But this is what happened with Springsteen, he tours infrequently and he and Jon Landau were not up to speed on managing ticket prices and they got caught with their pants down. However, the Boss seems to have dodged a bullet, his fans are going to the show and are happy.

As for Cure tickets for $20. In the big city that's how much it costs to go to a movie, and if you want to pick your seat it's even more. Kick back, should you be entitled to see the Cure for twenty bucks? What next, a pastrami sandwich for $1.95? That's the seventies man, and concert tickets were twenty bucks in the eighties. But rationality...how can we get it in ticketing when we can't even get it in politics? What we need are ticketing schools. Or maybe even a ticketing Zoom, which will live online forever, informing the public how ticketing really works. Congress can watch too!

Not that Congress is really a factor here. It investigates, the elected officials grandstand and do nothing. But the FTC, led by activist Lina Khan, that's a worry to Live Nation, which of course owns Ticketmaster. Like I said above, Ticketmaster wants to get ahead of the game.

Right now it's about public image. Because image is more important than reality in today's market. So Daniel Ek may not have taken a seat on the board, but Robert Smith was offered a chair and he has taken it. As for the rumor there's also going to be a public citizen on the board...this is a good idea, but it was nixed by Greg Maffei, chairman of Live Nation.

So how is this going to work?

Well, the window is shortened too. Ticketmaster will not sell tickets for any dates that play more than six months out. So fans won't complain about the interest on their money. And this shortened time period is a benefit to them, because there are better odds they will know their schedule.

As for pricing ceiling... No ticket outside the first ten rows will sell for more than $500 for five years. I know that sounds high, but think of those Springsteen tickets that were listed for thousands. Maffei got this idea from SiriusXM, where he is also chairman. During his tenure running the satellite radio company Mel Karmazin guaranteed there would never ever be commercials on the music channels, so the ticketing plan was based on this. As for scalpers...

Five percent of tickets for every show will be sold directly to scalpers. They will be numbered and easily identifiable. There will always be people who want to overpay just to be in the building and they must be satisfied. The scalpers will do this. They also take the risk of ending up with worthless tickets, but that's the game they're in. If the scalpers sell any ticket that is not connected directly to them, they will be kicked out of the system. Yes, every scalper will be licensed, and their books audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

As for the rest of the public... All tickets will now be digital, attached to your phone. And you can resell them on the Ticketmaster site for the exact same price. No fees will be attached to resale, Ticketmaster gave in to the acts on this.

The acts are not happy with all-in ticketing. But Live Nation keeps them alive, it pays much more than record companies, so the promotion company has leverage. The acts like fees. The acts take essentially all of the ticket's face value, the promoter making his money up on the fees, and everybody blames Ticketmaster. That's now history.

As for AEG... If you noticed, AEG didn't sign on to the Fair Ticketing Act. And AEG is not going all-in right now either. AEG is having such success with the Zach Bryan tour ticketing that it is going to continue down that path.

As for Verified Fan, that goes by the wayside. Ticketmaster has partnered with TikTok to verify the address and phone number of each and every potential concertgoer in the United States, the data will be crunched and it will be known exactly who ticket purchasers are. You will not have a chip under your skin to get in, but Jim Dolan's facial recognition software will be employed at tight gigs. If it can keep lawyers out of Madison Square Garden, it can keep out bad acting concertgoers using illegal tickets too.

So how can you break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster when the company is the only one being proactive and actually trying to solve the problems in the ticketing world?

But enough is never enough. For every sold-out show there will be a lottery, enter your name and you might win a free ticket to the gig. This is kind of like the fan vote in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. People are constantly bitching they can't get in the building, never mind at a fair price. This solves that. And the seats will always be good, because they will be made up of artist holds. As for how many tickets will be given away... Negotiations between Live Nation and the acts has resulted in the guaranteed number of four. But you'd be surprised, shows that are supposed to be sold out are not, and this will be a way to paper the show if in truth all tickets have not been sold. Of course you're going to have to cough up your data to participate in the lottery, you pay for everything in the digital world, and if it's not cash, it's with your personal information. Everybody's going to sign up for the lottery and the phone numbers and addresses as well as photographs will ultimately allow Live Nation to cut down on ticketing shenanigans.

But to truly satiate fans, Garth Brooks has convinced Rapino to lean on his clients to do residencies, until demand is satiated in every market. Superstars are biting, because they hate the travel. Although it is a lot of work.

So what else do you want? Scalping is limited, and works for those who want to overpay, and not only are hidden fees eliminated, but you even have a chance of getting in free! Even the most vocal superfan can't complain, and it's always a few nuts making the most noise anyway.

So hate on Ticketmaster no more. Ticketmaster is your friend, Ticketmaster is making change, to your benefit. The acts can no longer blame the ticketing company. Hallelujah!

Maybe... Because there is the issue of Ticketmaster paying buildings for exclusives. Competitors don't like this. But it looks like a deal is being brokered. Wherein Ticketmaster will have exclusives, but there will be no guarantees and limited fees. The numbers haven't been revealed, but they're coming.

All on a Friday night no less.

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Mailbag

From: Peter Wiley
Subject: Spotify Discovery Mode

Hi Bob, thought this Tweet thread was a solid (and concise) look at Spotify's Discovery Mode. I work for a label distributed via Sony's Orchard and Sony will not participate in DM, nor allow any of it's subsidiaries to opt in. There's a real concern that their unilateral decision, preventing an independent, privately owned company from participating is hurting our business: not only for our current artists/catalog but also putting us at a competitive disadvantage when going up against a competitor who can participate in Discovery Mode. Managers are hip to Discovery Mode and it's advantages for their artists. We all have a myopic obsession over Spotify, it's how we put points on the board and judge our campaigns. 

The one thing not mentioned in this Tweet thread and is hugely important to the discussion is that Discovery Mode only reduces your per stream pay out in those instances Spotify serves up the opted in song via their "radio" algorithm, not on streams coming from fans who play the song from their own playlists or pressing play on the opted in track via the artist's page, etc. So, the reduced per stream pay out is only on incremental, new plays, which is why it's hugely popular. You are paid the exact same for all organic or already-earned plays, the reduction only occurs on the new, never would have occured streams had you not opted in. Forgive me if that is redundant. 

https://twitter.com/AbelowRob/status/1641455112345493506

___________________________________

Jamie Lee want's to have rock n' roll matinee shows:

Kent Black was pretty much spot-on with his (normal) show-day production set-up times.

