Mailbag

From: Richard Griffiths Subject: Re: Song of the Summer Most important number these days? MPH Merch per head. That tells you if you’re playing a pub for a hundred but MPH is £10 versus artists playing 10000 and only doing £5 MPH. The pub artist has real fans the arena artist passing fans. I have an artist ( who I won’t name) doing over £50 MPH in arenas, ________________________________________ From: Mindi Abair Subject: Re: The Aerosmith Extravaganza Night 2 I would have loved to be at the Hollywood Bowl for this. I toured with Aerosmith for the Global Warming Tour in 2012. They embody rock n roll. There's nothing corporate about them... They're a band that has stood the test of time for good reason. They're authentic. They mean it. They believe in what they're doing. They pose well, but they're not posers. I hate the "rock is dead" conversation because I love the abandon and authenticity of it. Maybe the younger generation can take a little inspiration from these guys to live your life with authenticity... write songs that speak to your own experience and not do it for anyone but themselves. Thanks for telling the story of the night. Felt like I was there!!!  Mindi Abair  ________________________________________ From: Toby Mamis Re: Opening Acts On the other hand, we do a lot of Alice Cooper shows that are "an Evening with," because that's what the fans want and we found that support acts weren't really adding anything nor were they really benefiting.  We turn down "buy-on" offers as well.  We'd love to showcase great new acts but it's not economically viable for them or even for us in the end. ________________________________________ Subject: Re: The Choosin' Texas Kerfuffle Bob, You are 1000% correct on this topic -- and I have the analytics to prove it.  Here's a telling anecdote: Last year, after nearly 4 decades at UMG and WMG, I decided to "retire" and purchase the late Joel Whitburn's 55-year-old chart book company.  The jewel of the company is the database he created of dozens of charts going back to 1890 (Biilboard, Cash Box, Gavin, Apple, Spotify, etc.). We'll soon be moving the data online, but in the meantime, to keep cash flowing, we worked on an update to a country chart book that was released almost 10 years ago.  Our new book, History of Top Country Singles 1944-2025,.did not sell nearly as well as past editions.  When I anonymously went on reddit to ask former customers why, the number one reason was, "Because we've never heard and don't care about most of the hits in the last 10 years!" So, changing course, we are now issuing three multi-genre books covering the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's.  All this data is technically in other books in our catalog, but they are selling gang-busters!!  The sales don't lie.  Those decades represented the peak of music as a mass market medium. Vinnie Freda CEO, Record Research ________________________________________ From: Dan Navarro Subject: Re: CD Sales Bounce Yup. I sell “a lot” of CDs, I mean, within my niche context. Not big time numbers, but profitable, and worth-it. Cuz I tour constantly. During Covid, even woth dailyvstrea. My James Lee Stanley duet “All Wood zand Led” sells if I play a song from it. People at the merch table will pick them up, laugh, and say “I don’t have a player in my car, my house or my computer.“ Then they buy. It’s a souvenir of the show with an autographing surface. That’s it. The fact that it has music in it is a coincidence. I generally include a free download code, so if they care at all about offline play they don’t have to scrounge around for a ripping solution. The CD is not gone, it’s…I dunno…taxidermy. ________________________________________ From: Medea Isphording Bern Subject: Re: Opening Acts Hi Bob, I had tix to see Fitz and the Tantrums at a smallish venue this weekend. So excited! I made early dinner (not a fan) plans and we were inside the venue by 7:45, show starting at 8. I was able to be so close to the stage I was trembling! At 8:05, a guy with a guitar comes onto the stage. I won’t say his name, because he was really trying to entertain, But, as you say, most people were talking, scrolling, drinking, drinking some more. I sort of lost interest when I noticed that music was still coming from his guitar but he wasn’t actually playing (and I know this is a thing with solo acts, but it still rankles.) What the hell? My son ands wife politely hung on, but my husband gave up and went home. Too bad for him ultimately, since the headliner was so fabulous and had the audience dancing up a storm. Had this been in a club and I had to pay a $20 cover, it would have been ok. But he was not peppy like Fitz and co. so the music’s appeal didn’t track. O if we only ran the zoo. Take care, Medea Bern ________________________________________ Subject: Dolly Parton In 1978, I was a 21 year old college student majoring in broadcasting.  The university would sponsor concerts and Dolly Parton was scheduled to perform. The day of the show, Dolly came to the campus television studio to tape an interview.  