First of all, kudos for being one of the few people left in our business willing to have an opinion! It’s interesting that we saw the Kate Hudson performance on the Howard Stern show. Although I maintain he is still the best to ever sit behind a radio mic, now that he has essentially become accepted as a mainstream celebrity, he has gone from the ultimate example of not giving a sh*t, to often kissing the ass of his fellow celebrity club members. Now to Kate Husdon, the rock star. As an actress, she was good in Almost Famous which I attribute largely to her being quite young and Cameron Crowe doing an excellent job. But because I travel a lot, and refuse to watch good movies on crappy airplane screens, I have had the dubious pleasure of watching some of “Bride Wars” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”. It would be hard to be more annoying than she was in those films. And now she has to bring that same mediocre acting talent to music. (I can only assume that Chris Robinson feels he dodged a bullet). So for people who are exclaiming that she can sing … yes, perhaps compared to someone who is tone deaf. I have spent a career coaching and producing young singers. There is a real giveaway as to who is imitating a performance, and who is the real thing. Undeveloped singers have what I call “vocal ticks”, little mannerisms they think sound cool but they overuse because they don’t really know what they are doing. Kate Hudson dips the pitch at the end of EVER SINGLE NOTE! Once you realize this, you can’t unhear it. Listen to a great singer like Bonnie Raitt, sometimes when it is emotionally effective, she will dip a note, but it has impact because she only does it sometimes! It is the same thing with all the ridiculous flourishes & melismas you hear on American Idol … did Aretha or Stevie do it, yes, when it counted, not constantly. That is certainly not my only complaint with the superfluous new music from yet another famous person … but it is a start.Thanks again for being willing to call this trifle out.

Steve Postell

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You have truly turned into the old man yelling, “Get off my lawn!” Why you needed to do a hatchet job on this woman’s work is beyond me. The world you live in is one I no longer want to be a part of.  Wading through your narcissistic pablum daily is a chore rather than an informative read. Please insert Lefsetz for Hudson in the sentence you wrote,“I mean who gives a crap what Hudson has to say.”

Please take me off your list.

Terry Lowe

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She has 18 million followers on instagram alone. You are getting angrier by the day. Your rants are all over the place. You keep saying nobody cares and you are right Bob nobody cares. Light one up, have a drink or get a prescription for something.

Ron Maiorino

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Well at least she didn’t try to make a movie and a documentary with it.

Brian Martin

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On celebrities or actors doing albums I’d say the end year was 2010.

I signed Hugh Laurie to Warners when I ran Warner Music Entertainment. Hugh is a blues pianist and vocalist and he can really play!

We made a beautiful New Orleans inspired album “Let Them Talk” with Joe Henry, a PBS “Great Performances” special and sold close to 2m copies globally (across that album and the follow up).

But it was a different time.

TV still sold albums. Retail still sold albums.

It was the year YouTube started to really make traction with Spotify hard on its heels. Times were changing.

Many, many labels copied what we’d done with Hugh in subsequent years and almost without exception they failed.

Now I’m indie and running a label doing the modern equivalent. We sign artists with fan bases growing fast on socials. It’s the same thing as I did at WMG, but re-cut for the 2020s. Go where the audience is and amplify.

We do 200m streams a month and 90% of our signings are profitable.

#movewiththetimes

Love your work!

Conrad Withey
CEO
FRTYFVE.com

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Benson Boone and Zach Bryan are two recent acts that come to mind that built completely from the ground up, created huge followings, and didn’t have leading hit singles … not saying that’s par for the course these days, but there are a few cases here and there.

Michael Pukownik

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Wait, did you just call her an idiot? Seems a bit harsh, no? Maybe I missed context down the page. I stopped reading right there. Do better, Bob.

Tim Fricke

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YEP AGREE re Kate Hudson.

Holly Knight

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Marvelous!!!!

Sent from Peter Noone

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I like listening to Kate speak. She has that very likable, upbeat quality to her personality. She sounds fun. Like her mom. And her voice was surprisingly good. That girl can really sing.

Howard tried to sound enthusiastic, but her songwriting was nothing. And her cover of Voices Carry was karaoke.

Hope she’s having fun. On to the next.

Paul Gigante

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I love, admire, and respect Howard Stern. The non-stop classic rock worship and drum beat – hilarious coming from any boomer – is over the top. “Billy Corgan has one of the best voices in music.” He said that in a serious manner! And more documentaries about sidemen nobody knows please!

Rob Warden

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Her music has merit. It’s her thing. She told Howard Stern it’s been her thing her whole life but the family machine channeled her into a career that bestowed her a massive following. I see the Black Crowes and Stevie Nicks in her presentation. She’s got a slamming drummer, knows show biz, has 18 million followers on instagram, 260 thousand follows on Spotify. And now Bob Lefsetz bringing her to a whole new audience. All to help feed her family. She’s doing what she can. I respect that.