The ideal scenario (particularly if it's a "teen-appeal" act involved - and I've worked with many) - is when the act is fortunate enough to be able to sell two shows in the same city, those being (ideally, again) Friday and Saturday nights, with the Matinee on the Saturday afternoon. Same could be said for Saturday and Sunday evening shows, with a Sunday Matinee.

National promoter's (and local schools within the area of the show!) are historically uneasy about booking Matinees on weekdays!

I can honestly attest to have been involved with a show (and travelling on the crew buses, to give moral support) which "back-to-backed" out of an evening arena show in Birmingham's (UK) Resorts World Arena directly into Leeds First Direct Arena - with a Matinee on that same day. Absolute Madness (and dangerous). There will be a "H&S law" against that in the future - if it's not already in place. Moral of the story?  - Take care allowing an agent to become over-involved in the routing of a tour.

Jake Duncan
Tour Accountant Extraordinaire

___________________________________

From: Hugo Burnham

Oh, and Kent Black assumes the only acts Jamie Lee Curtis wants to see are arena acts. Meh… we'd play at 10-in-the-f*cking morning for her.

H

___________________________________

My next-door neighbour (with whom I had an uneasy relationship at best) died last year, victim of his own alcoholism.  He was an avid Trumpster, and once called me a "tree-hugging libtard" when I dared buy a Tesla!  When they cleared the house, they found 2 large gun safes: one contained at least a dozen pistols, the other, 3 high-velocity rifles.  They also discovered a trap door to his cellar, at least 2 flak-jackets, massive amounts of ammunition and - and THIS is the kicker - they found prescription medication for both schizophrenia and dementia!

How did he manage to buy so many guns? ANY guns!  My neighbours and I all agree he could've gone "clocktower" on any one of us, at any time. 
Guns are not "boy toys!" They are instruments designed to kill living beings, be they animal or human. 

I am not sure what cataclysmic event will eventually bring about gun control, but something radical needs to happen:  NOW!

Best, Charlie Morgan

___________________________________

My family and I were at the Highland Park Parade on the 4th, it is something we are still dealing with 9 months later and will likely be dealing with for the rest of our lives. My 5-year old and 7-year old son are still asking us if they are safe and why the 'bad guy' did that. It is sad to see that a shooting at a school, parade or you name it is no longer a shock, but the norm, not even lasting in the news cycle over 24 hours. We are all complaining about something getting done and yet it doesn't.  You nailed it on the head in the middle of this e-mail, who says 'arms' means all guns and going on to talk about how so many of these crimes are committed after a recent purchase. There is so much anger still in my hometown of Highland Park. We are staying positive, continuing to call our elected officials and hoping that others do the same. This is not a 'us vs them' problem, this is an everyone problem. 

Jeff Leibovich

___________________________________

I was in a mass shooting event in 2018 in Nashville. The restaurant I was in was shot at 20-30 times. We hid in the back hallway by the restrooms not knowing if the gunman was coming in the front door or not. When the police told us it was ok to go, there was the moment of, is it really ok? Am I really ok? 

I wasn't in a war zone. I wasn't even the target. But this feeling never leaves you. A random firework goes off and I am immediately brought back to that place. 

Now imagine those kids. If they survive, this sh*t will f*ck up their brains forever. 

Everyone knows someone that's been in a shooting now and still, nothing. I can vote blue all day but the knuckle-draggers keep holding us back. 

Bobbo

___________________________________

Thank you Bob for writing about Nashville. 

The shooting at Covenant School happened less than a mile from my house. 

My daughter's school is a block away from our house and her school was locked down as well.

There are no words to explain the sadness our city feels right now. 

I truly hope we can find a solution or at least a middle ground. 

Children should not be killed in their classrooms or anywhere for that matter. 

marcie allen

___________________________________

You are 100% right with this Bob. I have 3 kids - one in high school, one in middle school and one in elementary school. I get nervous all the time when they leave the house in the morning, and we live in a small town with very safe schools. Today my 8 year old just didn't wanna go to school. He was adamant. We forced the little guy up from bed and made him go to school, all the while I'm thinking in my head, what if he's got some weird feeling that he shouldn't be there today? And what if, god forbid, something terrible happens and I was the one responsible for forcing him to go? I can't fu**ing believe we are living in this nightmare right now. And I was getting hopeful that the old farts who don't care about about the mess they're leaving were going to die off soon, but now seeing this insane generation that's my age coming up through our awful government is leaving me hopeless. 

And this all just boils down to one thing: MONEY - the absolute godforsaken root of all evil. I don't believe that any of these soulless "politicians" who support the 2nd amendment crap even buy into it. It's all just absolute pandering. And why? To protect their jobs & power because without their cushy government job they're nothing. Losers. Nobodies. But say that you support AR-15's? Job for life!!! I honestly believe that someday one of these nutjob shooters will end up taking out an entire school of hundreds of people and it's absolutely terrifying. I just tell myself over and over: the odds are in my favor that my family will never be in one of these situations. But I fear those odds are growing smaller each day. 

Please keep using your platform, if not for anything, to at least give the hopeless a voice. 

Thanks Bob. 

Rob DiFondi

___________________________________

Why? Because the politicians are scared. Of their base. Of the NRA. Mostly of losing their job, their power, the perks, the money, their relevancy. That's why these geezers stay so long in Congress. They can't give it up.

I live in rural Texas. I've been around guns my whole life. I have a few, and unlike most gun owners, I use them frequently as the tools they are, mainly for feral hogs. (In fact, between a lifetime of playing amplified music and regular shooting I've got some pretty severe tinnitus -- wear hearing protection young'uns, your 60-year-old self will thank you.) 

Anyone who tells you they need a high-capacity semi-automatic rifle for "hunting" is full of sh*t and a poser. Same for self-protection in your home. No regular person needs an assault rifle for any reason whatsoever.

The right likes to talk about sheeple. Well, that's what America has become, like the frog in heating water we've just grown complacent that for some reason we can't have the civilization enjoyed by much of the world. Oh sure, we can have gadgets and grocery delivery, but we can't have healthcare or safety from gun violence, or even a viable planet for our grandkids.

The French president tries to do an end-run to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and France grinds to a halt with coordinated mass strikes and protests, while America sits by watching our children get slaughtered saying, "There's nothing we can do." 

Yup, we boomers dropped the ball and now we're too old and too comfortable to get out in the streets. It's going to require a general strike in this country. But when you kick 'em in the corporate wallet you get results. It's up to you, kids.