We were all apprehensive about being around her, a star, but she completely put us at ease. She was friendly, talked to everyone, asked our names, complimented us, was a genuinely nice person. Somehow, it was my responsibility to clip a lavalier microphone on Dolly.  She was on set, sitting in a chair, and I timidly approached her.  I was looking down at her, trying to figure out where to put the mic, when I suddenly realized that I was standing there staring at Dolly Parton's bosom. Seeing the microphone in my hand and my eyes on her chest, Dolly laughed and said "I'll put it on for you".   As I tried to hand the mic to her, nervous as I could be, I accidentally dropped it down her blouse. Thoroughly embarrassed, I froze.  Dolly laughed again and didn't skip a beat.  She reached in and fished the mic out and clipped it on.  Then, she touched my arm and said "Wouldn't be the first thing that got lost in there". BC Bunker ________________________________________ Subject: Re: The Heart Scan Here's the other side.   I felt an almost unnoticeable "flutter" when my heart rate was between 120 and 130. Usually when I was walking up a certain hill that I started schlepping up for exercise when the gym closed during Covid. I had been working out 5 days a week by then, and had been working out for 35 years, non-stop, while eating really well for probably 25 of those years. I only once felt that same flutter on the days I worked out on my Spin bike, so it could have gone unnoticed.   I had a Calcium scan. It was 32, when I was 69. 32. But it all looked to be in one place. Even the interventional cardiologist thought it would turn out to be a "false positive." It wasn't. The Angiogram showed a 90+% blockage in my left anterior descending artery, which every doctor has called "the Widowmaker." They put a stent in and all is well.   I complained to my doctors that I eat healthfully, work out constantly, don't drink, don't smoke and watch my weight. "Genetics" they said. Each of my doctors has said the same thing. Genetics. Jeffrey Wruble ________________________________________ From: Thomas Fitzsimmons Subject: Re: E-Mail Of The Day Bob, Three years ago I asked my GP if they had a test that could indicate heart problems other than a stress test. Having taken a cologuard test and a grail test for cancer I was looking for a comparable heart test. He recommended a calcium test and wrote me a script. Two days later I had it done and the score was in the 600's. I sent the results to a friend who is a cardiologist that day and we met 2 days later. We scheduled a nuclear stress test the following week and if that indicated blockage we would schedule an angiogram. The stress test indicated blockage and a week later we did the angiogram. It indicated 80% blockage in three arteries, two that split off from one and the other being the "widow maker". I met with a surgeon a week later and within a month had a triple bypass. In a matter of 7 weeks I went from asking for a test to bypass surgery. As you've mentioned in your reports you have to be your own advocate and things can escalate rapidly.  ________________________________________ From: Lisa Lauren Subject: RE: The Implant Hi Bob, I also grew up with parents who were lax about going to the doctor.  So when I had some recurring tooth/jaw pain (in 2019), I kept waiting for it to go away - for a month or so. I saw a doctor at immediate care and he gave me Gapapentin. When the pain started getting worse a couple of days later I went to a neurologist, who told me to go straight to my dentist. He took one look and told me to go to the endodontist, who gave me a partial root canal.  Two days later the pain was unbearable and I went to the emergency room and ended up having surgery for an abscess.  I woke up intubated in the ICU and was there for a week.  At one point I heard a doctor in the room say the word "tracheotomy" but I was too heavily sedated to get upset, but I can still remember it.  Not a great word to hear as a singer.  Eventually I recovered and I can still sing, but I tell EVERYONE in no uncertain tems that if you have any kind of tooth/mouth pain, do not hesitate to go to the doctor.  Yikes.  I'm glad you also had a positive outcome.   ________________________________________ From: Marty Winsch Subject: Re: The Boeing Documentary Tennessee Titans are worth over $8 billion. To support ALS they are selling 2000 tickets at $28, Chris Johnson’s number when he played for Tennessee and when he rushed for over 2000 yards. Are they donating all $56k? Of course not. Only $5 dollars of each ticket is going to ALS research, 2000 x $5 is $10,000. So, the Titans are donating $10,000 to ALS research at Vanderbilt. How the f*ck can people get it so wrong. An organization worth $8b making a $10k donation, oh and off the back of deadwood tickets they weren’t going to sell anyway? Titans vs. Jets. Talk about a good idea gone wrong and coming up short. What a f*cking joke. I hope they get bitch slapped for this. ________________________________________ Subject: Re: The Boeing Documentary Bob, My father flew a B-17 in WWII.  