"'You've Got Michael': Living Through HIStory": https://www.amazon.com/Youve-Got-Michael-Through-HIStory-ebook/dp/B0FMKKNR35
I wasn't going to read this book. I know enough about Michael. I love "Off the Wall," and "Thriller" is pretty good too, but as far as the ins and outs of his life... Next!
But then Dan Beck wrote me a personal e-mail...
This is what people don't understand...that it's the little things that count. Almost no one responds to a generic e-mail that's part of a blast. And then there are those that are only personalized using my name...
The problem is... Most PR outfits have the most junior people write and send this stuff. And not only is it not personalized, they've got no idea who I even am or what I do. Which is minorly offensive. I mean my time is worth something.
So, if you hire a PR person who sends blasts... They'll take your money, but it ain't worth much. It's the personal touch that matters.
So I was sent a book... People have no idea how much time I need to invest to read something or watch something or even listen to something. I'm essentially working for you, and why should I?
But when Dan sent me that personal note, I decided to crack the book, and it was completely different from what I thought it would be...
I expected hagiography focused on Michael. And there's plenty of Michael, but he doesn't always look good, yet what there really is is a deep dive into how the music business worked back in the last century, before the internet hit.
Now the funny thing is the mainstream media and the trade press still act like everything's the same. Focused on hits, pushed by the major labels, when in truth the major labels have never meant less, all three of them. And in truth, Primary Wave is a better label than the Big Three. It's got the creme de la creme of execs and they don't blow smoke. So if you're a legacy artist...
The majors have been hollowed out and don't release that much product anyway... All the action is in the indies, which is why Universal purchased Downtown. The majors don't know how to do this. They don't know how to start from scratch, they're just able to pick up stuff that's already successful by paying a lot for it and then adding their special sauce...which is exactly what? Terrestrial radio means less than ever before, even though they dedicate so much time and money to it, and TV, other than SNL and "CBS Sunday Morning," means nothing and... They really don't know how to do it.
But in the old days...THEY KNEW EXACTLY HOW TO DO IT!
And that's what this book is all about. And if you were there, you will remember, and also be weirded-out that it was such a long time ago, the execs who were titans are in their eighties and unknown by youngsters. The first decade of this century was all about digital disruption, but that problem was solved by Spotify and...
A side note here. My inbox is full of people pointing me to this article:
"The Death of Spotify: Why Streaming is Minutes Away From Being Obsolete"
I'm not even going to give you the link, I don't want you to waste your time, Google it if you're interested. It's all based on this interview Jimmy Iovine gave...
Iovine was a great record producer and a great label exec but he was a terrible technologist. Think of all his endeavors that failed before Beats... Does anybody remember Jimmy and Doug's Farm Club?
Instead of the above article I'd rather see one about how hard it is to make it, how almost no one can make a living in music, and that there are many avenues of revenue and if you're streamed on Spotify you're paid.
But people don't like that. They hate the big kahuna.
And then the article talks about how Spotify doesn't scale. Duh. Which is why they've entered into podcasts and books and...lo and behold, the company is making money and its valuation has gone way up. Ain't that the way of a failing company... NO!
But that's the modern music business. People would rather talk about anything but the music, because the music is hard. Someone must be at fault, someone must be standing in the way of you becoming rich and famous... And in truth there is one person, and it's YOU!
As for Spotify... We are at the end of the cycle. Spotify is on demand, there's nothing after on demand. And Spotify has the largest market share and is growing faster than its competitors, but that does not mean some ignoramus cannot pontificate on Substack...
Yes, I'm an equal opportunity offender. I think I've pissed off everybody at this point.
However, back to the book....
Dan Beck was a product manager. This is the first description of what a product manager does, and it's quite a lot! All the focus is on promotion and marketing, but when you read what Beck did...
As for the honchos above him... Beck says that unlike his predecessors, Dave Glew explained the economics to the troops. So they could understand how the company made money. And that's what record companies are, businesses, making cash...they are not museums, they don't want to invest in something with no commercial potential.
So Glew gives Beck Michael Jackson and...
MJ's career is faltering a bit after "Dangerous"... Quincy Jones kept Michael under control, sans Q Michael was a caricature of himself.
Michael was delusional, he wanted to sell a hundred million copies of HIStory! Truly!
And Michael keeps switching managers... And you see how these guys operate. Frank DiLeo knew the ropes and could set Michael straight. Sandy Gallin was elusive, his partner Jim Morey was hands-on with the nuts and bolts of touring and logistics, but the big picture thinking... Gallin was an enigma. And not always available.
On the other side you've got Mickey Schulhof, who promises Michael he's going to put his teaser for "HIStory" in all of Sony's Loews Theatres. And then after Michael delivers an execrable POS... Loews wants nothing to do with it. Ultimately, Beck employs Robert Kardashian's Movie Tunes as a workaround...