Todd Jagger

___________________________________

You have great points that don't need my validation, but one thing I want to illuminate is that when the 2nd Amendment was written and first implemented, if my facts are correct, it took about 4 minutes to reload and shoot the second shot from a musket...to even approach something like a semi-automatic weapon, you had to carry, say, three loaded muskets, but then you're still back to four minutes, minimum, to reload and shoot again.  The guns of the late 1700s are not the same machines we have today.  And one more thing, we wouldn't want people driving cars that weren't registered or insured, and if you purposely kill someone with a car, you may not be allowed to drive for a long time if not, ever again.  Let's adapt!

Sam Scozzari - NYC & Suffield CT

___________________________________

Obviously, I am disgusted with this month's school shooting (I say this month, because there will probably be one next month too). 

Full disclosure, I am a former Republican. I hesitate to say former because that implies I am now aligned with the Democrats. I am not. While I have found myself more in line with much of what the Democrats are about as I am approaching 50, I would not legitimize either party with my support at this point.

Growing up, your generation identified with politicians. You felt you could relate to them, JFK being the most obvious example. As a Gen Xer who grew up in the late 70's through the 80's, I believe my generation felt a sense of respect for politicians as leaders, but I don't know that we related to or identified with them. Like our teachers, they were all old and from a totally different era. 

My point is this. The Republicans are batsh*t crazy and MOST of us who consider themselves to be moderates see that. We just can't believe that the Democrats can't find ONE candidate that leads with common sense and isn't rife with hypocrisy. When Trump was running against Hilary the tagline from the Democrats was, "Old, rich, white men have ruined this country and we need a new perspective." But then they give us Biden. 

People don't feel they can relate to politicians and I believe that is why there is a reluctance to stand up. People feel defeated. They are overwhelmed by a sense of pointlessness. 

I have an 11 year old son, so the topic of school shootings is not lost on me. It scares the sh*t out of me. I don't own a gun. I understand why someone would want to, for various reasons. But I also understand that as a parent I shouldn't have to worry about my child's safety when I send him to school. 

Neil Johnson

___________________________________

It takes months for a restaurant to get a full liquor license, maybe even a year, and costs $100k but that jackass down the street can buy an AR-15 in 24 hours? And local municipalities cannot create their own laws because Federal government has something to say about gun rights? Lisbon isn't a crazy idea

Tim Hyde

___________________________________

Hi, Bob. No place is perfect. But America has gone downhill in the last 40 years . It was a great place when I grew up there in the 60s. I swear to you. Even if you gave me 10,000 dollars a day I wouldn't live there again.  I just visit my daughters and grandchildren once a year. Okay. I don't want to sound pretentious. Americans live in a myth that they have the best country in the world. Most Americans have never been out of their country to see the world. There is no democracy in the US. You are guilty until rich. Corruption is overwhelming in our government. The problem is there is no CAP on Capitalism. The simple truth is, the U.S. is at war for continued hegemony over the planet, for the preservation of the imperial system and its finance capitalist rulers. In such a war, everyone everywhere is a potential enemy, including the home population. I'm a Vietnam vet 3rd Marine Div. from 1967-70."The U.S. is no longer an economic superpower; it can only intervene decisively in global affairs by force of arms and military intimidation." America is exposed now in the world, as a sore loser. I doubt if Americans will wake up while I'm still alive. One thing is we can't go on like this forever.
Best of health. Take care.

Tom Riviere

___________________________________

I would imagine the most frightened segment of society in America every day would be the mothers and fathers--the parents--who have kids attending both public (and private) schools. They must wake up up feeling dread every morning..."Could it happen to us?" They are an unwitting block of voters and voting constituents. And have numbers and power. It's a huge constituency. 

If they ever got fed up enough and banded together, especially the suburban parents of kids, it could spell the end to Republican/NRA gun politics. 

If the right wing believe the basic minimum role of government is to militarily protect society (and its money) and keep it safe from external threats, shouldn't the same logic of protection extend to internal threats as well? Isn't citizens' life and safety an inalienable right that trumps rights to bear arms? Criminal options are drastically reduced by removing the gun option from their hands.

Eric Andersen

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Streaming Television-SiriusXM This Week

Tune in Saturday April 1st, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863 

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If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz 


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The New Lana Del Rey Album

"Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd": https://spoti.fi/3M3k82O

This is a dorm room record.

I was hiking in the mountains listening to a podcast featuring my friend, the proprietor of RealSkiers.com, Jackson Hogen. We don't agree on everything, but this was a good primer on equipment and ski areas. To buy your boots, at a specialty retailer, and take lessons and... You can check it out here: https://bit.ly/3G35Hbn

That took me up, on the way down I checked out the playlist of the new "New York Times" music newsletter, "The Amplifier": https://nyti.ms/3TWS2Z6 Wading through new music is like swimming in the Sargasso Sea, and with the "Times" imprimatur I decided to dive in. I was disappointed. First and foremost because the songs all seemed to be from the same viewpoint, adult alternative. And none were one listen smashes. Like I told you, I got the Giovannie and the Hired Guns track nearly instantly, and the first time I heard it was live. I mean the poor voices... Maybe if one listened to the "Amplifier" playlist a few times, the songs would start to reveal themselves, but who's got that time?

And it is all about time. Radio used to pick the hits. And sure, a lot of genres were left out, but they never intentionally played stuff that was bad, completely unpalatable, their goal was to serve you up the best of what was available, and for a while that worked very well. But now radio has a fraction of its old reach, and therefore even when you hear a great song there's no context, no one else seems to be talking about it, streaming television is more comprehensible, never mind being the subject of constant conversation.

Frustrated, I decided to jump off and...

What exactly was I going to play?

And then I remembered the reviews, in every major newspaper, of the new Lana Del Rey album, "Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd."

Not that the reviews could convince anyone they needed to listen to the album. The reviews were dry, quoting lyrics out of context, that didn't add up, didn't resonate.

But Lana Del Rey is inherently interesting, because even though she's signed to Interscope, she seems to be playing in her own rarefied world, like the mainstream music business doesn't exist.

So the first track is "The Grants." Which is Lizzie/Lana's real last name. Yes, Lana Del Rey is Lizzie Grant from Lake Placid, and even though they held the Olympics there, there's nothing hip about the upstate New York burg. It's kind of cognitive dissonance, this dish of a woman evidencing glamour coming from a backwater. Then again, Lana Del Rey's whole image and career are confounding.