Kind regards,
Rob Whittaker

P.S. I can hear Taylor Swift saying ‘Kate – this could be the best thing for your career!’
🙂

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You’re right about one thing, we’re all looking for artistry.  But are you kidding me?  Actors are two dimensional??  Like you have any idea how difficult it is to create a character from the text on the page and bring it to life and make people feel something?  Sometimes your thoughts are insightful, and sometimes your head is shoved so far up your own ass its laughable.  Please quote me and include me in your ‘mailbag’.

Benjy Dobrin

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Well…you just gave her a bump. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Billy Chapin

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Crickets. Right up there with a new Eric Estrada album.

John Brodey

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I haven’t even read your whole post below, but I happened to be up the other night and Kate was on The Tonight Show.  Probably like you, my expectations were *very* low, but I was pretty taken aback at her vocal talent.  She nailed it!  I was somewhat shocked.

I can’t imagine who her audience would be, but it definitely wasn’t the lame performance I was expecting.

Good for her…

 

John Van Nest

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The Kate Hudson thing is the epitome of modern day, good ol’ USA. Her money and celebrity let her cut to the front of the line. So boring, but round and round we go.

I’ve run a record label (Royal Potato Family) for 15 years. I’ve put out countless amazing, supremely inspired, enduring records. I’ve never looked at all the indicators. I’ve always signed artists and released records by my gut, what I hear, how it makes me feel and my belief that it can bring something sustinent to others. But aside from a small loyal audience, it’s impossible to get any attention or traction – even our distributor doesn’t care. It’s only about numbers and $$. Nobody even listens – people in fancy offices, making lots of money and all they can say is get a TikTok page, get more likes on social media. I have to always be working four or five other jobs – PR, management, consulting, etc. to keep the dream alive. Everyday, wake up, roll the stone back up hill.

I’m sure most people would respond by saying I suck, my artists suck, play the game better, stop whining. Release something that masses want and the masses will come. Fair enough. I get it. We’re not entitled to anything. Live by the sword, die by the sword. We’ll keep pushing. That small community of people who care will be enough. There are some brilliant artists, with pure artistic expression, who still break through. But it’s getting tougher everyday. I can’t help but think collectively we’d be doing a little better if quality mattered as much as the fastest path to money. I’m not sure how much longer those of us who embrace that notion can financially sustain without more reach. Never mind the mental health aspect. Speaking for myself, I’ll keep going. Maybe I completely burn out and have to take a job as a barista. At least I went for it.

I’m not even sure what point I’m trying to make anymore other than there are still some of us out here for whom artists who’ve toiled over their craft, write songs that speak to our human condition, get in a room together and create music that vibrates with both the trials and beauty of life, is everything. We put on records and we feel better for 22 minutes. It makes the world a richer, more vibrant place and is a bridge for soulful people with open hearts in their day to day lives.

This leads me back to Kate Hudson. She has every right to make a record and put her artistic vision into the world. But it’s the access, the dumb f*cking corporate hacks who care about nothing but money and celebrity, who amplify her at the expense of those way more compelling who should be getting that opportunity. Again, I get it. It’s the way of the world, nothing my bitching is gonna do to change it. But it’s heartbreaking.

Listen to this Chris Kasper record we put out today. If it was 1973, it might stand a chance.

Kevin Calabro

Royal Potato Family

PS – I was Chris Robinson’s publicist for five years.

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I don’t know Bob. I think you might have missed the boat here. I stumbled across Kate’s performance on Howard’s show on social media and heard an amazing performance of one of my favorite songs from the 80’s. I thought she took on a tough song to sing live and absolutely owned it!  Moreover, she seemed to be really enjoying the moment and obviously loves to sing. So she’s happy, and I’m happy to have heard it. Isn’t that how music is supposed to work?  What’s wrong with that??

Neil Barry

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You’re burying the lead here. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in Kate Hudson…but Howard putting her on?? Baba-boring. (Love Howard still but…oof).

Kevin Berntson

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I’ve got no time for a Kate Hudson album..I’m too busy listening to Rita Wilson deep cuts..The box set of demos is out, on colored vinyl! SO glad I bought that Dolby Atmos setup!

Celebrities get to skip the line at Disneyland..They also get good tables at restaurants, and when you’re famous you can just walk up and grab em’ by the pussy..

And they get some oxygen for their vanity projects..Music, children’s books, cook books, charities, and other such claptrap..It counts as content on the daytime TV talk circuit..Are there even any housewives/stay at home moms that watch network/syndicated TV? Maybe some rest home residents? Do they consume new music?

I’d conjecture that the audience for a Kate Hudson album overlaps with the people who listen to Dr. Phil’s WIFE’S podcast..(Not making that sh*t up!) (Of course, rock stars hawking their paintings isn’t “cringe”.)

