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,
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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 
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.  
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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.
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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
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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!
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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)
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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
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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

Is a requirement at the arena level. The old days of the music being enough…there are very few acts that can pull this off, usually ones who became established before the death of MTV/VH1/radio and the advent of the internet.

Yes, in the late eighties and beyond acts felt a necessity to replicate their videos live. This also reflects a change in the music. A return to the pop star of yore as opposed to the post-Beatles rock star. The trappings became more important, as did the visual image. Such that we got spandex and costume changes and even tapes and then hard drives to replicate the sound of the record perfectly. It was believed this was what the audience expected. Whether they did back then, they certainly do now.

Especially for this price.

A show is an event, more akin to a Broadway play than a greasy, dirty, underground affair. Those shows do still exist, just not in arenas. One can also argue that it’s in these smaller venues where the music is paramount that the future of music lives, but in a world where moneyed-interests want it all and they want it now, in big numbers, i.e. the major labels, there is little support for that which cannot rain down bucks in great amounts very soon. If you’re different, it happens slower, now more than ever. The word can be spread online, but with so much in the channel, it’s hard to reach critical mass quickly.

We live in the train-wreck era. That’s what the algorithm is all about. Featuring clips that shock you. Same with clickbait headlines. You can play this game, and win, but it is extremely competitive, and requires a constant presence.

As for those who win, who play arenas, they are now in the SHOW business as opposed to the CONCERT business.

And that’s a big change.

Just in terminology. “Show” doesn’t have the gravitas of “concert.” Show is spectacle, razzle-dazzle, a lot about what you see as opposed to what you hear. This is where we’ve devolved to. Sure, Devo based its entire act on de-evolution, but the alternative as an answer to the mainstream has died. You are no longer reacting, a counterpoint to the mainstream, but in a world unto yourself. If you are taking the road less travelled don’t be concerned with putting down those playing the big commercial game, just follow your own path. You want to be seen as outside the system as opposed to in opposition to it. Outside is where all the action is, the rebels. You’re outside the constant self-promotion. That does not mean you cannot post, but you need to be cheeky, or downright authentic, you can’t be saying LOOK AT ME, BUY MY STUFF!

We are waiting for the outside to triumph once again, the essence of FM radio after the Beatles, it only takes one act and then the floodgates open, but so far this has not occurred, there is no transcendent act that demands attention that refuses to play the conventional game.

But if you have won playing the conventional game know that people are paying a sh*t-ton to see you, and they expect value for their dollar. The music is not enough, they want show.

As for it being already available on YouTube…this is not a disadvantage. This would be like saying watching a porn film is as good as having intercourse. A show should feel of a piece, the audience at the arena should feel included. You’re selling a vibe, emotion, a once in a lifetime experience. The show attendee must leave the arena feeling something, having experienced more than the music itself. Something that cannot be garnered elsewhere, something so special that they need to return to see the act irrelevant of whether they have more hits.

Kenny Chesney is famous for changing up his show and delivering new experiences live.

And he’s not the only one.

Of course there is Taylor Swift.

But don’t see these efforts as extra, they are an integral part of arena/stadium shows today. Don’t skimp on your production designer, they are stars in their own right today. Your production is not an afterthought, it deserves focus if not quite equal to the music, certainly significant.

The apotheosis of this is the Sphere. Where the acts are almost incidental to the experience. Sure, the music is necessary, but it’s the visuals that wow, that draw business. After all, most of these acts can be seen elsewhere on a regular basis, but they can demand beaucoup bucks at the Sphere.

As for intimate, acoustic music… The heyday of the singer-songwriter can return, as long as acts focus on those two words. You have to be able to both sing and write, at a very high quality level. We all played guitars and sang Beatle songs back in the day, but we did not believe we deserved mainstream attention, whereas today’s younger performers do. And as big as Phoebe Bridgers might be, imagine someone with a better voice singing more palatable songs, numbers that anybody anywhere would like and would be capable of singing. There still is a mainstream, it’s just that very few are playing to it. The last person who did so successfully was Adele, but she was not a rock star, rather closer to a diva. But someone with a rock sensibility could take the stage in their jeans and t-shirt and that would be enough, even in an arena, because they would be selling something more cerebral than visual.

But that’s not what is happening today. Today it’s about what you see, attendees want to be wowed, they want their jaws to drop, it’s more akin to an amusement park ride than a concert of yore.