Let's start with the appearance on SNL. Her public debut. To tell you the truth, I can't even remember why it was so awful, so denigrated, but I do recall. And the funny thing is so does everybody else, including Lana herself. And ever since she's been running away from it.

Let me state it another way. Major labels specialize in pushing the button. Using their connections to expose artists they believe they can sell tonnage on (stream tonnage on today!) Therefore, these acts don't grow from the ground up, but the top down. The ascension is too slow the other way for the major labels. Sure, some people on the bottom may know an act, but you can't reach mass unless you go mass. Unfortunately, for many artists, this is too soon, like it was with Lana Del Rey.

But she survived. Many acts don't. One and done. But there was this song on Lana's first album, "Summertime Sadness," that penetrated the public consciousness, became an alternative hit, a fish out of water, that slowly built to the point of becoming a standard, and suddenly Lana Del Rey had a career. It had nothing to do with publicity or the machine, it had to do with the music. And Lana has pursued this path ever since.

Most acts today try to have a hit. Or don't, and are so far from the mainstream most people have never heard of them. To be on a major label and not only play in your own universe, but triumph, that's a paradigm rarely seen these days, if at all.

But Lana Del Rey lives there.

All of the tropes, the endless appearances in the mainstream media, the daily drops in social media, the endless live YouTube videos... Lana Del Rey doesn't play that game. Or if she does, I'm unaware of it. I thought she didn't do interviews for this album, but searching I found one in "Interview," another in "Rolling Stone." But, usually this stuff is so prevalent, so everywhere, that you can't escape it, it becomes offensive. Then again, I saw the carpet bomb reviews in all the papers somewhat offensive, the work of the starmaking machinery right in front of my very eyes, even more refined, but less effective than in Joni Mitchell's day.

So the opening track, "The Grants"... I understood it, but I didn't need to hear it again, I wasn't hooked.

And then came the title track, "Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd." All the reviews write about a literal tunnel in Long Beach, but I didn't think of any of that when I listened to the song. It was dreamy, with a hook employing the title. My mood changed. It wasn't conscious, but suddenly I was relaxed, and then my mind started to drift. This is the experience I'm looking for, most people are looking for. Sure, the mindless stuff serves a purpose, but that doesn't stick with you.

And I'm wondering who has the time to listen to all this new music, and I start thinking about being in college, and that's when it hit me. This is the kind of music you play in the afternoon alone in your dorm room. During intimate conversations with your friends. It's meaningful, mood-setting, without being too heavy. Furthermore, it's not really background, you can never really tune it out.

Now they say that women catch the lyrics earlier than men. But listening to "Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd" not only were the lyrics secondary to me, they didn't seem to be the essence, a necessary component of the album like all the reviews said, the textures and sounds, the vocalizations stood on their own, the lyrics were the cherry on top. I mean read the reviews and you don't want to listen to the record, it sounds intellectual as opposed to soothing, for the bookish, but not everybody, there are tons of albums like this, with interesting lyrics, but as music they don't hold up.

And the album continues to play out and the mood continues. It's not that the songs sound identical, it's just that there is a mood created. Nothing jarring, not a cornucopia of tracks made to appeal to everybody, including a song that might get radio play.

I'm listening and I hear nothing that I'd expect to hear on the radio. Maybe on the Spectrum or some other SiriusXM station, but nothing that would appear in the Spotify Top 50, that's not the goal.

And unlike the on paper admirable but uneasy listen of Fiona Apple's latest album, "Fetch the Bolt Cutters," "Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd" is extremely listenable, you want to play it, hear it, know it.

But it does contain an hour and seventeen minutes of music. Meaning it can't be digested easily, and to comprehend it you have to dedicate a good chunk of time, which will prevent you from listening to something else. But there's no filler, only adventure, mental adventure.

I mean there's Zach Bryan, with a plethora of material, and Morgan Wallen. These new acts take up so much personal mindshare, but if you go to their gigs the audience knows every word, there's a rabidity much more intense than there is for the Spotify Top 50, although Wallen cuts can appear there. This is not BTS, other acts with angry mobs of devotees who will annihilate you if you say anything negative. The connection is not cultural, it's musical. The music stands on its own. All you have to do is jump in.

And like I said, this is radically different from what is purveyed, emphasized by the usual suspects.

And I wouldn't expect any mainstream legs on "Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd," I don't expect more news stories, hit singles, the album has dropped and it will be supported and spread by its audience, media will not be the key, the album will be alive in the culture but if you're not clued-in you won't get it. But you'll be somewhere and hear the music and ask yourself, what is this? Because it's not in-your-face like so much of today's mainstream music, it's not playing to the last row, but only the first few, it's not trying to convince you, it just is. And that's enough, more than enough.

And unlike the aforementioned Fiona Apple, who took eight years between her last two albums, not only did Lana Del Rey put out an album in 2019, but two in 2021. Most acts polish one album, bring in outside writers to insure acceptance, and then promote it and tour it for years, whereas Lizzie Grant just keeps making them. For herself. And her audience. If you're not a member of the club, that's cool.

How did she get here?

Well, she might have grown up in Lake Placid, but she went to Kent, a prep school in northwestern Connecticut. And one thing I can tell you about the prep school graduates...they're extremely well-read, I felt inadequate when they started to speak at Middlebury.

And Lizzie actually graduated from college, Fordham. What a concept! In a world where the younger you are the more marketable you are. Where being uneducated is a badge of honor. Where forgoing college is de rigueur because you don't want to waste all that time when you could be working on your career, you might miss your time. You learn something in college, not only in class, but outside, you meet people from different backgrounds, you have new experiences, your vision is broadened. Lana Del Rey is 37 and at the top of her game, and even most of the classic rock acts were creatively dead at that age.

So start with the second cut, the title track. And let a few cuts play. You'll be drawn in.

And don't listen as a test, listen like you did to a new album in the old days, when you broke the shrinkwrap and gave it a chance to penetrate.

Women making this kind of music are supposed to be dark and alienated, physically as well as mentally. Joni Mitchell was beautiful, but she was a hippie chick. With her long hair. Whereas Lana Del Rey is much closer to a model.