In the 90’s we were on a short flight (Detroit to Chicago) in a 737 with a thunderstorm raging and the turbulence was awful.  The plane is bouncing and I’m holding the arm rest for dear life.  He is calm as can be and says to me, “relax, no one is shooting at us”.  Thanks, Neal Berz ________________________________________ From: Stephen-Craig Aristei Subject: Re: The Boeing Documentary After a lifetime of flight, my best airplane story is still my 1st ride in an airplane. I was seven years old and my father’s boss tethered me in his lap in his bi-plane, we took off from the company airstrip in Westchester, California and flew over Balona  Creek and the coastal construction that became the Marina Del Rey Marina- if you haven’t guessed- the pilot was Howard Hughes! Still the most amazing flight experience in my life! ________________________________________ From: Ryan M Subject: Re: The German Found this show by accident and literally made up a story to bail out of an event I was supposed to go to so that I could watch it all in one night. Some of my relatives who survived ended up at Kibbutzim that looked exactly like that. They all pretty much looked like that, even when I was there as a kid in the late 90’s. Amazing show. Lead actor speaks fluent Hebrew in the series and doesn’t know how to speak it at all in real life. The producers fed him line by line and that’s how he got it done. Anyway, I was gonna give it 10min. That didn’t happen. ________________________________________ From: Reg Subject: Re: Re-Jim Griffin Thanks for posting this. I met Jim in our Leadership Music group in Nashville back in 2013. My first thought was “Who is this character?" Over the next year, I learned who he was. First, he was a brilliant mind. Second, he was a humorous and caring soul. Next, he was an intensely devoted family man. It was an honor to have spent time with Jim, learned from him and to call him friend. Rest Easy, Jim. Lotta folks gonna miss you.  Peace, Reg (Scott Register) ________________________________________ From: Jim Willcox Subject: Re: Re-Jim Griffin I'm sure you'll be receiving a ton of letters from those who knew Jim Griffin. I first met him at a music conference back in 2000, when I left journalism full-time to help launch an online music company. Despite my lack of experience and knowledge of the music industry, he was welcoming and encouraging, and invited me to join the pholist as a great way to learn about the industry and the issues it faced during this period of great and rapid transition. There I encountered some of the smartest, most insightful, and passionate people who, despite often quite spirited differences and debates, still got together on occasion to share a bowl of pho in the spirit of brotherhood. I was only able to attend one pho lunch, in NYC during a music conference, something I'm now regretting. Even after I left the music business, I remained (and remain) a member of the pholist to hear some of the smartest people in the room discuss and debate a pretty wide variety of issues. Jim was not only whip-smart and articulate—he could foresee how the music industry would change and offered a blueprint for how it should be handled. If you look at the recording from the Congressional Napster hearing, you'll see how prescient he was at predicting what has now been commonplace.  I mainly knew Jim from his writings, so I can't say I was as personally close to him as many others were, but I nonetheless feel the loss. I hadn't heard the term "quantum entanglement" until he posted about it, but because he did, I felt I needed to learn about it. He will be greatly missed. jim James K. Willcox Senior Editor/Electronics & Home Consumer Reports ________________________________________ From: Hank Barry Subject: Re: Re-Jim Griffin Thanks for this Bob.  Jim and Stacie Griffin understood the technology and implications of digital media long before Napster.  Through the Pho List and directly, they have been friends with and counselors to many, including Milt Olin, the exceptional general counsel at A&M who became Napster's Chief Operating Officer. Stacie's observation that "everything Jim predicted would happen is now true" is exactly correct. Rest in peace Jim. Hank Barry ________________________________________ From: Eric Steiner Subject: Re: Re-Jim Griffin Dear Bob, Jim was a classmate at Rich East HS in Chicagoland. We worked together at the high school radio station and I envied his job at a stereo store while I was a bus boy at a Sears cafeteria. He always was interested in the best sound equipment and I wish we didn’t lose touch as young adults when we went our separate ways to college. My memories of Jim are admittedly pre-adulthood, but I’ll never forget his coaching about my radio playlists and discovering the latest and greatest after hours in his store. Eric Steiner, Freeland, Whidbey Island, Washington ________________________________________ From: Casey Rae Subject: Re: Re-Jim Griffin We hadn’t spoken in a minute, but he was a major mentor, and a peach of a human being. RIP.  