So if you made it by playing the game, being in the Spotify Top 50, utilizing publicity such that you can play arenas, you’d better have a ton of production, do your best to overwhelm your audience.

Because that’s what people expect.

People only want to see the headliner.

Live music is now an event, not a culture. Sure, there are outliers, fans who need to go to the show constantly, keep up on developing acts, but that’s not most of the public. People have favorites and they want to see them and no one else. They don’t want their time wasted, in a world with so many distractions, where nobody has enough of it. It’s a constant balancing act, weighing what is worth your time and devotion, your attention, and if you need to sit through something new that is not going to float your boat, you’d rather do something else.

Of course there are exceptions. If an act is handpicked by the headliner, knowing they’ll appeal to their audience, this can vault the opener to further success. Most notably with Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, although he had a career before. And Gracie Abrams…who sings similarly confessional songs.

But most acts can’t deliver this imprimatur to their opener. They’re better off just doing an evening with. That’s what people want, MORE!

And they’re willing to pay for it.

Sure, concert ticket prices are high, but people are lining up to pay, substantial sums. Don’t look at the business through the lens of the past, going to club shows, arena shows of your favorites, that’s not how people view concerts these days. They’re not fans of live music, they’re fans of this specific act.

As for building and climbing your way up the ladder… Now a hit or two can garner arena sales the first time out. If for no other reason than if you hit, you can reach a substantial number of people easily via the internet. People want to hear the hit. They want to be of the moment. They want to be able to brag they were there. Shoot selfies and post them. Going to see an act that nobody knows about? Where’s the fun in that? Today’s life is all about obscurity, almost everything languishes without attention. But if you can gain notice, build momentum, the throngs will come out to see you.

For a while anyway, not forever, not in arenas, not at these prices. To continue to sell that many tickets you have to maintain a bond with the audience, usually via more hits, but this bond can be maintained via social media and other ways on the internet.

So if you’re starting out, it’s a conundrum. Careers are built on the road, but there’s nowhere to play, nowhere people are paying attention. Which is why you must kill each and every time out. You don’t know who is in the audience who might spread the word.

Also, festivals are now auditions for careers. Used to be an appearance was good for your résumé, but didn’t grow your audience. But now, audience members do scout for new talent at festivals. Once again, it’s the imprimatur of the promoter. If the promoter bothered to pick this act out of the plethora available, there must be a reason. People love gatekeepers, when they don’t hate them. Talent hates when it is squeezed out of potential opportunities, but fans want gatekeepers to make sense of the world for them. Radio specialized in this, but ironically, most of the acts who break from festivals are not the beneficiaries of radio airplay, they’re too outside, until they’re not. Radio comes last. It’s a live business. And despite all the hoopla about playlisting, discovery doesn’t happen on Spotify, et al, but elsewhere on the net, on TikTok and via word of mouth.

So…

What are the odds your opening slot is going to deliver fans?

Pretty damn low. If for no other reason than most people won’t even show up for your performance, and will talk throughout it if they’re in attendance. Better to build your own audience and headline your own shows, so people who really care will come, and if you’re that good, your audience will grow, even though arenas might be far away. Arenas are for acts in the Spotify Top 50 and legacies who broke in the old system, before the internet came along and blew the game apart.

And those who made it in the old system are known by many more and can maybe sell stadiums, whether it be Coldplay, Journey or the classic classic rockers. It’s hard to reach that many people today. But not impossible, look at Morgan Wallen, then again, his music is known by fewer than those in the pre-internet heyday.

The price of the ticket is irrelevant if people want to go. Kind of like Hermès, or Rolex, or BMW and Mercedes. These are luxury goods, that’s what shows are today. Rare and exalted. If you want to go, you must pony up. And scarcity rules. The act goes on tour infrequently and may not come back to your market for years. And even if it does, that illustrates demand is so heavy that it will be hard to get a ticket!

People don’t complain about the price they pay for luxury goods, so acts should not be wary of charging what the ticket is really worth and doing their best to eliminate the bots and secondary market. Those complaining about high prices…are paying them anyway or weren’t going to go to begin with. You can’t be swayed by blowback from the few.

Remember when Netflix said it was going to flip the script to streaming? There was such an uproar that the company said it would stay in the DVD by mail business. But have you rented a DVD recently? Even played one? Even own a DVD player? Steve Jobs got rid of legacy ports. Apple killed the headphone jack. Each and every time people complained, but nobody does so anymore.