Oh, don't criticize my perspective. I'm being honest. Speaking words people think but you cannot say. It's great that Lana Del Rey is physically attractive, it's just that we expect women blessed with good looks to trade on them, and that's not a component of Lana Del Rey's art or success. Also meaning that Lana/Lizzie is operating in uncharted territory. Everything seems to be retro these days, painting by the numbers established by the acts of yore. But "Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd" doesn't sound exactly like anything else, like all those albums we listened to in our dorm rooms back in the seventies. It starts out background but becomes more foreground as you listen to it, as it seeps in, as you become intrigued and want to go deeper.

This is an achievement. I'm telling you now. I haven't even truly penetrated the lyrics. But I want to play "Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd," I want to go deeper, and shouldn't that be the way it is?


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Burt Sugarman-This Week's Podcast

Producer Burt Sugarman just put "The Midnight Special" on YouTube. We talk about the show as well as Burt's career, from TV to hamburgers! You'll be fascinated!

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/burt-sugarman-111825664/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/burt-sugarman/id1316200737?i=1000606578815

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1eJAljq5SJhXXYBkzSFndU?si=vv0epbaCSi2EcgvIIS0dRw

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/dd104023-36c4-4d8e-b534-872509cd0012/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-burt-sugarman

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/burt-sugarman-301282113


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Mass Shootings

How did we turn into a can't do nation?

Or to put it another way, if Democrats suddenly embraced gun ownership would Republicans renounce it?

I don't own a gun and never would. Primarily for two reasons: 1. I'd end up shooting a friend or relative knocking on the door or prowling around the house in the dark, innocently. 2. I'd probably shoot myself. My hold on reality is very thin. I think about this back pain I had...I remember telling everybody if there was a gun in the house, I'd probably shoot myself. Thank god there was not.

Now I grew up in the dark ages. When you walked to school in kindergarten and the term "playdate" had yet to be coined. We came home from school, even walking in the rain, and then we'd get on our bikes and go to a friend's house, or the baseball field... As a matter of fact, we rarely stayed home, my mother wouldn't tolerate it. And we couldn't watch TV during the day... My mother was a woman of action, she wanted us to grab hold of the world and go for a ride.

As for all the bad things that can happen to a child... She never thought of them. And if we brought them up she pooh-poohed them. And I never had a key to the front door my entire life, we moved into that house when I was six months old and my mother didn't move out for half a century, literally.

So...

Well, let me go a bit further. My mother wasn't uptight about what I read or saw. Movie ratings appeared when I was still living at home, and the only issue with an R-rated movie was sneaking in. And if I wanted to go into New York to see a concert... I was stunned when I went to college and found kids so sheltered. Or people who didn't go to their first concert until they were in high school. I went so early I can't remember what I saw. Music was a family tradition, I remember being brought to Young People's concerts at the same time I entered school. Then again, I was brought up in a family where culture was more important than money. And what money we had was spent on food, travel and cultural events. We all crammed into a split-level house, with really only one bathroom, living conditions even poor people wouldn't accept today.

And I know that time marches on, that there is progress. I accept that now people live in giant houses, lease new cars and fly on a whim, to even see a concert, but socially... Bring back the sixties!

Oh, don't be literal, talking about oppression and discrimination. Then again, being a Jew could be even worse today. Back then people only said things, now they take action. There weren't shootings in synagogues in the old days.

And parents... God, it's a big bad world out there, and you've got to learn how to navigate it at some point. In Japan they send kids on errands alone before they are even old enough to go to school. In the U.S. kids call their parents not only when they're in college, but even when they're out, assuming they're not living at home, to ask such questions as to how to do their laundry, or to muse over their personal problems. My mother never wanted to hear about my inner life. My father was good in a crisis. But my parents weren't my best friends, no one's parents were. And when we left the nest... Our parents would be shocked at some of the stuff we did. As for books and learning...

Is this how far we've come, books are going to threaten your kid? Never mind that new schoolbook in Florida that mentions Rosa Parks, but does not include that she was Black. We're going backwards. It's supposed to be the information age, and now we're keeping information from kids? Who have so much access at their fingertips?

I mean they make all these companies put child controls in their hardware and software... Who uses this stuff? And it's not easy to figure out to begin with! What are you protecting your kid from? Information on sex, so they'll get pregnant the first time out? What is this retrograde movement really about? I know we're never going back to the sixties, but that does not mean some of the sixties values can't be embraced. But a bunch of people want us to go back to the fifties!

And let's not even mention white nationalism.

It's not like this country hasn't been in crisis previously. What comes to mind is the airplane hijackings of yore. Everybody threw their hands in the air and said nothing could be done as planes were diverted to Cuba on a regular basis, kind of like school shootings today. What did the country do?

Well, if you're young, you're not going to believe this but...you used to go to the airport and walk straight to the gate, uninterrupted. And when you got off the plane your family or friends would show up to greet you, right at the gate! But now we've got the TSA, metal detectors. And the amazing thing is they detect stuff. Never mind the celebrities caught with guns, regular people possess them even more. And how do we know this? Because the TSA catches them.

Security at airports is a big pain in the rear end. But there are no more hijackings.

So when it comes to gun control...

What kind of bizarre world do we live in that there are originalists on the Supreme Court. What would the framers of the Constitution think of today? That'd be like asking what Mozart thinks of Megan Thee Stallion, he couldn't even imagine it, fathom it. We never did get flying cars, but we got a hell of a lot of stuff we could never imagine. We got phones on our wrists, but we also got the ability to text anybody anywhere. To do our business online, without low-skilled help screwing up the details. It's a wonderful world when it comes to technology, which by the way no one in D.C. can understand, everybody's inured to the past. But even if the Second Amendment was written with standing up to the government in mind, do you really think any of those old blokes would have the same position today? A bunch of yahoos with firearms standing up to drones and nuclear weapons and... It'd be like that old movie, Bambi Meets Godzilla, and if you haven't seen it, take a peek, it's very short: https://bit.ly/40LloMh

Life doesn't go backward. We don't go from gasoline automobiles back to horses and carriages. We evolve. To believe we can jet back to the past is to put one's head in the sand. How come we can't agree on this? We can't seem to agree on anything! Not even facts!

So when you go to the airport you're inconvenienced. You have to budget extra time, it's a big hassle, but we're much safer for it. But when it comes to guns, we must be hands-off. Huh?

Now I know that you can argue gun ownership is a constitutional right, whereas airplane access is not, but... We sacrificed for safety with air travel, why can't we do the same with guns?