 

I can’t believe Stern allowed this..His musical guests have always been top-notch.. Someone called in their last favor.. Hudson’s exes (Chris Robinson, Matt Bellamy) wisely refuse to indulge their wife in her fantasy..I’d have been LIVID seeing a Muse featuring Kate Hudson video!

Some stars WERE so hot, a single WAS a way to capitalize..David Soul, Jack Wagner, Patrick Swayze, John Travolta, Eddie Murphy,etc..But Jeff Bridges, Juliet Lewis, Kevin Bacon, Keanu, Steven Segal, Kevin Costner, Billy Bob Thornton,etc., etc.? Of course, they can play the fly-over circuit, and people will come, just to say they saw a celebrity..

The Ryan Gosling movie? I had to look it up You can’t open a summer with a non sequel/superhero flick! Warner Bros lost $200 million on the “Suicide Squad” video game..The manosphere is claiming it was “too woke”..

The #1 Repugnantc*nt talking point, from Kelly Ann Conway to Joe Facebook to Kid Rock is now, “Well Trump didn’t start any NEW wars.” To be blurted out, when asked “tough” questions..

 

Huh? He continued the war he RAN on stopping..It’s like a fireman who brags about not starting any NEW fires..(While failing to put out the one he was hired to.) THAT’S their silver bullet? They’re peacenicks now?

What’s next? The Biden Tornado Cabal? “I caint recall Trump having sew mini tornadys! And why come we never sea nary nun of them twisters in the blew states?”

 

P.S. Letterman and Petty laughing about Jennifer Love Hewitt’s tour, on national TV was hilarious! She was still in the green room!

James Spencer

The surprising thing is it’s pretty good. Hudson’s got a serviceable voice, and Linda Perry is a virtuoso, but is anybody waiting for this album?

NO! That paradigm ended with the last century. You know, famous person makes an album with hitmakers, a lot of money is spent on publicity and promotion and then the label sees if it sticks to the wall or not. In most cases, it did not. Especially as years wore on. Although Don Johnson did have a hit.

So I’m listening to Howard Stern this morning and I hear Kate Hudson talking and the first thing that went through my mind is “I’m not interested in this.” But I’d already powered through all the news channels on SiriusXM on my way to get my blood drawn, so I decided to hang in there.

America’s sweetheart is an idiot. When she dropped “spiritual,” I about puked. What exactly does that word mean? She gave a pass to her biological father, it wasn’t much different from a pre-internet interview, but the internet blew up nearly thirty years ago.

And actors don’t mean anything anymore. Ryan Gosling couldn’t even open a well-reviewed movie. Because movie stars are two-dimensional, they play roles, whereas when music is done right, especially when the performer has written the song, it channels truth, people see the artist as three-dimensional, the song is coming from their heart.

Now in truth the “musicians” have abdicated this power in the search of dough, but unlike in the old days, people can get their heroes from many verticals, not only the silver screen. So Kate Hudson is famous. But so is Kim Kardashian, and she got booed at the Tom Brady roast, even though Netflix subsequently edited this out of the program.

You see people hate Kim K. Put me in that category. Overexposed. Too much plastic surgery. There’s no there there. Sure, some nitwits are fans, they even buy Skims, but the truth is more people don’t care or shrug at Kardashian than love her.

This is the opposite of the old paradigm, and the news business keeps employing the old paradigm. Running stuff up the flagpole that most people don’t care about whilst telling us it’s ubiquitous, everybody’s paying attention and involved. I can avoid anything these days, and so can you. In an on demand culture we only partake of that which we desire. And who desires to hear Kate Hudson’s new music?

Even worse, to the degree I’ve listened, and once is enough, time is too short, it doesn’t fit in with today’s hit genres. I mean at least try to imitate what’s in the Spotify Top 50. Then again, have you listened to the lauded Sabrina Carpenter’s hit? You’ll be appalled. It’s garbage. Especially if you have the context of the past.

Which is why most people aren’t listening. The Spotify Top 50 is just a slice of the market, a significant slice, but far from the entire pie. I mean did you hear Drake and Kendrick Lamar are in a rap war? Maybe you even know this, with the ubiquitous press. But who cares? I can’t seem to find anybody other than superfans of hip-hop, the rest of us are laughing, not only do we not care, we think it’s childish, so last century. Dissing each other in music? You can’t be more creative than that?

But that’s the world we live in. Where everybody can see Biden is old but those on the left can’t admit it. They’re doctrinaire. Believing if they keep everybody in line and no one talks about it no one will notice. I mean COME ON!

The truth is that being 44 is not a hindrance to Kate Hudson. But her lack of recent fame is. It’s not like she’s coming off of a hit movie. And TV shows move the culture more than movies anyway, more people see them.