Yup, the names from the past keep popping up. Ron Alexenburg, who wooed Michael away from Motown, and ultimately decamped to start his own label with MCA, Infinity.
The business used to be one of musical chairs, unlike today. The players were constantly switching labels. Here today...at another company tomorrow. Now that's not the case, the labels are moribund, and not where the action is anyway. Want to be in the music business? Work in the live sector. That's where real acts are broken.
So Michael keeps calling Beck. The time is irrelevant.
And you can see that Beck is working around the clock... This is what the music business was like... If you weren't going to come in on Saturday, don't even think of coming in on Sunday. People sacrificed their entire lives... Sure, the money was good, but they wanted to be closer to the music.
And the MONEY! The amounts were STAGGERING! Sure, Michael blew millions...and it's fascinating to hear how video producers ran up budgets to line their pockets...but millions were in the offing. In the days of CDs... The billing could be incredible!
And Beck goes into distribution. And also how all the pieces fit together...recording, manufacturing, distribution... Timing was key.
Today physical product is just a way to rip off fans with another iteration of an album sold as a souvenir so the act's chart number will go up. Forget all the money saved on production and shipping, you don't need all those heads doing those jobs! Costs are lower than ever before, the money isn't raining down like it used to. But once upon a time...
Now if you worked in the music business in the eighties and nineties you will recognize yourself and the landscape. All the departments focused on releasing product that generated mountains of cash. And it wasn't only distribution people and the product manager and promotion, there was the publicity team and the video team and even the researcher/pollster. With so much money on the line they wanted to get it right, they needed to get it right for the entire enterprise to march forward.
If you were not around back then, you won't even recognize the business Dan Beck delineates.
As for Michael... Ultimately you can say that he was out of touch. He kept needing to top himself, and at some point that becomes impossible. And no one really wanted to say no to him. So he devolved into ever more ludicrous endeavors. And when confronted with the use of racial slurs in one of his songs he dug in his heels, angry that he could be misperceived, he couldn't even understand the public's reaction.
Beck is constantly trying to stop Michael from putting his foot in it. Michael comes up with more and more inane ideas that Beck knows the press will crucify him for and...it's nearly impossible to make Michael see the truth.
Beck says Michael was stubborn. He does his best to put Michael in the best light, talks about how charitable he was, how he lived up to his commitments, but ultimately it's just sad... Michael created the monster, he became Wacko Jacko.
Is this book for Michael Jackson fans? I guess if you're a completist who needs to know everything. But really, "You've Got Michael" is for those fascinated with the music business, the moving parts, how it used to work, the dedication of the employees who were bitten by the bug.
It was an entire generation...they heard the Beatles and they had to get closer. Music was everything.
One can say by the nineties the companies were being crushed from within... Innovation was low and money was everything and the funny thing is the people running these companies thought it would go on forever, they truly thought they were gods entitled to this lifestyle and all this money. They could not fathom that they were ripping off the public and that people would be enamored by Napster.
Remember when live albums were dribbled out after a number of hit studio records? Suddenly, all kinds of live recordings were available on Napster... And at this point, live recordings are something you see on YouTube, they have almost no commercial value.
And greatest hits albums are a thing of the past.
Yup, the goal was to get people to buy an overpriced CD...if there was even a single available, it was cut out when the song gained traction, forcing people to buy the album.
And the funny thing is many will be indignant re the above, they'll say that the CD wasn't overpriced, was a good value, and today's model is crap.
Cracks me up. Who are these people who believe that the wheel stops turning, that change doesn't happen. The bottom line is change is constant, and if you're not adjusting, you're left behind.
Which brings us full circle. The labels didn't know how to save themselves, couldn't save themselves, and then an outsider known as Daniel Ek saved their business. And that's the truth...lock, stock and barrel. Spotify saved the recording industry. Revenues returned, piracy was diminished to a de minimis level and what do "artists" say? SPOTIFY IS THE DEVIL!
Would you rather not be paid at all? Would you rather there be no central place where people can hear your music? And do you think major labels in the last century were handing out record deals to all those people posting thousand and thousands of tracks to streaming services each and every day?
You can't fight the b.s. People don't want to hear the truth. They're invested in their story, because if the system isn't stacked against them that means...they need to look in the mirror, and see that the problem is them.
But the problem must be illegal immigrants, or some other hogwash. The MAGA movement is as bad as the record labels in the Napster era. When it was all said and done, overpriced CDs were a thing of the past. But we've got an entire party based on bringing back coal. It would be laughable if it weren't so scary.
I'd say history is permanent, but Trump is doing a good job of rewriting that too.
Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist. If you've got blind faith in Trump you're as bad as the enablers who told Biden he could run and win in 2024.
But if you want to know the way the music business ran in the eighties and nineties, when MTV promoted tracks and acts around the world, generating heretofore unfathomable cash..."You've Got Michael" is the place to get the story. It's a bygone era, but when it was all going down... It was Camelot!
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