I can go crazy here, like the people who believe the techies will solve climate change and not to worry about the problem and say... Why can't techies put force fields around schools, disallowing guns to come in? Even better, why can't they make guns unable to fire when you leave your house, or when other human beings are within sight. God, we have GPS in our phones that can track tiny items down to the inch, but we can't apply it to guns?

And who says "arms" means all guns? Why can't I have a bazooka? Or drive around with a ramming pole on my car? I mean what guns should we be able to possess? I mean you need an assault rifle because..?

And don't tell me that there are all these assault rifles already out there. So many people who commit gun crimes buy their wares not long before they commit their violations. When you make access harder, you reduce the problem.

And why not incentivize people to give up their guns? I'd pay taxes for that. Kind of like cash for clunkers during the 2008 recession. Not only will we give you your money back, you can get a ticket to see Taylor Swift! Yes, come with a gun and we will allow you in to see Drake, or the Eagles... Sure, Ted Nugent wouldn't participate, but most musical acts would. They'd play for free to get guns off the street. There are solutions, not only if you think outside the box, but if you think at all!

But I must admit, as much as we try to shame the right, this is the right not only elected representatives are scared of, but even the media. Last night on Tucker Carlson they said the cause of the Nashville shooting was Antifa, I kid you not. If Antifa is so big and powerful, how come I've never met a single member? I'm a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, no one has ever approached me, no one has ever owned their membership. As for the woke... Okay, some kids being schooled on mommy and daddy's money are playing with their rights and identities at college. Isn't that what you're supposed to do, experiment? What I'm saying here is if you think every Democrat is woke, you're asleep. Sure, there are issues of pronouns and trans and...doesn't this boil down to freedom? How come we have freedom to own guns but not to be trans? I mean really, which is more dangerous to society?

Small cadres have impact way out of proportion to their constituencies. As for speakers being booted from colleges... Have you ever investigated any deeper? In many cases, these speakers not only have truly heinous views, they're invited so there will be a protest, so there will be a conflagration, so the rational students will be incensed, so news will be made. Let's see, would you let an antisemite speak at your synagogue? A white nationalist at a church dominated by Black members? Dig beneath the surface, but everything is a talking point these days, there can't be agreement, there must be war.

And then we have the Democrats in Congress saying nothing can be done, and telling AOC to tone it down. God, these old men need to be woken up. Everybody has drunk the kool-aid, can't think outside the box. We lived through that in music, the revolution came and streaming dominates, even though the "Billboard" chart still counts physical disproportionately. Morgan Wallen's number one album? It sold 12,500 copies last week. But it did have 256 million streams. Hell, I guess it's like our government, where the minority has undue influence and power.

So, let's start with people who believe in solutions. Who don't say their hands are tied. Who keep agitating for change and won't shut up. If you keep talking, you reach people. Then again, we've got an ex-President telling us there will be death and destruction if we challenge him and the status quo.

Why is everybody afraid to stand up?

Well, my generation, the free range kids, turned out to love money more than everything. Possessions. Lifestyle. They've eclipsed the arts. But scratch a boomer doctor and you'll find in many instances they wish they were a musician.

As for changing the law... Maybe we don't even start there. We start with public campaigns. Not only anti-gun, but... Neighborhood Watch could delineate who in the neighborhood owns a gun. And incentivize them to get rid of it as per above. How about a little more sunlight on gun ownership? If you live out in the prairie or mountains, where animals can get you, sure, you can own a gun. But not an AK-47. And electronics won't allow you to shoot it in the city.

But we're moving in the other direction, with open carry.

It's like everybody has lost their senses. I mean if you believe what that nitwit Marjorie Taylor Greene says, if you believe in QAnon... Maybe we do that first, have a campaign to inform the populace of truth, no law is involved there. Shame Netflix into giving you airtime, get Spielberg involved. I mean entertainment has so many tools, why can't they be employed?

As for those saying "my gun, my life"... Let's incentivize them to all live on Ted Nugent's ranch. Go where the other gun nuts live. Let them shoot each other. I mean as many people seem to have been involved in mass shootings as got Covid. Oh, of course that's untrue. But even the "Wall Street Journal," the right wing paper of record, said masks and vaccines saved lives, even Trump is pro-vaccine, but once again, everybody's defaulting to the lowest common denominator, playing to the uneducated yahoos. Imagine if the rest of life were that way. Everything had to be dumbed-down to the lowest and slowest, that we had to live by their rules, however dumb. That's what's going on in politics today.

So, I'll leave you with this question... How come we can't come up with solutions? Hearing no while kids get shot up gets old, and if you think thoughts and prayers are going to save you, do anything for you, you must believe there's a little man in the sky who knows everything you do, whether you've been naughty or nice...and in truth, religion is fading in America, but we're still ruled by the ancient telling us that babies should not be killed, and if it ruins the mother's life and if the baby grows up in poverty, it doesn't make a difference.

Some of this stuff is irrational on the surface.

But we keep being told nothing can be done.

They build whole cities in China seemingly overnight, but we can't even build one high-speed rail line in California.

How about a plan?

Then again, the Republicans refuse to proffer a budget.

Oh, don't both sides me. Trying to win by not playing is a fool's errand. It doesn't work in sports and ultimately it doesn't work in politics. Where else can you survive constantly saying no? Life is about risk-taking, America used to be about throwing the long ball, moonshots, but now we can't even get out of our own way.

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The iHeart Music Awards

I didn't see anybody I knew.

Well, that's not completely true. John Sykes was there. And Taylor Swift. But these awards shows are usually industry clusterf*cks. The hang supersedes the show. Everybody is in the lobby, schmoozing.

But that's not what was happening last night.

You see it's no longer one unified music business anymore. We're not all in it together. It's an endless series of niches. And terrestrial radio is one of them.

Now the event was held in the Dolby Theatre, where they have the Oscars. That adds gravitas. As good as the food may now be, most music venues are barns. Load 'em in, load 'em out, hose the place down, get ready for tomorrow night. But at the Dolby...you're on your best behavior.

Now I'll admit I was very close. But I don't think that made a difference, just being in the building was enough. When the music began, I felt a shot of ADRENALINE! A feeling that you just can't get anywhere else. Of excitement, of anticipation, of wonderment, disbelief that you're actually there, when the music began. That was the most important and inspiring lesson I learned last night. This is why we're selling all those tickets. In a world of zeros and ones, where a computer can write your term paper, everybody hungers for something real, something that's alive and breathing, something that evidences humanity, something that takes you away from everyday life, makes you happy, makes your life worth living.

And that's live music.