So if you’re looking for a leg up by chaining yourself to a hit act, trying to use their audience to grow your own… Those days are in the rearview mirror. You’ve got to deliver your own attention, grow your own audience.

As for multi-act shows… Those are about value, that’s a different business, think of it like a mini-festival, people might be willing to experience an act they’re not in love with, but rarely one they don’t know. The acts playing stadium shows must all have an audience, if they’re brand new or relatively unknown, it’s a fool’s errand.

Discovery rarely happens live. It happens elsewhere, on social media, via personal interaction.

And people only want to pay to see the biggest, most successful acts. There’s those and everybody else.

Ironically, there’s more live music than ever before. Oftentimes via free or soft ticket shows. So, journeymen/women can make a living playing music, but they have never been further away from the big time.

We live in a world of winners and losers. And people only want to pay attention to the winners. This is not only in music, but in every sphere of life, where all the information and access is at everybody’s fingertips.

To be a winner you’ve got to be able to self-start. Maybe a label can pour gasoline on your career, but to sustain you need much more. Music that speaks to an audience, a bond with your fans. And, once again, as hard as it is to break through, it’s even harder to sustain. Because there are new acts every day and an abundance of diversions. And even if you lower the price people won’t come, concerts are not price sensitive, either people want to come or they do not.

And if they do, their wallet is open. They’ll pay and they’ll even go to multiple shows, like the Backstreet Boys at the Sphere or Harry Styles at MSG. Wealthy people might go once for bragging rights, but the return attendees are regular people, schoolteachers, working for a living, they need to be in the building to see their favorite acts just that much.

That’s the passion you’ve got to inspire.

Or else…

You need to get another job.

NO COMPLAINING

The only people who want to hear it are…other complainers. There’s a whole ecosystem of people convinced that the system is stacked against them, who are constantly complaining online how unfair the game is. The truth is they are not good enough and/or unwilling to work hard enough. As for the 10,000 hour rule… It’s not just 10,000 hours, it’s 10,000 hours of HARD PRACTICE! Jerry Seinfeld intentionally sought out tough rooms to hone his act. Furthermore, he performed his initial five minute monologue for “The Tonight Show” in excess of a hundred times prior to taking Johnny Carson’s stage. Most people are not willing to do the hard work, the rewards go to those who do.

SINGING

If you have a substandard voice get someone else to sing your songs unless you are the best lyricist of all time, in the league of Bob Dylan. Why start out hamstrung? A great voice used to be a criterion for a record deal, never mind success, back in the pre-internet era. But now that anybody can play, everybody believes they deserve success, even though they don’t have the chops.

WRITING

Not only does it give you a leg up, it’s where all the money is. Focus on your songwriting more than your playing unless you’re planning on being a studio or backup musician.

CHARACTER

However, if your voice has a unique timbre, if you can deliver a song in a unique way…some people can get away without writing their own material. Don’t equate this with having a good voice. Rod Stewart could never win a TV competition show, but his raspy delivery is unique and credible, at least in his heyday in the seventies. Sure Rod wrote, but he also sang others’ songs…he’s the one who rescued Cat Stevens’s “The First Cut Is the Deepest” from the dustbin. Ditto Joe Cocker. Who else could have even conceived of his rendition of “With a Little Help from My Friends”?

AUTHENTICITY/CREDIBILITY

You have to be perceived as real, you have to live your true identity 24/7, because there are cameras everywhere and they’re out to get you. People live to expose the faux pas and contradictions of performers online. So don’t fake it unless that’s your identity. If you’re a part of the machine, singing songs written by committee, no one cares if you’re authentic, you may be marketable, but at the core there’s no there there. People are looking for something to latch on to, they want to identify. The old days of putting people on a throne and idolizing them no longer works in a world where everybody with a keyboard believes they’re a deserving star. You need to reflect people’s truth back upon them. You have to articulate it in a way that they can feel but not put into words. You want to foster belief, not brain dead fealty.

NO

You have to be able to say no. Never forget, your handlers, those surrounding you, are percentage partners. If you do the endorsement deal, the commercial, the private gig, they make money, so they’re rarely going to tell you not to. Have a backbone, adhere to your beliefs. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it. If it’s going to compromise your identity, don’t do it. You’re building an image, which must be bulletproof. It’s those who stay true to themselves who have the longest careers.