Hudson’s star has been fading ever since “Almost Famous.” Who is hungry to hear her sing? Other than the people involved in this project, I can’t think of a single person.

And it requires an effort to listen. You’ve got to pull the music, the old days of push are history. Even her contemporaries, are they going to make the effort, with so many other options?

And speaking of options, like Sly Stone sang, today everybody is a star. And a lot of them are educated and articulate. Sure, we’ve got some imbecilic influencers, but no one said Sam Bankman-Fried was stupid. Nor Elon Musk. You might despise them for other reasons, but they’re educated, they’re smart. You might want to hear what they have to say. But Kate Hudson, a movie star? You’d have to be brain dead.

I’m aware there’s a great unwashed underclass who go for this lowbrow fodder, but in truth the winners in today’s world, and the public knows it, the younger audience even knows it, are the intelligent and educated.

Talk to a college student. They know how the game is played. They know how hard it is to make a living. They want to follow in the footsteps of those who are making bank. To a great degree, entertainment is left to the lower classes, who come from nowhere and even if they make it against long odds are willing to go back to nowhere. Never mind not being smart and worldly enough to make a stand against the system, which tells them what to do. Like the major labels who won’t even release your record if they don’t hear it as a hit, they’ll make you work with co-writers, do cover songs, and even if you can get away with resisting, chances are they won’t promote it, it’s too hard a slog, an uphill push. There’s not going to be some deejay in the middle of nowhere who’s going to spin it ad infinitum and turn it into a worldwide hit. The days of that kind of free-thinking conflagration are history. After all, just a few companies own all the radio stations and terrestrial radio means less than ever before.

So who is Kate Hudson’s album made for?

Maybe there’s a chance a track can catch on, never say never, but publicity, promotion, is no longer enough. I mean if Sam or Elon, even Bill Gates made a record, I’d check it out. But Kate Hudson?

Why is everybody operating in the past? Entertainment is fluid, and archaic systems keep being employed until they ultimately collapse. No studio is as powerful as Netflix. And it’s Netflix that had an extended comedy festival, taking programming risks all the while. Nobody else is doing this.

Needless to say record labels are not. They sit back and wait for something to resonate online and then they try to push it forward, they don’t make an artistic judgment, they don’t sign something that’s artistically good without the social numbers, all the rest of the indicators, that’s not the business they’re in.

And “The New Yorker” jacked its subscription price and is staying alive, people want it But “Entertainment Weekly” ceased publication. And the tabloids… “The National Enquirer” might be a feature of the Trump trial, but they can’t sell it. Gossip is online now. For free.

In truth, nobody from the old century wants to do the hard work. Find an act worth listening to, nurturing it and then building it from scratch. They used to say they wouldn’t put out your music unless they heard a single, now you literally have to create a hit single before they’ll even sign you!

And shortcuts, like making a record with a famous actor, no longer work.

It’s kind of like the Gaza protests. The Democrats are scared sh*tless about losing young people, yet every poll says Gaza is way down the list in terms of their voting priorities.

Never mind tuning in Fox News on the way to my appointment this morning and thinking I’m in an alternative universe. Trump is winning at trial, Stormy Daniels is a money-hungry deplorable. I mean if we can’t even get the straight news straight, what are the odds we can get entertainment news straight? Close to nil. Which is why the consumer base doesn’t even pay attention, they just go online and wait to hear what their friends say is worth their while.

Kate Hudson can make music all day long. Do I have to pay attention to her and her hype? I mean who gives a crap what Hudson has to say. As for reasonable singers, they’re a dime a dozen on TV, and they don’t break through. We’re looking for artistry, not product. There’s nothing to see here. Move on.

If you were even paying attention to begin with.

Mixer extraordinaire!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chris-lord-alge/id1316200737?i=1000655039432

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/616bd41e-eeb2-407e-a827-2bc4e3579175/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-chris-lord-alge

RE: Streaming Pays

You are absolutely right on this. My indie label has artists who we pay over a million dollars a year in streaming royalties. But more importantly, we have artists who we pay over $100,000 per year in streaming royalties….AS OPPOSED TO THE $5000 THAT I COULD PAY THEM ON CD SALES CAUSE THERE JUST WASN’T ROOM IN STORES FOR DEEP CATALOGUE. 

That is a really important point because if the music resonates, despite the genre, streaming allows folks to find it, save it and share it. So artists whose music couldn’t find an audience when limited to physical formats, now have a chance to find new fans!  And some, but not all of the DSPs offer tools to allow us to build those audiences.

I sympathize with artists who can’t get traction in the streaming world. But we spend every single day looking for and exploiting opportunities which we find at the DSPs (or in social media). It’s really hard for folks (artists) who aren’t following every single change at every DSP to keep up.  And there will always be some indie artists whose music resonates quickly and get success. But for the most part, it comes down to what record companies/artist managers always did: artist development.