Now the great thing about the iHeart Music Awards show is acts have to show up. Otherwise... iHeart doesn't say it won't play their records, but... Not that this is about iHeart, all radio outlets are like this. We make you stars, you owe us. We're friendly, but don't disrespect us.

So there weren't the endless instances of someone else accepting the award for those not in attendance.

And the show began with Pink... I was bracing myself for her high wire act, which is intriguing, but has nothing to do with music, however that was not Pink's role, although she did have gymnasts flying on trampolines and I must say it was astounding to watch. But as close as I was I could see that Pink was into it, that she was not going through the motions, and when she spoke later she was genuine, and not in a pandering way.

But this is the point where I must say most acts were singing to track. It's not like there was even a band on stage. As for Keith Urban... I've seen him live, he's one of the best, with his three guitars and a bass format. He can wail, but it was all fake last night.

But Neil Giraldo and Pat Benatar seemed real.

But the point is...

It's not your father's music business anymore. And we're the fathers, if not the grandfathers! As great as Giraldo and Benatar are, they appeared quaint compared to the rest of the acts. They were a blast from the past. Today image is key. And dancing. The trappings. Once again, it's not the seventies anymore. Not even the eighties!

That's what you have to realize. Today's youngsters are unaware of the past, they didn't live though it. Rappers are dangerous, not Jimmy Page. MTV turned music into a monoculture. And visuals were key. And in pop music, that still rules.

In the rest of the world/genres...

Just when it looked like it was going to be pop only, Cody Johnson and a few other newbies nearly blew the roof off the place, you felt the desire of those starting out, that need to make it.

And making it is not what it used to be. Used to be you were one of the richest, and maybe even most powerful, people in America.

No one thinks you can make that kind of money in music anymore, not those on either side of the stage. The rich are techies and bankers. As for those plying the boards... This is show business, this is entertainment, this is a job. You could see it, you could feel it. This was another gig, hopefully one that would pay dividends. And then the acts and their handlers would move on to another burg, to perform for people there.

Everything is micro. No one is dominant. The media tries to tell us they are, but unless you're addicted to mainstream media, you don't know this.

Like Coldplay. They got some award and they showed video of their stadium tour. I've seen the band, I'm a fan of the early records, I could take or leave them, Chris Martin has no edge. But if you saw the assembled multitude, with their phones in the air in the stadium...I can feel it right now, writing about it, you wanted to be there, you needed to be there, to experience that feeling you can't get anywhere else. The act is coming to your town! It's a special experience.

As for some of the acts... Have you even heard of Latto? She put on a sexualized performance that veered on being censor-worthy. The way she moved, the way she gyrated her body.

And then there was Becky G, winning for Latin Song. She didn't perform, they showed a video of her history, what it took to make it, and I'd heard of her, and I learned a bit, but I felt she lived in a different world from me.

Now the country acts... I understand. They play guitars, it's akin to rock. However, I'm still pissed at the three guys wearing cowboy hats a few rows down. I mean how inconsiderate can you be? But that's the world we live in, no one cares about anybody else, it's just about them. And if you confront them, they say life is hard and they're just trying to get ahead.

Hmm...

And Doja Cat was there, one of the biggest acts of the pandemic. She got a ton of applause. But it hit me, this is her time. It will run out. That's how it is with all these acts. There's a moment in time when they're hot, people are talking about them, and then they're touring acts, maybe on television. They're born to die, as Grand Funk Railroad and Lana Del Rey would say. The machine needs fresh and new as grist for the mill. It's nearly impossible to stay on top, especially without doing a duet with a star du jour.

It's a business.

Now the amazing thing is you may not have even realized the show was on, which it was, broadcast live on Fox.

Used to be you were aware of everything. Had a judgment on everything. But today network TV is like terrestrial radio. Still powerful, but less powerful than it used to be. Terrestrial radio used to be everything. But now streaming music, like streaming television, sits alongside. And both Spotify and iHeart are deep into podcasting. Because ultimately they're both tech companies, either innovate or die.

Just like the artists.

You've to go create the record, do your best to make it a hit, go on the road to hoover up money, and then do it all over again, and eventually you burn out, because you've got no life, but if you take a break, will the audience still be interested in you when you return?

And it is a job. They had a ton of footage of performers talking to deejays. This is part of the gig, this is what you sign up for. You try to reach everybody you can. Which is why you do TV shows like the iHeart Music Awards to begin with.

I loved seeing Cole Swindell win, I'm a fan, like I said above, I can relate to country.

Then again, Muni Long performed and I got it. Because when done right the music hits you somewhere between the gut and the heart, the feeling oozes through your body, it's not something you can boil down to zeros and ones but you know it when you feel it.

And another surprise was Giovannie and the Hired Guns, who seemed to be playing live, it wasn't easy to tell, with the camera in the way, but the sound and energy... Listen to "Ramon Ayala," it's got seventeen million streams on Spotify and I've never heard of it. But everybody pooh-poohing the mainstream nature of an event like this will be confounded, they'll be scratching their head, not only is it good, it's fresh.

I mean really, listen:

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/40oAPtQ

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3TUBnFt

But the absolute highlight was LL Cool J, performing an original number delineating the history of hip-hop. Whew! It was riveting. You could feel the power. You could see why hip-hop dethroned rock and roll.

So what have we learned?

That the world is returning to normal. I had to get a Covid test to attend, but this kind of event used to be de rigueur. A floating party. One of the underpinnings of this business we call show.

And like I said, it's not the business it used to be.

At the end of the day, iHeart has stations in every genre, so it's not like you can criticize the company. Hell, they held the AlterEgo festival at the Forum, with the Peppers, Jack White, Muse, Phoenix... It doesn't get much more credible than that.

And acts play stadium dates and you're unaware they happened.

That's the modern music world. It's a very big tent. The demand, the desire for music, is huge, phenomenal, there's room for all genres, but within each vertical it is competitive. But the audience is hungry for more.

Will we ever go back to a monoculture, where we all know the same hits? Maybe if a new Beatles comes along, but we've been waiting over half a century for that, and no one has ever arrived. Or a new Bob Dylan. Or even a new Bruce Springsteen.

That was the past. The only way we're going to make music the leading driver of culture, recapturing its crown from streaming television, is by going forward. Giovannie and the Hired Guns gave me hope. You never know what is coming down the pike, what will surprise you, but we're all waiting for it, and if you can deliver it...

The world is yours.