DON’T BE LIKE ANYBODY ELSE

Just like the Kinks song. Music pushes the envelope, makes a difference in society, when it surprises people, delivers what they cannot even conceive of. We don’t need a new jam band just like the last jam band. And we certainly don’t need another pop singer just like the last one. If you’re not unique, we don’t need you. Your influences must come from outside the game. If all you’re doing is studying the charts and the grosses you’re missing out on life and will have nothing to say.

DO THE OPPOSITE

Just like George in the aforementioned “Seinfeld.” Get no tattoos. You’ll be asked about this in every interview. How come you’re not like everybody else? Everybody else has tattoos, why don’t you? Ditto on long hair. You’ve got to make people question, you’ve got to make people think.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE RETRO

We call it going back to basics. You don’t need no stinkin’ 808. You can have more than one chord in a song. You can make a record that is not stacked with sounds from top to bottom. Think of it this way… Can people sing your song a cappella, i.e. with no accompaniment? That’s right, sans the trappings, does your song stand alone, both in changes and lyrics? And never forget the basic building blocks. The magic of a bridge. Starting with the chorus. These tricks NEVER go out of style.

YOU DON’T NEED A MAJOR LABEL

Now, more than ever, that’s about commerce, not art. That’s for pop stars who will garner success via publicity and radio and TV, the traditional game. The majors want it easy, which delivers the lowest common denominator, and they want it fast, which allows for no artist development.

SPOTIFY IS NOT EVERYTHING

You may look at the Spotify numbers for an act and see they’re anemic and think the act is not happening. But then you see how many tickets they’re selling and it doesn’t add up. These acts’ success lies elsewhere. Look for unique YouTube videos, or a social media presence on TikTok or Instagram Reels. A hit on TikTok will bond the fan to the artist more than a hit on Spotify. Spotify is where a fan goes LAST! (Not to rag on Spotify, it dwarfs its competitors in consumption, and therefore it’s a stand-in for the on-demand streaming outlets, i.e. DSPs.) Don’t be demoralized if your Spotify numbers are bad, as long as you’re a success somewhere else.

YOU’RE COMPETING AGAINST NO ONE

This is not the old days, with a limited number of slots. It all comes down to you. You need to make headway and grow. It is not a zero sum game. And chances are you can be big and a huge slice of the public has never heard of you, never mind your music. This is the case for just about everybody, it’s just that those who appear to have broad traction have better publicity, but publicity has never meant less. Getting someone to listen to new music is nearly impossible. Word of mouth is the best way to grow. But that assumes you have a track that entrances people in ten seconds, OR TEN MINUTES! You can’t have it both ways. If you want the public to take your extended opuses seriously, just make extended cuts and be known for that. But if that is not your game, make it instantly palatable and memorable. This is reality, don’t shoot the messenger.

CREATE, CREATE, CREATE

The main issue is notice, not stiff material. Stiff sinks like a stone and disappears. Rather than try and polish a turd, like the majors, bringing in outside writers, remixing a track to death, write it, cut it, post it and repeat. No one can create an 11 every time out. And your only way to increase your number of 11s is to come up to bat more. Be uninhibited, start and finish, don’t second guess yourself, what feels like mediocre today people might like tomorrow. But, when you create an 11 you’ll know, and so will everybody else. If you think you created an 11 and no one else reacts…you didn’t create an 11.

IT’S A LONG GAME

If you’re not in it for years, consider yourself a hobbyist. Sure, the odds of success are low, but those who do break through and sustain have been at it for eons. There’s too much in the pipeline, it’s so hard to gain notice. And the longer you’re in it, the more you learn and the better you get.

MYSTERY IS HISTORY

Everybody posts online, everybody knows who everybody else is, and you should too. Consider social media part of your art. If you’re just posting clips, you’re doing it wrong. Be creative about it and do it YOURSELF! It must come straight from the heart.

SKILL

Conception beats execution every day of the week. Meaning the idea is more important than your ability to play your instrument, to get the production exactly right. Of course you have to have rudimentary skills, but you do not have to be a virtuoso on your instrument to create a great record.

CHANNEL

The best material comes fast, seemingly out of nowhere, you’re channeling it, not thinking about it. Sure, you can sit in a room and try to eke out a song, but the best material is almost always that which comes in a flash, a burst of creativity. And when you have this moment, write it down/record it INSTANTLY! Because the mood you’re in is as important as the idea.

WE’RE LOOKING FOR GREAT

And we want to tell everybody about it when we find it. But it’s so rare. This is your job, to be so unique, so special, so deserving of attention that we’ve got to tell everybody we know about you.