Casey Rae ________________________________________ From: Michael McCarty Subject: Re: Re-Jim Griffin Bob This is sad news. I was a Jim Griffin disciple when he was walking that lonely road as practically the only sane voice on how to handle the digital future of music.  I used to follow him to conferences,  take copious notes while he was speaking, and buttonhole him afterwards. As part of the EMI system (on the publishing side), year after year of frustration ensued while I waited in vain  for our exalted leaders to wake up and listen to him. I think Marty Bandier understood that we were in the intellectual property business, and this internet thing was an opportunity to engage with new licensees. Unfortunately the record guys, both at EMI and every other major music company, were in charge of the response to Napster.  I think it’s absolutely true that the day Napster was released, the heads of all the major labels handled their email as follows:  *Have secretary (the actual name of the position) print the emails and place them in the inbox on the CEO’s desk *CEO would then write a response on the paper *Secretary would then fax it back to the sender Boy were they well suited to lead the industry against technological disruption!  I never could tell if Jim knew what an uphill battle it was to deal with these people. Not only did the label heads not understand they were in the IP business, they didn’t have two brain cells devoted to the concept. The fundamental issue was that the industry had evolved to the point where the major record label's core business was … distribution. Long gone were the industry founders like Ahmet, Herb and Jerry, Berry Gordy, etc. They were MUSIC guys whose passion was to find talent and bring it to the world. Pressing records, getting them on the radio and in stores was a means to that end. As the record business exploded with the rise of LPs replacing singles (at 10x the price), the sales of which were fuelled by FM radio, and then with the introduction of the CD which led to consumers replacing their vinyl collections for twice the price, the major label culture evolved too. It evolved into a “real” business with MBA-think wherein they decided that the intersection of lowest risk and highest barrier to entry was DISTRIBUTION. Smaller labels and entrepreneurs could blow their brains out on a new signing, but your Warner/CBS/MCA company could make a guaranteed margin on each record sold - hit or not. This evolution also dictated what personality types could thrive inside the rapidly expanding industry, which turned out to generally be type A, poorly educated, non-musical sales/promotion technophobes.  So, when Napster hit, this label leadership crowd, instead of looking at the landscape as IP owners, saw an existential threat to their distribution business. The FOUNDERS would have said “oh great, another way to distribute our music”. Instead, the DISTRIBUTORS said “oh sh*t, another way to distribute our music”. Being luddites, they had no idea that the digitization of music was an unstoppable force. Once they reluctantly realized they couldn’t stop it, the hubris took over and they thought they could control it by creating their own DSP abominations in the form of Press Play and Music Net.  How Jim retained his sanity through all of this is a miracle. It must have been frustrating beyond belief.  I guess that’s the cost of seeing the future when the powers that be refuse to. RIP Jim. Best, M ________________________________________ From: Jim Blaney Subject: Re: Malcolm Gladwell's Gun Book Bob “Don't get in an argument with an unknown person. You never know who they truly are and clashes can escalate in a minute” And watch yourself on the road. My daughter in law is a nurse who works at Ascension St Thomas West Hospital. In 2020 one of the nurses who worked on her floor was driving to work on I440 here in Nashville when she cut another car off. One of the passengers had a pistol and fired 6 shots at her car. One bullet hit her. She died.  "Caitlyn Kaufman trial: Lawyer says road rage shooter acted in anger, not premeditation": https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/lawyer-road-rage-shooter-acted-in-anger-not-premeditation/ ________________________________________ From: Michael Shaw Subject: Re: Song of the Summer Show of summer:  caught you on Dwight’s “Greater Bakersfield” show earlier this afternoon (mountain time).  Tuned in when you started talking about “Blonde on Blonde” vs “Nashville Skyline.”  Sat in the whole foods parking lot ’til y’all were done and had you had sung!  Will have to try and find it on the SXM app to hear the whole thing.  Great stuff.  I could have ridden in that elevator I walked into for hours. -Michael -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25