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Trends

The independent music world will continue to grow. As the mainstream continues to shrink. The independent growth will come primarily from acts that play live. If you're going for chart success you're in one world. If you're trying to build a fan base you're in another. Don't expect the mainstream press, still dominated by the people who missed the political ascent of Donald Trump, to acknowledge this, but it will become self-evident to those engaged in the music sphere.

Ticketing is heading for a crunch point. The public still doesn't understand it, but even worse, neither do the acts. But their constant saber-rattling will continue to draw national attention, government attention, to the problem. Beware of state laws, they're almost always promulgated by the scalper/secondary market. Their goal, under the rubric of "freedom," is to allow free transfer of tickets. This is a problem that can only be addressed nationally. Then again, the right is all about states' rights, i.e. abortion. So, the bottom line is... Live Nation/Ticketmaster will be forced to shed light on its operations. And although the hoi polloi believe this will be to the company's detriment, this is a misunderstanding of the touring world. The fees are part of the ticket price. And if Ticketmaster is a monopoly, what is the solution? The solution must be to the benefit of the public. As for add-on fees... This is a scourge of business today, it's a way to make the initial price look low but in reality the final price is high. And the reason all the focus is on the music world is because supply outstrips demand. There are not scalpers for hotel rooms. In this case, it's the acts that are responsible for the add-ons. They want to say the price is cheap when in reality, when you check out, they're expensive. Because without the add-ons, the whole enterprise collapses financially. The federal government is talking about cracking down on add-on fees generally, but this is a path fraught with potholes. As for the public being upright and trustworthy... These are the same people who load all their possessions into a carry-on bag so they can avoid the check-in baggage fees. All I'm saying here is the public is not a unified force with the same desires. People want cheap tickets for the best seats and they want to be able to transfer them freely. So for everyone who wants limited resale, there are others who want to make a buck on their extra tickets. Can the government understand all this? No. The government has a bad history when it comes to regulating tech and so much more, because elected officials don't understand the industry, it moves ahead of them, is constantly changing, and it is not a priority. So any change in ticketing will ultimately come from the FTC. Which operates behind closed doors. So on one hand we have a force to reveal what's behind the curtain, on the other it's still behind the curtain. But more info is going to come out.

If TikTok is killed, Instagram Reels will burgeon. However never forget that the population ages every day. The Greatest Generation is gone. And the Baby Boomers are on their way out. Today's college kids have no idea of Napster. They don't understand how we got here, they just know where we are. Anyone younger than Gen-X is the opposite of anti-tech. It's only Baby Boomers and some Gen-X'ers who lobby for less screen time, who are anti-social media... They didn't grow up in the connected social world so they can't see the advantages. They didn't meet their spouse on a dating app. They have no idea that you never lose touch with anybody in your life and you know more people than ever before. They don't realize that youngsters don't need a star to be anointed by the media to believe in them themselves. Therefore, government and other oldsters are completely out of touch with the mind-set of the youth. The youth are not as worried about security. They know their information is available to all. It's kind of like ChatGPT and AI. It's the oldsters worried about the negative effects, the school cheating, the replacement of jobs. The youngsters know you build upon the platform, you don't lament what is lost. What people will do with AI is more important to them than what it will take way. They see it as additive. I do think it's a possibility that TikTok will be eradicated from the U.S., especially in today's political climate. But what do we know? Nature abhors a vacuum. The music industry killed Napster and then KaZaA arrived, and other P2P platforms without a central database. And then we had lockers. And ultimately Daniel Ek solved the problem with Spotify. It's not like if TikTok goes, it's not going to be replaced. And if it's really going to be banished from America... ByteDance will start talking about implementing more restrictions on data, about a sale... TikTok is just a step in the food chain. That's what we've seen with social media since Friendster. It's an evolution. Facebook was impacted by Instagram, which it bought, and then Snapchat and TikTok came along. It's all about connecting, we live in a social world, the internet has evidenced this, but oldsters still can't accept it.

Songs, songs, songs...it never changes. And although the Spotify Top 50 is populated by one chord numbers, melody never dies. If you can write a song with changes, with melody, with a memorable chorus and a bridge, your work will always be desirable. Used to be the music sphere was dominated by terrestrial radio. If radio didn't play it, it's like it didn't exist. At least since the MTV era. Hip-hop and pop have dominated on terrestrial radio for years. There's no innovation in terrestrial radio, only cost-cutting and more of the same. What I mean is if you don't make the kind of music that terrestrial radio plays on its mainstream formats, which predominate with listeners, you now have a better chance of reaching your audience.

It's harder to gain traction than ever before, it's harder to gain notice. So expect the younger generations to come up with new ways to gain notice. Sure, there will be some stunts, but just like TikTok broke new artists, there will be other ways that surface. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because you play your own instruments, write the songs and produce an analog product, that does not mean you should abandon the internet. The internet is how you get known, treat it with disdain at your peril. That's where people converse about your music, where they spread it, where word of mouth happens. Even if you don't want to reveal your personal identity, post information, facts, live videos...give fans the tools to spread the word.

Everything happens slower than it ever did before. If you're not in it for the long haul, don't even start. It could take ten years to gain traction. In a world where a song can take two years to become a hit. But you learn something in those ten years, you gain experience and get better. This is the opposite of the paradigm of the old system, i.e. the major labels. They want it fast, they don't want to invest for the long term. They want to be able to blow it up on the first record.

The record is just a calling card. If you're bitching about streaming payouts you're missing the point. It's just oldsters and transitional acts who keep raving about streaming payouts. There have been a zillion studies, even by the British government, Spotify is not the devil, it is not stealing your money, at worst the labels are taking the lion's share. The stream is just the bedrock that people can turn to. You build upon your recorded music, it's not the sole revenue driver. And live is more important than ever not because acts can't make money from streaming, but because in a digital world people crave live, breathing events. If your show is an event, and different every night, you're on the right path.

We are transitioning to an era of authenticity and credibility, sell out at your peril.

Social media influencers are all about selling out, which is why their life spans are short. There's no there there. But that's the essence of a musical artist, their identity. Know who you are. Doing what's expedient might alienate your fans. Sure, there are barely pubescent kids who blindly follow the sellout titans, but we are entering an age akin to the late sixties, most people are deeper thinkers, they want more fulfillment, they want something that delivers, they want more than just a pretty face and a song written by committee. The more personal your music, the more honest it is, the more it is you, the more people get attached to it. This is how you build a career.

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